After all of the hype and all of the waiting, this isn't the version of Street Fighter II' that anyone was looking for.
Unfortunately, as is the case in so many situations where significant amounts of hype are involved, the version of Street Fighter II' that's been released to the masses comes nowhere close to expectations. While the game does deliver on the promise of online play, lag tends to cheapen the overall experience-- which is pretty bland as it is. The Xbox 360 controller's D-pad also delivers an inconsistent performance that is exacerbated by the speed of the game.
The good news is that the game is playable, at least. Players who have at least basic Street Fighter II experience will be able to get back into the swing of things relatively quickly. The single-player game provides a spirited challenge with smarter AI than you might expect. As such, breezing along and picking up the single-player achievement points will not be a walk in the park.
The main attraction of the game is the online play. Players can choose between Ranked Matches or Player Matches. Ranked Matches are the bread and butter of online play. They are competitive and stats are kept for all players, suchs as wins, losses and Rating points. Player Matches are "friendly" matches that players can use to practice against live competition without affecting their ranking. Player Matches include the advertised Quarter Match, in which players put up virtual quarters in order to play the next round and can watch as other players fight it out.
While online play seems to be solid based on what's been described, there are technical issues that hold it back from its potential. Lag is perhaps the biggest detractor. Even with lightning-fast connections, lag still damages the overall flow of matches. As Street Fighter II' is a technical game, relying on fairly complex controller commands and timely button presses, it's more difficult than it should be to get your timing down. At times, the lag is negligible enough so that it doesn't really affect the overall performance of the players; however, at other times, the game stutters badly and it's almost impossible to do much at all. Simply put, connection integrities are inconsistent, which simply cannot be for a fighting game of this nature.
Inconsistency issues also affect the game controls, although it may be more of an issue with the Xbox 360's underachieving D-pad than it is with the game code. Players will find themselves unable to consistently perform moves when they need them most, such as Dragon Punches or fireballs. What's left when that happens is leaving your character open to attacks from opponents, and that's deadly in Street Fighter II'. This especially becomes apparent in online play, when the action actually speeds up and it becomes a challenge in trying to adjust to the speed, the lag, and then trying work with a D-pad that's working against you. This isn't the first time that issues with the D-pad have affected the enjoyment of a game (I'm looking at you, Frogger), and it begs the question of just how hard it is to have a decent D-pad on a controller.
As for the aesthetics, they are serviceable, at best. The graphics aren't as clean as you'd like them to be in high-definition, and there are some obvious sound bugs that arcade purists will quickly point out. There have been better conversions of this game done before, and the development team behind this effort apparently didn't read the memo about those.
At a cost of 800 Microsoft Points, there are serious questions as to whether this game is worth the download. While many Street Fighter fans have undoubtedly purchased this game, almost as many of them are wondering why... or what might have been.