Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was the first game that ever prompted me to swear at the television screen. I don't know how many hundreds of times M. Bison kicked my butt back in the day, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the number lies somewhere in the thousands. When my parents and sister were out of earshot, I called him nearly every nasty word I knew. Those uncharacteristic bursts of profanity didn't help me to beat him but they sure did make me feel better when I lost!

Years later, I would remember Street Fighter II and the first thing that came to mind wasn't the way that Bison mopped the floor with me. It was Ryu vomiting gold after a fierce punch to the gut, Chun-Li's flip kick (made better by the 'pause' button), elephants in a temple, graffiti in a bath house, a statue lying on her side in Thailand and factory workers in Russia. These things and many more lingered in my mind, larger than life and demanding that I revisit them. Unfortunately, my attempts to relive those glory days often left me disappointed. The graphics weren't as good as I thought. The fights were cheap and shallow.

Eventually, I cam to a realization: the real problem lay in the fact that while games have evolved, Street Fighter II never really did. There were updates to the series, certainly, but they never really felt like a proper extension of everything I loved about those early games. Street Fighter Alpha 2 and its sequel were great games, for instance, but somehow they didn't feel quite right. The crossover games don't work for me, either, and Street Fighter III felt so different that aside from the inclusion of Ryu, Ken and Chun-Li, it might as well have been an entirely new franchise. It began to look like I would never be able to enjoy Street Fighter II again.

Street Fighter IV had the potential to change that. Instead of evolving from the point where things were left with Street Fighter III, it stepped backward and used Super Street Fighter II as its template. It was a risky move that alienated some people who demand a new lineup and combat system with each numerical upgrade to the series, but for me the revival offered hope that I could once again experience the magic of Street Fighter II as I remembered it.

My review is coming soon.