For Capcom, there is no series with a pedigree quite like Street Fighter. From its numerous memorable characters, to being the original fighting game phenomenon, Street Fighter has been an enduring global sensation for decades! Which means it got localized during the heyday of Capcom's orgy of bad communication and lost-in-translation madness. We made a whole other video about that, but nothing Capcom's done quite steps to the fustercluck that is the Street Fighter series' localization. It's so deep, we're gonna say that right off the top, this video is just gonna be focusing on the games themselves, not even the lore! Sorry, there's just not enough time in the day! But first, this video was brought to you in part by the Dollar Shave Club! If you're lookin' to keep yourself so fresh 'n so squeaky clean-clean, join the club with one of their Starter Sets for just $5, at dollarshaveclub.com/SSFF. After that, the restock box ships regular-sized products at regular price! We've been a proud partner of Dollar Shave Club for a while, which means they've taken over our shower and our counter. They're more about just shaving, lately I've been really enjoying their Oral Care Starter Kit, because the toothbrush is weighted, and just feels good in your hand and on your teeth! And I like keepin' it fresh! Get this exclusive deal at dollarshaveclub.com/SSFF today! And on with the show! Of course, we gotta start at the beginning: Street Fighter 1. Released in arcades in 1987, it was a pretty big hit for its time, but... ... I dunno, I've always found it hard to go back to this one. My first exposure to it was the TurboGrafx port, called Fighting Street. Now, the Japanese PC Engine port was also called Fighting Street, so you really can't claim this is a weird localization decision, just a weird decision. And look at that cover! That's Mount Rushmore! That's not a street, that's a monument! Fighting Street, see me after class. Again, Street Fighter was pretty successful, and a decent step forward in the fighting game genre, though... it was no Street Fighter II, we'll get back to that later. A successful arcade game meant one thing in 1987, and that is a GLUT of questionable PC ports. There's a LOT of meat here, but we're gonna focus on the weirdest, and that is the ports for the Commodore 64... ... that's right. Ports. There are actually two Street Fighter 1 ports for the C64, and according to a C64 wiki, they were both sold together in the same package, which almost sounds too crazy to be true! BEN: Oh, it's crazy alright! But it's also, incredibly, not uncommon! DEREK: What?! Is this Ben Paddon from PortsCenter, here to school me on PAL region ports?! BEN: I'm sorry to say it is. Hello. DEREK: Hey! So I guess, uh, gimme the scoop! What's the dish? BEN: This is the sort of thing that just happened in the 80's, and even the early 90's. The license to develop home computer ports of games would be given to different companies in the US and Europe, resulting in systems like the Commodore 64 getting two separate ports of the same game, often of wildly varying quality. DEREK: Wow, 's just a wasteland of beautiful garbage! BEN: The reasons for this have never quite been clear. It might just be down to, y'know, business logistics or the different television standards, but sometimes, as was the case with Street Fighter, even the publishers knew the port was a dud, and they'd slip the alternative American version on the B side of the tape, to give the illusion of variety, or something. DEREK: Uh, yeah, well, I- I guess there WAS variety, but in the case of Street Fighter 1, neither port is particularly good. The US version was made by Pacific Dataworks, but we wanna draw your attention to the infamous makers of the EU version, Tiertrex. Not only did they make a port of... questionable quality, they followed it up with a sequel! That's right, we have our first unofficial sequel to Street Fighter 1! 1989's Human Killing Machine. Hooo man, where to start. BEN: Sorry, quick question.
DEREK: Yeah. BEN: Is- is he a killing machine who is also a human, or is he a- a killing machine who specifically targets humans? DEREK: Your guess is as good as mine... let's just start with the facts here, uh... This western exclusive is running off the same engine as their port of Street Fighter, and stars Kwon from Korea, a.k.a. not Ryu from Japan, who goes around the world fighting a colorful cast of characters, including prostitutes, a waiter that throws wine bottles at you, and a dog! BEN: Ah, that answers my question. Everyone knows waiters aren't people. DEREK: But don't worry, despite the name, Kwon doesn't actually kill any people or four-legged friends. And he does not appear to be a robot or any type of machine, but with sprite animations like this, who can really be sure. [♬ Terminator 2 theme ♬] Tiertex would go on to make their own sequel to another Capcom game, Strider, which eventually made its way to the Sega Genesis as Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns, a game so good, Capcom would eventually make their own Strider sequel, effectively erasing this stinker from the Strider-verse. BEN: They'd also go on to handle the Game Boy Color port of Toy Story Racer, which is actually... DEREK: Thank you, Ben!
