#Street fighter vs fatal fury 2 box art series

Portraiture is often used too in Shinkiro’s artwork, two of my favourites shown below from the Samurai Showdown series highlight the personality of the characters.Īs mentioned, Shinkiro is currently working at Capcom providing artwork for Darkstalkers, Marvel Vs Capcom and Tatsunoko Vs Capcom. Unlike the art in some fighting games, characters are portrayed as athletic rather than musclebound, in some of Shinkiro’s work, characters are shown in various life situations rather then on the battlefield or in the ring which i found gives humanity to each fighter, that they are more then just fighters.

Shinkiro’s hand drawn, painted and digital art looks beautiful, bringing to life the pixel characters and locations of SNK’s classic games. His career includes working for Clover Studios, the team behind Viewtiful Joe and Okami, and current employer Capcom who he joined in 2000. Just stating facts.) Final Fight, for example, had a far more compelling narrative and theme -Īlong with future hit fighting games like SF2 and AOF.During the early 1990’s Toshiaki “Shinkiro” Mori created some of SNK’s iconic artwork for franchises such as Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters. (It wasn't a very wholesome representation of the art if you were into Karate at the time. And for what it's worth, the representation of a traditional Karate practitioner simply 'beating guys up on the street for money' isĪgainst the very principle of Karate.

In closing, Street Smart's blatant theme of 'fight and gamble to get money / get women / get rich' was also a bit distasteful for the younger gaming audience (especially for the time). Will we ever see the return of 'Slippery' Sam Santana or Mike 'The Muscle' McDermit in another SNK fighting game? Sadly, I think most of the fighters in this game retired long before the KOF tournament. The generic characters of Street Smart clearly weren't designed with longevity in mind. The ideas introduced in Street Smart were 'on the way' to something, but the game lacked pop in the personality department. (Instead, they made SF2 a couple years later.)Įven so, Street Smart's co-op 'Grudge Match' mode was pretty innovative and fun for its time -Ī feature that Fatal Fury later used. (Shoutouts to Final Fight.) For comparison's sake, Capcom could've easily turned Final Fight into a fighting game using the same recipe as Street Smart. While visually impressive in some ways, Street Smart'sĪctual game mechanics were clunkier than the norm -Īnd soon to be surpassed by some killer, genre-defining games. It was probably one of the most 'gritty' and violent arcade games of the era. I remember seeing it at arcades and being impressed by the large character sprites (and the expression on Karate Man's face).īefore SNK released their first 'true' 2D fighting game that you might've heard of, Fatal Fury, Street Smart was mixing it up at cigarette smoke-filled late 80's arcades. It was a pretty unique arcade game in 1989. Interestingly, Street Smart is one of the few games of the time period that is crossed between 'beat-em-up' and 'fighting game'. featuring characters that have long since been forgotten in the dusty vaults of SNK history. Street Smart is one of SNK's earliest beat-em-ups. The buffs include a larger health meter, faster speed, or more power.įury, Yie Ar Kung Fu, International Karate, Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, In the console version, 'points'Īre awarded to the player after each fight which can be assigned to various character power-ups. Players also win money after defeating opponents, which changes the outcome of the game's ending (explained in the next paragraph). Another difference is 'Karate Man' wears a red Gi instead of a white one in the console version.īoth characters have a new spinning 'Power Move' in the console version (performed by pressing all 3 buttons at once) which knocks down the enemy but also reduces the player's health. (instead, players take turns against the CPU opponent). The console port also lacks the simultaneous 2-player Vs. The console port is visually condensed and inferior in some ways, compensating with brighter colors and black frames on the top and bottom of the screen. Several years after its arcade debut, Street Smart was ported to the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive in 1991, developed by Treco and published by Sega.

Street fighter vs fatal fury 2 box art