Street Fighter: The Movie
  

  
REVIEW:  Throughout the history of video games, many great video game franchises have been periodically downgraded in the form of horrible Hollywood movies. In the case of Street Fighter, look no further than Street Fighter: The Movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile and Raul Julia as Bison, a movie that bombed at the box office in late 1994.


This movie... though timelessly funny and somehow still manages to be watchable... was bad. It's so bad, in fact, that you'd be overpaying if you bought it for $3.99 from the crappy DVD bin at Wal-Mart. I could think of better ways to spend that money. Seriously though, if you're going to actually buy this atrocity, you might as well just go all out and pick up the Blu-ray version!

 

 

Occasionally, bad movies (and bad movies based on video games) are then sloppily transformed into even worse games. See where this is going yet? Street Fighter: The Movie (The Game) is possibly the all time best example of this trend that should be stopped, but probably never will. This game... *twitch twitch* ... this game was bad. It's so bad, you wouldn't even want to "insert 2 coins" to play it at an arcade in the 90's, because you'd be overpaying. Ouch!


(For your information, in the very early years of this very website, I neglected adding Street Fighter: The Movie The Game to TFG's library, because... indeed it is just that bad.) But, of course, to fully cover the history of the Street Fighter franchise, this monstrosity of a game deserves its spot and should be recognized in all its glory. I can't believe I actually decided to write a full review for this sorry excuse for a game, as I truly have better things to do and better fighting games to play, but the the fans demanded it. So I'll try to make this review as quick and as painless as possible to keep anyone from vomiting (don't look at the screenshots for too long) and/or suddenly combusting (just like the hideous life bars in this game). You're welcome.


Street Fighter: The Movie was developed by American company Incredible Technologies, who were responsible for creating two obscure yet infamous arcade fighting games: Time Killers and Bloodstorm. Capcom Japan saw that Mortal Kombat and "digitized" actors in games were positioned to be the next big thing in arcades, but they didn't know quite how to do it... so they hired Incredible Technologies... to save the day. Clearly "borrowing" the formula that Mortal Kombat became known for and had massive success with, Incredible Technologies used digitized actors in Street Fighter: The Movie, which consisted of (mostly) the same cast that appeared in the movie. Capcom even flew the Incredible Technologies team out to Australia, where the movie was being filmed, to capture the actors and collect material to make the game. They would then fly all the way back to Chicago and design this game from the ground up.

 

 

Clearly, the animation and visuals of Street Fighter: The Movie are nothing short of laughable and awkward at their very best moments. The digitized actors format worked in Mortal Kombat because the actors actually had some martial arts experience... but most of the actors in Street Fighter: The Movie seemingly never learned how to throw a real punch on or off the set, besides Van Damme, of course. 


Most characters in the game have some completely new moves (which only appear in this game), along with their classic ones (which look absolutely horrible, of course). The gameplay is equally as bad as the graphics, featuring a horribly stiff and sloppy control scheme. Gameplay systems include "counter" throws, which are based on Saturday Night Slam Masters, "interrupt moves", which are performed after blocking an opponent's attack, and "comeback moves", which are special moves that can only be used when the player's life gauge is on the "danger" level. It might sound halfway decent on paper, but it's really a sloppy mess of a game. In a nutshell... the gameplay of Street Fighter: The Movie is pure and honest bullshit. Ridiculous over-powered combos, sloppy movement, wonky jumping, and ugly special moves are some of the "features" of this mistake of a game.

  

 

Interestingly enough... for the home port, Capcom developed the PlayStation & Sega Saturn home ports internally. Capcom obviously realized how "unplayable" the arcade version turned out, because they actually decided to reprogram the entire game engine for consoles! Capcom copy-pasted the digitized character sprites over to the Super Street Fighter II Turbo engine, but completely reworked the visuals and audio, making everything "brighter" and easier on the eyes. Dee Jay and Blanka were also added to the roster, as footage by the actors was recorded earlier, but the team behind the arcade version of the game didn't have time to add Blanka and Dee Jay before release.
 

 
Capcom changed the game's appearance for the home ports in quite a few ways, such as "drawing over" certain frames of animation on sprites to more closely resemble the original character sprites of SF2. Character voices were also completely rerecorded, now sounding much closer to their original versions (and now accurately pronouncing their special moves). Super moves and EX Specials (later to be introduced to a better extent in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact) were added to the gameplay, as well. The console versions also received brand new backgrounds and a generally "brighter" and more colorful appearance. Unfortunately, Blade and the palette swap Bison troopers were also removed from the home version.


