We held a tournament for the MOST BROKEN version of Street Fighter 2

Interested in joining future tournaments? Become a Patreon supporter or Twitch subscriber and join our discord!!
Today we're playing Street Fighter 2: Rainbow Edition - an extremely broken romhack for SF2 that lets you do things like air fireballs, switching characters on the fly, and INFINITE HUNDRED HAND SLAP with E. Honda. Hope you enjoy!
Twitch (I stream every weekday from 5-8 EST): / jmcrofts
Patreon: / jmcrofts
Twitter: / crofts

[@friendofphi]

Having played this a lot in arcades, when the person tries to cheese going off screen you have to press your player button and switch to Zangief who has an infinite vertical hitbox on SPD.

[@rhyhaggen336]

Exactly, sorry i just posted that too before reading ur comment

[@snkybrki]

I was just thinking about if that strat has a counter. It almost seems like every play you could make has several ways to counter it in the game, especially considering how you can change characters at will. That begs the question...is Rainbow Edition actually balanced? If everything is nuts, then nothing is, after all.

[@friendofphi]

@@snkybrki When I played it in the arcade I'm pretty sure balrog can stun lock you/TOD. The computer can change characters and uppercut you but I don't think humans can. So there's a scramble at round start but eventually, I would get my balrog infinite going.

[@snkybrki]

@@friendofphi Really? Damn. I suppose the search for a balanced fighting game shall have to continue, then. Thanks for the info, though.

[@JLillo]

That's what I did on Rainbow. Thankfully, I got more love than hate for doing that.

[@ThiagoGualtieri]

This version was very famous here in Brazil, we used to call it a "bus station street fighter" (SF de rodoviária).

[@StarPlatinumV]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@hikaritx]

Why the hell are these creative names only in Brazil Lmao

[@ThiagoGualtieri]

@@hikaritx We have to make our lemonades with the lemons life give us LOL

[@hikaritx]

Sounds fair

[@AlexsanderSantiago]

LENDÁRIO STREET DE RODOVIÁRIA KKKKKKKKK

[@danielolan8154]

I have to say. You getting flabbergasted when Ryu was just fireballing off screen and coming from underneath was one of the funniest reactions I've ever seen on anything funny. I was in stitches. That truly made my day. Thank you sir.

[@r1konTheAutomator]

That balrog switch and straight punch at 21:02 was fucking genius

[@bidoofenshmirtzevilinc.4369]

I've been waiting for this kind of video for way too long😂 Thank you JMCrofts, this version is very special to me and a small group of friends due to it pulling a lot of us out of a very rough time. It's anything but perfect, but it made us laugh at one of the worst times in our lives Fun fact (haven't seen the full video yet) Zangief can also grab from anywhere on the screen

[@theAshesofDecember1]

What’s more is that there are different versions of rainbow that each broken in their own way. This isn’t the one I’m used to because the characters don’t start floating before the match begins and the shoru doesn’t spread a bunch of fireballs. So this is like the medium busted version

[@rendyajadech1957]

And on that version, blanka shoot sonic boom instead of hadoken. Zangief spinning lariat wil have constant yoga flame under his feet 😅

[@RobertBatchelor]

Yeah, the fireballs would bounce up and down as they move forward slowly.

[@SethCall]

The best version is Accelerator Pt. II . It sounds like the one you describe.

[@ll1ll1ll1ll1ll]

That's the one Maximilian Dood used in his playthrough. Ken spamming DPs and creating a wall of fireballs with each DP is basically an unbeatable strat in that one.

[@LemonRush7777]

@@rendyajadech1957 Ah that's the one from my childhood!

[@CrimsonMoonM]

That flying DBZ-style battle between Ryu and Dhalsim was intense!

[@TheTiltblazin]

This was so awesome during my teenage years! I remember playing with Zangief, jumping upward, doing his arm spin to the top screen and appear on the bottom and I continued to repeat this process until it was like 10 secs left in the round, them I would grab the opponent to do the spinning pile-driver. You would see Zangief spin from multiple, circling screens! Ahhh, good times! 🤣🤣

[@ultimateretroasd]

Now I understand what a "loose game" means

[@DankDynamite]

Lmao JM's blanka noises are unmatched

[@whs1pmjazz]

It got old real fuckin quick for me. Couldn't make it through the video

[@Nougatbars]

Perfect winning that way was absolute bullshit.

