Hyper Street Fighter II

• 1. Introduction

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  Hyper Street Fighter II, released by Capcom in 2003 for the PlayStation 2, contains only 17 unique characters. Yet those fighters appear in 65 different versions, each one carried over from an earlier arcade game. That number turns a single disc into something closer to an archive than a sequel. Why would a company rebuild a game it had already finished? How does one release hold several generations of the same fighters? And why did the Museum of Modern Art choose it for its permanent collection?

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• 2. Birthday Edition

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  The 15th anniversary of the Street Fighter series is the reason this game exists. Capcom created it to commemorate that milestone. Underneath, it is a modified port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which dates from 1994. The twist is that players can control any version of the main characters from the five Street Fighter II games previously released for arcades.

  Even the opening sequence nods to that history. Capcom altered the Super Street Fighter II intro so that the logos of the past five games flash onto the screen. The music on the player select screen was also reverted to the theme used in Super Street Fighter II. Once the logos fade, the game asks the player to make a choice about speed.

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• 3. Five Playing Styles

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  After picking a playing speed, the player chooses one of five styles. Each style is based on an earlier Street Fighter II iteration, and each one changes which fighters are available.

  The Normal style features the eight characters from the original Street Fighter II. If both players pick Normal, mirror matches are not allowed. The original game did not support them, and it even lacked different character color palettes.

  The Champ style, called Dash in the Japanese version, is based on Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. It adds the four Grand Masters as selectable fighters. The Turbo style is based on Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting.

  The Super style adds the four new challengers introduced in Super Street Fighter II. The Super T style, called Super X in the Japanese version, is based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo and brings in Akuma. The choice reaches well beyond the roster list, down to how a fighter moves and sounds.

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• 4. Faithful to the Original

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  Everything a character originally had in the selected game comes along with that selection. That includes the set of moves, the animation frames, the voice and the portrait picture. A fighter chosen from the original style behaves like the fighter from that original release.

  The stages and endings are exactly the same as in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Some stages, however, bring back details that later installments had removed. Ryu's stage regains its breakable signs from the original Street Fighter II. Sagat's stage regains its palm tree. The home versions add one more layer of choice, and it involves sound.

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• 5. Music and Extras

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  Three soundtracks are on offer in the home versions of Hyper Street Fighter II. The player can choose the music from the CPS-1 or CPS-2 versions. A third option is the remixed soundtrack previously featured in the FM-Towns versions of Super Street Fighter II and the 3DO version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

  The disc also carries a bonus. It includes an edited version of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. The game had another life as well, one that never needed a console.

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• 6. The Last CP System II Game

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  An arcade port arrived shortly after the PlayStation 2 release, but only in limited quantities. It became the sixth arcade iteration of Street Fighter II. This version ran on the same CP System II hardware as its predecessor.

  That detail gives it a place in arcade history. Hyper Street Fighter II was the final game released for the CP System II platform. Its home life stretched on much longer, through several collections.

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• 7. Collections and Museums

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  North America received the home version in 2004, packaged as part of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. That collection also features Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. It was later ported to the Xbox in all regions.

  In 2022, Hyper Street Fighter II returned on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. It appeared as part of Capcom Fighting Collection and also as part of Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium.

  The edition titled Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition now sits in the permanent collection of video games at the Museum of Modern Art. There it is used to represent the game at large.

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