Street Fighter II Champion Edition - PC Engine Review

Whether you wanna call it 8-Bit or 16-Bit, there is no question it did a spectacular version of Street Fighter II.
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By: Jan Neves
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Intro by Evan S.
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Episode Notes:
1. PC Engine footage captured from real hardware.
2. There are a number of SNK fighters that transitioned to the PC Engine well. They used the Arcade Card for the CDROM to bring home those games far better than you would have thought possible.
3. Though the PC Engine version of Champion Edition has no speed settings, it still plays plenty fast. I imagine most will not miss the extra settings unless they really appreciated the higher speeds.
4. Similar to the Genesis, Capcom did not develop most of its properties on the PC Engine. Outside studios took up much of that workload. They did do this, however.
5. The HuCard for this is thicker than most games. It's similar to the Super System Card for the CDROM.
6. This was very well received at its release. Most gaming publications reviewed it even though it was a Japanese import, giving it scores similar to the Genesis and SNES editions.
7. I'd rank the console like this:
Visuals(2/3 could be a tie honestly) -
#1 SNES
#2 PCE
#3 MD
MUSIC -
#1 MD
#2 SNES
#3 PCE
SOUND EFFECTS -
#1 SNES
#2 PCE
#3 MD
GAMEPLAY(almost exclusively because of the available controllers and speed options) -
#1 MD
#2 PCE
#3 SNES

[@scaleworksRC]

I'm glad I got to live through the height of this game's popularity. Stressing to beat the guy standing next to you with a crowd of people watching, cheering, and waiting for their turn was truly one of a kind experience. Thankfully, there are still retro arcades that have competitive fighting games, so newer generations can enjoy it, but it's not like it was back then.

[@medmuscle]

I was a young teen in the early 90's. It was so much fun. You could always easily find a SF2 cabinet. Just look for the crowd of people, haha.

[@scaleworksRC]

@@medmuscle yup! Good times

[@greensun1334]

Indeed, the arcade times and the 16bit console wars in the early and mid 90s were the best and most interesting time in video gaming, I'm glad that I whitnessed it as a teen. I'm still a 2D-oldschool 1:1-fighting game fan, they're just the best and most funny games, and full with original ideas, unlike all the "new" 08/15 literations on modern consoles... Old school gaming rules 💪🏼

[@dannynhl9441]

Yep! As someone who was 12 years old when SF 2 started to really blow up living in New York City at the time was the best. Everywhere was SF2 in NYC. The bike riding around to the next spot to play more people. Nothing in gaming will ever come close. The Nintendo 64 couch coop 4 player games is a second place for me. Online gaming is fun but nothing will ever touch arcade fighters

[@scaleworksRC]

@@dannynhl9441 Yuup you know what's up, then Mortal Kombat came along..😁🤜🤛

[@ridiculous_gaming]

The fact that the PC Engine was created to compete with the NES and not the SNES shows how versatile the hardware was. Simply incredible!

[@maxxdahl6062]

Genesis was also created to compete with the NES rather than SNES. Because that's all that was around at the time. lol

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

@@maxxdahl6062 Yeah, it was the SNES that was created to compete with the Genesis and PCE.

[@legendsflashback]

@@maxxdahl6062 exactly and Genesis punched NES and kicked SNES and Sega was first place with 70% market share in 1993 or so

[@maxxdahl6062]

@@legendsflashback Yeah and people give the genesis crap for the color count, but they have to remember it was meaning to compete with the NES where it dwarfed the NES in color count.

[@legendsflashback]

@@maxxdahl6062 Genesis does...AND they only count 2 variants of 20 of Genesis in 40 million sales 💡

[@anglo-saxonconnor817]

I have always wondered what street fighter 2 would have looked like on the Neo Geo system. The sprites pushing power of that system was the strongest during that period.

[@tom11zz884]

Simply put. Arcade Perfect. Neo Geo has the power to pull it off.

[@jagergerg9771]

That’s a good question.

[@jacobprayer8656]

Only 4 buttons, not 6

[@mikebr9764]

The sharp x68000 version was a flawless port of the arcade version

[@AllCoolThingsStoneMountain]

@@darthkai8242 You two have made me think: Do you think if SNK would have gone the route that SEGA had with the Megadrive/Genesis had done (in the beginning), and reprogrammed games from Capcom, Konami, Data East, and other publishers, taken all of the sales risks, and then sold those games on NEO-GEO, that the 16 Bit War would have ended differently?

