The very 1st time I played Street Fighter 2, it was at the arcade. My oldest brother told us about it. Clearly, he found out about the game when he was in school or through magazines. He probably went to an arcade with his friends. He told us what the game was like and we eventually played it at some pizzeria. Up until this point I never heard of part one but I accepted it. I thought it was so cool because I never really seen a fighting game like that.
And then, lo and behold, I get it for my 7th birthday, along with the Super Nintendo. So now I got 2 games to play: Super Mario World that came with the SNES, and Street Fighter 2.
Trying out different Street Fighter characters
When I played it in the arcade, I tried different characters, trying to get a feel for it. So, by the time I started playing it at home, I was like, okay, I know Blanka, I know Ken and Ryu, so I will choose them. I was choosing every character so I can get a good handle on each of their moves.
My brothers and I, played it so much. We were always going up against each other. When one of their friends would come over, it was nonstop. It was fun, it was cool and it was different. It was a little hard to achieve some of those moves, especially as a little 7 year old, but I eventually got the hang of it.
The struggle to beating Street fighter 2
We would fight tooth and nail just to beat the game with every character. We seen their endings through pictures, from the magazines. Some of it looked a little different because it was also showing the endings for the arcade. The graphics were a little different, and I think some of the endings were just slightly different. But, what I did like was that we were persistent. Even though it took a long time because some characters sucked.
When you get up to the last four bosses you had to be ready. Man, they were so hard, especially Vega. When fighting Balrog, you could more or less beat him with a couple of tries. But Vega, he just kept cheating so much because he keeps jumping on the cage, doing the backflips, and slamming you. He was just so hard to beat. Check the video below if you want to see their endings.
And then when you get to Sagat, oh my God, that was another challenge. He was so difficult for no reason! You couldn’t get near him because he would always do the high and low Tiger Shot. Then when you’re jumping trying to come close him, he’ll either kick the crap out of you or do his uppercut. Then when you’re finally beat him, you get to M. Bison. He was not easy at all. Sometimes we would throw our controllers because of how frustrated we would get.
And we were all taking turns trying to beat him. Well, when we would finally beat the game, we laid in victory because we saw their endings. Eventually Street Fighter 2 Turbo came out but we’ll leave that for another day.
final thoughts
This was definitely a fun great game for its time and I have great childhood memories. The more this franchise evolved the more it lasted throughout the decades.
What was your favorite Street Fighter game? What was your fondest Street Fighter memories? Did you play with family, friends or local kids at the arcade?
For more nostalgic stories click the link below.