Super Street Fighter II
Hard to believe, but it's been ten years since Street Fighter II embedded itself into the gaming industry and went on to become one of the most successful video game properties ever. For those of you who are too young to remember or have short memories, Street Fighter II wasn't just a game...it was a digital religion to many hardcore gamers.
Unlike today's barren arcades, in those days the crowds around the Street Fighter II machines were so large that arcade owners had to start lineups outside the arcade for players just wanting to get at the machine. Undoubtedly it was a glorious time for video gaming -- one of those rare singular phenomenon's that happens every once in a while. Of course, when Street Fighter II was ported to the Super NES in the summer of 1992, that really made the SNES a must-buy for thousands upon thousands of gamers. The then state-of-the-art 16 megabit (2MB) port wowed gamers and became an instant part of the Super NES family.
So it really shouldn't shock you that Capcom is now readying to bring the classic series to Nintendo's nostalgia-dripping Game Boy Advance. The game is a "port" of sorts of Super Street Fighter II, which introduced gamers to such combatants as Cammy and Fei Long. Visually as you can see the game looks like a very solid rendition of the arcade game. We're not sure if it's an exact port, because some of the backgrounds look a bit different. Ryu's stage looks different from the arcade version of Super Street Fighter II. Perhaps this is more of a remix of all the Street Fighter II games? There does appear to be the turbo bars in some of the screenshots which would indicate the game also encompasses Super Street Fighter II: Turbo
Of course the bigger gripe that players might have with this port is the fact that the Game Boy Advance does not have six action buttons. While the game should still be perfectly playable, it certainly might cause some problems for purists. Still, you'll be hard pressed for a better way to burn your GBA batteries than this hot fighter. Capcom has included GBA link support so you can also take on a friend. Super Street Fighter II is slated to ship this July in Japan and we're sure you'll be hearing a lot more about this one in a few months time.
(Screenshots courtesy of Pocket IGN)