🚀 go-pugleaf

I have just come back from playing and observing Super Streetfighter 2.
Let me tell you now that it is a seperior game that blows away any other
fighting game out at the arcade.
The sneak peek at SSF2 took place today in San Francisco at Pier 39.
There was a fair amount of people present(thats an understatment) and
everyone was jammed packed around the machine like sardines. I arrived a
bit early and they were still setting up. SSF2 was on a 32 inch color tv
with some crappy control knobs(the ones with the round knob at he end).
There were people around who were handing out yellow tickets with
numbers on them and this represented our turn to play. In addition, they
were giving out free Gamepro's, SSF2 trading cards, and the SF2 comic
book which I thought EGM said they were not going to publish anymore. If
thats the truth, then I have a collectors edition.  There was even a
Chun Li there too!!!! although no one was concentrating on her. (She was
cute). 
The beginning of the game is cool. Its starts off with one of the world
warriors in a faded blue background. You can only see his silouhette and
he is moving his shoulders and arms up and down like a boxer does. Then
lightening flashes and the screen '"de-blues" . Each time the lightening
flashes, the screen gets clearer and clearer until you get to who this
world warrior is: its Ryu. You then see white light energy appear at his
arms and hands and he throws a fire ball at you!!! Ryu has a nasty look
on his face. The animation sequence is hard to describe cuz it was so
amazing but you will be fascinated by it when you see it. After this Ryu
lead in
 to the                                                     
game, the computer picks its 2 combatants and they go at it.
     Things you will notice when you start the game are the following:
    -The map has been redrawn
    -All of the chartacters portraits have been redrawn also. They look
     meaner, tougher, and more mature
    -The portraits are much bigger than in CE or HF
    -you can choose different colors for your character like red,
    yellow, blue etc.
    -you can see vega's face

The 4 new characters
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Cammy:  Cammy looks like a female green beret. She has no fireball but
she has speed and a horizontal Dhalsim spear that can pass under
fireballs and hit projectile throwing enemies.  She has a mean air throw
a la Chun Li and she has a suplex a la Guile. She also has a throw in
which I believe she leg trows you.(thats how it looked like to me).

Dee Jay: another boxer like balrog except this guy can kick and throw a
fireball. He packs a wallop, but is a little slow as you can imagine.
He can also throw. No one really played him so I cant say much about
him. He also as a slide a la Dhalsim, but much much quicker and he jumps
back after doing it so its hard to counter.

T Hawke. This Indian chief from Mexico! is as tall as Dee Jay and he is
a little slow also, but not by that much. He has an upward thrust to
counter jumping opponents and a downward thrust to be used as an
offensive weapon. T Hawke has this awesome tomohawk spin a la Zangief in
which he grabs your arm, jumps up, twirls you around in the air and
throws you down!!! Totally awesome. You had to see it to believe. I dont
think he can throw fireballs.    

Fei Long: Probably the most exciting of the characters. Most tof the
people were playing him. He is similiar to dragon in World Heroes and he
has moderate speed. Although I dont think he throws fireballs, he as a
long leg reach. Plus, he has this flaming leg uppercut which burns its
opponents. He has an awesome throw plus it looks like he has good
throwing range.                                          

The regular characters
______________________
     
Most people played the new characters and Ken, Ryu and Guile! I , of
course, played Dhalsim who is my favorite.

Probably the scarest part of this game is the improvements they made on
Ken/Ryu. Their fireball is is much different and it has the motions of a
"pulsating" bubble as it moves across the screen. It aslo takes off a
lot of health even when you block. I think both can throw a red fireball
on command. If this hits and unblocking player, he/she is stunned and
kneels to the ground. You are vulnerable at this point, however, the
stun does not last long.  Both characters now have a fierce fire dragon
punch that burns its opponents a la Dhalsim. They both have their mid
air hurricane kicks intact to.  These charcters seem to be more
"advanced than the other characters.

The only noticeable difference in Guile is that he has a somewhat long
pause after throwing a fireball!!!

Bison as this new dive hit. When he head stomps you, he dives at you
head first and hits you with a bubbled red fist. Also, when he flames,
it hits you about 4 times and after he's through, you are placed a
distance away form him so that he cannot throw you!

They really fucked Dhaslsim up big time. He is SLOW. His yoga spear and
yoga mummy are SLOW. Its a little bit faster than the Classic.
In addition, when your yoga fire hits an unblocking opponent, it does
NOT knock him down. It burns him while he's standing up and thats it.
                              
Believe it or not, those are the characters that people played so I cnat
remark on the others. In addition, the 4 new characters might have more
moves, but people did not know how to perform them.

Other miscellaneoud things:
-when a person is dizzy after a hit, stars immediatel float around his
head. This takes the guesswork  out of wondering if you should run up to
an opponent and throw.
-in vegas stage, the steel fence is dropped! onto the playfield!
-when you win, you get a star  next to your life bar instead of the 2
fingers making the peace gesture.
-at the beginning of each round, when you get the first hit, it
displays: 3000Points
FIRST HIT 3000 Points
when you do a 3 hit combo for ie. on the screen is displayed:
3 HIT Combo
 7000 points

The graphics are stunning and colorful with much detail. Again you have
to see it in order to know what I mean, however, it makes the HF and CE
graphics look "linear". I also have to point out that the game was
hooked up to one of those 32 inch color monitor tvs, so there wass some
distortion.  In addition, this game boasted to have Q sound, but you
now, they didn't crank the volume up! so it was hard to hear.
The speed of the game is comparable to CE but a little little bit
faster. The game was supposed to to make each character equal, but IMO,
they made RYU/Ken too powerful and Dhalsim to weak.

In Retrospect, SSF2 is THE fighting game. Its beats out anyhting else
including CE and HF. It should be realeased to buyers in
October/November.
   
Dio

Special thanks to Andy Eddy who posted the locations of the cities where
they were going to give a preview os SSF2.