Snes Central: Street Fighter Alpha 2

Street Fighter Alpha 2

Review by GoDSmurF

When Capcom announced that it has signed a deal with Nintendo to bring Street Fighter Alpha 2 to the Super Nintendo in a "40-Meg Arcade-True version" (those were their exact words) cartridge, gamers all over took out their Super Nintendo again and dusted it off to prepare for this joyful occasion. But Capcom broke its promise as SFA2 became a 32-Meg cart with notable flaws from the arcade conversion. But nevertheless this is the best Street Fighter possible on the Super Nintendo.

Graphics: 7/10

Some gamers may flame me for giving this wonderful game an 8.5 for graphics, but when all things are considered, this really is no where near "arcade-true". First is the notable missing frames of animation. Although gamers have come to expect it, but the amount missing is simply unacceptable. With Namco being able to cram in many different things with a 48-Meg cartridge in Tale of Phantasia, why can't Capcom too? After all, a majority of Capcom's profit ever, came from Super Nintendo fans. We think we deserve a better effort than that. Granted, this is still the best hand-drawn graphics possible on the Super Nintendo, but when you take a look at the Arcade, Playstation, and Saturn versions of the game, you would only be left wondering just how much effort did Capcom put in to this conversion. The backgrounds are well-drawn too, but there were many, MANY elements omitted from the SNES version. These points alone drove the graphics category down in spiral.

Sound & Music: 5/10

This game's audio department lacks the polish other Capcom games have. The music just drones in the background as your fighters duke it out in the foreground. The yells and grunts sound a bit funny. A few of the words muttered out by fighters are unintelligible. This is a pretty lousy effort indeed. If you thought Killer Instinct's music suffered from the arcade-to-home conversion to the SNES, wait until you hear the new horror on the block... But to SFA2's credit, the tunes are true to what the game is - severely downgraded disappointment. If only Capcom could've learned from Namco to include an extra sound-chip to better support the voice-output from the game.

Gameplay/Fun Factor: 8/10

Just as many other Super Nintendo games, this game's not flashy. This game does not give you a full orchestrated sound track. But at least it gets the job done in the gameplay department. Most of the options present in the PSX version is here too. All the moves are here, unlike the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 conversion. Combos, flashy finishes, all add to the fun. The gameplay really outshines the rest of the game that sometimes you won't even notice just how bad the sound is...

Conclusion/Overall: 8/10

This is probably one of the last big projects for the Super Nintendo. After this game there really isn't any other big-name games in the vault. While this game breathed in a bit of new life in to the dying-machine at the time, but its fun factor simply can not be ignored. Despite all of its short comings, this game is a must-have for any hardcore-fighting fan's library.