History YMMV / StreetFighterII

** ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''[='s=] MS-DOS version has controls that worked pretty well...for the menus, moving, and jumping. But for most keyboards and fast computers, the controls for fighting have a huge input lag. Whether you're mashing the designated keys like a maniac or steadily pressing one at a time, it can still take a long time to get the game to register and carry out your attack. There is also the fact that the copy protection system for earlier versions didn't even correspond to the right words in the manual that you were supposed to type without a patch.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Not in the ''II'' series itself (unless you count oddities like Zangief doing ThatRussianSquatDance with ''UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev'' or Chun-Li merrily going back to the life of a "young single girl" [[MoodWhiplash moments after]] paying her respects to her father), but rather [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOSAko859k a tie-in 3D simulation ride.]] Whereas the goal of the attraction is to help the heroes stop Bison from escaping the video game and [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou destroying the real world]], the ride features [[OneSceneWonder various random fights between characters]] (Fei Long vs. T. Hawk, E. Honda vs. Zangief, Dhalsim vs. Blanka) that have nothing to do with stopping Bison, not unlike the Zangief/Blanka cage match in ''[[Anime/StreetFighterIITheAnimatedMovie The Animated Movie]]''. And that's before you get to a showdown with a 20-foot-tall Bison, complete with Ryu yelling, [[OutOfCharacterMoment "I'm gonna rip your heart out!"]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs Really, the whole thing is one big BLAM.]]

* GameBreakingBug: An ''incredibly'' infamous case with ''Super Turbo'''s [[DifficultyByRegion overseas release]]. The AI difficulty variable was somehow cranked up to [[HarderThanHard maximum difficulty]] regardless of the DIP settings on the machine, which meant every single individual fighter was an SNKBoss that could read all your inputs, get higher priority than any of your attacks and become invulnerable or recover out of hitstun on a whim, among numerous other problems. It was so bad that it actually ''tanked'' quarter sales in the west because the game became nigh-unwinnable against the CPU, requiring an emergency patch update to be issued out to cabinet owners, one that not everyone received. To make things worse, this bug is repeated in the ''Street Fighter Anniversary Collection'' for ''Hyper Street Fighter II'', and this broken version of the game was the version used in the ''Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection''; more players have probably been victims of an insanely broken AI than those that played the patched or Japanese versions of the game. ''Capcom Arcade Stadium'' is the only overseas re-release to allow you to play the Japanese version proper (even ''30th Anniversary Collection'' requires buying a Japan-region copy to get access to that ''and'' the overseas release, whereas overseas copies only contain its sole, respective version).

** When it comes down to it, the various Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis/Megadrive ports were quite good for the limited hardware, besides ''Super'' for the Genesis in PortingDisaster below. While the graphics and sound were obviously not on-par, you really couldn't go wrong with these if you were itching for a home fix. ''Champion Edition'' also had a [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] PC Engine port that was a touch better than the competition. They only pale in comparison to later arcade-accurate ports and emulation.

* GameBreakingBug: An ''incredibly'' infamous case with ''Super Turbo'''s overseas release. The AI difficulty variable was somehow cranked up to [[HarderThanHard maximum difficulty]] regardless of the DIP settings on the machine, which meant every single individual fighter was an SNKBoss that could read all your inputs, get higher priority than any of your attacks and become invulnerable or recover out of hitstun on a whim, among numerous other problems. It was so bad that it actually ''tanked'' quarter sales in the west because the game became nigh-unwinnable against the CPU, requiring an emergency patch update to be issued out to cabinet owners, one that not everyone received. To make things worse, this bug is repeated in the ''Street Fighter Anniversary Collection'' for ''Hyper Street Fighter II'', and this broken version of the game was the version used in the ''Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection''; more players have probably been victims of an insanely broken AI than those that played the patched or Japanese versions of the game.