[@SomeOrangeCat]

The American version of the PC Engine, the Turbografx-16 is the most disrespected console of that generation. Most of the disrespect came from it's own parent company. Games like SFII never saw the light of day on the TG16, because someone in the company didn't think that fighting games were gonna be that popular.

[@rodrigosimas1980]

What a nostalgic game.. Amazing how 30 years have passed and I still remember the first time I played it in the arcades... SNES tunes of the World Warrior version are memorable... When I had it in my hands in the Megadrive version, it was a dream come true... At the time, no internet, no walktroughts, no spoilers, the real hype!

[@davidt3563]

Those were the days!

[@ianswift3521]

? no walkthroughs? yeah there were. Street Fighter II: The Ultimate Player's Guide (Mean Machines Special - 1992)

[@jpetersongaming]

The tunes were extremely memorable for me personally. I bet we probably can all hum the tunes of every stage off by heart

[@rodrigosimas1980]

@@jpetersongaming yes bro... Extremely memorable... i have actually in my mobile (mp3) In that time of rivalry between SNES and Mega Drive, I admit that the SNES version is (still) the best version... Some tunes is still in my brain If I want to remember each one of them... The good old days...

[@jpetersongaming]

@@rodrigosimas1980 💯💯 Totally agree! That's actually a great idea having them on your phone! I use to have Guile's theme as my ringtone LOL The SNES had a better sound system overall so I usually favor the music from SNES games. Mannnnn the good old days...

[@videogamepolak0]

love these vids man, even tho im not a huge turbografx fan, love to see gameplay and the experience...oh and no clickbait video content? Might be one of the few channels like this in the "retro gaming" section of youtube where its more about the content then it is the money

[@chickenalaking1319]

My friend had a Turbo Duo, wish I bought it off him when he sold me all his GI Joes 20 years ago.

[@Mankey619]

The graphics on the PCE looks nice and it’s incredible that how they knew that the console needed a six button controller just to play Street Fighter. Just wish they brought it outside of Japan.

[@joshuamackey2326]

Man im so glad i got to experience and be apart of this time in gaming in nineties. It really was a special time in gaming thar will never imo be matched because it was always exciting when you would see an arcade game come home ported to the consoles and seeing how games were getting closer and closer to arcade perfect. Ill of course never foeget getting my genesis and playing golden axe and thinking that i had the arcade at home and also that christmas in 91 my buddy andy got the SNES and i wanted one sooo bad ( i had seen it previously at wal mart and got to play it briefly) what a Special time in gaming ill never forget

[@bruce_just_]

Hori Fighting Commander with individual turbo switches beats the official NEC Avenue 6 button control pad!

[@TexasHollowEarth]

Got Hori Fighting Commander pads for PS4, XBox One, and the Switch. Each console got it's own color for their version of the Hori FC 👍

[@Turbo-D]

nobody had a PCE here in germany back then, it was all about SNES, NES, game boy followed by sony playstation....sega was also rare to find here, and if it was most likely the game gear stuff... youn had to buy what the lokal sellers had to offer, no internet, no ebay or amazon, must sound like a horror movie for the modern days gaming kids 🤣🤣

[@Nelbroth]

I would've been a very happy camper if I was a PC Engine owner back in the day. It's a great port overall.

[@stevesteve0521]

Top 5 pc engine game and an excellent port of SF champion edition even if I had to play it with a two button controller back then

[@Tolbat]

TG-16 is my jam, you always do a good job. Appreciate the content.

[@JoeyJ0J0]

Street Fighter 2 for the PC Engine is an impressive port for what is basically an 8 bit console

[@Johnlmooring]

I think it’s a respectable port. The voices on The PC engine sound really good, but the graphics are just ok. I think the SNES version is best of the home versions. (Except for that one version you demonstrated on here, I can’t remember what machine it was on, some rare console; but it was almost better than the arcade version.)

[@barryschalkwijk9388]

The sharp 6800 version

[@thegreathadoken6808]

The game was developed on the Sharp X68k, Final Fight too. Then put into the arcade board. With MIDI, the 68k version was really better than the arcade was, for both games.

[@frankhdz]

Had they brought this games to the TurboGRFX 16 it would have made the system a beast. I loved mine TG16 and was always waiting for all the great japanese games to be brought to the US and they never came. It was a great system and NEC dropped the ball on it. I bought the system for the first street fighter alone.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

At least you got it....here in the UK we didn't! Although we did have a limited release of the handheld version; I remember seeing it when going to purchase my game gear.

[@djstyles97]

Couldn’t compete with the fierce Sega marketing. Genesis did what NE couldn’t even C!

