Miscellany Vol. II: Fighting Layer, Censorship and City Hunter
This page looks at crossovers, regional edits and a very strange film scene.
Fighting Layer and the EX series
Fighting Layer (1998) was released only in Japanese arcades, with no home version. It holds two characters from the Street Fighter EX games, Allen Snider and Blair Dame. The developer, Arika, was founded in 1995 by Akira Nishitani, nicknamed Nin-Nin, a co-creator of Street Fighter II, and the game shares mechanics such as super-cancels and guard-break attacks with EX. The other fourteen fighters are unique to it.
In the EX storyline, Allen was thought to be the greatest karateka in the U.S.A. until a young Ken Masters beat him. Blair was raised in affluent European society but learned martial arts to protect herself and her family. Cracker Jack is her bodyguard and Sharon is her sister, two more EX characters.
Zangief’s edited profile
In the Japanese version of Alpha 3, Zangief’s profile art has a small difference: a spurt of blood from the top of his head, shown in anger. International ports removed it, part of a general move away from gore in the series, which goes as far as using rose petals during Vega’s Bloody High Claw in Street Fighter IV. The picture recalls a World Warrior-era drawing by Akiman, included on the Complete File CD, and it also appears on Zangief’s splash screen in Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter.
Norimaro, removed from the Marvel crossover
The Japanese comedian Noritake Kinashi created and voiced Norimaro, a character exclusive to Japanese copies of Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter (1997). He was removed officially from all international versions, but his data remains in the ROM, including translations of his win quotes and dialogue, which suggests the removal came late. Hacking the ROM sets also showed graphics unused even in the Japanese game, such as a hyper combo in which Norimaro fantasises about a Capcom character from Street Fighter or Darkstalkers.
Beta footage of the game, introduced by Kinashi himself, shows that Norimaro was once given an attack aimed at Spider-Man. Marvel Comics did not want its character treated that way, and it did not reach the final game. An unused win pose, thought to be for victories over Sakura, is also rumoured.
Censored Final Fight games
The replacement of Poison and Roxy by Billy and Sid in international Final Fight ports is a notorious bit of early-1990s censorship. Less well known is that Final Fight 2 (1993, Super Nintendo only) received similar treatment when it left Japan. The female characters Eliza and Mary became the males Leon and Robert. Robert and Eliza share a palette, but Leon and Mary look completely different. Overseas, the first boss, Won Won, also lost his meat cleaver, although tonfa, wood and knives remain pickups. It seems punching and kicking people is fine, but cleavers are where the West drew the line.
Cover art mistakes
The international Final Fight 2 box shows Damnd and Cody, who never appear in the game. The figure partly hidden behind the logo resembles G. Andore, in his Final Fight outfit rather than his Final Fight 2 one. Damnd’s larger-than-life presence in the Final Fight intro made him popular, and he later joined Final Fight Revenge (1999) alongside gang members Abigail, El Gado, Edi. E., Sodom, Rolento, Hugo Andore and Poison.
City Hunter’s arcade tribute
The 1993 Hong Kong film City Hunter, directed by Wong Jing, is based on the manga of the same name and stars Jackie Chan. It holds a Street Fighter homage that has to be seen to be believed. Chan’s character Ryo is thrown into a World Warrior cabinet, gets an electric shock and hallucinates that the henchman Kim is Ken from the game. Ryo then dresses as E. Honda, edited here to “E. Honde” because Chan’s contract with Mitsubishi prevented naming their rival Honda, and then as Guile, Dhalsim and finally Chun-Li, before beating Kim. The music is from the Super Nintendo version of World Warrior, and the official artwork on the set walls was drawn by Shoei Okano.
