Regardless of the fact that the original version of the game was just fine on its own, the Champion Edition of Street Fighter II was a good way of enhancing the core game enough to where it didn’t feel too much like a straight copy, while also adding in additional content that gave players a reason to come back for more, making it definitely the superior version when comparing it to the original game. So, now that we got that settled, that means that we are gonna get Street Fighter III, right?................... right, guys? Yeah, no, instead of getting a Street Fighter III just yet, or any other kind of Street Fighter game for that matter, we were going to be getting ANOTHER update to Street Fighter II released in the arcades. With how many times Capcom has updated this game even all the way up to the mid 2010s, it has become a meme at this point how many pointless revisions they love to put out, so don’t expect this train to be stopping anytime soon. But anyway, just under a year later, we would get the second revision of the game, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

In terms of the changes made to this one, aside from the obvious, they are all very basic. All of the characters except for M. Bison did receive a new default color palette, so that is nice, and not only were things much more refined overall, but everyone now has new special moves that they can use in battle…. except for Guile, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison. I can kinda understand why they wouldn’t give anything new to the four main bosses of the game, but why nothing for Guile? Did they just not like him that much? Damn, I kinda feel bad. But either way, in terms of changes to the core gameplay, that is about it, which may disappoint big time fans of the game at this point, but there is one more brand new addition to the entire game that could make up for this: the speed.

As indicated by the Turbo in the title, the speed of your movements and fighting has been ramped up drastically, to the point where now fights are so much faster than that of either the original game or Champion Edition. Not only that, but with this new speed comes a new speed that the player has to adjust to, with you now having to input combos and special moves much faster then before so that your opponent doesn’t get a leg up over you. Now, on one hand, I can kind of see how some might view this as a bad thing, where if people were pretty accustomed to the speed of the original two versions, they now had to learn to play at this kind of speed, which can be seen as hindrance for some. However, not only are there versions of this revision where you are able to adjust the speed, such as the SNES version, but it isn’t that hard to quickly get used to the new speed, which is why so many people have preferred this speed of fighting in this game over any of the others. For me personally, yeah, I can’t help but love this speed. I am someone who loves quick, fast paced action more then anything, being able to deal an absurd amount of damage in such a short amount of time, so I was able to get into this immediately.

With all that being said though, in terms of the update as a whole… it is pretty lacking, not gonna lie. Yes, the new increase in speed is much appreciated, and the small changes here and there is also nice, but when compared to what Champion Edition brought to the table, as well as what Super Street Fighter II would do soon after, it really isn’t anything all that special. It is essentially just “more Street Fighter II” again, with no real meat on its bones, which may be enough to satisfy diehard fans, but there isn’t any real reason to jump on this game straight away if you are used to Champion Edition. Not to mention, as per usual, there have been plenty other versions of the game that have been released after this that do a much better job revising the game, so if I were to tell you which version of the game you should play nowadays, it definitely wouldn’t be this one.

Overall, despite its increase in speed and the new special moves and color changes, Street Fighter II Turbo isn’t really all that special of a revision, and just simply exists as another means of cashing in on Street Fighter II while the iron is still hot, which definitely worked out for Capcom, but it doesn’t really compare to other editions of the game. I would recommend it for diehard fans of Street Fighter II, or just Street Fighter in general, but for everyone that is just a casual fan, again, there are plenty of other, much better versions to choose from out there. They probably give Guile the attention and love he deserves, the poor guy. Fuck M. Bison though, he can die in a fire.

Update #2

Absolutely wrecked my left thumb on the SNES controller I played this with yesterday. They did not have comfort as a priority back in the 90s.

Anyway, it was nice seeing this on the SNES Classic that I have here at the house. I remember playing this on my own SNES when I was a kid years ago and it’s still a lot of fun. If I remember correctly, I had a third-party controller that had a turbo switch with varying speeds and would play different games with that, including this one for an even more manic experience.

As an adult, you do notice the spammy opponents and the cheating A.I., but you still feel like you need to get to that ending despite everything. The normal gameplay is glacial by today’s standards, but a necessary tool for beginners to learn the battle system.

All in all, a good game, but I’m not going to let nostalgia cloud my judgement. It’s foundational for the fighting genre, for sure, but it has its problems.

7/10

Street Fighter before all the super moves just doesn't feel very appealing to me. It's a super basic form of a fighting game, and one that doesn't always get the inputs correctly. It's quite a playable game, and something that can easily have had meta built around it, but I personally take other fighting games over this one if imma be honest.Not to mention that the arcade mode for this game is rather ruthless, a lot of the moves the computer does for charged characters and boss characters feel way too fast for how they are actually conducted, and it always feels they have far more health than you do. Not to mention how long the campaign is. Really I don't think Street Fighter II got good till Super.