[@wizzgamer]

They did what do you think your watching scotch mist 😅

[@thecunninlynguist]

Great version. Always wanted to get a physical copy

[@Shizzmoney74]

This was one of my retro purchases when I was just in Japan. Surreal it never existed here but when you mention the cost when you add the gamepads and such and the fact the TB16 never sold well here it makes sense.

[@TechRyze]

It's an odd situation for the PC Engine in the West, as it was the 2nd console in Japan, but a distant 3rd over here. It was so capable, but didn't see much in the way of the biggest games ported or released over here. Such a nice port of the game, but we largely never even got to see it. Great video!

[@thegreathadoken6808]

It saw pretty much everything released in the US until it was clear it had lost. That's when the console was all-but abandoned and great games like SF2CE failed to appear after that. Now thew CD add-on, I'm not sure about that. I know not a lot came out for it, but then I heard the number of CD systems in North America at the time were little more than 20,000 units (not surprising given it's price at the time). No one's gonna bring PCECD games over for that.

[@brichan1851]

A great review! I always wanted to play this version of Street Fighter II. I bought the TurboGrafx-16 Mini and I was SO disappointed to see this game was left out. One day, maybe…

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

You can always just install an emulator. BizHawk is rather easy to set up and ran everything I've tried perfectly.

[@brichan1851]

Thought of that. I just might. Or, I could mod my TG16 Mini and add whatever games I want.

[@carlosbragatto]

How NEC Avenue pulled this off is nothing short of a miracle. They really knew their hardware and how to extricate all the needed performance. Thanks for the honest comparison, Lord!

[@blitzerblazinoah6838]

I'm pretty sure that Capcom developed this version themselves in-house and licensed it to NEC. Many of the graphics were the same as the ones from the Genesis port which themselves were used on the SNES releases.

[@opaljk4835]

@@blitzerblazinoah6838I thought the genesis one had to be built from the ground up for some reason?

[@AmartharDrakestone]

@@opaljk4835 Maybe the code was made from the ground up, as they had to cram features from Turbo into SCE, but assets could've easily been reused.

[@blitzerblazinoah6838]

@@opaljk4835 In order to save time, some assets from the SNES versions were reused in the Genesis and presumably PC Engine releases.

[@jbmaru]

@@blitzerblazinoah6838 And probably to save on ROM size, as full-resolution Genesis graphics would have taken more space. That's too bad, but still better than nothing.

[@nicktaylor8032]

Loved these guys for years....but this one is truly special - and that's saying something with such a stellar back catalogue.

[@lawrencefitzgerald4744]

I just want to say, I love your reviews! It's hard to express how much of an impact Street Fighter 2 had when it came out in the arcade. Ah, the memories...

[@greensun1334]

It can be described as the mighty ancestor of all modern 1:1 fighting games. SF2 deserves a lot of respect! And it's still a great looking and playable game, a real timeless classic!

[@WWammyy]

You had to be a die hard PC Engine / Turbografx player considering the cost and also the other two consoles got the Street Fighter 2 Turbo update rather than just Champion edition. Let me tell you that Street Fighter 2 Turbo was a massive deal and everyone was awaiting the home port.

[@infinity2z3r07]

This kid (probably 18-20) working at the Electronics department at Wal-Mart would wreck all challengers on the SNES demo unit. He was a nice guy, but probably not supposed to play it. Regardless, EVERY TIME my mom dragged us along for her errands to Wally World, he was there with a crowd of kids hovering around the tiny 13" CRT, all hoping to take their best shot at him. Good times haha

[@robertdanker6193]

Great video! For many years I didn't even know this version existed. Having played it a few years back i was really impressed with how good it came out. PC engine is a very underrated console IMO.

[@marcelosoares7148]

I always thought it was impressive how they managed to cram SF2 on a HuCard, the format itself is really impressive too when you compare it with a much bigger and thicker cartridge. EDIT: I guess i worded my comment wrong (in various ways to be honest). What i tried to say in the second part was not a comment on how much data the cartridges can hold despite it's size, i compared the size of the 2 because the HuCards takes way less space when stored on a box for example and the first part of the comment was a compliment on how they scaled down the game to fit on the HuCard data size limit which the same happened on the others platforms if i'm not wrong.

[@jamesburchill7522]

..... Dude..

[@Gatorade69]

It's not about the size of the cartridge, rather how you use it.

[@barryschalkwijk9388]

that's... not how cartsizes work. The days where bigger size = more transistors is way behind us lol.

[@Gatorade69]

@@barryschalkwijk9388 I'm glad those days are behind us. We should be happy with the carts that we are given. I just bought a big truck to make up for my small cart.

