Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival

If you're new to the franchise then seeing all the biffed up fighters, in colorful attire may seem quite strange, but put simply: Fighters from all around the world, travel to different countries to battle with other fighters and to prove to themselves they are the greatest world fighter there is, however to do this they must finally beat the incredibly powerful M. Bison. Of course your travels will take you across the continent mainly America and Asia. The main aspect of the game is the arcade mode where you can take one of 16 characters through several bouts till you get to a final boss fight, with Bison himself. And then you are rewarded with a few nice cut scenes of what your fighter returns to, now he's proven he's the business.

If you were fortunate enough to play the original SNES version then Revival will look extremely familiar to you, with all its bright and attractive colours. Only slightly less impressive than the arcade version though, all the character models have been replaced effectively. They are all largely detailed with folds in their clothes, along with shadow effects and their muscle contours clearly defined. As well as this all the interactions of their attire remain, such as Ryu's head band waving up and down. Of course on close inspection they are slightly pixilated but this has to be the Street Fighter trademark of old. The backgrounds are very well drawn and authentic to what they were like on the SNES. But for the more die-hard fans of the original, you may notice slight differences between in the GBA version, but this does not take away from how attractive they are. As is the fashion of Street Fighter, every fighter has clear animations when walking, in their fighting stance, punching, kicking, or performing various moves. All of which are exactly like the SNES original. The only one fault is the very unconvincing shadows that follow the fighter's feet.

 

The in game music is typical in itself, complimenting the games arcade rotos with extremely retro classic music, along with traditional groans and yells of the fights, as well as the well known collisions sounds when a move connects. These usual grunts of each character are all easily recognized even perhaps if they aren't the same as they were in the original that makes Revival even more firmly placed in its SNES roots. The only real change in sound is the announcer's voice yelling the rounds and instructing you to fight. Sadly the sounds aren't as crisp and clear as they should be, and falter where the original broke through, and unfortunately some characters have had their voices turned for the worse, by not suiting the fighter. Such as Guile who sounds nothing like the though American army man we once knew him as.

Although on the SNES six buttons were required, the GBA got round this problem by making the amount of attacks available limited, so you can quickly punch pressing B, or hard punch using the L shoulder button. The gameplay is not at all effected by this, punches and kicks are still delivered with a simple press of a button, while the D pad acts, as crouching, jumping and moving your fighter. Special moves belong to each of the 15 characters are once again pulled off by various combinations of forwards, backs, As and Bs, that once again a quick scarp in the training mode to get to grips with. Even if you have played the previous game, you may find practice is needed to use the GBAs new controls. However Capcom have seen that the Super Combos were possibly too hard to perform, so pausing a fight in game and pressing select brings up "EASY" mode, where when your Super Combo bar is on full, you fill it by performing moves, pressing A and B together will pull off the Super Combo, and also makes the other special moves, simpler to pull off. Slightly defeats the object of the super combo and Street Fighter's usual hard moves, but if you're a die hard gamer, then you will want to master the harder versions of each move.

 

There are four speed modes to play through in each battle, that try to add variety to the game, but unfortunately sometimes the game speeds drops dramatically, especially when Super Combos are pulled off. There are 16 characters to play as, with all your old favorites, such as Ryu and Ken, as well as the old bosses that were Sagat and M. Bison, with a two new fighters, Cammy and Dee Jay. Of course each fighter has slight variations in speed, strength and power moves, so there is a variety you can play through to find who suits you best. And included again from the original, in between the fights in arcade mode, are the min game sections where you must beat up a car, or take out barrels that are rolling at you. Sections that are great for practicing your moves. Over all the gameplay is still thick and fluid and the great battles of old have been recreated excellently here. The enemies do responded differently to moves now, however can still be thwarted easily, with repetitive moves.

 

As a solo game arcade mode can be dealt with in one haul, as arcade modes were meant to be dealt with. But along with this are the training section and the V.S. multiplayer section for two players, which delivers limitless fun. If you gain enough V.S. points from the arcade, you unlock Survival and Time Attack. Survival requires you to fight numbers of opponent with one life bar, from 5 to 100, as well as play the car and barrel sections. The Time Attack is pretty self explanatory, where you must fight a number of fighters as quickly as you can from the evil Akuma, to the tag team Ryu and Ken, to every fighter there is. Gaining more V.S. points also unlock art of each fighter and the un-locakble Akuma and Super Akuma. But there is no real difference between the two.