STREET FIGHTER II

is a 1991 competitive fighting game by Capcom. It is widely credited with launching the fighting genre into the mainstream and extending the life of the worldwide arcade scene for several years with its unique six button "combo" controls and revolutionary loser pays competitive gameplay. Its popularity far eclipsed that of its comparatively obscure predecessor, thanks in part to its inclusion of eight selectable characters (a number which increased in subsequent revisions of the game to 16) with their unique playing style and refinement of the unique play controls featured in the first game, setting the template for future fighting games. Its success also led to the production of several revised versions of the game (including home versions), as well as merchandising and cross-media adaptations (including two separately produced theatrical films).
''Street Fighter II'' was followed by a prequel titled ''Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams'' and a sequel titled ''Street Fighter III: The New Generation''. Both games also inspired their own series of revisions.

Contents

Overview

Updated versions

''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition''

''Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting''

''Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers''

''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''

''Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition''

Ports

''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior''

''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition'' and ''Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting''

''Super Street Fighter II'' and ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''

''Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition''

Retro collections

Control methods for ports

Characters

Original eight

Bosses

The New Challengers

Secret characters

Other media

References

External links

Overview

''Street Fighter II'', released on Capcoms CPS-1 arcade board in 1991, was one of the most popular games of the early 1990s, shaping the direction of arcade games for nearly a decade to follow. It is widely acknowledged as the premier fighting game of its era, due to its game balance with regard to the timing of attacks and blocks, which was unparalleled at the time; and due to "special moves" in which experienced players could execute complex fighting moves (special moves) by moving the joystick and tapping the buttons in certain combinations. The game was the first to feature a six button "fighting" layout, with punch buttons consisting of 'jab', 'strong', and 'fierce' and kick buttons consisting of 'short', 'forward', and 'roundhouse', in ascending order of strength. Of course, this was not anything new and exclusive but the way in which the game relied on them was. These complicated fighting moves were given names, such as the ''Shoryuken'' (the Rising Dragon Punch), the ''Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku'' (the Tornado Whirlwind Kick) and the ''Hadouken'' (Wave-Motion Fist)[1], which provided a framework for players to have conversations about their games. It also introduced the convention of "cancelling" or "interrupting" moves into other moves, which enabled a player to create sequences of continuous hits. Rumor has it that this ability to "cancel" moves into other moves was the result of a programming bug. Regardless, it gave the game much greater depth than it would have had otherwise. Also, this was the game which introduced to the gaming world the concept of the combo, a sequence of attacks which, when executed with proper timing, did not allow the opponent to interrupt the combination. Mastery of these techniques led almost directly to the high-level competition which has been a cornerstone of this type of game ever since.

The game features eight fighters that players can choose from: Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, Guile, E. Honda, and Chun-Li), plus four bosses (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison). The character known as M. Bison in the original Japanese game was considered a legal liability by Capcom USA, his backstory and appearance very similar to that of professional Boxer Mike Tyson as, of course, was his name. In order to pre-empt any lawsuits on the part of Tyson, the names of all the bosses except Sagat (who had been around since the original ''Street Fighter''), were re-arranged, something which has since caused no shortage of confusion when attempting description. For the sake of reference, the Japanese bosses M. Bison, Balrog, and Vega became Balrog, Vega, and M. Bison, respectively.
''Street Fighter II'' was followed by a slew of other games of similar design, some by Capcom, some by other companies.
One of the most well-known competitors to ''Street Fighter II'' was ''Mortal Kombat''. SNK, however, developed a reputation for fighting games very soon after Capcom; ''Art of Fighting'', ''The King of Fighters'', and ''Fatal Fury'' are the three most notable examples, the first ''Fatal Fury'' game being released within months of ''SFII''.
The last completely new ''Street Fighter'' game to be released was ''Street Fighter III: Third Strike'' in 1999. The characters from the ''Street Fighter'' universe have appeared in numerous other Capcom fighting games.

