Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix trials and tribulations on XBLA

Although the argument about which current gen console has the controller best suited for fighting games may still be up in the air, the imposed size limits of XBLA games, and the hurdles that at least one developer must overcome as a result of it is a given. In an exclusive interview with the guys at VideoGamer, the director responsible for overseeing the development of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix for your 360 and PS3 commented on the challenges he and the rest of Backbone are currently dealing with:

"Yes, it's difficult to store so many 1080p graphics in such a small download size. A lot depends on the specific shading that the final art will have, and how well that shading compresses. It also makes it difficult or impossible to include all the original game's music AND all remixed set of music. We're still doing our best to fit within the limit we've been given."

Interestingly enough, there was no mention of problems with the PSN version. Not having someone bash the PS3 for being too hard to program for was kind of nice for a change. I wouldn't be too worried about the 360's version though, as I'm confident that Microsoft is wise enough to give these guys whatever help they need to make sure that their version isn't outclassed by the one Sony fans will enjoy. In other news, if it's any consolation to the engineers behind the 360's controller at all, David Sirlin thinks that the 360's d-pad has more potential for fighting fans:

"In my opinion, one of the worst ideas inflicted on the Shoryukening gaming public was Sony's idea to turn the d-pad into four buttons with no diagonal piece. I hated it on the PlayStation. I hated it on the PlayStation 2. I hate it on the PlayStation 3. Microsoft's d-pad has a much better shape (including the diagonals) and yet somehow, it isn't any better in practice. There's something amiss about the mechanism underneath the Xbox 360's d-pad that makes it mysteriously imprecise. My final tally is that both d-pads tie for badness.

In the end, Sirlin still thinks that we are better off investing in an arcade-style stick, but they did their best to optimize the controls (special moves) to be more forgiving that past Street Fighter games just in case that's not in your future list of purchases. 

And here we thought the whole "space" argument was reserved for Blu-ray vs. DVD gaming discussions. Will the Xbox 360s 150MB limit prove to be too much (more like too little) for team Backbone, or will they manage to deliver an equal experience on both platforms? Stay tuned for further details, as they arrive.

[Thanks Justin and Y0j1mb0]