Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / Street Fighter: The Movie

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/street_fighter_movie_game.jpg

Street Fighter: The Movie is the title of two different games in the Street Fighter series, both based on the 1994 film adaptation Street Fighter.

The arcade version was developed by Incredible Technologies, the same staff behind Time Killers, while the PlayStation/Sega Saturn versions, although published by Acclaim outside of Japan, were developed by Capcom themselves. Such recursive adaptations are not unheard of, but they are rare for video games. Despite having the same title, the home version developed by Capcom is not a port of the arcade version. Though they both used the same digitized pictures as sprites, in the manner of Mortal Kombat, any similarities between the two end there. Even the digitization method used to convert the footage into game graphics were different for both games. In fact, the home version was actually released in Japan under a different title: Street Fighter: Real Battle on Film.

The arcade version of the game is noted for its numerous alterations to the standard Street Fighter formula, such as the inclusion of Mortal Kombat-style "tapping" commands, counter-attacks for throws, alternate Super Combos that featured "hold and release" commands, excessive juggles (in comparison to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the last traditional Street Fighter at the time), fireball-reflecting attacks, numerous secret codes (including fake ones), among other weird changes in an attempt to pander to the Mortal Kombat crowd. This version took the character roster from Super Street Fighter II Turbo (including Akuma), but ditched Blanka, Dhalsim, Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Fei Long in favor of Captain Sawada, an original character who was featured in the movie, and Blade, a Shadaloo elite trooper who appears in the game along with three palette swapped hidden versions a la Sub-Zero/Scorpion. The lead designer Alan Noon wrote a tell-all account on his involvement in the game's development, which he posted here.

The home version, in contrast, plays more like a traditional Street Fighter game. More precisely, it plays like a slower-paced version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo but with digitized graphics. While the digitized actors are the same, the characters have all been dubbed by Japanese voice actors, averting the mispronounced move names in the arcade version. One overlooked aspect of the game is the fact it introduced the concept of EX Specials to the franchise (though named differently in this installment): powered-up versions of special moves that are not quite as powerful as Super Combos, but easier to perform. Capcom later reintroduced the EX Specials to the franchise in Street Fighter III 2nd Impact. The character roster brings back Blanka and Dee Jay, while ditching Blade and his palette swaps. Akuma returns to his common position as a hidden character and Sawada is revamped as a joke character, complete with a Human Kamikaze Super Combo.

In 2016, Sawada and the four Bison Troopers were given profiles and artwork, which officially make them canon as of Street Fighter V, they even went on to appear in Teppen (2019) as unit cards in the Mega Man Battle Network based expansion 30_MINUTES.EXE.


Tropes distinct to, or introduced in, this game:

