In the name of milking it's
Streetfighter franchise for all it's worth, Capcom has explored many avenues to keep the series alive. From the expected spin-offs of a phenomenon like movies, cartoons, action figures and baseball caps, to completely different games that could still be linked back to the now legendary series, you can bet Capcom has tried it all.
One such game was
Super Puzzle Fighter, which was basically along the same lines as games such as
Columns or
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, in that it was a puzzle game that involved falling coloured gems. In a pretty desperate sign of milking the franchise, how this was linked back to
Streetfighter was that the entire game was played in a 'versus' mode, with two screens competing against each other to see who could survive the longest. Inbetween these two playing areas was a little screen where Superdeformed, or 'chibi', versions of popular
Streetfighter and even
Darkstalkers characters would stand and hit each other as players registered points.
Not content to leave the milking at that, Capcom spotted an opportunity to make a spin-off of the spin-off, and thus
Super Gem Fighter was born. The game was a 1-on-1 fighter, like
Streetfighter, but it used the Chibi characters from
Super Puzzle Fighter, and followed a more tongue-in-cheek route than the
Streetfighter games. For reasons basically unknown to anyone, Capcom renamed the game
Pocket Fighter for it's American and European console versions. Personally I don't have a preference,
Super Gem Fighter kind of captures the silliness of the game, but
Pocket Fighter is snappier. I'll stick with the latter, basically because it's what my copy of the game is called.
While the idea is still to reduce the opponent's energy bar to empty in 2/3 rounds, if you were to go into
Pocket Fighter expecting the complex combat engine of say,
Streetfighter 3:Third Strike you would be more than a little disappointed. To help tie the game into the Gem based play of the puzzle game, fighters beat Gems out of each other, and depending on the colour these can provide power ups such as strength or speed, basically a very primitive version of the Infinity Gems in
Marvel Super Heroes. It also echews the famous Capcom 6-Button fighter layout if preference of a new system that only uses 3 Attacks. All you have at your disposal is Punch, Kick and Special attack. Special moves are performed in the now immortal
Streetfighter fashion of Quarter Circle D-Pad movements accompanied by an attack button. To be honest, you would struggle to find anyone who had difficulty picking up the game and playing it fluidly within a match.
The combos in the game are all very simple and can be discovered by trial and error quite easily. Don't go expecting any
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2-esque 435-Hit super combos that require you to have fingers on every button, this really more of a casual laugh-around fighter than any sort of tournament orientated number.
Personally I love the way the game plays. It's a refreshing change of pace from the more serious
Streetfighter titles, or the just plain mediocre attempts at pseudo 3D fighters Capcom has been trying, and above all else it just plays good. Controls respond brilliantly, the action is fast and furious, and it's just bloody great fun.
As well as the standard Arcade Mode, which features fun little endings for each character, we also have the necessary Versus mode, as well as 'Edit Fighter' a mode in which you can alter a character's stats to make them stronger in certain aspects and fight the computer, or if your friend has a copy of the game and a memory card, their custom fighter. Personally I would say that as with any good Capcom fighter, the majority of this game's time in your
PlayStation will be spent in Versus mode. Should you get some friends in, hopefully with some Capcom fans amongst them, this game is a multiplayer blast. Seeing as it's system of fighting is so simple to pick up, the game won't see anyone get completely annihilated, yet the even success rate isn't down to mashing, but more a system that anyone can pick up. While I love the skill-required nature of the more serious fighters, sometimes it's just fun to have a laugh with a game that is well made, but is designed to be simple and fun.
Sadly, as with most 2D games on the console, a healthy chunk of the rest of your time will be spent on the 'Loading...' screen. Granted this certainly isn't the slowest Capcom fighter to load, but these times are still pretty noticeable.
Graphically is where the game earns most points from me. Not only does it have probably the least frames of animation blatantly missing out of all of Capcom's
PSX ports, but it also might just have the best graphics and animation. As I mentioned, the game features the really, well, cute chibi or SD characters, which means that Ken isn't the strapping young man of the the
Streetfighter games, and Morrigan isn't the seductive Succubus of her usual form, but instead they are ickle little versions of them with big heads. What makes things fun is that as well as the cast, which includes 8 Streetfighters(Ryu, Ken, Zangief, Dan, Chun Li, Sakura, Ibuki and Akuma), 3 Darkstalkers(Morrigan, Felicia and Lei-Lei) and the character Tessa, from Capcom's unreleased
Warzard/Red Earth, the game also boasts a slew of cameos from other Capcom characters. Not only do we have loads of silliness going on the background, including M.Bison and Cammy window shopping and Bishamon trying to warm himself from the icy wasteland, but your characters can also morph into other Capcom characters in the midst of a combo, making for hilarious results. Some of them are just bizarre, like Morrigan turning into a nurse, but some are really cool, like Chun Li turning into Jill Valentine from
Resident Evil. The game is loaded with these cool transformations, which really help liven things up in what is already a multiplayer hoot.
Sound in the game...well let's just say this isn't it's strongest aspect. I wouldn't go as far as saying the game has bad music...it just doesn't quite live up to the standard Capcom set in the early
Streetfighter games. I am a fan of the OTT and silly sound effects though, which just add to the laughable nature of the game.
In general, I feel that
Pocket Fighter is an incredibly fun and solid game, and is probably Capcom's best job of bringing one of it's fighters to the
PlayStation without losing a lot of things. While it may not be their most technically complex fighter, it's certainly a contender for their most fun, and my only major gripe apart from the loading times is the fact that the single player game is a little light on things to do. With that said,
Pocket Fighter earns 4/5 easily, and it's a game I have very little negative things to say about.
Related Reviews Movies Streetfighter 2:The Animated Movie Games Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo*
Streetfighter 2: Turbo for Super Nintendo Streetfighter 2:Special Champion Edition for Sega Genesis Super Streetfighter 2 for Super Nintendo Streetfighter Alpha 2 for Sega Saturn Streetfighter Alpha 3 for Dreamcast Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors for PlayStation Review also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk
