Street Fighter II was one of the first games I got for my SNES. I used to play it a bit along with Final Fight (capcom brawler) with my dad time to time. I was never very good at this game, and I never really spent too much time to learn it. I could do some of the moves listed in the manual but found it hard to win fights. I never really found a love for the series (or the genre of fighting games) and haven't really explored them since.
In making an effort to explore arcade games, I decided to change that and will try to continue where I left off, thus I played a rehashed release Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers in MAME (and SNES back to back). I decided to pick one of the 4 new challengers and went with Cammy, and decided to do my best to master that fighter (changing their outfit all six colors the whole way after each failed battle!)
And geez, what an experience it was.
First of all, The arcade game on default difficulty is incredibly hard, compared to the SNES it's probably twice as hard if not more. I never really liked the way the street fighter series feels as far as control goes. I've played a handful of newer games (And even second generation games like Tekken 3) and they feel more responsive, fluid and less convoluted. Street Fighter II is by its own nature a very tough game. I cannot imagine beating the arcade version without save states.
Part of the reason it's so difficult is execution of moves requires precision and in some cases timing. You can with practice, learn to execute simple attacks or even a two or three hit combo due to timing when you get the chance, but incorporating this into your moves is much harder and i cannot do it! And despite what to me feels jerkiness to the way this game does control (due to that strict demand for precision), there is a kind of elegance and balance to it. The issue is the game requires fast reflexes, and you have little time to react to an opponent. I do want to improve and will continue practicing it, but the game is one I don't see myself ever being able to really master, but I did improve with practice. I began to learn how to time my hits and get a sense of spacing. I began to learn how to block and do counter attacks for specific opponents by watching their movements and styles, as well as learn what would and would not work with a particular opponent. However, I still cannot perfectly execute signature moves or combos (I find combos extremely hard to do because you have zero margin for error when it comes to landing hits and sending in a follow up before they recover and its not something that I could really get a sense for) This meant I could do things like a handstand type attack that would thwart an incoming jumping attack, but only a third of the time. Not good when timing is everything. Also basic attacks do a small amount of damage. Often you can spam a heavy sweep kick if you get a sense for timing and that has gotten me through a few of the battles.
So Street Fighter II seems like a delicate game in which the player has to strive for mastery to play the game properly. And its more than just knowing your moves and combos, you have to have a sense for fighting techniques as well for both yourself and others. For example, certain kinds of defensive attacks are good against certain kinds of attacks being employed against you, and certain kinds of actions are good response to other types of opponents behavior. E honda is a beast but he is a bit sluggish. Balrog likes to charge but if you can time his charges you can trip him or do other things. This is genuine jujitsu, both awesome in execution but simultaneously a pain in the ass to learn how to play. The first example of how I learned how all this works in the game was with foot sweeps. Many of the players have a foot sweep as a long range attack that can trip an opponent. But there are certain times to use this and not to use it. From there you can learn other things, like when to jump in for a grab or throw (which is what Cammy is pretty good at) Generally speaking it seems that any attack an enemy is doing has a good response of some kind, but it varies a bit depending on who the enemy is and who you play as. Cammy has some fantastic air moves, some of which are quite unique. I particularly liked her suplexes and grab type moves but found it VERY difficult to know when to get in with some of the enemies to use them, because they often can grab you as well and will (Zangief is the worst). Thankfully, I was able to defeat the boss of the game M. Bison with Cammy not too terribly bad, who is usually hard as hell using some decent air throws and standard chops when he would do his 'dive' move, which is, in this game anyway a pretty easy move to anticipate when he does it. Battling M Bison is pretty satisfying with her.
Althought it was heartbreaking to say goodbye
I'll be okay Cammy, there will be other games to play
After doing the arcade I tried the SNES version to compare. It plays pretty much the same but looks a little less colorful or detailed and is far easier on the default difficulty.
One advantage of SNES is how It's nicer to be able to configure controls easier in game as well (for someone like me who isn't that experienced with MAME.) For this reason, I would recommend it for sake of accessibility, however the CPS Arcade is superior to even a very well made port, and it's worth playing someday. (Still it's a VERY good port!)
I'll probably play more of these games in the future, I don't know how I feel about fighting games or this particular series/style of it. I don't tend to love games that require a lot of time investment and this series really is one of them to learn to play properly. Maybe that's the draw. I'm tempted to improve and its satisfying to do things right in this game when you get lucky or they happen to work out. I always thought it was overrated compared to other titles but it's hard to criticize it having visited and experienced how the combat is more complex than I realized back as a kid and having a real sense of balance I respect this game more now.
