Street Fighter 2 went through five evolutions before arriving at the iconic version of Super Turbo and, believe it or not, Super Turbo itself has been recreated four more times since its initial release in 1994.
We turn to Guile Win Quote and its final video essay for the dirty details on all those different times developers have updated or attempted to evolve Super Turbo over the past three decades, and why the original has remained the competitive standard throughout.
Probably the best known of the Super Turbo evolutions is 2008’s HD Remix, which saw the entire cast rebalanced, the entire art scheme updated by Udon, and the iconic music remixed for a new generation.
HD Remix was led by game designer and keen competitor David Sirlin, who gave polishing a classic an old-fashioned try.
While it’s easy to argue that many of the changes implemented improved the quality of life, the final product didn’t appeal to as many fans as expected.
The balance changes and new art direction ultimately met with mixed reviews, resulting in something of a lightning fast in HD Remix’s genre of existence. He broke records and made sales early on, but just didn’t boast about the stamina of the game he aimed to hone.
You’ve probably heard of the most recent sequel to Super Turbo: Ultra Street Fighter 2 as well. ‘balance.
Ultra also adds two new characters into the mix as Violent Ken and Evil Ryu join in to bring the player count to 19. These two characters are particularly overpowered, but have been well received by fans as exceptionally fun to play.
Ultra’s biggest hurdle is the fact that it’s exclusive to the Nintendo Switch console. The Switch is a hugely popular console, but Nintendo hasn’t been known as a central hub for Street Fighter for quite some time, and the lack of cross-play options seriously sets back any modern fighting title.
Watch the full video below to hear more details on these two sequels as well as the other two Super Turbo evolutions. Let us know in the comments if you learned anything new from GWQ’s video trial and if you enjoy playing any of these four more than the original ST.
