Topic: Twenty Years of Street Fighter II

[NWR_DrewMG]

The seminal fighting game is twenty years old this month.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25801

In March of 1991, lines began to form around the block for a brand new fighting game that was taking the world by storm: Street Fighter II. The game would go on to be a landmark title on every platform it touched, spawning dozens of sequels, hundreds of competitors, and helping the Super Nintendo best it's rival consoles

As the game celebrates it's twentieth birthday, Nintendo World Report is taking a look back on the history and roots of the game. With Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition on its way to North American 3DS systems later this month, it seems like a great time to reminisce about a time when the 2D fighting genre was newborn.

Come along on the journey with us! First up, Pedro Hernandez has a two-part look at the many competitors that Street Fighter II spawned.

[NWR_pap64]

Here is my part of the feature:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25805

[Mop it up]

I've never played a Street Fighter game, but I do own Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES, because, as I would come to discover, no one is allowed to own an SNES without having at least one version of Street Fighter II.

[gypsyOtoko]

Oh ya. Capcom VS. SNK - I played the hell out of that. That was also the only time I was ever admired in an arcade: I had imported the Dreamcast version and played the hell out of it, to the point where I was getting to and beating Shin-Akuma every time I played through. I then went to an arcade near my college, saw that they had it and proceeded about my business.


I beat Shin-Akuma and by then there is actually a crowd around me- one of the guys actually says to me, "Wow dude, you're incredible."


Ever since then my life has been trying to recapture that same level of glory. ^_~

[Ian Sane]

Street Fighter II came out around when I was in grade five.  This would have been the SNES version that caused a big stir at my school.  Before I ever played Zelda or Metroid, owned a videogame system or even had a computer good enough to play games, Street Fighter II was my favourite game.

It's funny because I really sucked at it.  I pretty much never beat the computer.  But a lot of the fun was playing with friends.  The fact that it was an arcade game really helped.  Every place that had arcade games at the time had SOME version of Street Fighter II.  So it didn't matter that I didn't have a SNES, I could just play at the nearby gas station.  And my friends and I would spend our summer trying to scrounge up quarters and then riding our bikes to the gas station.  In retrospect the amount of effort we put it to play a game for like five minutes was unreal.

It wasn't just Street Fighter II.  For a while fighting games were the biggest genre and I wanted to know all of them.  I remember the first time I encountered a Neo-Geo.  It had Fatal Fury in it and I was blown away to encounter another game like SFII.  Then I discovered the other SNK fighters like Art of Fighting and World Heroes.  In my fighter obsessed mind the Neo-Geo was the coolest system ever.  I wanted to try every fighting game.  I created some dream game in my mind where I combined the rosters of every major fighting game (except titles like Mortal Kombat or Virtua Fighter which didn't have a similar enough look).  Realistically Capcom vs. SNK was my dream game but it came out so many years later that it didn't have the same impact.  Around the playground kids talked about the elusive Street Fighter I.  Many claimed to have played it but they were all full of it.  In reality it's for the best the game remained a mystery because it sucks.

And of course we all talked about what Street Fighter III would be like.  The fever died down around the time Street Fighter Alpha came out.  It might be because I was now in high school.  It might be because the current arcade games were not being ported to the SNES.  It might be because arcade games started increasing in price.  But I think it might also be because SFA was not SFIII.  Capcom's constant tinkering of Street Fighter II was the butt of jokes and in a way the fact that they had clearly made a brand new Street Fighter but it still wasn't III was kind of annoying.  Street Fighter III is a good game but it needed to come out earlier to truly be a big deal.

The sad thing is I can't really go back to SFII and enjoy it anymore.  So much of it relied on us kids being dumb and having no real strategy other then attempting special moves.  That was how it worked - whoever pulled off the special moves won the match.  Later as adults my brothers and I were playing Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES.  My brother kicked all of our asses using Sagat with nothing but roundhouses.  He would alternate between jumping, standing and crouching roundhouses and just owned the rest of us.  Then he tried agains the computer and beat the game.  He broke it.  He revealed the flaws that as kids we couldn't notice.  So sadly it will never be the same as when Street Fighter II was my favourite game.

[NWR_pap64]

Here is part 2 of my restrospective:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25814

[NWR_pap64]

Here are the next two parts of the feature. First if the Evolution of the Series with Andrew Brown and yours truly:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25849

Here is Andy's page on the various versions of the SF II game:
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/feature/25855

[leroypantweather]

Just wanted to say great feature to all involved.

[Spak-Spang]

Ian:


THank you!!!!


That post was more or less my life experience.  I remember my friends buying Street Fighter 2 for SNES, and I didn't buy it...I knew a better version would come out...and I was right.  I remember even waiting on that one, because I could just rent it at Blockbuster...when Blockbuster was cool because you could rent games.


But I did buy Super Street Fighter 2. 


I used to think I was pretty good at the game, but really I sucked...now I play it and I realize I am even worse than when I was a kid.