Super Street Fighter II

Super Street Fighter II (hereafter referred to as SSF2) was one the first arcade games to use Capcom's newly developed CPS2 hardware architecture. The CPS2 provided many advatages over it's CPS1 predacessor, including expanded memory, and faster processing speed. The results were amazing, and the Street Fighter II series, still enjoying a tremendous popularity both in the arcades and at home, benefitted from the enhanced technology. SSF2 was one of the more substantial upgrades in the SF2 series, but still incomplete compared to what Capcom had hoped to release, which was fully realized in the form of Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

Not only did SSF2 revamp the graphics engine of the game, and provide each of the existing characters with new moves, it introduced four new characters to the SF2 universe, including the only character in the series designed by an American (Dee Jay). Also new to SSF2 was an increase in point opportunities through a new combo recognition system, and a new announcer that some player mockingly referred to as "Big Bird" for the similarity that the announcer had to the Sesame Street character.

The cast (aside from the four new warriors), story, controls, and rules for SSF2 are identicle to the original, so please see the SF2 guide for any questions regarding how to play. A list of the updates can be found below. The enhancements of SSF2 build on those established in Turbo, so see the SF2T article for the list of changes that were carried over to Super.

Updates and changes

 * The game returns to a slower pace than Turbo, but still faster than Champion Edition.
 * Up to eight costume palettes have been provided for the characters. The colors can be changed by selecting a character with either an attack button, the start button, or holding a button down until the color changes.
 * The differences between Ken and Ryu are so pronounced that they have slightly different moves. Ryu gains a red fireball while Ken's strongest dragon punch has flames. Both of these attacks burn the opponent.
 * The announcer and some of the characters have new voices. The artwork for the stage backgrounds were also redrawn.
 * Every original character has been given new abilities:
 * Balrog: The Buffalo Headbut attack
 * Blanka: The Backstep Rolling attack.
 * Chun Li: Her fireball attack motion and animation changed.
 * Dhalsim: His teleport move is made easier to perform.
 * E. Honda: The Flying Sumo Press command attack.
 * Guile: More command attacks
 * Ken: His Fierce (hard punch) Shoryuken adds a flame to his fist that burns opponents.
 * M. Bison: The Devil Reverse move which is like a Skull Diver without the Head Press.
 * Ryu: The Shakunetsu Hadouken attack which is a red fireball that burns opponents.
 * Sagat: Regular attacks tweaked.
 * Vega: The Sky High Claw attack, as well as a short version of the Back Slash.
 * Zangief: New wrestling holds that can be initiated up close or far away.