Releases and Ports
Since the original release of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Capcom has released several sequential derivations of the original game, each adding new gameplay mechanics and content. The game was also ported to several platforms and included in various compilations.
First released in April 1992 in arcades, Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (where the apostrophe represents "Dash" or derivation) allows both players to pick the same character (introducing an alternate color palette for each character) and allows players to play as the four boss characters. Much of the gameplay was revised to balance out the characters and slightly increase the speed. Other changes include background palettes, move distinction between Ryu and Ken, and the new round restriction for continuously tied matches (four rounds instead of ten).
Known in Japan as Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting, this version (originally released in December 1992) was believed to be developed in response to various unauthorized hacks of Street Fighter II': Champion Edition that introduced ridiculously fast gameplay speed and crazy new special moves. Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting had the fastest gameplay speed out of all official arcade releases, and introduced a new special move for each of the main eight characters. Characters were balanced even further, making this version the most competitive pre-Super Street Fighter II game. Each character received a new primary color palette, with their alternate color palette being the original. (With the exception of M. Bison, who just received a new alternate color palette)
Making the transition to CP System II arcade hardware in October 1993, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers introduced four new characters and new gameplay changes to the other twelve characters. Each character now has eight palettes, which is selectable by either pressing one of the six attack buttons, or by holding start and pressing a punch or kick button. The announcer and several characters have new voices. The game also has new background artwork, a brand new intro sequence, and a new scoring system that rewards multi-hit combos, first attacks, and reversals. The gameplay speed, however, is about as slow as Street Fighter II': Champion Edition.
Known in Japan as Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge, the game (released in April 1994) is a faster version of Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (with some cabinets allowing players to select the game's speed) while introducing gameplay mechanics and abilities, such as Super Combos. Like Street Fighter II': Hyper Fighting, each player's primary color palette is changed, and the only way to access the original color palette is by accessing the Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers version of the character (with no Super Combos and character changes) via special cheat codes. Along with new abilities for each character, this version of Street Fighter II also introduced juggling, throw escapes, and Super Combos, and is considered to be the most competitive Street Fighter II game worldwide. The game also introduces the secret boss Akuma, built from Electronic Gaming Monthly's April Fools rumor of a hidden boss named Sheng Long. If certain requirements are met in the single-player mode, he will confront the player instead of M. Bison.
Released in December 2003, nearly 10 years after Super Street Fighter II Turbo, for Japan, Southeast Asia, and limited USA arcade markets, Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition builds upon Super Street Fighter II Turbo by adding the ability to select character iterations from previous Street Fighter II games. (Normal, Champ/Dash, Turbo, Super, and Super T/Super X) Characters could only pick the iterations that they were playable in (for example, Cammy could not pick Normal, Champ/Dash, or Turbo modes).
Characters
The original release of Street Fighter II featured eight playable characters and four unplayable bosses. Newer variations introduced more characters and the ability to play as the boss characters.
- Ryu
- Ken
- E. Honda
- Chun-Li
- Blanka
- Zangief
- Guile
- Dhalsim
- Balrog (boss, first playable in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition)
- Vega (boss, first playable in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition)
- Sagat (boss, first playable in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition)
- M. Bison (boss, first playable in Street Fighter II': Champion Edition)
- Cammy (first playable in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers)
- T. Hawk (first playable in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers)
- Fei Long (first playable in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers)
- Dee Jay (first playable in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers)
- Akuma (secret boss in Super Street Fighter II Turbo)
- Evil Ryu (Ultra Street Fighter II only)
- Violent Ken (Ultra Street Fighter II only)
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