The 90's... Arguably considered to be the Golden Age of arcade gaming, this era boasted some of the best fighting games the world has ever seen. Of course, none would be more dominant than Capcom's signature 2D brawler, Street Fighter II, which amassed quite a following after introducing players to the world of Hadoukens, Sonic Booms, and Spinning Bird Kicks. The game, however, underwent several modifications in response to commentary and feedback from the fans and developers. Over time, SF II had two major updates: The first being SF II: Championship Edition - which allowed users to play as the 4 bosses and duke it out in mirror matches, and then finally SF II: Hyper Fighting - a faster version of the game that kicked things into turbo and saw characters getting additional moves and balancing tweaks. After everything was said and done, Street Fighter fans were expecting Capcom to count to III and produce a true sequel. Alas, the next game would, yet again, be another update... but this time, there would be major changes incorporated that would take many players by surprise.
On October 1993, Capcom unleashed Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers to the gaming public, and much to the amusement and disappointment of players around the world, it was STILL the same Street Fighter II many have played and bashed each other over. However, the developers made it a point to introduce new changes, and with that, a new hardware system, the CPS II, was used to add more sophisticated audio and graphics to the game. Old favorites like Ryu and Zangief returned of course, sporting some new moves, voice actors, and redesigned stages. Their stories were relatively the same though, and the last boss was still the infamous dictator and leader from Shadaloo, M.Bison. The big addition in Super, however, was the introduction of four new characters: Cammy - A British female agent from Delta Red whose past has ties to Bison; Dee Jay - A Jamaican musician and kickboxing fighter; T.Hawk - A Native American from Mexico with a personal mission against Shadaloo; and Fei Long - a Hong Kong martial artist and actor modeled after Bruce Lee. Each of these guys were brand new characters for players to use and mess around with, so replay value in Super was fresh. Scoring evolved in a way, and first attacks, counters, combos, and reversals were added to your top score. Gaming speed, however, was reverted back to the way it was in Championship Edition.
While it wasn't the sequel players were expecting, Super Street Fighter II still managed to sway fighters from the competition and give them something to brawl over once more. There was a single elimination tournament battle mode that allowed players to compete professionally, so there was more than enough reason to try this baby out. For its time, it was the new game to play in the arcades, and nobody complained about it.
Eventually, it got itself another update, this time in the form of Super Street Fighter II Turbo... a game that brought back game speed selection and introduced the super combo system to the SF Universe. It was also the first game in the series to introduce a hidden character, namely Akuma/ Gouki - the evil brother of Ryu and Ken's master, Gouken. He was a wicked and wily Ansatsuken practitioner with more powerful moves than the two, including a teleport and the ability to throw air fireballs. Unlike the other characters, he doesn't have a super combo... but trust me, he didn't need it.
After this, the game never saw another update again... that was until a few years ago, with Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, which again rebalanced the game and replaced the old sprites with new, high-definition looking ones courtesy of the comic book folks from UDON Entertainment, who publish the current SF Comic series. Technically, was still the same SSFIIT that we knew back in the 90's, but it was a pretty looking fighter, and people still went mad over it.
We learn from history and take lessons from it, and Capcom has been using this as a dogma to sustain one of the most lovable fighting game franchises in gaming history. Back then, SSFII was a big deal. Now that Street Fighter IV's going "Super", it's going to be deja vu all over again. Haven't heard of Super Street Fighter IV yet? Take a look at this trailer below:
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