Just beat Street Fighter II
June 10th, 2007
This may be the first time I ever beat it on an arcade standup machine. I spent a lot of time and a lot of quarters playing Street Fighter 2 when I was in high school. I should really own the machine, given how much I’ve spent. I like the original version, not even the championship edition, definitely not the hyperfighting or any of the mickie-mouse editions and sequels. They are too reliant on mega hit combos.
I was always more of a challenge fighter. There was one machine in the arcade in Duncan and you had to line up to play. I remember inventing a few unorthodox techniques to defeat certain people and overused characters. I started playing as Blanka, but I also used Chun Li, basically anyone without a dragon punch and fireball. I think the all dragon punch and fireball technique is boring and made it my mission to defeat people who relied on one move or character. I sometimes would fight challenges with the big Russian wrestler even though I couldn’t do the 360 pile driver. Eric Chang was always better than me especially at pulling off complicated moves, but I played that game all over the world: Vancouver, Oregon, Calgary, Japan, even China.
I can usually hold my own, even though I’m old and out of practice. I was pleasantly surprised to find an old Street Fighter II Championship Edition arcade machine at the little corner store near my house. It has some weird chips in it. These ultimately allowed me to beat the game, though my inability to jump backwards at times hurt…
I won with Chun Li. She doesn’t hit very hard, but is quick and can jump high. She has a good throw and a reasonable footsweep. I think for challenge fighting the three most important things are uppercut, good throw, and footsweep, plus of course knowing how to block. I used to footsweep people to death. All the fancy moves in the world won’t help you if you don’t learn how to block a simple foot sweep. Zangief has a deceptive footsweep.
I’ve beaten the game on consoles and the computer, but the AI isn’t as tough and you don’t have to worry about unexpected challenges. In China the guy I was playing was on the otherside of the arcade. Eventually people gathered around as a lot of people thought it was funny playing the Laowai. I made a few friends, but eventually ran out of change and had to concede defeat in Beijing.
I got to thinking maybe everything I know about Asian women comes from Chun Li or kung fu movies. She isn’t famous for the size of her calves, but if you’ve ever seen her celebrate a victory she has some really strong looking thighs and a really thin waist. She is also probably a card carrying member of the cult of cute. She wears the Qipao and has a traditional hair style. She might be based off a character in an early Hong Kong Bruce Lee movie…
She was amongst the earliest female action heroes in video games. This became a whole trend, now every fighting game has a female character or two. There have been a lot of movies, the whole Laura Croft franchise, Kill Bill, all owe a debt to Chun Li. The earliest female action heroes in mainstream Western Cinema were probably Linda Hamilton in Terminator 1&2 and Sigorney Weaver in Aliens 1&2. Though you could go back to Russ Meyer’s “Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!” or even further in literature, Joan of Arc, the Valkyries and Amazons. But in the realm of video games, which are increasingly influential, Chun Li was a trail blazer. Comics have long had female protagonists from Wonder Woman to She Hulk. I always liked She Hulk more than Wonder Woman she had a sense of humor, she was a reluctant hero, she tried to hold down a day job like Spiderman.
Apparently there will be a new Street Fighter movie staring Chun Li. I’ve never seen the entire original I heard it was bad… I wonder who will play the leading role? Internet rumors keep saying Jessica Biel, can’t they find an Asian woman? I mean there are no shortage of Asian women in the world, or even in Vancouver…
I nicked the big comic style Chun Li picture from a site called Game Hotties, the animated gif was already on my laptop’s hard drive. The video game screen shots are from Moby Games and are from various console versions.
This entry was originaly posted on , it was last edited on and is filed under: Gaming and tagged: Chun Li, Martial Arts, MMA, 健美.
Screw That! Chun Li’s calves gave me my first boner for a videogame, and a fetish for the rest of life.
You might want to read my blog more carefully starting with these two posts: Never Blog About Calves and Writing for your Future Boss.
I was on Cambie Street so I played this same machine again. I didn’t beat the game, certainly not on one quarter, but I did set the high score. How’s that for local, Cambie and 18th?
