Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Release: 08/01/93 Genre: Action
The announcement of Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition for the Sega Genesis was a big blow to SNES owners in 1993. While Super Nintendo owners had enjoyed the original exclusively for almost a year it still had to live in the shadow of the arcade update that launched around the same time. And now that game was going to the “enemy.” It is funny how fanboyism works. However Capcom would surprise everyone with the announcement of Street Fighter II Turbo for SNES soon after. With all of the content of Champion Edition plus the features of the latest arcade update it was a welcome surprise. And while the Sega game would see a delay to add the same content most will agree the SNES game is the superior of the two.
Street Fighter II Turbo came out of left field. Literally. As Street Fighter 2 became more and more popular in arcades Capcom could not keep up with the demand for more arcade units. This led to a grey market where bootleg machines were being sold in large numbers. On top of that these bootlegs had hacks to enable wild stuff like hyper speed and unintentional new moves for characters. These hacks were so widespread Capcom had no choice but to respond. Turbo was their response and incorporated the increased speed, new moves, and combos to make the game a complete package. The entire tale is absolutely fascinating and worth reading here.
As the name suggests the standout feature of Street Fighter II Turbo is speed. As much as we all love the original Street Fighter 2 its pace is slow. Regardless of how you played it once you experience the increased speed in Turbo or its pirate variants it is hard to go back. The faster pace completely changed the flow of matches as it was no longer as predictable. Split second reactions were key and players could no longer turtle as much. The SNES version allows four levels of speed at the start but 10 with a code. At max speed the game is practically unplayable in my opinion and is a shit show in terms of balance. But it is a nice option to have for some crazy fun.
Although the game is Street Fighter II Turbo it is technically a two-in-one package with Champion Edition. To the casual observer both games will seem identical. The main additions in Champion Edition were mirror matches and playing as the four bosses. Turbo made substantial additions to gameplay. Outside of Guile and the previously mentioned bosses everyone has received at least one new special move. These typically round out their move set and make them feel complete. Chun-Li’s Kikoken was the missing piece to put her in the same tier as Ryu and Ken. Dhalsim has always been slow but now his Yoga teleport shores up that weakness. E. Honda had trouble dealing with fireballs. His sumo smash both allows him to close the gap and punish players as well. These are just some examples of additions “inspired” by the rainbow edition hacks proliferating the market.
With new special moves and faster speed comes rebalancing. The timing for command inputs is more precise. M. Bison is not as broken as in Champion Edition as certain moves and combos were nerfed. Most of the redizzy combos were removed although a few still made it through. Damage scaling between characters as well as a number of behind the scenes factors like throw damage also saw updates. Some combo strings in this version no longer but now I am getting in to the weeds of stuff most will not care about.
With a larger cartridge Capcom were able to include all of the content missing from the World Warrior port. The barrel breaking bonus round returns; its absence from the first game was conspicuous. The endings are closer to the arcade rather than the odd interpretations of the SNES original. All of the voice clips missing from the arcade are also here as well. There are still nips and tucks here and there still. The hilarious (and to some offensive) arcade intro featuring two men fist fighting did not make the cut. There are less background characters in certain stages like Guile’s air force base and Chun Li’s busy street. If you look close enough you will see elements missing from some stages like the foreground chains in Russia or the moon in Ryu’s stage. But these are nitpicks; as a whole the game looks and sounds spectacular.
In Closing
Street Fighter II Turbo is another stellar conversion from Capcom and remains one of the SNES’ best fighting games. Capcom were on a roll at this point and far above most of their competition when it came to their arcade ports. Although this is far from arcade perfect it is close enough. This is still worth playing today even with better ports available.
