Saturday, 10 May 2008

• Retro-Replay #5: Capcom "Street Fighter II" action figures!

  We're all familiar with Street Fighter II. There's little that hasn't been said about the game that revolutionized multiplayer gaming and shaped the future of the worldwide arcade scene for nearly a decade after its release. With its deceptively complex fighting engine (the first of its kind, really), lush graphics, and ground breaking cast of selectable characters, SF II virtually created a genre unto itself and became an instant phenomenon both in North America and abroad.

  Still, it's easy to forget just how big this game actually was outside the arcades, too. Not since Pac-Man had an arcade property exploded onto the pop culture spectrum in such amazing fashion. Case in point: G.I. Joe Street Fighter II action figures!

  By all accounts, the Street Fighter II line was a slipshod endeavour from the very beginning. Mostly assembled with scattered parts from older figures (for instance, Ken was basically just a new head atop an old mold for 1992's Storm Shadow), the Street Fighter G.I. Joes were hastily put together and looked nothing like their video game counterparts. Still, kids gobbled them up, thanks in large part to commercials that made the line look like biggest thing to hit your neighbourhood since the great nor'easter of '89.

  Shifty construction practices aside, Hasbro definitely knew how to market their products. Half a cup of cheesy dialogue, a few tablespoons of rockin' background music, a couple of flying plastic vehicles, and a pinch of ethnic stereotyping ("You know 'em, you love 'em -- SO CORRECT IM!"), and the G.I. Joe Street Fighters were well on their way to unbridled success.

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