Street Fighter II: The World
Warrior and its
derivatives needs no introduction. It was the videogame that redefined the
fighting genre and revolutionized the videogame scene in general. All arcade
fighting games after its release copied it, and its success made console gaming
even more popular. It was, simply put, one of the most beloved videogame icons
of the 90s.
The year Street
Fighter II: The World Warrior was released was also quite a convoluted one:
it was released on the 6th of February, 1991, months away from the
collapse of the Soviet Union, which would end once and for all the Cold War
launching the world into a new era. The character of Zangief, for instance, was
particularly affected due to the many references to the Soviet Union in the
game, afterwards making Zangief heavily associated to the USSR, the developers
forced to acknowledge the backstory even in later releases such as Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3. Other characters like Fei Long from
Hong Kong experienced this in substantially less important degrees. Vega, on
the other hand, was associated from the beginning with a country that no longer
existed: Francoist Spain, easily seen by the depiction of the flag.
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