Street Fighter on Wii VC - Which Version Should I Get?

I'm teetering between Super Street Fighter II ~ The New Challengers, Street Fighter II Champion Edition, and Street Fighter 2 Alpha...which of them should I get, for the most complete version of the game?

I'd go with Super Street Fighter II as I believe the Street Fighter Alpha 2 download is the SNES port.

Actually, I bought the SNES port back when it came out, and it's actually not that bad if you're not used to playing the arcade version. Though compared to a lot of versus fighters since the port was first made available, it's still just a tad bit slow.

Very pretty for an SNES game, too.

Alpha II is a completely different game. It actually happens before SFII.

I grew up with the SNES version as well and still have it - couldn't afford a PS1 that year but could afford a $70 cart of a scaled down port I like it more than the 32-bit renditions in some respects (music!). Still, I think it's a pretty poor idea to use it for the Wii VC.

I actually thought the Arcade Version of Alpha 2 was too fast, but I probably only think that because of playing it on the SNES all those years.

So, are we saying I should go for the Champion Edition, or Super Edition?

Honestly though, I don't understand why they didn't just release the most suped up version of the game, as opposed to offering the earlier versions without all the added characters...other than that they're probably trying to squeeze $$$ out of us...

"Aww, dude! They finally released SFII on VC!..." (Few months later) "Aww, dude, they released SFII Turbo on Wii VC! I already got the original version, though! Nooooooo~!"

If you're sure you want a VC version of SF, personally, I'd go for Super SF2. Though, none here really offer a complete version of the game.

Champion Edition is really a stepping stone to Turbo (Hyper Fighting). Is that one on VC? Turbo is great fun.

Super offers the four new challengers and improved (mostly) artwork. The game is tweaked and, if I remember correctly, plays really well. Much slower than Turbo but I'm not sure how it compares in speed with Champion.

Alpha 2, as others have pointed out, is quite scaled down from its arcade version. But it still plays really well on the SNES and is fun. If there hadn't been Saturn and PS1 versions out, I think people would remember SNES Alpha much more fondly.

The big question really is - which did you enjoy most back in the day?

Super.

Never played Champion,

and never played Alpha 2.

Since Alpha 2's a separate game from SFII, I'll probably spring on that, as well.

Welcome to the world of Street Fighter.  *puts aside some cash for the upcoming Super SFIV*

I haven't been keeping up with any of the Street Fighter releases on VC.  Confusingly, they've seemed to have made available both Genesis AND SNES versions of each game..... which is something of an oddity, since it's widely believed that the SNES versions are the superior ports overall.

Having never played the SNES version, I can't vouch for Alpha 2 -- but yes, be aware that the Alpha games are a different beast than the "II" games, so it shouldn't really be considered when looking for a definitive, "complete" version of Street Fighter. 

That said, if you're looking for the definitive version of Street Fighter II, my money would go toward Super SFII for the SNES.  It's got the full sixteen character roster, turbo speed settings, and, as Jay says, tweaked gameplay balancing and added moves.

Turbo Hyper Fighting for the SNES is another consideration, and the one I prefer most of all.  It's the SNES counterpart to the Genesis Special Champion Edition, but again, with better graphics and sound.  This one is cool, because you can choose to play with either Champion Edition or Hyper Fighting gameplay tweaks. (For instance, the CE doesn't allow for midair Hurricane Kicks for Ken or Ryu, while Hyper Fighting does.)  Plus, I just dig the beefier sound effects and older gameplay mechanics, like the hurricane kick traveling horizontally midair, instead of the upward/downward arc that it does in SSFII.

You know, I never got into Street Fighter until Alpha 2 landed on the SNES. Before that is was mainly Mortal Kombat 3 and Killer Instinct for me and my classmates in the 6th/7th grades. Still, the latter two have really paled over the years, and KI hasn't been around since the N64 years. I know Rare is no longer a part of Nintendo, but I always thought how cool it's be for a KI character or two to show up in Smash Brothers.

The PC Engine port of SFII CE is available as well (for the first time outside of Japan), and I just wasted more time than I'd care to admit looking at the differences between the ports: http://www.superpcenginegrafx.com/sfiic … _main.html

Apparently the Genesis version only has one vomit color, whereas the SNES and TG-16 ports have two. In all seriousness, the music comparison is pretty interesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPStQYIx6S8

I wouldn't bother with the SNES port at all, unless the VC version somehow removed the ridiculously long load times before every round.

You know, I bet those load times were eliminated since the game is no longer restrained by the original chipset which had the S-DD1 decompression pack. The game wouldn’t need to decompress frames of animation before the battle or on the fly anymore like it did originally. Still, while I'll stand by the SNES version you think they could have put an arcade emulation from the Alpha collection on the VC instead and given players backgrounds with more animation frames or more spectators in Birdie's stage.

Can't tell you how much time I've poured into Turbo and Super SF SNES ports. Yes, they were much better than the Genesis iterations (Turbo was akin to "Special Champion Edition" -- though that was a worthy, solid port) and darn good ports on their own.

Of course you can always track down Street Fighter Collection for PS/SAT or perhaps SF Anniversary Collection if you don't mind really cheap AI and iffy load times...

