Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition is a fighting game developed and published by Capcom for the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive in 1993. It combines the expanded roster of the arcade Champion Edition with speed options and other elements associated with Street Fighter II Turbo, making it a substantially enlarged successor to the original World Warrior edition.

All twelve fighters are playable: the original eight competitors are joined by the former bosses Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison. Mirror matches allow both players to select the same character, alternate colours distinguish them, and adjustments to attacks and priorities improve the balance between different fighting styles. Ryu and Ken, once nearly identical, also receive more clearly differentiated techniques.

The basic contest remains a best-of-three-round duel in which punches, kicks, throws, blocks and command-based special moves must be combined to empty the opponent's vitality bar before time expires. Champion mode follows the measured pace of Champion Edition, while Hyper mode provides faster combat derived from the Turbo revision. Single-player competition is accompanied by a two-player versus mode and a group battle option for larger sets of matches.

The 24-megabit cartridge reproduces the large sprites, international stages, individual musical themes and speech samples within the limits of Sega's hardware. A six-button control pad was introduced alongside the game and provides direct access to all three punch and kick strengths; the older three-button pad remains usable, but the Start button must switch between punches and kicks. The six-button layout is therefore strongly preferable for serious play.

Special Champion Edition arrived later than the first SNES conversion, but the additional characters, selectable speeds and extensive modes made it one of the strongest early home versions of Street Fighter II. Its graphics and sound differ from the arcade machine, yet responsive control and a faithful combat system preserve the competitive appeal that made the series famous. The Genesis edition was later included with Ghouls 'n Ghosts in a Radica Play TV Legends plug-and-play unit.