Updated versions

''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition''

'Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition' (pronounced ''Street Fighter II Dash'' in Japan, hence the prime symbol) - Champion Edition included several significant updates:^[1]

★ All four boss characters (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison) were playable.

★ Players could choose the same character to fight against each other, using palette swapping to differentiate the second player.

★ Character portraits were re-drawn

★ The backgrounds of each player's stage were re-colored (a theme throughout most of the revisions).

★ Added the ability to execute reversal attacks (special attacks either when blocking or rising from the ground that would cancel the animation frames and give higher priority)

★ There were various bug fixes for serious glitches (such as Guile's Handcuffs), as well as some balancing of the characters.

''Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting''

'Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting' (''Street Fighter II Dash Turbo'' in Japan and plain ''Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting'' outside of Japan) was released in response to an explosion of modified bootlegs of the Champion Edition which were becoming popular amongst arcade operators^[2] Changes included:

★ Faster gameplay.

★ Many characters gained new moves, and several that could now be performed in mid-air.

★ All characters were given new color palettes, which served as the default palettes.

''Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers''

'Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers' was the first ''Street Fighter'' game that Capcom would release on its CPS-2 hardware. All prior ''Street Fighter'' games had been released on Capcom's CPS-1 hardware. The arcade version of this game also included a variant that allowed four arcade cabinets to be connected together for simultaneous tournament play. This version contained the most extensive changes introduced in the series:

★ Four new characters were added (Fei Long, T. Hawk, Cammy, and Dee Jay).

★ Boss characters received updated regular move sets.

★ Boss characters also received new, individual game endings.

★ Each character could be selected with one of eight different color palettes.

★ Some of the original eight playable characters received updated art and audio.

★ The speed introduced in Hyper Fighting was reduced.

★ A combo counter (a first despite combos being in the game since the original), as well as point bonuses for first attack, combos and reversals.

''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''

'Super Street Fighter II Turbo' (''Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge'' in Japan) was a slightly updated version of ''Super Street Fighter II''. This version introduced:

★ The addition of the "SUPER" bar. This allowed character to build up and unleash a very powerful special attack (typically a special attack with more strength, and the character gained "shadows" of the previous frames of animation.)

★ The speed was again raised from Super SF2, close to Hyper Fighting levels.

★ Intentional Air juggling (a series of attacks that could hit an opponent while airborne)

★ The ability to tech or "soften" non-multi hit throws (teching allows a character to land on one's feet instead of on their back, resulting in less damage).

★ A new secret character (Akuma).

★ Alternate versions of each character that played very similar (but not quite identical) to their Super Street Fighter II incarnation without the super bar or the ability to tech throws, they are also identifiable by the fact that they are the new default colors.

★ The bonus stages (where players try to destroy all the objects in the stage before time runs out) that were present in the series since ''Street Fighter II'' are removed. Bonus stages would not re-appear in any ''Street Fighter'' related game until ''Street Fighter III''.

''Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition''

'Hyper Street Fighter II' was a slightly arranged version of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' with the ability to choose every previously playable version of all the characters within the SFII series. This game commemorates the 15th Anniversary of the Street Fighter series.

Ports

These are the major ports of the Street Fighter II games made for consumer devices and is not comprehensive.

''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior''

'''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior''' for the Super NES was released in 1992 as a 16Mbit game pak. Character sprites were slightly smaller and less detailed, and some frames of animation were omitted. The arcade's Frequency modulation synthesis background music was adapted to the SNES's SPC700 PCM based sound chip. It went on to become one of the biggest selling titles for the SNES. The SNES version is available for download on the Wii's Virtual Console.

