Street Fighter: The Movie

Street Fighter: The Movie (also nicknamed Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game) was 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 the same staff behind Time Killers, while the PlayStation/SegaSaturn versions, although published by Acclaim outside of Japan, was 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 are 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 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 Turbo (including Akuma), but ditched Blanka, Dhalsim, Dee Jay, T. Hawk and Fei-Long (who technically wasn't in the movie, but they allegedly recorded footage for him like they did with Akuma) in favor of Captain Sawada, a original character who was featured in the movie, and Blade, a Shadaloo elite troop who appears in the game along with three palatte-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 [dead link] . Needless to say, he apologizes for the game.

The home version, in contrast, plays more like a traditional Street Fighter. 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 seiyuu, 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. Despite having little in common with the arcade version and being a somewhat better game, it's often dismissed alongside the arcade version due to guilt by association.

Tropes used in Street Fighter: The Movie include:
  • 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.
  • Ascended Meme/What Could Have Been: Sheng Long was going to be a playable character in the arcade version, but Capcom kept flip-flopping on whether he could be included.
  • Canon Foreigner: Sawada, who was a stand-in for Fei-Long, as well as the Shadaloo Shock Troopers (Blade, Arkane, Khyber and F7).
  • Crossover: Blade's ending says he's "able to resume his wresting career as Gunloc", a reference to the Saturday Night Slam Masters series.
  • Follow the Leader: Capcom commissioned this to cash-in on the success of digitized fighters such as Mortal Kombat in the States.
  • Head Swap: Notably averted for Ryu and Ken (and Akuma), since they used digitized images of the actors, rather than hand-drawn sprites.
  • 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.
  • No Pronunciation Guide: In the arcade version, the announcer mispronounces Ryu's name as Raiyu and the actor dubbing Ryu's voice (presumably his actual movie actor, Byron Mann) mispronounces the names of all of Ryu's techniques as well. Ken's voice actor doesn't even bother to try and simply says "Dragon" and "Hurricane" when performing the Shoryūken and Tatsumaki Senpūkyaku respectively.
    • This is mocked by Capcom of Japan themselves in a later production sketch for Street Fighter Alpha : a chibified Ryu is shown yelling "Dazoomakeesunpoo Kick!"
    • The console version averted this by having Japanese voice actors voice the characters instead.
  • Palette Swap: Blade and the other three Shock Troopers.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Played straight and averted. While the arcade version of is pretty terrible, fans were surprised to find that the console version was actually a pretty decent game, since it played more like an actual Street Fighter game. It was also the first game in the series to feature EX Attacks, which would make it into the proper series and become a pretty important part of the gameplay in games they're included in.
  • Recursive Adaptation
  • Reformulated Game: The console version was developed internally by Capcom (as opposed to being farmed-out like the arcade version) and basically 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 mooks in favor of two actual Street Fighter characters (Blanka and Dee Jay).
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Captain Sawada is often seen as 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.
    • On the other hand, Khyber plays this role straight in the arcade version, who is basically Dhalsim's replacement with his fire breathing techniques. Arkane also has a few similarities with Blanka as well due to his electrocution attacks.
  • Title: the Adaptation: Subverted. The actual movie is simply call 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.
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