  • Ascended Glitch: Guile has a move in which he handcuffs the opponent, a reference to an infamous glitch in the original arcade version of Street Fighter II. Cammy also uses a similar move with her Choke Whip, where she captures the opponent with a short-to-mid-ranged garrotte wire, which she uses to pull them over to her and strangle them. An extended version of the latter (Killer Choke Whip) functions as her second Super Combo.
  • Ascended Meme:
    • Sheng Long was going to be a playable character in the arcade version. Capcom kept flip-flopping on whether he could be included, so instead he was referenced heavily by name.
    • The character of Gunloc from Saturday Night Slam Masters is hinted to be Guile's brother in the U.S. version of that game (this relation was never even alluded in the Japanese version though, being a creation of the game's localization). In the arcade version of Street Fighter: The Movie, this relation is made explicit by having Blade being revealed to be Gunloc undercover in his ending. The Shadaloo Combat Research Institute profile on the Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia website has a profile for Blade as a Shadaloo agent, but does not give further details.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Although this normally happens to its fullest extent (the defeat of Guile and the Allied Nations, and Bison conquering the world) when beating the game as General Bison on either version, it can also happen in the console-exclusive Movie Battle mode if time runs out.
  • Big "NO!": Vega yells this whenever he's KOed in the Arcade version.
  • Blade Enthusiast: Blade, one of the Bison Troopers from the Arcade version. His fighting style revolves predominantly around knives, including ones that he can throw and spin in his hands or extend from the heels of his boots.
  • Bowdlerise: Several of the movie's swear words were toned down.
  • Call-Back: Several of the new win quotes from the console version include references to various events and things said in the film itself.
    Bison: Get in my way again, and I shall snap your spine!
    Guile: I'm the repo man, and your butt is mine!
    Sagat: In Shadaloo, I am the law.
    Chun-Li: I've had a tougher time fighting for a story!
    Sagat: The Shadaloo Tong will always be ruled by my iron fist.
    Bison: Soon, the world will feel the loving grip of the Pax Bisonica!
  • The Cameo: Though he is not playable (as mentioned below), Fei Long does appear as a prisoner in the Dungeon stage if the player selects Chun-Li, Cammy or E. Honda as their fighter. Fittingly, he was portrayed by Kenya Sawada, the same actor who played Fei Long's Suspiciously Similar Substitute.
  • Canon Immigrant: Sawada and the Bison Troopers in Street Fighter V, as they received profiles and artwork. Arkane, Blade, F7, and Khyber received profiles on the Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia website.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: As established in their Street Fighter V profiles, this is the case with the various Bison Troopers, who have various tools and weapons built into their uniforms suited to them. Blade's has various hidden blades and pockets for his many throwing knives, Arkane's has an ultrasonic generator that allows him to channel stunning electricity and teleport short distances, Khyber's has built-in napalm tanks and flamethrowers (including one hidden in his mask), and due to being a higher-ranking member, F7's includes all of them in some capacity, along with a set of electrified stun-rods.
  • Cool Mask: Zig-zagged for Vega. In the arcade version, he wears the metal one from the movie and can throw it as an impromptu projectile, but he doesn't wear it at all in the home console versions.
  • Crossover: Blade's ending says that after completing his duty as a reverse-agent for the A.N. in Shadaloo, he is "able to resume his wrestling career as Gunloc", a reference to the Saturday Night Slam Masters series.
  • Darker and Edgier: Zig-zagged. On the one hand, the arcade version has the muted palettes and photorealistic sprites reminiscent of a Mortal Kombat game, and things like a Sickening "Crunch!" for certain throws — such as zangief's Spinning Piledriver and Vega's Izuna Drop — and an extended scene of an evidently-dead Bison being resuscitated into Super Bison at the end of Tag Mode. On the other, it ends up with some sillier things than usual; such as Sagat using Eye Beams from under his eyepatch, Chun-Li throwing her bracelets at people, and Akuma's Super Sentai-esque pose while teleporting.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: In their console endings, E. Honda and Zangief are stated to have become friends and sparring partners after fighting each other over the course of the game, and when Zangief changes sides.
  • Denser and Wackier: The arcade version has some moves that are rather strange for the series, such as Cammy throwing grenades at close range and choking the opponent with a whip, or Sagat lifting up his eyepatch and stunning the opponent with some sort of energy coming from... whatever's beneath it.note  The console game is more conservative with the movesets, but on the other hand, it has Sawada being reworked into a Joke Character.