BEN: Oh, we're- we're not doing that? DEREK: Sorry, yes, that game is amazing, but look at much time is left in this video, we- we HAVE to stay on Street Fighter. BEN: Um... alright, guess I'll... do my own video about it then. But you guys hang tight, have fun... ... err, and I will catch you on the flippy-floppy. DEREK: I think you mean American B-side? But thanks Ben, good luck! And I mean that sincerely man, good luck, because that Tiertex pit... that pit's deep! But anyway, that's all besides the point, because it's time to talk about Street Fighter's second unofficial sequel, 1990's Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight. This is not to be confused by another game that was an unofficial sequel in name only... ... ugh, Final Fight, don't worry, you're gonna get your own video. Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight, which, yes, came out after Final Fight hit arcades... ... is confusing. It's obviously a game shoehorned into the Street Fighter franchise, because it's completely different. It's a middling action-platformer starring Ken, who is now a cyborg scientist trying to avenge his dead lab partner. And okay, no hate on Ken, but out of everybody from the first game's roster, Ken is the last character I'd expect would abandon his love of fighting for a new passion: Science! But maybe I just need to be more open-minded. In keeping with what's become tradition for Capcom's How the West was Worse fodder, there's evidence that Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight can be blamed on Capcom USA and even that Capcom Japan not only had little to do with the development, but was fully aware of what a bad idea this whole thing was! First, there's some technical code stuff relating to Capcom Japan deleting the subtitle "The Final Fight" from the Japanese version's title screen, though still keeping it in the ROM. They also completely reworked the story, making Ken a Kevin, a cyborg galaxy policeman trying to bring the evil parasite forces to justice! But... who really created this ultimate cyber cop? The fact that the Japanese instruction manual uses screenshots from the American/international version also points to the Japanese version actually being the secondary localized version. And then they flipped around the title and called it 2010: Street Fighter, which... ... okay, that's fine, listen, I honestly think Capcom Japan did the best they could to protect the Street Fighter IP from this weird game. And based on the translated story on The Cutting Room Floor, I think they did a pretty decent job! In 2016, Capcom would upload official artwork to celebrate 2010's anniversary that pretty clearly emphasizes its place as an alternate universe. Kids in the US, like me at the time, were pretty confused, but we quickly had bigger and better distractions. Ah, Street Fighter II! A game that needs no introduction. I mean, this is when Street Fighter finally became Street Fighter! It changed arcades and the world forever after coming out in 1991, but would introduce a slew of massive localization problems! Let's start with the bosses. It's very well known that three of the four main bosses had their names changed in the international version, but it really just comes down to one boss: Boxer, or Balrog, or really, M. Bison. First, some quick context: You've heard of Mike Tyson, right? International 1980's boxing superstar, whose reputation took a nosedive in the 90's? Well, in 1987, Nintendo released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for the NES, a few months after the original Street Fighter came out in arcades. This timing is significant because Street Fighter 1 featured an American boxer named Mike. Capcom's always been a bit risk-averse when it comes to potential lawsuits, and when the characters were carried over to Street Fighter II, Capcom USA put the kibosh on it. Or, at least, that's our theory? Canonically, Mike and M.Bison/Balrog are completely separate characters. However, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition indirectly acknowledges this in a special ending for Balrog, where Balrog wakes up in bed - in his boxing gloves! - from a nightmare where a bunch of journalist babes mistake Mike for him. It's fun. But what isn't fun, depending on your definition of fun, I guess, is that this one name change took down two other characters. And here, I'm just gonna throw up a chart because it's just too dumb to say out loud, so here you go. It never made sense to me to