STREET FIGHTER 2 JAPAN vs USA 👊🏻 Regional Differences
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ย. 2024
- Street Fighter is on everyone's lips with the imminent release of SF6, but at Bits & Beats we always prefer to take a look back in video game history. For this #shorts we do a side by side comparison of the regional differences (Japanese vs US version) in the intro of Street Fighter II (Mega Drive vs Sega Genesis)
Why Street Fighter 2's black fighter was changed by a white fighter in western versions? Are you among those who think there were racist connotations or was the controversy exaggerated?#streetfighter #streetfighter2 #segagenesis #megadrive #fightinggames #bitsandbeats
Games Featured
Street Fighter II' Plus : Champion Edition (Mega Drive 1993) Capcom | JP Version
Street Fighter II' : Champion Edition (Genesis 1993) Capcom | US Version
Music Featured
Street Fighter II OST - Opening Theme (Genesis Version)
Clips Featured
SF2 Intro Scene (Sega Genesis)
SF2 Intro Scene (Sega Mega Drive)
⚠️ All gameplay recording, game curation and opinions included in this video, as well as editing is completely done by me
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Why SF2's Intro was changed in western market?
Black Lives Matter ✊🏿
@@ChocoBeanChat apparently if you're not in Japan lol
They could also have swapped the characters, then it would not have MATTERED, that would not be considered offensive. This bs was there in the 90s already, I never noticed it back then as much as I do nowadays.
GEE I WONDER lmao
@@a-dutch-z7351 because in the 90's no one was catching it all on video with their cell phones was even worse in the 90's come on
i live in Mexico and I clearly remember the intro with the black guy on the version we got
Exactly. Even here in the states I remember the original intro.
This is the Sega Genesis version, the arcade was unaltered
Y nadie decía nada porq no tenía un sombrero xD
They gave us the right one.
@sageofdeath what's the right one?
I'm in the UK and I always saw the black guy getting his ass whooped. 😂
Being black, I never saw it as racist or offensive. I think sometimes these companies fear they will be labelled as racist but in reality... Nobody ever gave a shit! 😂
In America, some companies are afraid of being labeled as Racist because America has huge history of Racism (and still some racism to THIS day)
Black guyz actually PROVEN their fighting quality like 10000000 times xD
They do not give a shit about fucking game intro xD
Man back in these days they had IRON TYSON !
Most of Asia is racist as hell towards blacks and very whitewashed, no one really knew of this at the time.
Fighting is a great equalizer. There's no morality in whether you win or lose against any race, it's just whoever is better that day.
Watch UFC, nobody cares about race, we all want to know who the best is at each weight class at the time. Matt Hughes, Anderson Silva, GSP, Chuck Laddell, the Gracies, Lyoto Machida, Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar, John friggin Jones... greatness in the cage comes in many colors.
I feel like men in general, get that. In the end, this is a stupid video game about people throwing fireballs. Who cares?
You’d be surprised in this current day
What i never understood was why not use their characters instead of two unknown guys.
It's Mike and Joe from Street Fighter 1. They were never made playable. They also so up in the background in Street Fighter 5
@@Gensho12 Mike is Balrog. He is known as Mike Bison in Japan(Mike Tyson).
@Graywing Mike is a complete different character in the cannon.
@@GraywingWell that's just wrong
Its Same with the logic that the game title is street fighter but none of the character coming from street or trained in the street fighting
White homie been punching out black homie for about 20+ 30+ years lol 😂
Screw people's fifis!
@@edwardgaines6561 damn you
@@edwardgaines6561 fifis?
@@SS5SS5 Feelings. A lot of Zoomers use "feels" as a plural noun, which I found disgusting.
@@edwardgaines6561 got you!
I remember seeing Street Fighter 2 in the USA at a local arcade and it had the black guy.
I do too!!
Yes, the one in the comparison is the Sega Genesis version
100% dude was black
Same in Montréal
THEY CHANGED IT LATER BECAUSE THE BLACK COMMUNITY SAID IT WAS RACIST.
I always remembered the brother getting hit. Which is why I got into the game in the first place. Gotta represent for a downed homie. Put that quarter in with the quickness lol
You crazy for that one, guy!
Lemme get my nigga lick back 😂
NGL, that's kinda wholesome.🤣😭
I'm Brazilian and I never understood why blanka represents Brazil.
Well if you remember his ending when he was reunited with his Mom she said he was lost in a plane crash over Brazil when he was a little kid...so who knows where he is originally from?
Eu acho legal ter um personagem que nos representa desde os anos 90.
Aren't all Brazilians look like Blanka?
