The Fighting Game That Started It All: Street Fighter II, The World Warrior

There was so much talk about its release, people were lined up to by it: Nintendo Wii’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.

Some fans were disappointed because it was modeled after the old Super Nintendo game, and not the newer, updated versions. No matter what you say, though, Street Fighter II is the world’s best fighting game, and it’s cool to be able to play it on your Nintendo Wii. It’s definitely the best fighting game they’ve released yet for the Wii.

This is the game that started it all. If you were alive in the early 1990′s and didn’t live in a cave somewhere, you probably spent quite a few hours hunched over your SNES playing Street Fighter. You have eight fighters to choose from, and you can fight each other, or work your way through all the levels and level bosses.

This version is based on the SNES version, so it doesn’t quite have the graphics and cool effects of the arcade version, but it comes close. If you’re a long time gamer like me, Street Fighter represents the glory days of gaming, and I’m glad they didn’t change anything from the version that I spent most of my youth playing.

Your favorite fighters are all back; Ryu and Ken, E. Honda, Guile, Zangief, Chun Li, Dhalsim and your old buddy Blanka. Not only that, your other favorites are back; Guile’s Sonic Boom, E-Honda’s rapid fire 100-Hand Slap, all of Chun Li’s spinning and flying, and Dhalism’s crazy stretchy arms.

Even though this is the classic version, it’s kind of strange that they didn’t decide to release a later version, like Street Fighter Turbo, with better graphics, more characters and more special moves. The Virtual Console could definitely handle it, no problem. I haven’t heard anything, but I’m guessing they are planning to release more versions of the game over time, so we’ll keep buying them.

You have to use the classic controller. I thought it would be cool to play it with the GameCube controller and it was a total nightmare; it was so hard to use, I ditched it and went with the Classic Controller, which actually handled really well. You really need the Classic Controller to do all those combo moves. Trust me, when you want to do the Sonic Boom, it’s much easier on the Classic Controller. If you’ve played the game before, you’ve got that move programmed into your brain, so you don’t want to change the controller. But, even for a newbie, the D-Pad and buttons are much better suited for the moves.

Nintendo Wii’s Street Fighter II is based on the old version, and it could be made better with the new graphics, movement and controller capabilities of the Wii, but still it’s cool to be able to play a great classic game on the new system. It’s fun to play, but in the end it leaves you wanting more.