Street
Fighter: The Movie
REVIEW:
Throughout the history of video games, many
great video game franchises have been periodically downgraded in the form
of horrible Hollywood movies. In the case of Street Fighter, look
no further than Street Fighter:
The Movie starring Jean Claude Van
Damme as Guile and Raul Julia as Bison, a movie that bombed at the box office in late
1994.
This movie... though timelessly funny and somehow still manages to be watchable...
was bad. It's so bad, in fact, that you'd be overpaying if you bought it for $3.99 from the crappy DVD bin
at Wal-Mart.
I could think of better ways to spend that money. Seriously though, if you're going to actually buy this atrocity, you might as well just
go all out and pick up the Blu-ray
version! 
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Street
Fighter: The Movie (Arcade) character select screen.
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Occasionally,
bad movies (and bad movies based on video games) are then sloppily transformed into even worse
games. See where this is going yet? Street Fighter:
The Movie (The Game) is possibly the all time best example of this trend
that should be stopped, but probably never will. This game... *twitch twitch* ...
this game
was bad.
It's so bad, you wouldn't even want to "insert 2 coins"
to play it at an arcade in the 90's, because you'd be overpaying. Ouch!
(For your information, in the early days of this website, I purposely
neglected adding Street Fighter: The Movie The Game to TFG's
library... because... yes, it is indeed that bad.
But to fully cover the history of the Street Fighter franchise, this
monstrosity deserves its dark corner of the website. I can't believe I actually decided to finally write a full review on this sorry
excuse for a game, but the the fans demanded it.
So I'll try to make this review
as quick and as painless as possible to keep anyone from killing themselves and/or suddenly
combusting (like the hideous life bars in this game).
Street Fighter: The Movie was developed by American company
Incredible Technologies, who were responsible for creating two obscure yet
infamous arcade fighting games: Time
Killers and Bloodstorm. Capcom Japan saw that Mortal Kombat
and "digitized" actors in games were positioned to be the next big
thing in arcades, but they didn't know quite how to do it... so they hired
Incredible Technologies... to save the day.
Clearly "borrowing" the formula that Mortal Kombat became
known for and had massive success with, Incredible Technologies used
digitized actors in Street Fighter: The Movie, which consisted of (mostly) the same
cast that appeared in the movie. Capcom even flew the Incredible Technologies
team out to Australia, where the movie was being filmed, to capture the actors
and collect material to make the game. They would then fly all the way back to
Chicago and design this game from the ground up.
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Capcom:
"Yeah, take that Mortal Komba!" ..... *crickets*
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Clearly, the animation and
visuals of Street Fighter: The Movie are nothing short of laughable and awkward at their
very best moments. The digitized actors format worked in Mortal Kombat because
the actors actually had some martial arts experience... but most of the actors
in Street Fighter: The Movie never learned how to throw a real punch on
or off the set, besides Van Damme, of course.
Most characters in the game have some completely new moves (which only appear in this game), along with
their classic ones (which
look absolutely horrible, of course). The gameplay
is equally as bad as the graphics, featuring a horribly stiff and sloppy control
scheme. Gameplay systems include "counter" throws, which are based on Saturday
Night Slam Masters, "interrupt moves", which are performed after
blocking an opponent's attack, and "comeback moves", which are special
moves that can only be used when the player's
life gauge is on the "danger" level. It might sound halfway decent on
paper, but it's really a sloppy mess of a game. In a nutshell... the gameplay of
Street Fighter: The Movie is pure and honest bullshit. Ridiculous
over-powered combos, sloppy movement, wonky jumping, and ugly special moves are
some of the "features" of this mistake of a game.
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Great
new moves like Sagat's eye beam... Actually, NO.
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Interestingly enough... for the console version, Capcom developed the PlayStation
& Sega Saturn home ports internally. Capcom obviously realized how
unplayable the arcade version turned out,
because they decided to reprogram the entire game engine for consoles!
Capcom copy-pasted the digitized character sprites over to the Super
Street Fighter II Turbo engine, but completely reworked the visuals and
audio. Dee Jay and Blanka were added to the roster, as footage by the actors was
recorded earlier but the team didn't have time to put the data into the arcade
version.
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The
Saturn version's graphics
are slightly better... maybe.
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Capcom changed the game's appearance for the home ports in quite a few ways,
such as "drawing over" certain frames of animation on sprites to more
closely resemble the original character sprites of SF2. Character voices
were also completely rerecorded, now sounding much closer to their original
versions (and now accurately pronouncing their special moves). Super moves and
EX Specials (later to be introduced properly in SFIII: 2nd Impact) were
added to the gameplay, as well. The console versions also received brand
new backgrounds and a generally "brighter" and more colorful
appearance. Blade and the palette swap Bison troopers were also removed from the
home version.