With a gameplay and combo system that feels more like Street Fighter (and less like a jumbled up bootleg version of Mortal Kombat), the console versions of Street Fighter: The Movie were... dare I say... an "improvement" over the original arcade installment. Even so... the game was still a massive flop on consoles. It's on record that some of the devs at Incredible Technologies were actually big Street Fighter fans and at least "tried" to make a good game... but due to technology limitations, bad timing, and terrible gameplay design, the one and only "live action" Street Fighter arcade game will single-handedly be the biggest misstep of the franchise. On the bright side, it's also one of the comical and cringe-worthy fighting games ever made. That has to count for something, right?
 

Page Updated: April 4th, 2023 Developer(s): Incredible Technologies Capcom   Console Publisher(s): Capcom, Acclaim  Saturn  /  PS1  Designer(s): Elaine Ditton                        Executive Producer Leif Pran Marwede           Project Manager Jane Siegrist                         Head Programmer Ralph Melgosa                    Art Direction Kyle Johnson                        Sound Platform(s): Arcade, Sega Saturn, PlayStation Release Date(s): June 1995                           Arcade Aug. 3rd, 1995                    Saturn Aug. 10th, 1995                 Saturn / PS1 Characters:  Ryu, Ken Masters, Guile, Chun-Li, Cammy White, Zangief, Edmond Honda, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison, Akuma, Dee Jay, Blanka, Blade, Arkane, F7, Khyber, Captain Sawada Featured Video: Related Games: Street Fighter, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter III: New Generation, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat 3 Ultimate, Killer Instinct, Killer Instinct 2, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, Primal Rage, Final Fight: Revenge, Saturday Night Slam Masters    Gameplay Engine  1.0 / 10 Story / Theme  2.0 / 10 Overall Graphics  4.0 / 10 Animation  5.5 / 10 Music / Sound Effects  3.0 / 10 Innovation  1.0 / 10 Art Direction  0.5 / 10 Customization  2.0 / 10 Options / Extras  1.5 / 10 Intro / Presentation  1.0 / 10 Replayability / Fun  1.5 / 10 "Ouch" Factor  2.5 / 10 Characters  2.5 / 10 BOTTOM LINE  1.5 / 10  Review based on Arcade version       Final Words: In case you haven't figured it out yet, Street Fighter: The Movie is one of the worst games Capcom ever put their name on. It's a cringe-worthy masterpiece... just like the movie. The only reason to ever play this game is for historic / comic value, but be warned... playing this game is mostly painful. And if you do, be sure to play the arcade version first to experience the true unadulterated horror and comedic value of this game. (For a more playable-but-still-bad version, check out that Saturn or PS1 port.) Worst Street Fighter game ever? Check. Worst fighting game ever? Not really, but close enough. In fairness, this was really the first "misstep" of the entire Street Fighter series, to date. Moral of the story... stick to your guns and do your thing, and not copy other people's homework! For Street Fighter fans, it's best not to ever mention this game and just pretend it doesn't exist. However, the history of how this game came to be is pretty darn interesting (watch the fantastic YouTube video documentary by Matt Muscles above, and also check out some of the behind-the-scenes photos below). In retrospect, one can't fault Capcom for "trying something new" and attempting to keep up with the times. Seeing Street Fighter "try to do Mortal Kombat" was entertaining in and of itself. And y'know what, they didn't do a terrible jon with their execution of the silly live-actor animations and digitized characters. They're almost more impressive than some of Mortal Kombat's characters, to be honest. lol. The 2D sprites in this game are charming as they are stupid. I'm glad this game exists. It's a crap game, but I'm glad this game exists. Why the bad rating? C'mon... in '95/'96, so many other (underrated) fighting games were making a huge boom in arcades and on home consoles. Both artistically and technically, fighting games were changing at that time and taking huge strides in evolution. SF: The Movie clearly felt like "the past," even at launch. Everybody knew it. For context, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter released less than a year after thi game. Yeah, imagine those 2 games side by side at an arcade. (I don't have to imagine it because I was there.) Due to the fact that the Street Fighter: The Movie (the movie) was a total flop at the box office, there weren't many diehard fans in '95/'96 actually wasting their time with this terrible-looking and atrocious game. The arcade version put a bad taste in everyone's mouths, and even though the Saturn version saw improvements, it wasn't enough to save this disaster. Even in the game's best light, it couldn't compete with the TOP fighting games in 1995, including but not limited to: Killer Instinct 2, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Samurai Shodown 3, TEKKEN 2, and Soul Edge, as well as Capcom Japan's own Street Fighter Alpha, Marvel Super Heroes, and Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (to name a few). The modern fighting games of the era outshined Street Fighter: The Movie (the game) in every way possible. Nonetheless, this game was undoubtedly memorable simply because it even happened at all.  ~TFG WEBMASTER | @FIGHTERS_GEN                     Click Here for all Behind The Scenes Photos! Click Here for all posters / box art! Click Here for all screenshots! FOLLOW    ON:                             TFG NEWS CHARACTERS GAMES