You know, speaking of Cheap AI and Street Fighter, has anyone ever battled Bison in the original Alpha title? God, even on the easiest diffculty he's a freaking a-hole. At the same time however, Alpha 2 pretty much makes the first game obsolete, so there is little reason to put yourself through that hell.

Then again, if you want to talk about cheap AI, I think you need to be talking about Mortal Kombat 3 and it's two upgrades Ultimate and Trilogy - it's legendary for that crap.

Neat feature!  I'd need to re-acquaint myself with the CPS1 arcade soundtrack to be sure, but listening to that music comparison video, it seems the Mega Drive version is the closest at replicating the instrumentation of the original score.  Or maybe not..... actually, MD appears to have a cleaner, crisper output when compared to the bass-heavy arcade.  Sounds great, if not completely accurate. 

I don't recall Alpha 1 Bison giving me too much trouble -- at least, he seemed tame when compared to the likes of SFIII's Gill and SFIV's Seth.  But I absolutely dug the Ken/Ryu tag-team mode you could partake in; a pity they never utilized it more in future titles.

Bernhardt, do you have a PS3 or 360 yet?  If we're talking about suggestions outside of Virtual Console, I would just pick up HD Remix and call it a day.  It's far and away the best version of SFII I've played yet.  The netcode is solid, the gameplay tweaks are awesome, there's zero load time, and you have the ability to play with the original sprites and/or original Super Turbo mechanics.

Uh, I thought this made it's way into Alpha 3 under the "Dramatic Battle" mode. I thought you could do Ken/Ryu and Bison's two spies Juli and the other one...

If you must get a VC version of SF, Turbo (SNES) is the best one, although it doesn't have the "new challengers" from Super.  Stay away from the SNES version of Alpha 2 since that's garbage (if you want Alpha 2, get the PS2 Alpha Anthology).  As Angela suggested, if you want a great, modern version of SF2, just pick up HD Remix on PS3 or 360.  You could also get the SF2 Anniversary Edition for PS2 though I don't know how easy that is to find.

Ah, you're right!  Outside of the obligatory single player fight against Juli and Juni, I never partook in Alpha 3's Dramatic Battle -- but then, I wasn't a big Alpha 3 player either. 

Refresh my memory: were you able to pair with any two characters in this mode?

Nope, I believe it's just the two sets we've mentioned. Its mainly due to the fact the game/mode was designed with the RAM limits of the the Playstation in mind. Since Ken/Ryu and Juni/Juli are simular characters, apparently the system can handle the frames for all three characters. Once you get up to four different characters, you run into trouble - remember the neutered VS games that abandoned tag team action? The Saturn got around this with it additional 4 meg ram cart, thus X-Men vs Street Fighter is actually worth playing on it.

Not yet, but I'll end up picking up 1 of the 2 at least; still waiting to see if FFXIII Versus is PS3 exclusive, or not; what's probably going to happen, is that I'm going to get a PS3 for FFXIII, FFXIII Versus, Ar-Tonelico 3, which I absolutely want, and everything else I could possibly want will probably end up on 360...who knows...

But I'll keep that recommendation in mind!

That's REALLY hard to find now, having been on the PS2 and GCN; it was hard to find just 2 years ago, when I last tried looking.

Hmm, but I was just perusing a few Youtube videos of Dramatic Battle, and it does seem like you can play as characters other than Ken and Ryu.  For instance, there's a Sakura/Karin team-up, and then a Ryu/Chun Li one.  So, it does seem you can pick anyone, with single player appearing to randomly pair you with a character of their choosing, while two players can choose their characters freely.

The preset route of AI-driven characters you fight seems to always remain unchanged, however.  So it's always Adon, then Akuma, then Balrog, etc.

Sometimes I wonder: Why isn't Mortal Kombat on VC? Or Killer Instinct, for that matter?

Heard those were damn popular back in the day, and here, I've never even actually played them...

In the case of Mortal Kombat, I believe Midway is trying to sell the rights to it since it's practically the only IP they have left that's worth anything to anyone. Personally I quit caring when it went 3D. However, a company they sold the movie rights a long way back is trying to stop the sale since that deal is still active. The right being in limbo could explain why, but then isn't Ultimate Mortal Kombat on the PSN and XBox Live networks?

I think the games are lot more fun when playing against other humans and not the lame ass computer AI.

I think he was specifically talking about the PS1 port. Due to RAM issues, you were limited to Ryu & Ken vs. B, Juni & Juli vs. B, A & A vs. B, or A & B vs. B. I don't think any of the other ports had this limitation.

Street Fighter EX 3 also implemented a Dramatic Battle mode, which mostly worked the same way. It did add a 1 on 3 mode, though, which was predictably chaotic.

If you think those were bad, wait until you try Mortal Kombat Advance, the GBA port of UMK3. I've never seen AI so broken.

Yeah, I grew up and have the PS1 version; I don't believe such a limitation was present in the Dreamcast version, etc. Still, the PS1 version is worth having for the World Tour Mode alone, it isn't in the Antholgy since it's a direct arcade port and the DC version of the game is pretty rare if I'm not mistaken.