Good Morning, Street Fighter EX!
There’s hardly a better way to wake up than with a light breakfast, a cup of coffee or tea, and Street Fighter EX2 Plus. Released initially for arcades in 1999 and ported to the PlayStation shortly thereafter, EX2+ is in my opinion, Arika’s finest hour. The entire Street Fighter EX Series is a deep cut for fighting games, and their Trial Modes have become as important to my morning routine as a shower and shave. I’ll boot up the game, speed through Ryu or Guile’s Combo Challenges, and shut it off. There really is something here for every type of 2D Fighting Fan. EX2+ sports an unorthodox roster, a very flexible battle system, and feels like a worthy expansion of core ideas from Street Fighter II and the Street Fighter Alpha series.
It’s fitting then, that most of the employees at Arika are Capcom Veterans. The company itself was founded by Akira Nishitani. The Akira Nishitani, planner for Street Fighter II. Street Fighter EX2 Plus goes on to credit Noritaka Funamizu (Street Fighter Alpha 2), Jun Matsumura (X-Men: Children of the Atom), and Masaaki Tanaka (Marvel Super Heroes), all former Capcom employees. For the music, Arika hooked Namco composers Takayuki Aihara, Shinji Hosoe, and Ayako Saso, each having a hand in Tekken 2’s score.
Such a legendary team gives the entire EX Series a mystique that few fighting games can match. It’s incredible to watch, and feels even better to play. The shift to 3D Graphics from sprites let Arika really stretch their budget. Many characters reuse basic animations, but there are no “Head Swaps” or Clones. Every character has their toolkit expanded, and EX2+ is bursting at the seams with crazy ideas. Sagat has a Just-Frame Level 3 Super, Ryu’s Hurricane Kick is a Rekka that he can steer, and Dhalsim has a Command Throw. A Command Throw! Dhalsim!
As impressed as I am with the creativity on display, I’m floored by how cohesive it all is. Great care was taken to ease new players into EX2+, and it shines as a result. Combo Routes are intuitive, Scaling is well implemented, and Meter is easy to build- But not too easy. While the game doesn’t feature Ground Teching, the most oppressive Oki setups sacrifice damage, and being a 3D game, the corner moves dynamically throughout the match. Every decision made in EX2+’s design feels deliberate, and I could spend hours musing over its nuances. Many of the game’s reeling animations even mimic a “Force-Stand” state, which ups combo variety and improves the flow of the game’s offense. Street Fighter IV, a 2.5d Fighter released ten years later couldn’t get this right!
Street Fighter EX2 was the most successful arcade game of 1998. Its expansion is one of the most fun fighting games I’ve ever played, and its console port is easily one of the best games on the PlayStation. So why didn’t EX2+ net the same praise as the initial arcade outing? The gameplay is incredible, the music is amazing, and there was even a good home version!
Well, some things just aren’t meant to be. Street Fighter EX2 Plus released in arcades on June 11th, 1999. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike released in May. The humble arcade update was trampled underfoot by its own brand. From the jump, the deck just seemed stacked against Arika. 2000 wouldn’t be much kinder, bringing Capcom VS SNK, Marvel VS Capcom 2, and Street Fighter EX3!?
That’s right. The Arika Cycle.
As a game developer, Arika isn’t quite like Capcom, SNK, or SEGA. They release smaller titles on smaller budgets with crazier ideas. Arika might have the industry talent, but they don’t employ the ruthless business acumen of their contemporaries. Even their modern website looks like a GeoCities page. But there’s an admirable drive in every employee under the Arika Banner. They’re without a doubt one of the most prolific, yet invisible indie studios in Japan. They’ll put out a game to little fanfare, poke around with pet projects for a few months, and then land a massive contract with Nintendo on legacy alone. As a consumer, I like to see them succeed in the same way I like to see a friend land a promotion, or get a raise.
Street Fighter EX3 is an acquired taste, and honestly deserves its own article. It’s less of a departure from the EX Series than Arika’s most recent release, but it’s still different enough to turn away many fighting game fans. A 2-On-2 Tag Battle, EX3 is overflowing with subsystems and esoterica, none of which is documented. Next Generation magazine gave the game a 1 out of 5. EX3 launched exclusively on the PlayStation 2 in 2000. The lack of a simultaneous worldwide release meant that the JP Version of EX3 actually hit market before the NA and EU Versions of EX2+. The game being locked on console didn’t help exposure either. While home systems of the day were finally matching arcade quality, many arcade-perfect conversions on the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 used Game Centers as an arm of their marketing machine. MVC2 in Japan actually required players to bring their Save Data to an arcade to unlock certain characters!
Street Fighter EX2 Plus was sentenced to death by a thousand cuts, the killing blow coming jointly from its creator and publisher. Not quite murder, not quite homicide. It never really had a chance… Until now.
As of this article’s publishing, Naomi, Atomiswave, and Dreamcast Fighting Games have been given new life through Flycast GGPO, a very fine implementation of Rollback Netcode. This emulator is coming soon to Fightcade, a very robust netplay client that lets you play lagless matches with opponents from all over the world. While Street Fighter EX2 Plus never released on the Dreamcast, the team behind this breakthrough are already in the planning phases for Duckstation GGPO.
Lagless EX2+ Netplay is inevitable. EX2+ is finally getting its second chance.
Next Up: Third Strikes and You’re Out.
-X
