Nintendo Wii Virtual Console Game Reviews: Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers Review

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is an SNES port of the 1993 arcade game. Sure Capcom was busy with Street Fighter games back in the 1990’s. It seems like they released a new one every year, and now it looks like they are doing the same with the VC, seeing as this game is the third Street Fighter release. However, for those of you who have fond memories of kicking butt, it is also one of the best. Mortal Kombat? What Mortal Kombat? It’s all about the Street.

GamePlay (4 out of 5)

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is obviously not the first Street Fighter game (as it is number 2), but it is one of the best. It introduced 4 new characters into the roster (Cammy, Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Fei Long), and also introduced a whole slew of extra features. While it is slower than Super Street Fighter II Turbo, it is still fast enough to make it challenging and enjoyable.

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is a standard 2D fighting game, only it and its predecessors set the standard. There is a life bar at the top of the screen that gauges the damage. You move from location to location for each fight. The winner is decided by who beat whom two times. If it is a tie, a third match will be fought. In between the regular battles are mini games in which you have to destroy a car or other object for extra points.

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers has a lot of modes to choose from. There is the normal single player mode in which you fight through all the characters to the boss. A standard 2 player vs. battle. A group battle, a tournament battle (with an elimination challenge) and a Time Challenge. The number of options in the SNES version is also improved with the ability to choose game difficulty (from 10 levels) and speed. Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers translates well onto the VC. However, you do need either a classic controller or a GameCube controller to play it. The classic controller feels a bit more natural, but the GC controller will serve, if you don’t want to spend the money on the classic.

Graphics and Sound (3 out of 5)

While I love Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, the graphics really don’t hold up well. They look a bit fuzzy and pixilated, which is disappointing for an SNES game. The colors are bright and the movement in the backgrounds is a nice touch, and I still like the character designs, but all in all it is pretty mediocre.

Sound wise I am on the fence. The sound effects while fighting are good. The grunts and yells are well timed and fit each character perfectly. However, the music leaves a bit to be desired. It’s not bad, it’s just not that great either.

Fun (4 out of 5)

I might be biased, but I love Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. I played it through every mode, on every level of difficulty when I was a kid, and I couldn’t wait to do it again. However, it doesn’t have the same exact appeal it did when I was a child. The vs. mode is probably the most fun now, while the single player mode is a little bit lackluster. However, for a game that is over 15 years old, it holds up pretty well.

Overall (4 out of 5)

For 800 Wii points, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is the Street Fighter game you should get, if you haven’t all ready purchased one. If you have, then don’t worry about it (unless you are a huge SF nut, in which case you probably have all three). This is, by far, the most well rounded of the VC released Street Fighter games and has the greatest number of features. What are you waiting for? Have some fun. Kick some butt. Go!