Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Written by Kris Rosado  on December 09, 2008

Review: A game that downloads faster than you saying its full name.

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It's been a long time coming for Street Fighter fans. Ever since Capcom officially announced that they would be making a high-definition Street Fighter II game, fans have been salivating for it. Then Capcom announced that UDON Entertainment would be handling the artwork and fans balked at the steroid-ridden character designs and Chun-Li's Hulk-hands. Now Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is up on the PlayStation Store for all to enjoy with a one-time $15 fee.



By using a modified version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo for Matching Service's engine (the Dreamcast version), Backbone Entertainment has designed the definitive version of the game. A number of rebalancing tweaks have been done to the mechanics of the game including the hit-box areas for a variety of moves which welcomes players of all skill levels. No longer is T-Hawk a sure-fire loss character and no longer is Akuma a completely broken character (though he is still a tad broken). Sagat, however, remains a complete bastard. Players can further tailor their balancing preferences in the options menu. For the truly nostalgic (or just plain purists), they can opt to use the original settings without rebalance whatsoever.

While most players probably won't notice the rebalancing mechanics, they most certainly will notice the game's high-definition aesthetics. Of course, the visuals look amazing whether or not you are running it at 720p or 1080p. The colors are vibrant and running on a 16:9 display won't tear the screen. Of course, none of this would matter if the game didn't animate properly, which it does, but it also forces you to notice, like Matt pointed out in his review of the game, that two sprite background animations are really dated. While this won't present a problem while the action is on, it's just an observation.

OverClocked ReMix handled the music very well, though purists do have the option to use original music. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that the remixes put together outweigh the HD sprites in terms of the best change for the series. At the default setting, there does seem to be a little unbalance between the music and the sound effects, again this is just an observation and one that can be fixed in the options menu.

So far, I have yet run into any trouble playing online. Throwing down with fighters on the west coast, northwest, northeast, and south has presented me with no problems, though word out there is that every once in awhile the characters will become victims of motion blur. I haven't seen it yet, but there is photographic evidence so it must be a connection thing.

The only criticism I have for the game is a small one: no Trophies. Not a big issue to have but Sony has been trying to push Trophies for a while now and at this point, seeing third parties not embrace the option is a little frustrating. Guys, I have no Trophies yet! Patch some in already!