Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix FAQ
This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity.
Is the gameplay the same as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo?
You actually get two games in one in this package:
1) SSF2T HD Remix
2) SSF2T HD Classic Arcade
SSF2T HD Remix is a brand new game. It’s a sequel to SSF2T, with over 100 changes to improve the balance and playability.
SSF2T HD Classic Arcade has the same gameplay as the original Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. It does NOT have any of the easier joystick motions, command changes, bug fixes, or gameplay tweaks that you might have heard about in SSF2T HD Remix. Our goal is to make SSF2T HD Classic Arcade as close as possible to the gameplay of the original arcade ST in every way.
You don’t have to worry about which game you might like, because you get both of them together!
Is the rebalanced game (SSF2THDR) intended only for beginners? I heard someone say it’s “dumbed down.”
Although easier special move timings will help beginners, the rebalanced game is intended to be the tournament standard played by pros. The pros can already perform almost any move with staggering precision, so changes to move commands won’t affect them very much. The balance changes of hitboxes, recoveries, and other move properties will definitely affect the gameplay at the pro level though. Most of the balance changes are specifically aimed at the very highest level of tournament play in the world. (Plus several additions for the sake of fun that don’t ruin the balance.)
We hope that players will find the rebalanced game “smartened up,” rather than dumbed down. Making various special moves a bit easier to perform puts more emphasis on strategy and reading the mind of your opponent. Likewise, strengthening the low tier characters will put more emphasis on player skill and less on disparities between characters. While we hope beginners will find the game more accessible, make no mistake that we intend the game to be more strategically interesting at the tournament level than ever before.
Will each game have separate rankings?
Yes. Similar to X and X’ modes in Puzzle Fighter, there will be separate leaderboards for SSF2T HD Remix and SSF2T HD Classic Arcade.
Do both games have new art?
Yes. All the character sprites, backgrounds, projectiles, effects, UI, and menus are redone in HD. Every piece of art is new whether you play the classic game or the new game.
Is the game widescreen 16:9 or is it 4:3?
It’s both. If you have a widescreen tv, the menu screens and character select screen will always be widescreen. You can choose whether to view the gameplay itself in either the original 4:3 or the new 16:9. The 16:9 mode zooms in to fill your screen, and also adjusts the camera movement to pan up when necessary. The 16:9 mode does not alter gameplay at all. In fact, you can play in the 4:3 mode while your networked opponent plays in the 16:9 mode, and neither of you will even know how the other is viewing the game.
Is the game 1080p?
Like most 1080p games, SSF2T HD Remix does render in full 1080p with no hardware scaling. Our goal is actually a higher standard for 1080p where every pixel on screen maps 1:1 with a pixel from the source texture. There are very few games that meet this standard, and it would be nearly impossible for a 3D game to do so with today’s hardware. Every piece of art in our entire game—from menus to life bars to backgrounds to character sprites—is being created at 1080p resolution.
Because of download size limits, we are not yet sure if we can meet our goal of 1:1 pixels. Maybe we will be able to do further optimizations to meet it, or maybe the download size limits will change. In the absolute worst case though, the game will still output a 1080p signal and will still have 1:1 1080p source resolution for all text, all UI elements such as life bars and super meters, and even the foreground elements on all the stages. Only the characters and far backgrounds might have to use 720p source art scaled to 1080p.
Even though this worst case still leaves the game a 1080p game, we are still working toward our goal of a 1080p signal with 100% 1080p source art as well.
Is there new music?
Yes, all the stages will have new remixed music.
Is this game based on the Dreamcast version of SSF2T? I thought people wanted the arcade version.
Yes it is based on the Dreamcast version. The Dreamcast version has many fixes and features over the arcade version. It has random character select, a training mode, a versus mode, and lots of bug fixes such the ability to do reversal supers with Ken/Sagat/Dhalsim, the correct sound effects for hitting with certain normal moves, the correct point values for hitting with certain normal moves, etc. The new gamely in SSF2T HD Remix uses the Dreamcast version as a starting point because we wanted these small bugs fixed.
We also know that everyone wants the arcade version for SSF2T HD Classic Arcade. Luckily, the Dreamcast version contains the source code of the arcade game with internal dipswitches to set gameplay back to the arcade version. We’ve set everything to the 02/23/1994 settings, which should be the same as the arcade version. This allows to have the gameplay of the arcade version with the versus mode, training mode, random select, and damage handicap options of the Dreamcast version.
