Does anyone REALLY like Street Fighter II on the PC Engine?

[PukeSter]

I was wondering, evryone seems to diss the PCE port of Street Fighter 2 as "good for the system, but not as good as the SNES". Why do people like the SNES version more? The PC Engine version has really vibrant colors, fantastic voices, awesome chip music, two unique control methods, great presentation, and a sound test. The SNES one has washed out graphics and extremely strange remixed tunes. Actually, the PC Engine version is one of my favorite games of all time , and it's really the only version of Street Fighter 2 I need. There are too many updates and ports.

[roflmao]

My gut reaction is that the SNES came with a 6 button controller where the PC Engine (initially) did not.  I always found the SNES controller awkward to use for SF2, though.  When I had an Ave Pad 6 (and later, the Hori Stick for the PCE) I also preferred the PCE version to the SNES version.  But now that I only have 2 button controllers, I can see the SNES version having the edge.  But newer systems now have better ports that and I have joysticks for them, so it's a moot point.  Still, if I have a craving for 8/16 bit SF2, I am more likely to play the PCE version with a 2 button controller (or on the Express) than I am to play the SNES version.  OBEY!

[nat]

I prefer the Duo version to the SNES version, personally. The 6 button controller really does it for me.

Anyone trying to say the SNES version has better graphics, etc, is just blowing smoke. Each version has something the other doesn't visually, in the end it's all a wash, really.

I can see a case being made regarding the audio between the two, but it's all in the eye (or ear) of the beholder, and I personally prefer the trademark Duo chiptunes over the staccato SNES audio.

[VestCunt]

I like them equally.  The whole debate has never made any sense to me and I don't understand where all of the strong feelings come from.

[MotherGunner]

I like them both equally.

[TurboXray]

I liked both the SNES and the PCE one. I didn't have the PCE version back in the day, so that's probably why I still have some sort of fondness for the snes one. But nowadays, I play the PCE one every time and never mess with the SNES ones. The PCE version just has a charm to it with the vibrant colors and great (IMO) PCE version of the arcade sound track. I actually prefer the PCE sound track to the Genesis, SNES, and arcade versions. And I'm normally not that biased towards PCE chiptunes.

[Joe Redifer]

Here's how I rate 'em:

Graphics:
Tie - Genesis, Turbo, SNES - Each has good and bad points, no version has enough of an edge in a certain area to win entirely over the other versions.

Music:
Genesis wins.  It sounds awesome (as long as we're talking pre-Super SF2).  I think I prefer the Turbo music over the SNES version.

Voice:
Tough one.  Genesis loses, for sure.  The SNES has the cleanest voices and the Turbo the clearest.  By "clean" I mean without garbled digital artifacts.  And by "clear" I mean the quality, without being too muffled.  The SNES doesn't have any static or scratchiness in the voices where the Turbo absolutely does.  But the SNES sounds like it's being played back with a pillow over the speaker.  The Genesis version sounds awful.  Just listen to the elephants.  That sound should not even be in the game.

Gameplay/Control:
Genesis wins for sure with the 6-button controller.  The standard Sega 6-button controller (not the Majesco one) is light years better than the Avenue 6 or any other 6-button controller I've seen for the Turbo.  The SNES loses this battle for sure since two of the buttons are on top of the controller.

Overall:  Genesis--Turbo--------SNES.

[soop]

Well, for me it's almost the other way around.  Streetfighter when it came out on the SNES was supposed to be "arcade perfect" according to some magazines, but when I played it (at a friend's house) it seemed kind of wooly.  The sprites weren't right,  they were kind of stretched etc.

Now, if I'd seen it in context of other SNES games rather than the Arcade version, I might have thought different, but I can't help seeing SNES SFII as a watered down kid's version.

But the PCE version, I really like.  Probably because it was one of the few games I had for my GT back in the day, and even with 2 buttons, it beats the stuffing out of most portable games at the time, and has infinite replay value.  Nowadays I'd use my 6-button Nomad for portable SFII, but I still like the PCE version a lot more than the SNES.  More blood too.

[Starfighter]

I got Street Fighter II for the PC Engine just a few days ago so I'm not able to really say anything yet. The awkward (better word than unique I would say) controls are messing my gameplay up but over all it seems pretty bad ass! I love the sound.

