Pros: Artwork galleries, game information, and biographies on each game
Cons: Very indistinct from each other, unchangeable speeds, tainted difficulty, horrible load times
The Bottom Line: This would of been a flawless tribute to timeless classics except for the minor problems that plague it, this is for die-hard fans only
NMD85's Full Review: Street Fighter II Collection for PlayStation 1
Ever since the good old days (which is about 1992), I've always remembered how much I've loved playing Street Fighter on the Super NES. Through out the years, I've been able to play the game in the arcades, when it was getting old of course. I have vivid memories of the Street Fighter games I owned, and playing them on Saturday mornings, and on car trips. Ah, the memories. I was very excited to see that Capcom paid respect to it's everlasting Street Fighter II series in Street Fighter Collection 2. You get three classics, Street Fighter II: World Warriors, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, and Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting. Is Street Fighter Collection 2 tacky excuse for a 3-in-1 game, or a cherished classic all around?
GRAPHICS: C+
On the good side, Capcom has successfully ported each classic character sprite onto the screen in their original arcade nature. Even the frames of animation that the 16-Bit console versions left out on are here. And yes, Dhalsim's stage has all six elephants for those of you nitpickers. Basically, these games are direct ports of the arcade versions with the only thing missing, the "Insert Coin" flashing at the upper-right corner of the screen. However this game doesn't bring fourth all good vibes. On the bad side, all the versions of the each game are like indistinct clones of one another. Aside from a few skin/color changes, each game basically includes the same intros, backgrounds, and health meters. It's also less-than-stellar to see that Capcom couldn't at least of included an alteration to speed up the sluggish gameplay in World Warriors and Champion Edition. The slow speeds were fine back in the day, but it seems like Street Fighting on the moon, it's depressing. Turbo is a little faster, but not even that can be adjusted! What piece of hardware are we running here? Is it necessary to have to wait six-to-seven seconds between each passing screen? The awfully sluggish loading times really may dissuade some from putting up with the game.
SOUND: C+
It's very comfortable to hear the classic tunes of Street Fighter directly from the arcade. It's good to hear Ryu's theme again, and Guile's, they're all so reminiscent of the past for most Street Fighter veterans. Personally, the Super Nintendo versions had a significant improvement over the arcade soundtrack, these sound like washed-out Sega Genesis tunes. Not only that, but you'll hear the same track on all three games. What tends to get to me the most is the "move-the-cursor" sound, it rigs so blatently loud for what reason?! It's hard to imagine piddely features like that can really annoy someone. The other sound effects in the game are enjoyable to hear from Zangief's laugh to E.Honda's "doo-hoyt!" to Hadouken to Sonic Boom to Tiger! (you get it now?). Overall a decent job, but it's no different in either of the three games.
CONTROL: B+
It's the gameplay like this veterans like me never want to see go away. Wave-motions, charges, and rotations all there in their evolutionary forms. This is where it all started, the prime example of an addictive style of gameplay. By today's standards, these classic features may seem a little slim, no parrying, no super combos, no block limitations, to "alpha" counters, just plain old fireball fighting mayhem. It's a shame that World Warriors and Champion Edition run excruciatingly slow, the controls may not respond to a faster touch. This may be hard to re-adapt to, and may leave you stuck to playing Street Fighter II Turbo only. Of course, Capcom didn't leave out the option to alter control settings to your liking, but if the controller fails, pick up an arcade stick for some real-time nostalgia.
LASTING FACTOR: D+
Street Fighter Collection 2 is basically not a game to flaunt around. It's a game that belongs in your collection so when you forget those old days, you pull this game out and relive some unforgettable pleasures. Featuring the original cast of Street Fighters; Ryu, Ken, E.Honda, Blanka, Chun-Li, Guile, Zangief, and Dhalsim. The original Shadaloo cast is still holding the last four slots at the end of every game, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison. What can really be cherished here is the brilliance of what was once enjoyed, especially the classic endings. It makes you remember how much Street Fighter once had a story to it (before that crapola American movie ruined things). Somehow, I don't see this to be a successful revival for the classic arcade games. There are limited extra features, and horrendous loading times. And the difficulty is nearly impossible to overcome even on one-star. Capcom's well-known unbalanced difficulty will most likely dissuade most fans from going solo player.
The most impressive extra to be had in Collection 2 is the artwork and information galleries. Each artwork for each character is presented in the game, filled with biographies and game information. This mode may take you a while to savor since it includes quite a bit of interesting bits to look and read about. Of course if you must know, the only reason why this is in the game is because in Japan the game is titled "Capcom Generation 5". The Capcom Generation series in Japan is basically a series of five-discs of classic game tributes. It's nice to know they weren't cut of the North American release. My final words go like this, Collection 2 is worth owning for any eager Street Fighter fan who must have it all. For non-veterans or newbies, you may not want to start here, it's way past your time. A gift for fans only, unless you really like 2-D fighting (if you do, you've probably already played Street Fighter).
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