Mega Drive Super Street Fighter 2 hits Virtual Console

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 14 November, 2011

With online play.

The Mega Drive version of Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers will launch on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console with online play, Capcom has announced.

It launches on the Virtual Console in Japan, the US and Europe, the Japanese company revealed on Capcom Unity.

No date is set, but Capcom said the cult fighting game is "coming soon".

The addition of online play to SSF2 is rare for a Virtual Console game, but Capcom suggested more games like it may see release.

"Hope to see more instances of this in the future - gives these old 16-bit classics another chance to shine!" Capcom said.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 6 months ago

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  • richarddavies #1 6 months ago

    Why didn't they put on the snes version if it's going on the wii?

  • oupe #2 6 months ago

    @richarddavies To sell MOAR sf releases. The snes version will be released in 3 months. Capcom has planned 37 SF releases in 2012

    /sarcasm
    Edited by oupe at 14/11/11 @ 11:38

  • Whitster #3 6 months ago

    @richarddavies Or even better SF4?

  • Schmoke-n-a-pancake #4 6 months ago

    The SNES version has been on there for years. What the hell are Capcom on?!

  • Ryze #5 6 months ago

    Too fucking late.

  • bad09 #6 6 months ago

    Does it still have sound like it's being played underwater :)

  • Cadence #7 6 months ago

    Hmm, this will no doubt be hampered by friend codes though won't it? Think I'll stick to SSFIV on my 360 thanks.

  • retr0gamer #8 6 months ago

    A shitty conversion of a game I have arcade perfect versions of already? Jog on Capcom.

  • Red_Bool #9 6 months ago

    I distinctly remember the Mega Drive version being butt-ugly compared to the lovely SNES version. Plus the MD version is missing half the buttons...

    So Capcom: WHY?!?!?

  • bad09 #10 6 months ago

    @Red_Bool

    SEGA did release a 6 button controller when Champ Ed hit the MD. You should try the controls on the Amiga version now that was a "WHY?!?!?" moment. :)
    Edited by bad09 at 14/11/11 @ 11:59

  • obscured021 #11 6 months ago

    This game was the reason I got a 6 button pad for my mega drive.

  • Shakey_Jake33 #12 6 months ago

    It really wasn't a bad port in context (i.e. in early 1994), the sound suffered but Capcom did an admirable job of dealing with the limited colour pallet. And when played with the 6-button controller, it certainly played like it should.

    Lets not forget that it was a CPS2 game in the arcades, not CPS1 like the original Street Fighter 2, Champion Edition and Turbo were.
    Edited by Shakey_Jake33 at 14/11/11 @ 12:06

  • Der_tolle_Emil #13 6 months ago

    This is incredibly awkward news. First of all why the inferior MD version? Second of all, online play in a VC title? Online play in emulators is possible but really difficult to pull off if all you do is simulate button presses because the game needs to be kept in perfect sync all the time. Maybe they indeed invested time to properly inject a working network mode into the games? That makes even less sense to me.

    Unless it is all just a huge beta test for one of the additions to the WiiU's virtual console - online play for older games. Which would be fantastic news really, but technically also incredibly difficult to pull off so I doubt too many games will support this (without having to be heavily modified first).

  • jimnastics #14 6 months ago

    @bad09 I remember buying the 6 button Megadrive controller for when SF II: CE was released, good days!! I actually really enjoyed that version.

  • Red_Bool #15 6 months ago

    @bad09
    I now vaguely remember that 6-button controller yes..
    I used to bring my SNES to our Amiga gatherings to play SFII between rounds to Sensi...needless to say my mates weren't impressed with the Amiga version :)

  • jtodroc #16 6 months ago

    If you think the Amiga version was bad, you should check out the C64 version of Street Fighter 2!

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xhfTm4-kFw
    Edited by jtodroc at 14/11/11 @ 13:43

  • Eurolamer #17 6 months ago

    When Amiga Action put a Street Fighter II demo on their coverdisk I near ripped it off the shelf and ran most of the way home after hastily parting with all my pocket money to get my sweaty little hands on it. When I booted it up, the mixture of pixel Armageddon (bad even in those days), chug chug animation and the still-galling realisation that it was a non-playable, rolling demo led me to take up the only course of action left to me. I cried. My Dad told me to grow up, I was 9. It's a bad memory.

  • lavalant #18 6 months ago

    SNES Mario Kart with online play would have been better.

  • FuzzyDuck #19 6 months ago

    It was a grand port for the ageing hardware at the time (i know i played the beejaysus out of it as a wee fella), but there's no real point in it now.

    If i recall the SNES version had clearer sound (as always) but even that sounded like crap compared to the SFII' Turbo (it was far too twee).

  • SavageEvil #20 6 months ago

    This is a pointless exercise in Capcom trying to milk it's franchises, why on earth would anyone want to play the MD version of a game that is already available in better form on the same system? Capcom must be taking cues from the likes of EA and Activision when it comes to milking something just to make a few bucks. Thumbs down on this port, who cares about online play on the Wii friends codes destroy any possibility of that working out well.

  • Ryze #21 6 months ago

    There was nothing missing from the MD version - it was a fantastic conversion at 40mbits on the cart.

    Even the SNES version of 'Super' was missing elements such as speech samples. If I'm right, the MD version was only missing colours, the same animation frames as every 16bit version (walkback etc), and the sampling rate caused by the MD's single sample channel being cleverly split, allowing simultaneous samples to be played.

    Check out the PC Engine version to hear what happens when you use a single sample channel for SFII.

    The issue is that there's just no point in buying this. I still have my MD cart here, and the Wii is just pants from end to end online.

    Hopefully they have grand plans for Wii U's virtual console.

    The other thing to take into account, is that there are 80 million Wiis out there. If only Ninty bundled a rich, disc or flash-based online interface, that really encouraged users to shop around using the Wii's online service.

    If they could revamp the thing, then perhaps it would be worth bothering with. As things stand, I can hardly be bothered to click on the Wii shop icon, as it's just a pain to even find the games, nevermind once you press 'buy', then have to download and pay. AWFUL!

    They could do with merging with Apple to learn some usability tricks.

    *sigh*
    Edited by Ryze at 14/11/11 @ 18:09

  • sega #22 6 months ago

    Oh I love geeking out with SNES Vs Megadrive stuff. The sound is of a lower quality however it has all the speech of the arcade game (snes missed "round # fight), the arcade's sound effects, music that carries on into second round etc. It also had more animation (which even applies to the awesome intro) and came on a 40mb cart (SNES was 32) - ah it feels like the '90's again.

    Although they should have just released the arcade version. What the hell is the VC Arcade for?!

  • Ryze #23 6 months ago

    @sega

    Exactly. What a letdown the Wii has been online.

    Could have been marvellous. They still don't have a clue, and nothing I've seen on 3DS gives me any confidence in what they'll do with Wii U.

  • funkateer #24 6 months ago

    "Lets not forget that it was a CPS2 game in the arcades, not CPS1... "

    That's kind of irrelevant, really. CPS1 and CPS2 are essentially the same hardware, with the only difference of added encryption in CPS2.