Showing posts with label 1991. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1991. Show all posts

Thursday, March 21, 2013

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