With a gameplay and combo system that feels more like Street Fighter (and
less like a jumbled up bootleg version of Mortal Kombat), the console versions of Street
Fighter: The Movie were... dare I say... an
"improvement" over the original arcade installment. Even so... the
game was still a massive flop on consoles. It's on record that some of the devs
at Incredible Technologies were actually big Street Fighter fans and at
least "tried" to make a good game... but due to technology
limitations, bad timing, and terrible gameplay design, the one and only
"live action" Street Fighter arcade game will single-handedly
be the biggest misstep of the franchise. On the bright side, it's also one of
the comical and cringe-worthy fighting games ever made. That has to count
for something, right?
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Cammy,
can you please choke me with a... rope, too?
Also... why do you even have a rope?
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Page Updated: |
June
6th, 2022
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Developer(s): |
Incredible Technologies
Capcom Console
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Publisher(s): |
Capcom, Acclaim
Saturn / PS1
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Designer(s): |
Elaine
Ditton
Executive Producer
Leif Pran Marwede
Project Manager
Jane
Siegrist
Head Programmer
Ralph Melgosa
Art Direction
Kyle Johnson
Sound
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Platform(s): |
Arcade,
Sega Saturn, PlayStation
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Release Date(s): |
June
1995
Arcade
Aug. 3rd, 1995
Saturn
Aug. 10th, 1995 Saturn / PS1
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Characters: |
Guile, Ryu,
Ken Masters,
Chun-Li, Cammy
White, Zangief,
E. Honda,
Balrog,
Vega,
Sagat, M. Bison, Akuma, Dee
Jay,
Blanka, Blade, Arkane,
F7, Khyber,
Captain Sawada |
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Featured Video:
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Related Games: |
Street
Fighter, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Street
Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street
Fighter III: New Generation, Mortal
Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal
Kombat 3, Killer
Instinct, Killer Instinct 2, Darkstalkers
2, Primal Rage,
Final Fight: Revenge |
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Gameplay
Engine
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1.0 / 10
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Story
/ Theme
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2.0 / 10
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Overall
Graphics
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4.0 / 10
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Animation
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5.5 / 10
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Music
/ Sound Effects
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3.0 / 10
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Innovation
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1.0 / 10
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Art Direction
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0.5 / 10
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Customization
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2.0 / 10
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Options / Extras
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1.5 / 10
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Intro / Presentation
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1.0 / 10
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Replayability / Fun
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1.5 / 10
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"Ouch" Factor
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2.5 / 10
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Characters
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2.5 / 10
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BOTTOM LINE
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1.5
/
10
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Review based on Arcade
version
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Final
Words: |
In case you haven't figured it out yet, Street
Fighter: The Movie is one of the worst games Capcom ever put their name on.
It's a cringe-worthy masterpiece... just like the movie. The only reason to ever play this game is for
historic / comic value, but be warned... playing this game is mostly painful. And if you do, be sure to
play the arcade version first to experience the true unadulterated horror and comedic value of this game.
(For a more playable-but-still-bad version, check out that Saturn or PS1
port.)
Worst Street Fighter game ever? Check. Worst fighting game ever? Not
really, but close enough. In fairness, this was really the first
"misstep" of the entire Street Fighter series, to date. Moral of the story...
stick to your guns and do your thing, and not copy other people's
homework!
For Street Fighter fans, it's best not to ever mention this game and just
pretend it doesn't exist. However, the history of how this
game came to be is pretty darn interesting (watch the fantastic YouTube video documentary by
Matt Muscles above, and also check out some of the behind-the-scenes photos below).
In retrospect, one can't fault Capcom for "trying something new" and
attempting to keep up with the times. Seeing Street Fighter "try to do Mortal Kombat" was entertaining in and of itself. And y'know what, they didn't do a terrible jon with their execution of the silly live-actor animations and digitized characters. They're almost more impressive than some of Mortal Kombat's characters, to be
honest. lol. The 2D sprites in this game are charming as they are stupid. I'm glad this game exists. It's a crap game, but I'm glad
this game exists.
Why the bad rating? C'mon... in '95/'96, so many other (underrated) fighting games were making a huge boom in arcades and on home
consoles. Both artistically and technically, fighting games were changing at that time and taking huge strides in evolution. SF: The Movie clearly felt like "the past," even at launch. Everybody knew it. For context, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter released less than a year after thi game. Yeah, imagine those 2 games side by side at an
arcade. (I don't have to imagine it because I was there.) 
Due to the fact that the actual Street Fighter: The Movie... Movie (the movie)... was
a total flop at the box office, there weren't many diehards in '95/'96 wasting their time with SF:TMTG. Real popular / fun fighting games in 1995: Killer Instinct 2, Ultimate Mortal Kombat III, Marvel Super Heroes, TEKKEN 2, Darkstalkers
2, Samurai Shodown 3, Soul Edge... and even Capcom Japan's own Street Fighter Alpha. Needless to say, all of those games outshined SF:TMTG by quite a lot. Nonetheless, this game was memorable because it actually happened. 
~TFG WEBMASTER |
@FIGHTERS_GEN
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