Street Fighter II: Champion Edition Longplay (PC Engine) [60 FPS]

Developed by Capcom and published by NEC in 1993

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Capcom caused quite a stir when they released Street Fighter II: The World Warrior for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Here was a near-perfect conversion of their revolutionary fighting game for gamers to enjoy in the comfort of their living rooms, the quintessential of a home conversion done right. To this day, I still remember walking into a branch of Game (back when it was actually relevant) as a child and getting caught up in the excitement of an impromptu, winner-stays-on tournament on one of the SNES demo pods the staff had rigged up - the game was (and still is) a brilliant game.

Of course, the game was converted to absolutely every possible platform under the sun. Capcom handled the conversions for most of the console platforms available at the time, including the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. While NEC's console failed to make much of an impact in foreign markets (I'd never even heard of it until I looked it up online), it enjoyed considerable success in it's home territory of Japan, so it comes as no surprise that Capcom would create a conversion for the machine.

The PC Engine is something of a technical anomaly compared to other consoles of the 16-bit era in that it pairs an 8-bit CPU with 16-bit graphics chip and video controller. As the earliest 16-bit console available on the market, it was designed to compete with the original 8-bit NES; one might worry as to whether the hardware could deliver the same audio-visual experience that Sega's and Nintendo's 16-bit offerings. A question I was keen to find the answer for was, how does this version of the game compare to likes of the SNES, arguably one of the best conversions in existence?

Having played a few rounds of the game, it's clear that Capcom managed to work their magic here, creating a version that feels every bit as good as the SNES version. Crucially, the gameplay and distinctive "feel" of the game has been preserved; it feels absolutely spot-on and is as playable as any other version I've experienced over the years.

Any concerns melt away pretty quickly as both the sound and graphics are excellent. The sprites might be slightly smaller and the colours slightly more subtle/subdued than other versions, but this looks every inch the arcade conversion you had hoped for. I was impressed to note that Capcom managed to keep the parallax scrolling effects and background animations in each of the arenas, and the game runs at a constant, silky-smooth 60 fps.

As for the audio, this is mightily impressive too. My earlier experience with Chase H.Q. had given me the impression that the console wasn't up to the task of creating high quality music or sound effects, but this game completely changed my opinion of the machine. Not only does the music sound great, but all of the digitised speech samples and effects are present and sound crisp and clear - to have Street Fighter without cries of "Hadoken!" and "Sonic Boom!" emanating from the speakers would have been a total travesty!

The one minor problem with the PC Engine version of the game is down to the console's controller and the fact it doesn't have as many buttons as the SNES. Without a full 6 buttons available, the player must press the Select button to alternate between punches and kicks. It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but you really want a 6-button controller to experience the game at it's best.

It's safe to say that I was really impressed with what Capcom managed to achieve with the PC Engine hardware. If you're looking for a a top fighting game for NEC's console, you need look no further than this!
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