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Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting reviewGame: Street Fighter II Hyper FightingPlatform: Xbox 360 Genre: Fighting Action Developer: Capcom |
Reader review by nick_evil
August 09, 2006 Hyper Fighting is a ballbuster. It's cheap, relentless, and annoyingly obsessed with cheesing you to death with its flawless timing and flaw-exploiting tactics. In short, I finally hate a version of Street Fighter II.Going in, I know the rules don't apply to the computer; they never have. The computer doesn't have the same time requirements on "charging" characters like Guile or Blanka that I have. I know that the computer doesn't have to press kick a million times like a mortal does with Chun Li to get her kick thing started. I've known this for 13 or so years now. But never was it like this, this affront of blatant inequity.
Guile can effortlessly Sonic Boom my Ryu to death. Stay on the ground, I learn, as any aerial attack (especially over these perfectly-timed projectiles) is begging for a counter. I swear I've seen these guys switch attacks before their current animations have played out. And I shit you not, this is on the lowest difficulty setting.
Granted: fighting games, like all competitive games of rapid pace, require a serious investment of time and humility. They require you to play and lose a lot, enough so that its timing is second nature. You have to die a million times so you know a character's inertia, where your opponent will land after he jumps, precisely how long he's vulnerable after a certain animation proceeds and ends. This holds true to its essence for Hyper Fighting, and I simply don't have the patience for it. Not in this hour of maturity and option.
Capcom Vs SNK 2 is a million times better. So is Marvel Vs Capcom 2. Super Street Fighter II was far better. Championship Edition was far better. Hell, since it lacked the cheapness, SFII on the SNES was better. So I promise I do not have the time or the desire to devote energy into re-learning the rhythm of rule-shattering AI opponents just to go online and lose to people who masochistically do retain that energy.
The 360 controller is awful for the game, as SFII's six-button legacy murders both analog trigger and shoulder button. I've yet to do something as difficult with the 360 controller as trying to pull off a dragon punch (SHORYUKEN for the "it's called anime!!!! crowd) motion with the left trigger. Even with the marginal improvement of the shoulder button over the default trigger, the game begs for a six-button pad, and it "begs" so by sodomizing you with its fanatical AI while you fuck up shoulder inputs.
I don't deny the appeal or even the necessity of Street Fighter on XBox Live. But this was absolutely the wrong game to bring. Super Street Fighter II had four more characters, and the Turbo edition of that was* widely praised as the best of the lineage. Capcom has serviced poorly its fans by bringing back the worst version of the series I've played and it's done so on the no-refund pipeline of XBox Live. Get a Genesis and SFIISCE for the same price as this download. Or get MAME and download CE or Super SFII. Get a Dreamcast and buy the import of SSFII Turbo. Or go nuts on eBay and get it on the 3DO. Or click this link for a menu of games to get in any capacity other than wasting your money on this.
Hyper Fighting on Live might be the only fully legal way to play this game for the common man. This doesn't negate the fact that it's the worst way to play the game, or any in its series, for any man, common or otherwise.
*It was so-considered until Hyper Fighting was announced for Live Arcade. Weird, huh.
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