  • Downer Ending: The ending in Movie Battle should Guile fail and Bison's personal ending in Street Battle sees Bison take over the world. The palace of Bisonopolis is constructed atop Shadaloo City, and he now has legions of “Perfect Soldiers” at his command with which to mercilessly crush any resistance to his rule.
  • Dragon Ascendant: In his Arcade version ending, Vega becomes the new leader of the Shadaloo Tong and all its black market operations after defeating both Bison and his former leader Sagat — where although he has to keep a lower profile due to his newfound notoriety — he still competes in and continues to win his usual underground cage matches. This is averted in his console ending, however; Vega stays loyal to Sagat here after they escape from Bison's collapsing empire, and instead secures his reputation as Sagat's right-hand-man and top prize fighter in the Shadaloo Tong.
  • Easter Egg: In the home console versions of the game, when the player goes to fight Blanka, it's inside of Dhalsim's lab where the mutation took place. Being that Blanka is the CPU controlled fighter in this stage, the mutation chamber will of course be empty. However, during a two-player game if the fight on is his stage and Blanka is not in use (if both players use any other characters), he will be in the mutation chamber struggling.
  • Eye Beams: Sagat has a variation of this as his Evil Eye special move in the arcade version. By holding down all three punch buttons and then releasing, Sagat lifts his eyepatch to project a short-range, wave-shaped beam from underneath it that stuns his opponent in place if they touch it. For a long time. And at no cost to his Super meter.
  • Fake Shemp: Though the opening credits proudly tout Raúl Juliá as M. Bison, it was actually Juliá's stunt double, Darko Tuscan, who portrayed Bison in the game. The real Juliá was terminally ill at the time, and was thus unable to do any additional filming. Bison's trademark Commissar Cap was used to partially obscure Tuscan's facial features in order to conceal the actor change.
  • Game Over: The one in the arcade version cleverly references an event in the film by playing a digitized clip from it of Bison yelling "GAAAAAME! OOOOVEEEEEEEERRRR!" — which originates from the scene of him using remote-controlled mines to blow up Guile's Stealth Boat when he initially attacks.
  • Guest Fighter: Subverted. While he isn't exactly a guest fighter due to being a Street Fighter character after all, Akuma can be viewed as this, as he wasn't in the movie, yet he did appear in both video games.
  • Head Swap: For once, notably averted for Ryu, Ken, and Akuma since they used digitized images of the actors, rather than hand drawn sprites. The attires are still quite similar, but Akuma is differentiated more than usual by having spiked armguards and wearing his gi open to expose his chest.
  • Hearing Voices: One of Blanka's win quotes in the console version indicates that he suffers from this as a result of the Mind Rape that helped change him into the mutated creature that he is now.
    Blanka: AAAAAAAAHH! Stop the voices in my head!
  • In Name Only: Akuma has a Super Combo called the Shun Goku Satsunote  in the arcade version, but it's vastly different to the version in the games. Instead of his Signature Move where he dashes straight at the opponent and gives them a censored No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that ends with his back to the screen and them on the ground, Amuka stays in place and uses several (visible) punches and kicks that can dizzy opponents.
  • It's a Wonderful Failure: The bad ending of the Movie Battle mode in the console version. If the time to complete the mode — represented by the amount of time given to pay the $20 billion dollar ransom to Shadaloo before the hostages are executed — runs out, Cammy will message Guile after the current fight ends to alert him that there is no more time left and that General Bison needs to be found immediately. After this, the ransom is paid over to Bison by the Allied Nations in return for the hostages, and Colonel Guile is arrested, stripped of his rank and court-martialed for disobeying orders and being responsible for the utter failure of the mission. Two years later, Bison uses the money to successfully complete his super-soldier operation and take over the world.
  • Lethal Joke Character: Go ahead and laugh at Sawada's questionable moves in the home version. The laughing will end once you've been KO'd.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Zangief has this reaction to the crimes he committed in Bison's name in his arcade version ending. Although he makes up for it by realizing that Bison had been lying to him and defeating him, he's still tormented by what he did— leading to him leaving the country and never being heard from again.
  • Neck Lift: The Hanging Tree, a special throw accessible to the four Bison Troopers, takes the form of this, with them grabbing the opponent by the neck with both hands and lifting them up to strangle them. Arkane takes it one step further by having it as the finishing portion of his Assault Teleport Super.
