Starting with the release of Street Fighter II The World Warrior on SNES in late 1992, Gamepro magazine began a hype campaign, lauding the SNES' strengths in regard to the Genesis. The review gave the game a perfect score (not a rarity in Gamepro magazines) but failed to mention that the audio samples cut out when two voice samples were to occur at once. Nevertheless, the following 6 months of Gamepro issues were loaded with multi-page spreads of "tips and tricks" and "strategies" which basically continually advertised the SNES game through Christmas '92 into the new year.
Street Fighter II The World Warrior SNES Review (Page 1)
Street Fighter II The World Warrior SNES Review (Page 2)
Come March 1993, the first hint of the game being released on other consoles resulted in a 1-page article announcing both the Mega CD and PC-Engine Hu Card versions of Street Fighter II Champion Edition.
Street Fighter II CE Import Preview
This preview, besides mistyping the projected release date of the Hu Card version of SFII CE, basically just sneers at SNES fans for thinking the game would never arrive on "other" platforms. It also discusses both systems receiving a new 6-button control pad to coincide with the game. While this no doubt started a stir, with no pictures to look at, the effect was limited.
Come June, however, Gamepro had a two page spread of the Genesis version of SFII CE, featuring an 80% finished build of the game which had huge black bars on the top of the screen for the energy bars to sit in. This caused quite a stir in the gamer community, that the Genesis version had to cut the screen size down considerably in order to handle the game. For the time being, Gamepro left it alone, although they do make an allusion to "gurgling" noises which might be bent into a slight against the Genesis sound chip, which would become Gamepro and EGM's mode of operation later the same year.
Street Fighter II CE Genesis Preview (Page 1)
Street Fighter II CE Genesis Preview (Page 2)
The July issue featured a three page spread of not only the Genesis and PC-Engine Street Fighter II Champion Edition, but also of Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES, due in September. The PC-Engine shots were some of the first shots printed in the US, and demonstrate a marked improvement over the Genesis shots from the previous issue, or this issue. The Genesis shot (singular) still shows the huge black bar at the top of the screen. No mention of any Hyper Fighting mode being added to the Genesis version is made in this issue.
SFII Multi Platform Preview Page 1 (SNES)
SFII Multi Platform Preview Page 2 (Genesis)
SFII Multi Platform Preview Page 3 (PC-Engine)
SNES:
Genesis:
PC-Engine: (Excuse the mess)
August 1993 hits, and so does the "Exclusive" review of Street Fighter II Turbo for the SNES. This spread advertises that the SNES game contains both Champion Edition and Turbo. Notably absent from this issue is any mention of the upcoming Genesis title soon to be redubbed "Special Champion Edition". Several months before any mention of a Genesis equivalent is going to be announced in this magazine, Street Fighter II Turbo, like it's predecessor on the SNES, scores a perfect rating in all categories, and a *9 page spread* for the review!
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 1)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 2)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 3)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 4)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 5)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 6)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 7)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 8)
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES) Review (Page 9)
Not even remotely all of the screenshots:
Come September though, Gamepro did offer a two page spread of Street Fighter II Champion Edition, but not for the Genesis. This issue published a review/preview of the finished PC-Engine Hu Card that had been released back in June in Japan.
Street Fighter II CE PC-Engine Review (Page 1)
Street Fighter II CE PC-Engine Review (Page 2)
This preview/review features significant detail on the PC-Engine release. Mentioning flicker that only an "eagle's eye" could catch, as well as the "surprisingly clear" voice samples coming out of the otherwise "distorted" PC-Engine sound chip are the highlights of this preview. The screenshots, though, show that the game was running at the same resolution as the original SNES game of the year before, rather than having huge black bars marring the image, as many complained of the early Genesis screenshots. Like Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter II for the SNES, the PC-Engine game receives a perfect score of all 5.0s.
Finally, in their October issue, Gamepro published another preview of the Genesis game, now redubbed "Special" Champion Edition and revealed as actually being Street Fighter II Turbo with a "Champion" mode like the previously reviewed SNES game. In fact, this preview states that the Genesis game is "as good as the others for the SNES." Gamepro even goes as far as to say that SCE features "improved" graphics and "large, fully detailed sprites, great color shading, and better vivid visuals to the backgrounds. Possibly even better than that though, was the screenshots which showed the finished build of the game looking just as good as either SNES game, and with none of the then legendary black bars on the top of the screen.
Street Fighter II SCE Preview
The promise of a full review in the November issue was delivered upon, and then some. Gamepro gave the Genesis release of Street Fighter II SCE a three page spread in order to demonstrate the additional combos and moves over the original SNES game of the year before. However, they also go out of their way to malign the audio of the game, describing it as though a "string-and-cups kiddy phone" underwater would sound better than the Genesis game's audio. They also state: "Without a question, doubt, or hesitation, the Super NES version beats out the Genesis edition by virtue of better graphics and sounds." This, when combined with an exaggerated comparison of the Genesis and SNES' hardware color limitations which makes the SNES appear to be four times more colorful, along with a description of the audio as being "garbled", and the Genesis version is left looking like a second rate substitute for the SNES "original".
Street Fighter II SCE Review (Page 1)
Street Fighter II SCE Review (Page 2)
Street Fighter II SCE Review (Page 3)
There would be no problem with these statements, if they were not so badly exaggerated. The SNES release of SFII Turbo doesn't have four times the colors on screen as the Genesis version, it has a little over twice the colors which are primarily taken up in the backgrounds. The character sprites are identical between all three versions.
Moreover, the Genesis game is doing something that Gamepro missed, and that sets it apart from almost all other Genesis games, and the PC-Engine version, digital instruments and voice playing at the same time out of an analog sound chip with only one digital channel. Conversely, the PC-Engine version has very clear voice samples, but literally every other sound effect and musical instrument is analog, which would have caused the Genesis samples to be much more clear as well. This makes for a disparity between the presentation that Gamepro makes of these three games, and the presentation that the games make of themselves.
These three games are so similar in audio and video that they can easily be mistaken for one another, and each manages to strut its stuff if you're not paying attention to what system it is running on. If you were to walk into a room with all three versions paused and attached to the same TV with a switch box to switch between them, you would have to guess which controller to pick up, and you might even guess wrong the first try. If the games were in motion with the sound playing you might, from these reviews, be able to make an educated guess and get lucky. As such, this page is designed to prove this point. Each section is separated only by the screenshots from Gamepro magazine, and yet no version stand out in color or on screen detail to differentiate it from the other screenshots, and thus the page is likely to be confusing if it is not read all the way through.
Something that was even more confusing back in '93 was the order in which these games were reviewed, and the amount of coverage each received. From August until November of 1993, all the US had, according to Gamepro, was the Super NES version of SFII Turbo, and the corrosponding 9 page spread singing its praises. When the Genesis game was finally reviewed, after the *import* of the PC-Engine version which cost over $100, it was maligned and clearly placed a distant second to the SNES game in the States (no comparison was made to the PC-Engine game). In other words, provided both SCE and Turbo were not on the shelves at the same time, Gamepro's readers only had a choice between the excellent high quality screenshots of Turbo to look at, and low quality "80% build" shots of an up and coming Champion Edition for the Genesis. In the days without the Internet, 3 months was a long time to wait to find out that a comparable game was available on both systems.
Gamepro left us with the above scoreboards, which imply that two versions are perfect, and one flawed. This article will instead leave you with the comparisons below and a charge to find evidence of the disparity alluded to above.
As posted in the 16-bit Arcade Comparison Page
Game (System): Maximum Simultaneous Colors of Screenshots shown
Street Fighter 2 CE (PC-Engine): 87
Street Fighter 2 SCE (Sega Genesis): 53
• Screenshots
Street Fighter II Special Championship Edition: 53
Street Fighter II Turbo (SNES): 135
• Screenshots