365//365: Day 348 – Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival (GBA)

"One of the better pre-DS/PSP fighting titles on a handheld."

Games have had a certain fascination for the fighting game genre, especially in the 90′s. Street Fighter II made up a significant percentage of all fighting games released during the 90′s, thanks to its various incarnations and ports to numerous systems. Although the minute changes to each release could have simply be infused into a second future release as opposed to several successions of minor changes, gamers still ate it all up, giving Capcom ample reason to keep feeding us more. What could be seen as the definitive update to the Street Fighter II series (Super Street Fighter II: Turbo), offered not only the four new characters introduced in the proceeding installment, but introduced super moves, which have become a staple in most every major fighting game released since then.

Portable gaming units introduced the fighting genre to gamers, with a thoroughly unsatisfactory result. These underpowered handheld units were just incapable of handing such a technically demanding genre. Street Fighter releases were sparse at best, with Street Fighter II on Nintendo’s Game Boy putting up an admirable attempt, but ultimately failing at capturing any semblance of what made the series a phenomenal success. Even the Game Boy Color could not faithfully represent the Street Fighter Alpha series, releasing a flimsy, shadow of its former self fighter. The Neo Geo Pocket Color had its hand at a crossover between the SNK and Capcom fighting game franchises, and managed to create the single most impressive fighting game on a handheld unit up to that point. Unfortunately, it wasn’t based around Street Fighter II. Will gamers ever be able to bring the classic action of Super Street Fighter II: Turbo with them in a portable fashion?

Yes, though the formula isn’t necessarily a 1:1 translation.

Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival on the Nintendo Game Boy Advance is exactly what the name states — it’s a revival of sorts, introducingf a few tweaks here and there, but keeping much of the core gameplay intact. Having a four button interface though, lends its self to some significant gameplay changes. You’ll have to hold down two different buttons to pull off any attacks that use that button. For instance. B and A can be mapped for Hard Punch and Hard Kick respectively. You can double B and A as Medium Punch and Medium Kick, and pull off those attacks by holding down the button, as opposed to just tapping them. This method works about 50% of the time though, as it seems like no mater how the button is pressed, the hold down B A L or R will produce that attack, even if the button is tapped. Some players might not feel handicapped by this peculiar control quirk, but those that like to utilize every single button available to them will surely feel at a bit iof a disadvantage. Not a game breaker by any means, but it can translate into moments of frustration.

Since the Game Boy Advance is roughly about as powerful as a Super Nintendo, the expectations should be much higher for the audio and video components. Not surprising, the graphics are quite detailed, with a fluency to the animation that helps provide for a more seamless experience. A handful of the backgrounds available have been totally redone, again working off the revival moniker. Balrog’s background will instantly remind Street Fighter fans a bit of Street Fighter Alpha 3′s background for Balrog, while Ken ditches the pier background for a more urban locale. The problem with Ken’s new background though is that it doesn’t feel cohesive. Certain things stand out more than they should, like the fire hydrant, while the vibrance doesn’t necessarily fit with the stock backgrounds that have made their transition over. Speaking of which, the palette used for said backgrounds isn’t as varied as even the Super Nintendo’s port of Super Street Fighter II, offering a less detailed stage. It doesn’t detract much from the gameplay, but it’s somewhat disappointing, given the power that the Game Boy Advance held.

The audio takes a bit of a mixed turn. The voices of the announcer and each of the characters are faithfully replicated and as iconic as ever. The music though….painful representations of what used to be memorable, foot tapping performances. While they sound close to what they were originally, these overly MIDI, overly cheery versions of each song distorts what made them truly pulse pounding and perfectly fitting. In fact, they come off as a bit 8-bit, with no complexity to the compositions. While there are a few disappointments within Revival, the music takes the clear lead in that department.

Revival tweaked a few more things here and there that do not impede on any gameplay aspect. The totally revamped character select screen, while occasionally giving that feeling that you’re playing a MUGEN title thanks to the flaming background used, does benefit from the updated touch. Character portraits are more intimidating, representing each of the World Warriors as just that — imposing combatants setting out to win this competition. The still shots shown after each victory as well done as well. Sadly the endings have become more text scrolls behind a static image, rather than a somewhat “comprehensive” set of images relaying the ending for each character.

Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival has its hand at trying to revive a few things here and there, and while the core gameplay remains as satisfying as ever, some of the changes, both in the revival aspects and translation aspects, fall a bit flat. While some of the new backgrounds are impressive (M. Bison’s in particular, looks more fitting), not a whole lot was changed, and only a small number of the changes were warranted. In any case, Game Boy Advance players looking for a fighting game can definitely find a good time with Revival, as it blows away any previous handheld fighting game attempts previous to it.

Rating: 7.4