Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Street Fighter 2010 for NES (1990)


Original ad featured in the November 1990 issue of EGM (no. 16).
Press to view or download image in higher resolution.


An average game with some nice publicity

This was just an average side-scroller until someone at Capcom decided to market it as a sci-fi spin-off of the original Street Fighter. In the North American release, the protagonist is named "Ken", just as the famed martial artist of the arcade brawler. Not until that, it was subtitled "The Final Fight" to complicate matters more.


Reviews generally gave this game above average reviews. But since then, revisionists have criticized it for its floaty controls and difficulty level. Graphics and music are great quality, however. But with the onslaught of side-scrollers in the heyday of the NES, I guess Capcom thought it best to market the game with two indirect connections to its other popular franchises. Otherwise, it would have been lost in the shuffle.

So much for the game. The actual printed marketing material had some interesting compositional idea. It's strangely similar to MegaMan 3 printed ad, the one that features the blue bomber blasting the groin area of a poor robot. Here you also see the protagonist in a frontal position, while the enemy is facing backwards. That's unusual for most ads, but apparently common for the Capcom games produced during this period.

The text copy is bland, as most of these are. But the actual game-screens are really nice, enticing gamers who bought by graphical prowess alone. The very Deep depth of field is also a nice touch. That allos the graphical artist to place at least three planes of action: the one with the enemy being shot, the one with the protagonist and finally another one with the background and a dragon-type enemy just waiting to attack the hero.  It all adds to an interesting promotional material.


Street Fighter 2010 for NES print ad


Few live to finish this game.

The whole thing started when you invented this radical formula that turns men into supermen. And someone stole it. You'll have to fight some very deadly interplanetary characters to get it back. And that's just for starters in Street Fighter, one of the toughest games for Nintendo ever. Play it today. You might even live to tell about it. Maybe.

Capcom USA


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