Super Street Fighter II Turbo
HD Remix

Fighting-game fans are going nuts waiting for console versions of Street Fighter IV — but wow, does this ease the pain. With Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Capcom has done more than just port one of the series’ best entries to Live Arcade. They’ve enhanced it in big ways, making it simply the best old-school fighter on the 360.

It’s hard to tell which we noticed first: the sweetened visuals or the revved-up music. For this HD Remix, Capcom not only cleaned up the graphics, they redrew them, hiring Udon Entertainment (publisher of the Street Fighter comic books) to produce new backdrops and character animations. The game is 1080p-native, but even at 720p, the action looks beautiful and vibrant, be it Akuma’s fireballs or a peasant choking a chicken in the background. Meanwhile, the soundtrack is an energetic retooling of the classic coin-op music, and its upbeat groove really fits the game’s pace and style.

Which gets us to the most important question: How’s it play? Like the XBLA port of Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting, it controls really well — and faster, too (with adjustable speed), given the Turbo designation. For HD Remix, Capcom has made some of the combos easier to execute, while tweaking the balance between characters. We didn’t spot every single difference immediately, but we definitely noticed our ability, as good-but-not-great Street Fighter players, to win with each character (even Dhalsim, who we’ve always sucked at) and pull off moves that used to be harder. The fighting felt super-smooth, and better yet, it was smooth over Live, too: our online matches with review builds were lag-free, with none of the annoying hiccups that some players reported with the release of Hyper Fighting.

With HD Remix, it feels like you’re getting the Ferrari of 2D fighters — and it’ll cost you. The game is a moderately pricey $15, and while it’s playable with a standard controller, it pretty much demands a Hori Fighting Stick for the full arcade experience. But on both counts, the payoff is oh-so-worth the sacrifice.