Gouki by Matías Bergara

Ryu (START) by Kandoken

Akuma by Quasimodox

Gouki by noobboy

Akuma by Matías Bergara

Super Street Fighter II X Title Theme by Yoko Shimomura, Syun Nishigaki and Isao Abe

Super Street Fighter II Turbo - IRON MIKE

A Super Street Fighter II Turbo exhibition match from this year's NorCal Regionals featuring players drafted from the entire fighting game spectrum.

Super Street Fighter II X - RED BITE

Komoda Blanka putting a charcoal coloured version of his namesake to work. In Super Street Fighter II X Blanka is considered firmly mid-tier, so it's exciting to see someone turn convention on its head and outplay God Tier characters like Balrog and Vega. Look out for a young Daigo Umehara getting rushed down towards the end of the video too.

SELECT GROOVE

Ten years ago Capcom released Hyper Street Fighter II, a special anniversary version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo in which players were given the option to select from the five specific arcade incarnations of each of the world warriors. If you so desired, you could pit Championship Edition Bison against the Super version of Sagat or Hyper Fighting's Honda.

HSFII was a showcase for Capcom's fighting game design ethos - balance as imperative. Characters were in a constant state of flux, their moves and control motions subject to tweaks, even outright revision, if it tallied with a better overall play experience. HSFII revealed an evolving approach to the building blocks of fight games, from Street Fighter II's high damage output to Super Street Fighter II Turbo's nascent juggling mechanic. One the evidence above, Capcom are looking to repeat this nifty little trick with Ultra Street Fighter IV.

SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO

Wreck-It Ralph and ZANGIEF (PONY)

Caught Wreck-It Ralph last night, a fairly pleasant rummage through (executive producer) John Lasseter's ruthless emotional plotting: I love you! I hate you! I LOVE YOU! etc. Bizarrely, Ralph posits a 2012 in which arcades are still relevant. I wish! A week doesn't pass that I don't read about some fight game mecca closing its doors in America or Japan. I guess acceptable online combat was the last nail in that coffin? Over here in the UK if you can find something resembling an arcade it's probably stuffed full of baby's first fruit machines or maybe (maybe) a broken Konami light-gun cab.

Ralph is also a signal that the 90s are now being gobbled up to prompt nostalgic affection. Street Fighter II characters are featured heavily in the film, perhaps a sign that if you remember 1992 with any level of clarity you should be a parent by now? Front and centre for the Capcom crowd was Russian grappler Zangief, talking us through what it feels like to be a bad guy with gigantic thighs. I've never really thought of Zangief as an evil character. I know he was a Bison stooge in the Van Damme movie but who gives a shit about that? I guess we're forever expected to operate on pre-Glasnost models of thought. To compensate for this terrible slur on the Red Cyclone, here's ten minutes of a player named Pony grappling his way through the kind of characters people usually pick to get an easy win in Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge.

Dee Jay by Paul Robertson

MAXIMUM AWESOME

SUPER CLUTCH

More clutch gameplay from Daigo. In the first clip, Mr Umehara's Balrog follows a total rush round with some teasing rope-a-dope, before throwing out dizzy combos for fun. Clip 2 sees Daigo's copper Ryu win back a round from almost being perfected on Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition. Listen to that crowd! Don't even give Daigo an inch. He plays fighting games like a Dragon Ball Z character; you're never beating him, you're just making him angry.

SUPER BEAST

2D superstar Daigo Umehara uses everything in his arsenal to eke out the slimmest of victories in Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge. These clips are always fun to watch. Fighting games are built on systems with endless situational variables - some moves cancel out others, and certain sequences can be chained into each other in such a way that beats and recoveries are missed. Every input you make has a value and weakness. So, what's your next move? What's your opponent doing? If you miss your next hit, where does that leave you? Even if you know exactly what's possible, it can be quite another thing to actually accomplish it. Above all, this clip demonstrates the value of passive intimidation. Sometimes, Daigo's copper coloured Ryu is doing nothing at all, letting possibility fuck with his opponent.