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Too Much Hyper, Not Enough Fighting

Jason Booth takes a look at the recently released Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, on Xbox Live. A highly anticipated title, Mr. Booth lays out why Capcom has fallen short of the high expectations gamers had for the title. From the article: "Now, where the game really falls down is online. It's bad enough playing SF2 on the 360 controller, but with lag it's nearly impossible. The funny thing is, the lag really isn't that bad from a technical standpoint. Most matches feel as if I'm getting a reasonable ping time and response. But SF2 turbo is a fast game, and at that speed, you just can't play, and can't compensate enough for the lag. If you press an attack button while leaving the ground on a jump, it'll probably go off as its landing."

19 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. street fighter 2 many by paradigmdream · · Score: 3, Insightful

    why do they keep making street fighter 2 games? shouldn't the number go up once in a while?

    1. Re:street fighter 2 many by Not+Anonymous+Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think they went to III once, but everyone hated the change to the Roman Numerals.

      --
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    2. Re:street fighter 2 many by rabbot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm sure it's because this isn't a new game. just a port of sf 2 hyper fighting. No need to give it a new name.

    3. Re:street fighter 2 many by milkman_matt · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh, and also a list of the games that they did have: (from KLOV)

      You're right, though, they did pretty much try to milk the II for all it was worth, which it looks like that was the best play, because everything -after- SFII just plain sucked.

      Legacy

            1. Street Fighter
            2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior
            3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition
            4. Street Fighter II' Turbo* - Hyper Fighting
            5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers
            6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo
            7. Street Fighter: The Movie
            8. Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams
            9. Street Fighter EX
          10. Street Fighter EX Plus
          11. Street Fighter Alpha 2
          12. Street Fighter EX 2
          13. Street Fighter III: New Generation
          14. Street Fighter III 2nd Impact - Giant Attack
          15. Street Fighter Alpha 3
          16. Street Fighter III 3rd Strike - Fight For The Future

      * Turbo added by me, looks like KLOV was missing that part, but I have the machine, and it does in fact call it SFII Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

  2. There in lies the problem by kid_oliva · · Score: 3, Informative

    Although it has gotten better, lag is still an issue with Xbox Live. More than likely what they are doing with this game is the same thing they do with Halo2 on live. They set one of the people as host and the only thing the server does is game match. This can cause all sorts of issues, especially in Halo2 where the engine has some network code issues. You have the annoying button lapse to hits not registring at all. Usually, however the host has the advantage. They move a little quicker, hit a little harder, and can take more damage. Centralizing everything is more expensive, but will negate host issues and you could also run programs like punk buster to keep people from cheating. That's my $0.02.

    --
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    1. Re:There in lies the problem by Quarem · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually a peer-to-peer model is better than a centralized network for fighting games where frames need to be synced between two client boxes. If they added a centralized host information would just have to travel and be processed at another node, which would actually increase the latency of the packets traveling between the two Xbox 360's.

      A centralized server does make a lot of sense when the game has more than two players though, since all the server processing can be down by the server box which leaves the client machines free to process more game data, and typically centralized server's can be put on low-latency high-bandwidth connections which are still lacking in consumer broadband. Somebody has to pay for the centralized servers and the game-traffic though. Maybe they can use in-game advertising for that, but I would rather ISPs just continue to upgrade their networks.

  3. Likewise, Super Mario Bros. 1 too many? by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative
    why do they keep making street fighter 2 games?

    For the same reason Nintendo re-releases the original Super Mario Bros. on the Super NES (as Super Mario All-Stars), on the Game Boy Color (Super Mario Bros. Deluxe) and on the forthcoming Wii Virtual Console. This product from Capcom is a port of Street Fighter II Turbo, as seen on the Super NES and Sega Genesis (the latter under the name Street Fighter II Special Championship Edition).

  4. SFIIHF Is Good by robbway · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I played SFIIHF on the xbox360 last night. I was on the east coast vs. someone on the west coast. No noticeable lag. However, an earlier bout of unknown distance had a couple of choppy animations. It was a light night after 1am EDT, though. It's probably busier around 9pm EDT.

    The arcade game is perfect. It plays at the same speed as Hyper Fighting. The controls were very responsive when I used the analog stick. You can set the buttons anyway you like. I think negative reviews on the controller are based on personal preference. You may find some characters easier with the D-Pad, and some easier to control with the analog.

    Live Arcade has been receiving way too much non-constructive negative feedback. It really seems like a bashing! Just remember, this is an 80s game!

    1. Re:SFIIHF Is Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Street Fighter II originally came out in 1991, Hyper Fighting in late 1992. They're not 80s games, but your point stands.

    2. Re:SFIIHF Is Good by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just remember, this is an 80s game!

      An 80s game... that was first released in 1991?

      I'm shouryuken find a better way to describe the game's vintage than that.

