Here at Head to Head I relay my personal opinion as to which version of a particular game is best. With the increasing number of cross licensed products--the impact on system sales could be large. I am not trying to answer which system is best--only which version of a particular game is better. Yet we all know that whichever system has the majority of better games will inevitably come out on top!
Hello and welcome once again to Head to Head. Today we will look at a slightly different comparison--not one between home consoles, but rather one between a home system and the arcade. What other game could be so deserving except the SNES translation of Street Fighter II, The World Warrior?
To start with, there is the overbearing resemblence in graphics. However, they are not the same. In many scenes background characters are lacking in the SNES. Small oversights as how many elephants are in Dhalism's stage are apparent. Also, when the characters move, you will see the SNES uses less frames per movement. Does all of this matter? NO. They are as close to identical as anyone could dream of. Why I've even started charging $.50 to start a game, and $.25 to continue in my basement with a spare SNES.
Moving onto the sound... While I've never played them ear to ear... they are very similar. With voice intact, and plenty of grunts, there are no problems here. The only difference I noticed was the lack of elephant noises.
As I've often said, the gameplay is the most important feature of a game. How is it here? Perfect. Both the SNES and the arcade machine have a very playable game. Yet the SNES comes on top!! How? Simple--while the arcade offers a two player vs. mode, the SNES allows you to "handicap" one of the players if they are at a higher skill level. This allows less skilled players to still have a chance to win and makes everyone happy to see a good fight.
Overall--since they are so similar--the slight advantage of having a handicap mode puts the SNES on top! Not to mention not pumping tokens into the machine is nice (except if you play it in my basement)... Until next time this is Ferrari Man signing off and wishing everyone HAPPY GAMING!!
