Game Basics FAQ

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo is the official fifth and definitive arcade iteration of Street Fighter II. All the games after that are just compilations, remixes, or console ports that haven't stood the test of time.

In Japanese versions of the game, the boxer character was named M.Bison (an homage to Mike Tyson). To avoid a potential lawsuit, the name of the bosses were switched around in non-Japanese versions of the game.

So to avoid confusion, the communities outside of Japan call them Boxer, Claw, and Dictator.

ST/2X is not the most balanced game since it has many 8-2 matchups. It's not the most fair either since damage and stun are calculated with a small random factor that was not present in some other versions of the game. It's not the easiest one in terms of execution due to its turbo speed and small input windows in the moves.

With that said, the game has some comeback mechanics and design features (including the many bugs in the game) that make it the most fun to play and watch. The game also seems to please a wide range of competitive players, from the ones who love fundamentals to those who like new tech, probably because of the depth in the game that has constantly evolved after so many years of play.

Barely any. Some players claim that some moves have different stun amounts in the two versions. The most well-known one is Zangief's vertical headbutt that can dizzy someone with just one hit in the Japanese version.

It's turbo 3 for the Japanese version and turbo 2 for the US version.

Although Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting were more popular in arcades during the mid-nineties, most of the community eventually moved to the latest arcade iteration for the reasons mentioned above. Smaller but active tournament scenes still exist for Champion Edition, especially in South America and South Korea, and for Hyper Fighting, especially in the USA.

The compilation Hyper Street Fighter II [HSF2] (2003) had so many characters from the previous versions of Street Fighter II. Many of them were extremely overpowered, so it didn't seem like a good fit for competitive play.

The remake HD Remix [HDR] (2008) had several balance changes to many characters that didn't seem to please most of the old school players at that time. However, one of the main reasons is that there was no arcade version of the game which made it difficult for Japan to adopt. Without the Japanese community, it's harder to move all the other smaller communities in the world to the newer games.

USF2 (2017) shares the same issues as HDR, such as the lack of an arcade version. It also faces a similar problem as HSF2, where Evil Ryu and Violent Ken are considered too overpowered.

There are 16 secret characters, known as 'old characters', that can be selected through a secret code. These characters are from the previous version (Super Street Fighter II), and they are the only way to use the classic color palettes. However, only three of them are widely considered stronger than their updated counterparts: Old Sagat, Old Ken, and Old Hawk.

There's an ongoing debate about their use — in some regions, especially in Japan, they are frowned upon despite being technically allowed (a practice often referred to as a 'soft ban').

It's a mix of watching a ton of videos, learn the matchups of your character, and practice execution. Nowadays, Fightcade is the best place to practice online. If you are nice towards other players there will be plenty of people willing to help you which in turn will save you a ton of learning time. During the times that you don't connect online, practice execution in training mode instead of playing against the CPU.

Please check both the tournaments and events list from the main page.