  5. Let me sum up the review... by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny
    I'm aging. I'm nostalgic for the game I used to rock at. Why can't they just remake that game exactly the way it was when I was in high school, so I can pretend I'm still cool? They must have sped it up, because surely my aging reflexes haven't gotten any slower. It must be lag that's letting all these other players kick my ass. Wah! Wah!! Wah!!!!

    -Eric

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Let me sum up the review... by Mprx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Highest level SF play requires frame accurate timing. 17ms per frame, and humans are easily capable of timing short intervals to this accuracy, (do not confuse timing accuracy with reaction time (which is always at least 100ms), eg. DDR marvelous timing is also single frame, and many people can consistently hit that accuracy). Pings of 17ms over the internet are very rare. What's worse, the lag is inconsistent, so it's impossible to compensate for it accurately.

    2. Re:Let me sum up the review... by cgenman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've sparred with Booth in Turbo recently. His reflexes are still pretty darned sharp... he never stopped playing. I'd consider myself a top 1% player, but Booth is probably still one of the top 100 in the country.

      We've nitpicked versions of Street Fighter 2 Turbo (or Hyper Fighting, or Turbo Hyper Fighting, or whatever you want to call it) in the past... comparing Turbo Duo / SNES / Genesis revs with the arcade, pads vs sticks, etc. This minutiae tuning is exactly the sort of thing he lives for in the game, and really does determine the difference between a clean control and a sloppy loss when playing with good players.

      That having been said, he's basically right. The controller lag is noticeable even on single player... I'd estimate it at a full 10th of a second above the base arcade configuration. The Xbox D-pad is far too diagonal prone for this type of play. The shoulder buttons are even worse than the SNES shoulder buttons. I haven't had a chance to play online yet, but lag on any online game usually precludes tight fighting interfaces, especially as you speed up gameplay.

      It's still a good game. And XBL arcade rocks. And he's picking it apart over things a new Street Fighter player might never even notice. But he's basically right.

    3. Re:Let me sum up the review... by Mprx · · Score: 2, Informative

      In the context of fighting games, "frame" always refers to the usually 60Hz video frames, and has nothing to do with networking.

  6. I can't imagine playing this by bunions · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can feel 50ms when you're playing fighting games. If the lag was constant, maybe it'd be different, but it never is.

    --
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  7. Ya but it's worse than you thought by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    There was Street Fighter, and then Street Fighter 2. Since then, well it's never really incremented. After SF2 was SF2: Champion Edition, and SF2: Hyper Fighting. Then then moved to the CPS-2 hardware with Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers, then SSF2 Turbo. After that was NOT SF3, but rather Street Fighter Alpha. Street Fighter 3 finally did come in 1997, after 3 Alpha games.

    I think he's just genreally giving Capcom shit for their odd naming scheme.

  8. Re:Turbo == Hyper Fighting by milkman_matt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The title screen of the copy of Street Fighter II Turbo for Super NES that I rented said "Hyper Fighting" where the original said "The World Warrior". Wikipedia backs me up. Perhaps you're thinking of the fact that the word Turbo was left out of the arcade game's title in some markets.

    That's because SFII:Turbo -was- Hyper Fighting:

    KLOV Link

    SFII (the original, where only one person could use one character) was "The World Warrior"
    then came Champion Edition where 2 people could use the same person, then came SFII Turbo: Hyper Fighting which was I guess just a slightly enhanced, sped up version of SFII CE, after that were all of the pirate versions, rainbow edition and such, then the alphas and SFIII, but yeah, this is just a port of the (IMO) most well rounded version of the game.

    I actually bought the PCB off of ebay then went to an arcade game auction, turns out someone was selling the exact cabinet/game that I already had, so I've got my own SFII Hyper Fighting cabinet @home, for less than the cost of any of my consoles. IMO the only way to play SFII is on an arcade cabinet, console controlers just don't do the fighting games (SFII, MK, Etc) justice (except maybe Tekken, that one's pretty good for use with a console controller)

  9. Street Fighter 2 EX PLUS HYPER ALPHA FIGHTING!1! by Not+Anonymous+Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    You might want to nix the Movie and the EX games if you're strictly counting games by Capcom. AFAIK, the two games were done outside of Capcom (the EX Series having been done by ARIKA). Also, you're missing Street Fighter EX III, since you're counting the EX Series (though, I'm not sure if that one saw an Arcade release, which I don't think it did).

    And might as well add X-Men Vs. Street Fighter and Street Fighter 2097 for NES if you want to be really complete about it (that and tons of Alpha compilations and tweaks for the consoles).

    --
    [VODAK - Apply Directly to the Mouth!] [VODAK - Apply Directly to the Mouth!] [VODAK - Apply Directly to the Mouth!]
  10. Booth and SF2 by cspariah · · Score: 3, Funny

    One of my greatest achievements in arcade gaming is that I managed to take one round -- not a full match, just a round -- from Jason Booth in SF2 Turbo when we were both at Turbine. Of course, he was only using one button -- light kick. When he switched to light punch, I was done.