Street Fighter Legends - Page 2
Enter Street Fighter II: The World Warriors
The world didnt know what they were in for when, in 1991 after a four-year absence, Capcom unleashed Street Fighter II to an unsuspecting arcade crowd. It didnt take long to catch on; people were treated to what was considered at the time to be the best fighting game in existence, if not the overall best game. And some would argue that to this day, Street Fighter II and its refinements is still the best fighting game in existence.
Capcom did everything right, they kept the 6-button control system. Ryu and Ken had been brought into the 90s along with Ryus nemesis of the first game, Sagat, now sporting a huge scar on his chest delivered to him by the raging fist of Ryus Dragon Punch. Capcom had done the right thing and kept Sagat as a boss character, the mystery of his character had been brought forward from the original.
Street Fighter II boasted a then-staggering twelve characters, of which eight were playable plus an interwoven storyline for each character with each possessing a different fighting style. The jewel in SFIIs crown, however, was the combo system that Capcom had devised. Soon everybody and his dog were formulating ways to inflict as much damage on their opponents in one combination. Combos such as jumping heavy kick, light sweep, light sweep, medium sweep, followed by fireball just rolled off the tongues of eager players. Magazines devoted pages to combo tips and SFII secrets.
Street Fighter II had taken the world by storm; it had become a juggernaut. The world was in love. And Capcom laughed all the way to the bank.
During all this time, the console wars between Sega and Nintendo were heating up. Nintendo clearly won the 8-bit race, but Sega with Sonic and some very clever marketing (anyone remember how cool Blast processing was?) were doing quite nicely for themselves in the 16-bit arena. Super Mario World simply wasnt enough.
Nintendo and Capcom had had a wonderful relationship during this time, with Capcom making several hits on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) such as Mega Man. And so, with Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) losing as such to Sega with its Genesis/MegaDrive, Nintendo wanted something big to combat.
In 1992, Capcom delivered, and they delivered big-time. Street Fighter II: The World Warriors arrived on a then-gigantic 16Mbit cart, for the SNES. Only for the SNES, and most definitely exclusive. Nintendo had the killer-app, Super Nintendos flew off the shelves and a new generation of ha-do-kens were gracing the TV screens all over the world. Funnily enough, nobody seemed to mind paying top dollar for the experience too. Back in the day, Japanese imports of SFII reached ridiculous prices like AUD$200 for the cartridge alone. Compare that figure with the price of the Super Nintendo itself, AUD$199.95, and you have an appreciation of how huge SFII was for Nintendo and the SNES.