Now that Ultra Street Fighter II is finally released, the online segment of the game has been activated. While it’s decent for the most part, playing the game online is a bit of a mixed bag.
Despite being bedridden for the past few days with a fever, I’ve still managed to play a fair bit of Ultra Street Fighter II online. Now, before I continue it’s worth highlighting the fact that I live in Japan. This means the time difference limits international play and that I also have access to incredibly fast broadband.
The online component of Ultra Street Fighter II is split into three categories; ranked match, casual match and rankings. Within those, you have things like quick match and the ability to create a lobby.
However, the best option I’ve found is to use custom search. This not only allows you to select available regions but also means you can choose the opponent with the best connection.
Thus far, I have not seen many people play the game online but I am guessing this is down to the time difference more than anything else. That said, the few opponents that have been available have often been abroad and with mediocre to terrible connection types.
The lag has been definitely an issue in-game and in some cases has made a few matches almost impossible to play. There have been a few instances where things worked fine, normally when I played people more locally to me, but overall the online side of things for Ultra Street Fighter II has been a bit of a mixed bag.
My review of the game omitted the online portion, as it wasn’t available prior to the game’s release. After trying to take on a number of opponents within this mode I am now somewhat disappointed with the results.
That said, the purpose of the Switch is arguably to leverage a game’s local multiplayer options and that works solidly for Ultra Street Fighter II. In addition, I am based in Japan and I am sure that has contributed to some of what I have seen online.
Overall, Ultra Street Fighter II’s online functionality is quite sketchy but if you can find an opponent with a good connection then you can have some decent matches.
Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and do toy reviews over at hobbylink.tv.
Read my Forbes blog here.
