Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Hands-On

All you need to do is whisper the name "Street Fighter" and folks will come out of the woodwork to see what you're talking about. Such is the overwhelming love game fans have for the Street Fighter series, which is a fact that publisher Capcom is taking to heart in 2008. In addition to being knee-deep in development of the upcoming Street Fighter IV, Capcom is putting the finishing touches on yet another downloadable SF game, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. At a recent Capcom press event, we got to catch up with the game's developers to see how this version of the game is coming along and try it out for ourselves.

A plethora of content is assured in HD Remix. In addition to all-new high-res art of the Street Fighter characters and backgrounds, the game is going to feature single-player and player-versus-player fighting on the same console, as well as online. Super Street Fighter II Turbo purists will also have the option to play the game using the original 2D sprites and the ability to choose from either the original tunes or remixed versions soundtrack.

The developers at Backbone Entertainment have spent a great deal of time looking at the original Super Street Fighter Turbo II, as well as collecting feedback from the fans of the game. One of the results of all of that examination will be an optional rebalanced mode, which, according to developers, results in some changes to the characters in the game. As it was put to us, the purpose was to decrease the gap between the weakest and strongest characters in the game. Now, we aren't talking wholesale changes--in some cases it might be just a couple of tweaks to a move or two--but the result will be that characters will be closer (but not identical) in terms of strength.

A beta version of HD Remix will be underway soon (to sign up, you'll first need to purchase the Xbox Live Arcade version of another upcoming downloadable Capcom game, Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3). The beta will run for eight weeks and feature two playable characters (Ken and Ryu) duking it out on a single background. The purpose of the beta? To iron out the kinks of the brand new network code that will be powering HD Remix's online play. Everyone remembers the less-than-stellar online performance of Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting, and it seems like Capcom is taking extra special care to ensure that that same sometimes-sluggish performance is nowhere to be found in HD Remix. The full version of HD Remix will include such modes as quarter match, worldwide rankings, and leaderboards organized by character. It will also include full stat tracking for you and your friends.

We had some time to check out the game for ourselves, and beyond being impressed with the high-res character models, we're happy to see that the animations seem very true to the original game. Some highlights to the changes made for the rebalanced Ryu and Ken, according to an information sheet on hand at Capcom's press event, include the following:

• Ryu will have a new move called the fake fireball.
• Ken's changes are more extensive. His jab dragon punch and strong dragon punch are invulnerable on the way up; his strong dragon punch will always knock an opponent down. In addition, Ken's helicopter kicks have changed almost across the board. His short helicopter has a shorter duration; his medium helicopter goes slightly farther; his roundhouse helicopter goes much farther, faster, and does half as much "dizzy"; his air roundhouse helicopter goes slightly farther. Ken's "crazy kicks" have simplified joystick motions. In addition, damage has been lowered on the first strike of Ken's knee-bash hold, and the range of his knee-bash hold has been reduced slightly.

So far, HD Remix is looking like the kind of Street Fighter II experience that Hyper Fighting probably should have been in the first place. The game is currently on track for release later this spring, and it's certain that Street Fighter fans will be keeping a close eye on its development. With the downloadable beta available soon, maybe fans will even have a say in how the game turns out.