Super Street Fighter II for the SNES is my choice when it comes to Street Fighter. Or was it Street Fighter Turbo? Uuh... Something.

[esteban]

I have an equal disinterest in all Street Fighter II ports. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading about how the different versions stack up against each other, though. Quite the opposite: it is the only thing I enjoy about Street Fighter.

  Cook apologizes for his apathy.

[RegalSin]

Street Fighter on the PCE is a perfect conversion of the Chaimpionship edition.

Street Fighter on the SNES is only better because of the TURBO edition which original was a fan hack, known as Rainbow ( which has variants ).
Yes for one time in videogame history a hack actually affected how an entire series of games should be.

Street FIghter PCE was portable, and has sound comparible to the Arcade on one card. The SNES while being faster at the time was never
meant to be portable. I find it amazing to see the game run on the PCE
in comparison to the SNES.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I like the SF2 on PCE, but when I was younger, picked the SNES over the Genesis one since I didn't have the luxury of the PCE one.

[Tatsujin]

PCE SFII' is great. everybody with a just  some lil bit brain knows!!

I still like SFII Turbo on SFC lil bit better. it was my most played version (beside the arcade).

[termis]

Of the "16-bit" era SF2 ports, I'll say the PCE is my favorite.  SNES version is good, but I prefer the PCE tunes over the typical SNES reverb tunes (at least in this instance).  And Genesis laryngitis voice samples alone really kills that version for me. 

And though the Turbo version is nice for other ports, CE ended up being my favorite version of all the SF2 incarnations, so that one's not really an issue for me.

PCE version no doubt pushed the limits of the PCE (actually can't believe how good this game looks on an "8-bit" machine), but I say it's far from being a perfect conversion - when booting up say, the Saturn version and PCE version back-to-back, the differences are quite noticeable -- i.e. much smaller sprite size, missing set of elephants in Dhalsim stage, no parallex, missing backgrounds like the moon in Ryu stage, etc. etc.

[majors]

Street Fighter on the PCE is a perfect conversion of the Chaimpionship edition.

PCE had Championship Edition (aka Dash) where Genny and SNES had World Warrior and Hyper variants. To the casual gamer, it does not matter what arcade port it was, as long as it has "Rye-You". I remember it being the sole release of CE for a while, so it was kinda special. At the end of the day, Super Turbo is  the only SFII that matters.

Street Fighter on the SNES is only better because of the TURBO edition which original was a fan hack, known as Rainbow ( which has variants ).
Yes for one time in videogame history a hack actually affected how an entire series of games should be.

Are you saying the hack/boot/fun-as-hell versions pushed Capcom to make Turbo and Hyper? I never really though about it that way, just assumed if folks in HK where gonna bootleg SF, they just got creative (or lazy code) and it took off. Guess that's why they went CPS2 after that release and introduced the world to suicide batteries with Super.

[Samurai Ghost]

I think the PCE version is cool, have a soft spot for the Genesis version as that's what I grew up playing, and like the looks of the SNES version but hate the controller. But for me the whole argument is moot when I can just slap in arcade-perfect ports of any classic SF game on the Saturn and play them with the awesome Japanese Virtual Sticks which are pretty much exactly what they have at any arcade around here.

[OldRover]

I remember hearing about how the SNES port was "arcade perfect" (got all 10s in EGM)... so I was like "ok let's test this". Bullshit it is. There's too much horizontal sprawl to be "arcade perfect"... and it becomes completely obvious on Vega's (Balrog's) stage. I do like the PCE conversion and it's one of the only hucards I currently own. When my Duo feels like playing hucards properly, it's the most fun hucard to run.

[spenoza]

The PCE version is my personal fave, but I can't play it right now because I don't have a 6-button pad. I dislike the 2-button pad scheme.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

I was wondering, evryone seems to diss the PCE port of Street Fighter 2 as "good for the system, but not as good as the SNES". Why do people like the SNES version more?

Sounds like you're hanging around too many SNERDs; like nat said, the three versions aren't really all that different and each brings something to the table.

For those that haven't seen it before, check out Black Tiger's in depth comparison. 

