Derryck Plays - Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Capcom Arcade Stadium) [Nintendo Switch]8/8/2022 This was free for a limited time for Capcom Arcade Stadium, so I jumped at the chance to get it and play it. BACKGROUND:
You cannot be blamed for not knowing or remembering the first Street Fighter, but it's highly unlikely that you haven't heard of the second one or not felt its impact in some way. Street Fighter II is easily one of the most influential games of all time, period. This game pioneered competitive play against other human players, was insanely popular at arcades (and its console versions sold like hotcakes, too), and spawned a cavalcade of competitors like Mortal Kombat and Fatal Fury. Mechanically, this game also popularized the idea of combos (chaining moves into other moves isn't really a common thing if you play fighting games made prior to Street Fighter II), which is now a staple of so many modern fighting games today. Needless to say, this game has quite a legacy worth celebrating. Street Fighter II was so popular that several enhanced versions were eventually made (like Champion Edition, Super Turbo, Hyper Street Fighter, and like 400 more versions I don't know about). The one we're talking about here is the original incarnation of the game. I personally have little experience with the Street Fighter series itself, since in terms of Capcom fighting games, my go-to is always the Vs. Series (they have playable Marvel characters, after all). That said, I've definitely played a few of the characters before via said Vs. games, so I have a decent idea of what's ahead of me here. Also, I've watched a good amount of competitive Street Fighter, which may or may not help. PLOT: The most I can glean is that there's a tournament (there always is with these games, eh?), and I think it was set up by M. Bison (evil dictator guy, classic Street Fighter villain). Our various playable characters join the tournament for different reasons, and you get to explore those reasons in their respective endings. For example, Ryu's is all about his eternal journey to become the greatest fighter in the world. The story is nothing wild and is honestly standard fare for many fighting games. It's at least cool that every character has different motivations for entering the tournament, some of which tie into the whole evil nature of M. Bison. PRESENTATION: Street Fighter II's visuals are timeless in my eyes. The pixel art style has a great amount of detail, the animations look great, every character has a distinct and memorable design, and each of their home stages feel perfectly in theme with them. Every character also has their own theme, and they're just as iconic as their designs or stages. For example, Ken's theme is catchy as hell, and of course, who could ever forget Guile's theme? Also, I learned that Yoko Shimomura (an absolute legend in the video game music scene) composed these themes, so I'm less surprised that they're so enjoyable to listen to. There's also a bit of voice work in this game, and these also do a lot to make each character even more memorable. Is it really Ryu if he doesn't yell "Shoryuken!" every time you do the move? GAMEPLAY: Street Fighter II is as traditional as traditional fighting games get. Beat up your opponent with your moves, knock their health down to zero, repeat until you win two rounds. There's not much else you need to know. In this version, there are eight playable characters: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Guile, Dhalsim, and Zangief. They all have unique moves (well, except for Ryu and Ken, who share a fighting style), with their specials being the most memorable moves you're bound to remember. Most of the specials are performed via command inputs (these are your quarter-circle motions, charge inputs, etc.), which may be tough to figure out for beginners. Aside from the specials, you have a variety of normal moves, which are split into six buttons. You have three kick buttons and three punch buttons, each having a light, medium, and heavy variant. As you may guess, light is quick but weak, and heavy is strong but slow. Your specials can also change depending on whether you input the move with light, medium, or heavy (e.g. you can use a faster Hadouken if you input the move with heavy punch instead). You can also perform throws by simultaneously pressing two buttons (usually punch + kick, which is the most traditional way of doing it). This game doesn't really teach you combos (fun fact: the devs pointed out that its existence here was more or less an accident), so you'll have to figure out your own strings by yourself or look some up online. You're not going to get anything on the level of Marvel vs. Capcom anyhow (not as far as I've tried, anyway), and there's not a lot of complicated tech apart from special cancels either. Speaking of special cancels, I think that was also an accidental addition that eventually became a staple of the entire genre. This game really is revolutionary. The single player arcade mode has you pick a character and face off against the remaining seven that you didn't pick, each on their home stage. At various points in between, you'll be dropped into bonus stages where you try and use your moves to cause property damage. The most iconic of this is the bonus stage where you wreck the shit out of someone's car. Once you beat every other fighter, you'll be thrown into a gauntlet of non-playable fighters. You'll fight Balrog the boxer, Vega (dude with the claw), Sagat (muay thai guy from the first Street Fighter), and M. Bison himself. If you manage to beat them all, you're treated to your character's arcade ending. VERDICT: Fighting games have expanded as a genre long after Street Fighter II came around, and while one could rightfully argue that modern games have a lot more to offer depth-wise (be it mechanics, story, or presentation), going back to this one helped me appreciate how far the genre has come. I still found enjoyment in performing each character's classic moves and doing the usual arcade mode even if there isn't a massive roster or insanely complicated combos. Plus, the presentation is still a treat over 30 years later and beating up the car is a lot of fun. I think I'll mess around with this game on occasion, and hopefully I get a chance to drag a few of my friends to play 1v1 with me. If my explanation at the beginning isn't enough indication, this game makes a strong case as a historically significant title within the entire industry. As with all games like this that I label as "essential", I implore anybody with a passing interest in video games to play this at least once, as I think its legacy merits giving it a try. As far as fighting games go, this is probably the simplest introduction I can think of: it's got some of the more complicated elements that still exist in the genre today (command inputs, combos, multiple buttons), but since there's not a lot of actual tech in this game yet, you don't have to stress out about optimal combos or anything high-level. Just ease yourself into the idea of light/medium/heavy and quarter-circles, and don't think much about anything else. This version of Street Fighter II is available as DLC for Capcom Arcade Stadium (among other places). Here's a link for that: Capcom Arcade Stadium:STREET FIGHTER II - The World Warrior - on Steam (steampowered.com) - end -
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