Ever since SNES games were announced as coming to the New Nintendo 3DS it seemed inevitable that Capcom would jump at the chance to flog us Street Fighter II again and - sure enough - here it is. In a surprise move they've skipped the World Warrior port and moved straight to Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, released alongside the SNES version of Super Street Fighter II.
New moves and the ability to play as the four boss characters made this version an appealing upgrade at the time of its original release, but with the next update also available on the eShop is there a reason to plump for this Turbo entry instead? SSF2 added yet more moves, an additional four characters and a couple of extra modes, but Turbo has a couple of things in its favour.
The most obvious is speed, represented on the title screen by stars; push left or right to adjust to your liking. You can choose from zero to four stars, but entering a cheat code during the intro will allow you to have up to ten. The default (three) is suitable for normal play and provides a smooth quick pace that allows for fluid fights as you progress through the game. SNES SSF2 also offers adjustable speed, but not to the levels seen here, and there's a lot of fun to be had from cranking the stars up and indulging in the wonderfully ridiculous speed-fighting that ensues.
One other area where this game triumphs over its successor is audio. Both games feature impressive versions of the familiar music tracks, but the sound effects and speech in Super have a more mechanical, slightly muffled quality and there's no announcer at the start of a round. Here announcer guy is present and the various thumps, crunches, "Sonic Boom" and "Hadouken" shouts have a more natural sound.
Whichever version of the game you go for, know that you will be playing alone. As is the norm for SNES games on New 3DS simultaneous multiplayer is not available, which lessens the appeal somewhat and means that whilst you can hone your skills on New 3DS you'll have to load up a version on another system if you want to fight against a friend.
The single player game has you brawling against your clone and the other eleven fighters and throws in three bonus stages (car, bricks, falling barrels) along the way. If you haven't already done so on one of the many other versions of SF2 you own, mastering each of the twelve characters and seeing their game ending will keep you busy. If you forget how to do a special move a tap of the Home button can bring up the standard electronic manual to assist.
With the two-player "V.S. Battle" effectively being unavailable to New 3DS owners the only other mode you can play is "Normal"; essentially a SNES version of Champion Edition. Compared to Turbo it's painfully slow and a few moves added to Turbo are absent, but if you'd like slower-paced fisticuffs and have an aversion to mid-air hurricane kicks and Chunners-performed fireballs then this is the mode for you!
In the options menu there are eight difficulty settings to choose from. The lower ones are good for practising combos and the higher ones are useful for those seeking a tougher challenge. You can also adjust the button assignment if you're not happy with the default setup and there are tests for sound effects and (more importantly) music if you'd like to take a break from the violence to sit back and enjoy some tunes.
Conclusion
It's one of multiple versions of Street Fighter II, offering the classic brawling action that made people sit up and take notice of one-on-one fighters back in the day. There are less characters than in Super Street Fighter II, but the speech and sound effects are a little better in this release and the higher speed fighting is amusingly entertaining. Being a SNES release on New 3DS you are limited to pummelling CPU-controlled opponents, but Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting still provides solid single-player action for gamers on the go.
Comments (38)
Is it meant to be a 7 or an 8 score, as on the top it says 8 but in the conclusion it says 7. Typo/mistake?
One of LEGENDARY fighting game ever. Should be at least 8 from 10. Ah, the nostalgia...
Oh, well. Even Jackie Chan can performed well when he was a .... Chun Li. XD
There is the video. Happy watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIxETAx_61M
I'm thinking I'll get Super for the more characters and levels. What is typically the best speed to set Super on since you mentioned it also has a few speed options?
See, Nintendo simply isn't doing these Virtual Console games justice half the time, especially on New 3DS. This should basically be a 10/10 game. Street Fighter II Turbo on SNES is one of the greatest fighting games ever made, bar none, and it's actually really enraging that it's had to be gimped so much in the transition to New 3DS VC that it's scored a 7/10.
@Kirk
Do you not think it's because it's not going to control as well as the SNES original?. SNES controller or 3ds? SNES controller wins.
Games that were designed for home console, to be played on a TV are not going to work as planned if they are suddenly made portable 20 years later. The game is still a 10 it's the console with its little screen and controls that make the new experience a 7.
Also on the screen that shows the word "turbo", before the title screen, if you press: down, R, up, L, Y, B you get more stars to turn up the speed even more
Who would waste their money on this? No multiplayer added in? Smh. Great game but better options out there these days.
Sounds like a solid review. I mentioned under a recent article about the game that I think Turbo is the best one they did, despite the added content of Super. Part of that is not liking the new characters or stages much in Super. But it is also due to Super taking a big hit to the audio on 16-bit ports. I didn't like the new audio for the arcade version either(sonic boom), but the SNES and Genesis/Mega Drive didn't fare well when it was ported. I think, of the SNES games, that Turbo is the one to own.
@Kirk Could be worse, they could of just given us the Gameboy Street Fighter II and called it a day...
@Kimite That's because there are 3 reviews for the game on this site, when all 3 are average out it would be about an 8.
