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Topic Review (Newest First)
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| 2nd May 2010 18:59 | |
| WOWFanBoy |
hi, mickael, new Salute, I'm a fan of online gaming regards, |
| 25th March 2010 18:09 | |
| Martin | Streetfighter has always been one of my favourite Arcade games. |
| 16th March 2010 13:59 | |
| Martin |
When Streetfighter Was King  From: www.1up.com Did you know that Street Fighter Alpha 2 was once ported to the Super Nintendo? I didn't actually, not until a couple years ago anyway. I was busy playing PC games when it arrived in 1996, and the SNES was generally considered long dead anyway. Looking at it now though, I feel like it serves as an unsung bookend to one of the more interesting eras in video games history. It had been fighting games that had helped to define the 16-bit era, after all. It seems only natural that the genre's true halcycon days would end on the console where it all began. It was only five years before Street Fighter Alpha 2 that Street Fighter II roared onto the scene and altered the arcade landscape forever. A year after that, Nintendo managed to score one of the biggest coups in gaming history and secure the exclusive rights to the home console version. It was a sorely needed victory for Nintendo with the Sega Genesis busy gobbling up market share, and it went a long way toward establishing the Super Nintendo's credentials with enthusiasts. At that time, I thought it looked like an arcade perfect port.I heard critics talk about missing frames of animations, tinnier music, and smaller characters, but all my young eyes could perceive was that it was Street Fighter II on an ordinary television. It cemented my brand loyalties for years afterward, despite the fact that I never even owned an SNES during that period. The mere presence of Street Fighter II on a home console was enough to turn me into a walking advertisement. What other system could handle 16 megs of hard-hitting martial arts action? As it turns out, the Genesis could -- mostly. Sega picked up their own Street Fighter in late 1993, and they even tried to establish their own fighting franchise in Eternal Champions. Mortal Kombat also burst onto the scene during this time, leading to the establishment of the ESRB and a million schoolyard arguments over whether Capcom or Midway had the superior fighting franchise. Street Fighter fatigue set in fairly quickly though. Capcom announced yet another console port in mid-1994, this time for both the Genesis and the Super Nintendo. Street Fighter II Turbo had been a solid upgrade for SNES owners, but it had also featured the same characters and stages at a premium price. With Super Street Fighter II, SNES and Genesis owners were faced with paying a steep $79.99 for four new characters and their accompanying stages as well as a few new moves. What made it all the more unpalatable was the fact that it was perceived as something of a downgrade from Turbo at points. Fans complained about the less-detailed backgrounds, the major speed reduction (all the way back to Championship Edition), and the new announcer, who was mockingly called "Big Bird" for his similiarity to the Sesame Street character of the same name. Super Street Fighter II was still popular, but many fans would regard Turbo as the superior iteration until Super Street Fighter II Turbo rolled around and made everything right again.  There was no port though, mostly because the 16-bit generation was very much on the wane by 1995. Instead, Capcom opted to bring Super Turbo to the 3DO while kicking off the prequel series Street Fighter Alpha in the arcades. Alpha would ultimately make it to the Saturn, PlayStation, and even the Game Boy Color, but not the Super Nintendo. The SNES wasn't quite finished though, as witnessed by games like Super Mario RPG and Donkey Kong Country 3. So even though the series had already moved on to to the 32-bit systems by that time, Capcom decided to try and squeeze a just a few more cents out of the system that had once served as the launching pad to fame for their premier series. Street Fighter Alpha 2 wasn't the shoddy, half-baked port that it could have been though. SFA2 was missing quite a few frames of animation on the SNES, and Shin Akuma was no longer playable, but it was still eminently playable. In fact, it was one of the best looking fighters to ever grace the system, and certainly superior to the original Street Fighter II in terms of presentation. Being able to squash what amounted to a 32-bit fighter onto a 16-bit console is a testament to Capcom's skillful programmers, even if a few compromises were made along the way. The SNES Street Fighter Alpha 2 ended up wrapping up an era in which fighting games were the undisputed kings of gaming. Fighters would continue to be popular for years afterward, but few wielded the influence that the original Street Fighter II did. The SNES port remains one of the bestselling Capcom games ever, and came at an important moment in the 16-bit era. It's possible to find better versions of Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the PlayStation 3, and it's certainly a great game in its own right (SFA2 is, after all, one of the best fighters ever made). But it's the humble Virtual Console version that evokes the end of a period in which consoles were purchased solely because they had the latest port of Street Fighter II, and the sky was the limit. |