Pois é poderia ser o Dj né tem mais a vê com a capoeira botaram foi uma besta selvagem pra representa o Brasil o que ele quis dizer com essa porra
@@jorgereis9195 pse mano, botava um lutador de capoeira, negão mermo ia ficar maneiro
This censorships made little to no sense as in the game you beat the shit out of anyone regardless ethnicity or sex, its pretty equal to anyone as everyone deserves hadokens to the face sometimes.
Oh you crazy for that one!
HAHAHAH
Can you imagine how horrified parents would have been if the opening sequence was T. Hawk strangling Cammy or Chun li unconscious? 😅
Title Card: STREET FIGHTER II
legend intro. 2 random dudes who aint characters in the game
i heard it was joe and mike from street fighter 1
Max is the black guy, Scott is the white guy. Capcom released their official profiles on SFV database website.
@@redacted2275 ah cool
@@redacted2275I didn't know his name was Scott😅
**Balrog and Cody
These thing still make me wonder, who are those 2 fighters? capcom never make them as playable Characters even though they appear fighting at the intro
It's supposed to be Mike and Joe from Street Fighter 1
@@Gensho12 you’re wrong. It’s two different characters named Max and Scott. Capcom even has it on their Shadaloo C.R.I. profile
@@Dresfvae Yeah I know. I already mentioned in another comment
I just forgot to posted that I made a mistake here
@@Gensho12 I'm pretty sure sf1 "mike" is Balrog
In japan "balrog" was named M.Bison as in Mike Bison but they swapped the names around so they didn't catch crap from mike tyson
@@dougskotnitsky3579 Yeah I use to think that too but apparently their two different characters. Due to his appearance, moveset and Japanese name, Balrog was speculated to have been an updated version of Mike. However, Capcom has insisted that, despite these similarities, they were always intended to be two separate characters.
I'm American and growing up I always saw the original white guy fighting black guy version of the Street Fighter II intro in arcades.
I never saw it as racist, but I can understand why Capcom USA censored it as SOME people COULD have viewed it as such, so apparently they changed it for the Championship edition.
Games very often get censored or changed when being brought to ALL regions, due to cultural differences.
Yea when I first saw this back in day I was like "Was the homie even ready" But foreal it would've been nice if one of the MANY iterations of SFII would had him counter that hit.
@@ricky_FREE or at least block it. I wonder if they were trying to indicate that they had already been fighting for a long time and that was the winning blow
Lol I always said damn, why the black guy got to get knocked out 😂
@@ricky_FREE at very least once right !?!or quick message to hold block to trigger a quick demo fight..before starting an official fight
It was probably a Nintendo of America thing
I've always thought they should make this a stage, like have these 2 guys fighting in the background or something.
Nice!!!
I love the idea of Capcom being like
"....What?...What's the problem?"
There isn’t really much of a problem, it’s just people interpreting it as racist
Its that americans want whites to do violence on whites.
@@Y4CrimIt is actually,, Im currently in a college in jp and studying ethnicity + history and found out that ppl back then didnt have much idea that a country could be multiracial or cultural as Japan has been considered as a homogeneous ethnic country which led the developers think usa=white people's country
@@gouda7120 , no it's not racist. Also, the idea you have doesn't check out since the very first version of street fighter II had a black fighter from America... who was an evolution of Mike from Street Figher I (who was from America) and both were clearly based on Mike Tyson. The Japanese name is M. Bison and they switched the names around for the US version to avoid any legal problems.
Like they haven't seen movies or media from America over in Japan for decades by that point lol.
@gouda7120 and you're thinking way too much. Modern day has you obsessed with race, therefore making you think racist.
There is nothing racist about a black dude getting punched.
Classic intro I think who's ever a fan of the game knows this soon as they here the little theme song to the game
Our version is when the black guy gets knocked out. But I love Balrog in this version bcuz he be doing the knocking out. Lol
"Oh, I remember those days like it was yesterday." - 👴🏻
Ha, ha. Using the old man emoji from TikTok is SO funny 🙄
Lol 😂
Always wanted to pick these guys
Also, M.Bison in Japan -> Balrog in USA
Vega in Japan -> M.Bison in USA
Balrog in Japan -> Vega in USA
This made me realize I've had the Japanese version in my area the whole time
Cause during that time that game came out the Rodney King situation was going on
Well said about that unfortunate excuse right here, Slapyoself-303...🙁
I remember seeing the uncensored version cabinet when cabinets were still around. I never knew they actually changed it.
"Ah yes, a TRUE American game" -👴🏻
Unfortunately 🤦🏽♂️ 🥊 👨🏼🦱👨🏻🧑🦲👩🏻
😂🤣🤣😂🤦♂️
Street Fighter II is a Japanese game. So, your stupid little "joke" doesn't make sense 🙄...
@@H4RLM
*WTF did you said right here* ya, H4RLM...🤔?
When a brother doesn't have backup or suckerpunches, this is what happens lmao
Yo bitch ass prolly can’t even fight
Other way around.
