Overview

Exclusive to the Street Fighter II Collector's Box, the Street Fighter II Perfect Original Version is the main soundtrack release for Street Fighter II. It is the superior rendition of Street Fighter II's score for several reasons. For one, it is complete — featuring all the character, heavy damage, ending, menu, and subsidiary themes from the original version of the Arcade's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Second, it is not interrupted by sound and voice effects like Street Fighter II Complete File and Super Street Fighter II The New Challengers are. Finally, each theme is its own fully length track unlike the related medley-based albums Street Fighter II ~ G.S.M. Capcom 4 and Street Fighter II Nintendo Magazine System Promo. Could this really be Street Fighter II's perfect soundtrack release? Is it worth purchasing a box set for?

Body

Ryu's theme is rightly the first character theme featured on the disc. Yoko Shimomura wrote this one in the spirit of old-school game music — creating a melody that was simultaneously poppy, quirky, and uplifting. Though it may seem superficial, she developed it brilliantly and just tempts listeners to whistle along. Ken's stage, in contrast, probably has the most memorable opening riff of any game music theme. The rocking melody is pretty good too and nicely reflects the character's American origins. Guile's theme is an effective depiction of a lone wolf; it holds many similarities to Ryu's, but distinguishes itself with a methodical bass riff. The other leading character of Street Fighter II, Chun-Li, has an appropriately Chinese-influenced theme — the gliding melody is just an ingenious representation of the female fighter.

The themes for the remaining characters are also interesting. There are culturally inspired tracks for Japanese sumo-wrestler E. Honda and Indian eccentric Dhalsim. Though probably the weakest character themes melodically, they still add to the diversity of Street Fighter II. The themes for Zangief and Blanka, in contrast, both feature groovy bass riffs and light-hearted melodies. They don't quite fit the characters and locations they portray, but there is something strangely endearing about them; Zangief's disco-influenced theme is just a hilarious mismatch for the stereotypical Russian. There are also variations of the character themes used when the characters incur heavy damage. Most are simply faster and louder of the original versions, so they have a tendency to be quite jarring, especially on Arcade synth.

There is something euphoric about coming to the last portion of the game and hearing Balrog's synthy theme. Out of context, it's bound to inspire nostalgia for all those who played Street Fighter II back in the day. Probably my favourite character theme of all, though, is Vega's. Written in a flamenco style, it manages to be brisk, elegant, and intimidating all at once. Whereas all the other character themes were crafted by Yoko Shimomura, Sagat's theme was composed by Isao Abe; it's therefore quite a stylistic contrast, featuring abstract funk influences and meditative repetitions of the melody. However, it's left to Shimomura to take the score to its climax by portraying the final encounter with M. Bison. This differs from her other compositions given the melody is drowned out by formidable percussion use.

The album is wrapped up by short ending themes for the eight 'good' characters. There are quite personal themes to accompany Ryu's motivational journey, Guile's soothing reunion, and Chun-Li's passage of discovery. In contrast, the wrap ups for Dhalsim and E. Honda once again depict the characters' nations in a brash and stereotypical manner. The more bizarre endings include the light-hearted jingle for Blanka, a wedding march for Ken, and a Russian folk dance parody for Zangief. The staff roll is a decent effort, but not among the many classics. Ironically, the short tracks for the title, character select, and continue screens will probably be more memorable to most gamers. The soundtrack concludes with a character voice collection, a announcer voice collection, and a sound effects compilation.

Summary

The Street Fighter II score is filled with memorable melodies, plenty of personality, and a worldly aura. Though the Arcade synth is primitive compared to the sound quality of many of the ports and arrangements, the character themes are still instantly charming. Just like the game, Street Fighter II's score has a tendency to depict most characters and their nations stereotypically. However, it tends to be more goofy and amusing than particularly offensive. The Street Fighter II Perfect Original Version gets plenty of things right. Each theme is given its own full length track free from sound and voice effects. The character themes are just interrupted by the speeded up versions and the short ending themes are fortunately clustered together at the end of the album. The downside? It is exclusive to a three disc box set that is now very difficult to find and expensive to buy. Capcom would make a fortune if they decided to re-release this soundtrack in a stand-alone easily accessible form. Throw in the tracks for T. Hawk, Cammy, Dee Jay, Fei-Long, and Akuma from Super Street Fighter II Turbo and it'd be the perfect release.