@Martendo That's a totally garbage excuse for not including multiplayer in any of these New 3DS Virtual Console versions of SNES games that originally had it.
The New 3DS controls are perfectly good for Street Fighter II. And Street Fighter II Turbo doesn't even split the screen view or anything like that, so each player would still be seeing a normal-sized view of the action in two player battle mode, just as they do in single player.
And, regardless, the onus is on Nintendo to make these things work imo. I mean, for God sake, a bunch of homebrew guys can do things like multiplayer on the original SNES F-Zero, so it's not like Nintendo couldn't easily figure this kind of stuff out too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LAVGMPbCiY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFbEFNdO0HU
Nintendo really needs to start doing this kind of thing properly if it expects anyone but the most blindly loyal of fanboys to be care about it's consoles and games anymore.
@Kirk
How can it split the screen since you can only have one person playing? The original didn't have LAN options.
What you want is a game with online multiplayer and if you don't get that it 'Rage time' 🙂 And anyone who isn't complaining is a 'blind fanboy'.
@Martendo I want a Street Fighter II Turbo game that retains the multiplayer of the original (which was/is a massive part of what made the experience so good/compelling in the first place)—that presumably would work much like all the other multiplayer games on New 3DS work (be it streamed from one system to the other or via online, or whatever)—irrespective of what hoops Nintendo has to jump through to manage that.
Also, It wouldn't split the screen in a game like this, you plonker. It would simply display the full game screen on each person's individual New 3DS system by sending the normal/full game information to both systems, with each player controlling their own character on the screen as per normal.
And, yes, anyone who just accepts what Nintendo has given them here, or worse, acts like it's actually good enough—much like you are doing—is indeed a totally blind fanboy.
@Kirk
I take exception to being called a blind fanboy if anything my eyes are more open than yours. I'm just commented on my observation. I didn't say anything was good. You still don't get the point. The problem is the 3ds. Rage on dude.
@Martendo There is no split screen needed, it's a 2 player fighting game. @Kirk is right, there is no possible reason these games aren't multi-player other than lazy emulation from Nintendo. The 3DS' just need to sync up & play the exact same game at the same time (not lab style, literally the same game mirrored)
@samuelvictor Exactly.
@Martendo The problem is not the New 3DS; the problem is Nintendo. The New 3DS didn't create itself, and the New 3DS didn't put Street Fighter II on itself and with no multiplayer either; it took Nintendo to gimp things unnecessarily.
@Kirk
All my point was, the controls and the screen. Imo SNES fighting games are not suited to 3ds. That's all. Multiplayer and all that, they could add it but they won't. Ya know if they wanted to add it they could have done it with Super Mario kart which would be a much more deserving game, but they didn't. They just don't do that and to expect it is, I don't know, setting yourself up for disappointment because it's not going to happen.
These are old games and Nintendo are right to keep their focus on new games, not old Capcom games which they probably haven't even the right to alter anyway.
Another awesome SF2 game that i also played non-stop as a kid.
@Seacliff Oh, I see. Thanks for telling me Seacliff ^^.
@Martendo The problem here is that people like you just accept it as it is and don't cry out for more, so of course we'll never get more if all Nintendo does is listen to and serve people like you. So, ultimately, you're part of the problem as far as I'm concerned.
@Kirk
Omg I cannot actually believe what you've just said.
@Martendo I'm sure you can't.
@Kirk
Jeez remind me not to talk to you again.
@Martendo Remind yourself. lol
I've always been suspicious of that weird apostrophe. What is its mission?
@Martendo The thing is, adding multi-player to Mario Kart like you suggested would have required reprogramming the game code, which would take time, money and expertise in areas uncommon to today's modern programmers. It wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo don't even have the original source code any more... many games from that era have source code that has become corrupted (many old disks, floppy, hard and jazz/zip are all but dead now) or gotten lost (like Sega with Panzer Dragoon Saga/RPG).
I completely agree with you that multi-player support should have been added to Mario Kart, but I understand the logistics of why it may have proved too much hassle.
For SF2 and other non split screen games, literally no touching of the rom code would be necessary, just a minor reprogram to the emulator it is wrapped in. Freeware emulators for Android, Raspberry Pi etc can do this with no alteration to the games necessary, and they have the much more difficult task of making non identical (and often wildly different!) hardware sync together. Two new 3ds consoles will have identical hardware, framerates etc, the only possible difference being NTSC or PAL (50/60hz) and I assume this is not applicable to portable hardware with a dedicated screen.
It would take one developer a day or two to implement the feature, plus maybe a handful of testers to verify it worked. Not having it included make zero sense, the saving is negligable. I don't pull this from nowhere, I used to be a game programmer in the late 80s to mid 90s, & have also programmed 3d engines and physics engines, and contributed to open source emulators. There are many Indies who would offer to do the work for Nintendo, but I am 100% sure that Nintendo already has many people on their staff capable of this in one or two days.
