[Review] Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight

[Spring*]

I'd hate to be a Ken fan. Capcom can wedge new chapters into the Street Fighter timeline all it wants, but there can be no reversing the series' ultimate conclusion. When the subject of best character comes up among enthusiasts, and the Ken crowd starts in with legends of fire-laced uppercuts, the other side has a kill-all in their arsenal; a point of argument so strong that once this bomb has been unloaded, the Ken fans will have no choice but to be quiet. In the future, Ken Masters will sport Dale Earnhardt shades and a phase two mullet.

The very structure of the game effects an urgent mood. Ken doesn't fight the bosses, the bosses fight HIM. Marvel-inspired space goons make their entrance as soon as the hero lands on their turf and then promptly set out to put a hole in his head. Don't count on the stage guardians to stand still and pathetically open up their weak spot, either - Ken must throw himself in the line of fire if he hopes to score a hit. Any attempt to back off and regroup will end with him getting coldly mowed down by the diminutive seeker drones or skeleton fish that infest the multi-screen boss arenas. Onslaughts are as aimless as reasonably possible, and the helpers spawn at random points, so only one approach will yield victory: kill, and quickly. Once the job is done, Ken better hurry his ass up and find the exit portal, or he'll be left behind to die. And if it thinks Ken has been hoarding powerups, the game says, "**** you kid", and removes the rest of them from his path. Even when a little more scenery is in order, stages scroll by on their own, keeping in line with the idea that players should have as few measures of comfort as the game can get away with. 2010 seeks to dominate all who challenge it, and nothing less.

In the backdrop, caches of gelatinous bubbles assert themselves so weakly that one does not notice them until after several runs through the game. Even stage one's Statue of Liberty, standing dark against a red dusk sun, can be hard to spot among the technological waste of future Earth. Drab schemes of purple and black appropriately cloak such ruins, causing them to feel distant and lifeless against the action in the foreground.