The 16-bit wars we’re a helluva thing, but anyone who has read Console Wars or watched it’s TV adaptation know this. If you lived through it, I’m pretty sure some moments still haunt you like PTSD flashbacks.
I was a Sega fanboy… we’ll I suppose I still am to an extent (to whatever extent one can be a console fanboy of a company doesn’t make consoles any more) but my stance has definitely softened to the point that I enjoy and respect all platforms.
But no, young Dan Driver was not quite so level-headed. One publication that frequently infuriated me was GamesMaster, the UK publication licensed from the TV show of the same name.
In 1992 I was dumbfounded when the magazine gave Sonic the Hedgehog 2 65%.
65% for the greatest game of all time?! Madness.
But I was willing to rule that as a first issue rookie error, until their next fumble. See I was a 10 year old obsessed with Sonic and Street Fighter 2, and in November 1993 the latter had finally come to the Mega Drive in the form of Special Champion Edition. I got it and a six-button controller for my birthday and knew from playing my friends Nintendo version at the time that it was better than the that consoles' version of Turbo. I opened that month’s issue of Gamesmaster and saw the rating for the Mega Drive game: 95%.
Great on the surface. But it was still ruled to be not as good as the Nintendo version, reviewed the issue before, where it was received 96%.
That 1% confirmed that anti-Sega sentiment in GamesMaster for me, and I never bought an issue ever again.
As I said, I was young, and a bit silly.
However, it has long been held that the SNES version of Turbo was superior to Special Champion Edition, and that the SNES port of Super Street Fighter 2 was a million miles better than the Mega Drive version.
I’ve always been adamant that the reverse is true. I may have softened my Sega zealousness in the last 20 years, the Super Nintendo is one of my all time favourite games consoles (depending on how I’m feeling, ranking above even the Dreamcast), but this point I will not cede.
The undeserved shellacking the Mega Drive port has received over the years has gotten worse with retro-revisionism and modern day attention seeking extreme views. One Nintendo news site, whose name I will not sully these pages with, inferred the Mega Drive never had a good Street Fighter game prior to Pyron’s sensational Remastered Edition.
But recently there was light shining in the darkness. One of my favourite youtube channels, Console Wars, pit the 16-bit Super Street Fighter 2 games against one another, and declared the Mega Drive the victor. I’m not going to repeat their assessment, rather just point you that video’s way, and recommend that you give these guys a sub, their content is really fantastic.
Anyway, I thought it’s time to address Special Championship Edition vs Turbo once again. To prove why GamesMaster were wrong, why everyone who said the SNES version was the definitive one were incorrect, and to finally fight the Mega Drive ports corner.
Much like Console Wars I’ll pit these two against each other across four categories, declaring the ultimate victor.
And yes, I know the Console Wars guys ruled in favour of the SNES when they compared these specific games first time around, but that’s okay, you can’t always be perfect.
Visuals
I'm not going to go into depth here when the winner is so clear cut.
I'm not sure anyone could disagree that the SNES has the edge here. The colours are more vibrant, there’s less dithering and everything looks closer to the arcade.
The Mega Drive has some visual aspects the SNES does not, and it looks very close, but overall it falls just short.
Visuals Winner: SNES
Presentation
It’s close, very close, almost identical in fact, and closer content wise than the Super update compares between the two.
But the Mega Drive version is the one that is more content complete, especially with the arcade intro.
Presentation Winner: Mega Drive
Sound
This is where it becomes subjective. No, it’s not as straight forward as you think.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first. The Mega Drive voices are very distorted. They’re not terrible, but they are clearly inferior to the SNES.
When it comes to sound effects though, the bass of the Mega Drive version gives it the edge for me. Hits are bassier, crunchier and have a more hard hitting feel to their sound.
That just leaves the music, and the subjectivity really comes into play.
The Mega Drive’s Yamaha sound chip is related to the CPS-1 arcade board that Street Fighter 2 was born on. That being the case there’s an inherent closeness to the arcade original that the SNES lacks. The bass and instrumentation are more authentic. The problem is that the missing channels affect the Mega Drive ports quality.
