If I had to hold a single video game responsible for getting me where I am today and keeping me with this hobby, it would easily be this game right here. Not the arcade version, but the console version this port is based on; I know a lot of fans out there don't want to hear that, but I for one could not be happier!

Street Fighter is a classic series. If you don't know that, or worse yet haven't heard of it, then I'm in total shock, but I guess it can't be held against you if you're a youngster! The series didn't start the fighting genre, but it sure as hell did jumpstart it, with the release of Street Fighter II. And Street Fighter II' Hyper... and Super Street Fighter II... and Super Street Fighter II Turbo... you get the idea. It was popular, and due to a huge skyrocket in bootleg arcade cabinets that featured a modified game engine, Capcom decided to release Street Fighter II' Hyper, known as Street Fighter II Dash in Japan (hence the apostrophe in the title.) The game featured the ability to play as the four bosses, a slightly faster game engine and the ability to fight against the same characters - with that came new colours for each fighter, as well.

Street Fighter represents a style of fighting that is now defunct in games. Nowadays we have 3D fighting games with pre-determined combos that require long strings of button input, while Street Fighter simply had six basic attacks: a light, medium and heavy punch and kick. Players then could create their own combos by combining those attacks - the attacks themselves did not change if you were in the middle of a combo like they would in modern fighting games. It allows creativity and freedom. Is it better? That's up for debate, but it's different and rarely done these days, so it's a nice step back to a more simple game engine and perhaps one that allowed more freedom, despite being limited to back-and-forth movement and jumping in a 2D arena. This Street Fighter also came before the days of super moves that almost always determine the outcome in the later Street Fighter games. I have nothing against those, I love them, but there is just something very appealing about the classic Street Fighter II - nothing but strikes, guards and a couple of special attacks.

Each character - Ken, Ryu, Guile, Zangief, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, M. Bison and Sagat - features two to four special moves that can be pulled off at any time. Back then, it was usually a simple matter of rotating the directional pad or holding it in one direction, then quickly pressing it in the other combined with a button (though a few characters do have more complex motions, such as the Russian wrestling superstar Zangief.) The down-forward motion to pull off the Hadoken fireball is now a classic among fighting games and is a staple of this series, as well as the charge attacks for moves such as Guile's Sonic Boom or M. Bison's Psycho Crusher.

The game engine is clearly a classic - it wouldn't still be around if it were not. You're looking at a game that spawned hundreds of spin-offs, re-releases, sequels, prequels, movies, TV shows and what not. Despite this very version of Street Fighter II' being released on numerous other platforms over the years (PlayStation, Game Boy Advance and PlayStation2 to name a couple), this incarnation has a lot riding on it. If you're like me, you played Street Fighter II' on your console at home, be it Megadrive or SNES, and would pretend the computer opponents were real as a kid. You'd wish the people on the other end were actual people fighting against you. Never did I imagine back then that over ten years later I'd be watching the same introduction sequence to the same game, but this time I'd really be playing people from around the world!

SFII' Hyper Fighting has a number of online modes to choose from, including custom just-for-fun matches, ranked matches and a winner-stays mode called Quarter Mode, where a group of players can pile into one room and claim the next fight, designed to help simulate the joys of watching people compete in the arcade while you're waiting for your turn. It is essentially the same mode as Dead or Alive Ultimate and Dead or Alive 4 have, but with less options with which to customise it. Aside from some issues connecting to players in Ranked matches, the online mode works beautifully; in fact, during our tests we only encountered one instance of any lag. Of course, it's all very dependant upon your own connection as well as your opponent's, but it seems to hold up very well, assuming you're not downloading something while you play!

The single player Arcade mode is fully intact as well, complete with some of the cheapest artificial intelligence you will ever come across in a game. More on that in a second; the rest of the arcade mode - endings, bonus stages, continue screens and boss fights - are all here, just as you remember them, and there are even some achievements to earn in this mode that will really put your skills to the test. Now, back to that AI. As the Street Fighter games progressed into the Alpha series, the AI became progressively easier - this was not the case for SFII, and still isn't in this version of it. 90% of the time, even on the very easy difficulty, the enemy AI will read your button input and knock you out of the air anytime you jump at them. If you land said jump attack but don't get your combo in, the CPU usually throws you instantly, causing massive damage. It sounds like tough AI, but trust me when I say it isn't. When you see it in action, it becomes painfully obvious that the AI is well aware of everything you're doing and can counter it instantly; they don't even have to charge up moves that usually take two seconds to pull off, instead doing it immediately whenever the time calls for it. The game is not easy and it usually has no mercy. Prepare to come up with every cheap tactic you can to defeat the enemies on the higher difficulty (the only differences here is that the CPU delivers more damage, all the movement patterns are the same!) Do not play this game around any sharp objects.

Moving on, CPU Battle mode can also be unlocked, which basically turns any enemy you fight into a boss character with incredibly difficult AI and attack patterns. Sounds like fun, am I right!? It's not for everybody, but the hardcore Street Fighter players will enjoy the extra challenge here. Another challenge for those players may be getting used to the controls - though it's not nearly as hard as playing Street Fighter on the original Xbox, the 360 controller is no arcade stick/SNES/Megadrive controller and definitely requires some adjustment. The d-pad obviously works best, but having some strikes on the triggers (since there are only four face buttons) feels a bit odd at first, even compared to playing on a PS2 controller where the triggers aren't exactly triggers at all. The controls seem responsive for the most part, though I tend to have trouble executing charge attacks that require a kick command, but can do them just fine with a punch command. Perhaps though I'm just an old Street Fighter fan beyond his prime!

The graphics and sound are hard to judge on a game like this. The graphics for their time were quite good and had some great backgrounds and character designs, and the sound... well, who could possibly forget trying to figure out what the hell Ryu and Ken were saying? I distinctly remember making up my own words for them that sounded about right, and guess what? They still sound about right! The menus have gone through a change to support HD and definitely look more modern, although they're still a bit plain. It looks like Capcom was attempting to create new menus that still had the retro feel to them, and by including some screens that are simply nothing but bright blue, well I think they've done that... I may come off as a hypocrite for slagging off Robotron 2084 for only containing the original graphics and praising this game for it, but really. Look at what we're talking about here. One of these games is actually somewhat nice to look at! Guess which one?

Moving on, as I mentioned, SFII' has a nice mix of hard and easy achievements, as it always should be in my humble opinion. On the online side of things you simply have to participate in 10 and 50 ranked matches to get two achievements, or win 10 or 30 of them to get two more. You also get a small one just for playing a Quarter match - SCORE! The single player achievements are where the challenge lies, especially with some very hard computer characters that love to piss you off. Simply beating the game on any difficulty and using each character at least once give you an easy two, then there are medium difficulty rewards such as a perfect score on a bonus level, a completely perfect match on the default difficulty and completing the arcade mode without losing a match. The harder achievements include beating the mode without losing a single round and completing it on the maximum difficulty possible. In short, it's a perfect blend of easy, moderate and hard achievements - every gamer can get some of these, but it takes real effort to get them all. Great job, Capcom!

Despite being 400 points more than the other retro games, Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting is well worth the investment - especially since it's the first fighting game available on the arcade, and it truly defines the term arcade better than any other title in the line up. If you played it growing up at home, get it and love it. If you played it in the arcade, get it and deal with it not being quite 'arcade perfect'. And if you've never played it before... well, now you have no excuse to find out just what you've been missing!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).