MMM
I beat SF2 again, this time with Guile. I didn’t solve any of my problems…
It appears many classmates are still ignorant of the Sordid Sauder Saga and how much I was hurt by actions and words or lack of actions and words….
My silence and secrecy was definitely to the advantage of Marlene Lau and Anne DeWolfe, it is all in Google now, maybe someday someone will do something…
Why couldn’t they do something before I was broken, before my MBA was ruined, before I spent years wallowing in misery?
I’m trying not to blog. It hasn’t proven helpful. I’m not sure the internet period has proven helpful. I’ve met some people, I’ve learned some things, I’ve made some friends, but I’ve also wasted so much time and I can’t help but think if people actually talked rather than type words that come across all too cold sometimes…
Pat Marstall the Marshtroll was famous on the 40K mailing list for hating emoticons he thought if you couldn’t get a joke without one, or if you couldn’t tell he was being sarcastic or using hyperbole, he just didn’t care to talk to you. I knew another guy on that mailing list who refused to read email from @aol.com addresses as he thought anyone who used that service was an idiot.
Not everyone who uses the Internet speaks English as a first language, not everyone gets all your jokes, or appreciates your gallows sense of humor. Not everyone believes you when you speak the truth, so using a smiley now and then, isn’t a crime against the English language…
I didn’t want to write about this crap. This is my Street Fighter II posting. After I finally dragged myself out of the bed, and stopped procrastinating, I left the house, but I took a few quarters and stopped by to play a little SF2. I’m still trying to beat it with as many different characters as I can. I was working on Guile.
Some guy who said he came all the way from East Vancouver to play showed up. I invited him to challenge me, but I died about the same time, so he picked his guy, Ken I believe, and I opted from E. Honda.
He never beat me once. He played a lot of different guys, he was a crazy button masher. He was always trying the most elaborate moves, but he almost never blocked, he couldn’t defend very well. He didn’t have the patience, I didn’t even foot sweep him to death but I did do a lot of Sumu Thrusts and Sumo Knees and Sumo Crushes. I basically didn’t use the hundred hand slap, I even let him try to figure out how finicky Blanka is.
He just wasn’t prepared for the power of Sumo. :-D
I’ve gotten pretty good at SF2 again, especially with E. Honda apparently, maybe I’m the Champion of Cambie Street, it doesn’t pay very well though… I don’t even get a belt or trophy.
The fellow who owns the corner store with the Street Fighter II machine went back to India for several weeks. Yesterday might have been his first day opening up his store again. So I stopped in and played three quarters worth of SF2. I used Chun Li. I’m not sure if I’m the best with Chun Li but I’m better with her than I am with Guile and I needed a pick me up.
I lost to E. Honda three straight times.
Today I went back with more quarters. I was doing OK then I got a phone call about a job, which I of course had to take, so I let a little kid take over, he didn’t last long…
After a phone call that didn’t really advance things too much, I had to start all over with Chun Li. I did much better, it is all about practice. I’ve become a big fan of her break dance move, sometimes I’m too reliant on it…
I wish things would get better. I just am not right in the head and it affects everything I do, everyday and it has for years.
Maybe I’ve been looking for my own Chun Li all these years, metaphorically mostly. There are definitely no shortage of Asian women in Vancouver, or China, or Japan, or Korea… finding one I dated, even one I asked out is very very very hard to do. Maybe I’m a coward, I’m definitely broken, definitely afraid.
As big as Chun Li’s thighs are, the girl in the gym yesterday shamed her. I have no idea what she trained so hard for, something serious, even her cardio was intense. I should have at least said “hi”. Things are so hard for me. Maybe I have a thing for girls with green hair, Emma has green hair on our Dragon Boat Team… Green is my favourite colour.
Marlene I never told you a single lie. You and so many of our classmates can’t make that statement, certainly not publicly on the internet.
Why did you… Why can’t things be better?
Well I beat Street Fighter II again. I fooled around with some other characters but settled on Blanka. I had to really develop some strange techniques, but today I made it all the way to Sagat on one quarter. Then I lost, frigin’ Tiger punch.
I beat Sagat easier than M. Bison though. He is really tough and on my last quarter I finally beat him. Blanka has the stupidest ending perhaps.