[@Larsgman]

Hearing jmcroft voice crack as he grips his head - chefs kiss. What a video. Too many laughs were had

[@BigDaddyCola]

This was amazing to watch. Sf2 was so compelling and easier to watch back in the day. Rainbow edition and its antics take the cake

[@Occult_Detective]

We had one out here in Hawaii on the Big island. In the Fun factory on Alii drive. It didn't have a known name, as what it actually is, was only a rumor at the time. The walk speed of Dhalsim was insane, just as fast as the fierce fire balls. Zangief can do his spinning fist in air, then jump to do it again, so he can scale multiple screens. Once your past a screen, only a throw can cause collision. So Zangief can then do spinning piledriver in air, grabbing the opponent, then he will scale back down through as many screens as he went up! Suddenly Street fighter becomes a WWF version.

[@yukiyagami9744]

6:34 It sudenly went from a Street Fighter battle to a Dragon Ball Z battle 😂

[@chadlong3226]

That stresses me out just watching other people play. I don’t think I could endure it LOL… You should give Bushido Blade a video!

[@khhnator]

bushido blade 2 is sooooooooo good

[@georgegreeniii4013]

I second this!

[@jayjay-cl1eo]

Are ps1 games on fightcade?

[@shinrahunter]

I'd love a bushido blade tournament.

[@SP_Sour]

Reminds me of how the "Magic Plus" version of KoF 2002 is one of the most popular versions of the game in South America (if what I have heard is true). It's not quite as crazy as Rainbow Edition but there's ridiculous stuff like infinite meter, HDSMs at full health, and the ability to tag out team members mid-match.

[@PhilM4]

I played this in an arcade near my house. It was so crazy because it was in the rainbow edition board in the turbo edition arcade unit, so it took us all by surprise. I didn't know the name of the rom hack until this video so thank you JMCrofts!

[@LT-uq6dg]

The first time I played this was in an arcade back in the 90s. The winning strat was to throw a chain of dp sonic booms which was unavoidable. Cuz it filled the screen with slow moving sonic booms that would follow the opponent so it was impossible to jump over. So in 2 man competition it became a contest of who can throw sonic booms the most consistently. Cuz if you miss one input, you get wrecked.

[@GoroMazoku]

Yoooooooo that portal drop to a crouching fierce is crazy lol 5:15

[@michaeldemaio4937]

The pizza joint around the corner from my childhood home in the bronx swapped out The World Warriors for this monstrosity.... And things were never the same. 😂

[@trip2themoon]

I remember there was versions that were called Black Belt Edition. I liked how if the computer opponent changed into Balrog and you got a perfect you'd get 50,000 points instead of the 30,000 you would have got if he hadn't changed.

[@qwizzle78]

I remember playing this at the arcade in my local chippy, balrog was my dude those punches with fireballs were invincible

[@juliorolandi6694]

Street Fighter 2 Accelerator Part II is actually a toned down version of this, and it's highly playable!

[@psychoreactive]

We had "Accelerator" in a few video rental spots in my old neighborhood.

[@juliorolandi6694]

@@psychoreactive I used to play this version almost everyday when I was 13 and 14 (now 40) I didn't knew the name at the time, the only thing I recalled about it was the insane combos and the "horizontal" dragon punch, many years later found it through emulation, the combo system holds up pretty well even by today standards

[@psychoreactive]

@@juliorolandi6694 Accelerator is definitely something from our age group ;)

[@Micha-Hil]

I wanna see more games try to be bullshit blazing like SF2:RBE. Double jumps out of special moves in the air, wrapping around the screen, tracking fireballs, and fucky specials could be more explored in tourney

[@pernyberg2816]

I remember a really weird version of SF2 Turbo which was projectile mania! So imagine that every special move you make just vomits projectiles. Shuryuyken spat out a good solid 10 fireballs. Guiles flash kick had around 10 sonic booms coming out. You could double jump like in this version - but all other moves and walking speed was actually normal. I think it was an old SNES rom i found somehwere. I dont remember what the exact name was of the ROM because this story is like 20 years ago....geez..Im getting old 🤣

[@nathanielalexander8928]

oh dude.. There was a Rainbow Rom SF2 machine at this diner I used to frequent in the 90's.. so much fun playing this and finding all the crazy combos, glitches & mixes..

