Street Fighter II

Capcom Interactive is a company that, for the most part, understands what mobile is all about. Their mobile releases are generally a smart combination of original titles, and retro ports that make sense for the mobile medium. Titles like Mega Man, Phoenix Wright, and Ghosts and Goblins all work really well on mobile phones.

That's why their decision to straight-up port Street Fight II to mobile phones is all the more baffling. It doesn't take an expert to know that a classic title like SFII, as fantastic as it is, would need some major reworking to be an enjoyable mobile experience.

The big problem with this port is that the control set-up remains unchanged. Meaning there are six attack buttons - three punches and three kicks, as well as movement and jumping, all crammed onto a phone's tiny numpad. 7,8 and 9 punch, while *, 0, and # kick. You can use 4 and 6 to move left and right and 1, 2 and 3 to jump if you want, but using the d-pad for movement/jumping makes a lot more sense. Either way, the control set-up here is nuts.

Really, I'm not sure what options Capcom had with this one. If they did give the game a major reworking to be more appropriate for mobile phones, its likely that special attacks would have been simplified or eliminated entirely, and the three punch and kick buttons would have been condensed into one a piece. Then, instead of complaining about an incredibly over-complex control scheme, I likely would have been complaining about the series being so "watered down." The fact is fighting games just don't make a lot of sense on mobile phones, no matter how you approach the genre.

Street Fighter II is not devoid of enjoyment. You can dial the enemy AI down and run through the gamut of opponents and still enjoy yourself, thanks to the variety of stages, combatants, and strategic fighting options. The game is very impressive on a technical level, as well. But ultimately, the package is a frustrating one.