[@barryschalkwijk9388]

@@Gatorade69 i wish i could believe you were joking 100% :p

[@cypherian2]

I was never the biggest fan of fighting games in general, but one cannot deny the HUGE impact they had back them and on into the present! Even despite my lack of skill in the genre, the whole Street Fighter series has been fascinating to me, and this look back at a forgotten port was especially interesting! Thanks so much for doing this! Side Question: Are you aware that CAPCOM has released the majority of their back catalog in special collections on Steam? If so, have you thought of reviewing them for this channel? I'd love to know what you think!

[@CecilTheDarkKnight234]

This version still amazes me and goes to show how much power/potential the PCE/Turbo16 truly had as a machine, but it just never gained ground outside of Japan. Also this port was one of the first games I ever imported way back in 2009 as a collectors piece and still have to this day. This aside it makes me wonder what the PCE version would've looked like & played on the PCE/Turbo CD. Well regardless of my ramblings great work as always SLX, keep up the good work!

[@sloppynyuszi]

To be fair it probably wouldn’t look much better. We can take street fighter 1 (or fighting street as the kids call it), looked rather crap. Then we have the Neo Geo Ports. Looked nice, but that ram cartridge didn’t do enough to really elevate them much from the snes version. So I think you would just be looking at nicer sounds. The weirdest example of the Super CD we can see is Bonk 3. The cartridge version is slightly better. I forget what the detail is, I think it’s just a graphical effect, but the CD really just gave the device storage not much performance, like the Mega Cd for the mega drive. And that storage was the 20meg hue card, as before that I think the games maxed out at 8

[@greensun1334]

​@@sloppynyusziagreed, it wouldn't be much better, only the sound would be closer to the original. Btw, the SNES port of Fatal Fury Special (the complete 32meg NTSC version of course!) is even better and more arcade accurate than the PCE CD version, but again, the CD music has better quality.

[@megahedgehog2039]

​@@sloppynyuszibig bonk had less frames of animation in bonk 3 CD

[@jsttv]

THANK YOU!! YOU ARE THE MAN! I bought the PC Engine version, one six button controller, and the same adapter you showed about 14 years ago for my Turbo Duo. The adapter was expensive, and rare, but worth it. Can’t wait for the Analogue Duo.

[@ralfvanbogaert3451]

The marketing incompetence of the Turbografx-16 is downright baffling. SFII was just about the hottest video game property in the early '90s, the PC Engine got a port that was just as good as the hyper-popular SNES one, and yet like so many other games that really could've made the Turbo a player to be reckoned with in Western markets, never saw a release outside Japan. If they released it in '88, provided two gamepad ports *and* a better pack-in, chances are NEC would still be in the videogame business today.

[@Aragorn7884]

The sound of SFII on Genesis...GD

[@chrislaustin]

To this day, I'm still a pad player when it comes to fighting games, and I've owned most over the years. I actually owned that Hori one for the SNES, and I had the Capcom "Soldier" 6 button pad as well for the SNES. I've actually had so many over the years, I've forgotten some as well. As for this port, yeah, it was well done, and for me probably the middle version, as the SNES was my favorite, and the Genesis voices and sound effects always made that last for me(but still a great version).

[@ciotay5469]

I love falling asleep to your videos. Your voice tone is like a melody 😊👍

[@legendsflashback]

7:17 the multi window 🚳 was perfect

[@Athesies]

This game is always what my mind jumps to when I hear someone say the pc engine was "only an 8 bit machine". I don't think the nes or the master system could ever do a version of sf2 that looks and runs nearly this well lol, they are not in the same league

[@AceTrainerX3]

Funny enough, the Master System did receive a conversion of SFII. It was Bazil-only and is definitely way more compromised than any of the 16-bit versions, but it does punch well above its weight for an 8-bit port.

[@avenuePad]

​@@joefell5311 The SNES had an 8-bit CPU with 16-bit addressing. The Turbografx had an 8-bit CPU with a 16-bit graphics processor, which means that the TG's CPU also had 16-bit addressing. The TG's processor blew the SNES processor out of the water in terms of speed. The SNES just couldn't cope with shmups when compared to the Genesis or the TG. The Genesis was the only console in the 16-bit era to actually have a 16-bit processor. Even then, I've seen hairs split in discussions saying that the Genesis CPU was 8-bit. In any case, it's pointless. Each system had their own unique capabilities and weaknesses. The SNES was slow, but had great sound and colours. The Genesis was fast, but had a low colour count. The Genesis had FM synthesis for sound, which is cool, but is totally subjective. I like FM synthesis sometimes, and sometimes I hate it. It really depends on how it's implemented. The Genesis FM synthesis was fantastic in some instances, and ear-piercingly horrendous in others. The TG, on the other hand, was arguably just as fast as the Genesis, but had a huge amount of colours, and also had great sound. The "16-bit" term was for marketing purposes to convince kids that their NES was out of date. In terms of graphical output it was meaningless, as SFII CE shows. Peddling off the TG/PCE as "only 8-bit" not only misunderstands the technical specifications, but also misinforms people into believing that the TG wasn't on equal ground as the Genesis and SNES. Nothing could be further from the truth. The TG could pump out games just as good as the Genesis or SNES, if not better.

