Now, before you read this, bear in mind that Super Street Fighter II had only just been released. I’d never played it, and I’d never even attempted doing TWO quarter circle forward motions and then hitting ALL THREE kick buttons at once.
One day we went to Lazer Quest in Ocean Village in Southampton as they were having a free-play evening (although, did having to pay £5 to get in negate all the machines being on free-play?). Imagine my surprise when I spotted a Super Street Fighter II machine on free-play. Having spent so long on the regular Street Fighter II, and having read up on Super Street Fighter II for so long, I was dying to have a go.
Hold on, what’s this? The machine isn’t on free-play? I asked the man, and he said because it’s a new machine it’s exempt from being on free-play. It was in the small print apparently. “Some machines won’t be on free-play”, it said. Profound sadness – I had only brought the £5 to get in with me! Hold on, no, I had some money for a drink… I’d use that to play Super Street Fighter II. Yes. That was a plan.
I’d only ever read about “Super moves”. I’d never seen one in motion. I’d only ever seen the blue shadows behind the characters and the sunburst when it KO’s someone in screenshots. The only Super move I could remember was Cammy’s. Quarter circle forward, quarter circle forward, all three kicks. Shoryukens and Hadokens were one thing, but rolling the stick twice and hitting three buttons sounded so difficult, and I was used to the d-pads of the console versions, not a proper, real arcade stick.
Bout one – I defeated the CPU opponent with too much ease – the super bar didn’t even fill.
Bout two – I almost lost as tried to fill the super bar.
Bout three – I’d gotten used to filling the bar, but I just couldn’t get the motion off!
Bout four – It happens.
The screen darkens. There’s a sparkle on Cammy’s fist. She rolls into a Cannon Drill, then launches herself upwards into a Thrust Kick, blue silhouettes trailing behind her. I didn’t really care that it whiffed – Guile was pretty much at full screen distance away, I was just happy I was able to perform such a complex input. “I did it! I did it!”, I scream, turning to see if any of my friends were still watching (they weren’t), as Guile rushed in and did his trademark upside down kick.
“K.O.”
“You Lose.”
