Street Fighter Alpha 2 was
perhaps one of the best 2D fighting games to ever be released. When it was first
released on the Saturn about 6 years back, I played the game to death with
friends. Eventually a Super Nintendo version of the game was announced. There's
no way a 16-bit system could possibly do this game justice. I mean, the 3 ports
of the original Street Fighter 2 games were amazing, but Street
Fighter Alpha 2 was done on much more powerful arcade hardware then
those 3. How good could a port be on the SNES with its ultra slow CPU? Well,
after grabbing the SNES version of the game, I was happy to see that the
outdated console could handle the game far better then I imagined. To top it
off, Capcom didn't even do the port, Nintendo themselves did the honors.
As far as gameplay goes, things have been altered slightly from Alpha 1.
The most noticeable and only major gameplay change was the removal of the Chain
Combo system. This has been replaced with an all new Custom Combo move. Custom
Combo's can be activated by hitting a button combination. Once activated a blue
shadow will surround your fighter and they will then speed up and are capable of
linking any moves together that you wish. The duration of the custom combo
depends on the level of super bar you use. Also, if you get hit while in Custom
Combo mode, you'll be forced out of it.
Now, Custom Combo's may sound cheap but they take some serious skill to be used
effectively and can be countered fairly easy. Personally I prefer the older and
more simplified Chain Combo system but the Custom Combo's are a rather original
idea and welcome addition to the series.
So, what a new fighter be without new characters? Boring, of course. Thankfully,
Alpha 2 gives the series plenty of interesting new characters to
toy with. First up is the Japanese schoolgirl Sakura. Sakura looks a little and
plays a slight bit like Ryu, but isn't nearly as effective. Still she's a very
fun character to use and can be quite effective with a little practice. Next up
is the old Kung Fu Master Gen. Gen is actually a combatant from the original Street
Fighter game. His 2 style play and overall character design can be
summed up in 1 word. Boring. Gen has got to be the most boring character I have
ever used in a fighter. Moving on we have the grenade tossing Rolento from Final
Fight, Then there's the return of classic Street Fighter
characters such as Dhalsim and Zangief. Finally all the previously unlockable
characters from Alpha 1 are now playable without any sort of code.
Even the original version of Chun Li made the cut in this cart.
For playmodes, Capcom gives the usual fighting game modes including Arcade and 2
play Versus. Pretty bare bones when compared to the likes of Alpha 3
and it's superior World Tour mode. I think Nintendo could have at least squeezed
in a survival or training mode. Still, SNES only gamers should be glad they got
the game at all.
One final note is that the game itself runs a tad on the slow side. Nothing
really that bad but if you've played the other Street Fighter
games on the SNES or the PS1 or Saturn versions, then you'll definitely notice
some speed loss.
There's even a few seconds of load time before the round starts. Its nothing
really long, but it just seems a little odd seeing load time on a cartridge. I
guess all the animation in the game just takes a toll on the snail speed 3.58Mhz
processor.
Graphics 9.5:
Take the arcade or Saturn version, cut the resolution in half, now cut about 25%
of the animation and speed. You now have the SNES version. While definitely not
as good looking as its big brothers, the SNES version still looks amazing. In
fact, its the best looking 2D fighter on the system. Despite the animation cuts,
this game is still packed with animation. The cuts are most noticeable on some
of the larger characters like Zangief or Sodom. Still, even those animated very
well given the hardware. All the backgrounds seem to have made it into the cart
too. They seem to be mostly all in tact too. Besides the obvious resolution cut,
the only real cut I noticed in them was in Guy's level where Jessica would smack
Cody in the background if there was a female character fighting. No big deal
though.
Sound 9:
Like the graphics, the sound seems to have taken a hit from other versions as
well. That was of course to be expected though. Thankfully all the music, voices
and sound effects seem to have been retained. They sound a little muffled but
its nothing really that bad. This is only on a 32 megabit cart and I guess the
sound had to take the back seat to the graphics and gameplay content.
Control 9:
Like past Street Fighter games on the SNES, the control here is
about as good as your going to get on the SNES. The control itself is very
responsive and fairly easy to learn. Street Fighter vets will be
completely familiar and comfortable with the set up while newbies may have a
little difficulty adjusting at first. Its nothing tough, its just a matter of
learning the games countless moves.
One complaint I did have was with the super moves. Supers are broken up into 3
strength levels. To do a level 1 super you must first do the correct motion
(differs from character to character) and then hit a single attack button. For a
level 2 you must hit 2 attack buttons at the same time. And finally for a level
3 super, 3 buttons must be hit. Now, the problem here lies in the fact that
hitting the multiple buttons at the same time after the d pad motion is a bit awkward. Nintendo should have altered the set up a little to alter the strength
of the super depending on which attack button you hit.
Overall I was very impressed with the SNES version of Street Fighter Alpha
2. Despite not being quite as good as other versions of the game, I
believe this is the highest quality port possible on the outdated hardware. I
would highly recommend tracking this title down if your into 2D fighting games
and don't own a Saturn, PS1 or newer console. Great job Nintendo.
9.4