There are claims that the character sizes are different in the Dreamcast version than arcade. After capturing screens from both versions and comparing, I found that they line up exactly, pixel for pixel. The only difference is that the Dreamcast version introduced a black border around the edges of the video signal that might make the entire game appear to be slightly smaller, depending on your tv. This will not be an issue in our version though, so the character sizes should be exactly like the arcade.
We also noticed that damage dealt appears to be different in the Dreamcast’s versus mode compared with the arcade version. Yes, this is true and it’s due to the way the game handles handicap settings. We changed the handicap formulas so that if you play on the default handicap, the damage dealt will be exactly the same as the arcade version, but now you have the option of having a little more or less life if you want. (Handicap is of course disabled in ranked play and it defaults to off in unranked play, but you can turn it on if you like.)
The game speed is also slightly different depending on which hardware the game runs on. We are still working towards making our speeds match the arcade speeds. They’re close, but we will do more tuning.
Are the “old characters” still in the game?
The original ST game has 16 characters (including Ken, for example), 16 alternate versions (including Old Ken, for example), and Akuma. SSF2T HD Classic Arcade has all these same characters.
SSF2T HD Remix no longer has the 16 “old characters” though. Instead, the highlights of those characters have been incorporated into their mainline counterparts. SSF2T HD Remix has 17 selectable characters.
Is Akuma selectable?
In the original SSF2T, Akuma was a powerful boss character, not intended to be balanced against the rest of the characters. For this reason, he is NOT selectable in online ranked matches in SSF2T HD Classic Arcade. In unranked matches, he will either also be unselectable, or there will be an option to allow/disallow him with the default set to disallow.
In the new SSF2T HD Remix gameplay, Akuma is rebalanced to compete fairly against the other characters. He is allowed and he no longer even requires a secret code to pick him.
--Sirlin
You can post comments here, but if you want a response, you have a better chance at Capcom Unity.
November 27th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
[…] AV zombie wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerpt This article is reprinted with permission from Capcom Unity. Is the gameplay the same as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo? You actually get two games in one in this package: 1) SSF2T HD Remix 2) SSF2T HD Classic Arcade SSF2T HD Remix is a brand new game. It’s a sequel to SSF2T, with over 100 changes to improve the balance and playability. SSF2T HD Classic Arcade has the same gameplay as the original Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. It does NOT have any of the easier joystick motions, command c […]
November 28th, 2007 at 12:29 am
[…] Read the rest of this great post here […]
November 28th, 2007 at 1:19 am
First!
Is there an option to listen to the original music instead of the remixed versions?
November 28th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Just to put it on record, after further consideration I’ve decided or realized that anything and everything I thought I didn’t like about this new version 1) was for a better reason I hadn’t thought of, or 2) grew on me to the point where I’m all for it.
This game is going to be amazing. It’s an incredible time to be a ST fan.
November 28th, 2007 at 4:01 am
Just to put it on record, after further consideration I’ve decided or realized that anything and everything I thought I didn’t like about this new version 1) was for a better reason I hadn’t thought of, or 2) grew on me to the point where I’m now all for it.
This game is going to be amazing. It’s an incredible time to be a ST fan.
November 28th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Why bother including an arcade version of ST, though? You’re going to put it out, and then everyone will declare that there are imaginary problems that aren’t there and then get their ePitchforks and eTorches and chase you through the internet to burn you at the stake for these non-existent issues, just like with CCC2. You’re already saying that you’re tweaking another version of ST that people baselessly protested, so why not just give all the naysayers the finger and say “play CCC2, bitches” before they just say that there’s one extra frame of recovery on a MP Tiger Uppercut and repeat all the silliness there was with CCC2? Not to mention the fact that this is going to cause all sorts of idiocy to surface at the next Evolution if the Remix is the new tourney standard.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:50 am
CCC2 still isn’t a good version for tournaments. Variable stage speed is just way messed up. Possible input lag is also way messed up. Putting ST in HD is doing the right thing to the community and also supplies a backup if remix mode is to turn out to be broken. Really at this point theres no reason NOT to release ST. That was the point of the project from the beginning, anyways.
What I’m curious about is how Sirlin and his team does with the relbalancing. As far as I know this is the only time we’ve had an American company balancing a fighting game and no one has any experience at doing it yet.
Japanese change logs seem to be cracked out and with a lot of “WTF” stuff. I think we’ll be seeing a more… levelheaded approach.
November 28th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
I’m also interested to hear if the original music will be an option. Capcom seems to remix music with every new SF release. Appreciate the effort, but not really necessary.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Will this be x-box exclusive?
November 29th, 2007 at 4:40 am
This looks like an incredible amount of work for an XBLA game. Impressive!
