This week the Australian Virtual Console store saw the release of Super Street Fighter II : The New Challengers for SNES (aka Super Street Fighter II in arcades).

This is the third version of a Street Fighter II released on Virtual Console … the other two being Street Fighter II Turbo : Hyper Fighting and Street Fighter II : The World Warrior, both also arcade conversion to the Super Nintendo. Don’t get me wrong … Street Fighter II is probably still the greatest fight game ever …but do we really need three different versions on Virtual Console ?

Street Fighter II : The New Challengers (SNES)

Compared to the other versions, The New Challengers gives you updated graphics and sound, a few new special moves, and four extra characters; Cammy (a Chun-Li clone with pig tails), Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Fei Long. The downside is that is isn’t as fast as Hyper Fighting … so the decision is tough. I already own Street Fighter II Turbo : Hyper Fighting, so for me the decision is easy; I’m not shelling out more cash for a slower tweaked version.

Shame there is no version with online play like the Street Fighter II version available on Xbox Live Arcade. But then, the lack of Wii titles with online play has become the norm … so I won’t hold my breath for that one.