Street Fighter II: Champion Edition
There are games that defined an entire era of the gaming industry, and Street Fighter II belongs among the very highest of them. Champion Edition was an enhanced version that opened the door to what players craved most: playing as the four bosses and pitting two identical fighters against each other. And the fact that it appeared on the PC Engine too is a small legend in itself.
The core of the game is a genre textbook to this day. Eight playable fighters (expanded in Champion Edition by the quartet of big bosses Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison) with distinct styles, sets of special moves and pacing. The Hadoken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki of Ryu and Ken became part of gaming folklore, a combo known today even by someone who never held a controller. Champion Edition also fine-tuned the balance and enabled mirror matches of identical characters.
With Street Fighter II in 1991, Capcom created a phenomenon that literally jump-started the arcade industry and unleashed a wave of fighting games that flooded the entire nineties. The PC Engine conversion came out on a giant HuCard and was a prestige affair for NEC, proof that their console could handle even such a packed title. At a time when home ports of arcade hits were always a compromise, this was a respected piece of work.
The cultural impact of Street Fighter II is hard to overstate. The game stood at the birth of community competitive gaming, gave rise to tournaments from which the entire FGC scene later grew, and its characters penetrated films, comics and countless follow-up installments. In short, it became one of the pillars of the whole of modern gaming culture.
The strength of this game lies in its timelessness. The matches are readable, the controls precise and every victory is deserved. Champion Edition is one of the most valued versions precisely for its fine-tuned balance and the option of mirror duels, which became a given in every later fighting game.
Why play it: Because it is one of the most influential titles in history, and Champion Edition represents its classic, perfectly fine-tuned form.
Game 37 of 38 for PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16
The same title elsewhere (2)
The Sharp X68000 version ranks among the most faithful home conversions of Street Fighter II ever made — the computer's hardware sat close to Capcom's own arcade boards, so it could keep colors, animation smoothness, and sound quality very near the arcade original. Other home platforms of the era fared worse: weaker sound chips couldn't reproduce each fighter's theme faithfully, color palettes had to be trimmed, and character animation lost frames just so the game would run on the available hardware. If you want to experience Street Fighter II' Champion Edition as close to the arcade as possible without feeding it coins, the X68000 version is the clear choice.
From the same series Street Fighter →
Street Fighter II GB · 1991 
Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting CPS · 1992 
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting SNES · 1993 
Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition MD · 1993 
Super Street Fighter II Turbo MAME · 3DO · 1994 
Street Fighter Alpha 2 SNES · Saturn · MAME · 1996 
Street Fighter Alpha 2 / 3 Saturn · 1996+ 
X-Men vs. Street Fighter MAME · Saturn · 1996 
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter Saturn · MAME · 1997 
Street Fighter III: New Generation MAME · 1997 
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact MAME · 1997 
Street Fighter Alpha 3 CPS · PS1 · GBA · 1998 