[@huesudowoodo]

i remember playing this in a street corner store years ago 😂 good shit

[@khhnator]

In Brazil this was called "bus terminal street fighter". because back then every bus terminal had a rundown dirty arcade that had this

[@punchabunchabuttons]

I played this game back in 1992 or so.. I remember Zangief clearly spinning and jumping up. When a friend and I played this, we would go up then appear from the bottom but we'd keep this up and up and up untill Zangief would disappear from the top and appear from the bottom multiple times... but when you stop spinning and just let go, he would fall multiple screens until he reaches the starting point. It was hilarious.

[@oo7x7oo]

I saw this in the arcade when I was young in Taiwan, I told my friends about it after moved to the US, they all thought I was making things up. It's funny to see it again and realize how crazy it was.

[@MrVariant]

That 3:33 shoryuken across the screen is the best counter ever lol

[@GullyFootTony]

When you haduken off screen you can still grab them with a throw which looks epic wen you fall down 10 screens. Used to love doing this back in the day 😆

[@sandwich4916]

This was called "Rocket Fighter" in Turkey's arcades back in the day. I always lost my shit whenever I saw Zangief throwing Sonic Booms everytime he did his spin move lol. Thanks for the nostalgia man.

[@thehealthysengwich1166]

I loved using Zangief in this version! Jump into the sky and spinning lariat, then when near opponent, do the spinning pile driver! Invincible! But you need to time your lariats or else you’re a free target.

[@kraashk4864]

Subscribed. Your commentary made this video. "He gets the bite". "He gets the noogie" 🤣🤣🤣 Ivenever heard it called that. I was laughing and smiling. So glad someone likes sf II in any shape or form.

[@aaron-pw4nj]

I played this on mexico in the arcade, whit zangief you could loop around the screen, going up like a 50 times (looping around) then do a grab and unloop it was pretty fun

[@robertn5364]

I remember playing this at the arcade in the UK back in the 90s!

[@MrMarket1987]

Got to play a variant of Rainbow edition on arcade a long time ago at some beach arcade shack while living in PR. Always felt like a fever dream.

[@lexodixon6365]

Thats crazy cause when i was a kid at the arcade i would see characters change in the middle of the match like wth how is it doing that this is so dope i knew i wasn't trippen this shit is real lmmfao so dope

[@SirBoopBoop]

Rainbow Edition is so great because the modders adopted the game balance model of, "If everyone's broken, then no one's broken!" 🤣😂

[@GreenHad0ken]

Homing fireballs? Never saw that happen. Used to love taking zangief or vega off screen as much as possible, the doing an izuna or spinning pile driver. Great watching then get multiple screen dunked

[@Ryusuta]

I kid you not - I used to have an arcade cabinet with a very similar version (look up Street Fighter 2 Accelerator) at my place a long time ago. So oddly enough, this brings back a lot of memories. X3

[@fatcatpeople]

Yoo in NYC BK, they had this in the store we all went crazy. People would put there blunt down to play this and MK when they came out.✌🏾

[@plabcentral630]

My overall favorite thing is the rainbow edition dp. Some of them just teleport to yo and it’s so funny.

[@taytzuleong5584]

Use gief, do the spinning lariat jump loop, then perform spd, you will magically grab the opponent

[@porkchopsuitcase9906]

Somehow you should do a brawl minus tournament. Its like this, but for smash. Its around the time they were doing brawl plus (right before project M came out) idk if you can find it, but tht game is hilarious

[@heathmcrigsby]

I saw an actual rainbow edition in the wild at a Six Flags back in like 1992-ish

[@kurtlindner]

I remember playing this at my arcade, they only had it for like a week though. Good times.

[@camryds]

I love this edition =P nostaligia from the 90's if you lived in LA, they were the 1st to get it before everyone else =)

[@BwahSmuglik]

I remember playing this version at a local arcade and using guile, I would do numerous sonic booms till I filled the entire screen.

