Street Fighter II

About Street Fighter II (SNES)

Street Fighter II is not just a great fighting game — it is the game that created the fighting game genre as we know it. Capcom’s arcade original took the world by storm in 1991, and the 1992 Super Nintendo port (Street Fighter II: The World Warrior) brought the full experience home with all eight world warriors, every special move, and the legendary six-button combat intact.

The premise is simple: a world martial arts tournament draws the planet’s greatest fighters, secretly run by the criminal organization Shadaloo and its dictator, M. Bison. Pick your warrior, travel the globe, and fight to the top. Three decades later, its characters, move inputs, and mind-game depth remain the gold standard every fighter is measured against.

Detailed Gameplay

Street Fighter II is a one-on-one fighter built on six attack strengths — light, medium, and heavy punches and kicks — plus directional special-move inputs. Matches are best-of-three rounds, and victory demands spacing, timing, and reading your opponent as much as execution.

The Eight World Warriors

Ryu and Ken (the wandering Shotokan karatekas), Chun-Li (the Interpol officer and gaming’s first lady of fighting), Guile (the sonic-boom specialist), Zangief (the Russian wrestler), Dhalsim (the stretchy yoga master), E. Honda (the sumo champion), and Blanka (the electric jungle beast). Each plays completely differently, from Dhalsim’s keep-away to Zangief’s terrifying grapples.

Special Moves

The move list is fighting-game scripture: Ryu and Ken’s Hadouken, Shoryuken, and Tatsumaki; Chun-Li’s Spinning Bird Kick and Hundred Lightning Kicks; Guile’s Sonic Boom and Flash Kick; Dhalsim’s Yoga Fire; Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap; Blanka’s Electric Thunder and rolling attacks; Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver.

The Grand Masters

Waiting at the top of the ladder are Shadaloo’s four bosses: the brutal boxer Balrog, the masked claw-wielder Vega, the scarred Muay Thai king Sagat, and the psycho-powered M. Bison. In this original version they are CPU-only — beating M. Bison is the true test.

Game Highlights

• The genre-defining fighter — every fighting game since borrows from Street Fighter II’s blueprint.
• Eight wildly different warriors — from zoners to grapplers, every playstyle is represented.
• Special moves that became scripture — Hadouken, Shoryuken, Spinning Bird Kick, Sonic Boom, Spinning Piledriver.
• Faithful SNES port — all eight fighters and six-button combat mapped beautifully to the controller.
• Timeless competitive depth — footsies, fireball wars, and mind games that still reward study today.

Controls

The SNES maps the six attack strengths across the face buttons plus L and R. Special moves use classic directional inputs — quarter circles, dragon-punch motions, and back-forward or down-up charges.

• D-pad / Arrow keys: move, crouch, jump
• Y / X: light / medium punch (defaults vary; remappable)
• B / A: light / medium kick
• L / R: heavy punch / heavy kick
• Hadouken: Down, Down-Forward, Forward + Punch
• Sonic Boom: hold Back, then Forward + Punch

Tips and Strategies to Win

• Pick one fighter and learn their normals — specials get the glory, but well-placed medium kicks win matches.
• Anti-air everything — jumping in is risky; Shoryukens, Flash Kicks, and well-timed crouching heavy punches shut down jump-ins.
• Control space with fireballs — Ryu, Ken, Guile, and Dhalsim can force opponents to react; vary the speed and timing.
• Learn to throw — grabs beat blocking; walk up and throw opponents who turtle too much.
• Study the bosses’ patterns — Balrog’s rushes, Vega’s wall dives, and Bison’s psycho crusher all have punishable recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Can I play as the four bosses (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison)? A: Not in this original version — The World Warrior keeps the Grand Masters as CPU-only final opponents. Playable bosses arrived in the later Champion Edition.

Q: What is the difference between Ryu and Ken? A: In this version they are near-identical “shoto” fighters with the same move set and only slight property differences — pick whichever look you prefer.

Q: Why is Street Fighter II considered so important? A: It invented the modern fighter: diverse rosters, special-move inputs, player-discovered combos, and competitive versus play. Its design DNA lives in every fighting game since.