Street Fighter 2
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, released in 1991, was the first true sequel to the original
Street Fighter. This release followed an unsuccessful attempt to brand the 1989 beat 'em up game
Final Fight and officially commissioned spin-off
Human Killing Machine on the ZX Spectrum, Amiga, and other home computers as
Street Fighter sequels.
It was one of the earliest arcade games for Capcom's CP System hardware and was designed by Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda, the designers responsible for
Final Fight and
Forgotten Worlds.
Street Fighter II is the first one-on-one fighting game to
give players a choice from a variety of player characters with different
moves. The choice of multiple available characters allow for more
varied matches. In this game, each player character had a unique
fighting style with approximately 30 or more moves, including then-new
grappling moves and throws, as well as two or three special attacks per
character. In the single-player mode, the player's chosen character is
pitted sequentially against the seven other main characters before
confronting the final four boss opponents, who consist of CPU-controlled
characters not selectable by the player. As in the original, a second
player could join in at any point during single player mode and compete
against the other player in competitive matches.
The original Japanese version of
Street Fighter II introduced an African-American boxer boss character, a parody of real-life boxer Mike Tyson. In order to avoid any likeness infringement lawsuit from Tyson, Capcom rotated the names of three of the boss characters for international versions of the game.
The final boss, named Vega in the Japanese version, was given the M. Bison name, the talon-wielding Spanish warrior, named Balrog in the Japanese version, was renamed Vega, and the boxer became Balrog.
Street Fighter II eclipsed its predecessor in popularity, eventually turning
Street Fighter into a multimedia franchise.
The release of the game had an unexpected impact on gaming and was the beginning of a massive phenomenon. By 1993, sales of
Street Fighter II exceeded $1.5 billion in revenue.
The first official update to the series was
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, pronounced
Street Fighter II Dash in Japan, as noted by the prime notation
on the logo. In this game, players are allowed to play as the four
computer-controlled boss characters and two players are able to choose
the same character. In this case, one character wears an alternate color
pattern. The game also features slightly improved graphics, including
differently colored backgrounds and refined gameplay. A second upgrade,
titled
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, called
Street Fighter II Dash Turbo in Japan, was produced in response to the various bootleg editions of the game.
Hyper Fighting offers faster gameplay than its predecessors, different character colors, and new special techniques.
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers,
the third revision, gives the game a complete graphical and musical
overhaul and introduces four new playable characters. It is also the
first game for Capcom’s CP System II arcade hardware. The fifth and final arcade installment,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo,
Super Street Fighter II X in Japan, brings back the faster gameplay of
Hyper Fighting, a new type of special techniques known as "Super Combos", and a hidden character, Akuma.
Numerous home versions of the
Street Fighter II games have been produced following the release of the original game. The original
Street Fighter II was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. As of 2008, the original SNES game is still Capcom's best-selling game.
It was followed by a Japanese-only version of
Street Fighter II Dash for the PC Engine in 1993. That year,
Hyper Fighting received two different home versions as well: an SNES version titled
Street Fighter II Turbo and a Sega Genesis counterpart titled
Street Fighter II - Special Champion Edition,
Street Fighter II Dash Plus in Japan. The following game,
Super Street Fighter II, was also ported to the SNES and Genesis in 1994. Later that year,
Super Street Fighter II Turbo was released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer and also appeared in a PC version for Windows, released by the now defunct GameTek).
In 1997, Capcom released the
Street Fighter Collection for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. This is a compilation that includes
Super and
Super Turbo as well as the newer
Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold,
Street Fighter Zero 2′ in Japan. It was followed by
Street Fighter Collection 2,
Capcom Generation Vol. 5 in Japan, also released for the PlayStation and Saturn, which includes the original
Street Fighter II,
Champion Edition, and
Hyper Fighting. In 2000, Capcom released
Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service in Japan for the Dreamcast. This version of the game features an online two-player versus mode. In 2003, Capcom released
Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition for the arcades in Japan and Asia to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the series. This game is a hybrid version of
Super Turbo, which allows player to select between versions of characters from all five previous
Street Fighter II games.
Hyper was released in North America and the PAL region via its ports for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, released as part of the
Street Fighter Anniversary Collection along with
Street Fighter III 3rd Strike. In 2005, the three games in
Street Fighter Collection 2 were included in
Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A version of
Super Turbo, along with the original
Street Fighter, was later included in the 2007 compilation
Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2, also released for the PS2 and Xbox.
Street Fighter II and
Super Street Fighter II are also available as downloadable games for select cellular phone services.
An updated version of
Super Street Fighter II Turbo came to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade service in November 2008.
The game, titled
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, has fully redrawn artwork, including HD sprites 4.5x the original size, drawn by artists from UDON. This is the first time the
Street Fighter characters have had new sprites, drawn by Capcom, since
Capcom vs. SNK 2
in 2001. The game has several changes which address character balancing
issues, but also features the original arcade version gameplay so that
players can choose between the two.
Click Here and Download
Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the first game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009. Over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, including the Android, Symbian and Windows Phone operating systems. It has since expanded to video game consoles and for PCs.
