If you're like me, then you have heard about the live action movie of Street Fighter, the one with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia. Now if you are a fan of it, I will not judge you, but a while back, this was brought to my attention that there was a game made from the movie, something I found as a paradox, as the movie was based off the game Street Fighter II, as opposed to the first one that went by the name Fighting Street. The film revolved around Colonel Guile and his efforts to stop M. Bison, drug kingpin and military dictator, and his Shadaloo group. It also saw an alternate take on other characters, such as Ryu having the surname Hoshi, and, along with Ken Masters, were portrayed in the film as con artists. Another alternate take was the character Carlos Blanka, aka Charlie, which combined and scrapped the source backstories for the character Blanka and Charlie Nash from the games. It also saw an original character in the form of Captain Sawada, right hand ally of Guile and leader of the Allied Nation commando unit. While a stellar performance prior to the demise of the actor Raul Julia, who played Bison (as neatly received as Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight), the film did terrible. So why was a game made of this?
Unlike most adaptations, Capcom had some serious weight on this one, even pushing for Sawada to be in the spotlight, which was the name of the character and the man who played him. And while the existence of the original game saw the birth of the live action film as well as Street Fighter II: The Motion Picture, it would be that the 1994 film saw a game release... well, TWO of them, and like the film it came from, it would be poorly received, if not worse... but what is it about the game that did so bad like the film it came from? Let's go ahead and dive into that.
At the time, replicating the arcade game in general was a tall order, but Capcom went with similar, yet different games. I suppose if using other games as an example, this is almost like how it was with Tekken Dark Resurrection from the PlayStation Portable, and the arcade counterpart, even though the case with Tekken DR is a bit more complicated than that. That being said, as a Capcom product, it mirrors in appearance with another iconic series who also saw a few films: Mortal Kombat. And like Mortal Kombat, the game, at least the one that saw console, was powered by Acclaim. At the time, Midway (who had the rights to Mortal Kombat) used the arcade port, tweaked it, and put it for console release. Capcom, however, did no such thing, instead opting for a product that was the same, yet fundamentally different. This resulted in a console port brandishing the same name, released for home play on the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn consoles. Because it's a movie based fighter, players take the roles of digitized sprites of the characters from the films. Its mo-cap based imagery from the film's actors is a lot like how Mortal Kombat performed. The voice acting and gameplay feel differed between the two, however. Both played reminiscent of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but while the arcade was fast, the console port featured different stages and BGM, and was closer to the source game as possible. One of the things to note was that not every actor reprised their roles, as Bison and Blanka had to see performance done by their stunt doubles, especially in the case of Bison, as Raul Julia, who was deceased as of October 1994, the year the film came out.
Blanka was one of the characters who wasn't part of the original arcade, even though he existed as a character in film, and joins Dee Jay as the console-exclusive members. Then we have Akuma, who was in both versions of the game, yet wasn't involved with, nevermind seen in, the film at all. This made for a good selection of characters, all taking after their movie counterparts, even though the console version gave them their in-game effects from SSFII Turbo. Naturally, licenses had to be taken, as the characters couldn't be replicated to their exact game counterparts, made apparent by the absence of Guile's flat top hair, Ken's blonde neck-length hairstyle, and Chun-Li's outfit, taking away from her traditional blue dress.The arcade game put more emphasis on juggling instead, while the console opted for the raw head-to-head gameplay like the original product.While characters gained the abilities from their original game counterparts, a few features that weren't seen outside this game were the ability for the close-range characters to actually reflect projectiles, as well as the mechanic to not only break from, but perform a counter throw, though this I've only seen from the original arcade game. The specials and supers seen between each differ, again with the console coming close to SSFII Turbo compared to the arcade cabinet. In addition, one could perform super specials in the game, which usually consist of holding multiple buttons to execute a stronger version of a special move. Interrupt Moves were also a thing, which hence the name would cancel out an opponents move, giving yours priority. Respectively, they'd be rehashed as EX Moves and Alpha Counter as of the Street Fighter Alpha games. Comeback moves were also in this game, even though there wasn't a meter indicating that, and can only work when in peril, similar to Rage Arts from Tekken 7. But this too would be later recycled for the Street Fighter IV games as Ultra Combos, complete with a separate meter, though it retains the trait of recurring damage in order to build it up. It also had a Regenerative action with takes your entire super meter to restore life, though this did not become a universal feature outside of this, to my knowledge being exclusive only to Elena (Healing) and Gill (Resurrection) in the Street Fighter III series.
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| Sega Saturn Box Art |
With 14-characters to choose from (15 if you know how to access Akuma), the game hosted 4 battle modes: the story-like Movie Battle, the arcade-like Street Battle, Versus, and Trial battle, which saw the demonic fist Akuma as your final opponent. Arcade Mode, a hidden Tag Mode was also in the game. As far as Street Battle, this is where the console port takes after Street Fighter II, with the men of Shadaloo being the final 4. However, unlike the canon 4 we know, which consisted of Balrog, Vega, and Sagat (who technically left Shadaloo canonically as of the Alpha series), this game opted for Zangief, Dee Jay, Sagat, then Bison.
People would look at it, and right away, some would think about the first 2 Mortal Kombat games. In fact, some of the poses look clearly adapted from that series. Another way they would see that deals with the background in some of the stages. While Midway had no hand in that, Acclaim, who WAS involved with Mortal Kombat, handled the console port as the US publisher. The arcade title was done, instead, by Incredible Technologies, who hasn't had much of a fighting game cabinet resume, outside of this, Time Killers, and BloodStorm, the quasi-sequel that was thought to usurp Mortal Kombat's success.
When I first reviewed it, I gave it a 5.5 out of 10. Looking back on it now, not only did I realize I was being rather lenient, but to the console port, somewhat unfair. While the arcade port had it's many share of issues, the console port wasn't as bad in comparison, as it did seem like a Street Fighter game. My major gripe with it was how the characters were arranged, from Ryu and Ken being con artists instead of respectively, a stoic warrior, and a rich kid friend and rival, the re-imagining of who was ally and foe, and even the absence of the the rivalry between Ryu and Sagat, among others. And to this day, I still have no idea why Akuma was even in the game whereas he wasn't in the film at all, but I guess in the case with Dhalsim, having a lab doctor be a fire breathing yoga practitioner was too much of a contrast. In all fairness, where the Incredible Technologies title dropped the ball, Acclaim made the name somewhat better, even though the reception was still bad, making it one of the worst movie based games. It was said to be reasonably successful as an arcade port, but I just don't see it. Overall, I give the arcade port of Street Fighter: The Movie a 3 of 10, while the console ports get a slightly more critical 4.5 of 10 rating from before.
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