switch three characters, when Vega and M. Bison are a fine switch on their own. I mean, his stage in Street Fighter II is in Las Vegas! "Vega" is right there in the name! Vega, the boxer in Vegas. I mean... make- makes sense to me. Maybe I'm crazy, at any rate, this change persists to this very day, where the three characters are sometimes referred to as Boxer, Claw and Dictator on international streams to avoid confusion. The name swappening was even referenced in Street Fighter IV, in the small airfield stage, where depending on which of the three fighters are fighting, their name-swapped brother would appear in the background. Unfortunately, this unwarranted name changing trend would continue for the series, but would reach new heights of head-scratching: Big boss Gouki had his name changed for the West but they chose another Japanese name: Akuma! Which, I mean, like, why even change the name at all, you could've just changed the spelling of Gouki. Put an H in there, I- I dunno! Akuma's a cool name too, but you don't have to change 'em! Stop it! And then later down the line there was Nash and Charlie, and... I don't even know what they were doin'. Other weird, er... choices... made for the western release of Street Fighter II had to do specifically for America, 'cuz of course it did. There's concept art for Guile which says he's an average-stat character created just for Americans to use, which is strange, since Ken was already an American golden boy Ryu. Ken, or really Ken Masters, is an interesting case because he's one of the only original 12 Street Fighter characters with a last name, even though a lot of characters were given last names for, like, the movie. Not even Ryu, who is basically Street Fighter's Beyoncé and therefore doesn't need a last name, escaped this. But that's the future, and in terms of last names in the early 90's, there was only our boy M. Bison, and of course, Mr. Edmond Honda. So why did Ken become Ken Masters, or even WHEN did Ken become Ken Masters? It's common to see Mr. Edmond in console instruction books, but not so much for Mr. Masters, so what's the deal? Well, after the unprecedented success of Street Fighter II, - seriously, the Super Nintendo version is independently one of Capcom's best-selling titles of all time - Capcom made a licensing deal with Hasbro for some sweet Street Fighter II merchandise. JOE: "No way!" HONDA: "Way!" ANNOUNCER: "There's Guile, Ryu, Zangief, Blanka and Dhalsim!" JOE: "What's a Dhalsim?" "Oh!" DEREK: This is when they, maybe after noticing that Mattel also had a cutie-patootie airhead named Ken in their doll lineup, decided to add the surname "Masters". But Ken Masters, or M. Bison, or even Zangief's originally planned name "Vodka Gobalsky" isn't even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to clumsily applied names in Street Fighter II, but... ugh, that will come later. Because remember, all this mess we just talked about, we were mostly just talking about the arcade version, the Super Nintendo port introduced some fun as well: This port came with fewer win quotes and other info in the international version, because Japanese is a physically shorter language than English that literally takes up less memory on a Super Nintendo cartridge. As a consequence of this, the number of character win quotes were cut way down, meaning that if Guile beat Chun Li, he'd tell her to "go home and be a family man", which... okay, that's just rude! Win quotes would create another... very specific, gigantic mess that we'll cover in a bit, so keep that in your back pocket as we skip forward in the timeline to easy breezy 1994, when Street Fighter was ridin' high and could do no wrong... ... except for when they did: Street Fighter: The Movie. BISON: "You'll have to do better than that."
GUILE: "Okay." I dunno if I wanna say it's famously terrible, but you definitely know what I'm talkin' about. And if you don't, there are a couple o' good videos that break that whole movie down, but we instead are gonna focus on the games - that's right, games - that it spawned. The first one, of course, being Street Fighter: The Movie for the arcades, which you may be surprised to know is not the same as the console version! Amazingly, it was originally going to be Street Fighter III, but... eeeh, that didn't work out. This arcade game was developed by Chicago-based Incredible Technologies, a relatively obscure company who, though they had made their own arcade fighting game, Time Killers, didn't seem to have many more qualifications beyond living in the same town as these folks. Oh yes. Mortal Kombat. You see, things actually weren't all that hunky dory in Streetf'trland, because the series was spinning out with re-iterations of itself, while Mortal Kombat was muscling in on their territory. Capcom needed something fresh, something for the future, and I guess that's why they