Street Fighter II slot review

Street Fighter II is unlike any slot you’ve played before, with battles based on the Street Fighter games. You’ll get to choose who you play as, and if you’re successful progress through levels and potentially win the whole thing! Should you give this game a go? Keep reading to find out...

Key features:

Reels: 5

Paylines: Cluster Pays

Min bet: 20p

Max bet: £40

Slot RTP: 96.06%

Provider: NetEnt

The sound of the Street Fighter

This slot is based on the iconic 1991 coin-op arcade game. As a result, there’s a retro feel with 8-bit graphics and familiar music and sound effects. If you’re a Street Fighter fan, you’ll instantly be grabbed by characters you recognise and colourful graphics that stay true to the game released almost 30 years ago.

Like in many slots, there are sound effects when you spin the reels and win money, and there are some animations too - this is a battle, of course, and you’ll see you and your opponent trading blows across the play board as your Health Points meters decrease in turn. Though in some ways the graphics might be a little simple, there is plenty going on here, and it’s almost blink-and-you’ll-miss-it territory so keep an eye out for everything!

Winning the battles

First things first - you need to choose a character. There are eight classic characters to choose from, and your choice will impact the game’s volatility - the characters reside on a spectrum from frequent wins to big wins, so it’s up to you who you go for! In the first battle, you’ll be against another of the eight characters, and you both start with the full amount of Health Points. As you spin the reels, you’ll hope for clusters of symbols to give you winning combinations - when your victory or defeat symbols are part of combinations, you’ll deal damage to your opponent, but when their victory or defeat symbols are part of combinations, they’ll deal damage to you.

This damage comes in the form of lost Health Points, and the decrease in Health Points is equal to the number of victory or defeat symbols in the winning combination. Your character also has a Wild Gauge, and this is reset before each spin. Each high-value symbol you get in a winning combination will fill the Wild Gauge by one point, and then if there are no winning combinations on the reels, your character can use their Wild Combo feature to put some wild symbols on the reels. Wild symbols substitute for all symbols, and can appear anywhere too. 

Bonuses and beating the boss

If you beat your opponent in the initial base game, you’ll enter into Beat the Boss Free Spins. There are four levels, each with a different opponent and their own multiplier. You’ll be fighting a different opponent on each level, and the multiplier increases with each victory, from x2 to x3, x5 and finally x10. Free spins can last as long as they need to until you either lose or defeat M. Bison, the formidable final opponent. Should you finish the free spins undefeated, you’ll win an extra prize of 100 times your bet too!

If you lose during free spins, you have a chance to try again, but it comes with a catch - the Insert Coin Gamble. You’ll have to sacrifice some of your winnings - and it can only be used once during each Beat the Boss Free Spins journey. However, should you not even make it to the free spins, losing in the base game, you’ll get to try your hand at the Car Smash Bonus Game. Here, you have to destroy a car, and if you do so you’ll be awarded a random win of between five and 15 times your bet.

Conclusion

It might feel a bit confusing at first, but if you stick with Street Fighter II, you’ll find that it’s a great game with plenty of thrills and excitement along the way. You don’t need to be a fan of the series to enjoy it either - sure, there are perks for fans, but the slot definitely has enough to hold its own by itself - particularly with the Beat the Boss Free Spins - this is definitely a slot to remember.

Provider

NetEnt are one of the most well-known providers, and the Swedish company has been around since 1996. They boast over 200 games altogether, from intricate branded slots like Street Fighter II to the classic Starburst, perhaps the most iconic ever. Other greats slots include Reel Rush and Gonzo’s Quest, but there are lots more to choose from.