Oops! Capcom, you're getting us Americans mixed up with the Japanese again. We generally don't buy everything with "Street Fighter" on it. Nor do we really rush out to buy everything that's drawn in anime style. Frankly, the only thing that's gonna sell this here is the fact that some game freaks worship all that comes from the Land of the Rising Sun. That and Street Fighter fans (which, in all honesty, have diminished rapidly since 3D fighting came about).

In a nice quick summary, Pocket Fighter is the equation of "Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo - Puzzle Element + Fighting Element." So what you get is Street Fighter with gems and an anime look.

The fighting system has been done before, and better, in Virtua Fighter Kids. Limited reach, a "special" button and the removal of "strong punch/kick and fierce punch/kick" attacks is all that really separates Pocket Fighter from Street Fighter Alpha 2 or Darkstalkers 3. All brought together in mediocre gameplay. But that isn't really the point of Pocket Fighter. The main gimmick of this game is that every fighter is extremely cartoony. When they do combos, they change costumes with each strange attack (including diving into a nonexistant pool, pulling out a bazooka and firing it, using pom poms to hit your opponent, and, my favorite, turning your opponent to stone and hitting him to rubble). When they do their super moves, they do silly things involving huge machinery, and other assorted things. It's all fun for a good laugh.

Unfortunately, it's a very quick laugh. Like Virtua Fighter Kids, this game feels like it should've been a secret mode in Street Fighter Alpha 2 or Street Fighter Collection. And unfortunately the gameplay is very sub par for the person who doesn't own a Street Fighter game.

While the graphics aren't horrendous, the animation is (beause of the Playstation's limited RAM). Which makes playing a little frustrating sometimes (by contrast Street Fighter 3 suffers from too much animation, you can clearly see your opponent setting up his moves). And the sound was thrown together so lazily they didn't even bother to change the Japanese speaking.

Yet another Street Fighter game. It must be like 16 or so. And still there hasn't been much progress. Sad, sad, sad.

Overall: 4.8