[RegalSin]

It is just the TURBO, that is it. Once you have TURBO speed, everything else looks like a joke. Like in real life, a faster fighter is great, but a more beefer fighter can be better. Variables like that. Think about back then when people saw fighters that took up the entire screen. At first they look tuff but once you realize you can plow threw them. Then comes the quick fighters as well. TURBO just brought that speed to a popular game, while it had speed just brought it up to date.

[FraGMarE]

Yea, Black Tiger pretty much covered it all in this comparison (linked to above).  I will defer to that comparison.  I will say, however, that there are a few stages in the PCE version that kind of bug me.  I never liked the way the Ryu stage looked on the PCE.  It seems like some detail was lost in the floor and the sky.  The Guile, Blanka, and M.Bison/Vega stages could also have been better.  Adding the hyper fighting mode to the PCE version would also have been nice, since the the only thing required for it would be some extra code to speed up the fighting (the Chun Li fireball could just have used the Dhalsim fireball and been recolored blue, which is essentially what it is anyway).  That being said, I do love the PCE SF2'CE just as much as CE on any other console.  More in some ways, not as much in others.

[Joe Redifer]

When I hear "arcade perfect" I expect arcade perfect.  Now I never played SF2 in the arcade, I only watched others play it as I wasn't a big fighting game fan at the time.  But no 16-bit home version is even in the same league as "arcade perfect".  The graphics were all pretty much redesigned for the SNES version, mainly to fit inside the lower resolution.  And then they used those redesigns in every subsequent versions, Genesis, PCE, etc.  So thanks to the SNES, I think the Genesis and PCE versions are worse than they could have been.  The SNES lowered the bar.

[Arkhan Asylum]

It is just the TURBO, that is it. Once you have TURBO speed, everything else looks like a joke. Like in real life, a faster fighter is great, but a more beefer fighter can be better. Variables like that. Think about back then when people saw fighters that took up the entire screen. At first they look tuff but once you realize you can plow threw them. Then comes the quick fighters as well. TURBO just brought that speed to a popular game, while it had speed just brought it up to date.

It wasn't released for the Turbo!

BWhahahahahha.

[VestCunt]

When I hear "arcade perfect" I expect arcade perfect.  Now I never played SF2 in the arcade, I only watched others play it as I wasn't a big fighting game fan at the time.  But no 16-bit home version is even in the same league as "arcade perfect".  The graphics were all pretty much redesigned for the SNES version, mainly to fit inside the lower resolution.  And then they used those redesigns in every subsequent versions, Genesis, PCE, etc.  So thanks to the SNES, I think the Genesis and PCE versions are worse than they could have been.  The SNES lowered the bar.

Reviewers threw "arcade perfect!" around a lot back then because it was the first time home consoles were even getting in the ballpark.  The pants-shitting excitement and subsequent jaw-dropping disappointment of putting TMNT "The Arcade Game" in my NES a couple years earlier was still fresh in my mind when I braced myself for SFII on the SNES, so I was pretty happy.  It's a compromised port, but it succeeded in bringing the arcade experience into the living room.

I just love seeing how the PCE, with its 1987 technology, can rival the SNES.

[SignOfZeta]

The PCE ver was the only port of SFII' until the 32--bit era. Therefore, if you don't want to play anything but this exact version, and you never bought a Playstation, Saturn, or supergun, then the PCE ver is best.

To most SFII fans though the PCE ver became useless as soon as SFII' Turbo was released on SFC a month or so later (for $30 less on a sytem that already had a six button controller). These days the main purpose of SFII' on PCE is to give hardcore PCE fanboys something to jerk off to and from what I've read over the years here it does a marvelous job of that.

[RegalSin]

Lets get one thing straight. Fighting Steet was on the PCE, as well. It was not an add-on or some kind of combo game. The actually game itself was on the PCE.

Without TURBO then the PCE game is supreme. It is almost arcade perfect, and was portable in full color. Compared to the Gameboy game.

You can't count the Saturn or Playstation versions to the PCE, because those systems was made years, after the PCE and has 3D graphics chips built into them, that makes the processing power of the PCE looks laughable. That is like skipping three generations.

The strenghts are

1. Age
2. Arcade comparison
3. Unmodified
4. Originalism

The first two makes sense but I will admit playing TURBO is what made
fighting games a complete game changer. That game changer was not
done by Capcom. If the PCE was as popular as the Famicom in Japan it would have also seen other versions of the same game.