[@jesusdeeez370]

I remember seeing this at an arcade once and never saw it again till I was 30

[@Hybridesque]

Remember this being shown on Sonic Hurricane/ComboVid a long time ago.

[@dqwno4900]

I think the Hurricane Kicks and the Dragon Punches are funny in this version.

[@thescubapup623]

Of all the versions of Rainbow Edition, the ones my old man and I used to play was called Tu Long, you'll know you have the right one when it says "Life is too short to be little" The fun of that one was there there was no such thing as hitstun or hard knockdown if you didn't want there to be. You could get hit by a DP and instantly mash your own DP, and back and forth you would go. My favorite thing about that though was Zangief. His SPD would connect at any height as long as you were within range. If you jumped and did a floating spinning lariat you could cancel it into an SPD off the ground and it would pull the opponent up to you... Which then usually lead to someone mashing a DP and then lariat and then DP and then lariat until someone died. But man... Good times with that stupid ROM set

[@javierortiz82]

I loved playing this back in the day, it was so dumb haha, like Blanka had an infinite with his electricity attack. There was also a version that when you pulled a shoryuken Ryu and Ken left a wall of hadoukens hahaha, great memories.

[@LemonRush7777]

I remember when these where everywhere here in Brazil... Good times.

[@rasmusdegn9690]

This is what peak fighting game design looks like.

[@hevertonfonseca9366]

I have to say, i have player a lot of this version on arcade as a kid! Crazy!

[@KrisHomemadeBaking]

I'm sad no one experienced how broken Barlog (boxer) is in this game because all you need to do is charge punch for days Zangief can lariat airborne, then do a spinning pile-driver if you're directly above your opponent!

[@djohnson504x3]

I remember that version of sf2, it was in a few random corner stores in back in the day

[@willgeorgakis1500]

I played the shit out of this at some little arcade on Kensington high street. At 20p per game, Id regularly spunk my pocket money and was still absolutely crap at it.

[@striderzer0]

I think growing up I actually played rainbow first, and went year thinking that I could throw fireballs in the air

[@atsurokihara5525]

So cool! I wonder if all this whack stuff is documented?

[@diegocrusius]

we used to call it "Bus Station Street Fighter" around here

[@likedbreeze2032]

Zangief is the most broken character in the game. His lariat can be done in the air rolling the screen over and over, BUT he can still grab opponent for a rolling pile driver

[@arifryo6823]

If you do hadouken with light punch, it goes slow, but with hard punch it goes fast..so its not like you said that its random

[@MicrochipSlayer]

I am glkad I am not the only one who loves the SF2 soundboard

[@jamman7344]

Capcom released Rainbow Edition in the PS2 anniversary game.

[@MarginalSC]

That Yoga Walk is powerful

[@rickards-rm]

my local convenience store had this cabinet, it was so messed up but so fun!

[@SlicerJen]

I remember this in the arcade briefly.

[@chicco5033]

Why is Dhaslim a grappler 🤣

[@martynpie]

Commentary A++ infectious joy 😂

[@reload54]

As a kid my local arcade installed this and I hated it! Luckily it wasn't around to long before they upgraded the unit to turbo and that was more balanced.

[@jacobwhicker8423]

Bro what's up with the Sagat picture in the character select screen? Noway I've never noticed that before

[@lidounai]

I remember playing this version in a dodgy arcade when I was young. I was so confused by it.

[@MaskedGuyCh]

Wait, where's the rest of the tournament? I'm kinda invested now.

[@ksmoove12able]

Blanka strat was nice to see in such a crazy world lol

[@semiserioussam]

This gave me anxiety. You should do it again.

[@BobPharmacon]

I played one, I remember hundreds of hadokens

[@casual_C]

I just farted, and a fireball came out

[@epheleo4128]

action replay version when i was kid

[@brmblazer]

Malort! Now that’s a drink

[@asraelconcreteeatingcat1528]

blanka noise had me choked holy shit

[@partlySneezy]

Let’s see a power stone tourney!

[@Scientists_dont_lie]

Oh yah jump fireballing till you come up from the ground. Classic 🌈 edition. P.S. im dying to see a karate champ tournament.... Two sticks no button.. The og of fighting games.. Point system cobra kai style!!! Please consider karate champ tournament!