Imagine how thoroughly walloped this guy was by a 4 foot black kid he picked on one too many times 😂. Would I love to be a fly on that wall.
🍿 😎
I've never seen this change in my life. Sf2 arcade versions everywhere in California had the black guy getting knocked out. We use to joke about it all the time. I'm pretty sure this is just some ROM hack.
Mike ang Joe, I kept wondering who are those two guys back I was a kid 👍🏻.
Say it with me guys; "if the roles were reversed!"
It'd probably be an outcry.
what, if it were a black guy punching a white guy? nothing would happen, thats like complaining that AI Balrog is able to punch Guile because its racist.
I also noticed that's the Genesis/Megadrive version, in the CPS1 original, the clouds and the tower scroll in different parallax layers!
When I was 10 the world did not see this as racist, look at the world we live in now. Makes me sick
You as a 10 year old had no idea of the world and its views
I knew sHit was racially motivated (black btw)
Jager Gerg your world as a 10 year old didn’t see it as racist however the world outside your world might’ve or would’ve seen it as racist
@@jasonlee7816 because they are idiots. If the intro was the reverse would they world give a shit? No. But isn't white a race? So why not? All I see is a fighter getting knocked out by a better fighter.
@@manmanopoly8047 thats true to some degree imma have 4i agree on that
The black guy got punched out in every version I played at 7-11.
i live in europe and i always had the black guy
On Japan: a white man fight a black man
On USA: a white man fight a White man
(So you tell the difference of Street Fighter 2 title screen)
Naw I aways remember seeing the black guy getting knocked out in the USA version
Street Fighter 2 games never get old or boring. Those games are about 30 years old, and still absolute worth to play imo!
Imagine the riots if the Japanese version would be released today in the US.
I distinctly remember the black guy getting knocked out and I'm American
Didn't matter, because the arcade version was the uncut black dude.
i find it ironic they basically white washed max to avoid racism when scott punches him
(yes those are the official names for those 2 characters)
Nos with the kneeeee, THE KNEEE
Sometimes those black people are too much trouble
Mike bleached his skin and still got dropped…🤦🏽♂️
They were too afraid I think.
Never saw the two white guys version in the US. I distinctly rember the OG intro growing up.
I always thought this was an awesome intro and never saw this as racist. The real problem is you never get men fighting with fists anymore. it's guns or knives!
For those who didnt know there are a bunch of differences.
M. Bison was a rip off Mike Tyson but changed that too. He's now balrog but still looks like iron Mike and is a boxer. M. Bison is really Vega, Vega is really balrog, balrog is really bison. Sagat is always Sagat.
Cogito ergo sum, Cogito ergo sum , COGITO ERGO SUM! 😵💫
Lol, did they ever consider this racist? USA never changes...
They should have changed it to the black guy knocking the white guy out...and made the crowd multiracial.
Nope. Leave it as is. Im black and it never bothered me since day 1. I was more interested in the game itself not if its racist. Sensitive bastards
@@thecurmudgeon7350 its a video game. Stop looking for racism. If it makes you cry go create your own and people will play it. If it has good characters and gameplay. NOT based off of race.
Guess it wasn't racist when u played as ken beating Balrog to advance to vega.. 🤷♂️
@@roseorchid7981 Better for optics. Video game or not, none of this will matter in the future after the white race loses its global dominance due to low birthrates.
@@myrongaines5542 Wut?
What's being shown in the Sega Genesis / Megadrive version, not the arcade version. Japan got the intro that matched the arcade, but U.S. received the updated version in the bottom to avoid controversy.
あーもう。お前ら面倒くさいな。
誰でもよくない？肌の色とか、どーでもいい。
本家、日本より。
That intro punch looks like Jimmy from goodfellas punching that guy in the car who owed money 😂
If it were the Black guy knocking out the White dude, you wouldve saw more backlash, but from White audiences. There's all kinds of visual tricknology in films and video games. It has to show White folks as the victor, and if they did lose, it was because they were an awful character to begin with. Historically there has just been a bigger problem with it coming a large portion of the White population.
As a kid I shook my head at it because I knew they were just feeding into the ego of that demographic, as a selling point.
Thats part of why it took so long to get Black fighting characters that werent just boxers.
Note: The Western Change is only in the SEGA Genesis Version. The Arcade Version remains uncut and the SNES wasn’t even powerful enough to have the intro at all
Mirá si dejaban al negro en la versión USA y lo iban a querer cancelar al juego jaja
Should have specified THAT THIS IS THE GENESIS VERSION SHOWN
It is what it is, Mike-- I'm sorry lol
Idk why it’s changed it’s not like it was part of Jim Crow
"Capcom aren't racist, they're just stupid." -Zero Punctuation
Res Evil 5 review. I remember it well.
