Sirlin, you win. Perfect!

It’s not often I get to applaud the efforts of an individual in the gaming industry for not being a lazy prick. Too many times has a spokesperson from some major developer/publisher/world destroyer like Activision-Blizzard came out and said something stupid, like their lack of interest in any new IP that isn’t exploitable.

However, David Sirlin, lead designer of the XBLA/PSN game Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (what a ridiculously long name) gave all those types the finger, apparently.

Akuma represents Sirlin, Ryu represents Backbone.

In an interview with Videogamer.com, Sirlin had some interesting, and applaud-worthy things to say. Fighting the good fight, he gave developer Backbone a flying Shoryuken to the face when they told him to scrap any plans he had to rebalance SSF2THDR (even its acronym is ridiculous).

“I struggled almost every day with that whole project trying to get something done. A real critical hurdle for me was having the rebalanced mode at all. Backbone just didn’t want to do it at all because it sounded like too much work,” he told Videogamer.com. “So they said, ‘no, we’re not going to do it.’ Just flat out no. I pretty much ignored that. I started reading the source code myself, and I’m not a programmer, and I’m certainly not an assembly programmer, so it’s complete gibberish to me.”

Despite Silin’s lack of knowledge in programming, he took it upon himself to work in secret, adding in all the ideas he had for the title. Apparently Silin finally got the hang of things, because SSF2THDR is amazing.

Simply gorgeous.

Go read the rest of the interview at Videogamer.com, and be sure to check out the follow-up they have coming, because I’m sure there will be some more great content to come.

Meanwhile, it’s important to reflect upon the huge balls of one Mr. Sirlin. Not only did he actually want to do something more than a simple port, he, in secret, went against the wishes of the company he went for. He crafted the game so excellently, and rebalanced the title so well, that eventually Backbone realized Sirlin was actually on to something – you know, not being lazy and all that.

For those who haven’t, go download the game, like, now. It’s completely bad ass, it looks beautiful, and Sirlin worked his ass off to deliver the experience he felt gamers should have. Also, the online portion of it works flawlessly, which is odd for an online fighter.