The Lost Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for Sega Mega Drive Released

I recently mentioned this very build (https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?posts/963616/) and it actually got me wondering what became of it and what it's relation was to that wierd ST2 prototype. Great to see it found and released! Looking forward to getting murdered off the AI later.....

 

Thank you for these amazing releases. I've just played through both prototypes on the highest difficulty in the hope one of them would show a credits sequence, but no dice. However, the July proto has this message after the congratulations screen:

 

Great prototypes, and also a great write-up - magazines spent a good chunk of 1993 claiming Street Fighter II would be released soon. It was the biggest of deals.

 

This is amazing! Thanks to all involved with these releases!

 

That article was a fascinating read. I always wondered why there were so many Street Fighter II versions and ports, so it’s interesting to see what was going on behind the scenes at the time. Capcom were really playing the field trying their best to get around everyone to make as much money as possible. From the sudden announcement of a new SNES game it seems that Nintendo made some demands - I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall there. 8 and 16bit era Nintendo were infinitely more aggressive about their market share back then than they are today, though they’ve not been the top dog since 1995. Nowadays they focus all their efforts on bullying Youtubers...

 

Making a divide between Street Fighter II': Champion Edition and Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition on Sega Retro.



Why can't it be simple.

(Player One #33)

 

Player one #33 is from July/August 1993 ... Summer CES 1993 (Chicago) ... Six Button Control Pad shown for the first time... only two playable characters (Ryu and Ken)... Capcom decided to change a few things...game would be upgraded from a 20mbit cartridge to a 25 mbit cartridge... game to be released in mid January 1994... Super Champion Edition?

 

I think that later prototype has an incorrect date.

- Summer CES 1993 was early June, almost two months before this build is dated
- Four months apparently separate those two prototypes. It doesn't look like four months of work to me (unless that's why it was cancelled)
- Street Fighter II Turbo (Hyper Fighting) was all over SCES - it was on a big screen (3:52) (also bonus choppy Sonic Spinball demo reel) (also yes this issue of EGM makes a cameo so in a roundabout way, "Champion Edition" does technically make an appearance)
- Nobody is talking about regular Champion Edition in the latter half of 1993 (except those who couldn't read). It was almost certainly dead by the summer.

 

It's Street Fighter IIs-day:

Street Fighter II': Champion Edition/Magazine articles

Here's so much coverage that it hurts. There'll be more in our archives, but it's a start.


This is about as far as I can go right now, because I don't understand the nuances between all the different versions of Street Fighter II. No doubt there are experts among us.

And I know even less about Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES. Word seems to be that the Mega Drive's Champion Edition was upgraded to get Hyper Fighting content... at the same time the SNES Turbo was given Champion Edition content. So once upon a time they were set to be two different games, but in the end became the same. Except they didn't. Except they did. Or something.

There also seems to have been a strange policy at Capcom to not release the same game for two different platforms (independent of Nintendo's complaints), so maybe the PC Engine version of Champion Edition was playing a role.


I also suspect while the version at SCES 1993 was calling itself "Super Champion Edition", marketing was pushing "Special Champion Edition". Truth is I'm not sure what's going on - coverage transitions away from "black bars" Street Fighter II in June/July/August but they still describe all the characters and moves with screenshots and claim the game is nearly done, so maybe they brought an outdated build with them to SCES.

 

Maybe this Super Champion Edition build was closer to the ST Turbo bootleg. if the title screen in that magazine is anything to go by it's clearly one of the builds before Capcom took over,

I guess the decision had already been made to enhance CE before they took it in house, and Super Champion Edition/"ST Turbo" is the result of that.

 

I don't care if I'm treading over old ground - nobody writes things down.

Question: What makes "Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition" special?


"Group battle" mode.


What? Yes, while there's probably truth in Sega wanting the Hyper Fighting features in their game, this wasn't any more of a selling point than "more characters" and "more moves", which you get by default by porting Champion Edition over World Warrior. Group battle is what keeps coming up, be it through Sega Visions, official advertising or on the back of the box - you can't get this on Nintendo* (or these prototypes), that's why the game is "special". Although I still can't rule out dodgy marketing and silly naming schemes.

It's a feature so great most non-American countries forgot to mention it. Perhaps if it actually involved "groups" battling there'd be more of a reason to care.



*it's in Super Street Fighter II and probably a dozen games since, but only Sega had it in 1993!

 

It's why I hate that whole lazy argument of "Huh huh huh you had to buy a special controller huh huh huh" when it comes to SNES SF2 vs MD SF2. MD SF2 was the full package right out the box, whilst those who had already bought World Warrior on SNES had to shell out more than what two 6-button pads would have been worth in 1993 just for the gameplay tweaks and the ability to chose the bosses.......and it was STILL missing something the MD version had!

Spoiler

Plus I also don't like the SNES music :p

 

Summer CES 1993 - the "Super Champion Edition". We've got two people quoted as restricting player 2 to Chun Li or Guile, and yet that screenshot I posted clearly has two Ryus. What's going on?

https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:MeanMachinesSega10UK.pdf&page=12

On the last day, which was a Sunday (and the day the public were allowed in), the ROM was changed. So there were two builds at SCES. I've heard stories of companies swapping out builds mid-show but this might be the first case there's genuine evidence for.

This would presumably rule out my above theory of having an old build at the show - swapping out one early build for another suggests they didn't have much to demonstrate and were panicking a bit. They dun screwed up.

 

Someone posted this screenshot at Sega-16:



there's apparently an earlier prototype (March 5, 1993)... EGM #46 tells us that their reviews were based on an early test copy of SFII CE ... it was probably this one... I think I've seen this screenshot before... I just don't remember where I've seen it...

 

Maybe somebody at Sega-16 can ask for that image's source?

 

Isn't it taken directly from this trailer? It has the same test ver text on it at the end.

 

Yes... that's it... thanks... I thought I saw it in some magazine... but I was wrong...

 

For the experts - apparently there are gameplay differences between the US and Japanese releases of Champion Edition (in the arcade), and that this Mega Drive port derives from the Japanese verison.

...and then some of it was re-introduced in Hyper Fighting aarrrhhhgg