** ''Hyper Street Fighter II'' is probably the most beloved version of the game from the pre-HD era, with the game itself being an updated rerelease of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' with not only all of its features and balanced design, but also the ability to pick any prior release version of the characters, complete with their older art, mechanics, balance and sounds for basically every prior version of ''Street Fighter II'', letting you do things like throw vanilla Ryu in a MirrorMatch with his "Turbo" self, or "Champ" Sagat versus playable Akuma, and so forth. It even restores certain destructible background elements that were removed past the original game. The [=PS2=] version goes above and beyond, and also includes the option to switch between the original [=CPS1=] music tracks (and similarly edited Sharp X68000 tracks for Akuma and the new challengers, which would later be reused in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'') and music tracks from Super Turbo's 3DO port. The only major downside is that like in Super Turbo, [[FakeDifficulty the AI in the US version is through the roof on difficulty]], but for those playing Versus, this isn't an issue. Lacking a port since then, it's this version of the game that was revived for both ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' and ''Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium'' in 2022.

** ''Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' was originally meant to take place around the game's real-life release, but it was retconned to be ambiguous time period later. Still, you can say this game was released in 1991 because of Zangief, whose nationality is USSR, which collapsed in the same year the game was originally released. Also, he dances with the late Mikhail Gorbachev in his ending. This was unchanged for the rereleases.

** Zangief dances with the late Mikhail Gorbachev in his ending for ''II''. Also, his nationality was USSR, which collapsed in the same year the game was originally released. This was unchanged for the rereleases.

* GameBreakingBug: An ''incredibly'' infamous case with ''Super Turbo'''s overseas release. The AI difficulty variable was somehow cranked up to [[HarderThanHard maximum difficulty]] regardless of the DIP settings on the machine, which meant every single individual fighter was an SNKBoss that could read all your inputs, get higher priority than any of your attacks and become invulnerable or recover out of hitstun on a whim, among numerous other problems. It was so bad that it actually ''tanked'' quarter sales in the west because the game became nigh-unwinnable against the CPU, requiring an emergency patch update to be issued out to cabinet owners, one that not everyone received. To make things worse, this bug is repeated in the ''Street Fighter Anniversary Collection'' for ''Hyper Street Fighter II'', and this broken version of the game was the version used in the ''Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection''; more players have probably been victims of an insanely broken AI than those that played the patched versions of the game.

* ItWasHisSled: Akuma was a secret OptionalBoss that was only hinted at in ''Super Turbo'''s intro, with the conditions for getting to him (get past Sagat in under 25 minutes without a single continue) intentionally [[GuideDangIt obtuse and perfectionist]] to make the chances of his encounter incredibly rare besides for the most skilled players while also calling back to the ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' April Fool's joke that [[AscendedMeme birthed Akuma]] in the first place. PopCultureOsmosis and Akuma being a recurring character in every part of the franchise relegated this borderline urban myth encounter to something everyone simply knows as a matter-of-fact now, never mind the cheat code to play ''as'' Akuma as he proceeds to [[GameBreaker snap the game in half over his knee]].

* EvenBetterSequel: ''II'' was so good that ''I'' is barely ever acknowledged nowadays.

* ContestedSequel: On one hand, ''Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers'' brought Cammy, Thunder Hawk, Dee Jay and Fei Long to the table, extra polish and balance tweaks plus a few new moves, along with a massive animation and art upgrade compared to the prior versions to a more anime-style design. On the other hand, coming off the heels of ''Hyper Fighting'' two years later, the older release had Turbo modes and a much, ''much'' faster gameplay pace by comparison, which caused many to stick to ''Hyper Fighting''. It says a lot that ''[[EvenBetterSequel Super Turbo]]'' pretty much existed to not only polish this release further but re-implement the faster speeds of its predecessor to become what many consider the definitive (and competitively viable) version of ''II''.

* GameBreakingBug: An ''incredibly'' infamous case with ''Super Turbo'''s overseas release. The AI difficulty variable was somehow cranked up to [[HarderThanHard maximum difficulty]] regardless of the DIP settings on the machine, which meant every single individual fighter was an SNKBoss that could read all your inputs, get higher priority than any of your attacks and become invulnerable or recover out of hitstun on a whim, among numerous other problems. It was so bad that it actually ''tanked'' quarter sales for single-player groups in the west because the game became nigh-unwinnable against the CPU, requiring an emergency patch update to be issued out to cabinet owners, one that not everyone received. To make things worse, this bug is repeated in the ''Street Fighter Anniversary Collection'' for ''Hyper Street Fighter II'', and this broken version of the game was the version used in the ''Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection''; more players that didn't do Versus play with friends have probably been victims of an insanely broken AI than those that played the patched versions of the game.

