The original Street Fighter was a fairly big hit (despite being a bad game overall) but it wasn’t until the sequel was released that the franchise exploded in popularity. There were few kids my age who had not heard of Street Fighter II at the time. In a rather surprising move Capcom announced a home port of the game. That’s not the shocking part; it was releasing only on the Super Nintendo. Although Capcom later released a new version of the game on the Genesis I remember this being very big news at the time. Unfortunately I was a few years late to the party, but when I finally got my hands on this classic fighting game I played it until my hands hurt. Since then I’ve not kept up very well with the series, but I still treasure my copy of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior on the Super Nintendo. I occasionally play it even now, and despite my best efforts can never resist putting a quarter in when I stumble upon the arcade cabinet. It’s still amazing.
In typical fashion the story here involves a fighting tournament. Each character has their own reasons for joining but the individual plot lines are not a focus here. What I really like is that everyone on the roster features an ending sequence, and really that’s the only way to figure out what’s going on here. The characters themselves are a big reason why I like this game so much. Capcom went all out and over the top here. You have Ryu and Ken who are pretty basic, but their special moves and inputs went on to inspire characters in virtually all fighting games that followed. Things take a turn for the quirky with muscle head Guile whose special moves are based around holding directions on the directional pad. Then there’s Chun Li who is the most agile of the bunch, Dhalsim who can stretch his limbs and breathe fire, Blanka who can manipulate electricity, and more. E. Honda is a rather unorthodox fighter in that he’s a sumo wrestler, and Zangief who is a slow wrestler covered in scars from wrestling bears. The roster is varied and represents several different areas of the world, and all of the characters are truly memorable.
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is a one-on-one two dimensional fighting game. You begin by selecting your character, and then fight through the rest of the cast in a series of three bouts. Each character has three different punches and kicks which are rated for speed and power. Each person can also throw the opponent. In addition everyone has access to special moves that require specific series of button inputs. Usually these involve pressing different directions in succession and finishing with either a punch or kick. The power of these moves is determined entirely by which punch or kick you use which is a nice touch. For the most part these are easy to perform except of course for Zangief’s spinning pile driver which to this day I still cannot get right. What makes Street Fighter II: The World Warrior a cut above most similar titles is the ability to perform combos. This is where the mechanic started, and it’s something that isn’t explained which means you’ll have to figure it out for yourself. Determining which attacks can be strung together is a very rewarding process.
Capcom was able to increase longevity here by including several different options. The game features not one, but eight different difficulty modes. The lesser ones are useful for training and getting a feel for your character, but you can only view the endings if you complete single player on the highest setting. This is no easy feat, and you’ll need a lot of practice to win. The real meat and potatoes of this package is the multiplayer. The options are a bit limited, but both can choose from any of the eight available characters and you can even set a handicap for either or both players. You’re also allowed to choose which stage you want to duke it out on, and this includes the later levels that are only accessed in the last leg of the single player game. I do have a complaint however. The roster is a little small in my opinion. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that there are four unplayable characters in the single player game. They’re already in the data so it’s a real head scratcher as to why they aren’t selectable especially in multiplayer.
It’s surprising how good this release looks. It’s one of the best looking early Super Nintendo releases, and Capcom managed to make everything very close to the arcade version. The characters animate fluidly with several frames of animation. This includes standing idle, walking, jumping, punching, kicking and all of their special moves. The backgrounds are even more impressive with a large number of details as well as some limited animations. It’s easy to get distracted by what’s going on just behind the field of play. This is one of the nicest looking fighting games on the Super Nintendo, and the non-digitized graphics are memorable in the sea of Mortal Kombat clones. The soundtrack is also excellent. Each stage has its own theme, and these do a wonderful job of enhancing each of the settings. Guile’s theme is the best of the bunch, and has since gone on to become a legend among gamers. This is one of the most iconic soundtracks around.
Street Fighter II is one of the all time greatest fighting games. Unfortunately Capcom followed this up with the Turbo edition which is basically the same thing but with more options. Unfortunately that fact renders this release largely obsolete. Still, the quality cannot be denied. If you really want to fill out your collection this is worth it, but everyone else would do better to pick up the Turbo sub-titled follow up.