Overview

The Street Fighter II Collector's Box was a box set made to commemorate the Arcade's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. It features three discs. The Street Fighter II Perfect Original Version is the ultimate version of the score to the original game and is exclusive to this box set. The Street Fighter II Instrumental Arrange Version features mostly synthetic arrangements of Street Fighter II themes and is mainly based on the Street Fighter II Image Album. The Street Fighter II Vocal Arrange Version features a range of vocalists interpreting the character themes and is based on Nesshou!! Street Fighter II. The limited edition box set was also available with a VHS or Laser Disc video. Now rare and pricey, is it worth tracking down?

Body

The Street Fighter II Perfect Original Version is easily the best version of Street Fighter II's original score available. Uniquely, it is a complete original score where each theme is given its own track uninterrupted by sound effects. Full of melodic genius, personality, and cultural diversity, the character themes are the highlight. Whether the heroic anthems for Ryu and Ken, the quirky tunes for Blanka and Zangief, the culturally inspired music for Chun-Li and Dhalsim, or the climactic themes for the Four Devas, Yoko Shimomura always delivers the goods. Also featured are the somewhat jarring heavy damage variations, an ending theme collection, and some memorable menu themes and fanfares. Note that this is based on the Arcade version of the game, so the synth quality is quite low, and that the additional five character themes featured in Super Street Fighter II Turbo are not present. Nonetheless, it is the most definitive and authentic version of the score available.

The second disc of the album is mainly based on the commercially available Street Fighter II Image Album. This arranged album captures will bring a lot of joy and memories for Street Fighter II players with its straightforward interpretations of the character themes. From the nostalgic Ryu's theme to Ken's power rock arrangement to the iconic Four Devas medley, the arrangers give fans exactly what they want. The arrangers offer quite a variety of arrangements — showing influences from pop, rock, jazz, techno, world, and ethnic music among others. However, the entire album feels continuous as well due to features like melodic emphasis and similar technology throughout. Though some of the synths are dated, this partly adds to the charm of the album and there are nevertheless high quality electric guitar and other instrumental solos featured here. Of all the Street Fighter II albums, this one is probably the most accessible and faithful.

Unfortunately, the Nesshou!! Street Fighter II album featured on the third disc isn't very accomplished. The whole concept of the production is flawed. The choice of vocalists tends to be particularly off — whether the boyish Ryu, murmuring Dhalsim, or operatic Sagat — especially when Japanese singers are used to interpret foreign melodies. In addition, vocalists often don't seem compatible at all with some melodies such as Chun-Li, Vega, or Guile. The instrumentals tend to provide functional accompaniment or rhythmical sequences, but provide little interesting. The only worthwhile arrangements are the bluesy interpretation of Balrog's theme by an American vocalist or the haunting instrumentals of Vega and M. Bison. Everything else is either boring or ridiculous. This disc is only for those who love quirkiness and don't care about quality.

There are a few semi-exclusive arrangements to complete the box set. The instrumental arranged disc opens with the synthetic medley used to introduced Street Fighter II ~ G.S.M. Capcom 4. It is a nice way to introduce the character themes for the game, though the track order is quite random and the transitions tend to be jarring. The nine minute medley performed by Capcom Sound Team Alph Lyla at the Game Music Festival '92 is more accomplished. The performances by pianist Yoko Shimomura and others tend to bring out the emotion and humanity behind the original tunes while some of the arrangements are quite creative. The medley also benefits from exploring several themes thoroughly rather than attempting to integrate absolutely everything. A superb effort. The box set concludes with a vocal arrangement of the Street Fighter II: Special Edition staff roll as featured in Varth Operation Thunderstorm ~ G.S.M. Capcom 6. It's very derivative and cheesy, but at least more feasible than the other vocal arrangements.

Summary

Overall, one shouldn't take the decision to purchase Street Fighter II Collector's Box lightly. It's become a very rare collector's item and can only be purchased for quite a price second-hand. The main draw is the soundtrack, which has few flaws compared to all other soundtrack releases for the game. The arrangements on the album can be found by purchased other second-hand albums, though most of them are from the high quality Street Fighter II Image Album and dubious Nesshou!! Street Fighter II. The box set also includes a 16 page full colour booklet, a large colour poster, and two videos featuring gameplay footage, interviews, and more. It's a very nice way to commemorate the series, but only the most serious collectors should consider this purchase.