Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting - Xbox Live Arcade Feature Preview

By Ricardo Torres, GameSpotPosted May 26, 2006 3:35 pm PT

We get an exclusive look at the classic 2D fighter's Xbox Live incarnation. Does it live up to our expectations?

Help & options takes you to a submenu that offers information on how to play the game, as well as the chance to adjust different options in the game. Choosing help will take you to a series of screens that show you the basics on how to play and include a rundown of everyone's special moves. The options you can tweak break down into four subsections: control setup, game options, video settings, and audio settings. Control lets you configure the buttons any way you like. A nice touch is the option to save up to three control configurations--as a, b, and c--that you can swap to on the fly from the pause menu in the game.

The quarter match option should help recreate that arcade feel, with a group of spectators who can put down their quarters to call next.

The game options menu lets you tweak the game's difficulty, selecting from one to seven stars; turn the time limit and vibration on or off; and set the avatar for your quarter in quarter match. When choosing an avatar, you'll be able to pick from portraits of the fighters in their original and alternate color schemes. The video settings option lets you adjust screen size, allowing you to manually stretch the default 4:3 presentation to full screen, and screen position. In terms of HD settings, the game will support 480p, 720p, and 1080i and will automatically display in whatever mode you have your Xbox 360 set to. The audio settings let you adjust music and sound-effects volume, as well as toggle the spectator voice on or off.

So, now that we've laid all that out, the big question is how does it play? As we've mentioned in our previous looks at the game, the offline arcade modes all handle and move well. The game looks as though it's going to nail the crazy speed that the arcade game ran at. If it's been a while since you've played a Street Fighter, you may find that the action is almost too fast, but it shouldn't take long to limber up and get your game back. Control is responsive and feels just about right. The customizable control and the three saved configurations should be enough to sort out anyone's needs.

As far as the online game goes, we were able to try out player matches using the entire roster. We'll cut to the chase and say that yes, there is lag, which is sadly a fact of life for any online game. Handling was a bit off, and the game's performance took a hit. Despite that, the game was extremely playable, although, as you'd expect, its performance didn't match the offline experience. Still, it was entirely possible to pull off all the moves and get a solid fight in. Would we like to see things run smoother? Definitely. And the possibility that the game will improve definitely exists, as Capcom is well aware of the hell a legion of displeased fighting fans will bring if the game isn't as tight as possible. How much it will improve remains to be seen, but we could almost live with what we played as things are, so even some modest improvements would be a good thing.

Capcom expects the game to hit Xboxes everywhere in the second quarter. We're certainly waiting as patiently as we can.

In terms of its presentation, the game's default is to run in a 4:3 box bordered on either side by a blue background, with the occasional speed line that runs through every so often. As noted earlier, you can stretch the screen to full in the game options. The art has remained faithful to the original arcade game, though there have been some tweaks to ensure nobody's eyes start bleeding. Also, the game's color palette has been brought up to 32 bit. Though the game isn't doing full-screen antialiasing, filters have been added to tone down the rough look of the sprites in HD. The audio is coming straight from the original game, as well. We didn't hear anything amiss while we played, so it sounds like everything is spot on.

Based on what we saw of the work-in-progress game, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting is looking solid. The offline game is looking good and the online experience, though there's still work to be done, has potential that it's close to realizing. As it stands right now, what we've played could pass for "good enough," but we're hoping that Capcom will be able to do the work needed to get it to be better. Though there's still no word on exactly when the game is releasing or how much it will cost, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting is still expected to ship in Q2 2006.

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3 Comments

  • chiefmegadeth

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 12:02 am PT

    Well its going to rule i remember back in the day.My school was mostly populated with asains not thats a bad thing but yeah.It was me and one other white guy that used to clean house when it came to street fighter we where best friends at that time f... me man we used to be the best!!!!!!!!!!!
    we both where KEN freaks
    So cant wait to see if i can fight with the best of them

  • Draggeta

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 10:57 am PT

    Indeed it will. Too bad I kinda suck in SF

  • VincentV21

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 10:53 pm PT

    This will be in the top 2 XBOX LIVE Arcade games out there: Geometry wars and street fighter 2

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