I have already spoken on KoF. Thankfully, most of them are as i remember, that is, what i do remember. I have brought it up in previous posts, but i have noticed a big difference in the Street Fighter series than i remember. I know i am likely ruining my potential reputation by talking about this, because it sounds insane, and i probably come off as some kind of troll or nutcase, and i understand that, and you know what? Maybe i am nuts. Maybe i've been half-awake all these years, and just now did i wake all the way up...So anyone, cut the bullshit and let's get on to SF.
Now let's start off with the information that i remember concerning Street Fighter 2. It is as follows:
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is a 1988 sequel to 1987's Street Fighter. At the time, we thought a sequel to Street Fighter was the worst decision they could ever make. Street Fighter was an awful game, borderline unplayable, and its machine setup was a massive indicator of severe incompetence as they tried to make punching pads that would wear out the machine in no time, so they had to replace it with a 6-button setup. However, when Street Fighter II finally did come out, it proved me wrong. Now it took quite a bit of time to get its popularity out there as it started out being seen as nothing more than a pretty game with no substance, much like the first one, and it looked slower, so people thought it was going to suck. The game almost became a hidden gem. Luckily, within a year's time, it started to finally gain a following, and by 1990, the game became a hit and a sensation.
The success of the World Warrior prompted Capcom to look back to the game to fix its game's flaws and release an upgrade. A common request is that they would allow the boss characters Mike Bison, Balrog, Sagat, and Vega to be playable, and as such, the wish was granted. Champion Edition was released in August of 1990. Among these changes, they also made minor graphical upgrades as well as minor alterations to stages, such as Guile's stage no longer snowing, and now being a warm, sunny day with a dusk sky, and Ryu's stage being at night with a big moon and scrolling clouds. They also made changes to portraits, and the character select/map screen was changed to blue water instead of a black background.
In November of 1991, Capcom released a port of Street Fighter II: The World warrior on both the SNES and Sega Genesis. The Genesis version was in the works for a longer time, and it almost came out earlier, but they decided to delay it so they could fine tune it and go ahead and let it compete with the SNES. The SNES version was a launch title for the console, and also made small updates that were featured in Champion Edition, such as the blue map, certain bugs, and also added in graphical/animation features the revisions had, though the portraits were kept intact. The SNES version also had the luxury of including the famous opening; a blonde guy punching a curly haired brunet in front of a building. The Genesis version, while it looked better, had more animation, and its music sounded identical to the arcade, played awkwardly and caused the Genesis to lose a point for the console war.
Upon Turbo's release at the same time as the ports, Capcom got to work on a sequel, but due to time constraints, they scrapped it and released another upgrade in October 1992 that was seen as unnecessary, but was ultimately welcomed. Super Street Fighter II was the first game to run on Capcom's new CPSII hardware, and thus featured upgraded(albeit inferior) music and graphics. It also featured new voices, and four new characters; T.Hawk, Wei-Long, Dee-Jay, and Sarah, all of whom had their own stages. Ryu and Ken were also updated as they were made to differentiate in terms of play style and to have different voices. The background graphics were also entirely redone, and some things, such as Guile's stage snowing, were restored from the original 1988 release.
As time went on, a Street Fighter III was a heavily anticipated/discussed game throughout the 90s, but it didn't happen until nearly the end of the decade. In the meantime, a prequel series titled Street Fighter Alpha(Zero in Japan) was released in 1995, but it was an unfinished product due to time constraints, as such severeal stages were shared, and one stage (Italy) shared music. Right after the game came out, Capcom began to work on a sequel that would perfect what they intended to do from the get-go. Street Fighter Alpha 2 was released in January 1996 and not only was it a more complete version of the previous game, it also had all new stages, older characters made a return; from SF2, Zangief, Dhalsim, Wei-Long, and Sarah, and from SF1, Eagle and Gen, and Rolent from Final Fight. It also featured an all new character, a school girl that is obsessed with Ryu named Sakura Kasuga, she is petite, wears a sailor uniform with converse shoes over 80s socks, and glasses. It also introduced Charlie, the man many suspected became Blanka due to him sharing a name with Guile's supposedly dead friend in the western release (in Japan it was Nash) Birdie also got his own theme rather than sharing it with Rose.
Alpha 3 came along and introduced new characters, all new stages, and all new music, though it is supposedly rushed as just about everyone has an ending with Vega aside from Blanka, whom you unlock by beating the game with Guile, who has an ending where Charlie supposedly dies, but implies that he gets mutated in the blast. Blanka instead has a Guile ending where he doesn't recognize him, but Guile senses something familiar about him. This nearly cemented the fact that Charlie from 2 was indeed Blanka, and that Capcom accepted this as well as Charlie's full name being Charlie Nash.
Now let's get onto how it is now...
Upon going back, i see a site stating its release to be February of 1991, and i attempt to correct the person by showing him the release date from elsewhere, but to my surprise, all places read its release date as February 1991. I at first thought it was stating when the game was in its prime, but nope, apparently it was released then and was an instant hit. SFI was out of the picture entirely by this point and no one remembered it.