[TurboXray]

To most SFII fans though the PCE ver became useless as soon as SFII' Turbo was released on SFC a month or so later (for $30 less on a sytem that already had a six button controller). These days the main purpose of SFII' on PCE is to give hardcore PCE fanboys something to jerk off to and from what I've read over the years here it does a marvelous job of that.

I would think it's more simply that it's a good game on a system they like. Same Genesis stuff, same as SNES stuff. Ports have their charms, you know? You come off as having some sort of resentment for people actually liking the port/game. You hate'n?

[CrackTiger]

The PCE ver was the only port of SFII' until the 32--bit era. Therefore, if you don't want to play anything but this exact version, and you never bought a Playstation, Saturn, or supergun, then the PCE ver is best.

SFII' was included in the Genesis and SNES versions. You could consider those versions 2-game SFII collections.

[Joe Redifer]

Lets get one thing straight. Fighting Steet was on the PCE, as well. It was not an add-on or some kind of combo game. The actually game itself was on the PCE.

The game itself was not an add-on (obviously) but you needed an add-on to play it since it was an early CD-ROM game.

[Vecanti]

I was wondering, evryone seems to diss the PCE port of Street Fighter 2 as "good for the system, but not as good as the SNES". Why do people like the SNES version more?

Which version for the SNES?  The original SFII on SNES looks bad and doesn't play near as well.  It might have some extra parallax, but the player animation is really lacking, the resolution looks much lower to me when I've had them side by side.

They improved things with Turbo, but the original sold more copies so I think more people played that crap version on the SNES than the Turbo.  Besides SFII being on a HuCard makes the PCE version way cooler.

[soop]

Adding the hyper fighting mode to the PCE version would also have been nice, since the the only thing required for it would be some extra code to speed up the fighting (the Chun Li fireball could just have used the Dhalsim fireball and been recolored blue, which is essentially what it is anyway). 

Actually, there's more to Hyper Fighting than speeding it up and adding Chun-Li's kiko ken.

more colours, mid-air cyclone kicks, Dhalsim's dissapearing trick, Ken's teaked dragon punch...  There's a lot of small changes.

[Tatsujin]

Right, and moar animations as well.



Schtreet Fighter

[Nazi NecroPhile]

To most SFII fans though the PCE ver became useless as soon as SFII' Turbo was released on SFC a month or so later (for $30 less on a sytem that already had a six button controller).

You sound like the retards that buy Madden or Call of Duty every six months, yelling "OMG!  This is teh bestest game evah!  Burn the old one!"

These days the main purpose of SFII' on PCE is to give hardcore PCE fanboys something to jerk off to and from what I've read over the years here it does a marvelous job of that.

So it's not a good game?  A later improved version doesn't negate how good the prior game was.

[bust3dstr8]

Nothing against the PCE version...I can't stand any version of CE.  It's Hyper Fighting or Bust   

[SignOfZeta]

To most SFII fans though the PCE ver became useless as soon as SFII' Turbo was released on SFC a month or so later (for $30 less on a sytem that already had a six button controller).

You sound like the retards that buy Madden or Call of Duty every six months, yelling "OMG!  This is teh bestest game evah!  Burn the old one!"

Come on. Don't you know by now that I am absolutely not that guy at all? I guess not.

I have a LOT of fighting games and by no means do I abandon them when they are old. I have a shitload of KOFs and I love all of them (except maybe 2001). I consider all of the Vampire games to be great. SSFIIX, for example, is a game I will literally play for the rest of my life. SFII'Turbo is the same, to a lesser extent. I'm still interested in nearly all of the "versus" games, and I even like SFIII:SI. People still play SSFIIX in tournaments to this day and I'm a huge fan of it.

SFII' though...there just isn't much reason to ever play this game again unless you are a PCE fan. Turbo was a much better game all around. Since there are five versions of SFII its not hard to imagine that some are going to be forgotten. The games are SO similar and its so inexpensive to buy all of them now, that people will pick whatever version they want and play that. Overall, that version is not SFII'.

Its good that you brought up Madden though. Since there is one Madden on TG-16 I assume that version gets more play here with people than any other simply because its on Turbo. Of course even SFII on Gameboy is more fun than any Madden game, but I think there is some comparison to be made here. If someone doesn't have a PC Engine then there is pretty much a %0 chance they are ever going to play SFII'. It would also not be the first Super Street Fighter II. Both of those games are now pretty much fan-less. Bumps on the road to progress made in SFII'Turbo and SSFIIX.

