Street Fighter 2-JGC 25th Anniversary Special-Part 2-1993-2003

 By 1993, Street Fighter 2 had begun to show its age. However, Capcom would add a new coat of paint in the form of Super Street Fighter 2, released to Capcom's new CPS2 arcade machines  in 1993. Featuring four new characters, the game extended the life of the aging game. Added a more robust combo system, SSF2 marked the start of the series' growing technical complexity in terms of game play mechanics.  Backgrounds were spruced up, animations and new character models were added, and audio was considerably improved. Despite the improvements, the game-play was slowed down to the speed of pre-Turbo editions. Many criticized the game as slow and plodding compared to SSF2: Turbo. Despite these concerns, SSF2 was a massive hit and achieved the goal of giving a lifeline to the series.





SSF2, like so many versions of the game before it, would find its way home to several consoles. Notable ports included the Super Famicom, Megadrive, FM Towns, Sharp X68000, and even the Amiga in Europe. Despite its high sales, many fans had become disillusioned by the endless sequels that Street Fighter 2 had produced. Many felt cheated for forking over so much money for versions of the game that were not really that different. By 1994, many felt that Street Fighter 2 had given all it could to fighting fans. Newer 2D fighters like Samurai Spirits and King of The Fighters were giving Capcom a run for their money. In addition, polygonal fighters such as Sega's Virtua Fighter and Namco's Tekken were storming arcades by 1994. Street Figther 2 was falling behind and would soon face its end

The last major revision (during its original run) would arrive in 1994. Known in Japan as Super Street Fighter 2 X: Grand Master Challenge, many gamers know the game simply as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.Outside of Japan, the game would only make its way to Panasonic's 3DO before arriving on the PS1 and Sega Saturn several years after release. SSF2X was most notable for the introduced of Akuma. A sort of evil Ryu/Ken hybrid, he would become a mainstay of the series moving forward. The 3DO version features remixed audio tracks. Some prefer this arranged audio, and it adds an layer of polish to the game not heard before.

SSF2X spelled the end of the original SF2 series. After nearly 4 years, the game had run its course. The Street Fighter Zero (Alpha) games soon filled the void before the truly bizarre Street Fighter 3 was released to arcades in 1997. SF3 and the Zero games never achieved the amazing success of the original five iterations of SF2.While they certainly have legions of fans today and remain solid games, I can honestly count how many time I play Zero/3 SF games each year on two hands. Weekly, I fire up a version of SF2 to relieve a truly timeless game.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Street Fighter series, Capcom decided to release a new version of SF2. Called Street Fighter 2: Hyper, it featured all versions of all characters from each of the 5 editions of the game. Most played the game on the PS2 or Xbox, but SF2: Hyper was in fact released to arcades in the form of a CPS2 board. Today, these CPS2 games can fetch hundreds of dollars on the open market as they were released in extremely limited quantities. Various compilations and remasters would keep SF2 alive during the 2000's. However, Hyper was the final death kneel of a truly great game series.