Before the greatest game sequel of all time debuted, I had a Karate Champ-shaped hole in my soul because nothing really matched the one-on-one hype people had playing that. If you know the area where I grew up, the Fast Lane corner store had a Karate Champ coin-op there for a long time). The years passed and co-op games with a bit of competition had pretty much eclipsed Vs. game play in titles like Mario Bros. (original recipe, not Super), Gauntlet, Double Dragon, and Final Fight (which Capcom almost called Street Fighter ’89). When Street Fighter II hit, the combination of solid game play, amazing graphics and memorable characters had people hype about it, including people I didn’t even know were into games at the time. The mall arcades here weren’t dead at the time, but SFII definitely brought a lot of new life to them. I have so many great memories of playing this game and the rest of the series with friends, fam, and arcade heads waaay before online play became standard. Thanks to everyone who worked on the game!
(fake screenshot using the arcade graphics to remake the special ending screen from the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo game)