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Purple-Clad Gamer reviews Super Street Fighter X Revival (Turbo Revival outside of Japan) (GBA, 2001)


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Super Street Fighter X Revival (Turbo Revival outside of Japan) (GBA, 2001) - Reviewed by Purple-Clad Gamer

SSF2XR.thumb.jpg.193bf67060a83704c42fa5cc13f69439.jpg

My copy of Super Street Fighter II X Revival, came straight from Osaka recently.

Sorry for the super-huge picture, I took it on an iPad.

Before we begin, here's how my reviews work:
I rate each category on a scale from 0.0 to 10.
Some categories will not be applied if necessary (ex. Level Design in a game like Dr. Mario)

Categories:
Introduction (not scored) - I start the review.
Story - How well the story is written.
Gameplay - How well does the game, well, PLAY? Are the controls good? Are the mechanics good?
Characters - How well the characters are designed and how good they are as actual characters.
Graphics - How well the game looks.
Music - How good the game's music is.
Difficulty - How well the difficulty is balanced-- is it challenging enough to keep you going?
Level Design - How well are levels designed-- are they fun and interesting?
Replay Value - Is it worth playing over and over?

[Introduction]
The first and only handheld release of Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge (Japan)/Super Street Fighter II Turbo! How well does the ever-so cirtically-acclaimed game in the series that ISN'T 3rd Strike hold up on the Game Boy Advance?

First off, a few disclaimers.

1. I have only played the Arcade and MS-DOS versions of Super Street Fighter II Turbo (as well as the western GBA release), so I might compare it to those games (particularly the western GBA release).

2. I am a CASUAL Street Fighter fan. I love the story and characters and enjoy playing them, but I'm not the biggest fan of tournament play. Sure, it's fun to watch, but I'm a casual fan.

3. I use the names given outside of Japan for these three characters (WW = worldwide):

Vega (JP)/Master Bison (WW), Balrog (JP)/Vega (WW), & Mike Bison (JP)/Balrog (WW)

[Story]

The story in this game is almost nonexistant at its base, but the story plays differently depending on your character of choice.

A criminal organization called Shadaloo is ruled by a drug lord named Bison, who is hosting a worldwide fighting tournament called the World Warrior tournament, the same name used by the tournament hosted by Sagat. Your goal is to pick a character, beat up 6 other characters, and the 4 boss characters at the very end.

The individual stories the characters go through are only shown through their endings, and many of them are really good, my favorites being the endings of Ryu, Ken, Fei Long, Vega, and Sagat.

Considering it's a fighting game from the 90's with many varying endings...


8/10

[Gameplay]

2D Fighting games have been notorious for having a steep learning curve. The key to getting good is to practice. To me, fighting games teach you sportsmanship. They kick your ass to kingdom come if it's your first game, teaching you to appreciate your losses anyway and showing you some great victories if you're dedicated.

X/Turbo Revival gives you 4 buttons to work with instead of 6. However, you are able to get the other two inputs customized by combining buttons or making them pressure-sensitive. It's solid for what it is. Not a huge fan of the GBA SP's D-Pad, though. I'm sure I'd probably be singing a different tune about the D-Pad if I was playing on an original model, but I really hate not having a backlit screen.

Every character has their own special moves and attributes that make all 17 of them feel unique in their own way. Your entire roster is:

Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Blanka, Dhalsim, Edmond Honda, Zangief, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, Bison, Fei Long, Thunder Hawk, Cammy, Dee Jay, Akuma (unlocked by getting 5,000 VS Points), and Shin Akuma (unlocked by getting 9,999 VS Points)

You can accumulate VS Points by playing the various game modes. Getting more VS Points will unlock new things, namely Akuma, Shin Akuma, and an art gallery. The Arcade Mode is your main mode, where you take on 6 opponents, then Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and Bison in that order. However, if you can get to Bison's stage without losing a single round, you can fight Shin Akuma instead (JP version only). There's also another mode where you can play the bonus games as well as other little challenges, a Versus Mode (I'm not sure if it requires a second copy or not, could anyone tell me if you know?) where you can play with a second player, Options, where you can change the difficulty, button inputs, and other things (supposedly you can make the special move inputs easier, but I haven't found out how to make this possible), and a Time Attack mode, where you can do various difficult challenges as fast as you can, such as fighting the 4 Boss Characters in tandem or a 1-on-1 battle with Shin Akuma.

The modes are quite fun, but the worldwide release of this port is worse. Its biggest problem is that it has a ton of bugs and glitches compared to the JP release (most notably the Akuma Glitch, where getting to Akuma's stage can permanently mess up your saves and freezes your GBA).

Other than that, this stuff is really good!


10/10

[Characters]

I'm a pretty big fan of the way the characters look. I don't really know what else to say here.


10/10

[Graphics]

For a GBA conversion of an arcade classic, it looks nice. We have some new stage designs, and Revival brings us an edgy artstyle that looks absolutely beautiful! I love this artstyle so much, it makes the characters look so much cooler! In terms of sprites, they use the SNES sprites with some Arcade sprites of the new moves. Akuma's sprites are all from the Arcade mode. This game looks amazing for an arcade game remake for the GBA.


10/10

[Music]

Revival's music is great, just get used to the square waves and saw waves, since they're the most common instruments being used. It goes well with the GBA, though.
9.1/10

[Difficulty]

Once you learn the basics, Turbo Revival (WW) has a pretty steady difficulty balance that's good for beginners. X Revival (JP) has harder AI, biut it's all in good fun. A lot of the additional challenges can be pretty tough at times, which urge you to keep playing and prevail over your adversaries, whether it be a still car, a Japanese Sumo Wrestler, or a Spanish Ninja.
10/10

[Replay Value]

This game has a lot of replay value-- Arcade Mode is always a blast, and the challenges keep you coming to improve your scores and times! At school, whenever I had free time, I began playing this game, either to continue Arcade Mode or do some challenges. It's a ton of fun that keeps me wanting to play more and more!
10/10

[Overall Rating]

9.6/10

If you plan on getting this game, I would strongly suggest you purchase X Revival for less glitches and bugs, but you'll have to fight around the text being in Japanese, some name differences, and harder AI. Turbo Revival is much easier, but is far more prone to bugs and glitches that can fuck up your game permanently. Be careful if you're buying Turbo Revival. X Revival is far safer in comparison, though.

If you like Street Fighter or are trying to get into a 2D fighting game, get this game, but if it's the latter, I'd also suggest Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers for SNES, as I'd argue this game is somewhat tougher. But, hey, it's handheld!

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