All right, truly insane opinion coming here....

For what it is trying to do, Street Fighter II pulls it off to an extent that surprises me. But, to be fair, it isn't what people want out of a pinball machine.

Gottlieb set out to make SF2 as close to the arcade video game as possible, and they did. Now, that makes it pretty weird for a pinball machine, but if you aren't looking for that experience it's an interesting physical representation of a one on one fighting game.

First, as I think it was dung mentioned earlier, if the game isn't in tournament mode, it's completely pointless. Having random awards without progression for this makes the gameplay completely silly. If it is in tournament mode though...

The entire goal is to defeat the characters in order, and the game has a ton of weird non-pinball-esque strategy going for it. Once you "defeat" someone (by hitting their shot), that shot no longer is lit and it moves to another shot. You can try to hit certain shots later in the game because the last shot that you hit opens up a Super Jackpot, and if you leave it for the really difficult Guile shot, you'll be lucky if you can get that once. Leave it for a different shot - which means avoiding that shot the entire time until the absolute last shot - and you can hit it a few times and really bring in the reward.

The choices after defeating a character when in tournament mode always show up the same, and are actually relatively well balanced between risk and reward - there is no point where one is saying 20 mil and the other is saying 5 mil (like Jurassic Park used to do on DNA awards before Chad and I helped it along...) which I appreciate. Pick to do what you are going to do next and you need to pull it off.

The thing is, none of this is what people want in a pinball machine. If you're going for a pinball machine, you want things where you can shoot that move, exciting pop bumpers, and tough shots that if you can pull them off you get a reward for (like the Guile shot, if you shoot it before it's lit, is worth like... basically nothing, even though it's basically impossible to hit). SF2 has essentially two targets available to shoot at a time that are worth anything.

It looks like a pinball machine, but to me it's really more of a strategic, linear shooting gallery.

If you take it like that, in a big collection, SF2 becomes rather unique because there is literally no other game that plays like it. Sure, there are other linear titles, but none with the absolute rigidity of SF2. I've found that if you have about 10 games set up, and you appreciate it for what it is, SF2 is an interesting switch in the options you have - like owning an Orbitor 1, Rapid Fire or Hyperball.

So yeah, really long post sort of defending it, but if you play it with a different expectation than comparing it against a game like TAF or JP that are also from around it's time, I don't think it's completely terrible.

Except the art. The translite, particular Chun Li on it, is absolutely terrible.

Popeye is disliked due to shots that are hidden when you just look at it, rules that are a bit difficult to figure out, and a theme that then had another theme sort of shoehorned into it that makes it just weird. If you can get by all this stuff, the game can be pretty decent, and it ultimately does play like a regular pinball machine, just one that you can't see the shots on.

SF2 doesn't play like a pinball machine at all, but instead like a shooting gallery with flippers. It's SO different, I think you can only really enjoy it if you think of it not as a pinball machine, but instead as a unique arcade piece that is shaped like a pinball machine. I made my defense of it earlier, so I'll spare everyone a second time through.

Yeah, every time I hear something like that being said, I find a machine I want under the price within a week, and I don't need any more so let's stop...

I (*gasp*) would rather play SF2 than TZ. Yes I'm serious. No, I don't know what is wrong with me.

I try to avoid prescription drugs, but I had a TERRIBLE allergy flare up (I haven't had allergies in 15 years!!) at the Midwest Gaming Classic, so now I'm all prednazoned up and eating us out of house and home. I swear I'm going to weigh an extra 10 pounds by Friday when I get off this crap.

Now back to playing Street Fighter II, damnit, the best pinball machine around!

(Sadly serious on the prednazone, totally not on the SF2... for now.)