My fondest memories as a gamer come from the 90s, when I would hit up the local Nickel Arcade and take on friends and strangers in the latest fighting games and over-the-top sports titles. I remember playing Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, NBA Jam and a bunch of other games, but the game that started it all for me was Street Fighter II. As the first modern 2D fighting game, Street Fighter II redefined the genre and allowed Midway, SNK and other publishers to break into the fighting game genre.

When Microsoft first announced Xbox Live Arcade at E3 2005, my first thoughts were about playing these classics from the 90s with online play over Xbox Live. It's taken a while for Microsoft to get things going, but Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, the first of hopefully many arcade titles from the 90s is finally upon us.

I prefer Super Street Fighter II (or Super Turbo) or the Street Fighter Alpha series, but it was no surprise to me when Capcom announced that its first XBLA game would be Hyper Fighting. Capcom is all about milking its franchises to the fullest, and the company might be losing out on money if they offered up Super Street Fighter II Turbo or the Alpha series as its first XBLA tile. By releasing Hyper Fighting first, Capcom can make more money off of Super or Super Turbo, then head into the Alpha series and possibly even Street Fighter III if it will fit within the XBLA parameters.

While I blame Capcom for milking its franchises, every Street Fighter fan is going to pick up Hyper Fighting and they're probably going to enjoy their time with the game. The preview build that I played a few weeks back featured horrible net code that made the game nearly unplayable online. However, the extra development time has really helped the net code as it now plays much smoother than the preview build.

One of the main highlights of the game and a mode you'll probably be spending a lot of time with is the Quarter Match mode. Similar in style to the online fighting in Dead or Alive 4, up to four players can get into a lobby and play a winner stays style match setup. Just like the arcade days of old, two players will face off, with the winner staying on to fight the next person in line, and the loser heading to the back of the line. It would've been nice to see the ability to make larger rooms when you want to play with more than a few friends, but the fact that a Quarter Match mode is featured is enough for me.

You can also play in ranked or unranked matches against just one other player like the old days of online fighting games. This mode is still fun, but playing the same person over and over gets tiring after awhile. The one advantage you'll have in the one-on-one matches is that your play session will be interrupted much less often. When playing in Quarter Match mode, it's common to see the game pause between matches to reestablish the connection between the players in the room. This process takes 15 seconds and happened to me roughly three to four times every hour. Capcom has stated that it will be looking into and fixing any issues post-release, so hopefully this will be fixed or adjusted.

Overall, the online play in Hyper Fighting is relatively smooth. Any kind of latency can greatly hinder a fighting game, but Street Fighter doesn't play too badly. There is definitely going to be an adjustment period, especially for the hardcore, high level Street Fighter players. You won't be able to get tournament level matches going over Xbox Live, as you'll find a slight delay in your command inputs. It's not a huge delay, and to some it may not be noticeable after awhile, but it's definitely there and it will affect how you play if you're used to a lag-free environment.

The one other issue with Hyper Fighting is not a fault on Capcom, but instead on Microsoft. As I've stated many times before, the d-pad on the Xbox 360 is absolutely horrible. How MS allowed something this obvious to make it into the production model Xbox 360 controller is beyond me, but it greatly affects your ability to play fighting games. You can use the analog stick, but you'll still lose out on the precision you'd get from a good d-pad. I tried the DOA4 Hori Stick, and it works well, but will also take some time to adjust to. Playing Hyper Fighting on the d-pad is better than playing Dead or Alive 4 on the d-pad, but it still has a negative affect on your overall playing experience.

When it comes down to it, Hyper Fighting is a 15 year old game that has been upgraded with online play for Xbox Live Arcade. You've still got your offline Arcade mode where you battle against the other World Warriors in route to face M. Bison, and there's a fairly solid and helpful training mode as well. But if you're looking for anything revolutionary, you won't find it here. The game looks identical to its arcade counterpart from 15 years ago. For 800 marketplace points ($10), it's not a bad deal, but if you aren't a hardcore Street Fighter fan you'll probably lose interest after a week or so of playing.

Unfortunately, most SF fans are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you pass on Hyper Fighting in hopes of Super Turbo or one of the Alpha titles down the line, Capcom may forgo any future XBLA plans due to poor sales. On the other hand, if you shell out the $10 for Hyper Fighting, then Capcom will almost certainly expect you to shell out another $10 for Super or Super Turbo in a few months, or next year, or whenever Capcom decides to give gamers what they really want instead of just milking a 15 year old franchise. The game isn't bad, and you may be able to get $10 out of it, but Hyper Fighting is not what the fans wanted, and Capcom should know this by now.

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