* ItWasHisSled: Akuma was a secret OptionalBoss that was only hinted at in ''Super Turbo'''s intro, with the conditions for getting to him (get past Sagat in under 20 minutes without losing a single round) intentionally [[GuideDangIt obtuse and perfectionist]] to make the chances of his encounter incredibly rare besides for the most skilled players while also calling back to the ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' April Fool's joke that [[AscendedMeme birthed Akuma]] in the first place. PopCultureOsmosis and Akuma being a recurring character in every part of the franchise relegated this borderline urban myth encounter to something everyone simply knows as a matter-of-fact now, never mind the cheat code to play ''as'' Akuma as he proceeds to [[GameBreaker snap the game in half over his knee]].

* ItWasHisSled: Akuma was a secret OptionalBoss that was only hinted at in ''Super Turbo'''s intro, with the conditions for getting to him (get past Sagat in under 20 minutes without losing a single round) intentionally [[GuideDangIt obtuse and perfectionist]] to make the chances of his encounter incredibly rare besides for the most skilled players while also calling back to the ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' April Fool's joke that [[AscendedMeme birthed Akuma]] in the first place. PopCultureOsmosis and Akuma being a recurring character in every part of the franchise besides ''Street Fighter III'' relegated this borderline urban myth encounter to something everyone simply knows as a matter-of-fact now, never mind the cheat code to play ''as'' Akuma as he proceeds to [[GameBreaker snap the game in half over his knee]].

* ItWasHisSled: Akuma was a secret OptionalBoss that was only hinted at in ''Super Turbo'''s intro, with the conditions for getting to him (get past Sagat in under 20 minutes without losing a single round) intentionally [[GuideDangIt obtuse and perfectionist]] to make the chances of his encounter incredibly rare besides for the most skilled players. PopCultureOsmosis and Akuma being a recurring character in every part of the franchise besides ''Street Fighter III'' relegated this borderline urban myth encounter to a factoid that everyone simply knows as a matter-of-fact now, never mind the cheat code to play ''as'' Akuma as he proceeds to [[GameBreaker snap the game in half over his knee]].

* ScrappyMechanic: If you're playing the Genesis ports, buying a 6-button controller is a ''must''. Using the stock 3-button controller means having to press Start to alternate between punches and kicks. The same problem occurred with the [[NoExportForYou Japan-only]] PC Engine port, except it was the ''only'' legally-licensed game on the console to ever use a six-button controller, expounding the problem into a money sink for what amounted to a slightly fancier ''Champion Edition'' port compared to the competition.

** When it comes down to it, the various Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis/Megadrive ports were quite good for the limited hardware, besides ''Super'' for the Genesis in PortingDisaster below. While the graphics and sound were obviously not on-par, you really couldn't go wrong with these if you were itching for a home fix. They only pale in comparison to later arcade-accurate ports and emulation.

* ScrappyMechanic: If you're playing the Genesis ports, buying a 6-button controller is a ''must''. Using the stock 3-button controller means having to press Start to alternate between punches and kicks.

** While the simplified moves and character lineup (only nine characters) of the UsefulNotes/GameBoy port can be forgiven due to the system's obvious limitations, the unresponsive controls, single digit framerate and slow as molasses physics utterly destroy the gameplay, leaving it a barely playable mess.
** Not the whole game, but the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis port of ''Super Street Fighter II'' had ''horrible'' music. Quite pathetic considering the earlier ''Special Champion Edition'' had music that was very faithful to the [=CPS1=] original music, even with the Genesis' limited sound hardware. The issue was so infamous that this port helped ''destroy'' the system's reputation for arcade ports to the home compared to the Super Nintendo, alongside the likes of ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'', and set the stage for the console's downfall.
** Zigzagged with the 3DO port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. While the graphics are far more accurate to the arcade version than other ports and features excellent music, the game ''loads when you jump''. Though the loading times are faster than expected for a game of its era, they are still slow and interfer with player controls, rendering Versus matches nearly unplayable. The score system is also not accurate in the least, [[{{Bowdlerise}} the already fairly tame violence was censored]], and the backgrounds can't scroll.
** The MS-DOS version of ''Super Turbo'' had controls that worked pretty well...for the menus, moving, and jumping. But for most keyboards and fast computers, the controls for fighting were ''crippled''. Whether you're mashing the designated keys like a maniac or steadily pressing one at a time, it can still take a long time to get the game to register and carry out your attack. There is also the fact that the copy protection system for earlier versions didn't even correspond to the right words in the manual that you were supposed to type without a patch.

