Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is not the same beast you played in the 80's, or 90's.

Having looked over the Xbox360 review, alot of the same points will follow here. I will save you the history lesson, lets get to the gameplay.

The PS3 game plays similar it's origional 1994 rendition. If you were a classic '87 Street Fighter II enthusiast, chances are you didn't like '94s Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Personally, amoungst my circle of friends, we found it to be the weakest link in the series, due largely to the re-balancing of the characters. Tactics we learnt to employ early in the series, to make up for strength or speed advantages of our adversaries, were largely eliminated by characters enhanced skill set. Let me explain with an example:

Vega's ability to perform a 'bladekick' style, upwards attack. As an opponent, one area we could hope to open a chain of attack against Vega, was from overhead, Vega himself could retaliate by evading the attack, blocking, or throwing a standing fierce kick. The option to kick was for the brave, those who would back their own timing. Vega can now sit and 'charge' any number of special attacks, quick enough to foil any standard strike, parking himself in a squat position. In a first person shooter, you would call it camping.

Many characters were enhanced this way, however, in the remixed-HD title, they have been balanced yet again!

This might not be bad news to you. Thats right, you might love that your favourite character has these abilities, others of us can't deal with change.

Change isn't always bad. Take the beautiful new artwork. The character's look great, while still maintaining their origional feel. None of the hit boxes for the 2D images have been compromised. So if you recall being able to reach an opponent, at a certain range with your chosen character's strike, expect to continue to do so in Turbo HD.

The fight music has lost it's frantic pace, the new renditions of the original tracks are often very downbeat, almost jazzy, and sleep enducing. The PS3 release doesn't seem to have the same sound effect drop out noted in the previous review, at least during single player...

Which brings me to the bug bear of the title on PS3, online combat. While the connection on which the game is running is very quick, the same cannot be said for all the opponents you encounter. Half the time you engage in a seamless battle, othertimes, your character jerks around, while the opponent appears and disappears.

Another very sad point, is people drop out of play when they are getting hammered. I have engaged in alot of battles where round two, your opponent is half dead, and the connection is "lost". If you play fair, and stay in game until your own defeat or victory, I salute you. My online record is tarnished 3 wins and 13 losses, mostly because there is no system in place to penalise someone for dropping out of play when they are losing.

As far as encountering opponents online, the multiplayer "quick play" option seems the best way to find a fight. Many hardcore gamers await, so the casual fan would be advised to play alot of 'friendly games' before 'ranking matches'.

Single player is a timewarp with a new coat of paint. Local multiplayer is where you will have the most fun. Yet to be tested by this reviewer is the PS2 15th anniversary arcade sticks via an adapter. Should this work, the gameplay will be much sweeter.

Due to the online problems, I deduct 2 points, otherwise from a hardcore Street Fighter fans perspective 10/10.

"Street Fighter and I were both born in the 80's, we've been close friends ever since."

8 Great