Today we review the Ultra Street Fighter 2 game, an old game seeking new life on Nintendo’s newest console, the Switch!

When I was young, I was already a big fan of Nintendo games and Street Fighter 2 on the Super Nintendo was one of them. I think way back then, I clocked in more than a few hundreds of hours on this game alone, probably only beaten by Tetris on the Game boy. Now more than 20 years later, I feel like I am reliving part of my youth, fighting my way through the other fighters as Blanka, who survived the test of time as he is still my favorite grappler!

This game for me is what makes the Nintendo Switch library more complete. It was missing a great fighting game and Ultra Street Fighter 2 delivers on its promise. To bring a great franchise in the spotlight on its’ thirtieth birthday! Well done, Capcom, really great job!

So what sets this game apart? The vast variety of options and just being a great fighting game that stood the test of time. In this review, I will be providing information about most options and features that this game has to offer, we start off with the classic arcade mode.

Arcade mode, the original game mode, the one on one mode, fight as your beloved character against the others. This part of the game is pretty straight forward, you pick the number of rounds, the length of each round and whether or not you want to allow others stepping in. At the same time, you can go from “trainee” level to “world warrior” level difficulty, all while choosing whether or not to record your replay or not. This is where you start to hone your skills as a true Street Fighter.

Next option is the Buddy Battle, where you fight the CPU, but you get help, from either another CPU or another player. This has proven to be one of my favorite new modes of this game and it is a mode that is truly unforgiving. You either dish out serious damage or get beaten real harshly… At one point, I was playing as Blanka and I chose Balrog as my buddy (as CPU), while playing Evil Ken, he suddenly started owning the both of us, dishing out some serious pain on us, we suffered a crushing defeat! It was amazing, it was one of the first times ever that I did not feel any dismay or frustration due to being crushed by the computer! I can honestly say I love this fighting mode. As brutal as it may sometimes be, you will adore it.

Next up is the Versus option, where you can have more casual battles with a friend, a CPU or watch a CPU battle another CPU or the final option, where you perform a local battle, fighting against another player but on two separate consoles!

Versus is very similar to the Training mode, except the training mode is where you face a passive opponent, you can just keep pummeling or use the opportunity to fine-tune any combos you may want to learn. You can fine tune the passive opponent by making him jump, … to perfect your skills on that aspect specifically.

The last fighting mode is the Way of the Hado, where you disconnect the joy-con and use motion control to do the fighting. Slide off the joy-con, securely fasten them and start the fun. Two basic modes and training to play this part of the game. This is not the easiest of games and I can clearly suggest anyone to really clear the training prior to heading into the other modes. The training mode itself is very good and it will give you a great feeling for this way of playing. It will adjust your speed and playing style up to perfectly executing the combos needed to help clear the levels! Trust me, you will need it!
This Way of the Hado is not my cup of tea, but I do think everyone should try it and see if you’d agree or disagree with my opinion!

Finally, this game just has tons and tons of options, ranging from color editing your fighting, imagine a white skinned blanka with orange hair or black skin with brown hair? It is all possible in this game, you can even permanently save these. While I did not really find this option useful, I can imagine many players out there finding it very good, it will set you apart from other players, that is for sure!

Did you know you can also just go back to the original graphics instead of the updated ones?

The game also keeps track of everything, the number of times you played with a certain character, the amount of time you played, your arcade high score, …

One thing I really did like, the replay recording function, where you can keep up to 100 replays of your favourite fights. I loved rewatching the massacre I suffered on the buddy battle, I know, it’s just me…

 

This game, like most games nowadays has a in-game manual, explaining all the ins and outs of this game, especially handy when playing the Way of the Hado. Another part I liked, you can access the “action list” and find out how to do which move! As I never played with characters like Cammy or Fei Long on the original Street Fighter 2 on the Super Nintendo, I was very relieved to see I could just sneak a peak at the action list and find out how to do the special moves!

In conclusion, this new version of the game is action packed and loads of fun, all while keeping the size of the game at around 2,7 GB. I am expecting to spend many, many hours on this game once again. I can recommend it to gamers of all ages. The learning curve on this game is small, thanks to the many training options and within no time, you will be on your way to glory!
I am rating it a 95%

9.5/10