Arcade classic comes back to life with ultra edition

When Street Fighter II first hit arcades 26 years ago, it revolutionized the fighting game genre.

Giving players a choice of eight unique fighters, each with an impressive arsenal of moves, the game went on to become a massive success both in arcades and on home consoles. It inspired a host of imitators and solidified Capcom as a premier developer of fighting titles. It even spawned a feature film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which fans of the franchise would rather forget.

There have been numerous Street Fighter games, comics and toys produced since, but Capcom has gone back to perhaps the franchise’s watershed moment with a no-nonsense, if expensive, port of Street Fighter II for the Nintendo Switch.

Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers is an updated version of the Super Street Fighter II Turbo edition of the game released in 1994. Capcom went hard on nostalgia for this release, and outside of some visual enhancements and other tweaks, the game is a faithful remake of the arcade original.

There are 19 selectable fighters in Ultra Street Fighter II, and anyone should be able to find a brawler that suits their style.

The ability to face other players both at home and online only adds to the replay value.

Ryu and Ken, the faces of the Street Fighter series, have a near identical set of moves. They hurl fireballs to attack from range and unleash powerful rising uppercuts when fighting in close. Blanka, a mutant from Brazil, can electrify opponents or jump on their shoulders and start gnawing on their heads. Zangief’s moves are far from flashy, but if the giant Russian grappler pulls off his spinning piledriver, it’s essentially game over.

The game plays very smooth and controls are fluid, with most characters’ signature moves fairly easy to pull off. But some may be put off by the button layout of Nintendo’s Joy-Con controller, particularly when the Switch is in portable mode. Some of the attacks, particularly the strongest punches and kicks, are difficult to access in this configuration. This problem is addressed with a classic controller, sold separately from the core system.

The features included are nice, but a little bare. There are two new characters, but they are simply alternate versions of Ryu and Ken. The fighters have new voice actors providing their various grunts and taunts, though players can go back to the arcade originals.

There is also a new co-op mode that pits two friends against some of the game’s harder characters, and a first-person mode called Way of the Hado in which the player uses the Joy-Con to execute Ryu’s signature moves and defeat waves of enemies.

Ultra Street Fighter II currently retails for $49.99, fairly steep for a decades-old game with only a few bonuses thrown in. That said, it is still an excellently executed port of an arcade classic. The ability to face other players both at home and online only adds to the replay value.

And there’s something to be said for the game’s simplicity. It doesn’t require studying a list of moves three pages long, but has enough variation in its characters to keep things interesting.

Those who remember heading to sweaty, smoky arcades to take on the locals in Street Fighter tournaments will appreciate the level of nostalgia in Ultra Street Fighter II. And Switch owners looking for a fighting game to tide them over until the highly anticipated brawler Arms is released next month could do a whole lot worse.