I wish the rest of my life went as well as Street Fighter II. For a $1.25 and a bit of effort and practice you live happily ever after…
My life never seems to be easy and it never seems to get better. I can’t overcome my many problems, despite trying many, many things. I don’t understand.
Well, it took several tries and an extra dollar of quarters or so but I finally beat the game with Zangief. Another random guy my age was so stoked to see Street Fighter 2 he challenged me, he used Ken. But he couldn’t get his dragon punch working, like I said this version is weird.
I beat him twice, with my foot sweeps, flying knees, and suplexes. I still can’t do the spinning pile driver. I don’t know what I do wrong. You can do without it, M. Bison is too good of a thrower. But he has no uppercut so I actually had to leap at him a lot, he was really tough to beat with Zangief, now I guess I’ll try Guile or if I’m truely insane, Balrog. I don’t even know how to play the bosses, I’m old school, I just use the original eight.
Today was a better day than Tuesday or Wednesday. I was really wondering why bad things keep happening to me beyond my control.I still don’t understand why Mar?
Today after avoiding some of my MBA classmates and picking up my mountain bike at the shop I thought I’d play a little Street Fighter II. Back when I used to play Street Fighter 2, I was happier. I have to do things that make me happy.
So as per my plan I selected E. Honda and proceeded to rattle off 6-7 victories. I was begining to think I might have a shot of beating it with one quarter. I can’t remember who I lost too, but using only 75 cents I beat the game. I think I spent a dollar twenty-five to beat it with Chun Li.
I don’t understand why I’m better at Street Fighter 2 now. In high school, or Calgary, or Japan, or even China I didn’t seem to do as well. This machine definitely has some tweaked chips, but they make fireballs and dragon punches even more annoying. Ken is really annoying to play against on this machine.
Maybe I’m more patient, maybe it has taken me ten years to finally perfect my no dragon punch, no fireball, kick ’em in the shins technique? The only two characters who might be harder to beat the game with than E. Honda of the original eight are Dhalsim and Zangief. Dhalsim is unlike any other character, he might have the most special moves, not my style…
Zangief is fun for challenges but he is probably worse than Honda at playing the AI. Maybe I’ll finally have to learn the 360 Pile Driver. That was the single most damaging move in the original game. Either that or go back to Blanka, they altered how the electrical attack is done on this version and it messes me up…
Balrog is the suckiest of the bosses, I never use the bosses, I think Sagat has the most potential, but I’m not a fireball/dragon punch kinda guy, too many people use Vega and M. Bison they can be annoying to play in challenge fights, but I developed a few anti-Vega and anti-Bison tricks. I like to fight Vega with Chun Li, though I had no trouble with him using Honda. Against M. Bison challenge fighters I like to use Blanka.
I guess I’ll have to go back to my roots and use Blanka, but I kept losing, his lack of a throw is a real weakness.
I thought about retiring forever after my glorious victory with Chun Li, but I think I’ve put another dollar or two into the machine since then. I’ve taken to playing with E. Honda. He is the opposite of Chun Li being the widest character, the least best jumper, but the character who does the most damage per hit. On my last dollar I made it all the way to M. Bison. I don’t think I’ve ever fought any of the bosses with E. Honda.
He is pretty good for fighting challenges, but he has no real uppercut. My favourite thing about him is he can kick people in the shins while walking forward. He can even knock them over with both the middle and strongest button. The chips in this game are weird making fireballs and dragon punches even better. About all Honda gains is a faster flying headbutt attack and the ability to move forward doing the hundred hand slap.
This is a really cheesy technique so I try not to do it. Little kids always glom on to it, but it can be stopped by certain low kicks and it doesn’t help you against fireballs or dragon punches.
E Honda has a good throw, but his various crushing attacks are mostly useless against the computer.
I learned a complete redrawing of Street Fighter II is in the works for PS3, not a new game or any of the mickey mouse editions, the actual game with the original 8 characters maybe the four bosses and the hidden character too. I always played in the arcade, but this is probably the best reason I’ve read yet to buy a PS3.
There is a version of Street Fighter II for XBox Live. There is even an official forum. Not bad for a game nearing 20 years old.