almost went all-in on a pretty shallow attempt to cash in on Midway's success. But it was not a success for Capcom, in fact, Street Fighter: The Movie for arcades is one of the few Street Fighter games to never see release in Japan. Once again, western-exclusive games are among the worst. However, the West wasn't the exclusive home for the console versions, released a few months later for PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Even though this is a massively retooled and, by most accounts, improved version of the game, developed in-house at Capcom USA, it is still considered a low point for the series. I also regret to inform you that while it is often referred to as "Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game" it is actually just a game called "Street Fighter: The Movie". Again, I think Japan got the better deal here: "Street Fighter: Real Battle on Film"! [snickers] Oh god, it's so dumb. I love it! Of course, they needed a different name to avoid confusion with the Japanese-only Street Fighter II Movie, which is... a really weird game that just makes my head hurt... ... Shen we just move Long? Wait... Oh, I must have written that down incorrectly. Tch. B- wh- boy, that wa- that was a silly mistake! ... alright, okay, fine, we can't keep dancing around this dragon-armed elephant in the room any longer. Folks. It's time to talk Shen Long. Phew... alright. Now it is time for the biggest localization blunder of all of Street Fighter, maybe all of Capcom! One that's lasted almost the entire series! Whew! So, back when Street Fighter II: The Arcade Game was being localized into English, it was apparently first translated from Japanese into Chinese, and then into English, or something. We're not sure why this was the exact order of things, but here we are. And you know what, this actually went off mostly without a hitch, except for this Ryu win quote: "You must defeat Shen Long to stand a chance." Now, the original Japanese win quote was "Shōryūken o yaburanu kagiri, omae ni kachime wa nai!!" which roughly translates to "You must defeat my Dragon Punch (or Shoryuken) to stand a chance!!" Shoryuken was translated to Chinese as "Shen Long Punch", which basically means "Dragon Spirit Punch", and the poor localizers at Capcom I guess thought this was just another weird character in the game. Anyway, this is how "You must defeat my Dragon Punch" became "You must defeat Shen Long", but this is only the start of the story. No-one had any idea who or what Shen Long was referring to, and the Street Fighter fandom was desperate for answers, so much so that Electronic Gaming Monthly decided to goof on it in a 1992 issue as an April Fool's joke, claiming that Shen Long was actually Ken and Ryu's master, and could be unlocked in the game. Listen to this: "You must use Ryu throughout your entire game. You must not get hit from the moment you begin until the final round with M. Bison. Once there, you must spar with M. Bison without hitting each other for 10 rounds. The tenth round is the final round, and after the last draw game, Shen Long appears and tosses M. Bison away!" [laughs] Now that's- that's just impossible to do! Surely no-one would believe that?! Oh, what's that? It got reprinted as true? Around the world?! Yeah, this article went viral in a 1992 sense of the word, Shen Long's existence was even put into side media related to Street Fighter, like in this Hong Kong-based comic. But by the time the Super NES port came out, they had fixed the translation goof, and everything was settled! Oh wait, wait, lemme look at that instruction book... A-ha, mm, yep, there it is. Yes, even though Capcom USA had managed to take Shen Long out of the actual game, Ryu and Ken's character bios both list them as students of master Shen Long. I think this really underscores just how bad the communication between Capcom Japan and Capcom USA really was in the 1990's, and it's also why I think we'll be making these videos forever. Remember: "Shen Long" is a mistranslation of the Chinese word for "Shoryuken", he does not exist!! By December 1992, things were so bad that EGM even included an award in its end-of-the-year issue for "Best Trick That Didn't Work" that admitted it was just a hoax. But that toothpaste could not be put back in the tube: In 1993, Shen Long even appeared in Malibu's incredibly weird, dark and gritty, 90's as hell take on Street Fighter II, which, by the way, is a wild ride, if you ever have the chance, check it out! Oh my god, did Ken get scalped?! Capcom would have a chance to get the narrative back later that year, when a sensei character for Ken and Ryu named Gouken was introduced in Masaomi Kanzaki's Street Fighter II manga. This is the first time the name "Gouken" had appeared in anything related to Street Fighter, and the name and general outline of the character would be adapted as official