[@wizzgamer]

The cpu being 8-bit wasn't that relevant as the gpu displaying and rendering the graphics was 16-bit so everything you see on screen is 16-bit.

[@avenuePad]

@@joefell5311 Oh no, I wasn't trying to say you were dissing the PCE/TG. My post was just a general statement. 🙂

[@jmford1]

The TG-16 wasn’t a 8 bit machine. Some claimed it was because it had two 8 bit processors running in tandem rather than one 16 bit chip. Same thing with the Jaguar - two 32 bit RISC processors instead of one 64 bit processor.

[@dunnono00]

1993 resulted in the PC Engine getting a port of Champion Edition, while the Super NES got Turbo, and the Genesis basically got Turbo with a different title (maybe contractual issues?). I wonder if there would have been any issues with the faster gameplay speeds on the PC Engine. I wouldn't think so, but I can't claim any expertise in that subject. In any case, that generation was really something. The Super Nintendo basically had the edge in technical terms, but the Genesis and PC Engine (or TurboGrafx-16, as it were) were still valid alternatives. Fun times.

[@PnC_GameZnThingZ]

The first time I played the game was on a Turbo Express and I thought it was good. When I finally got it for my Duo-R i got the chance to really check it out more deeply and I really appreciate what it is.

[@NateTheGnat]

I love how warm and fuzzy the music on the PC engine is.

[@breakpack]

I remember seeing screenshots of this version in Gamefan magazine back in 1993 or 1994. I was impressed back then. Once I imported it a few years later, with the Kisado adapter and 2 Avenue 6 button pads, I thought it was a solid port!

[@BrianJones-wk8cx]

And when you consider that this also ran on the TurboExpress-though sacrificing buttons-it’s all the more impressive. I remember being impressed by the lackluster GameBoy port of SFII … which could hold a candle’s candle to NEC’s console.

[@ONEDACASH]

hi bro im a 41 year old new zealander and i love all your old school content ,,,on this video is the quick part of magazine footage from the CVG magazine?🇳🇿

[@SegaLordX]

Sure was.

[@TechAppsNGames]

It was an incredible feat to have been able to be made and run on the hardware. Some type of programming wizardry here. Awesome content!

[@BearfootBob]

Sega Lord X and PatmanQC streaming Shredder's Revenge.

[@TexasHollowEarth]

That's fuckin awesome man 👌

[@djstyles97]

I still remember wanting this version as it was in magazines before the Genesis version. Great review as usual.

[@Monhamd1000]

This port is absolutely incredible and my favorite of the bunch, but they had to cut so many voice clips due to limitations to the HuCard.

[@Chaz4543]

Why wasnt it on CD instead ?

[@ravagingwolverine666]

@@Chaz4543 Most likely because, when NEC Avenue developed this port, the Super CD did not have enough RAM available with the System Card 3.0. CD had advantages and disadvantages. I think they would have struggled squeezing the sprite data for each match into the small amount of RAM. Plus there would be major load times. The arcade card, which was a big memory upgrade, came later and likely would have made it possible. Having it on a HuCard removed these limits on how much data could be accessed at a time.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

It's a very impressive port all things considered but I don't know how you can put the Genesis version behind this one graphics-wise. Yeah, this has nicer colors in spots but overall, the Genesis version looks quite a bit better to me with its intact parallax scrolling and other layering effects, more line scrolling (e.g.: E. Honda's pool), and more background animation detail.

[@SegaLordX]

It's a tough call between the two, I admit. You can easily pick one over the other just based on preferring certain effects.

[@heilong79]

THe Megadrive version even had more details than the Snes one, like the extra people on Guiles stage, I think Sega Lord X was just trying to have a balanced review do spread the praise out a bit, For me the Megadrive version is great and the color/sound hack makes it the best 16bit version hands down.

