Ah, good old Fighting Street, the first TG-CD game. I didn't buy it back when it was originally released. In fact, having never been too interested in it, I didn't buy it, period. But it eventually showed up as a surprise freebie inside the case of a Kabuki Den I'd purchased. The PC Engine gods clearly wished to deliver misfortune upon my humble home that miserable day.
This unfortunate farce-of-a-fighter has but a few positive elements working in its favor. The voices are horrible enough to be somewhat amusing, and some of the backdrops don't look all that bad (I particularly like the British countryside in Eagle's
stage).
But the worst part would have to be the controls. Regardless of how many other fighting games you've conquered and how many quarter-circle moves you've performed throughout your gaming career, you'll have a tough time getting Ryu to pull off his trademark techniques with any sort of consistency. What saves me is that the special moves, in the rare instances that the game actually lets me perform and connect with them, do lots of damage. Two or three landed specials suffice to put an opponent down for the count. So I just keep inputting the appropriate button combinations and pray for a couple of successful attempts. No, the process isn't much fun, but it's about the only way to get by in this game.
