Ok so here I go with my initial thoughts on the recently released Street Fighter 2 HD Remix. Meaning this is an opinion of the game based on only playing it for a short time. Okay let's get started then. 
Hmm, I think I'll start with aesthetics. First thing I noticed is that the presentation value is pretty solid. The menu's are pretty simple but still have energy to it. The gameplay looks great too the great artists at Udon have done a spectacular job with the character models and the background's and even the character's in the background look great. I bet you've figured how great it looks from the image on the top there though. *laughs* A good way to check how the graphics look compared to the original Super SF2 Turbo is to go to the game settings and set the character sprites to the original sprites.
The other side of the presentation is the sound the fellows over at http://www.ocremix.org/ have that covered. They did a great job with the remixes making the themes sound fresh without losing any of the soul of the original music. The themes sound similar to the original but more modern. Just like with the sprites you have a choice to listen to the remixes or the original soundtrack. One thing I have to bring up though is that even though the themes have changed the actual sound effects (the fighting sounds attack names, crowd sounds, and dying sounds) are unchanged. They're the same sounds as 14 years ago! 
But for some reason it doesn't feel odd at all actually it felt right they kept the original sound effects.
Ok on to the real meat of the game, gameplay. SF2 HD Remix offers two ways to play Rebalanced and Classic. Classic explains itself, and Rebalanced is the gameplay, as it says, rebalanced to make it more accessible and more about strategy of using the moves rather than how to pull them off. As well as some other things... I haven't quite figured it out yet (like I said it's only my initial thoughts) though I will say that I have noticed the easier to pull of moves part of it. What made me realize it was Guile, normally Guile's super art his super somersault or super flash kick, however you want to call it, was the hardest move for me to do in any of the Street Fighter games. Usually when I do it it's by sheer accident. *laughs* But in this game with the new easier commands I found myself pulling it off on demand.
As for what's there to play. Not a whole lot going on there. For single player there's only arcade and training and whether you want to play that as Rebalanced or Classic. For the arcade mode it's pretty much what you expect, but one cool thing is that you get new endings and I tell you, those Udon boys sure know how to make some cool art for those. The real draw of this game is the multiplayer I say however. For multiplayer there is offline one on one multiplayer, you know where you have you and your buddy sitting in the same room next to you with both of your controllers plugged in to the same console and you can talk trash to his face? Ah, those were the days. As for online multiplayer there are ranked matches, called Scoreboard Match, unranked matches which are called Friendly Match and Tournament which are 8 man tournaments. I haven't tried a tournament yet but I'm really itching to do one soon. I played both ranked and unranked matches and the online play is pretty good no really noticeable problems, except of course if you're playing somebody with a lower connection speed than yours, but that's something neither you or the developers have any control over. Oh yeah, did I mention that I got stomped in each match I played online so far?
Yeah, not good. Now if you're asking "hey, with all this stuff on your world and the way you talk about Street Fighter and everything I thought you'd be good at least good enough not to get stomped like that" HEY! I was good operative word being was. I admit I was a little too eager to start going online to fight. I haven't been able to play any Street Fighter games in a long while. So I've naturally gotten a little rusty, but mark my words I'll get my groove back and I'll be playing respectable again.
Funny thing is I used to have every Street Fighter but now all I have is the latest one so far. Life's funny like that. *ahem* So anyway that is my initial thoughts on Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, bottom line check it out, whether it's on Xbox Live or the Playstation Network it's worth playing and it won't cost an arm and a leg. Though I honestly think it could have stood to have been 10 dollars instead of 15.
