Its nice to make another post from my long little absence. The reason I'm posting here is to review, share and be joyous and merry with everyone and everything around me here. It took me little while to adapt and grow used to this site's new updated appearance and look. But all is well as long as Tom Fulp is still running the reigns here. But lets move onto my subject of the day. Basically two favorite games are coming out this year. One next month on the 18th and the other in November 2012. What games am I ranting and raving on? Well for starters they're both Capcom based games. The first is Resident Evil 6 which takes everyone back to the roots of pure madness and evil....And of course zombies are making a reappearance since they're long hiatus from Resident Evil 4. But what's being unveiled next month is the 25th Anniversary of one of my favorite (out of many) games to have ever hit both the public in arcades of the early nineties and eventually on various home consoles throughout the many years of its fame as well. Street Fighter 2!!!! And amongst many of the other entrees to the series that are keeping the game's legacy alive for the past decade of the time. The game series began early in prior to the nineties and this was back in the late eighties. Street Fighter unlike its sequels that would take center stage in a few years later hit the arcades and introduced two infamous characters along with two extras: Ryu, Ken, Gen, Adon and finally Sagat. The gameplay is very dated for a late eighties game. The controls are stiff as can be, in fact the controls is what makes the game so unbearable to begin with. Fighting in it can feel a bit sluggish and shotty. And then finally the stage music is a tiny bit bland though not too memorable as the series later sequels. The style of the game is neat yet rough along with me (as a nerd and fan) mocking Ryu's choice of hair color being RED! Instead of his iconic brown short styled Earth Warrior hair that I grew up to recognize and admire. Another thing to mention is that the game's early attempt to use a voice chip at the time was a neat step to try and get a "real" feel of the fighting game, Back then it would be a real shocker listening to a arcade machine mocking you and congratulating you for a successful victory and a job well done after each fight. I can imagine the look on children's faces "Woah man! The game is talking to me!" but when you look and listen to it now its a bit dry, bland and in some occasions a bit annoying too. Especially when you lose many times, It gets very unnerving after while. The games difficulty is also merciless in later levels (usually when you reach around levels 3 to 4!). The good part of Street Fighter was that you get to portray Ryu and undergo the aforementioned tournament before M. Bison makes the scene in SF2 by taking on Sagat who in many SF sequels would become a recurring arch nemesis to Ryu throughout their many years of fighting. A few more positives to note on Street Fighter is that you can take on a friend in a two player match, basically the classic Ryu versus Ken fight. Who ever won would go onto the tournament and take on everybody in the main story. Another thing was the when Capcom introduced the game in 1987 Street Fighter game cabinets didn't give out signature moves like they would on later games. Instead the arcade cabinets taunted and hinted that they were "secret moves" that could be executed in the game itself. Of course any die hard SF fan would already know these moves by now for two of the most basic classic old school fighter that are still brawling by the test of time today. Ryu and Ken's signature attacks are seen.....Everywhere today, even parodied and mocked in video game montages/parodies. But back then it was a different time. I bet you can imagine a player's face when they launched a Hadouken at their antagonizing adversary that had been beating the crap out of them throughout maybe four or five insulting losses. And to make things more cheerful about these attacks is that they're overpowering meaning that after say two or three Hadoukens your opponents are left on the ground writhing in agony and shame. Bumpers during the loading of matches (Before and after a fight) are a classic touch to this game too that is also introduced in the later SF games and have become a mainstay of the series. I always honestly found it a bit infuriating when your fighter gets the living crap beat out of them and they looked all bloodied and beaten which is also another love of mine for the series (Nothing brings a big smile and chuckle in my throat than watching a beaten bloodied Vega with his claw all bent and his porcelain like mask shattered all around his face). Street Fighter is an old overlooked outdated gem that if given the time, patience and of course overlooking the fails of the game can be a bit of a memorable (to some extent) game to add, collect in one's library if your a die hard SF or Capcom fan. Also to mention before we move on there's a interesting fighter that you face near Mount Rushmore who is almost a Mike Tyson based character which everyone knows that during the hype and craze in boxing with Mike Tyson taking center stage at the time countless games made Mike Tyson references (Even Nintendo made a contract with the guy to use his likeness and make a Punch-Out! game on NES home consoles). So in Street Fighter you go up against a guy named Mike who is an African-American boxer so its possible that this guy your up against is a prototype for Balrog who appears as a one of the three sub-bosses before M. Bison in SF2. You also go toe to toe against Geki who fights with a claw. Not only is this guy full of finesse and ninjitsu capabilities but also is definately walking example of whats to come one day in the future of SF and that is another sub-boss Vega. So even though this game is sighted as a beginning on one of the most beloved contributors to the fighting genre its also overlooked again for many good reasons. If your a fighting fanatic or into the genre, or if your interested on seeing and observing on what started the Street Fighter craze I encourage you to seek it out. Again you'll be disappointed on the age that this game has gone through but might enjoy the simple nostalgic value to it as well. You can find this game on the many ports I'm about to list: 1. TurboGrafx-CD (an attachement to the TurboGrafx-16) 2. Commodore 64 3. ZX Spectrum 4. Amstrad CPC 5. MS-DOS 6. Amiga 7. Atari ST. Those aren't the only ports of the home consoled version of the arcade game there's also a version for MS-DOS computers which was ported by a video game company called "Hi-Tech Expressions". And finally the current versions that are available to this current generation: 1. Capcom Arcade Hits Volume 1 for Windows PC 2. Capcom Classics Collection Remixed for the PlayStation Portable and finally 3. Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The version I currently have is for my PS2 along with a few other titles on that one little disc. So if your brazen enough to try and seek it out again I encourage you for morbid curiosity but also to be prepared to have mixed emotions as much as I have. This is my conclusion for the first out of many reviews and of course historical discussions on my favorite past times. I hope for those who've read enjoyed this post and there is many more to come. Till we meet again! Good day.