Impossible to start this review of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers without mentioning the visual resemblance to Turbo HD Remix. Producer Yoshinori Ono never hid it: Capcom took over the assets designed by the Udon teams in 2008, at the risk of annoying fans. Indeed, this overhaul of the sprites has long divided the community, with some feeling that the comic book aspect was an insult to the source material, while others were pleased to see that the artists had not sought to copy The King of Animation fighters. In all objectivity, the result is far from disgusting – despite the presence of black bands on each side of the screen – and we are entitled to 1080p 60fps on the TV. In portable mode, it stops at 720p, but the reduced size of the screen means that the production gains in finesse. And then, for those who absolutely want to play with the graphics of the time, an option allows you to switch to old school style, all that in 4/3. Same for the music: we have the choice between the pieces that the old ones recorded on K7, and arrangements that have the merit of not scratching the ears. Of course, Capcom took advantage of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers to make some gameplay changes that we wouldn't dare describe as anecdotal.
From Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, purists will only remember the versus. On this point, difficult to blame anything on the game, if not its propensity to remove certain roughness so as not to discourage the less resourceful.
For example, we notice that the rhythm has been revised downwards, to the chagrin of those who had got into the habit of putting pressure on their opponents by multiplying the mix-ups. The developers are suspected of having wanted to casualize the game (cf. the touch controls to which special attacks can be assigned) since, as a result, neophytes benefit from a little more time to organize their defense; but after having chained the sessions, this argument is not enough to justify the shameful defeats. Unlike Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo – which served as a model for the gameplay, it should be noted – we also note that it is possible to counter the mugs, which completely redistributes the cards given the damage that the projections can inflict. The other side of the coin is that the tick throw is harder to execute with abused tolerance in blockstun (the amount of time the character is unable to react after blocking an attack). Listing all the patches would take hours, but the community has already started its work of listing. Ryu's Fake Fireball – with which you could win frames – disappeared from circulation, as did Honda and Chun-Li who are no longer able to fake with their Super by keeping it under their elbow.
THE GARAGE TRACK
In short, even if some choices are debatable, Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers remains very pleasant to play with a Pro controller. On the other hand, it is more complicated with the Joy-Con – whether they are connected to the screen or not – which are clearly not suitable for a fighting game requiring a minimum of precision. On the content side, if the usual “Arcade”, “Versus” and “Training” modes are there, this Nintendo Switch version offers cooperative battles. The principle is simple: team up with a friend or the AI, and break the knees of opponents who appear on the screen. History to balance the debates, the opposite shots hurt a little more, and the slightest round lost is synonymous with defeat. The fact that the life bar is common – unlike the Super gauges – forces you to coordinate attacks, the most effective technique being to sandwich the opponent. We don't keep an imperishable memory of it to tell you the truth, but it's much less dramatic than the "The Way of Hado" mode in which we play Ryu. However, the original idea is interesting if not revolutionary, since it is a question of mimicking, in subjective view and using the Joy-Con, certain ancestral moves of Street Fighter.
As for the mode "The Way of Hado", presented as THE novelty, it is a disaster. The fault with a recognition of the movements in the street.
The controls are pretty basic: attach the Joy-Con and push forward for a Hadōken, reach out and sweep forward for a Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku, and imitate an uppercut for a Shōryūken. Super gauge requires, just press SL on one Joy-Con and SR on the other to perform a Shinku Hadôken. The problem in all this is the recognition of movements which is picking up, even with the Master option supposed to improve the detection of gestures. We had to contain ourselves so as not to freak out, honestly. Fortunately, it is not mandatory to target enemies, and we must be content to choose the most appropriate attack depending on the number of enemies and the distance at which they are. In all this misery, we managed the feat of defeating M. Bison, the boss of the “Challenge” mode, knowing that a “Survival” mode is also there to show the way. Note that skill points are given over the games, in order to improve the stats of the character (life, attack, luck, speed, defense, mental). As for the online game, it is not available at the time of writing these lines. We will have the opportunity to come back to it if important points are to be underlined. Finally, let's finish with the cast of Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers and its superstars Evil Ryu and Violent Ken. Like Akuma, they are able to ruin the life gauge; on the other hand, they take the blows very badly. Violent Ken seems to have a slight advantage over the other two, thanks to faster movement. Like what, it's good to be brainwashed by M. Bison.
