Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (Sniper)
Genre: 2d Fighter
Developer: Sensory Sweep
Publisher: Capcom

Graphics
All of the original artwork from Street Fighter II Turbo is present, including all of the costume colors, backgrounds, and frames of animation. This Xbox Live Arcade adaptation gives you the option of stretching the screen horizontally or vertically, but it doesn't allow you to lock the aspect ratio, which seems a little silly. Framerates seem consistent enough, and the presentation is sharp and vivid.

Sound
Perhaps I've just been playing the excellent "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" on the 3DO too much lately, but the audio in "Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting" sounds incredibly grainy and low quality. This flaw extends to both the sound effects and the music. This version of the classic SFII soundtrack is also one of the worst I've ever heard, reminds me of the Genesis renditions.

Gameplay
Originally, the word "Hyper" in "Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting" meant that there was an adjustable speed selector. In this Live adaptation, there is none, which basically means that this is SFII Champion edition, not Turbo. Aside from the mis-naming, this version plays extremely fast, to the point where human reflexes can't even react to a jumping opponent in time. As well, the stages feel narrow, players can cross the entire stage in a jump and a half, which feels odd compared to all the other SFII renditions.

Overall
Not only is the game mis-named, plays way too fast, have horrible audio, and features a seemingly inaccurate version of the engine, but the MS Xbox 360 controller's d-pad is so poorly designed that it makes this game nearly impossible to play. The d-pad isn't their fault, but it seems ridiculous that "Sensory Sweep" should have so many other problems when all they had to do was emulate an existing fourteen year-old title.

Sniper's verdict: