STREET FIGHTER
(USA Network, October 21, 1995-May 14, 1997)
Graz Entertainment
(season 1), InVision Entertainment (season 2), USA Studios
MAIN CAST:
Lisa Ann Beley – Cammy White, Diane, Terri
John Payne – Escher,
various
Street
Fighter was a fighting game released
by Capcom in August of 1987, and would
become the first in a long-running franchise. The game featured Japanese
martial artist Ryu as he competed in an international tournament to prove his
strength. He would travel to five countries (Japan, United States, China,
England and finally Thailand) to face eight opponents before going against Adon, a deadly Muay Thai
master, and his mentor, Sagat. A second player could join in the game as Ryu’s
training partner and rival Ken, who appeared different but featured all the
same moves as Ryu (which would remain constant for the two characters
throughout the franchise). It was produced and directed by Takashi
Nishiyama (credited as “Piston Takashi”) and planned by Hiroshi Matsumoto (as
“Finish Hiroshi”), with character artwork by Keiji Inafune.
The game’s unique
feature was the use of pneumatic buttons, which took the amount of power used
to press them and turned it into power behind the attacks in the game. The game
was praised for that innovation, the moves, and the character designs, although
it was said to have very little replay value. The game wasn’t a breakout hit at
its inception, though it did prove popular enough with fans to warrant its
being ported to home consoles as Fighting
Street.
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| Original promo for Final Fight as Street Fighter '89. |
In 1989, Capcom began
work on a sequel called Street Fighter ’89. They decided to switch
genres from fighting to side-scrolling beat ‘em up after the success of Technōs Japan’s Double Dragon. The game followed Mike Haggar, a former wrestler
that became Mayor of Metro
City, as he took on the Mad Gear Gang (taking
their name from another
Capcom game known as Led Storm outside
of Japan) who had kidnapped his daughter, Jessica. Joining him was
his daughter’s boyfriend, Cody,
a street brawler, and Cody’s best friend, Guy, a martial artist. The
game was largely inspired by the film Streets of Fire, whose
hero Cody was based on. The game was
produced by Yoshiki
Okamoto and designed by Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda. Because of
criticisms over its numerous differences from the prior Street Fighter game,
the game was ultimately released as Final Fight that December. It became a hit for Capcom, spawning
its own game series.
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| Ad for Street Fighter II. |
Capcom eventually
turned their focus back to fighting games and set out to revive the Street Fighter brand; feeling that the
concept was good but the playability could be better. The Final Fight team was put on it, and in February of 1991 Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was released. While maintaining the gameplay of the original, the
game offered a selection of playable characters with unique fighting styles and
special movements. Introduced were E. Honda, a sumo wrestler from Japan;
Blanka, a green-skinned bestial man from Brazil with electric abilities; Guile,
a USAF Special Forces operative out for revenge for his fallen friend; Chun-Li,
a Chinese Interpol officer and martial artist; Zangief, a Soviet pro wrestler;
and Dhalsim, a yoga master from India. Returning from the first game were Ryu
and Ken. After defeating the other playable characters, the player would
continue on to face four CPU-controlled “Grand Masters.” Sagat was included
from the previous game and was joined by Blarog, an African-American boxer from
the United States; Vega, a pretty-boy Spanish cage fighter who wears a mask and
uses a claw weapon; and M. Bison, leader of the criminal organization Shadaloo who wields a
power known as “Psycho Power.” Originally, Balrog and Bison had each other’s
names as Balrog was modeled after professional boxer Mike Tyson, but fearing a likeness
infringement lawsuit Capcom made the change when the game was released in
America and in future installments.
The game became a
hit, and was regarded as redefining the fighting genre due to its accurate
controls and highly detailed graphics, as well as being the first to offer a
selection of characters. It also introduced a combo mechanic where a series of
moves could be strung together that was initially a programming glitch. Street Fighter II is often credited with
revitalizing a struggling arcade industry, exhibiting a level of popularity
unseen since Pac-Man. It propelled the fighting
game genre, leading to the creation of other popular franchises like Mortal
Kombat, Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Capcom also introduced the concept of revisions, the precursor to
today’s downloadable patches. Rather than releasing direct sequels of the game,
they kept expanding and improving the game leading to five different releases.
At the height of Street Fighter’s popularity, Capcom
produced and co-financed a film based on the franchise. Written and directed by
Seven E. de Souza, the movie
centered around several different groups of heroes uniting to take down General
M. Bison (Raul Julia) and his
plan to extort billions of dollars from the world by taking Allied Nations (a
pastiche of the United Nations who denied use
of their name) relief workers hostage. Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Capcom’s first and only choice, was cast as Col. William Guile, the head of the
A.N. military response to Bison who sought his own revenge against him for the capture
of his friend, Charlie.
Charlie was experimented on to become an inhuman fighting machine (blending the
character with that of Blanka, played by Robert Mammone). de Souza had
intended to keep the focus of the film small, but Capcom continually wanted
characters added until the full roster became involved and the film overloaded.
The movie was released on December 23rd, 1994 to overwhelmingly
negative reviews but still managed to gross almost $100 million worldwide.
 |
| Guile with Chun-Li, Ken, Blanka, Ryu and Cammy. |
Following the movie
was an animated series called simply Street
Fighter. Although the characters resembled their video game counterparts,
the show was heavily inspired by and infused elements of the film’s story. Col.
William Guile (Michael Donovan) was branded as a criminal in order to provide
him the cover necessary to run the covert Street Fighters team. Unlike the
film, the characters were able to tap into their special projectile abilities
from the game; notably Guile’s “sonic boom” attack. Each episode typically
featured Guile receiving a mission and setting out to recruit necessary members
from his team that he’d need to complete it. Primary members carried over from the film
included Blanka (Scott McNeil), Guile’s friend still mutated by Bison (Richard
Newman); con artists Ryu Hoshi (Tong Lung) and Ken Masters (McNeil); reporter
Chun-Li Xiang (Donna Yamamoto) who wanted revenge against Bison for the death of
her father; E. Honda (Paul Dobson), who was the team’s computer whiz rather
than Chun-Li’s producer as in the film; Cammy White (Lisa Ann Beley), a member
of the British SIS Special Operations unit Delta Red who had a
flirtatious relationship with Guile; Dhalsim (Gary Chalk), one of the
scientists responsible for Blanka’s creation; Dee Jay (Dobson), a Jamaican
kickboxer originally an opportunistic Bison lackey in the film, was portrayed
as the team’s helicopter pilot; and T. Hawk (Dobson), who was portrayed as
serving deep cover spying on the cyborg criminal known as The Satin Hammer
(Lynda Boyd). Balrog (Dobson), who served as Chun-Li’s cameraman in the film,
was made into a computer programmer for Bison in an episode of the series.
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| M. Bison. |
The primary
antagonist in the series was Bison and his legions of Shadaloo, with Sagat
(Robert O. Smith) serving as his second in command. Zangief (Donovan) once
again served as Bison’s lackey and muscle, despite his moment of redemption at
the end of the film. Vega (Dobson) was portrayed as a former Bison henchman who
was searching for eternal youth, in keeping with the character’s vain
personality from the games. New to the series was the dark martial artist Akuma (Dale Wilson & David Kaye), who wanted the Chi
energy possessed by certain characters for himself.
 |
| Bison takes control of Cammy. |
Street Fighter
debuted on October 21st, 1995 as part of the USA Network’s Cartoon Express before
moving to the Action
Extreme Team alongside episodes of Mortal
Kombat: Defenders of the Realm. The opening theme was an arrangement of
the title theme of Street Fighter II: The
World Warrior, with the series’ music composed by Andrew Dimitroff. The series was
written by Michael Edens, Julia Lewald, Eric Lewald, Richard Stanley, Mark Onspaugh, Bruce Reid Schaefer, Francis Moss, Ted Pedersen, Jeremy Cushner, Matt Edens, Matthew Malach, Doug Booth, Steve Cuden, Len Wein, Will Meugniot, Marv Wolfman, Steve Perry, Steve Englehart, Kat Likkel, George Bloom, and Larry Parr. The Lewalds and Michael
Edens served as the story editors for the first season, replaced by David Anthony Kraft for the
second. Meugniot was also a character designer for the first season along with Roy Burdine, Kathi Castillo and Mark Lewis. Burdine ended up
taking over for the second with Ed LaRoche.
Meugniot and the Lewalds were maintained
as consultants.
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| Sonic BOOM! |
The series ran for two seasons. Production of the
show moved from Graz
Entertainment to InVision
Entertainment for the second season. Animation duties also moved from Mad House to Hong Kong Japan Sunrise, Ltd., resulting in a slight change in overall style
and the character designs. Over its run, the show incorporated all the
characters from Super Street Fighter II: Turbo as
well as from the Street Fighter Alpha series and other Capcom games like Saturday Night Slam Masters,
Magic Sword and Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness. The episode “Final Fight” served as an adaptation of that game
with the additional inclusion the Street Fighter characters (Final Fight characters were starting to
be gradually integrated into the Street
Fighter game series). Season 2 saw Guile’s role reduced somewhat as a
couple of episodes focused on the other Fighters. Cammy became part of a season-long
subplot where she was brainwashed into serving Bison (as she had been in the
games). Street Fighter also participated in the crossover with the other
USA Network cartoons in “The Warrior King” episode; which is probably the
closest we’ll ever see to a Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat crossover.
 |
| The 2015 re-release DVD. |
Despite lasting two seasons, the series was largely negatively received by fans due to poor dialogue and overall writing. ADV Films released the entire series on two sets called Code of Honor and Soul Powers in 2003; both are currently out of print, although Discotek Media had announced plans to re-release the series in 2015. The series was also released as part of the 25th Anniversary Collector’s Set on Blu-Ray in 2012.