''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition'' and ''Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting''

The PC Engine was the first console to receive the updated Street Fighter II and was ported by NEC. The game is contained on a standard PCE Game chip and features graphics comparable to the more powerful SNES port which came later. A 6 Button PCE Controller was created specifically for use with this game. It was never released in the US for the Turbo Grafx system.
The Mega Drive/Genesis port, known as ''Street Fighter II′: Special Champion Edition'' (''Street Fighter II ′ Plus'' or ''Dash Plus'' in Japan), contained both ''Champion Edition'' and ''Hyper Fighting'' — as did the SNES release of ''Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting'' (the SNES port does not contain a prime symbol on its title). The Mega Drive/Genesis version received the ''Special Champion Edition'' subtitle because it was intended to be a port of ''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition'' to be released in the fall of 1993, about one year after the SNES version of the original SF2.
The Mega Drive/Genesis was to be the only US console to receive a SF2 game that allowed people to play as the bosses, but 5 months before its release Nintendo announced an exclusive deal with Capcom to port the newer ''Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting'' to the SNES for release before the Mega Drive/Genesis version of the game. However, their contract only extended exclusivity to the name and presentation of the game, allowing Capcom to add ''Hyper Fighting'' mode to the Mega Drive/Genesis game as a bonus, giving both versions of the game the same features. The legacy of this contractual obligation is apparent in the games as the Mega Drive/Genesis version presents the ''Champion Edition'' intro, attract mode (only presenting ''Champion Edition'' gameplay and color scheme) and title screen and defaults to ''Champion Edition'' mode, while the SNES version contains the ''Hyper Fighting'' intro (though missing the fight in front of the skyscraper), attract mode (presenting ''Hyper Fighting'' gameplay and color scheme) and title screen and defaults to ''Turbo'' mode.
''Street Fighter II′: Special Champion Edition'' for the Mega Drive/Genesis allowed the selection of game speed by increasing 'stars' at game start, up to 10-star speed (as opposed to an estimate 4-star speed that the original arcade featured. The SNES Version has the 4-10 option, but requires a controller code to activate Stars 5 to 10). The Mega Drive/Genesis port also allowed for four stars of speed in Normal/Champion mode, but the SNES version lacked this feature, allowing stars only in Turbo mode. Gameplay was faster than the arcade versions.
Though both versions of the game were identical in overall gameplay and graphics, there were huge differences in the sound. The SNES even mimicked the different tones of Ryu's voice using different levels of the Hadoken attack. His voice was quick and percise for the fierce attack, or slow and prolonged for the jab version. The Sega versions had only one version of the sound for each level of the attack. While the SNES-voices sound somewhat muffled the Mega Drive-version´s voices are clearer, but scratchy. All tunes had to be remixed for the SNES-version, offering a more natural instrumentation, while the Mega Drive was closer to the arcade-original thanks to the Yamaha-soundchip being a relative of the one found in the arcade. The result are two very different sounding versions where every player had to judge his favourite by personal preferences.
The PC-Engine-version is to be mentioned for having by far the clearest voices. The soundtrack is closer to the Mega Drive-version than to the SNES-version.
In Brazil, there was an official port of ''Street Fighter II′''^[3] for the Sega Master System, developed and published by Tec Toy. This version had collision detection problems, missing moves and missing characters, but the graphics were very impressive regarding the system´s limited capabilities and were not too far from the 16-Bit counterparts.
''Street Fighter II′: Hyper Fighting'' (the American arcade version never had the word ''Turbo'' in the title) has also been released on the Xbox 360's ''Xbox Live Arcade'' service featuring online play through Xbox Live and a new 'Quarters mode' which allows players to watch, and challenge others to matches. The order in which the players fight is represent by a US quarter. This was done to re-enact the arcade scene of the 1990s. The game was released on August 2, 2006 for a cost of 800 points ($10 USD) and has become the fastest selling game on the Xbox Live Arcade service.
Recently, the Super NES port, ''Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting'', has been released on the Virtual Console for America and Europe.

''Super Street Fighter II'' and ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''

The SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis received a port of ''Super Street Fighter II'' a year after their respective SF2'T port, but was a commercial failure at retail and a financial hit to Capcom who had overestimated consumer demand. This was a sign that the audience was not willing to pay for annual updates of SFII, especially when ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' already superseded ''Super Street Fighter II'' in the arcades and fixed many of the complaints people had of SSF2. There was also endless speculation that Capcom would release ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' in less than a year, causing people to wait for what was thought to be the inevitable SSF2T release though no port was ultimately released.
The 3DO received the first console port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'', it's noted for having much better sound than even the arcade, with full Q Sound support, and slightly updated graphics. The second port was for the IBM PC by Eurocom (released by Gametek) in 1995 and was the first truly ported version of a Street Fighter game for a home computer, helped by the fact that PC hardware was sufficiently powerful to reasonably duplicate the 2D graphics and sound capabilities, to the results of dedicated 2D game machines like the CPS-2, the original platform of the game. Up until this release, home computers received interpretive remakes of past Street Fighter games that did not play like the arcade games they were based on. An interpretive remake of Super Street Fighter II Turbo was on the Commodore Amiga for it's AGA chipset based systems, coming on 12 floppy discs and requiring a hard drive to play.
In 1997, the PlayStation and Sega Saturn received a port of both Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo along with Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold in Street Fighter Collection. The Saturn version was thought to turn out superior because of the dramatic increase in Video RAM it offered over the PlayStation version. The last stand-alone version of SSF2T released is for the Dreamcast and was released only in Japan. It featured online play via Capcom of Japan's ''Matching Service'', making this the first Street Fighter game to be officially playable through a network connection.
A reworked portable version of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' titled ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Revival'' (''Super Street Fighter II X: Revival'' in Japan) was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. It featured new character artwork on the versus and post-fight screens, as well as for the game endings. Some of the game endings were changed to reconcile the storyline with the Street Fighter Alpha games. There were new stage backgrounds for Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Guile, Zangief and Bison and the car and barrel bonus stages from ''Super Street Fighter II'' returned. There were two unlockable versions of Akuma. However, the classic versions of the other main characters were removed.
A high-definition remake of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' titled ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix'' will be released on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network in the Fall of 2007. It will feature redrawn graphics at 1080p HD resolution and online play.

''Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition''

''Street Fighter Anniversary Collection'' was released in 2004 for the Xbox, PS2 and CPS-2 , which contained both ''Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' and ''Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition''. CPS-2 version was updated version of SSF2T. Capcom also included the censored version of '' as a bonus. Hyper Street Fighter II on its own was released for the PS2 in Europe, which also included the censored version of '' as a bonus.

Retro collections

The ''Street Fighter Collection'' was released both in the US and Japan in late 1997 on the original Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. It featured near arcade perfect versions of both ''Super Street Fighter II'' and ''Super Street Fighter II: Turbo'' as well as ''Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold''.
A second collection, titled ''Street Fighter Collection 2'', was released in the US in late 1998 on the Sony PlayStation and featured the first three major ''Street Fighter II'' titles: ''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'', ''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition'' and ''Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting''.
In 2003 Capcom Arcade Hits - Volume 1 was released for Windows PC, featuring emulated arcade versions of the original ''Street Fighter'' and ''Street Fighter II: Champion Edition''.
2005 saw the release of ''Capcom Classics Collection'' on the Sony PlayStation 2 and Xbox and it also featured the first three major Street Fighter II titles: ''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'', ''Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition'' and ''Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting'' as well as a multitude of other Capcom games. The versions contained in this collection are actually ports of Capcom Generation vol. 5 (released in North America as Street Fighter Collection 2) for the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, complete with its special modes including versus mode, CPU battle mode, training mode, and more. Even the cast artwork and information is the same as Street Fighter Collection 2, but there is some new unlockable artwork that was not featured in that collection. One complaint about the game is that the load times from Street Fighter Collection 2 were ported over, which is unusual since each game should be able to fit into the system RAM of the PS2 and Xbox in their entirety. Perhaps the best feature for fans is the Street Fighter Deluxe mode in all three versions of the game, which allows players to battle with characters from different versions of the game, for example, matching Champion Edition Ken vs. Turbo Chun-Li. The Deluxe mode is not unlike the concept found in ''Hyper Street Fighter II'' and ''Vampire Chronicle''.
2006 saw the release of ''Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2'' for the Playstation 2 and Xbox and contains ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''.