The SNES on the other hand uses sampled sound, which at the surface can sound cleaner. However, music is softer and has been rearranged, moving it further from the arcade as a result. Not only that, but the reverb really affects some of the tracks, and once you notice it, it’s tough to ignore.
Overall, it depends on personal preference. I could pick a winner (no prizes for guessing which), but then I wouldn’t be objective. So this one is a draw,
Sound Winner: Draw
Gameplay
Gameplay is king. Even if a game was markedly inferior in every other aspect, if the gameplay is better, it trumps all else.
The most common criticism of the Sega port is the use of the 3 button pad. I can kind of accept that, but really, if you’re playing Street Fighter, you need to have invested in a 6-button controller, and with that it becomes a moot point. I wont even get into why the Mega Drive pad is better than the SNES one for fighters. No, lets put the pads aside and consider the game itself.
At surface level, the games appear identical to play. But are they though? Let’s revisit this later.
For now, let’s look at what you can play. Both games feature the same characters, moves, outfits, endings, arcade and versus modes. Both let you play in Hyper Fighting and Champion Edition iterations.
But now we diverge.
The SNES has selectable speeds in Hyper mode, up to four stars by default, but 10 stars with a cheat. The Mega Drive however has 10 stars for Hyper mode by default, and a cheat to allow up to 5 stars in Champion mode, letting you play Champion rules at Hyper speeds.
1 point for the Mega Drive.
The Mega Drive also features additional modes. The Team Battle option was, as far as I’m aware, the first of its kind, allowing teams of up to six to face off. The SNES does not have this mode. And to add insult to injury, the Mega Drive version has two sub-modes to Team battle in Match Play and Elimination, making it a substantial addition.
Another point to the Mega Drive.
Speaking of additional options, the versus mode in the Mega Drive also lets you turn special moves on and off for characters. It’s a curious addition, but a welcome one that provides an interesting alternative to the standard handicap settings. The Super Nintendo is missing this too.
Another point to the Mega Drive
All a bunch of tiny accoutrements you may think, bonuses of little consequence that arguably don’t give the Mega Drive version the edge.
It is now, dear reader, that I drop the megaton: The Mega Drive game plays better than the SNES one.
How? Quite simply, the Mega Drive port of the game is far closer to the arcade classic. The SNES version of Street Fighter 2 Turbo is adapted from the original World Warrior port, which itself saw numerous nips and tucks. As such, many of the mechanics are altered or missing.
Case in point: CPS Chains.
CPS Chains were an accident, they could almost be considered a glitch, but they are what gave birth to the original combo system, and while the combo system was expanded in development, CPS Chains remained until the Super Street Fighter entries.
I don’t think it can be argued that removing mechanics such as this makes the SNES port a lesser game. Sure, CPS Chains were removed in Super, but they have returned several times, and have proven to be a popular mechanic even when utilised in entries such as Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter IV.
It’s the biggest example, but still just one of a number of changes the SNES has to the arcade version. And I can hear those in the back ready to argue that removing these might be improvements, but if that was the case they’d have been removed from later ports of Hyper Fighting. So no, the SNES game is an altered experience which is missing mechanics from the arcade which are all present in the Sega Mega Drive version.
This proves, without a doubt, technically and objectively, that the Mega Drive plays better.
Gameplay Winner: Mega Drive
Winning two categories to one is one thing, but because of the runaway win in the gameplay department due to its extra content and better, more complete gameplay, the Mega Drive is the true king of 16-bit Street Fighter 2. Decades of Nintendo bias caused by cursory glances at surface level differences, where decisions were made on a few more colours and clearer voice sounds, have truly grated.
When you dig into the gameplay and sound to find what is more reflective of the arcade experience and as such is the better game overall, its clearly the Mega Drive version.
That being said, I have so much nostalgia for all of the 16-bit ports and will frequently return to them even though better versions have existed years later. To me, there is a certain magic to the SNES and Mega Drive ports of Street Fighter II, and it isn’t just nostalgia, its something we lost a long time ago, the feeling of an arcade game being shrunk down to play on less powerful hardware yet retaining everything that made it special.
Street Fighter II was a special game and the SNES and Mega Drive consoles were two of the greatest of all time, each with excellent ports of that arcade original.
But at least now you know, why the Sega one was better.
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