Title: Street Fighter II - The World Warrior

Release Date: 1991

Developer: Capcom

Class: Wide Release

Genre: Fighting

Maximum number of players: 2

Number of simultaneous players: 2

Game Controls:

• Joystick: 8-Way
• Total Buttons: 6
• Actions:
  Jab Punch
  Strong Punch
  Fierce Punch
  Short Kick
  Forward Kick
  Roundhouse Kick

Overview:

The legendary, genre-defining fighting game in which 1 or 2 players chose from eight selectable World Warriors and must defeat the other seven, before finally taking on 4 non-selectable 'boss' characters.

Each fighter is as distinctive in feel and fighting style as they are in physical appearance, with each protagonist possessing several fantastical 'special moves' (the first genuine example of such in the fighting genre) to accompany the usual array of kicks, punches and throws. These special moves, while being difficult to execute due to the complexity of the joystick and buttons combinations required, allowed the fighter to inflict huge amounts of damage on their opponent.

A fighting game in the truest sense of the word, with deceptively deep and strategic gameplay ensuring that experienced 'Street Fighter II' players would destroy simple 'button mashers' with relative ease.

Facts & Trivia:

SF2 is the fighting game that changed the face of video-games forever. So innovative was the game, that many of the game-play elements that fighting fans now take for granted, appeared HERE first. Within just weeks of release, its place in gaming history was assured. Any fighting game that has appeared after SF2 is influenced - to a greater or lesser degree - by the Capcom legend.

During the development of SFII (and before the release of "Final Fight"), the very first free-hand drawing was done in the fall of 1988. At this time, eight prototype characters and an Island design was drawn. Just like the world map of the final version, the island would scroll on-screen to show the next destination, culminating at the top of the island.

* With the rapid success of Street Fighter II, it was rumored that Mattel, the makers of Barbie, sued Capcom for using the name Ken - insisting that people would confuse the Street Fighter character with that of Barbie's boyfriend. To avoid further litigation Capcom gave Ken a surname.

* Fans of Street Fighter are well accustomed to the story of 'Sheng Long'. SFII was already very popular in the arcades when the April issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) came out. The story relates to a supposed secret character in SFII; his name was Sheng Long, the 'master' of Ryu and Ken. To reach him, according to EGM, the player had to survive a number of matches against M. Bison WITHOUT actually touching him. Should you achieve this, Sheng Long would apparently appear and kill Bison, and the player would then fight him instead. His style was essentially a mix of Ryu's and Ken's styles, but was much faster and inflicted far greater damage. When the EGM issue came out, thousands of gamers spent hours pouring money into SFII machines, trying to get to this non-existent character. Capcom had neither confirmed nor denied the Sheng Long story - obviously spotting the increase in revenue the mythical character could generate - and it was only much later that EGM themselves admitted that it was just an April Fools' joke.

For more facts and trivia check out www.arcade-history.com and www.arcade-museum.com

Game Ports:

Nintendo NES [Unreleased Prototype]
Nintendo Super Famicom (Jun.1992) [Model SHVC-S2]
Nintendo Famicom (1992, "Master Fighter II") : bootleg by Yoko Soft
Nintendo Famicom (19??, "Mari Turbo Street Fighter III") : bootleg including Super Mario as a new fighting character.
Nintendo Game Boy (Aug.1995) [Model DMG-ASFJ-JPN]
Sega Saturn (1998, "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi") [Model T-1236G]
Sony PlayStation (1998, "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi") [Model SLPS-01725]
Sony PlayStation (1998, "Street Fighter Collection 2")
Sony PlayStation (2001, "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Capcore]") [Model SLPM-86838]
Sony PlayStation (Jul.2005, "Capcom Retro Game Collection Vol.5") [Model SLPM-87365]
Sony PlayStation 2 (Mar.2006, "Capcom Classics Collection") [Model SLPM-66317]
Sony PSP (Sep.2006, "Capcom Classics Collection") [Model ULJM-05104]
Microsoft XBOX (2006, "Capcom Classics Collection")
Sony PSP (2006, "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (2006, SNES version)
Sony PSP (Sep.2007, "Capcom Classics Collection [Best Price]") [Model ULJM-05280]
Sony PlayStation 2 (Oct.2007, "Capcom Classics Collection [Best Price]") [Model SLPM-66852]
Commodore C64 (1992)
Commodore Amiga (1992)
Atari ST (1992)
Sharp X68000 (1993)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1993)
PC [MS-DOS] (1993)

Tips & Tricks / More info:

* Special Ending : Finish the game on 1 quarter to see an additional credit sequence.

* To get Ryu vs. Ryu : Start a fresh game on the left side (1P). Select any character other than Ryu. Play the game until you reach Ryu. Lose. Join in the game on the other side and hit 2P BEFORE the timer runs out. Select Ryu and enjoy fighting Ryu.

* Guile Freeze Himself (aka 'Pose' and 'Statue') : Get close enough to your opponent to do an upside down kick. Charge back on the joystick. After charging back, press roundhouse to execute the upside down kick, while continuing to charge back. As soon as Guile kicks and starts to flip around to land on the ground, throw a sonic boom with fierce (this is why we have been charging back). Guile will freeze standing up on one leg (which is one of the frames of Guile's landing after the upside down kick).

Un-freeze : You can 'un-freeze' at any time, even after the round ends (that makes it a good pause). To do so, execute a flash kick (charge down for 2 seconds then press up and any kick).

* Guile's Handcuffs (aka 'Freeze the Enemy') : Though its not required, its easiest to do this move when the enemy is dizzy. Charge down for 2 seconds. Then press UP (as if you were doing a flash kick) and hit the strong and forward buttons, while trying to hit strong a split second before hitting forward. Basically what you are doing is throwing your opponent with strong, and while in middle of the throw, you do a flash kick. When this move is done, you see all of the frames of Guile's strong throw, however instead of flying across the screen at the end of the throw, the enemy sticks to you.

Un-handcuff : The 'un-handcuff' is the difficult part because it requires doing Guile's Shadow Throw. Charge back for 3 seconds then hit forward on the joystick along with the Fierce and Roundhouse buttons. Just like in the Handcuffs, you should try to hit the Roundhouse button slightly before the Fierce button. Also, you should hit the buttons slightly after moving the joystick forward. You can practice this by throwing sonic booms and seeing how far forward you can walk and still throw the sonic boom.

* Guile Invisible Throw (aka 'Shadow Throw', 'Magic Throw', 'Phantom Throw') : Charge back then hit forward on the joystick along with the Fierce and Roundhouse buttons. Just like in the Handcuffs, you should try to hit the Roundhouse button slightly before the Fierce button. Also, you should hit the buttons slightly after moving the joystick forward. You can practice this by throwing sonic booms and seeing how far forward you can walk and still throw the sonic boom.

For more tips and tricks check out www.arcade-history.com and www.arcade-museum.com