backstory in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. ... general outlines... remember folks, we just don't have the time and energy to go all-in on the lore of Street Fighter for this video, sorry. But that's not the only thing that Super Street Fighter II Turbo brings to the table in our farce of a tale: In response to the Shen Long rumor, Capcom added a secret, extremely powerful character to the game named Akuma, or Gouki in Japan. The similarities between how you unlock EGM's Shen Long and the actual Akuma are too big to ignore: Basically, you have to make it to M. Bison without continuing, in less than 25 minutes, or while achieving a high score. At the start of the round, Akuma will warp in and just demolish M. Bison. You can also unlock him as a playable character, though the way to do it is incredibly specific and difficult to do. Really, the addition of Akuma by Capcom is truly brilliant! They addressed the obvious demand for a secret character, without having to lose face by admitting their mistake! Including Akuma into the mix mostly cooled things down, Capcom didn't officially acknowledge Shen Long... ... well, actually, they almost did, but it got left on the cutting room floor. Yes, the arcade version of Street Fighter: The Movie, the game that, if you remember, was almost Street Fighter III, almost included Shen Long as a playable character! I mean, he's in there, but he's just mentioned in some of the endings. However, Incredible Technologies talked Capcom into having Shen Long as a playable character. According to game developer Alan Noon, they dressed up a random stuntman with a Fu Manchu mustache, the blindfold and a scaly dragon arm. Yes! A dragon arm! And it was approved by Capcom! Criminally, they approved it too late, so it had to be cut from the final game, which... ... man, how would that have changed the course of history? Unfortunately, the pictures and captured footage of Shen Long are locked on a CD somewhere at Incredible Technologies, so we had our friends at Studio Goblin mock one up for us! Hell yeah. All about that dragon arm. But all this was never made public, and Shen Long lay dormant... ...until the ramp-up for the ACTUAL Street Fighter III's release. In April 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly AGAIN posted a joke feature about Shen Long, and even went so far as to make the first letter of every sentence spell "April Fools". You'd think this would be a dead giveaway, but apparently the article was believed by MANY people, including people at Capcom USA! Like, I know long-distance calls were expensive back then but, like... come on, guys! In the period after Street Fighter III came out, fighting games... well, Capcom fighters, entered an era known as the Dark Times, a period where arcades were dying out, and internet wasn't quite good enough to support online play. Shen Long's dragon-powered arm laid dormant once again... ... until 2008, when Capcom started promoting Street Fighter IV on, you guessed it, April 1st. Yes, April Fool's Day 2008, Capcom itself teased the inclusion of a certain special character that you could unlock by winning every round as Ryu, with a perfect, and then unleashing a Shoryuken... ... alright, spoilers, Capcom did not actually put Shen Long in Street Fighter IV, instead they put in Gouken, who is totally not Shen Long. Sure, he has a complicated method to unlock him, but it's totally different from anything EGM made up. Really, Capcom did it! Capcom managed to navigate almost two decades of localization mistakes without ever admitting it! I think... I think that means Capcom pulled a perfect! Pulled, like, a double perfect on us! Okay, well, they DID eventually admit it, kinda. While Shen Long never found his way into the troubled Street Fighter V, he was added as a profile on the Capcom Fighters Network website that calls him a living legend that causes anyone to see him to die within 24 hours. And while Shen Long never made it into an official game, take comfort in that the modding community's got your back, and will let you have the ultimate fight against Capcom's largest localization whoopsie. Thanks to Ben Paddon from PortsCenter for helping out with this video, and you know what, that's it! ... for Street Fighter anyway, Capcom is a topic this channel has never been able to keep away from, so keep your eyes peeled for the next time when How the West was Worse covers another legendary Capcom series: Final Fight. If you'd like to see this video before it comes to YouTube, or vote on what we're gonna do after that, support Stop Skeletons From Fighting on Patreon, like all of these awesome people here! Be sure to like the video, join in on the discussion below, subscribe, tell a friend, and we're always makin' new videos, we're always workin' on new videos, we always got new videos comin', so we'll see you again real soon.
