Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Review
Years of fine-tuning have led to another great Hadoken.
By Ryan Clements
There's no question that one of the most dedicated and passionate communities in competitive gaming is the Street Fighter community. Ranging from casual folks to the most experienced, hardcore gamers, Street Fighter fans have long supported the now 20-year-old (and counting) franchise. While I'm sure a good number of the community's members are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Street Fighter IV, many eyes are turning to the upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, a retuned version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo and a downloadable release on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. A community-oriented project in many ways (even the remixed soundtracks were handled by the people at OC Remix), HD Remix single-handedly reminded me how deep simple fighting games can be and why this series retains its status as an extremely high-quality fighter.
HD Remix, despite being the result of very technical fine-tuning, is actually a very straight-forward game as a whole. You're dealing with a rebalanced version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo that just happens to boast HD visuals that make the newly drawn sprites and backgrounds look sharp on an HD TV. In terms of gameplay, HD Remix has single-player Arcade and Training modes and multiplayer options as well, both on and offline. That's it.
While you can play HD Remix with the original character sprites switched on (which is a blast from the past, for sure) and/or the original rule set, most people will be spending their time playing the HD Remix mechanics. Designer David Sirlin, a renowned tournament competitor and organizer, oversaw the aforementioned changes to the gameplay. On his personal site, Sirlin documents some of the reasoning behind his choices and also the overriding design philosophies that governed the retuning. These philosophies definitely play into what makes HD Remix so great: it's easier, more balanced (especially for high-level tournament players) and it's fun.
While I wouldn't quite say that HD Remix is for everyone, it definitely makes Street Fighter more approachable, but it caters mostly to the hardcore players with almost rabid devotion. You can see this clearly when you notice the Dip Switch options (for altering ridiculously specific rules), read the "About the Game" sections that describe space control and piano method button inputs and even when you dive into Training mode and have the ability to turn on visible hit boxes. This game was literally designed by a tournament fighter, for tournament fighters. Neat.
The mere sight of Akuma threw Ryu into a terrified/drunken roll.
HD Remix feels extremely tight, even with just a standard controller. With many of the special moves easier to execute (like Fei Long's Flying Kick), HD Remix performs well all-around and gamers will also be able to plug in arcade sticks if they prefer. There are a few occasional moments of slowdown during matches, though I imagine that might very well be intentional and in keeping with the original version. Intentional or not, HD Remix looks and runs nicely and won't interfere with your gameplay experience.
I played an ample number of online matches both on the PS3 and 360 and each version ran very well with little to no slowdown. This is, I'm sure, thanks in part to the consulting that the creator of the GGPO networking system did with the team at Backbone (the team of course went on to write the final code). Because it's a highly precise 2D fighter, slowdown in HD Remix could definitely hurt the online experience so gamers with a slow connection might prefer local matches, but I found nothing wrong with the online infrastructure during my time with the game. Having a stable online option definitely adds to HD Remix's appeal so hopefully people will have reliable connections to enjoy the expanded pool of competitors.
HD Remix is not without its share of problems, though they're few and far between. For beginners, I would have liked to see a more intuitive training mode, like having a hotkey for a match restart or overlaying command inputs on the screen for easy viewing. These are minor missed opportunities, but I think they would have added to the polish of the package. Perhaps more odd are the occasional bugs that popped up. As we passed the controllers around and people constantly changed their control configurations, sometimes the changes wouldn't register and we'd have to dive back into the menu to make them again.
Another unusual glitch was during my online testing with the PS3 version. Because I played a few rounds between two consoles in the office, I was able to note how on one screen, both health meters were completely inaccurate. This was most likely an isolated incident but it's worth noting nonetheless.
If you're interested in comparisons between the PS3 and 360 versions of HD Remix, Street Fighter fans will be happy to know that both are excellent and there's little difference between them. I (along with many others) greatly prefer the PS3 controller's D-pad over the 360 option, so that's something to consider if you plan on going down the controller route. Also, the PS3 version doesn't have Trophy support. Alas.
Sagat looks like a ball of muscle.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix doesn't have any frills and its mechanics -- while extremely well-tuned -- are simple. This is a game very dissimilar to modern fighters because it doesn't shower you with extra modes, art galleries or unlockables. It's admirably precise and meant for hardcore players, despite its increased approachability.
So HD Remix isn't for everyone, but the gameplay represented in this download is extraordinarily balanced and deep. I spent hours learning the ways of the retooled Fei Long and just barely scratched the surface of it all. For such a reasonable price of $14.99, HD Remix is a very hard game to pass up.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
PlayStation 3Xbox 360
Ryan Clements
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