Street Fighter II Turbo is where I really fell in love with the series. I played the Super Nintendo port collection first, which as I mentioned in my last post about Street Fighter, Turbo on the Super Nintendo is actually a collection of Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting on one cart. At first, I played it at my cousin’s house, who previously had the original Street Fighter II on Super Nintendo and then got this version later. The game had alternate colors, new moves, the stages looked different, it was a lot faster, and you could play as the boss characters now. I had so much fun playing, even though my cousins were way better than me at the time.
However, what was most important is this was the first Street Fighter game I ever owned. I mentioned how I got Special Champion Edition on the Sega Genesis. However, I got it later than Turbo. I used to trade my SNES and Genesis back and forth at pawn shops so I could buy the latest game I wanted at the time. And at the time, I had a SNES so I got Turbo. I played the game so much. I remember buying a copy of Gamepro (or maybe I had the subscription at the time) and reading the issue with all the tips and strategies for Street Fighter over and over again. I would learn all the special moves for all the characters and practice in arcade mode for when I would play my cousins. More importantly, this was when my mother started playing video games with me and while she would only mash buttons, she had fun with it because she liked the speed.
Around that time is also when I found cabinets of Hyper Fighting in my local arcades. With time, especially throughout 1994 oddly enough, that cabinet was everywhere. The Shakeys Pizza I used to go to, the arcade by the Target in the mall in my city, some random restaurants and indoor swap meets near my house, the list goes on. For most of my childhood, Hyper Fighting was the de facto version of Street Fighter II. If I was playing Street Fighter II in the arcades, it was probably Hyper Fighting. It’s here where I really noticed the differences between the two versions. The arcade version was much better looking and sounded great, but the home version had more options and the ability to pause.
Nowadays I prefer the arcade version but the SNES version is a strong version of the game and I will come back to it occasionally for the nostalgia. However, when I’m in the mood for some Street Fighter II, Hyper Fighting is the version I always come back to. There are later Street Fighter games that I enjoy more and are even among my favorite games of all time (more on that later), but Street Fighter II is arguably the game in the series that reminds me the most of my childhood, and of all the versions of Street Fighter II, Turbo / Hyper Fighting is the one I spent the most time on. Even though newer versions would be released later that were better, right?
Hey Colorwind! 