OVERALL RATING		4.0
Presentation		4.5
Control		3.5
Gameplay		3.5
Fun factor		4.5
User Rating		3.0

Street Fighter II ignited the fighting game genre and became a savior for the ailing arcade industry in the 90’s.  At least until it really took a dive thanks to consoles, but there are still many whom fondly remember lining up quarters just for the chance to hold down the machine.  The first mobile release of this title was quite forgettable and knowing that a benchmark game like this really deserves a worthy showing, a new version has been built from the ground up.

This new Street Fighter II is closely modeled after the arcade game we’ve all come to love.  The eight well-known characters, including Ryu, Chun Li and Guile, are playable and allow you to battle the rest on your way to taking on the four bosses like Vega and M. Bison.  All fighters maintain their unique style and moves, including the combos and special moves that have become hallmarks of the series.  The only thing missing are the mini-games in between like thrashing the car or breaking the barrels.

These exclusions are hardly missed, or better yet, thankfully not included and not because they weren’t fun, but more so on the fact that, surprise surprise, the controls bite.  Now, Capcom has done an excellent job in providing ALL of the moves and attacks and mapped them precisely to the famous six-button configuration.  They respond very well great but trying to sort these out and the 8-way controls to perform them on a phone's keypad?  You’ll just about pull your hair out.  Again, this isn’t the game’s fault, it’s the phone’s fault, which is why we're not penalizing the Controls score.  The game is still quite playable should you choose to limit your types of attack, but it just doesn’t feel right knowing you have such an unusable arsenal of moves, though if you train hard enough you can pull them off.

Despite this, the game is very close to the original in terms of looks and sound.  The characters have flawless animation and smoothness while their individual backdrops shine.  Each stage also possesses its original theme music, save for a few effects, but it’s still a top-notch production.

There are seven difficulty settings and your progress is automatically saved after each encounter, so Street Fighter II will keep you coming back for more.  It’s a shame that the phone’s controls make this game the poster child for why mobile phones need a better interface for gaming because other than that, the game rocks.  It’s an excellent tribute to the coin-op monster of old.