[@Woke_Fascism]

I've been really loving my pc engine paired with superhd system 3 pro this past year . My God fathers son had a tg-16 , and master system , both systems mystified me is I had only know of nes , snes and genesis in the early 90s as a young kid . Such a beast of a system and this port is mighty impressive. Love your channel ❤️

[@TheyCallMeSledge]

This version of the game is beautiful. It almost completely rivals the Genesis one which in my opinion is the definitive home experience for Street Fighter 2.

[@davidaitken8503]

The Genesis version is definitely inferior to the SNES and TG16 version in looks, that's for sure. They all played great as long as you had good controllers for them.

[@joeyjo-joshabadu9636]

​@@davidaitken8503Genesis version has a higher resolution than the other two which IMO makes up for the grainier colour. The only real flaw of the Genesis version is the garbled voice samples.

[@davidaitken8503]

@@joeyjo-joshabadu9636 I've heard plenty of people try to make a fuss about the slight resolution difference between these two systems and the only time it was ever noticeable was when a character designed on one system looked stretched or squished slightly on another. CRT displays made the resolution difference a moot point. The limited color palette with color choices that just seemed off on a number of stages was much more noticeable as well as the smaller characters. Did you grow up playing these games or are you used to seeing them on modern LEDs?

[@joeyjo-joshabadu9636]

@@davidaitken8503 I have World Warrior and New Challengers for SNES and SCE and New Challengers for Genesis. All these games look great, but if my memory serves me the SNES screen for World Warrior is letterboxed. SSF2 on the Genesis also has a bit more real estate than the SNES version and a somewhat crisper look. Actually I think the sprites in both SNES games are stretched. I play all my retro games on a CRT through composite cables, and it's actually the Genesis which benefits the most from that setup, thanks to its higher reliance on the dithering effect. The difference in sound is far more significant than the difference in graphics for these games. I do have to concede that the SNES games have a higher level of polish overall, but I still gravitate towards the Genesis mainly for it's awesome 6 button controller which was literally designed for SF2.

[@davidaitken8503]

@@joeyjo-joshabadu9636 I agree dithering doesn't look nearly as bad as many of these dimwits think it does as they've only seen these older games on HD LED displays. Even when playing on the intended CRT display, dithering never looked good though.. I know what they were trying to do with it, but in every single case it looked inferior to just having more colors. It always made the image look, maybe not grainy thanks to color bleed, but noisy. It didn't have the clean, smooth look that actual colors did. That goes for not only Genesis games with their excessive dithering, but SNES games too, like Metal Warriors, for instance. As far as controllers go, we usually would map the medium punch and kicks to the shoulder buttons on the SNES controller and that worked just fine. It it was that big of a deal you could have invested in those Capcom arcade controllers for SNES.

[@Akiga_games]

Awesome review SLX! This one looked great! The pce handled this title pretty well!

[@icetrey8662]

This is B/S, why is this new to me? I had a Turbo Graphx too. But I had a Genesis and SNES also. You know I mostly played that Genesis version. But I would of loved to experience this version too. I was playing Dark Wing Duck and Air Zonk on it.

[@Trevor_Bennett]

Air Zonk is a great game. Great chip tunes.

[@fusoya6544]

I remember reading some reports in UK magazines that Capcom were going to make a hybrid HuCard/CD game for this version. The System Card 3 BIOS and graphics were going to be on HuCard and the sound and music on CD. However halfway through development they changed it to a HuCard only version. There are some tell signs of this if you look at the CD jewel case the game came inside, it had a dual HuCard/CD bay and the HuCard had that extra 'bulge' on it which the System Card 3 also had. Thank goodness they changed their minds as it subsequently meant this version was the only one at the time that could be played on a handheld (PC Engine GT) which must have been incredible to see back in the day.

[@nimaiiikun]

I remember the first time I saw this version of SF2, the first thing I noticed was that it was the only console port that kept the life bar and name fonts of the arcade

[@johnalbertson79]

Not going to beat SNES on graphics but honestly I'd take any of the 3 ports happily back in the day.

[@mrmacross]

According to EGM, Capcom originally wanted to release a HuCard/CD combo for SF2CE, with the music on the CD and the rest of the game on HuCard. Would've been interesting to see if that could've been pulled off. Maybe some clever homebrew person can try to pull it off.

[@darktetsuya]

definitely did not get around to this one until emulation. a very competent port of SF2: CE I gotta say. only thing really missing was the TURBO upgrade stuff. shout out to the 'ending on any difficulty' feature in PCE SF2, a feature sorely absent from the SNES/Genesis editions which leave you with nothing but a wall of text that amounts to 'git gud scrub'! I was always partial to the SNES version of SF2 turbo, but I appreciate what they tried to do on PCE. although I remember reading rumors they were gonna attempt a HuCard + CD combo for SF2:CE and I have to wonder how *that* would have turned out!!

