Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition

The Good
When Street Fighter came to our arcades 15 years ago, it was a good game that was hardly noticed by anyone. However, it was its sequel Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior that really took the series towards gaming stardom. Thanks to it's state-of-the-art super-fast graphics, unique moves, cool soundtrack and great characters, the game was an instant hit and many other editions of this sequel were made. These were Hyper Fighting, Championship Edition, Super, Turbo and Super Turbo. To celebrate it's 15th anniversary, Capcom have gathered all of the sequel's series's characters, and put them all in to one, all-new Street Fighter 2 game.

The series has been revived very well on PS2. The graphics are the same as they were all those years ago, and it plays like it always did. The music has been recreated to utilise the PS2's audio hardware, of which they are all brilliant and instantly recognisable.

At only half the price of a new PS2 game, not only do you get a good game but 'Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie' has also been thrown into the package. This is without a doubt the best PS2 game that offers a lot of value for money.

The Bad
The fact that it still plays the same as it did years ago. If you've played all the other Street Fighter 2 games a lot, then you'll easily get bored.

Despite me having to say that having a free movie makes this game good value for money, I'm afraid to say that the movie is just plain terrible. The animation is poor, the dialogue is laughable, and the story is just rubbish. Also, it's encoded in the same format as PS2 footage since it's on the same disc as the game, meaning that you cannot play the movie in a normal DVD player. Capcom did it in this way to avoid piracy. Other problems about this is that the movie is only presented in stereo (not dolby 5.1), and the picture quality isn't that good. The whole thing is what really lets this package down.

The Bottom Line
Nothing too fancy. It's just another Street Fighter 2 game bundled with a rubbish film. Street Fighter fans and people who don't have much to spend will go mad for it, but for others there's little else.