  • Palette Swap: Blade (red) and the other three Shock Troopers—Arkane (blue), Khyber (yellow) and F7 (black).
  • Race Lift: Honda is stated to be Japanese in both versions of the game — as per the original series — despite being Native Hawaiiannote  in the film.
  • Reformulated Game: The console version was developed internally by Capcom, as opposed to being farmed-out like the arcade version, and takes the same concept as the arcade version, adapting it into the Super Street Fighter II Turbo engine, getting rid of the generic palette-swapped Bison Troopers in favor of two actual Street Fighter characters, Blanka and Dee Jay.
  • Secret Character: Arcane, Khyber and F7 in the arcade version, and Akuma in the console version.
  • Shock and Awe: The Electric Arc Special Move, which is shared by Bison, Arkane and F7, takes the form of this — being a short-ranged burst of lightning that can temporarily stun an opponent in place. In particular, it's a reference to the "Superconductor Electromagnetism" that Bison uses against Guile in the movie itself.
  • Shockwave Stomp: E. Honda's Super Shiko special move, which involves him raising one leg and performing a powerful sumo stomp that causes a small tremor — knocking the opponent over if they're close enough to him.
  • Sickening "Crunch!": In fitting with the game's Darker and Edgier nature, this happens whenever a move that involves slamming an opponent head-first into the ground successfully occurs in the arcade version — most notably Zangief's Spinning Piledriver and Vega's Izuna Drop, but it's also present in certain Super Combos, like Ken's Rengoku Guruma.
  • Smarter Than You Look: Dee Jay is revealed to be this in his console version ending. Although he initially ends up penniless and forced to work for Sagat after the collapse of Bison's empire, he escapes with a sizeable portion of his former employer's money, and keeps on the move and wealthy by utilizing his skills as a hacker and engineer.
  • Spikes of Villainy: Akuma's look in this game is kind of like a karate punk: not only does he wear spiked wristguards, they also replaced his prayer beads with a spiked collar.
  • Spin Attack: Zangief gains two new moves in the arcade version that revolve around it — the Airplane Spin, a command grab in which he picks his opponent up on his shoulders and spins them round multiple times to dizzy them (but do no damage), and the Flying Brain Crusher, a Super Combo in which he does the same thing whilst leaping high into the air and slamming them into the ground afterward.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the movie, Guile disobeying his superiors would get him court-martialed in real life. The console version's bad ending has him arrested and stripped of his rank if he fails to find Bison in time.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • Captain Sawada is Fei Long's replacement in the film, but his fighting style — in both the arcade and console versions — is nothing at all like Fei Long's.
    • Khyber plays this role straight in the arcade version, who is basically Dhalsim's replacement with his fire-breathing techniques, albeit from a flamethrower hidden in his mask. Arkane has a few similarities with Blanka as well due to his electrocution attacks, which he shares with Bison and F7.
  • Take Over the World: As always, this is the goal for Bison. However, this only happens properly if you beat the game as him in particular, or if you run out of time in the Movie Battle mode with anyone else (including the other villains), Shadaloo collapses. As described in his ending in the console version:
    "After crushing Colonel Guile in personal combat and repelling the Allied Nations attack, General Bison grew even more powerful. The nations that once threatened his empire now quickly crumbled beneath the heel of his legions of "perfect soldiers". His dream of global domination complete, the Palace of Bisonopolis was erected high above Shadaloo City, and the cry of "Pax Bisonica" was forever heard echoing across the globe. United under his savage rule, the World entered a new age of darkness..."
  • Title: The Adaptation: Subverted. The actual movie is simply called Street Fighter, while the title Street Fighter: The Movie was only used for the video games. Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game is just a fan nickname.
  • True Final Boss: Super Bison in the Tag Team Mode in the arcade version.
  • Truer to the Text: Several endings put the characters more in line with their game versions, as Ken becomes very rich, while Ryu dedicates himself to the next fight. E. Honda is also back to being Japanese, while he was Hawaiian in the movie.
  • A Winner Is You: Although all the characters have their own endings in the arcade version, Arcane, Khyber and F7 do not, and simply have the usual Game Over and credits shown after they finish the game. Akuma lacks a full ending in the console version despite having one in the arcade game, only having a picture of himself in his Raging Demon pose. In all these cases though, it can be justified by them being normally hidden.

Alternative Title(s): Street Fighter The Movie The Game

Top