November 30th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
sounds good. I just wish there was some way to optimise the matchmaking so those of us who live outside america/europe can try to find local opponents. a lot of games screw this up.
December 1st, 2007 at 4:58 am
The #1 thing that made me never play Street Fighter games seriously was the ridiculous controller functions needed to do the special moves. I’m all for fighting games, but when I want to throw a dragon-punch, I’m not interested in it failing 15% of the time cause I inputed the obscure button combination the wrong way. Sure, I could practice for hours and get it down pat, but I’m much more interested in the fun mind-games and strategy, not mastering the trivial minutia of getting the moves to even work.
I cannot applaud the attempt to simplify the inputs enough, and reading this article makes me want to play the game.
December 1st, 2007 at 11:01 am
…seriously? You can’t do a DRAGON PUNCH consistently?!?!?! And you say it’s TRIVIAL and MINUTE?!
::rubs eyes::
Am I just more talented than I think I am when it comes to fighting games or something? Are the moves really that hard to do? I had trouble with dragon punches myself when I first picked up SF…but 10 minutes in Training Mode fixed that up near-instantly.
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:19 am
You made Brian’s points exactly. When someone is playing a game that’s supposed to be about strategy and timing, who wants to spend time in training just to be able to do some of the moves? Even if it’s only 10 minutes.
What’s most important is that while making moves easier, it helps beginners, who does it hurt?
The only people it can possibly hurt are those people (I assume like you, spudly), who spent some time learning the moves, and enjoy nothing better than massacring people who never got the chance to learn them.
Serious players of the game lose nothing, beginners gain a lot. What’s the question?
December 2nd, 2007 at 6:53 am
Like I said in the other post by Sirlin, if you’re unwilling to spend a comically small amount of time learning the moves, ESPECIALLY one as simple as a shoryuken, then there’s absolutely no chance that they’re going to invest the hours and hours into perfecting combos and pressure strings.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:08 am
Sirlin, I’m agree with your gameplay changes. 2 suggestions:
1) I think there is a common design issue in almost all games with on-line competitive game: often when you’re a rookie or average player in a game, you always loose, because the game don’t have an option to select the skill of the players when creating a new match. And it’s so strange because almost all have an skill rank. So it becomes so fustrating and you only play with your friends.
I think the people usually wants to play versus people of the same skill level (or almost), please add an option to filter players by skill when creating an on-line game room.
2) Please, mantain the 1080p sprites. If this Street Fighter HD, they must be in HD. To fit the X360 size limit, I think other things like training game mode, remixed/original soundtracks, survival game modes, etc… can be added with an extra add-on DLC pack. Or at least plase, leave them in 1080p in the PS3 version(PSN has 1700MB+ demos).
3) Guile almost always was toned down in every game. Please give us a strong Guile, like he was in World Warrior or in Marvel Vs Capcom 2.
4) Think in people who can’t play often on-line or who don’t like it: don’t add only arcade/versus/training game modes when playing offline. Please add things like SFA3 multiple survival mode, off-line tournament and league game modes etc.
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:52 am
MvC2 Guile was good? All I remember was him getting infinite’d by Magneto all day long.
December 3rd, 2007 at 7:45 am
Edit: And I didn’t wanna sound like a jackass in that.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:49 am
I think those opposed to simplified commands aren’t thinking from the perspective of a new player. No one has ever said the hardest thing about playing a fighting game is controlling your character. However, learning to control your character is, quite simply, zero fun, and more complex controls just make you slog through more of it. I’m not really familiar with Street Fighter, but let’s say each character has 3 “hard” moves that take about 10 minutes a piece to learn. Raw memorization of the command list is another half an hour easy. That is, to play any one character, I have to spend a full hour learning just how to move. All those advanced techniques you described are fun stuff. That’s learning how to defeat opponents, the reason to play in the first place. It’s almost like there’s an hour long loading screen the first time you play the game. If you aren’t willing to wait through it, you don’t get to play at all! Isn’t that just, frankly, terrible game design? Sirlin is suggesting a lower loading time.
