Street Fighter II - the game which ruled the arcades. One of the first examples of tweaking the modern kind of fighting to its perfection. One of the first to incorporate flashy special moves for its characters, thus making them really unique. The two-player sensation. Also a huge hit on the SNES.

We're talking about the Amiga port here. When it came out, it got ravingly positive reviews. Shortly thereafter, voices were starting to be heard that it weren't any good. That it played too slow, the animation was too jumpy and the controls too complicated. These voices never stopped.

A few years later, when all the 'Super whatever' versions were released, the original Amiga version was released under a budget label and therefore reviewed by the magazines again. The results were split into those who still followed the initial hype and those who went with the common criticism sketched earlier. In fact, even U.S. Gold themselves published a mock review of the original voicing the same concerns and giving it a bad rating - as an ad to promote the 'The New Challengers' version.

These days, it's pretty much agreed on the Amiga version of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior isn't any good. Why the hell is he reviewing it then? Because, believe it or not, I actually like this version. Probably even more than certain other more popular ones.

Let's have a look at the commonly critisized point:

Too slow
That's a definite pro for me. This game is pretty much tuned to my (admittedly slow) reaction times. Playing it on the SNES (or the later 'Turbo' versions), I always get beaten up because I just can't follow this lightning-quick action. This version, however, gives me the chance to compete without getting too easy.

Jerky animation
Yes, probably, but who cares? This is a fast-paced action game, and if you're playing it yourself, you won't have the time to marvel at fluid animations (if they were there) anyway. This is only important to people watching others play. I couldn't care less.

Impossible controls
Ok, that one is valid. Instead of the usual six buttons, you have to do with one or two. This means for some special maneuvers, you need to do impossible combinations of joystick moves and button pressing. A big minus for sure. However, there are also some good moves (both 'special' and others) which are completely managable. Joystick back, joystick forward plus button? Yes, I can do that even in the heat of battle. So, not great, but as good as possible considering the hardware limitation.

So, to conclude this, I like this Amiga-Street-Fighter-II. It's anything but Arcade-perfect, but if you don't expect that, you get a nice fighting game. At least I take it out from time to time again and throw a few punches.


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