Review
   Oh, if you only knew the love / hate relationship I have with this game. The original arcade version was awesome. It was an original take on a somewhat aborted movie and legendary gaming legacy. It had all the right goofy aspects to make it a winner, and I couldn’t wait to have it come home to play it.  Then I went and rented it and it turned out Capcom flaked. They instead butchered it and re-applied the graphics to the Super Street Fighter II Turbo engine we had already enjoyed, and didn’t need a second time.

Not to say that this is a really bad game per se; it actually has some neat options like a Trial Mode where it ranks characters you use as well as your personal fighting ability. There’s also Story Mode, which plays out like a find-your-fate novel using the movie’s plot to determine who you fight on your way to M. Bison.

Control is fairly accurate, and the combo system is tried and true. The music is a tad on the elevator side, but it can be turned off.

When it comes down to it, SF: The Movie is one of those car wrecks that you can’t look away from, if only because you know where it originally started, and just wished there was someway to get it back.

And yes, I purposely put that right screen cap into the page; any exploding crotch shots of Van Damme are okay with me. :)

• Launched 4 days before PlayStation came out, thus becoming the first fighting game for the system.



• The original arcade version was VASTLY different from this home version. Where consoles got a sad remake of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, the arcade game was completely different in its combo system and style. The character selection was also dramatically changed, as were move lists (Cammy had a whip).



• Capcom was in a bind with the home version. Because they were playing it safe by going back to SSF2T's moves, they had to fill in the missing animation frames that were not used in the arcade game. Using stand-in doubles that almost fit, they did just that. You can easily tell where they copied in the doubles by simply pausing the game when ever you see an animation frame look slightly lighter/darker than the rest of the set. For example, in Guile's falling back animation, you can see the double has the same hair style as Van Damme, but it's cut different. This would help explain why the console sprites are so much blurrier than the arcade; to help hide the doubles identities.



• The new character Sawada, got no respect in the game. For one, he's being beaten on the back of the console packaging, and two, he has a move where he basically commits suicide, and his blood damages you...and you can do this repeatedly. What's he got, AIDS?



• The movie plot and storylines have absolutely ZERO to do with the original source material. Balrog is Chun-Li's cameraman and Ken and Ryu are gun smugglers. I kid you not.



• The Japanese name is Street Fighter: Real Battle on Film.

Game loaded fine with both options turned on.