[@Rationalific]

This is the only one of the versions mentioned that I've never played, but I remember even back in the day hearing about how this was a really good port. Thanks for introducing it to those of us who never got time with it!

[@MrThunderwing]

I never knew that the PC Engine version of the game was Japan only before. First time I played it (in emulation several years back), I couldn't believe just how much better the sampled voices were than the horrible crackly ones in my trusty Megadrive port of the game. It still really bugs me that Capcom half-arsed the voice samples in it, when fan project hacks have shown that the Megadrive could've done it so much better.

[@kenfu9334]

what a beautiful review thank you sega lord x keep it up the good work

[@hmoham]

I remember seeing the PC engine version of Street Figher 2 CE at my local game store as a teenager, at the time I thought it was the closest to arcade released, though thinking back, this was likely because living in the UK, the SNES and Megadrive versions ran at 50Hz, which meant the games also ran 17% slower and had borders.

[@VenusHeadTrap2]

This looks way too good to be on the PCE from 1987

[@absoluteclownworld]

Right!? Awesome port.

[@eol6632]

This game looks great on a CRT even using composite cables. PCE/TurboGrafx is still underrated

[@maniacsatwork]

I have this for my Core II along with the Avenue 6 button controller and it's one of my favourite conversions I play frequently.

[@CayugaKing]

Such good memories playing this on my import PC Engine GT in the 90s even with the limited controls it felt special😊

[@hdrgb]

I've had this one on the platform for awhile, along with the HORI stick. It truly is a magnificent port. Great vid. Keep it up, pal.

[@roydriver8956]

I think the PC Engine could have pulled off a great version of Mortal Kombat,

[@SegaLordX]

I agree. It had the colors for it.

[@blitzerblazinoah6838]

It would have been the best home port of it's day.

[@absoluteclownworld]

SNES is my favorite overall. PC Engine and MD are about equal to me. All very playable and great games, I also own all 3 lol.

[@nicholasgarratt5646]

SNES will always be my favourite console version and prefer the PCE one to the MD.

[@GuiOmania]

Street Fighter II port on PC engine is as impressive as Alpha 2 on Snes !!!

[@ciaranmccarthy]

There is a great patch for Alpha 2 that removes the loading times and adds the arcade music too!

[@StevenMorris]

I bought this game for peanuts when I lived in Japan and was blown away by it. The responsiveness of the controls are super crisp!

[@hakimdania5015]

I do have this game,worth every penny

[@Sparkledash1]

I played this version the first time, when it came out in the west on the Wii Virtual Console, around the late 2000s. It was a really fascinating port to say the least, as it really didn't look like your typical PC-Engine game. Capcom must have spend some big money to give the best home experience on each console. I just wish more developers would've used the full potential of the PC-Engine. It could've done way more.

[@ElectricLuvz]

Back then, I was a pretty big SF2 fan and bought this game along with a Hori Fighting Commander. When I got home and tried to plug in the controller, I realized it wouldn't fit into a Turbografx-16! So back into the box it went and I never really played the PC-Engine version very much after that, which was fine since we had the SNES version. Anyway, that controller (and game) collected dust for over three decades but I'm glad I still have it now.

[@biostemm]

It looks very crisp and clean, with good color use!

[@GameSack]

The Hori pad is amazing (I imagine, how could it not be?) but the NEC Avenue Pad 6 is a bit trash. :( The SNES version was the template for the Genesis and PC Engine versions, unfortunately. That means they run in low resolution mode with the same exact sprites. Made porting quicker and cheaper.

[@SegaLordX]

Kinda makes you wonder what that Arcade Card could have done with Super Turbo...

[@thedrunkmonkshow]

This whole time I never noticed that the PC Engine version lacked parallax scrolling. I guess because I felt satisfied that the depth perception of the street/floors were accurate that I overlooked things.

[@revengenerd1]

You know whats mad, I jsut got back a few hours ago from a convention and picked up a PC Engine Duo and this too before I even knew about your video, love the port except no 6 button pad.

