Super Street Fighter II X Turbo Revival is without question, the greatest portable fighter to ever grace the Earth!!
Now Street Fighter II was heralded back in 1991 as one of the best fighters ever made thanks to it's original gameplay, scorching visuals and extremely compedetive multiplayer! Since then, it has spawned sooo many re-releases it's too hard to count! Now that I have the GBA version which is a remake of the classic Super Street Fighter II Turbo, does it deserve the title of Capcom's brand or does it deserve a Shun goku Satsu? On with the Review!
The Controls can be a little bit of a pain to come to grips with at first due to the limited buttons but they do work! You move with the control pad, press up to jump, down to crouch, B for normal punch, A for normal kick and the right and left shoulder buttons for heavy attacks. Overall, great control mechanics but only if you get used to them first!
The Graphics are extremely well done! Everything from the models to character designs are cool and cartoony. It is a little disapointing however to know that the graphics are SNES standards whereas the GBA can handle sooo much better!! But then again, it's an early GBA game so asking for more would be mean! Also the backgrounds have a Street Fighter Alpha feel to it which is nice since it's modern Street Fighter II you expect some backgrounds to be futuristic! To sum it all up, fantastic graphics for a GBA fighter!
The Gameplay is pretty self explanatory for a fighting game but it is that section that makes the game exellent in the first place! You pick a character to play as and then you beat the snot out of your opponent in a match using a combination of combos, special moves and Super Combos. An interesting feature in Turbo Revival is that you can choose different speeds adding a lot more strategy to the game. Normal is slow paced but allows you to land hits easily whereas Turbo modes may be for experts, you can perform some devestating combos and speed tactics. It's an interesting feature if you are battling with your friends and you are deciding what speed you wanna use against them and I really like this feature. The modes are what you would expect form a typical fighting game. There is an Arcade mode in which it's basicly a story mode for the characters, Time Attack which is complete some challenges in the fastest time, Survival mode is when you have to defeat enemies with a limited Health bar and V.S mode is basically you competing with a friend! Interesting choice of modes which are fun but c'mon, I wanna stick to Arcade mode! There is a new gimmick called V.S points. Basically, if you fulfil certain conditions in Arcade mode, you earn V.S Points and if you collect enough V.S points, you can unlock Akuma! It may be a gimmick but it's actually cool! You'd just wish there was enough unlockables to keep you busy, but luckily the core gameplay does that job and saves the game from being a rental! There is also loads of deph into the game, offering a lot more strategy like frame counters, turtling etc. Now I'm not an expert at Street Fighter and I can admit that so Capcom added an interesting little feat which is the easy moves option. Basically this option allows you to pull off special moves with ease. It's a nice feature and because of the GBA's limited control, you'd wanna use it more often than the normal commands. But even when the easy commands are on, prepare for a really hefty challenge! Overall, awesome gameplay which holds up well!!!
The Music sounds a little dated but it works. The music could've been for the NES but it doesn't hurt the memorable soundtrack. On the other hand, the SFX and voice acting are very well done!
Here's some strategy to help you in Turbo Revival. For beginners, I suggest Ryu and Ken as they have easy to pull off combos and special moves that do good damage and they have pretty good use too. When you are fighting Balrog, make sure you stay on the defensive, then sweep him and start attacking him and never let up. When fighting Vega, just try and catch off guard with a jump heavy kick and you'll be fine. To fight Sagat, just pull off some offensive tactics and you'll do great. And finally to fight Bison, just find an opening, then attack him and don't let up! Hope this helped!
The Downsides was that the music was little dated! I mean come on! Would've killed the developers to make it SNES standard! Also, it's soo dang hard just to perform combos thanks to the GBA controls! AUUUUUUUUGH!!! (drinks heavy Cola.) OOOKAY, onto verdict now that I have calmed down.
Super Street Fighter II X Revival is the BEST handheld fighter ever!! The laughs, the frustrations and enjoyments all come alive in this port! Let's overview the facts shall we?
The Good: good diversity of characters, loads of deph, different speeds to choose from, modes apart from Arcade mode offer interesting challenges, feels like an Arcade in your pocket, exellent graphics, solid SFX and voice acting, memorable tracks are there, new backgrounds are a nice twist!
The Bad: Music feels dated, really hard to do combos!
The Ugly: No ugly points here!
Title: This game is destined to be supremely perfect!!!