If you’re reading this, then chances are you are of a certain generation that grew up playing video games around the late eighties and through the 90s.
You can probably pronounce “Shoryuken” and “Hadouken” almost perfectly, hearing the hard Japanese punch at the same time, then you’ve come to the right place.
The game from your childhood is coming, thanks to none other than NetEntertainment Casino Gaming Studios. We don’t know an awful lot, but what we do know, we’ve written about right here on our LuckyMobileSlots.com casino blog.
What is the Street Fighter II slot all about?
For those of you who went outside and played with footballs and such things, or are too young to even know what this is, let us introduce you to the original world of street fighting.
Creating by Capcom, it launched in 1991 and soon started to break all records. By 1993 sales reached over $1.5 billion in gross revenue, and it was estimated that by 1994, over 25 million people had played the game at home and in arcades.
Not impressed you say? Fortnite has been played by over 250 million players you say? Sure. But this was pre-internet times. People had to buy consoles or head to the arcade to play. It took effort, it took money, it was record-breaking.
“The release of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior took the arcade world by storm in the early nineties and today it is widely considered as the ultimate classic video game that continues to entertain fans almost 30 years later,” says Bryan Upton, NetEnt Director of Games.
Adjusted for inflation, it is estimated that all versions of Street Fighter II exceed $10 billion in revenue. Do you know what that means? Its means that it is one of the highest-grossing video games of all time.
This is just Street Fighter 2 mind. Not the original Street Fighter, not Street Fighter V coming this year, JUST versions of Street Fighter 2.
What we are saying is that there’s a fanbase. We just happen to be one of them.
Ok fine, but what’s going to be included in the actual Street Fighter slot?
So here’s the thing about announcing a new branded slot almost 4 months in advance: we suspect even NetEnt are still in the drawing board trying to figure out the mechanics of this new mobile online slot.
So we don’t know an awful lot.
We do know that it will feature the iconic eight selectable characters – Ryu, Ken, E. Honda, Guile, Chun-Li, Blanka, Zangief and Dhalsim within the game.
We also know that in order to stay true to the feel of the original game, the Street Fighter 2 online slot will also feature boss fights with Balrog, Vega, Sagat and the truly evil M. Bison.
NetEnt have also confirmed that they will keep the genre-defining graphics, soundtrack and animations. Because we all love nostalgia and retro shiny things.
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What do we want to see in this Street Fighter NetEnt slot?
What made the Street Fighter 2 game special is that it was the first one-on-one fighting game which game players choose from a variety of characters and their unique fighting styles.
For the first time, you could pick a favourite, learn the special move combinations, and be the best Chun-Li or Zangrief in the world of Street Fighting. People had favourites and took the time to learn different moves in order to become the best.
There was enough of a small if tenuous storyline, with each character moving through stages and then finally reaching boss fights.
This may seem unimpressive to those who have since moved on to Tekken, Mortal Kombat and Soul Caliber, but you probably wouldn’t have any of those games if it wasn’t for the original Street Fighter 2 arcade.
Let us choose our characters and stages!
Look, we get this is a slot machine. So you will need to have consistency in the base game. There’s no way they can give us 8 different versions of the game, to match each of the 8 characters.
But you know what could be cool? Let us pick our hero to get through multiple stages in the free spin or bonus round. It doesn’t have to change the mechanics, and you don’t have to come up with 8 different features for each of the characters.
Maybe you can have 4 bonus rounds – ending in a boss fight with one of the four non-selectable villains. Maybe each villain can give you different volatility – so Balrog could give you expanded wilds, whilst M Bison free spins could give you sticky wilds with multipliers.
One gives you easier wins, the other will give you bigger wins. Pick and choose, and if your character defeats the villain during the bonus, you also get a cash prize or multiplier.
So maybe we’ve thought about it a tiny little bit.
What shall I play until then?
Over the years not all NetEnt games have hit all the right marks, but you know what they keep doing well, year after year, after year? Interesting slots with brands.
Take, for example, the Jumanji slot machine, where they focused on the board game itself and the crazy animals within, rather than the movie or cast. It allowed for an immersive experience with not one, but four different features.
Or how you go read the Creature from the Black Lagoon slot review, only recently re-released for mobile casinos, and it plays and looks as fabulous as it did online, with lots of fun high thrill spins.
However, if you are looking to get a little bit of that old video game nostalgia, then we’d recommend you check out the Reel Rush 2 slot game, which has that Marios World feel that will bring you back to the 90s.