"I am the strongest woman in the world."
"My strength is much greater than yours."
"Are you man enough to fight me?"
If you recognize any of these taunts, you're probably going to get a kick out of the Live Arcade version of Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting. It's a faithful console conversion of a fine-tuned tweak of the game that defined a genre. Even people who never got into this certifiable arcade phenomenon can't help but appreciate the amazing presentation. You've got huge characters, backgrounds, and meaty sound effects for fist and foot hitting face. The game has personality, twelve distinctly different fighters, excellent balance; Street Fighter II is a classic.
Offline, the game provides a big and fun 90's arcade-style experience. You can battle your way past the game's entire cast to see your character's ending, unlock in-game achievements by scoring perfect on bonus games like beat-up-a-car and break-the-falling-barrels. You can practice your moves and challenge a friend. If you've got any kind of competitive spirit, though, you're going to want to take your game online and see how you stand up to other gamers on Xbox Live.
If you just want to get online, talk some trash, and have fun, you're probably not going to have any problem doing so. Matches are generally really smoothly with very few laggy, game-breaking moments, and even if you only play the game seriously for a day or two you'll probably feel like you got your ten bucks worth. A great mode called Quarter Match lets you hang out in a room with three other gamers and watch the matches you don't participate in. Winner stays, loser goes to the bottom of the list. Being able to share the nostalgia, cheer for the player you want to win, and possibly talk a little smack does a lot to recreate the arcade experience.
The thing is that Quarter Match games aren't ranked, and your results just go away and will only be appreciated by those present. If you take your vintage fighting games really seriously, you can play ranked games and flaunt your record for everyone to see. The issue is that the online play isn't perfect and it can be a bit tough to find games. The Quickmatch option never works, so you'll find yourself having to join games manually. Some times it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's annoying that you can't request rematches when you find a good opponent, but them's the brakes. Hardcore fighting aficionados may not be 100% satisfied, but you can still have ranked fun
With a lot of bite-sized Live achievements to unlock, easy online play, and the virtue of just being a great arcade game, Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting is one of the most compelling downloads Live Arcade has to offer. You can use it as a tool to relieve stress (you gotta love those messed-up bloody character portraits after the match), settle arguments, etc. Plus the thing just falls short of functioning as a freaking living piece of history, with some parts of it being merely functional and others not working as well as you'd like them to. Still, any way you look at it, this is a game that's worth remembering.
