Super Street Fighter II
Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers is a head-to-head fighting game produced by Capcom and originally released as an arcade game in 1993. It is the fourth game in the Street Fighter II sub-series of Street Fighter games, following . In addition to refining and balancing the existing character roster from the previous versions, Super Street Fighter II introduced four new characters. It was also the first game to be developed on Capcoms CP System II hardware, which permitted more sophisticated graphics and audio over the original CP System hardware used in previous versions of Street Fighter II.
Super Street Fighter II was followed by Super Street Fighter II Turbo, a fifth version of Street Fighter II released the following year, which further refined the balance between characters and introduced additional new features.
Characters
All twelve characters from the previous Street Fighter II games returned, with many having their basic and special techniques refined to adjust the overall balance. Some of the characters received new special techniques such as Ryu's Fire Hadōken, a flaming Shoryuken for Ken, Zangief's Atomic Buster, and M. Bison's Devil Reverse.Four new characters were also introduced to the game in addition to the returning roster, expanding the number of playable characters to sixteen. The new characters are T. Hawk, an indigenous warrior from Mexico whose ancestral homeland was taken from him by Shadaloo; Fei Long, a Hong Kong movie star who wishes to test his martial arts against real opponents; Dee Jay, a kickboxing musician from Jamaica seeking inspiration for his next song; and Cammy, a 19-year-old female special forces agent from England with a mysterious past tied to M. Bison.
Despite the addition of four new characters, the number of matches against the computer in the single-player mode remained unchanged at 12. Eight opponents are chosen at random, followed by the four Shadaloo Bosses.
Gameplay
Super Street Fighter II featured the following changes from Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting.Graphics and audio
The HUD and all of the stages and character portraits featured new graphics. The original opening sequence and unused sequence, which had featured two generic characters fighting in front of a crowd, was replaced by a new opening featuring lead character Ryu launching a Hadouken projectile towards the screen.. The music and sound effects were also remade and a new announcer was introduced, who also recorded new voice samples for some of the characters.Other new features
Super Street Fighter II features a new scoring system which kept track of combos, first attacks, reversals, and recoveries made by the player, and awarded the player with bonus points for performing such deeds.Players could choose one of eight color schemes for their character: the character's original color scheme, their color scheme from Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting, or one of five new color schemes.
The faster game speed introduced in Hyper Fighting was reduced to the same speed level as Champion Edition. The faster game speed would later return in Super Turbo.
Tournament Battle
An alternate version of Super Street Fighter II features eight-player single-elimination tournament gameplay. Super Street Fighter II: The Tournament Battle requires four networked arcade cabinets. This edition of the game consists of three sets of four simultaneous matches: the initial eliminations, the semifinals, and the finals. After the first set is over, the players are re-arranged accordingly based on their success or failure: the winning players sent to either of the first two cabinets, whereas losing players sent to one of the remaining two. In the finals, the players competing for first place are sent to the first cabinet, the third-place players to the second cabinet, and so on.Ports
Super NES
The Super NES version of Super Street Fighter II, released on June 25, 1994 in Japan, and during the same month in North America and Europe, was the third Street Fighter game released for the console, following the original Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Turbo. It was released on a 32 Megabit cartridge and featured support for the XBAND online network. The SNES port featured several new game modes such as Group Battle and Time Challenge, and the eight-player Tournament mode from the arcade version, in addition to the previous games' Arcade and Versus modes. Due to hardware limitations, certain music and sound effects were replaced with different renditions. Like in the SNES version of Turbo, the background music stops between rounds and restarts from the beginning at the next round. Unlike the Sega Genesis version, the SNES port has the blood for the character's beat up portraits removed or replaced with sweat. This version was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on November 8, 2011, the PAL region on April 12, 2012, and in North America on April 26, 2012. The Japanese version appeared on the Super Famicom Classic Edition, but was replaced by Street Fighter II Turbo in the SNES Classic Edition.Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version was released simultaneously with its SNES counterpart in all three regions. Although there are differences between the SNES and Genesis ports, the two versions are almost identical in terms of content. Like the SNES version, the Genesis port supported the XBAND online network. The Sega Genesis version was released on a 40 Megabit cartridge, which allowed the inclusions of additional voice clips of the game's announcer which were missing from the SNES version, such as stating the names of the fighters, although the audio quality is not of the same level as the original arcade version. In the Options menu, the player can choose to play the Super Battle mode on "Normal" or "Expert" difficulty; the latter increases the number of opponents from the arcade version's 12 to all 16 characters. Several levels of speed could also be chosen.Sharp X68000
The X68000 version was released exclusively in Japan on September 30, 1994. The graphics are reproduced faithfully from the arcade version, with only a few omissions made. In terms of voices, all the spatial processing and echo processing specific to the CP System II hardware were removed. Like the X68000 version of , the game is compatible with multiple pulse-code modulation drivers on a X68030 or higher models. A message from the game's sound team is hidden in one of the ADPCM sound files containing music. Like the previous X68000 port, it was sold with an adapter for the CPS Fighter joystick controller.Fujitsu FM Towns
The FM Towns version was released exclusively in Japan on October 28, 1994. The player characters reproduced faithfully from the arcade version, but the backgrounds lack the original's parallax scrolling effect. The Q-Sound soundtrack of the arcade version is reproduced faithfully in this port, with an arranged version offered as an alternative. A color edit that allows players to alter each character's color scheme was added. Like the X68000 version, it also included an adapter for the CPS Fighter joystick controller.Other versions
Super Street Fighter II was ported by Eurocom to IBM-PC compatibles and Amiga in North America and Europe in 1995. Both ports were based on the SNES version.The game is also included in the original Street Fighter Collection for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, released in 1997. However, this version lacks the 8-player tournament that appeared in the arcade and on other ports.
A home arcade cabinet featuring Super Street Fighter II was released by the company Arcade1Up.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Super Street Fighter II on their November 1, 1993 issue as being the most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles like Fatal Fury Special and Samurai Shodown. In the February 1994 issue of Gamest, Super Street Fighter II was nominated for Best Game of 1993, ultimately ranked at third. In the category of Best Fighting Games, Super won three more third-place prizes in the categories of "Best Fighting Games", "Best Graphics", and "Best VGM". Cammy, who was introduced in Super, placed fifth in the list of Best Characters of 1993, with Dee Jay and T. Hawk at 36 and 37.GamePro gave a generally positive review of the Genesis version. They wrote that it was a solid conversion of the arcade game, but "Super was never the game it could have been in the arcades, and the same imbalances and flaws that hurt the coin-op still affect the home versions." They also said the new features were "pretty cosmetic or just downright boring and unimportant", and that, music and voices of the Genesis version were all inferior to the SNES version, but concluded "Super is still Street Fighter" and "Street Fighter is still the best fighting game ever made". They had given a more positive review for the SNES version, while citing some of the same issues with the core game.
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the SNES version 28 out of 40, with all four reviewers concurring that though it was the best version of Street Fighter II to date, the additions were limited given how many versions had already been released, and Capcom should have put out a Street Fighter III with new mechanics instead. They made similar comments on the Genesis version, and two of the reviewers additionally criticized that it is worse than the Super NES version due to the poor quality of the digitized voices.