Control methods for ports

As a result of the different ports of ''Street Fighter II'', it is often played with control pads, instead of the arcade-style joysticks for which it was originally designed to be played with. Some of these control pads, such as the official Super Nintendo pad, feature only four face buttons, leaving two attack buttons on shoulder buttons. Most, if not all, home releases of ''Street Fighter II'' have allowed for players to configure the buttons as they see fit. Capcom released two specialized controls for the SNES (a joystick and a joypad) that have six face buttons instead of four (with the L and R buttons being located around the X button).
Subsequently, whereas some players find the game easier with this control method, others have found that purchasing an arcade-style joystick for their home system makes it significantly easier for them to execute many of the game's special moves.
The Sega Genesis ports suffered from the 3-button layout of the original pad. The start button was used to toggle the three button punches or kicks. This made executing combos very difficult. Wise gamers purchased the official 6-button Sega pad, or aftermarket pads.

Characters

The characters in ''Street Fighter II'' were all associated with different countries around the world, although some countries had more than one representative.

Original eight

These were the eight World Warriors available in the original ''Street Fighter II''. All of the characters named, except for Ryu and Ken have made their debut in the series.

★ Ryu - Japan

★ E. Honda - Japan

★ Blanka - Brazil

★ Guile - United States

★ Ken - United States

★ Chun Li - China

★ Zangief - Soviet Union

★ Dhalsim - India

Bosses

Four boss characters (listed in order faced) were only encountered after defeating the other normal fighters. They were not playable characters in the original ''Street Fighter II'', but they have been playable from ''Champion Edition'' onward. All of the bosses made their debut in this game, except Sagat and had their names changed for the western version, except for Sagat; see individual entries for the explanation.

★ Balrog - United States (''M.Bison'' in Japan)

★ Vega - Spain (''Balrog'' in Japan)

★ Sagat - Thailand

★ M. Bison - Thailand (''Vega'' in Japan)
(Note: In the game M.Bison fights in Thailand, though his nationality is unknown.)

The New Challengers

These four new characters were introduced in ''Super Street Fighter II''.

★ Cammy - England

★ Dee Jay - Jamaica

★ T. Hawk - Mexico

★ Fei Long - Hong Kong

Secret characters

★ Akuma (''Gouki'' in Japan) first appeared in ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. He was not given a country of origin. Akuma is a secret character in the game, and is only playable through a secret code.

Other media

''Street Fighter II'' was adapted into two different movies in 1994, '' (a Japanese anime released in the U.S. courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment) and an American-produced live-action film, simply titled ''Street Fighter''. Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile, Kylie Minogue as Cammy and Raul Julia as M. Bison, the live-action film effectively incorporated the main cast of the video game and wrapped them into an action adventure very reminiscent of the classic adventure films of yore. Director Steven E. de Souza's take on the premise: "I especially loved films like The Longest Day, The Great Escape and The Guns of Navarone. What made those films great wasn't the random violence. It was the clear-cut struggle between forces of good and evil, leading to an ultimate showdown."
Street Fighter the movie is considered one of the worst movies ever made, it has gained a sizable cult following and has even seen numerous DVD releases, complete with a plethora of special features and bonus content. In contrast, the animated film was better received due for having a more faithful approach to the game's plot and has also seen some DVD releases.
There was also a US ''Street Fighter'' cartoon, which followed the plot of the Van Damme movie, and an unrelated anime titled ''Street Fighter II V''.

References

1. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition at Arcade-History.com - A coin-operated game & machine database project
2. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting at Arcade-History.com - A coin-operated game & machine database project
3. Street Fighter II'

External links

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★ Shoryuken.com (the online center of competitive ''Street Fighter'')

★ ''The Making of Street Fighter II'' at insert credit

★ Street Fighter II art at FightingStreet.com

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