Super Street Fighter 2 Collection

SSF Collection packs in Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, a never-before-seen title that is the collection's highlight. Basically, Gold is Alpha 2 with enhancements that include an Akuma mode where you take on an expert computer-controlled Akuma. The Super games are marginal at best, with choppy animation and painfully slow turbo speeds--totally unlike the arcade versions. Let's hope these problems are addressed in the final version because as it stands now, the only thing Super in this collection is also Gold.

Although the screen shots for this game were hard to come by, early reports state that this two-CD set will feature Super Street Fighter II and the far superior Super Street Fighter II Turbo. There's also a third unnamed game that Capcom claims has never been seen before in the U.S.

In its day, Street Fighter II ruled the arcades with awesome 2D fighting-game action--however, that day was seven years ago. Now that 3D brawlers like Tekken 3 and the excellent 2D Street Fighter Alpha series are readily available, the only thing Capcom's new nostalgia title will collect is lots of dust.

Street Fighter Collection 2 contains faithful translations of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting. But unless you're a total Street Fighter fanatic, who cares? Sure, the graphics are just as you remember them--but when compared to today's smooth highspeed brawlers, do you really want to settle for outdated animation? The sound has also been faithfully re-created, but do you really want to listen to less-than-spectacular effects and tinny voice-overs? And who can forget those annoying elephants? The controls are exactly the same, too, which means you won't find any high-hitting combos or air-juggles. Yawn.

On the other hand, if you enjoy buying games because they contain original promotional materials (like posters or illustrations) and game introductions (like detailed story lines and character bios), or to hear a remix of an original score, then this is your title. But only as a rental--save your cash for Rival Schools.

Everyone knows that Capcom has some of the best 2-D fighting games around (and everyone knows that the good folks at Capcom are the masters of rehashing).

Their latest 32-Bit project, Super Street Fighter 2 Collection, is a paradox. It's old and unoriginal. yet we can't help but play (and enjoy) it. This compilation for the PlayStation and Saturn contains the original versions of Super Street Fighter 2. Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, all excellent games in their own right.

Super Street Fighter 2:

This sequel to SF2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting (arcade) made one of the biggest changes to the series. For the first time, new characters were added to the SF2 cast. The new fighters were: Fei Long, Dee Jay. Cammy and T.Hawk. Although most of their moves were derivatives of the older characters' moves (i.e., charge back then forward, fireball, Dragon Punch, etc.), a few new moves spiced the game up a bit Oike Dee Jay's Machine Gun Punch or T.Hawk's Power Dive).

Super SF2 also gave new moves to the existing fighters. Ryu received a (consistent) red fireball, and Ken got a 3-hit Flaming Dragon Punch.

Finally, minor cosmetic changes completed the package. palettes to choose from for their characters.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo:

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo added a few more new moves (like Ryu's lunging 2-hit punch) and more speed (players could now choose one of three speed settings). More significantly, this edition brought Super Combos to the series. Now players could build up their "Super" meters and execute a powerful multihit-ting automatic combo for mega damage. And who can forget the blinding flash of light after finishing off an opponent with a Super?

We question Capcom's choice of putting in the collection SSF2 when SSF2 Turbo was also in. Since the two are practically identical--with Turbo being the improved version-why would anyone play Super SF2? We felt that Capcom should have included Championship Edition, Hyper Fighting or the original Street Fighter instead.

Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold:

This enhanced version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 actually has its roots in a game called Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha. SFZ2A can be considered a Turbo or Championship Edition version of Street Fighter Zero 2 (or SF Alpha 2 to Americans...confused yet?). It was only released in Japan.

SF Zero 2 Alpha (the Japanese arcade game) had several improvements over SF Zero 2. One of them was new "Super" versions of previous fighters. You can find Super Akuma and Super Sakura here, with new moves and all. Practically everyone has something new they could now boast. For example. Sagat has a Super Taunt that makes Dan's Super Taunt look tame by comparison.

Although it's still a bit early. SFA2 Gold (of the collection) should be exactly the same as SFZ2A, except without the tag-team feature that was reintroduced in that game.

Note: Assuming nothing else changes. Evil Ryu will be in SFA 2 Gold. Now PlayStation owners can play him as well.

Maximum Street Super Fighter 2: The New Championship Edition of Fighters Turbo

Just kidding. If you've read this far into this Street Fighter article, we thought that you'd be pretty much confused and disoriented by now. But the facts are these Street Fighter games are the best of their kind. And if you are looking to own a comprehensive collection of fighting games, Super Street Fighter 2 Collection might be right up your alley.