I believe that this is another game, in fact the Plus version, it was released months before the Special, has inverted boss names, has lower audio than the Special version, thus being an ultra rare version to find.
The Americans saw this as a racist reference and decided to censor their game.
@Myötätuuli etelään lol right
I'm surprised this got released in america considering you can beat up women in this game
It must of only been in certain parts of the U.S. I remember playing this game in the mall bowling alleys and at Food City grocery and they all had the intro with the black fighter on it. Didn't even know there was a different intro until years later on the internet.
"So you're saying it's somehow less racist if we transform Mike, the African American representative from the very first Street Fighter game, into some generic white guy?" - Japan, daring to question Western morality
He was fighting Michael Jackson
Wsta el la into de street fighter 2 del sega genesis
"This game isn't racist, it has a black character... Uh... Oh..."
Pones esto en los tiempos de cristal que vivimos capaz queman a Street fighter mediaticamebte 😂😂🤣🤣🥊
No, si ya me están hinchando a dislikes ¿Yo qué culpa tengo? 😂
@@BitsBeats capaz te bajan el vídeo los TH-cam de cristal y mierda 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🥊
?
I've never seen the white guy version in the USA.
even then, games got ‘woked’
I live in South Africa. We had the version with the black guy in our country. SF2 was very popular here.
No intro song from any video game of that year slapped harder
In my country algeria we had the black guy version.
Heh! Even games then got ‘woked’
Are you sure you don't have them reversed? I remember the earliest iterations of SF2 in the USA, and it was always a black guy getting ko'd. We used to joke about it!
I guess the US is too good to have a white guy punch a black dude on the intro 😅
My uncle use to always tell me about this intro😭 he said it’s racist cus Why did they choose a black guy to get knocked out in one punch.🤣
This change occurred due to concerns, the developers were worried about being sued by Mike Tyson for image rights for the character that was his inspiration (Balrog/Mike Bison).
Show no racism by just use the original game. It more likely be accepted.
Dude, I was there in the arcades when we saw a black dude get punched out by a white guy. Didn't bother me. Figured the dude owed him money!
Fairly sure that, as is often the standard for Europe, we got the Japanese version, but in English.
That got a Sega sound
I always thought street fighter was wierd becuase the people fighting were not random street fighters but actually martial arts masters. In KOF they reminded me more of character who were just on thiere way to work or just chilling until they bummed shoulders on the streets. Probably because of how they dressed I guess.. I think like this in real life
The World Warrior and Champion Edition versions of SFII both have the black guy in the 30th Anniversary Collection.
That's the intro from the Genesis/Megadrive port. I like the 16bit versions of SF2 Turbo/Special Champions Edition and Super SF2 even more than the CPS1 and CPS2 arcade originals, because you are able to play at much faster game speed! But that's not possible on NEC - so, sorry PCE...
In the arcade, the operator could set the dip switch of the machine to any turbo speed, just that when you go to an arcade one they always set it at the default speed. This is so the game doesn't cut frames when playing cause the faster you set the stars, the more frames of animations you lose and the more awkward the controls. The default speed is the smoother one which is at 60fps, if you set the speed faster the framerate then dropped to 30fps so to give player that faster speed.
I played this game in the arcade in the early 90s and I definitely remember seeing the black guy. We use to always joke “Why the black guy gotta get punched?” lol
I’m from the USA and I also remember the white guy beating up the black dude in the arcade and original SNES versions
I remember the top intro as a kid over here in Mexico
The arcade I played on must’ve been the Japanese version. I don’t know how or why, but i remember seeing that opening scene thinking “the Black guy is for sure going to win” … I was wrong 😅
This was for the Championship Edition for the Genesis which came out at a time when racial tensions in the US were a little… rough (LA Riots and Rodney King)
Strange revision of history
How can you not get amped up with this intro?!
the Japanese version is more American than the American version
This never happened i have always seen the black guy get punched in the face
Everyone from the states remember the black & white guy version.
It's weird how the intro style is never repeated in the actual game. We never see cutscenes like this in the actual game. Nor do we see these characters, although that might be Cody. And the prominent tall skyscraper is nowhere to be found
Japan always based af
Always found that intro a little weird my suspicions have been confirmed 😂
I Can see why America wanted to chance the race of the getting beaten up while a crowd is cheering.
I always thought it was due to the color palette limitations of the Sega Genesis but I guess it was just cuz they could for no reason
Do they really have to make the white dude with blonde hair and blue eyes lol
I was in the US in the 90’s, back then in the arcade’s there always was the black guy 🧐 Never saw it as a racist thing
I read somewhere that they scrapped the black guy because sf2 was released in america early 91 around the same time the rodney king situation happened. Idk how true that is. But it makes you think a little.
00:06
are you sure Ryu’s punch reached Blanka?😮😮😮