Final Lap Twin

Long before Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, and Tobal ... there was the original Street Fighter. By all regards the original Street Fighter should be considered the godfather of video games, but instead, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is the well known game. Why is that?

The simple answer, I would say, is that Street Fighter was never a good arcade game. And thus it was never a good home game. The arcade game featured large buttons that were too difficult to manage, and the game was so slow and choppy, that there was no way to pull off even easy moves.

When NEC brought it home on CD, they were extremely faithful to the arcade game. The characters are all the same, the backgrounds are all here, and best yet, all the sounds were arcade perfect! The only difference? The name!

The problems that plagued the arcade game, were also brought to life in the home system. The game is so extremely slow, and there is no joy in the two player mode. Trust me, I have played the Street Fighter series for years, I can pull off all Ryu and Ken's moves ... but there is no way I can pull these moves when needed. The two player mode consists of Ryu (player 1) and Ken (player 2), of course, Ken is Ryu with red clothes, and different colored hair. They play the same, but I cannot stress enough how unfun it is to play two players.

The game is just no fun, which is one of the major reasons it was never popular. It was also an extremely expensive arcade game to get, since the big buttons seem to cost more money. The game was never rolled out for release on any other platforms, and even with the Street Fighter collection discs, Capcom STILL hasn't added this as one to play! Maybe Capcom really has forgotten this old game.