No matter how much time passes, the Street Fighter 2 games remain arguably the most recognizable and referenced titles in the genre, and that goes beyond just the gameplay.
Capcom recently shared some in-development concept art and the storyboard for the opening of Super Street Fighter 2: the New Challengers to celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary since first releasing in the arcades.
Although it’s technically one of the simplest intros in the franchise, you can see how much work went into putting together an animation of Ryu standing there bouncing in his idle stance before tossing his Hadoken.
While seeing the final or near final art for what would be converted into the game is cool, it’s even more interesting looking at the storyboard going step by step through what the developers wanted to show.
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They make specific note for Ryu’s footwork and the up and down motion as well as how they wanted the transition to happen with the Super appearing on screen followed by the SF2 logo.
If you’re curious who’s responsible for the design, that credit appears to go to Shoei Okano, who worked on a good chunk of the key art for SF2 as well as other titles like Bionic Commando, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Capcom vs. SNK.
And over 30 years later, the Super Street Fighter 2 opening still looks amazing and so impressive for 1993 only to add even more with Turbo after that.
30年前の1993年10月、AC『スーパーストリートファイターII -The New Challengers-』稼働開始！（SHOEI） #カプコンアートワーク #ストリートファイター pic.twitter.com/0TsyIJODoH
— CAPCOM OFFICIAL／ARTWORKS (@CAPCOM_AWT) October 17, 2023
