Street Fighter II: Champion Edition is a versus fighting game released by Capcom of Japan in 1992. It was launched for arcades worldwide and converted to several video game consoles. The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive port was released in 1993.
This fighting game was so damn popular during the early 1990s. If you had this on your video game console (be it Sega or Nintendo), the other kids would be drooling mucus or phlegm with envy.
The Story
All around the world come 12 of the toughest martial arts fighters to ever roam the streets. Choose your favorite character and step into the fight area as one of the 8 original challengers or as one of the 4 final Bosses!
The Graphics and Sound
This has almost the same visuals as in the arcade but the sprites are smaller. In some cases, it is faster than the arcade version. All of the characters and their special moves are recreated with some nice effects. Backgrounds play a major role here, and have been reproduced with the same amount of detail that the arcade version had.
The music is kind of catchy and they fit the fighting action and background stages well. The sound effects are your typical Street Fighter fare, with special moves being shouted out and vocal sounds of someone getting beaten up all blend together for a pretty decent-sounding audio track.
The Gameplay
Featuring the tried and true versus fighting Capcom system of special moves and combinations ranging from the simple martial arts moves to the crazy styles unknown to man. Street Fighter did right in all things that made the series a monster hit! Featuring 12 playable characters across several locations across the world. The story remained the same, in which you choose a fighter character and fight your way through one on one battles in a best 2 out of 3 rounds.
Combinations and special moves as well as the different combos can be done well and mostly learned with just a few minutes on the 6 button control interface. Different game modes include the standard Arcade Mode in which you get a story line through the many battles and the staple Vs. Mode that allows you to fight against a 2nd player friend.
Replay value is superb. Trying to be at least well skilled in more than 2 favorite characters or playing against a friend in money matches, make this game age very slowly in your gaming mind.
My Verdict
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition is one of those must-have games for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console. It looks like straight from the arcade with smaller sprites and some speed tweaks. Fighting game fans will surely enjoy its arcade-like goodness and add it to their retro gaming collection.
Play it on the lovable Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console or play it on any good emulator.
Let's keep on gaming in the free world!