If what you really want is to play some SFII regardless of platform, you aren't going to be playing this version. If you have some sort of pro-NEC agenda then the PCE version is best. I'm sure there is some forum full of 3DO shitheads being the same way about SSFIIX since that was a 3DO exclusive for several years.

[CrackTiger]

Champion Edition in any form is still my favorite SFII.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Come on. Don't you know by now that I am absolutely not that guy at all? I guess not.

Saying that only rabid PCE fanboys would play (or even discuss) SFII' after Turbo came out makes you sound exactly like that guy.

[majors]

I'm sure there is some forum full of 3DO shitheads being the same way about SSFIIX since that was a 3DO exclusive for several years.

I was thinking along the same lines when I made the comment that PCE had the only release of Dash(CE). The discussion is now turning into "what is your favorite SFII release" rather than "do you like the PCE release of SFII".

I like and play(ed) the PCE SFII'. But after playing ST, it's boring.

[spenoza]

I was just the perfect age when Street Fighter II originally hit the arcades, and I played the original version of it quite a bit (just as I had Street Fighter/Fighting Street before it). I think CE(') is the best version of the game. I know lots of people love Turbo, Super, and Super Turbo, and they are great games, but I prefer the original release line (II, II CE, and II Turbo) best, and CE is the one I like best of the original line releases. There is probably some nostalgia at work, here. I wasn't playing in arcades much when Super and ST came out.

Also, even though the audio doesn't sound as high-quality as the SNES audio, it sounds a little clearer. The SNES audio is too filtered. Meanwhile, the Genesis audio is rather sad and sounds too harsh. Graphically I don't have a preference between the SNES and PCE releases.

So the PCE CE release is kinda the perfect release for me.

Edit: BT, if I may offer a bit of advice: I love your SFII comparison works, but the images on the MAIN page aren't labelled the way they are in the sub-pages, so it's hard to tell which image goes with which console, especially considering you put the images in the reverse order of the game system logos at the top of the page.

[TurboXray]

SFII CE is the last street fighter game I played in the arcades or cared to play. I stopped caring about the series after that. But up until and including that, I played the hell out of the arcade games. I like playing ports that platform specific charm to them. If I didn't, I wouldn't play any ports except for the most 'superior' ones. Probably MAME (if I didn't have the arcade PCBs). Most people tend to follow that logic without being labeled a 'fanboy' or some such insult. Why should SF2 get any sort of exemption? Strider is superior in the arcade to the Genesis one, yet when I get the urge to play the game - I go straight to the Genesis version. I play Splatterhouse on the PCE rather than the arcade. Rtype on the PCE rather than the arcade (and love the crap out of the original arcade version. I probably put near as much money into that as I did any SF2 arcade cab - BITD).I could go on and on listing such examples. Ports have their charm. It has nothing to do with being a blind fanboy and rubbing one off.

[OldRover]

(except maybe 2001)

I'll drink to this... worst one of the series.

[Sadler]

I own several SF ports in addition to the PCE port, including World Warrior, Turbo, Super and Alpha 2 for the SNES. I played SF a fair amount in the arcade and  a shit ton of the various SNES ports BITD. SF2 is one of my favorite games. I didn't play the PCE port until a couple years ago. I was definitely impressed (especially given that my experience with fighters on the PCE at that time was limited to Fighting Street), but the music really disappointed me. Nowadays I tend to choose the PCE version which I freely admit is mostly due to my fanboyism. Having said that, I never liked SSF2 as much as earlier versions and I never considered Turbo a great improvement on Champion Edition. The music in the PCE version doesn't really bother me anymore, but I'm going to say something sacrilegious here: I actually prefer the SNES controller, I just have an easier time accessing all 6 buttons. Still, like I said, I almost always go for the PCE port nowadays.

[SignOfZeta]

When I play SFII these days it's usually SSFIIX on a system like DC or something else where the port is nigh on perfect. If I'm going to play any 16-bit era port it will almost always be SFII' on PCE. Why? Because I'm a PCE fanboy. I like that is a showboat game that is much better than other fighters on the system, even when stuff like FFS is technically superior. I like that it's the biggest HuCard. I like that it's a HuCard at all, and therefore proves that CDs aren't always better.

