History YMMV / StreetFighterII

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: ''Ultra Street Fighter II'' was widely derided before its release due to its UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch exclusivity, the addition of a gimmicky first-person mode, and especially for being released and priced $40 despite only adding two characters (particularly since the previous ''HD Remix'' release was digital-only and only $15). On its release, it garnered mixed reviews for all stated reasons. Surprisingly, Capcom called it a "smash hit" in a financial report, and because of it, the company pledged to support the Switch with more games.
* 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.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: Blanka's backstory is that he was a boy named Jimmy who fell from a plane and landed in the Brazilian side of the Amazon. He named himself Blanka after hearing two natives speaking the Spanish word ''blanca''. The catch is that Brazilians speak ''Portuguese'', not Spanish (the Portuguese equivalent word is ''branca'', and origins of the name can be explained by JapaneseRanguage).

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Zangief dances with 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.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: One of the criticisms of ''Ultra Street Fighter II'' is that it's little more than a port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix'' and what additions it does have, such as 3 new playable characters that are more powerful versions of old ones and the widely panned Way of the Hado mode, add little to the core experience. It also doesn't help that it has a $40 release price, when HD remix originally was a $15 game.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/YokoShimomura, the woman behind the music of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'', ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve'', ''VideoGame/{{Legend of Mana}}'', ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi Mario & Luigi]]'', composed almost the entire soundtrack of the original games. The only tracks she didn't do were Sagat's theme and the round start/new challenger jingles.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' was criticized for bringing back very few characters from this game and mostly replacing the cast with newcomers. Thing is, this game did it first, with very few returning characters from the original ''VideoGame/{{Street Fighter|I}}''. The main difference was that very few had played the first game, while ''Street Fighter II'' made the series famous.

** The ''Hyper Street Fighter II'' port is probably the most beloved version of the game from the pre-HD era, being a smooth [=PS2=] port 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 only major downside is that for one reason or another, [[FakeDifficulty the AI is through the roof on difficulty]], but for those playing Versus, this isn't an issue. Notably, it's this version of the game that was revived for ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' in 2022.

* SequelDisplacement: Before the Internet, you could count the number of people who played the original ''Street Fighter'' on one hand. Turns out, it's for the best. These games (or, at least, series of games) are the most well-known games of the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' franchise; when most people talk about ''Street Fighter'', chances are that they really mean ''Street Fighter II''. It is one of the most innovative and popular video games of all time; it brought the "tournament fighter" genre to the masses and popularized six-button controllers, and its influence has not waned in the years since its debut.

* UncannyValley: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00YUjUVEAOY Eliza's sprite]] in Ken's Ending of the original arcade game, looks really out of place compared to Ken. This is due to her sprite not fitting with the rest of the art style in this game. Not to mention her running animation is just a static sprite. The closeup between her and Ken is a bit better though and fits in within the art style. Also overlaps with OffModel.

** ''Ultra'' brings Evil Ryu and Evil Ken into the mix, two characters so powerful they can stun with a 3 hit combo strong enough to take off 75% of the opponent's health. It also adds [[PurposelyOverpowered Shin Akuma]] as a playable character through a code, who understandably falls into this category.

** Balrog, Vega and M. Bison are called "Boxer", "Claw" and "Dictator" in international tournament play to avoid confusion caused by the name switchups from the Japanese to the English versions. In Japan, they were known as M. Bison, Balrog and Vega. When Capcom was localizing ''II'' for America, there was worry that Mike Tyson might sue them because of Balrog's resemblance to Tyson; thus, the name switch. Also, Vega wasn't a very menacing name, so it went to "Claw" (Vega/Balrog).

* ''YMMV/StreetFighterII''

Index:
* ''YMMV/StreetFighter''

* ''YMMV/StreetFighterTheMovie''

* ''YMMV/StreetFighterIITheAnimatedMovie''

* RecurringFanonCharacter: One of Ryu's winquotes states "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance!". Players immediately began to speculate who Sheng Long was, and it eventually became rumored that Sheng Long was the name of Ryu and Ken's unseen master. ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' seized on this idea and launched an April Fools' issue in which they gave a detailed (and false) description of the absurdly difficult and convoluted way to unlock Sheng Long as a boss. But there was no Sheng Long; Ryu was telling his opponent that to stand a chance, they had to overcome "Sheng Long", which is a [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation error]] for his "Dragon Punch". However, Capcom liked the idea so much that [[AscendedMeme they later introduced Akuma]] for ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. This did not end fan rumors or fanon about Sheng Long, however, and ''EGM'' ''again'' posted another April Fools' prank for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''. Years later, for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', Capcom finally introduced Ryu and Ken's ''real'' master, Akuma's brother Gouken, who had almost all of the abilities that ''EGM'' had once claimed Sheng Long had, stated "You must defeat ME to stand a chance!", and had "aka Sheng Long" as one of his equippable titles just to put the issue to bed. Despite all of that, though, Sheng Long is still a popular fanon character and occasionally reappears as an AlterEgo of Gouken, a third brother to himself and Akuma, or a forgotten student who trained alongside them, amongst others.

