Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.
April 26, 2010
Game: Street Fighter II
Song: Credits theme
Composer: Shimomura, Abe and Lyla
Above: Credits theme from Street Fighter II
To this day, the SNES conversion of Street Fighter II is Capcom's biggest-selling game of all time. Six million copies made their way into ravenous gamers' hands throughout 1992 and 1993, prompting millions more to crowd around a TV set, pick up a controller and learn for themselves why the planet was losing its shit over a one-on-one fighting game. Obviously we all know howit plays, but with so many people devoting so many hours to one game, it ended up with one of the most recognizable soundtracks of all time. However, there's one song that doesn't come up all that often, and it's one that you absolutely relished each time you heard it.
That'd be the credits music, of course. SFII was meant for two players, but there wasn't always another person on hand, which meant hours and hours of playing against the computer for a really silly ending. But, if you cranked the difficulty up (to level 6 or higher, I think), you'd get a whole credits sequence with this song as the star. You had to earn it, and that's what makes it so damn enjoyable. Oh, and if you played the Genesis/Mega Drive versions instead,here's your version- it's just as good.
Above is thecredits song as heard in the SNES version of Super Street Fighter II. It's a bit... weird, as was all of the audio in the home versions of SSFII. In fact, I made a whole video about Street Fighter's audio history, specifically the way the fighters' vocalizations changed over the years. What a good time to embed it again!
I realize it's a bit strange to use the credits music today when so many other tracks are more cherished and memorable. Hell I love the Guile, Ken and Ryu themes so much I could spend all day linking you to remixes and arrangements, but there's something about that credits music I can't deny. There's such a celebratory finality to it. I hope some of you recall it as well.
Oh and check theSuper Street Fighter IV review, it's out Tuesday 4/27 and you really should pick it up.
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