Welcome to the most extreme one-on-one warfare ever! Capcom’s arcade classic Super Street Fighter II Turbo has been resurrected and reincarnated onto PlayStation Network. But with a hefty $15 price tag and a whooping 350+ Meg download can Capcom convince the public that a 15 year old arcade classic is worth the money and most importantly the long wait? Short answer is hell yes! Super Street Fighter HD Remix is more than just a remake of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Every background, character sprite, and frame of animation has been resized to 1080p, and completely redrawn by the team of talented artists over at Udon comics creating one of the most visually stunning 2D games ever. HD Remix does nearly everything that a remake should do; it updates the visuals and audio to make them look comparable to most new games, maintaining the feel of the classic version that people have known and loved for years.

Super Street Fighter II HD features all 17 characters from the original Super-Turbo game, and that is including hidden Akuma. Capcom decided not to modify any of the characters animation so it plays exactly as we remember, and the good news is it does!! Capcom has kept the game play mechanics perfectly intact from the original arcade version, but also presents a new HD mode with small game play tweaks, character balancing, extra moves, more combo possibilities, and even all new character colors! Though every frame has been re-drawn the amount of frames and their timing has not changed. The game moves just as it did fourteen years ago thus making the characters look choppy especially with larger characters.

Super Street Fighter II HD offers lots of options that vary from playing the entire game with original soundtrack enabled to a customizable dipswitch setting. The dipswitch setting allows players to adjust the game to match personal preference by enabling or disabling a list of options, for example restricting players from throwing each other and etc. There’s even an option that allows players to change the newly rendered HD character back to their original sprite forms on the fly. Unfortunately the backgrounds remain in their HD recreation creating an odd looking relationship that kills the retro feeling that was indented.

You’ll take the fighters across a variety of modes, including single-player, multiplayer, training and, head to head online multiplayer. Allowing players to go online and find an opponent from anywhere in the world makes any Street Fighter fan drool. The single player mode stays faithful to the original by encountering progressively tougher opponents recreating the classic addictive grudge matches that made you reach into your pock that was once full quarters to revenge your falling warrior only to find a lonely piece of lint between your sweaty fingers. That was the good old days!! Lastly, if you’re not duking it out online, training mode allows for practicing multi-hit combos and strategies. Here you find that all the moves and combination attacks are all faithfully retained including Super Combos and Super Moves.

Street Fighter II has always been one of the most memorable games of all times but the superior controls scheme was really the defining factor. The PS3 controller works great and the D-Pad servers its purpose but nothing can simulate that unique coin-op experience that an arcade stick brings to the table. The PS3 will recognize almost any USB device allowing for the ultimate arcade experience and finding a great arcade stick is somewhat of a holy grail for fighting game fans. Experience button mashing utopia and roll your way to arcade nirvana by using controllers like the Street Fighter Anniversary arcade stick (you will need a PlayStation2 to USB adaptor costing around $10) or X-Arcade stick. Capcom has tried many times to outdo themselves with remixed versions of their games but never really succeeded until now. This HD remake reminds us just how timeless Street Fighter II really is.