[@michaeltaylor1657]

Ong i aint nvr seen a cross up through the stage. Shit was crazy😂

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

This might be the most famous bootleg version of any video game ever. Iconic in its own way even though it's total jank garbage fire.

[@Kitsune986]

Ever heard of Vietnamese Crystal? It's Pokémon Crystal, just horribly mistranslated. It's hilarious and infamous in the Pokémon community

[@Rhannmah]

To be perfectly honest i'd play this over SF2 100 times out of 100

[@YadonTheCat]

Ms Pac-Man? Well, maybe not exactly, that's based on a bootleg hack, but the actual bootleg (crazy otto) is obscure

[@yano4473]

02 magic plus is up there and actually pretty good

[@Klunkyman]

Ms. Pac Man says 👋

[@Fleetw00d]

Without Rainbow Edition I am convinced the VS series would not exist lol

[@Felipera_]

Even sf2 turbo was created because of this, capitalizing on the idea that people liked the fast pace.

[@cainancapko4149]

If I remember correctly Rainbow Edition is also where Dhalsim's teleport initially came from, so SF2:RE created a canon move that was kept throughout the rest of the series

[@edrez1]

and the air tatsus along many other ideas, this was so funny to play, I remember another edition where every SRK spam a dozen of Hadoken, and of coourse how to forget the ZAngief SPD going down 20 screens or so

[@famebano]

i think chun's fireball also came from this game

[@heathmcrigsby]

SF2:T came about cause of rainbow

[@s-wo8781]

How did you know about this game?

[@mazystarr]

@@s-wo8781 This game was pretty widespread throughout the entire world if you are from the golden era of arcades. They even had one in Gatlinburg TN tucked away in the corner of a strip mall and many, many other places throughout the world.

[@WhyDo]

Laughing my ass off rn, Ryu timer scamming by literally WRAPPING AROUND THE SCREEN might be the best thing I have ever seen in a tournament

[@khatdragon7694]

There was a guy at the arcade who did that. He got the living shit stomped out of him by a group of other guys. They even turned off the game and gave him his quarter back.

[@raijuko]

The best part is him dropping the loop, and reverse wrapping 4 times until he finally hits the ground. Just to... standing heavy punch lmao like "shut up I got stuck, you see nothing!"

[@21Handguns]

mvc3 wesker air teleport vibes

[@luischeco3009]

Looks like someone is getting ideas

[@gnomo27]

If you turn into zanguif you can grab in other screen

[@No0dz]

In Brazil this was nicknamed “bus terminal street fighter” for the typical spots you could find these

[@Lostcontroller]

LOL. This does look like some back alley jank you could find in the 80s and 90s.

[@DimitriMoreira]

@@Lostcontroller It was!

[@lucianoguimaraes7485]

Hahahahah sim

[@ubermaster1]

Now I’m just imagining some guy in a shady hoodie walking up to me and pointing to a shady cabinet saying “Hey…you wanna okay some Street Fighter?” And it’s this beautiful mess

[@teko1987]

The arcade/bus station uncles with sunglasses and smoking cigarette who would double perfect you are legends among people of my age

[@nicholasmcgreevy8313]

I used to play this at a 7-11 of all places. This was back in the day when there would be 13 or 14 high school kids crowded around any SFII machine. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. There was a guy that used gief to lariat>jump>lariat>jump the whole match up and up through the screen over and over. then at like 20 seconds he would piledriver from like 12 screens above and slam at 1 sec and win the match. It was a huge douche move. I can't believe anyone put this on YT. Well done my man.

[@Longlostpuss]

Yes, there was always THAT guy who did that with The Gief.

[@doomedspacemarine5076]

LMFAO I totally believe it, I'd just like to see it done.

[@terryhenyo9216]

The counter to that is very easy though. Just play Guile, or any character with an air throw, then throw them out of the air. You could always pull down and press a button faster that they can input the command for a spinning piledriver.

