BADCP - GPOW Tribute

Virtue Signals

DATE:
25 YEARS AGO

GPOW 25TH
A N N I V E R S A R Y



3DO	BAD	SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO


			My first memory of Super Street Fighter II Turbo was probably at the now-defunct Red Baron arcade chain. I was so desperate to play it that I put money into it only to be utterly destroyed by an Akuma player. A rather disrespectful Akuma player who only acted in such a manner because he was surrounded by fellow thugs. I remember seeing it at another Red Baron arcade across town, but it was the Japanese version (Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge). I didn't play the game again until I saw it with some high-school friends at a local Brunswick Bowl, which is also no longer in business. Almost always desolate and calm, the arcade at this bowling alley was one of the best in the state. They only had a few machines, but compared to other places that had more, they were better. Why? Because of those machines, most were quality games that other places just didn't have (or even try to get). Before they got the first Street Fighter Alpha, they had Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

This was a magical time where Super Street Fighter II Turbo sat in arcades alongside Capcom masterpieces DarkStalkers and X-MEN - Children of the Atom. It was the beginning of an era of greatness. That era of greatness is what I refer to as Capcom's "Golden Era". Seeing things like Akuma in both Super Street Fighter II Turbo and X-MEN Children of the Atom, or DarkStalkers and Super Street Fighter II Turbo sharing a Super bar brought these games closer together. The visuals, sounds, and overall feel made us unconsciously view these games not just as individual titles, but more like cohesive entries in the canon of a Capcom universe. Capcom would gradually acknowledge what we were unconsciously thinking all along.

Now, to be clear, Super Street Fighter II Turbo was absolutely not anywhere near the perfection of the first Street Fighter Alpha, but I have memories of it, nonetheless. Some of my worst memories of it were from that bowling alley, where we'd pump quarter after quarter into the game, which had excruciating difficulty. What we didn't know was that the USA version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo had ramped-up difficulty. Thanks, assholes! It was an absolutely terrible experience. My third and final memory of Super Street Fighter II Turbo (before it came home to the consumer market) was from a greyhound dog track stadium. My family has gambling problems, and they used-to bring my cousin and I along for the betting. We were too young to bet, but we weren't too young to beg. We'd beg for money to play the few arcade games the joint had. They didn't have that many, and the few they had weren't that good.

	01
	SFIIT RYU
	Ryu's iconic Street Fighter II Turbo look is back!

	02
	SFIIT BLANKA
	Electric blue Hyper Fighting Blanka!

	03
	CRUSHER
	M. Bison is considered brutal in this game.

	04
	RIVALS
	Friendly rivals show their differences.

	05
	SFIIT GUILE
	"Ghoulie" in ocean blue Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting form.

I can still remember well. It was a clear afternoon, and from a few hundred feet away, we could see the Capcom logo on the side of the blue arcade cabinet. We ran to it, as the afternoon sun shone through the stadium glass across the tiled floor. We were excited, trading guesses on what (CPS-II) game it could be; No way...DarkStalkers?! Is it X-MEN: Children of the Atom?! HOLY SHIT, Alien VS Predator?! No, it was none of those timeless masterpieces. To our dismay, it was the hard-as-nails Super Street Fighter II Turbo, inferior in every way to those other titles on Capcom's CPS-II hardware. And, boy, was it still hard-as-nails. Even though I was pretty good at Capcom fighting games, I was still getting obliterated just like before. Learning new characters or moves was also out of the question, since the CPU was so unforgiving. The USA version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo was ruthless. I'll never forget it. The memory is there, but without the requisite pleasantry for nostalgia.

	06
	COOL MOVES
	Zangief's spectacular new moves make a return.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo is, perhaps the most polarizing Street Fighter game. I simultaneously have and don't have nostalgia for the game. How is this possible? Well, my nostalgia for the game wasn't from its birth, but during its journey to Panasonic's new 3DO game console. I first saw that SSFIIT was coming to the 3DO in a December 1994 issue of GamePro. I can still remember complete awe over the screenshots GamePro took of the game. The brilliant color, the contrast...it is all so memorable and vivid. It was the beginning of an era of Capcom's CPS-II arcade machines coming home to in faithful form through 32-Bit consumer video game machines. The first of which was Super Street Fighter II Turbo on Panasonic's 3DO, and there was nothing like it at the time. If you had this back then when it was hot, game players knew you were either a game enthusiast (or rich). Either way, it was a sort of grail in the video game scene at the time (right up there with Final Fight CD).

	07
	SNEAKY SLIDE
	Could Blanka's moves have gotten any cheaper?!

	08
	MAXIMUM
	Balance tweaks made DeeJay seemingly-invincible.

	09
	BOXING
	VS Sumo

	10
	CPS-II
	Blur effects?

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