I don't presume to speak for anyone else but I'm fairly sure that @Kirk didn't mean to offend you directly. He is right in the sense that the only reason Nintendo didn't do this is nothing to do with costs, rights, difficulty etc, but simply that they knew people (potentially like you? I'm assuming that was his implication...) would just buy the games anyway. Many will even buy them expecting them to support multi-player, and will feel cheated. It is not smart business in the long run, and it's a shame.
It is not a valid argument to say that these games are old and the resources would be better spent elsewhere. If Nintendo felt this way, they would not have the VC releases, HD/3D remasters and NES mini etc. I'd hazard a guess that at present at least 50% of Nintendo's profit (not income) comes from retro or retro/nostalgia inspired products & merchandise. More than 50 if you count Pokemon as a retro/nostalgia brand - which Pokemon Go is certainly proving it to be. Add to that fact that many people playing the latest Mario, Mario Kart, Smash, Zelda etc games are doing it because either they or their parents loved the older games, and Nintendo is currently possibly 10% innovative new stuff, and 90% nostalgia. I love Nintendo & their properties. They just need to respect these old games more. (And please don't assume SF2 is not a retro Nintendo property just because it's Capcom. The SNES had the exclusivity on SF2 for several years before the inferior Genesis version, and it was the main reason many bought the console. Just as people bought Sega's 16bit machine for Sonic, they bought Nintendo's for SF2. Heck, both SF2 and eventually SF2T even replaced Super Mario World as the pack in game at most retailers...)
The review mentions you can enter a cheat code to access the full 10 turbo speeds, but you need to enter that code on controller 2. Is there any way to switch to controller 2 on the 3DS?
I made the mistake of forgetting it had to be controller 2 on the Wii U version and entered the code on controller 1. Entering the cheat there disables special moves! For ages I thought there was a bug in the emulation because I couldn't get Ryu's fireball to work!
@samuelvictor
That's a good point that people bought the SNES to play SF2. I had actually forgotten that. All my point was that I didn't think the 3ds was a good medium for SNES games with the controls and screen. I have no intention of buying this game. I paid £70 when the original SF was released on SNES and that was in 1993 or 1994 money.
When the Wii was originally announced the most exciting thing for me was the VC. I love Nintendo's heritage. I don't agree with what Kirk said that if I don't go on a rage when a VC game is released and multiplayer is missing because of new hardware restrictions that I'm part of the problem. I didn't want to get in this deep. Personally I actually prefer single player games and that's what I spend my time playing.
Like you said yourself you love Nintendo, and so do I. All I want from Nintendo is incredible games and maybe a mini SNES. 😊
Why is everyone saying that Nintendo should have done more with this game? It's not a Nintendo game, it's by Capcom, so they would be the ones to make changes.
SF2 seems kind of pointless on 3DS though as you could pick up SF43D with more features for about the same price.
I got this. Always wanted SNES games on handheld and New 3DS is giving me that.
Always preferred this over super also.
@Martendo Fair enough mate! Yes, here's hoping that the NES mini sells enough that we also get a SNES mini. A classic controller compatible SNES pad would be so awesome, and if Nintendo could manage at least another 30 of the top games including third parties like the NES version, it would be an essential purchase
@Zach I know you were joking, but I used to wonder the same thing. In Japan, the apostrophe is pronounced "dash", so they call the games "Street Fighter 2 Dash Championship Edition", "Street Fighter 2 Dash Turbo" etc. I suppose it's like if we put a physical dash in there, like "Street Fighter 2 - Turbo"... in the west we still wouldn't pronounce it outloud.
@BulkSlash Hold down the two Z buttons and tap Y.
@CaPPa See my response above. TLDR: No change to game code necessary, just minor tweaks to the emulator it is wrapped in. Also, for at least 2 years, SF2 was THE premiere Nintendo brand. It might have been made by Capcom, but it was a SNES exclusive, the main pack-in game (replacing SMW), and the reason many bought a SNES or even switched allegiance from Sega.
[Edit] you have a point about SF43D, but by that logic, why get SMW or Link to the Past when you could get New SMB, 3D Land or OOT3D?
@Anti-Matter Haha OMG I only just watched this - had no idea it existed. Thanks for the laugh man!
@samuelvictor
So you're saying that Nintendo could have made changes to the emulator to allow for something akin to download play in multiplayer games. While that may be true the fact is they didn't and so then it was Capcom's choice whether to port the games without multipayer or not.
While SF2 was SNES exclusive for a while (and the premier version too) Nintendo have no rights to the game, so it's a big ask for them to make any changes just for this game.
There's more variation in platformers or adventure games than a beat em up (and it could be argued that something like SMW is actually superior to NSMB), whereas SF2 or SF4 are closer (while there may be changes to mechanics it's often a change of roster that more defines beat em ups). So if you want a proper SF2 experience a console version would be the way to go and a portable version is more like a taster so SF4 is a better choice than a gimped SF2.
@CaPPa Pretty much that's what I'm saying, yes, although download play would be nice, I'd be fine with both consoles needing a paid download. You just need to get both emulators syncing together. Capcom would not be able to implement this at all at their end, it's a Nintendo thing.
BTW I completely agree that SF43D is a much better experience than a sub-par VC release
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