[@oldskoolpaul77]

I really enjoyed this video! Thanks! 😊

[@avenuePad]

The SNES had an 8-bit CPU with 16-bit addressing. The Turbografx had an 8-bit CPU with a 16-bit graphics processor, which means that the TG's CPU also had 16-bit addressing. The TG's processor blew the SNES processor out of the water in terms of speed. The SNES just couldn't cope with shmups when compared to the Genesis or the TG. The Genesis was the only console in the 16-bit era to actually have a 16-bit processor. Even then, I've seen hairs split in discussions saying that the Genesis CPU was 8-bit. In any case, it's pointless. Each system had their own unique capabilities and weaknesses. The SNES was slow, but had great sound and colours. The Genesis was fast, but had a low colour count. The Genesis had FM synthesis for sound, which is cool, but is totally subjective. I like FM synthesis sometimes, and sometimes I hate it. It really depends on how it's implemented. The Genesis FM synthesis was fantastic in some instances, and ear-piercingly horrendous in others. The TG, on the other hand, was arguably just as fast as the Genesis, but had a huge amount of colours, and also had great sound. The "16-bit" term was for marketing purposes to convince kids that their NES was out of date. In terms of graphical output it was meaningless, as SFII CE shows. Peddling off the TG/PCE as "only 8-bit" not only misunderstands the technical specifications, but also misinforms people into believing that the TG wasn't on equal ground as the Genesis and SNES. Nothing could be further from the truth. The TG could pump out games just as good as the Genesis or SNES, if not better.

[@maroon9273]

Great part about the turbografx, all of the graphical features on the genesis and snes can be implemented with the right amount of storages via software.

[@sloppynyuszi]

Had this on my pc engine gt. in 1995, this was a crazy version of the game to have on the go. And it was still fun with two buttons. Had to switch with select button between kicks and punches, but it was too good to have this bother me.

[@RightNowMan]

Tiger!!!

[@DieselJT]

Would love to see more PC Engine and Turbo Grafix 16 coverage!

[@volvoguy804]

Perfect timing! I just purchased a Core Grafx 2.

[@stargazerlaurent6780]

If you had this and a Turbo Express then you were super ahead of the curve

[@marshinz5696]

The boldness of the colors is even better than the Arcade.

[@freddyvidz]

Who else remembers two button controllers blew our minds?!?

[@WiiRPHYSICAL]

I enjoyed this history lesson. I'm for sure going to have pick this up for the collection

[@SegaLordX]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@RoyAlWhicheez]

Your SF2 story is really similar to mine. I've been waiting for the rest of your story with WWE Royal Rumble for so long lol. I'm assuming the SF2 story wasn't that lucrative so you abandoned it. I'm the same age as you so I get it, if I never see the rest of the story it's cool, just letting you know I love your content dude

[@Diskoboy1974]

The music is actually impressive, given the platform it's on.

[@garciamario5436]

Sweet 8 Bit Console pushing its self to the MAX!

[@coleshores]

PC Engine had some other amazing fighting game ports as well with it's NeoGeo ports. Absolutely blew the SNES Takara ports out of the water.

[@VOAN]

They didn't do much though, they do get a bit of presentation correct but had some very sluggish gameplay.

[@TiGerSushX]

Great video for one of the best channel on KZbin 🔥🔥🔥

[@thegamingcorner4095]

Great video Sega Lord, very impressive. I never owned a Turbo Graphics 16 ( PC Engine) I had only one friend that did in the day. Back then I always thought the Turbo Grpahics was a great unit and I did not know back than that it was only 8-bit. For an 8-bit unit pulling off Street Fighter that well, all I can say is WOW WHAT A UNIT IT WAS.

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

It's main CPU was 8-bit (the same 8-bit CPU as the NES), but it had a 16-bit graphic chip, hence the name "Turbo graphics 16". So it was kind of in between.

[@roberthornibrook6344]

This was the *only* way back then to play SF2 on the go up until the Nomad came out years later.

[@thejunkmanlives]

ive spent 1000s of hours with this franchise(playing 6 currently). in 92 this would have been passable but today theres no reason to even look at it other then 100% uncut pure nostalgia. also it wasnt long after this that we got ports that were a lot closer to the cps1/2 board for the psx/saturn.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

SNES and Genesis owners would have been perfectly happy if their only port of the game was exactly like that PC-Engine version.

[@dreamcastfan]

Great review and very fair to all three versions from that era. The PCE port was probably my favourite for a long time because of the easier AI and always giving you the full ending regardless of difficulty. You really felt like you were getting a special PCE game with this one as the cart was extra chunky at the front (hence why it needed an adapter for TG16 systems I guess).

[@davidaitken8503]

The game needed an adaptor to play on US versions of the console because it was a Japanese version of the game. It had nothing to do with the cartridge size.

[@scottlinux]

Very cool, I had no idea this port existed! I'll check it out++

[@jamesmoss3424]

The turbogarfx-16 version of Street Fighter should have been released in the USA in the first place. 😀👍🎮