So i download it in Kawaks to see if information is being messed with, and oddly enough, it no longer has a copywritten release date. It also has a blonde man punching a black man in front of an audience that is animated with two frames of animation slowly rather than a quicker four animation. So then i get Champion Edition, and there it is...Copyright 1991, 92. No 1988 anywhere.
I also notice, in the World Warrior, the select screen and map is blue water like in champion editon(and its ports). Ryu's portrait features him having a very meek looking blank stare rather than his angry baring teeth face that Ken and later versions of Ryu had. I also notice Russia is now called U.S.S.R. And then i play it further and notice something...M.Bison is now called Balrog, Balrog is now called Vega, Sagat is the same, but Vega is now called M.Bison...I thought that was a hacked rom at first until doing research, finding out that they switched the names because of some lawsuit from Mike Tyson over M.Bison, which makes no sense due to fair use laws. Guile's stage is no longer snowing and is instead an oddly dull and depressing looking sunny day. Also some of the stages feel slightly off, though they are details i had to pay attention to, such as Blanka's stage's sky having a more vibrant blue sky, and Bison's stage featuring a sign reading Wedding Chappel. Sagat's theme is also weird sounding; it feels gritty, abrasive, and is much shorter than i remember. It lacks the solo. Though the stage looks the same
Other changes i notice are the lack of cheering when one wins a fight, the voices are stripped down so the characters no longer grunt, Balrog no longer has his own KO voice, and the weirdest part...Guile no longer says Flash Kick and Vega no longer says Psycho Crusher. Interestingly, the cheering was restored for SNES port.
Champion Edition is the same aside from it featuring a couple changes from the world warrior, but the dusk sky is still intact, but the new names are present. I never played Vega much, but i do seem to remember his ending featuring him being apparently furious about something as his select portrait is in front of a black screen as he shakes furiously over hectic music that doesn't seem to be there now, but i could be mixing things up.
For the ports, now it seems The World Warrior never made it onto the Genesis at all, and the SNES version came out in June of 1992. It also now misses the opening, where as originally, the Genesis one lacked it. Champion Edition port is the same aside from the minor changes from the arcade versions. World Warrior on the genesis had better graphics and music that was closer to the arcade, but they did away with that for Special Champion Edition to make way for better gameplay. The years they came out are also one behind what they once were.
So along comes super...what has changed? Well, other than the fact it was released in 1993 now, two of the new challengers have new names; Wei-Long is now Fei-Long, and Sarah is Cammy. Also Dee-Jay no longer has a dash in his name. Wei-Long's portrait has his hand now half open rather than the rest of his fist closed shut and his index finger way up. Guile's stage is, again, not snowing but is a bright and sunny day, now a very vibrant looking one. Also Sarah, now Cammy, says Cannon Drill and Thrust Kick rather than Spiral Arrow and Cannon Spike, and Dee-Jay now says Max Out instead of Slash. The ports have also altered the music in the SNES version. They were once in line with the Genesis version exactly, but now only the Genesis version remains the same. It also sounds slightly different in terms of sound design; it used to sound even more like a variation of Mega Man X.
For Alpha, now apparently Birdie has had his own theme since Alpha 1, wheras before he shared a theme with Rose, although it is mostly as i remember except Charlie seems to have been in this game as well. Alpha 2 is where the changes mostly are. The most noteable one is that Sakura no longer has her glasses, and is now named Sakura Kasugano as the added "no" almost feels like it's taunting me. Dhalsim's stage is also in some weird palace instead of a skinny wooden bridge over the water that leads to landscape on both ends. I also remember Alpha 2 having an N64 port which was solid aside from its weird music, which sounded like a weaker version of the arcade's music, but now it has an awful SNES port for whatever reason.
Alpha 3 now has Blanka available from the beginning, and Guile is only in some versions. Guile's ending is the same, but Blanka now has a Vega ending and his story now seems to be a bunch of nothing and featuring Sakura and Dan.
So yeah. Does anyone out there remember it like i do? I can't seem to find anyone that does. I have researched stuff like this on the mandela effect, but this has not been reported anywhere else. I have asked, but no one has really responded with anything, at least not anything meaningful. I am seriously freaking out. As i have stated previously, i accept i may very well be crazy, but i swear up and down i remember it the way i speak of.
UPDATE: Made some edits of how i remember the games looking.
Original select screen. The background is pure black, the land is green, Ryu is barring teeth, and U.S.S.R. is Russia. Note, it is only highlighted to make it stand out. Also slightly modified the map cause i remember the world map, both here and in life, being different.
Edited the SNES stage cause it was easier. I got as close as i could recall.
Minor difference. Took me a minute to see, but something felt off. This is how it looked.
Got as close as i could. Not perfect, but it gets the idea across.
Better edit of his portrait. Used Genesis version because it was easier. This is the pose he had. Familiar?
Yes, it looked better than this, but i have bigger things to do than sit there and meticulously edit a portrait.
Also Sakura looked like this.
https://s21.postimg.org/c82toeflz/sakurawas.png
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