** The Xbox Live Arcade version of ''Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting''. It's based on the ''Street Fighter Collection 2'' port made originally for the Saturn and [=PS1=], itself another example of this trope. Not only was this version much more laggy than the original arcade version, but the balance was changed considerably for the worse as certain combos and techniques no longer worked. Online play was even worse, as matches had a random chance of desyncing and forcing people into waiting practically an entire minute just for the game to return to the lobby or online menu. It was also possible to de-select your character at the select screen, and since it took a long time for the "Start Match" confirmation to pop up, this usually led to constant counter-picking attempts that could last for several minutes.
** The 30th Anniversary Collection made by Creator/DigitalEclipse contains emulations of all the original arcade-released games, but with noticeably flawed emulation quality including issues such as increased input lag. These problems also extend to its online functionality, which runs on save states so there is no way to actually select a stage. Hope you like only seeing E. Honda's bathhouse if you play ''Hyper Fighting''. ''Super Turbo'' actually has it even worse. It has more save states (thus more available stages), but if you somehow get Zangief's stage, then the save state has the Turbo setting inexplicably set at the wrong speed: 1 setting higher than the default. It is widely considered one of the worst ways to play ''Super Turbo'' in any online capacity.

** [[Memes/StreetFighter No, Blanka! Not the headbite!]]

** Zangief dances with the late Mikhail Gorbachev in his ending for ''II''. 'Nuff said. Also his nationality was USSR, which collapsed in the same year the game was originally released. This was unchanged for the rereleases.

* SequelDifficultySpike: Within its own [[CapcomSequelStagnation re-releases aplenty]], ''II'' would just get harder and harder in a single-player run. The first couple versions, only the bosses were a significant threat for obvious reasons, and the CPU could be [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheating bastards]] but weren't too stingy about it until you met Sagat. By ''Hyper Fighting'', they were all suddenly out for blood, toned down in time for ''The New Challengers'', and then got amped up even worse than ever by ''Super Turbo'' for overseas releases. ''Hyper Fighting'' and ''Super Turbo'' (plus the latter's derivatives, including the separate ''Hyper'' version) are often considered nigh-unplayable by casual audiences due to this if you don't have actual friends to play Versus with.

** Not the whole game, but the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis port of ''Super Street Fighter II'' had ''horrible'' music. Quite pathetic considering the earlier ''Special Champion Edition'' had music that was very faithful to the [=CPS1=] original music, even with the Genesis' limited sound hardware.

** When it comes down to it, the various Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis/Megadrive ports were quite good for the limited hardware, besides ''Super'' for the Genesis in PortingDiaster below. While the graphics and sound were obviously not on-par, you really couldn't go wrong with these if you were itching for a home fix. They only pale in comparison to later arcade-accurate ports and emulation.

** Any player fighting a CPU controlled Ryu, considering that he often spams out more [[KamehameHadoken Hadokens]] at an inhuman rate. Especially if one plays as Zangief.

** If you're facing a CPU Zangief, you will come to dread the Spinning Piledriver. Not only will it take out the better part of 60% of your health in one go, his range is [[HitboxDissonance longer than you'd ever realize]] and the AI fully knows how to exploit the hell out of it, on top of it being able to come out basically instantly. Combine that with [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the rest of their cheap tricks]] and most players have come to fear the CPU Zangief grabs utterly destroying them.

** The CPS-1 version opening movie features a white blonde guy punching a dark-skinned guy, which was met with disdain from American fans. Fast forward two decades later, and the Black Lives Matter movement was established after several incidents where black men were killed or injured by white police officers.