* FanNickname: Due to DubNameChange, fan communities (particularly in tournaments between Japanese and overseas players) have adopted a set of nicknames for characters to avoid confusion.
** M. Bison to Balrog (Boxer)
** Balrog to Vega (Claw)
** Vega to M. Bison (Dictator)

* GoodBadBugs: Some bootlegged versions of the game, popularly known in Brazil as "Street-Fighter de Rodoviária" (literally, "Bus Station Street-Fighter", due to the dubious arcade machines in those places) are notorious to have had several some amusing glitches, such as Zangief's kick burning the opponent like Dhalsin's yoga fire or a button making you able to switch fighters in the middle of the fight.

** The ''Hyper Street Fighter II'' port is probably the most beloved version of the game from the pre-HD era, being a smooth [=PS2=] port 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. Notably, it's this version of the game that was revived for ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' in 2022.

** The ''Hyper Street Fighter II'' port is probably the most beloved version of the game from the pre-HD era, being a smooth [=PS2=] port and featuring the ability to select any version of the characters in the game.

* {{Squick}}: In the games with better animation (''VideoGame/SNKVsCapcomSVCChaos'', ''Street Fighter IV''), you can see Dhalsim's limbs actually snapping back like a rubber band after doing one of his stretch attacks.

** Nash to Charlie [[note]]The anime sequences of ''Street Fighter IV'' combined the two, revealing his full name to be "Charles Nash" on his dog tag. However, the dialogue still refers to him primarily as "[[FirstNameBasis Charlie]]" or "[[LastNameBasis Nash]]" depending on the language. For his reappearance in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' this is done away with and internationally his name remains "Nash".[[/note]]
** Gouki to Akuma [[note]]He was technically nameless in his debut game, ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. The names "Gouki" and "Akuma" were only used for [[AllThereInTheManual promotional materials]] at first and then appeared in-game from ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' and onward.[[/note]]
** Julia to Jane (Guile's wife)
** Chris to Amy (Guile's daughter)

** The port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' found on ''Street Fighter Anniversary'' ([=PS2=], Xbox) features the remixed music from the [=3DO=] port, but better controls due to having six buttons instead of five (or three, in the case of the original [=3DO=] controller).

* HarsherInHindsight: Chun-Li's stage can be as this for many reasons: When the game was released in 1991, China wasn't a very developed country, and one of the most famous stereotypes associated with the Chinese was almost all Chinese people ride bicycles, since they couldn't afford, or were not allowed to have, a car. Not only is this stereotype mostly a DeadHorseTrope outside rural towns, but China is suffering a serious case of environmental pollution because almost everyone is abandoning their traditional bicycles and using cars instead. This is one of the reasons many of Chun-Li's scenarios in later sequels stop showing them in order to show the more modern face of China.

** In Zangief's ending, Gorbachev claims that Zangief's victory has proved that "the Soviet spirit can overcome all obstacles." Just months after the game came out, the Soviet Union, still under Gorbachev, was dissolved.

** Cammy's [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/snes/b/ssf2cam.htm ending]] in ''Super Street Fighter II'' has Bison claim they were in love rather than her being his clone, with implied brainwashing as the cause and leaving her devastated either way. The American cartoon also used the "brainwashed lovers" plot point, and several fanfic writers have written about the localized revelation or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs her being his clone]] ''[[BreadEggsBreadedEggs and]]'' [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs lover]].

* SignatureScene: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY0KBMkvDyo The intro to Super Street Fighter II]] is iconic, due to it being SimpleYetAwesome, and cool as hell. It's to the point where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kalsCPXfaQ it was even remade for Ryu's Smash trailer]].
* SignatureSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uxJxMjz3Io Guile's theme]] from ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' due to becoming extremely popular as a MemeticMutation around 2010.

** Cammy's [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/snes/b/ssf2cam.htm ending]] in ''Super Street Fighter II'' has Bison claim they were in love rather than her being his clone, with implied brainwashing as the cause and leaving her devastated either way. The American cartoon also used the "brainwashed lovers" plot point, and several fanfic writers have written about the localized revelation or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs her being his clone AND lover]].

* SignatureScene: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY0KBMkvDyo The intro to Super Street Fighter II]], it's to the point where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kalsCPXfaQ it was even remade for Ryu's Smash trailer]].