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Perhaps I shouldn't be too shocked at the increasing number of negative reports towards this highly anticipated Xbox Live conversion. After all, when it comes to disappointing its 2D fighting fans, the post-Fighting Evolution Capcom seems to deliver in spades.
(Ouch.)
Needless to say, any negativity is well-deserved. Here is a product that many have eagerly awaited to hit Xbox Live for several months, only to be faced with one delay after another. While the media dug for concrete answers, the rest of us started drawing our own conclusions. Eventually, it was discovered that Capcom wasn't behind the project. That's right, it was handed off to Sensory Sweep, a developer that apparently has little or no experience with handling conversions. While this ultimately created some concern in the fighting community, fans clutched on to a small glimmer of hope. Imagine: if this release became a success, the probability of additional releases from Capcom's 2D fighting catalogue would be greater. At least, that was my pipe dream.
When August 3 came around, there I was, bright-eyed and eager to be among the first to bask in this highly anticipated release. "Whoo! It's here!" Yes it was. Everyone rejoiced. And then reality set in.
On paper, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting looks like a respectable production. Avid fans can finally get in touch with their arcade roots on the 360, choosing from the original 12 World Warriors including such favorites as Ryu, Chun Li, Guile and the deadly 4 bosses of Shadowloo. Then of course, there's the online multiplayer mode, which is hands-down the only reason why most of you reading this would even bother to give this title your time and MS Points. Players can choose between two casual modes: Traditional Match and Quarter Match. As the name implies, the Traditional mode allows you and another human competitor to engage each other mano a mano. This is a perfect mode for anyone that's old-fashioned or simply wants to battle exclusively against a buddy, but it's the Quarter Match mode that's become all the rage... for numerous reasons.
The Quarter Match Mode takes a page from Dead or Alive 4 by incorporating a spectator option for anyone who jumps into a room with other challengers. Unfortunately, it only supports 4 players at any time (2 competitors and 2 spectators respectively), a far cry from the whopping 16 that can be supported in Dead or Alive 4. It's my guess that the low player limit was based on reducing the potential degree of lag. Speaking of which, for those of you wondering, lag does rear its ugly head. This isn't anything new to me. In fact, I expected it. What I didn't anticipate however was the excessive degree of connectivity issues. Whether you're hosting or just trying to join up with another challenger, timeouts are about as frequent as a Hadoken contest between two Shotos.
As a player, it's discouraging... especially after you finally manage to get a match, only to deal with (wait for it) a dropper. Yeah, they're still around. Fortunately, winners aren't penalized with a loss as frequently seen in Capcom's previous releases for Xbox. Still, this doesn't change the fact I have to deal with an limitless number of schmucks that can't handle a loss. Why is it that they look at a simple throw as the end of the world? Why do they need to resort to racial insults? And why is it that they're allowed to abuse the feedback system? (MS really needs to appoint Xbox Live moderators or something). But it's like a fellow SF player expressed in his blog: "I expect nothing less from the Xbox Live community."
I'm not going to spend much time discussing the Arcade Mode other than to point out that Capcom must have a twisted sense of humor. Seriously. I can say with certainty that the Level 3 difficulty setting on Super Nintendo (and even the original arcade release for that matter) never came even close to the frustrations I get from the XBLA edition. Back in the day, I used to dominate the CPU with ease, but now – its made me its bitch. I don't even want to imagine what to expect from the highest setting.
While I'd be in the right to totally write off Capcom for screwing their fanbase (again), I've accepted Hyper Fighting for what it is. In fact, I spend a minimum of 1 or 2 hours getting in a few games with a couple of friends rather. And on occasion, I even take on random challengers in ranked games just for kicks, though, in all honesty, I could care less whether my rank goes up or down. I'm also thankful that my Dead or Alive 4 Arcade Stick is supported, otherwise I'd be forced to take the scrubby route with the 360 pad, which mind you, is not recommended for use with this game. Just. Stay. Away. You've been warned.
So is this a game worth adding to your XBLA collection? Well, that's a decision I'll leave up to you. It's obvious that this production leaves a bit to be desired (an attractive user-interface, smoother gameplay, less connectivity issues all would have been greatly appreciated), but I suppose it could be a lot worse too. Capcom just needs to quit being lazy and focus on giving fans the arcade perfection fans they've been waiting for.
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