I fully admit that I have political reasons for playing this game though. I'm not going to say I like it because it has "two unique control schemes" (WTF? Yeah, one that works and one that is a fucking nightmare) nor am I going to say that I like the PCE version best because my favorite version of SFII is SFII' anyway. Why? For what reason would anyone prefer Dash unless they just really liked brutalizing people with Guile and Vega, very very slowly?  Seriously. None of that "personal preference" or "I have a right to my own opinion and therefore don't need any justification for my opinion" bullshit. If I had to pick a favorite 16 bit version of SFII (non-CPS) I would honestly say that it probably IS the PCE version and pretty much because it's on PCE. I'm not going to pretend Super Turbo is a lesser game in order to justify it.

[spenoza]

What's wrong with personal preference, and why do the reasons for preferring one over another matter? I mean, many of us offer those explanations unbidden, but really, in the end, does it ultimately matter? Nope. You like what you like.

[Vecanti]

If you take a stock PC Engine and stock SNES with any version SFII the PCE version wins.

Why?

Because you can turn on turbo fire and just hold down one button and kick everyones butt with Chun Li's super fast kick.

[kazekirifx]

I like the PCE version, but I have to honestly say it's not the best. While it has many good points, let us not forget the following flaws of the PCE version:

1. No multiple speed settings like the SNES/Genesis versions both had. (I really liked this, and I doubt the PCE could have handled it.)
2. That black space at the top of the screen.
3. Only one PCM channel makes it so the PCE version doesn't have multiple simultaneous voices

Personally, I prefer the Genesis 6-button controller over the Avenue Pad 6. SNES pad sucks for SFII.

[Frank_fjs]

The original SNES version (World Warrior) didn't have multiple speeds, it ran slow and had huge black borders top and bottom.

[termis]

SFII' though...there just isn't much reason to ever play this game again unless you are a PCE fan. Turbo was a much better game all around...

...If what you really want is to play some SFII regardless of platform, you aren't going to be playing this version...

... If I had to pick a favorite 16 bit version of SFII (non-CPS) I would honestly say that it probably IS the PCE version and pretty much because it's on PCE. I'm not going to pretend Super Turbo is a lesser game in order to justify it.

Nah, as shocking as it may be to you, I prefer CE over any SF2 (and looks like I'm not the only one here) - and this having nothing to do with my PCE port preference for the 16-bit era SF2.  i.e. When I boot up to play SF2, most of the times it's my saturn SF2 collection disc, and from the choices I have there, I'll play the CE version 3 out of 4 times. 

I do admit that when Turbo was in full swing back in the days, it was hard to go back to CE once you got used to the turbo speed, but after leaving SF2 for a good number of years, what I found myself coming back to was CE, not the turbo.  There are just things about the turbo version that seems a bit... "patched on", shall I say -- speed that now seems artificially fast, the new hodge-podge after-thought special moves, and even the default colors of characters were a bit off.

[soop]

No I agree actually.  Turbo was artificially fast, and TBH I thought the speed turned it into more of a button mash.

I do like the new moves in turbo, but all in all, the bigger sprites in CE, and the 4 playable bosses are more of a bonus to me.

[TurboXray]

I like the PCE version, but I have to honestly say it's not the best. While it has many good points, let us not forget the following flaws of the PCE version:

1. No multiple speed settings like the SNES/Genesis versions both had. (I really liked this, and I doubt the PCE could have handled it.)
2. That black space at the top of the screen.
3. Only one PCM channel makes it so the PCE version doesn't have multiple simultaneous voices

Personally, I prefer the Genesis 6-button controller over the Avenue Pad 6. SNES pad sucks for SFII.

SF2 on the PCE actually uses two PCM channels. One for music instruments and one for sampled FX. I spent a good amount of time tracing through this game (for various reasons), it's not impressive as the presentation leads it to believe. I mean, the code isn't super optimized or anything like that. It's just standard written code like other PCE games. That said, I was able to tweak timing in the animation tables to speed up characters. I doubt the code/engine as is wouldn't be capable of faster speeds. Hell, the SNES Turbo ran pretty fast (with the cheat code) and that was on the stock SNES processor - which is slower than the PCE's.