TSSZ @ Eurogamer Expo: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has been ‘coming soon’ for what seems like an eternity. The idea seemed like a stroke of genius when it was first announced. Street Fighter II had just been released for X-Box Live and quite frankly looked ugly on shiny HDTV’s everywhere. Capcom had the idea to update all the art for another iteration of Street Fighter II that would finally make the most of the HD consoles.

But while the idea was a good one it’s simply taken them two long to release and next to the mighty Street Fighter IV, even with it’s dazzling new coat of paint, SSFIITHDR (which wasn’t much easier to type than it’s full title) still looks dated.

The problem isn’t in the gameplay which plays exactly as you remember the old game to play, or even in the graphics which certainly look as good as they’ve been advertised. It’s the animation that’s the major problem. Brilliant looking sprites of Ken and Ryu can fight to the death but it’s hard to care when the animation looks so poor. The jerky movements are betrayed even more than normal by the detail of the characters

It’s the background that are the main offenders though. Most of them feature literally only two or three frames of animation at best and most of it is static anyway. The level I witnessed was Balrog’s Las Vegas stage with the low riders, gamblers, neon signs and spectators. Rather than capturing the essence of the level and animating it to it’s full it was like fighting in front of a painted wall rather than a crowd of people cheering you on.

If the game had come out even 6 months ago the novelty would have been enough to ensure it sold well. However with the release of Street Fighter IV on home consoles looming it’s really hard to care about this update.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.