Street Fighter II

Good old Street Fighter II. About 13 years ago this game was my obsession. I used to pump quarters into it like it was going out of style (does that even make sense?). Best fighting game ever? Maybe. At least the most influential.

Fast forward to present day and the news that this game was going to be released on Live Arcade was music to my ears. I couldn't think of a game better fit for it. Classic coin-op game. Playing others over Live. Too good to be true.

Countless delays later, the game is finally here!!! And I hate it . . .

First of all, I'll get this out of the way. The 360 controller is terrible for this game. Just terrible. The D-pad is useless when trying to pull off special moves and the analog stick does not feel natural. But that is ok, I can look past that.

Playing the game on Live is one major lag-fest!!! As if the controls weren't touchy enough, now we have to deal with lag too? C'mon!!! The game's much taunted Quarters Match, which is supposed to simulate the great experience of the arcade, in which two players are playing a match and others wait for the winner to challenge him, is terrible!! If you're waiting for the match to finish, you cannot see the match. You're stuck in some crappy lobby and have NO idea what is going on in the actual game. Gimme a break! How is that simulating the Arcade experience? Did you hang out in a closet while awaiting your turn? C'mon Capcom, this is terrible.

The single player game is just as bad. This game has the cheapest A.I. in the history of fighting games. Fighting against the cpu is one frustrating endeavor. It knows your every move and the game appears to be perpetually stuck on Very Hard. Even setting the game to its easiest setting results in the cpu totally handing you your ass constantly. This is not fun. I used to be a very good Street Fighter player. I feel like a punk playing this game. Maybe it is just me, but this is not the experience I remember it to be.

Overall, I am very disappointed. The laggy on-line play, frustrating controls and impossible single player difficulty prevents me from enjoying this game at all. Can it be patched? I hope so. One last note on the visuals, I'm strictly going by memory here, but I do not remember the arcade game being this ugly. I'm almost positive this is a port of the SNES version, which boggles my mind. And there is no way this game is running in 720p. Weren't all 360 games - including Live Arcade games - supposed to be running in HD? This game certainly is not.

Am I the only one that feels this way? Not sure. Let me know if you're enjoying the game, because I sure am not.

Overall, 3 out of 10. Damn shame too.