Remember that the new player isn’t dedicated to playing Street Fighter. There are other games out there too, and he might only be looking to take one to a high level. What if he has to pick between Street Fighter and Smash Bros? In the Smash Bros games, basic input is really, really easy. You can easily have full control of all of your character’s moves in 10 minutes. Even more, it translates perfectly to other characters as they all have the same inputs for attacks. If I learn how to control Mario and just watch someone play Link, I understand a good deal about controlling Link and could reasonably try playing as Link. With a game like Street Fighter, you have to learn every character independently. Some experience translates, but the raw memorization remains and the inputs still won’t come instantly. Let’s say it takes about 40 minutes for each additional character in Street Fighter. In Smash Bros, it’s 1 minute tops. So, in Smash Bros, if I want to be able to control all 26 characters, it takes me 35 minutes. In Street Fighter, it takes me 11 hours and 40 minutes to control just the 17 characters. I’m not considering playing well; I’m considering playing at all! I might misunderstand, but it sounds like Sirlin’s version also makes more inputs across characters similar to each other. That will doubtlessly really radically reduce the time for Street Fighter.
I’m not saying Street Fighter is ever going to be as accessible as Smash Bros, but it definitely has to compete for the attention of players. If it’s twenty times more time consuming just to start playing at all, it’s at a massive disadvantage. I don’t get how you could be opposed to it lowering that number so it can actually reasonably compete.
December 4th, 2007 at 3:45 am
Anonymous,
One of the facets of Street Fighter that I have always appreciated is that generally special move motions are simple and transcend characters. Look at the list of motions you really need to know to play almost all of the SF games (in order of arguable difficulty):
Charge back, forward
Charge down, up
Quarter circle forward
Quarter circle backward
Half circle forward
Half circle backward
Shoryuken forward
Shoryuken backward
360 (technically less)
With this basic set of special moves, you can pretty much play any street fighter character, and pick up characters that you do not even know how to play and just “figure them out” by testing the above moves. Compared to many other fighters, SF does a good job of keeping move lists simple.
SF is designed to be a “competitive game” and needs to have enough character variation to properly individualize it’s cast. That said, I do still like the proposed changes. I think it would make certain aspects of the game a little more interesting. For example, I believe this would give Ryu and Ken a better chance against the top tier since the input for the DP will be more forgiving. The first thing that comes to mind is that they will be able to more easily counter tick-throw attempts.
Which brings up another question I have: won’t increasing the window make it harder to walk forward and choose to throw a fireball? Right now a player already has to be extra careful when trying to throw fireballs immediately after moving foward.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Jinmaster, the window to dragon punch is no larger than the largest window you could get in the original game if you got the best “roll of the dice.” I tried a version with an even bigger window and the problem of not being able to low kick into fireball was definitely there. But with the current window, it’s ok. Admittedly you still have to be careful and it’s similar to the original game in that respect.
December 4th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
I don’t have any trouble doing moves and I applaud the execution change. I like winning when I out-think my opponent, not when he defeats himself by not executing move X at the proper time when it’s clear he meant to do something else and it sucks to think that some good strategic thinkers would avoid fighter games because the dexterity requirements are too high.
I tried to introduce a couple of people (one is a strategy gamer, one plays SSBM and action games) to fighting games, and oddly enough both of these players stopped trying to learn how to play Street Fighter when they couldn’t learn how to execute dragon punches (both could do quarter circles and half-circles just fine).
Hopefully the easier inputs helps more people get into Street Fighter whose fun part (IMO) is the mental game, not the execution game.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
I’d like to state that I am indeed a competitive player of quite a few games. I’ve won local tournaments in my games of choice and do not back down from a challenge. The most recent street fighter style games I have played are SSB:M and Soul Caliber 2. The contrast between the two games is exactly what I was talking about.
SSB:M - About 5 minutes of practice lets me do every single move in a characters repertoire consistently. From that moment on, I am immersed in the great fun of figuring out what to do when, what counters what and which characters work well for me.
Soul Caliber 2 - After many hours of playing and time spent in practice mode learning the arcane combinations of buttons that will initiate various moves, I almost have 2 characters move lists understood and practiced enough to use with competence and 4 more with decent ability. Picking up a new character is about as un-fun an experience I can imagine (What, so forward and kick is now a super slow attack instead of a quick interrupter? Awesome.)
Guess which game I find more fun? Guess which one I felt compelled to study, learn combos, figure out matchups and even go so far as to study frame rates of moves? I’m just saying that the easier the basics of a game are, the more people are likely to play. Hearing that the Remix some of these entry issues easier to deal with makes me want to pick up a copy.
I have never once been able to do a spinning piledriver, though I sure liked playing Zangief. What does it add to a game by making these moves hard to do? Nothing. What does it add by making them easy? Accessibility. And my money.
December 6th, 2007 at 2:35 am
So uhh….you found Soul Calibur “inaccessible?”
December 6th, 2007 at 2:35 am
So uhh….you found Soul Calibur “inaccessible?”
December 6th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Very much so. After 10 hours of playing, say, StarCraft I know every unit and techtree in the game. Now I get the great fun of mastering strategy.
