One of the best fighters on the SNES
Another reviewer mentioned that this uses the FX chip for the graphics. It does not. The FX chip was designed for polygon graphics, whereas this game uses the S-DD1 graphics decompression chip to handle the huge number of character sprites. Anyway, nitpicking aside, here are my point-by point scores, with explanations:
-=Difficulty=-
Just right. Like the other Street Fighter games, this has variable difficulty, so players should be able to tailor 1-player games to their liking.
-=Learning Curve=-
I put 0-30 minutes here, but for somebody who's never touched a Street Fighter game before, it might take a bit longer to get some of the moves down.
-=Gameplay=-
I'm a tough scorer in general, so don't let my gameplay score turn you off. There are some load issues presumably caused by the aforementioned S-DD1 chip that probably shouldn't be here. I assume that if they had spent more time on the assembly coding, they could have removed these or at least moved the most annoying one to a different place. After the announcer says "FIGHT!," everything on screen freezes for four seconds or so. If the freeze happened BEFORE he says "FIGHT!," I think it would have annoyed me less, so I'm docking one point for the loading pauses.
Another point is lost due to some missing moves. This is certainly nothing major, but my favorite character is Sakura because in my opinion she has the most versatile punches and kicks of any Ryu clone (not to mention a more interactive fireball!). However, in this version, her aerial mid kick is the same as her aerial weak kick. Yuck. It's not as bad as replacing her strong kick with something, but it's still a loss.
-=Graphics=-
The graphics are fine. The same sprite resolution sacrifices were made as usual, and the screen is still letterboxed. Other minor sacrifices are made as well. For example, the puddles in Gen's stage don't splash, ripple, or show character reflections. However, I expected as much; if this game HAD replicated the arcade in this respect, I would have gasped in awe and given it an automatic 10. Also, some of the umpteen win poses in the original are gone. Sakura's dancing pose is gone, as is the one where she kicks off a shoe. Personally, I would have preferred them replacing the regular kick pose with the shoe kick pose, but oh well. You can't have everything. The graphics are still excellent for SNES, and are pretty faithful to the original.
-=Sound=-
This has to be the weakest point of this game. The music, while fairly faithful to the arcade version, could have been done better, and is nowhere near as good as the Street Fighter II games for SNES. A lot of channels are lost, and it detracts slightly from the feel of the game. Also, the voice clarity is pretty low, but I guess the game makes up for it by having so many voices. Finally, some hit sounds don't play 100% reliably, which disorients me for a split second as my brain works out whether my hit connected or not.
-=Value=-
I got this used for 880 yen, so I can't complain. Even at original retail price though, it was probably worth it, especially if this is your favorite Street Fighter game, as it is for me.
-=Overall=-
Due to nostalgia and the fact that there are no loading pauses, I think I would rank the original SNES SFII ahead of this, but only slightly. This is an outstanding port that really showed what the SNES could do (with help from an extra chip, of course).