| paleface [sys=PS3; cat=Fighting; reg=NA] |
| | | Downloadable western-made high-definition port of the venerable fighting game looks sharp in 1080p, plays conveniently from hard drive, and exactly (as far as this layman can tell) duplicates the gameplay of the original. It adds a training mode, a dip switch menu for customizing many obscure gameplay settings (turning off hit stun / fireball slowdown = yay!), a nifty remixed or recreated or whatever soundtrack, and internet multiplayer (got my butt handed to me, which was about right).
All in all, very well done. The only gripe you can make about it as far as I know is that the drawing style of the completely redrawn sprites is a little blocky or generic, but I think they were probably trying to match the outlines of the original sprites closely for the sake of preserving exact sense of hit detection, and with that in mind, they didn't do a bad job. The original low-res sprites, chunky and clunky anyway compared with those in more recent Street Fighter games, still have more of a sense of style and design about them, but these new ones have the advantage of looking pretty darn sharp in high-def. There *is* an option to switch to the original sprites, but it's spoiled by a really icky filter that makes them look all blurry and webbed; if you're going to have an option to show the original sprites, you should show them in their original shape, not all blurred up. But they'd look weird against the high-def backgrounds, so it isn't an option I think I'd use in any case.
I was skeptical at first, but I do actually find myself much more inclined to play this version than my previous favorite version, the Dreamcast "Matching Service" one (see entry 679); HD Remix looks much sharper on my projector, and is so much more convenient to boot up.
The really amazing thing is that it has *exactly* the same gameplay feeling as the original (plus you can tweak things nicely like turning off the slowdown); they had to leave some of the animation rather jerky, but only to match the original frame-for-frame. It's a really impressive re-creation and preservation of the original. |
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| | | Download added: 00_about.jpg (37700 bytes)
"MEaty"
My rant at the end is WRONG, I probably need glasses or something. 8P It's a big dumb rant about the graphics being "blurry" in Widescreen mode, vs being "sharper" in the 4:3 mode; but I zoomed in and tried my own scaling up in Photoshop afterwards and found that no, they're just as sharp in Widescreen. So, once again I confirm that I am dumb.
I don't like the Udon Entertainment art style.
Forgot to point out that the "widescreen" view still leaves small black sidebars, ie isn't QUITE 16:9 widescreen (not fixed in Ultra).
Was surprised how much I disliked the Remixed soundtrack. You can switch to the "Classic" arcade soundtrack, though.
Even giant Street Fighter II fan David Sirlin at Backbone Entertainment was surprised when Capcom agreed to let him do a remixed version of Super Turbo.
Podcast interview with Sirlin:
https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/david-sirlin-part-1
https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/david-sirlin-part-2
Designer David Sirlin's HD Remix Features page: https://www.sirlin.net/sf-hdr/street-fighter-hd-remix-features
The difficulty is weird. There are only four instead of the arcade 8 difficulty levels. Sirlin says Classic should be as ridiculously hard as the arcade version, but I could swear it felt a bit easier. And his Hardest remixed difficulty on Remix takes four fights to get real hard.
In Training Classic mode (didn't check Remix) there's a pop-up sub-menu to select the Super (aka "Old") version of the characters--but this isn't in Arcade mode, where according to GameFAQs (did not test) you have to enter the old arcade per-character input code to get their Old version. The Training sub-menu has neat icons for it; why wasn't this made available in Arcade mode? : P
The re-remixed "Ultra" version Capcom themselves made for Switch nine years later was $40 (not $50), whereas Remix on PS3 had been $15 (not $20).
If I was talking about watching streams of people like Alex Valle playing this for a bit when it came out, I was definitely getting it confused with Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. : p
There's a long pause when you confirm something on a menu, it's really weird--no feedback for several seconds, and if you don't notice that you can't even move the menu selection during that time, you may think the game just didn't read the button press.
The on-fire effect is REALLY flickery. But the strobes on Continue (yellow) and Game Over (red) are gone, which is nice!
The control mapping is smooth--just hit the button you want for the command, like the PS1 Street Fighter Collection version.
I failed to figure out that in Remixed mode, to get the hold-the-button color for a character (green w/ red headband for Ryu, for instance), you hold a KICK button for 2 seconds (or so it says on Sirlin's page); holding a PUNCH button gets you the arcade Jab color, and Jab gets you the character's default World Warrior color. |
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| | | | (To be clear, the "Classic" graphics option ^ IS a blurry horror show.) |
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| | | | This is also the start of a VERY (at least to me) confusing speed numbering thing where the game speed options use the Japanese numbering of Turbo 1-4 rather than the US numbering of Turbo 0-3; so you have to set game speed in the menu to 3 to get the US default speed of Turbo 2. ; P Later ports manage to make this even MORE confusing! |
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| | | Sirlin explains this on his HD Remix Features page thusly: "The game speeds match the arcade version of the game, but this is confusing so bear with me. In SF HD Remix, speed 3 is the default and is intended for tournament play and online play. It's the same speed as Japanese arcade speed 3, which is also known as US arcade speed 2. You don't really have to understand what's going on with all that, just play at the default speed 3 and be happy that it matches the arcade."
So yeah that still doesn't make sense, you should have labelled the settings Turbo 0-3, Sirlin, LIKE THE US ARCADE ROM's Operator Menu DOES! : PPP |
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| | | | Capcom doesn't actually get the Game Speed numbering right for US versions again until Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium, in 2022--14 years later! |
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Super Street Fighter II Turbo input delay comparison
My previous tests of SF2 were Champion Edition (not WW like I think I said here : P), the Street Fighter Collection 2 version (see entry 1367) on PS1 and the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection version on PS4 (see entry 1368); I counted 4 and 5 frames for them, respectively, at that time.
0:00 - PS3 - HD Remix (see entry 1281) - 5 frames of delay
2:15 - PC - Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (see entry 1595) - 4 frames
3:25 - PC - Capcom Arcade Stadium (see entry 1661) - ~4.25 frames
5:32 - PC - MAME 0.119 (30th Anniv ROM) (see entry 1656) - 7 frames
8:34 - PS2 - Capcom Classics Collection Vol.2 (see entry 1154) - 6 frames
9:56 - PS1 - Street Fighter Collection (see entry 1366) - 3 frames
The PC versions had Vsync off. Capcom Arcade Stadium was set to 59.94 Hz. CCC2 had progressive scan on. After the poor result in MAME 0.119 -- current MAME won't run the ST ROM dumped from 30th Anniversary with the Game Extraction Toolbox https://github.com/shawngmc/game-extraction-toolbox ) -- I tried Final Burn Neo (see entry 1663), but FBNeo wouldn't run it either.
Delay in 30th Anniversary was highly variable, from 3 to 5 frames. It was somewhat unstable in Arcade Stadium, but not quite as much.
So, the PS1 version is still the best I can run. = D
However, it's not the version I'm going to be playing. The Dreamcast version--see entry 679 --one I used to own, but sold with the rest of my collection when I moved 4-5 years ago...--that, when dumped and run with the right settings in a certain emulator, will, it appears, get me 1 frame of delay. |
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