While the American
versions of Street Fighter haven’t
done well, Japanese interpretations have been more favorable with several anime
movies and series under their belt. Street
Fighter has also been consistently published in comics
since the 90s, both in American versions and in manga form. Along with action
figures and music albums, Street Fighter continues
to be a merchandising juggernaut for Capcom and one of their most well-known
gaming franchises.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“The Adventure Begins” (10/21/95) – Guile assembles Chun-Li, Ryu, Ken
and Blanka to retrieve a biological virus from Bison.
“The Strongest Woman in the World” (10/28/95) – When Bison captures
the nuclear facility near Chun-Li’s former village, she must choose between
revenge and saving innocents.
“Getting to Guile” (11/4/95) – Chun-Li assembles Ryu, Blanka, Ken and
Dee Jay to rescue Guile from Bison before Bison figures out how to brainwash
him.
“No Way Out” (11/11/95) – Guile gets trapped in the Shadaloo American
embassy trying to rescue a boy inside while Sagat’s army attacks.
“Demon Island” (11/18/95) – Guile, Dee Jay, Cammy and Blanka set out
to retrieve the invisible jet Bison stole, and Dee Jay gets a chance to settle
a score with Zangief.
“Desert Thunder” (12/2/95) – Guile and Blanka have to retrieve a laser
from the Satin Hammer, but it becomes a question if their inside man T. Hawk is
still on their side.
“Dark Heart” (12/9/95) – Bison plans to use a comet to extort money
from America.
“The Medium is the Message” (12/16/95) – The Street Fighters are sent
to compete in a tournament where Bison hopes to either destroy or discredit
them.
“Eye of the Beholder” (12/30/95) – A scientist in Hawaii creates a
serum that Blanka wants to become human and Vega wants to stay eternally young.
“The Hand That Feeds You” (1/6/96) – While Fei Long has Guile teach
him to use Chi energy, Ryu searches for his missing cousin Sachi in Hong Kong.
“Keeping the Peace” (1/20/96) – Warlords target a Shadaloo city that
has been discovered to have rare diamonds, and Guile is sent to investigate.
“Chunnel Vision” (1/27/96) – When Delta Red captures Bison, Bison’s
supporters begin bombing locations around London and target the Chunnel.
“Strange Bedfellows” (2/3/96) – Bison and Guile are set up against
each other by Akuma who wants their Chi energy.
Season 2:
“The Hammer Strikes” (9/21/96) – Using Blanka, Dhalsim summons the
Street Fighters to his mountain to help stop the Satin Hammer from stealing a
nuclear device from him.
“Cammy and the Bachelor” (9/28/96) – Guile, Cammy and Honda join Delta
Red in stopping Bison’s London crime wave, but Bison takes over Cammy’s mind
and brings her to his side.
“New Kind of Evil” (10/5/96) – Guile and Blanka help Chun-Li track
down her kidnapped camera crew, leading to Blanka becoming even further
mutated.
“The World’s Greatest Warrior” (10/12/96) – Akuma challenges Ryu and
Ken for the Chi of their master Gouken.
“So, You Want to be in Pictures” (11/5/96) – Ken has his father invest
in Fei Long’s latest film, but Ken’s taking over the leading role puts him at
odds with Fei Long.
“Face of Fury” (11/15/96) – Vega escapes prison and seeks revenge
against Blanka, using Mei Lei as a hostage against him.
“Cammy Must Die!” (11/23/96) – The Street Figthers and Delta Red seem
to free Cammy from Bison’s control, but she betrays them all and helps Bison
escape.
“The Flame and the Rose” (12/9/96) – Psychic Rose believes Ken and
Blanka are the source of the evil energy that threatens the world, but soon
discovers it’s actually Bison.
“The Warrior King” (1/4/97) – The Warrior King joins forces with
Chun-Li to retrieve his Orb of Power from Bison.
“The Beast Within” (2/18/97) – Blanka’s search for a mysterious
healing plant instead leads him to help an alien boy get revenge on evil
natives for killing his family.
“Second to None” (4/11/97) – Ryu’s biggest fan Sakura tracks him down
and enlists his help in stopping Sagat’s reign of terror in Shadaloo.
“Final Fight” (4/27/97) – Guile, Ken and Ryu help Metro City Mayor
Mike Haggar retrieve his daughter Jessica from the clutches of the Mad Gear
Gang.
“Cammy Tell Me True” (5/14/97) – Bison captures Delta Red and plans to
take over the world by holding it hostage with its own nuclear weapons.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2019.
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