The name Street Fighter. I remember oh about 10 or so years ago Street Fighter II was THE game to play in the arcades. Lines of people that were 10 deep or longer waiting to play. People huddled around the machine for hours. Friends were made and so were enemies when it came to playing Street Fighter II. But the one thing everyone had in common with playing it was the feeling of satisfaction. If you were a Street Fighter fan then there was almost a state of mind you had when you played it like no other game to that point. All the fighters with their different styles and abilities. All the strategies you had to employ with the different fighters. It all made Street Fighter II an instant classic. I've been a Street Fighter fan since the get go and have played every incarnation since it's original arcade inception. Recently it had become less popular with 3D games like Virtua Fighter and more so the Tekken series.

It's been done in some form on pretty much every system that's come out since it was in the arcade. The Playstation's versions were pretty decent except for some load time and missing frames issues. But on the whole people were disappointed. To this point the statement that "The Playstation can't handle 2D games" seemed to be painfully true. Well I think Capcom has finally blown that statement out of the water.

Not only has Capcom brought back every fighter from the original series and the Alpha series they've thrown in 4 never before seen characters for a total of 33 characters(3 hidden).They've added the option to play in 3 different styles A-ism, X-ism, and V-ism. A-ism is the system with 3 levels of your super meter and air blocking. X-ism is the custom combo system where you hit a punch and kick button and you can make your own combos by doing motions in succession, and finally V-ism is the system with just one long super bar and no air blocking. With each system the actual moves of the characters can be different so if you're better with Ken from the original street fighter series you can pick V-ism and go against a Ryu with a Z-ism, so it's almost like merging all the version of Street Fighter together. They've also included all the modes you could ever want.

Arcade- Self Explanatory

Vs.- Fight a friend

Team Battle- you and a friend pick a team of fighters and play 1 on 1 till the others team is gone

Survival- You fight an almost but not quite endless stream of characters

Dramatic Battle- Either Ken and Ryu or Juni and Juli fight a series of characters together or you can pick a 2 characters and fight a double of yourself for a one shot fight

Final Battle- Fight any characters final boss and see their ending after one fight(if you win)

and newest and coolest World Tour Mode.

The World Tour is sort of like a fighting RPG. Basically you go around the world and fight characters trying make your fighter stronger and more skilled. You go through a series of fights for each country and the winning parameters are different. It can be fighting 2 people at the same time,fighting 4 people 2 at a time, winning with a custom combo,winning with a super combo, starting with almost no energy, having the computer start with a full super bar, and so on. It's all very challenging.It goes kinda like this you select your character that starts at level 1 with no bonus abilities. Before each fight you select which ism you're going to use because you're going to have to build their levels as well as your own. And eventually you'll earn bonus abilities like Auto blocking, Faster Super bar, Longer Guard bar etc. And at the end of it all if you're good enough you have a very strong fighter and possibly a hidden character or 3. Now I mentioned that they added 4 completely new characters and a lot of times they'll be throw away characters but this time Capcom took a lot of time with all of them and they all have the capability to be formidable characters my favorite is Karin.

Now the most important part of all this is the gameplay and as a long time Street Fighter fan I can say that they have succeeded in bringing back the memories of the past. It's kind of indescribable but if you've played the other street fighters and then you try this one you'll know what I mean. And this time the load times are very good. On a new playstation it's anywhere from 5-7 seconds which is a marked improvement. The graphics are pretty much like the Alpha series with a few but not many frames missing. I'm not sure what else to tell you but if you're a Street fighter fan or were a Street fighter fan then I think this is the one for you. Heck even if you aren't a Street Fighter fan there's no time like the present. I whole heartedly recommend this game.

Overall: 9.0