After 10 hours of Soul Calibur, I’ve maybe figured out maybe one character. I’m not even close to being able to participate in the interesting, higher level play I crave.
SSB was the first Fighting game I got deeply into since MK:1. Why did I like it? Because it didn’t take me a year of training to get to the good parts. The “mastery” of the game is no easier and the depth of play no more shallow. The part that sucks, the part where you can’t do special moves consistently or have movelists memorized yet, is expedited.
I’m missing how this is confusing.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:22 am
Soul Calibur sure isn’t as accessible as Smash Bros. There’s something to be said for being able to use all of a characters attacks the instant you pick them up.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:45 am
I always thought Soul Calibur at high level play held the dubious subtitle of: “Play as Cervantes or Die”… which greatly simplifies the learning curve, if nothing else. It shares a lot with other 3d fighters though… I was already fairly competent at VF when I first tried it, and it was really a breeze… I think understanding the basic control scheme of the entire genre of 3d fighters can be fairly difficult, but they’re all quite similar once you get one down.
I also just have to laugh when people call SSBM accessible… admittedly, my best friend is considered one of the top 10 players in the country. But, omg, the wave dashing. High level play in that game is completely absurb with the number of weird bugs you have to know about just to compete, and actually learning to use those techniques during a match rivals the worst execution problems I’ve seen in any other fighter. Not to mention it’s balanced to challenge MvC2 for smallest percentage of usable characters ever created.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:52 am
That’s true, but those hurdles only arise in high-level/competitive play, and even then, they’re uniform for every character for the most part.
When playing at a casual level, such as when playing for the first time, it only takes a few minutes of someone explaining the game or watching the How to Play video, and they know the controls and moves for every character, and can get right into the strategy/mindgame aspect, at least on a casual level.
Don’t get me wrong, Melee has its fair share of execution-related shortcomings that become apparent when you try to get beyond the very basic level (four strictly timed inputs for one effective jumping attack), but getting someone into it and playing for the first time is a hell of a lot easier and quicker than, say, walking someone through the basics of a traditional 2D fighter who’s never played one before.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Actually, Claytus, it’s play as Sophitia or die these days. And Soul Calibur is really, really easy. Even if MvC2 or SSBM has the smallest percentage of usable characters (3S has fewer, percentage-wise than SSBM, btw), SC has the slimmest percentage of moves that are useful. Seriously, pull up a SC3 tourney vid with Sophitia or Xianghua and all you see are people using 2A and 3B.
December 29th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Thank god the original is gonna be kept intact. I was told by a friend that the gameplay would be redone and the first thought in my mind was “How could you fix a game that’s been on the tournament scene for so long? Don’t ruin SSFT2, Sirlin!” Not that I’m saying your changes would be for the worse. It’s just that improving a game that’s nearly 14 years old that’s been played for the same amount of years is kinda ridiculous.
December 30th, 2007 at 2:39 am
Wryyy: If you can’t picture an improved game, perhaps that’s a problem with your ability to visualize improvements. The Evolution tournament players who have played the new game so far say that it’s more fun and has far fewer bad matchups than the original game.
–Sirlin
January 19th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I congratulate the HD Remix dev team on making Street Fighter attractive to new players.
It is very frustrating for newcomers when the moves are so difficult to pull off.
Most other specials are smooth, natural movements: either an arc (Quarter circle, half circle) or to-and-fro (charge moves). They can be mastered easily once the timing of the button press has been learned.
However, that crazy jiggle motion for the Dragon Punch took me years to master. Not wishing this hardship on others, I have only one request for HD Remix:
Please introduce an alternative input for the dragon punch.
forward, down-forward, down + button
–O \ | + button
O O
If you would indulge me, it makes more sense in two respects:
1) Fireball/Uppercut trapping becomes a seesaw action among those three directions, punctuated by button presses.
2) For the games iconic characters, Ryu and Ken, down + punch3 is an anti-air uppercut. It would make sense to a beginner if a movement ending with down + punch3 would produce a “super uppercut”.
February 21st, 2008 at 2:33 am
Yesterday, one of my friends said that the graphics development for SSF2THDR is going to be outsourced because Udon is taking too long with it. I’m not taking what he said at face value, since the internet is packed with unfounded rumors, but it wouldn’t be the first time something ridiculous-sounding has been true.
Assuming you are even allowed to comment on this, is there any truth to his statement?
February 21st, 2008 at 9:49 pm
<strong>Jessie</strong>
Thanks, I recently started my own business so this type of post is of great interest to me. Keep it up :)