Game Review - Street Fighter 2

For my first game review, I decided to talk about a true classic of the 90's arcade gaming scene, Street Fighter 2. Back in the day, I had been to many, many arcades and not once have I seen one that didn't have some version of this game running. There were places where more than 5 different machines were running this game, usually with a crowd of people around each one of them. In addition to all its success and popularity, Street Fighter 2 is among the first games I played in an arcade, which makes this game that much more important to me.

I remember seeing this game for the first time in an arcade close to my school. I didn't know at the time, but the game was running on an original Street Fighter 2 cabinet there, with pictures of various characters on the side. I realized this after I have seen the game running on generic arcade machines in other places, some of them didn't even have 6 buttons, which meant you could not perform all of the special moves in those machines. I haven't seen an original Street Fighter 2 machine anywhere else by the way.

I think it was the special moves such as Ryu and Ken's "Hadouken" or Guile's "Sonic Boom" that caught my attention. I have never been a big fan of fighting games, but this game was an exception (Mortal Kombat another one). I usually played this game against some friend, because I couldn't get past the third opponent when I played against computer. I also could never get the hang of Ryu or Ken's "Shoryuken" move, no matter how hard I tried. However, after some 10 years, I started playing this game on my computer using emulators and not only I mastered the "Shoryuken" move, I can now win the game in the hardest difficulty without ever losing a round.

Here's a video of me playing with blue Ken:

Street Fighter 2 has many different editions, the pictures and the video above are from the so called "Champion Edition" which came out in 1992. There is also an earlier edition called "The World Warrior" which came out in 1991 and there are later editions such as "Hyper Fighting", "Super Street Fighter 2" and "Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo". There are also a number of bootleg versions of this game.

In closing, here's a list of special moves that can be performed with various characters: (Tested in Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition, F = Forward, B = Back, U = Up, D = Down)

Character	Moves
	Hadouken: D, F + Any Punch Shoryuken: F, D, DF + Any Puch Hurricane Kick: D, B + Any Kick
	Hundred Hand Slap: Tap Any Punch Sumo Headbutt: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Punch
	Electricity: Tap Any Punch Rolling Attack: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Punch
	Sonic Boom: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Punch Flash Kick: Hold D for 2 Seconds, U + Any Kick Air Toss: (in air, close) B or F + Medium or High Punch
	Hadouken: D, F + Any Punch Shoryuken: F, D, DF + Any Puch Hurricane Kick: D, B + Any Kick
	Lightning Kick: Tap Any Kick Spinning Bird Kick: Hold D for 2 Seconds, U + Any Kick Air Toss: (in air, close) B or F + Medium or High Punch
	Spinning Piledriver: (close) F, D, B, U + Any Punch Spinning Clothesline: Press All Three Punches Heel Toss: (close) DF + High Punch Shoulder Throw: (close) DF + Medium Punch
	Yoga Fire: D, F + Any Punch Yoga Flame: B, D, F + Any Punch Drill Kick: (in air) D + High Kick Head Spear: (in air) D + High Punch
	Turn Punch: Hold All Punches for 3 Seconds Dash Punch: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Punch Dash Uppercut: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Kick
	Backflip: B, B (fast) Tumbling Claw: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Punch Wall Jump: Hold D for 2 Seconds, U + Any Kick Dive Claw: Do Wall Jump, then Any Punch Air Drop: Do Wall Jump, then F + Any Punch
	Tiger Shot: D, F + Any Punch Low Tiger Shot: D, F + Any Kick Tiger Uppercut: F, D, DF + Any Punch Tiger Knee:D, F, U + Any Kick
	Psycho Crusher: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Punch Scissor Knee: Hold B for 2 Seconds, F + Any Kick Head Stomp: Hold D for 2 Seconds, U + Any Kick Somersault Skull Driver: Press Any Punch after Head Stomp

Welcome to the 90's Arcade Games Blog!

There was a time before the personal computers were as common as today when one had to go out to an arcade to play video games. In the late 80's and early 90's, arcades were extremely popular in my country, Turkey, and I imagine it was more or less the same for most of the other places in the world. As a child of this era, I got my fair share of this arcade scene. There was an arcade about 3 minutes walking distance to our home at the time, and there were at least 5 others if I was willing to walk an additional 10 minutes. There were parts of the city where there were like 5 arcades on a single street.

I don't exactly remember when was the first time I have ever been in an arcade, but I am pretty sure that I was hooked on the very first minute I was in one. You could drop me off in an arcade and come back hours and hours later only to find that I am still unwilling to go back home, my parents used to say that I would sleep in an arcade if they allowed me to. I would have spent all my money in half an hour, and after that I would spend my time watching other people play. Occasionally, I would find some money (or rather, tokens) in the coin return slot or a machine with an extra credit on it. I was the happiest person in the world when that happened.

Like all good things, this happy period ended after some time. I guess it was because people started playing games on their home computers instead. For a brief period of time, arcades and personal computers coexisted, because although you could play games on your personal computer, arcade games were much superior in sound and video quality, so people kept going to the arcades for a while longer. However, as personal computers became what they are today, people stopped going to the arcades and one by one all of them went out of business. Some of these turned into internet cafes where people could play multi-player games, others have disappeared completely.

This blog aims to preserve the memory of this period and share it with those who never had a chance to experience it. I will review the games I used to play in these arcades, post videos of these games and maybe throw in a memory or two. At the moment, I am making playthrough videos of some of my favorite games and uploading them on YouTube, feel free to check out my page.