[@keystone6162]

Brings back memories bro. I remember a spot, used to be really crowded after school. Place used to smell like a box of wet, dirty socks lol. All the sweaty teenage boys. The security guard would make frequent trips with a can of air freshener, just spraying the entire place, trying to kill the smell. We didn't give a shit. We will game out, until the police officers will pass in and send anyone in a school uniform home.

[@TomasTurbado-c2v]

RIGHT????!!!! Guile could do the same thing!!!!!

[@TheAfroKidz]

finally, the original anime fighter

[@kloa4219]

first 12v12 versus fighter too

[@jcwins]

In Brazil we call this version the "bus station" version

[@santiagoherrera6697]

Why?

[@jcwins]

@@santiagoherrera6697 cause here a lot of acardes where in bars and had this version, in some small cities the only place that had an acarde was the bus station or a bar nearby it

[@daviddugen]

why is that?

[@xxxxSylphxxxx]

@@daviddugen why do you ask?

[@the_bookworm8281]

If you thought the Shadaloo fighters were already cheap in the normal game, this bootleg bumps up the bs levels of them to the next level. Sagat tracking Tiger Shots. M. Bison possessing turbo speed Psycho Crushers. Vega's.... everything.

[@mrosskne]

what does shadaloo mean?

[@21Handguns]

@@mrosskne its the organization sagat,balrog and vega work for,which bison owns 🤦‍♀

[@RadikAlice]

@@21Handguns Let him be, some people just don't know this stuff. To some Ryu is just martial arts man, and that's okay As long as we're all having fun, who needs to know lore? People back in the day sure didn't

[@21Handguns]

@@RadikAlice cry about it

[@mikaela5938]

Claw really only got fireball on his roll from what I could tell besides the general hyper speed which says a lot about how silly that character is in sf2

[@boombox0410]

Guile is actually the most broken. Just sonic boom out of the screen and youll be invincible which all characters can do..but guile can air throw you just by doing this through the opponent' s shadow

[@jazzygeofferz]

I remember getting bodied by a Guile player on this who'd just jump into the air slightly then spam sonic boom as they were done by just pressing DF&P, so there'd be a constant string of them.

[@SuperNovice007]

Some versions of this let Zangief use his command throws to grab you from off screen as well.

[@junqone]

Zangief was too.

[@boombox0410]

@@SuperNovice007 Yeah i remember that but Guile's was easier to execute and it was anti Gief coz he can just air grab Gief's shadow

[@alq95]

@@jazzygeofferz that's for all characters with air throw

[@rebbelwivcause]

With Zangrief, doing consecutive air larriats, let's you transition through the top of the screen, and then once you've crossed a few screens like this, you can't be hit by the opponent, but you can still grab them with a piledriver that looks like he's craving them through multiple screens before slamming them into the ground, it was awesomez!!

[@kahn9918]

I never got close to being beaten with that skil less combo 🤣. He was the most broken player ever!!!!

[@rebbelwivcause]

@@kahn9918 Hahaha YESSS! Seeing all the Ryu/Ken players when their 500 fireballs don't work lol

[@carlosencarnacion9425]

That was crazy, but entertaining. I remember there been so many version of rainbow edition. The one I remember the most is the wall of hadoken when you did a DP. It was outright broken making Ryu and Ken the real option to even do anything in that version xP

[@kevinsemidey2516]

Me too. It didn't have tracking fireballs. It had two fireballs that alternate swing up and down

[@dougstanton9816]

@@kevinsemidey2516 The Rainbow edition I also remember. This one aint it.

[@gustavovm491]

I think I played that as a kid, I was filling the screen with sonic booms so frantically that ended up injuring my wrist lol

[@LT-uq6dg]

The prefered method we used was dp sonic booms. I think the casting animation was shorter which allowed you to get more sonic booms on the screen. I even think we tested sonic booms vs hadokens and sonic booms won... I think... can't remember cuz it was over 20 years ago lol

[@adamturner8397]

​@@kevinsemidey2516 The M5 bootleg? Did Blanka shoot sonic bombs when he did his electricity?

[@Nice_G]

I remember a version of this game where you can span hadoukens and each hadouken comes with two fireballs that move in a wavy pattern.

[@dougstanton9816]

The real version. If you remember the Charlie/Nash super from Street Fighter vs. X-Men? That was Guile's normal Sonic Boom.