Its hard to believe that its been 30 years since Capcom released Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo. This tile-matching puzzling game felt like Capcom’s version of Puyo Puyo but with Street Fighter and DarkStalker characters. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo was mainly a spin-off game and the aesthetics along with some of the stages and theme songs was based off of Street Fighter Alpha from 1995. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo game stood out mainly due to its light-hearted and cartoonish tone and the gameplay was more about strategy than actual fighting. The characters in Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo were basically chibi versions of popular Capcom charactes like Ryu, Chun-Li, Sakura Kasugano, Ken Masters, Morrigan Aensland, Hsien-Ko, Donovan and Felicia. The game also featured Akuma and Dan as hidden characters which made Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo more exciting despite having a small overall roster. In Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo the gameplay was very similar to Puyo Puyo except it utilized gems opposed to blobs.

Players were able to stack gems of the same color together in order to create crash or power gems which were used to attack opponents. The characters in Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo would perform a special moves or super moves similar to that of Street Fighter Alpha or DarkStalkers if they were able to crush enough gems within a sequence. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo was unique because it was probably the only noticable puzzle games from the 90’s that Capcom had made. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo was fun and was clearly designed for children. However, Capcom had other high profile video games that came out in ’96 such as: Resident Evil, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 2 along with Street Fighter EX. There was no question that 1996 was one of Capcom’s biggest years in terms of video game releases. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo felt like a game that could have shine more if were released a year earlier. But then again Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo was a game that was not meant to be taken seriously.

However, Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo has managed to gain a cult following within the past three decades. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo lasting appeal is based on its clean polished character art and graphics. The theme songs in Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo also feature some of the best renditions of each characters theme songs. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo is still considered an addictive puzzle strategy game that holds up well today despite how old it is. Whether you play the arcade version or the PS1 port or even the HD Remix on Xbox 360 Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo is amazing and is considered a nostalgic gaming gem from the 90’s.