Street Fighter 2 has seen a good share of versions through the years. While most SF2 fans prefer Super Turbo over the rest, there is an undeniable number of players who consider Hyper Fighting to be the best version of Street Fighter 2 by far.
The main reason for this is that the game is truly a bare bones experience that has no crazy comebacks and no super meters. This means that the fights are determined by your ability to play footsies and to deceive the opponent without any crazy shenanigans.
This is not to say that Hyper Fighting is without flaws, but the truth is that it feels like the perfect game to give any player solid foundations for the other games in the series. I have new found respect for this game. It’s probably the most balanced out of all the SF2 games available.
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo will always be king, but this is a game that comes at a close second for me. Great gameplay with speeds that are quite similar to ST make this an excellent game that brought us the very first refined 2D fighting game experience.
Highly recommended as a 101 experience for fairly balanced 2D fighting!