Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for XBLA and PSN unveiled
by Jared Rea 
{ Apr 13th 2007 at 8:00PM }
Typically found near the top of your average "most requested games for Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network" list, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (wow) will come as a relief to many, but more so to the real hardcore puzzlers. While it sports online play and plenty of new modes, the most important changes are to the core of the game.Let's chat while the others are busy running around, screaming their heads off with excitement. The original Super Puzzle Fighter was, how do we say? Not so good. Top-Tier play essentially came down to Ken versus Ken, building on the sides and abusing the diamond gem glitch. What the HD Remix sports is the new X-Mode which, along with new graphics, offers some valuable balancing tweaks. Drop patterns have been changed so that even Felicia here is worth using and the diamond glitch has been abolished.
So now when you're acting like a side-abusing whore, it may not make much of a difference. For those who want to forever live in the drudgery of the past, the original game sans tweaks will be available as well.
As for those additional modes of play, Y-Mode changes the game into a more Puyo Puyo puzzler as gems automatically break when three or more are lined-up either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. For those who love Tetris Attack, Z-Mode gives players a 2x2 cursor, used to rotate gems rising from the bottom of the screen.
Finally, two additional stages have been added to the mix. Fans of 3rd Strike will quickly spot Chun-Li's stage, known for foreground objects and a wicked bass drop, as well as Ryu's midnight forest from the Alpha series. Capcom says that we'll be seeing Puzzle Fighter this Summer but as always with XBLA and PSN release windows, we advise you to take that with a huge grain of salt.
As for those additional modes of play, Y-Mode changes the game into a more Puyo Puyo puzzler as gems automatically break when three or more are lined-up either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. For those who love Tetris Attack, Z-Mode gives players a 2x2 cursor, used to rotate gems rising from the bottom of the screen.
Finally, two additional stages have been added to the mix. Fans of 3rd Strike will quickly spot Chun-Li's stage, known for foreground objects and a wicked bass drop, as well as Ryu's midnight forest from the Alpha series. Capcom says that we'll be seeing Puzzle Fighter this Summer but as always with XBLA and PSN release windows, we advise you to take that with a huge grain of salt.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
somemale @ Apr 13th 2007 8:18PM
What was the diamond glitch?
Jeremy @ Apr 13th 2007 9:22PM
Ken vs Ken? Really? I could beat anyone with anyone... I could even beat people with Dan.
It's also in my top 5 PS games of all time. Of course, that is a rather strange list in and of itself.
oriqn @ Apr 13th 2007 10:58PM
The 'diamond glitch' was what non-puzzle fans referred to as the technique that 'broke' the game - dropping pieces as fast as possible without lining them up and getting the diamond as fast as possible. It wasn't really a glitch and anyone who actually played more than a lick of SPF could defeat this strategy pretty handily. To second Jeremy - I often played as Dan because playing with the other characters became too easy after a bit and I couldn't get a decent human vs human match otherwise, haha. Anyway, look forward to seeing this on XBLA.
Charles @ Apr 13th 2007 11:17PM
I'm not one to have strong opinions about anything, really. But I will defend Puzzle Fighter to the death if I have to. It's one of my top games in my 26 years of breathing air. If not the top game.
This is interesting news, even though I've only got the Wii (out of the new big three). This is a nice incentive for me to get a 360 as it's been years since I been able to find anyone who can match me in the game.
I wasted many a quarter in the arcades before it even hit the PlayStation. Seriously, great game. I'll need to play it again soon.
btw, Ken is child's play
krapst78 @ Apr 14th 2007 5:25AM
Well Ken vs. Ken was definitely the most common matchup in serious play. If not Ken vs. Ken then it was Ken vs Donovan or Donovan vs. Donovan. The other players had weaknesses that were much too easy to exploit (although Ken is also pretty horrible in the hands of a novice player).
The diamond glitch is a trick that involves "flipping" a diamond block so the gems it breaks are sent at full power. Normally, the gems that are broken with a diamond are sent at reduced strength and the power gems do not give any multiplier damage. The diamond glitch bypasses this handicap and you attack as if you destroyed the gems with a normal crash gem. This introduced some counter-intuitive tactics to the game because you could build a huge power gem that would get covered and still have access to it every 25 pieces.
I'm still happy that Capcom is supporting this game and hope they'll consider bringing out a version for the DS with WiFi support.
syco @ Apr 14th 2007 5:29AM
Holy f'ing cow they just sold me on the Xbox...
You can play this non-HD, right?
ymmv @ Apr 14th 2007 5:30AM
This is great, great news. SPF2T is one of my favorite games of all time. Looking forward to playing it this summer in HD.
Evan @ Apr 14th 2007 10:18AM
The character sprites don't look HD, they look like the old low-resolution sprites put through an automatic Photoshop filter. I have yet to see any XBLA update of a classic where they've done a good job updating the graphics.
ymmv @ Apr 14th 2007 11:42AM
Evan, don't judge the HD-graphics bases on lower res screenshots. The game runs up to 1080P. All the original in game graphics have to be remade in order to look good on HD resolutions.
If you want to see what they did to Street Fighter II, look here:
http://www.gamekult.com/images/ME0000818216/
PhrawzT @ Apr 16th 2007 7:46AM
Sweet! I played this game all the time in the arcade and on Dreamcast. I had no trouble beating the game with anyone, but Donovan was my favorite.
Sean McGee @ Apr 16th 2007 7:54AM
I agree with Evan the character sprites don't look HD, the backgrounds and the still portrait shots are definitely HD. I think the original anime artists have probably moved on so they've just scaled them up in photoshop.