90's Fighting Games Top 5- Number 4

Capcom policy in the 90's: No Sequels past #2
Better portraits of the characters

Good sex appeal (though quite cheap) Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers
Capcom

1993
Released for Snes, Arcade, Genesis and plenty other systems

Sometime the lighting strikes twice and sometimes its better than when it struck before. This game really should be called 'Street Fighter 3: The Last Time We At Capcom Do This'. I'm not at all ragging on or bringing down the first Street Fighter 2, that game really set the standard and gave us a good foundation for what a fighting game should be. The problem was that Capcom repeated themselves. This game rocked in my opinion and rarely left my Super Nintendo when I had rented it from Blockbuster, it was the best '3 Night' rental ever.

This game doesn't deviate from the style of fighting that the first game offered, there is still the 'rolling the joystick' special moves and the fluid movement remains as well. This game offers us a speed-up boost that was sorely lacking from the original SF2. This update was fun and versitale but still kinda lame in one regard: we had seen it already and all that was different was 4 new characters. The beauty part is that these characters were cool and none of the others were taken out.

With the same 6 buttons and 4 new faces there was a lot of fun to be had. The 4 new faces were:

Fei Long: A total rip-off of Bruce Lee, but still fun as hell. Bruce Lee really has been ripped off plenty of times in other fighting games (IE: Mortal Kombat).

Cammy: A blond cutie with twin braids of hair who loves to fight in a uniform that looks more like a swimsuit. This was a blantant attempt for cheap sex appeal but dammit who cares? It was fun watching her bounce around.

Dee Jay: A Jamaican kick boxer in baggy pants and a cool Bob Marley-Esq persona. At least He isn't a derivative character like Balrog (the Mike Tyson stereotype of the SF games).

T.Hawk: The native American Indian stereotype that would be repeated in plenty of more fighting games later on in the form of Mortal Kombat 3's Nightwolf, and Killer Instinct's Chief Thunder.

Cool new fighters but all in all the same action. Your still just jumping and doing as many special tricks to boost your score and also drian the other man or woman's life bar. Same bonus rounds where you attack barrels, bricks and parked cars. Same bullshit with M.Bison being the cheap douchebag that he is. A new boss and updated story would have done more to make this game a legit sequel and not just another 'update' of what was already done.

The the story of SF is about the tyrannous leader M.Bison getting the worlds attention and daring the world to take him down if they are so tough in an effort to stop him from taking over. No matter what the game though, that story never really changed. We had 4 new fighters added to the mix but with very little else like a reason that suddenly this fighting tournament has started all over again and why these 4 added challengers are so damn necessary.

Regardless, it was fast, fun and furious as we had liked. The fighting action is impressive even if it is repetitive. Matches can get very heated especially in a 2 player match between 2 experts. Combos are the added challenge, and players can easily link moves together but the beauty part is that the other can escape at the right time, thus avoiding a humiliating ass whooping. This version wasn't mind blowing my any means but it sold and was the best update of SF 2 ever.

This game wasn't Capcom's best nor is it the SF series's best, but honestly I never played the SF series after this. In my research prior to writing this, I found that Street Fighter 3 didn't come out until 1997. It wasn't until the near turn of the new millennium that Capcom got the hint that a new SF game needs new number and updating wasn't going to cut it. Yet, I also can defend Capcom's decision however to NOT title this SF 3 because its not much of a change, which is why this game doesn't make it to the top of this list. What puts this game on the list is that its best SF2 version ever made, hands down, which is why this version of this legendary fighting series is number 4 on this list.

The SF series has been called 'the other Mortal Kombat' . This could be due to all the hype of SF2 and MK being alike in so many ways. You can find Action Figures, Shirts, and even the second worst movie based on a video game, Street Fighter: the movie (man it sucked, made Mario the movie look like Shawshank Redemption) and then a game based off that crappy movie (which I will review). The animated SF movies rocked, and is one of the few animes that don't make my eyes roll. Capcom profited from this series and it sold well enough no matter HOW many versions of each game it made.

Well maybe... at least not for long. Street Fighter began dying when the millennium changed and now its all but over for the franchise. There is a loyal fan base that is begging for a revival of the series but those cries are falling on Capcom busy ears.

'Busy doing what', you might ask? Hey, Resident Evil 7: Terror in Antarctica might be a better project for 'Cap. (sarcasm)

What of our favorite characters? Where are they now since they're fighting days are behind them? Is E.Honda SELLING Hondas? Does Daulsim work tech support for a cable company? Are Ken and Ryu finally 'domestic partners'? Has Chun Li found a career as a porn star? Is Cammy coke-whoring out Paris Hilton? What about Guile, I've heard something about his court martial and the Abu Girab incident. Shit, I don't care.

I just wanna know one thing: what the fuck does 'HADUOKEN!!' mean?