Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers

I've spent enough time with Capcom's Street Fighter II rereleases to know the difference between a cash-in and a genuine upgrade, and Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers sits somewhere uncomfortable between the two. Released in May 2017 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive, this is an updated take on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the version most competitive players still consider the definitive form of the game. The roster runs to 19 fighters, covering the full original cast plus every character added through Super Street Fighter II, and then tacking on two additions that are new to the SF2 lineage: Evil Ryu and Violent Ken. Both of them hit harder and move faster than the standard cast but carry far less health, which makes them genuinely interesting picks rather than palette swaps with a rename. The core fighting holds up in ways that might surprise anyone who hasn't touched it since the 16-bit era. Two-hit combos, one Super meter, Sonic Booms, Shoryukens, the familiar rhythm of reading your opponent across a single screen with no meter-burning cancels to memorize. Capcom added grapple breaks and made some balance tweaks, though competitive players who live on Super Turbo roms have noted the changes are subtle enough that this never replaces the old version in their world. What it does replace is the need to drag a CRT to a friend's house. Local multiplayer on a single Switch unit, in handheld or tabletop mode, is the genuine selling point here, and it works shockingly well even with Joy-Con, though a Pro Controller is worth having for anyone who takes the special move inputs seriously. The extras are a mixed bag and you should go in knowing that. Way of the Hado is a first-person mode where you physically swing Joy-Cons to throw Hadokens and Shoryukens at waves of Shadaloo soldiers as Ryu. Reviewers and players have been consistent: it is a gimmick, mildly amusing for five minutes, and not a reason to buy the game. Buddy Battle, the two-versus-one co-op mode where you and a partner share a health bar while fighting bosses including Evil Ryu, Violent Ken, M. Bison, and Akuma, has more going for it but also runs dry fast. It ends abruptly after four fights and cycles through the same roster every run. There is also a Color Edit mode that lets you create up to ten custom palettes per fighter, which is the kind of quiet feature that obsessives will appreciate and everyone else will ignore. The digital SF20 art book bundled in is a genuine bonus for series fans, long out of print in physical form. Two graphical modes let you switch between the original pixel art and UDON's redrawn HD sprites from 2008's HD Remix, and you can toggle soundtracks between the original and remixed versions, which is more flexibility than most retro releases offer. Where this package struggles is value justification. The price at launch drew criticism, and that conversation has followed the game since. What you get at the core is excellent and timeless. What surrounds it feels assembled to hit a feature list rather than built to add meaningful hours. If you want to fight your friends casually, rediscover the game that shaped a genre, or have a portable fighting game that anyone already knows how to play, this delivers cleanly. If you want a competitive scene, deep solo content, or a game that rewards long-term investment in modes beyond the standard versus and arcade experience, you will hit the ceiling faster than expected.

Alex · Scout Team

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