Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B]

Street Fighter II was released in February 1991 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 14th video game made for the CP System.

Known re-releases:
Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B-2]
Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B-3]

SFII was the fighting game that changed the face of video-games forever. So innovative was the game, that many of the game-play elements that fighting fans now take for granted, appeared HERE first. Within just weeks of release, its place in gaming history was assured. Any fighting game that has appeared after SFII is influenced - to a greater or lesser degree - by the Capcom legend.

During the development of SFII (and before the release of Final Fight), the very first free-hand drawing was done in the fall of 1988. At this time, eight prototype characters and an Island design was drawn. Just like the world map of the final version, the island would scroll on-screen to show the next destination, culminating at the top of the island.

* With the rapid success of SFII, it was rumored that Mattel, the makers of Barbie, sued Capcom for using the name Ken - insisting that people would confuse the Street Fighter character with that of Barbie's boyfriend. To avoid further litigation Capcom gave Ken a surname.

* Fans of Street Fighter are well accustomed to the story of 'Sheng Long'. SFII was already very popular in the arcades when the April issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) came out. The story relates to a supposed secret character in SFII; his name was Sheng Long, the 'master' of Ryu and Ken. To reach him, according to EGM, the player had to survive a number of matches against M. Bison WITHOUT actually touching him. Should you achieve this, Sheng Long would apparently appear and kill Bison, and the player would then fight him instead. His style was essentially a mix of Ryu's and Ken's styles, but was much faster and inflicted far greater damage. When the EGM issue came out, thousands of gamers spent hours pouring money into SFII machines, trying to get to this non-existent character. Capcom had neither confirmed nor denied the Sheng Long story - obviously spotting the increase in revenue the mythical character could generate - and it was only much later that EGM themselves admitted that it was just an April Fools' joke.

* There were only ever THREE official Capcom versions of SFII, at least until the switch to the CPS2 system was made. The first was Street Fighter II - The World Warrior; more commonly referred to as 'Street Fighter II'. The second was Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition (also known in Japan as "Street Fighter II Dash" because the Japanese refer to the apostrophe after the 'II' as a 'dash') and many operators from that era will probably relate to the problems that its release caused. Capcom originally made 'Champion Edition' available only in dedicated form - insisting that only a limited number of these dedicated units would be manufactured - and the game would never be produced in kit form. After everyone who could afford the machines had invested in the expensive dedicated units, Capcom, somewhat inevitably, began producing the game in kit form, claiming that they never knew how much demand there would be for the game. After the earnings from 'Champion Edition' began to subside, the infamous 'grey market' enhancements began to appear. Many of these went by names like 'Turbo', 'Hyper', and 'Super', including the 'Rainbow Edition' and 'Accelerator T1'. In early 1993, Capcom sued these manufacturers for copyright infringement and thus put an end to the development and distribution of these unauthorized enhancement kits. Capcom then released "Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting" (known as Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting in Japan), as the 'official' "Champion Edition" upgrade. This, just like the grey market kits, was a simple ROM upgrade to the "Champion Edition" board. Later on, Capcom developed the CPS2 (A/B) system that featured Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers and its sequel Super Street Fighter II Turbo (known as "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" in Japan), the final 'Street Fighter II' game until the 2003 release of "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition".

The Ken music theme was certainly inspired by Cheap Trick's song; Mighty Wings (1986).

* Each stage has background colors that would change in later versions of the game (mainly time of day changes), here are the original color schemes for each stage background :
1) Ryu stage : The stage has red-orange sky and a yellow moon.
2) E. Honda stage : The walls are dark blue; the floor is royal blue. The big picture (excluding the sun) is black. The 'Victory' sign is blue. The Hiragana Yu on the left is purple.
3) Blanka stage : The snake is green, and the wooden houses are in brighter colors than in Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition.
4) Guile stage : The sky is daylight. There is teal tinted canopy on the jet. The symbol on the ground is blue. The missile linings are yellow. The people in the background wear green, but that doesn't change until Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers.
5) Ken stage : The boat is red; the 2 guys on top are wearing brown clothes and purple clothes. On the bottom are the bald man in grey shirt, a man in white bowler and white coat, a woman in pink dress, and a guy in the cyan shirt and brown pants. The guy in the trenchcoat and hat is blue.
6) Chun Li stage : The 2 customers wear blue, the meat store's roof is light blue and its sign is red, the meats hanging on the ceiling are pink, the man holding the chicken wears green, the "Shanghai Friend Corridor" is light blue with red letters, the water sign is green, and the ground is a bright beige.
7) Zangief stage : The floor is silver, and the area to the left is red. The 'Attention' flyers are tan with brown letters.
8) Dhalsim stage : The stage has red curtains, a teal stone floor, and a red carpet.
9) Balrog ([JP] M. Bison) stage : The stage floor is blue. The guy throwing confetti at win/lose wears orange, the car to the left is navy blue, and the car to the right is black.
10) Vega ([JP] Balrog) stage : The stage and floor are orange, and the Flamenco dancers are dressed in yellow.
11) Sagat stage : The Buddhist statue is silver, and the grass is a lighter shade of green than in later versions of the game.
12) M. Bison ([JP] Vega) stage : the sky is daylight. The palace roof is pale red, and the bell is olive-green with red trim.

* Mike the Bison : many have conjectured whether Mike from the original Street Fighter is the same as Balrog ('Mike Bison' in Japan) from SFII. While Capcom of Japan confirms this, Capcom of America strenuously denied it (mainly due to the possibility of Mike Tyson filing a lawsuit). In Japan, as long as the name is changed, it's far easier to basically rip off someone else's character and have it treated as an original creation (in America it would be some form of copyright/identity theft). Ironically, as a result of the name change, Vega is a better fitting name for the Spanish warrior. (Vega is known as 'Balrog' in Japan. The name Balrog has its roots in Nordic mythology, while Vega is a Hispanic name.)

The E in E. Honda's name stands for his first name, Edmund; the M in M. Bison's name stands for 'Major'.

* About Chun Li : Chun Li is notable for being one of the first successful and popular female video game protagonists. When SFII was released, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration. Beyond RPGs, there were very few female heroes in action-based video games. After the success of SFII and Chun Li's popularity, female protagonists became more and more common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least, there will generally always be one or two selectable female characters.

* About M. Bison ('Vega' in Japan) : His design shares more than one detail with Kato, a character of the anime 'Doomed Megalopolis'. Like Kato, M. Bison is tall and thin, wears a red military uniform, keep wind his body with a black mantle when he's not fighting and possesses some obscure evil powers: even the star impressed on his hat (until Super Street Fighter II) is similar to the design of Kato.

The cabinet and the main characters Ryu, Ken, Zangief Chun Li, Cammy, Blanka and M. Bison, make an appearance on the 2012 animation movie 'Wreck-It Ralph' from Walt Disney Animation Studios.