Get behind me, Satan and help back this documentary film, Here Comes A New Challenger.

When you think of one of the biggest game-changers for the arcades and home entertainment, you could say Ikari Warriors was the benchmark. A sequel to a pretty mediocre beat ’em up that took the world by stuff: Street Fighter 2.

Here Comes A New Challenger Poster
Artwork by Micah Brooks. Source: Official documentary website

Hi, I’m Troy McClure, and you might remember me from such titles as Out-Run Stole My Girlfriend and Mortal Kombat Ate My Baby, but today I’m talking about Here Comes A New Challenger – a feature-length documentary celebrating 30 years of Street Fighter II.

30 years!

Shifting out of character (yes, it’s me), I remember putting all my money into the arcade machine until I got the game on the Amiga with its 200+ floppies. I’m also old enough to remember reading articles by Julian Rignall, who just so happens to appear in the documentary.

Covering the origins of the game’s history – including my fellow humans who had to save up £60 to get the game for the SNES rather than their mate X-COPY, Here Comes A New Challenger seems to cover all the ground, quizzing those who were there are the time, and how it became a global phenomenon.

Here are some of the other aspects covered in the Here Comes A New Challenger documentary:

  •  Toys & Merchandise – how did the success of Street Fighter II drive the endless amounts of merchandise, what toys and merch we loved as fans and ones that left us disappointed. 
  •  Strategy Guides – the importance of them and which ones provided the best source of information on how to become a better player. Plus will cover explore the extensive coverage by video game magazines during the 90s. 
  •  The Music – The incredible theme tunes provided to the game and the soundtracks that become part of our youth. 
  •  The conversions to the home consoles with ports to the Super Nintendo, PC Engine, Gameboy, Mega Drive & 3DO, and the creaky ports to the home computers for the Spectrum, Commodore 64, AMIGA, and PC-DOS. 
  •  Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie – why it worked for the fans and its faithfulness to the video game. Will explore the differences between the various cuts and change of music for western audiences plus the strange FMV game for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
  •  Street Fighter: The Movie – The hype surrounding the live-action film, the cast, its success at the box office, and its failure with critics & fans and of course cover the arcade game and ports to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn!
  •  Re-releases and 30 years on – the compilations of SF2 released over the years and why the game is still played and adored by gamers today! 

Sonic TRAILER!

Production was funded via Kickstarter and has now made the transition to Indiegogo.

For the record, I have the boxed SNES SFII early edition still with the £90 price tag from a now-defunct supermarket chain. Yeah, I was there, man.