Street Fighter 2 Turbo Review

This review originally appeared in E1, October 1993.

The prayers of Street Fighter II devotees have at last been answered. This latest version of Street Hghter II contains both Championship gameplay, and a Turbo edition with four speed settings (plus six hidden ones) ranging from ‘pretty quick' to 'ludicrously rapid'.

The Turbo game also contains the long-awaited new moves, such as Chun-Li's fireball or Ken and Ryu's mid-air hurricane kick, and has tweaked some of the old moves so that they're longer and harder.

In both versions, there are new frames of animation, the backdrops have had a fresh coat of paint, and there’s extra sampled speech. But not all the changes are for the better: the option and character screens aren't as slick, and the game doesn't look quite as polished.

However this is small potatoes compared to the improvements to the gameplay. There can be few SFII players who won't welcome four new characters, new moves and a massive injection of speed.

You can see why Sega were less than happy to see a Turbo edition appear on the SNES before the Mega Drive has even had a taste of the six-button beat 'em up. God knows what Capcom are doing to appease the Sega management: it's quite possible MD SFII will include all versions so far and have new characters and backdrops. Until then, this is the ultimate beat ‘em up: no other has the same characters or moves - or the sheer finger-aching, mind-numbing gameplay.

If you own SNES SFII it's still a tricky decision whether you should buy Turbo: at current import prices, probably not.

But if you've yet to be introduced to the genteel art of street-fighting, and have a few pounds to shed, SFII Turbo is the one to get. [9]