Despite the fact that fans of the first attempt to bring Streetfighter into 3D weren't exactly outnumbering those with negative feelings towards the game, this didn't stop Capcom allowing Arika to develop a sequel, this time the company at least had the sense to include more proper SF characters in addition to their own bizarre and generally silly creations. At some point in the late 90s, Streetfighter EX2 made it to the Sony PlayStation, with something added, to make it Streetfighter EX2 Plus.

I have to confess to having never even heard of regular Streetfighter EX2, so I can't actually comment on what is new to warrant the addition of the 'Plus' in the title. It has to be assumed that something has been added, but this is Capcom, so it might just be something like an extra leaf in the background of one of the stages.

As with it's prequel, the game is a pseudo 3D fighting game, in which the game is essentially 2D, but the characters are made of polygons and the camera angle changes. It works the same way as the majority of Streetfighter games, you have to win the best out of 3 rounds of combat where the idea is to reduce your enemy's energy bar to empty using a variety of punches, kicks, throws and special moves.

Streetfighter EX2 Plus manages to fall down in exactly the same place as Streetfighter EX Plus Alpha, in that while the game plays decently enough, and is a fairly enjoyable fighting game. It's just too sluggish and doesn't feel like a proper Streetfighter game, and more like a Pseudo-3D Streetfighter rip-off, even Capcom's other venture into Pseudo 3D fighters, Rival Schools felt more like Streetfighter than this game. Moves are performed in the same ways, circular D-pad motions, charges and rapid tapping and so on, but the moves just seem different to how they have always been in 2D. Hadoukens move too slowly, as do the too-small Sonic Booms. Let's not even talk about what the hell they did to the Hurricane Kick, making it resemble that of Dan Hibiki instead of the one that Ryu and Ken should have. Ken still has a bloody green hadouken as well.
The thing with EX2Plus, is that it itself feels more like an upgrade of the first EX game, instead of an upgrade to the sequel. The only real addition to gameplay comes in the form of the Excel, where pressing a punch and a kick button of different strengths allows you to create combos out of almost any of your moves. This is a nice addition to the gameplay, but the fact it was actually introduced years earlier, under the name of 'Custom Combo' in Streetfighter Alpha 2.

One thing which didn't go down well for me was the removal of the sheer amount of gameplay options from the first game. Now we are left with the bare essentials, Arcade,Versus,Options, and the same excellent training mode from the original, however Team Battle is gone, and in it's place is 'Director', which lets you record a fight, and change the camera angles to create a cool, movie esque battle. It's a great idea, which works decently, but putting such a thing in a game like Streetfighter EX2 Plus wasn't going to be the introduction the mode required, with it really calling out for a place in the next Tecmo DOA game rather than any Capcom fighting title. A nice addition comes in the form of 'Bonus' mode, where you simply play some bonus mini-games like smashing barrells and so on.

Another disappointment is that Arcade mode removes the CG endings from the first game, replacing it with a still picture of the fighter and a replay of the last round in a small box. What a great reward guys! I mean, the endings in the first game were pretty poor, but with some work they could have been absolutely brilliant and worth owning the game for in themselves(it's why I own all the Tekken games), why remove a good feature like that I'll never understand.

One thing that's undeniabley been improved upon is the roster. Representing the classic Streetfighters we've got Ryu,Ken,M.Bison(Shadowlaw dude),Chun-Li,Guile,Dhalsim and Zangief, as well as the new additions of Sagat,Blanka and Vega. Arika's own disasters include Skullomania,Garuda,Darun,Cracker Jack,Doctrine Dark,Pullum,Hokuto and Kairi, as well as newcomers Nanase,Vulcano Rosso,Area,Sharon and Shadowgeist, who, barring the last one, all manage to suck even worse than I had come to expect from Arika. Whoever designed Vulcano Rosso and Area should be fired. And fired upon. There are hidden fighters to unlock in the game, inlcuding wire-frame models Cycloid Gamma and Cycloid Beta, amongst proper characters like Hayate.
While the inclusion of Sagat alone means it's better than the prequel, can I please ask how you managed to remove characters and think it's a good idea? I don't really care about them taking out Blair and Allen, but what was the need for taking out Sakura and Akuma?

Given that it's exactly the same, I'll say the same thing about the controls of Streetfighter EX2 Plus as I did about it's prequel:

The controls are as follows:

Square:Light Punch
Triangle:Medium Punch
X:Light Kick
Circle:Medium Kick
R1: Strong Punch
R2:Strong Kick

The 4 face button controls are in the normal manner for a Capcom layout on the PlayStation controller, but I do have to applaud Arika for their implementation of the Strong Punch and Kick moves to the Right Shoulder buttons, as anyone who has ever tried to perform a Quarter-Circle-Forward rotation on the D-Pad(especially this horrible D-Pad) and press strong punch will testify. Personally I would still recommend investing in an Arcade stick or alternative form of control for the game, something with 6 easy access face buttons and a better control method than the Dual-Shock or standard PSX Pad's horrendous D-Pad.

Graphically speaking, the game is very mixed. The backgrounds are still bland and utterly worthless, and the character models from the first game don't appear to have been improved upon much, but the new fighters, especially Sagat, actually do look like work has went into making them look like a latter day PlayStation game as opposed to a rubbish early fighter like Battle Arena Toshinden or something. But this just creates bizarre mismatches when a new character fights a returning one, because all it succeeds in doing is making the old fighter look blocky as hell. Speaking of graphics and Sagat though, this is his first Streetfighter appearance where his eye-patch doesn't swap eyes when he turns around!

The sound in the game also harks back to the original EX game for the PlayStation in that it's a fairly middle-of-the-road affair. The voices still don't fit, although the guys voicing the returning SF2 characters do well, but the music is once again uninspiring and forgettable, almost like something from a Tekken game, and this doesn't even have the bonus of the comedy ending-music.

On the whole, the thing that detracts from Streetfighter EX2 Plus is the fact that Arika and Capcom have quite blatantly just seemed to ignore everything that was wrong from the first game apart from the lack of classic characters, and just decided to bung a few of those in, put in some bland new music and backgrounds, and actually take stuff away from the game before declaring it a sequel. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact the prequel was basically a mediocre fighter and a mere footnote in the dynasty that is the Streetfighter series. The game's sleeve even has the cheek to declare it's 'the best Streetfighter game ever', which is complete and utter bollocks, I don't think anyone honestly believes that, because if they do, it isn't a case of opinion, they are just plain wrong. This game, as with the one before it, is mediocre. It's fairly enjoyable, especially on 2-Player, but when you have an already mediocre game, adding new stuff like new characters, especially ones the fans are used to, is a good idea, the engine wasn't bad after all, and even if it was garbage in comparison to the one Capcom used for 2D Streetfighter games, it was still better than the engines of most PSX fighters. However, taking out at least as much as you add to the game basically lands you right back where you started, so I'm going to follow Capcom and Arika's lead, and end up back where I started with Streetfighter EX games, 3-Stars and a Recommended.
For fans of the first EX game, if this is cheap, it's a decent acquisition, same goes for those looking for a cheap and decent PSX fighter, but to be honest, this isn't even in the same league as any proper Streetfighter game.

More Streetfighter Related Reviews
Games
Streetfighter Alpha 2 for Sega Saturn
Streetfighter Alpha 2 for PlayStation
Streetfighter Alpha 3 for Dreamcast
Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo
Streetfighter 2: Turbo for Super Nintendo
Streetfighter 2:Special Champion Edition for Sega Genesis
Super Streetfighter 2 for Sega Genesis
Super Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo
Super Streetfighter 2 Turbo: Revival for Gameboy Advance
Streetfighter 3:Double Impact for Dreamcast
Streetfighter 3:Third Strike - Fight For the Future for Dreamcast
Streetfighter Anniversary Collection for XBox
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Streetfighter for PlayStation
Marvel Vs. Capcom:Clash of Super Heroes
Streetfighter EX Plus Alpha for PlayStation
Saturday Night Slam Masters for Super Nintendo
Final Fight One for Gameboy Advance

Movies
Streetfighter 2:The Animated Movie

Recommended: Yes