Unarguably the greatest by Jedekai on December 14, 2008
Rating: 10/10
When this game came out in 1992, it was done to address some of the "cheap" or "broken" moves from the previous games, such as Ryu's infamous "True Dragon Punch" (forward to down fierce punch, which is half the Dragon Punch's motion then rolling the joystick forward with another fierce punch to complete the move) which, in the original Street Fighter 2, took out 60% of your opponents life and stunned him) as well as Guile's incredibly cheap "mash the light punch button as hard as you can" 5-hit combo. It also fixed some of the bosses outrageous special move damage, Vega/M. Bison's Psycho Crusher, anyone?
Most of these were addressed in Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition - but some were made even more broken. Lest we forget Chun-Li's nigh-unstoppable crossover roundhouse/crouching fierce/Spinning Bird Kick 90% stunning combo, or Blanka's Vertical Rolling Thunder/Electric Charge 50% stunner... Repeat combo for the win.
With Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting (or Dash in Japan) the main goal was to make a "tournament" version of the game, as most chains in the Unites States, Canada, Germany and Japan were complaining that THEIR competitors were complaining about nine thousand "Ryu vs. Ryu" Dragon Punch battles. So they decided to alter some of the in-game motions and destructive capabilities of the game itself. Most noticeably that none of the "charge" moves had their times reduced from 1.375 seconds to .75 (Think Guile's "Sonic Boom"). Another, then radical, change was that Balrog/M. Bison's damage was altered by a 15% increase and 25% speed increase across the board. Some of the moves were altered to allow air counters to prevent the dreaded crossover attack, most noticeably Ryu and Ken's Whirlwind Kick - which could now be done in the air.
The overall difficulty of the game was ramped up so that the normal level 4 challenge setting was now the same as level 6 on the original Street Fighter 2 machines. This meant that beating the game on one credit was no longer a rite of passage but a firm declaration that, yes, this person could make you stick 40 quarters/50p/god-knows-how-much-Yen in the machine, let you pick his character, and soundly club you like a baby snow seal repeatedly.
Even now as I write this (December, 2008) only one fighting game offers the level of balance this one does - only Virtua Fighter 2.1/5.2, honestly.
No other arcade game, period, is as fair about taking your ability and testing it to the limit over and over again.
There are many competitor's for the title "Greatest Fighting Game Ever" but only one is played for a $75,000 title each year at EVO: Fighting Game Championship.
Like the title says: There is no room for argument, this is the single best fighting game made... For now.
