by When Street Fighter II first hit the arcade in 1991, it was a runaway train. In the following years, the game was updated with new versions and ported to almost every console and home computer you can think of. In fact, Street Fighter II’s enduring popularity can still be felt today, over 35 years later. That popularity also spawned many counterfeits, bootlegs, knock-offs, rip-offs, and copycats, including the subject of this review, Strip Fighter II.
Strip Fighter II was originally released in late 1992 (or early 1993, depending on who you ask) for Hudson Soft and NEC’s PC-Engine. In case it wasn’t obvious, the game is a parody of Street Fighter II and features of cast of scantily-clad women in varying forms of undress.
What Even Is Strip Fighter II?
The most interesting things about Strip Fighter II for me actually have little to do with the gameplay itself. The compelling things about this game are the mystery of what this game actually is, how it came to be, and the strange “Strip Fighter” universe it birthed.
What we know about Strip Fighter II is that it was published by Games Express, a company known for publishing unlicensed PC-Engine games with gambling or adult themes. If you’re at all familiar with unlicensed “adult” retro games, you surely recognize the stereotypical “Strip Mahjong” games — that’s what Games Express was known for. However, they did publish an adult RPG with gameplay similar to Dragon Quest, BodyConQuest II. They also published AV Tanjou, which appears to be a relatively serviceable dating sim game.
So despite being a weird unlicensed game, we at least have some information about it; it was released by a relatively known publisher instead of just materializing out of the ether. Surely, that must mean Games Express published the previous Strip Fighter game, right?
As it turns out, Strip Fighter II isn’t a sequel. It’s the first game in the Strip Fighter series. It’s only named Strip Fighter II to more closely match the title of the popular Street Fighter II. Many years later, a developer named StudioS took over the franchise to pump out sequels like Strip Fighter IV and Strip Fighter V, which were cleverly timed to launch alongside Capcom’s own Street Fighter IV and V.
It’s funny that Strip Fighter became its own franchise, because it’s clear that it began as nothing more than a shameless Street Fighter II rip-off. The question, then, is if Strip Fighter II plays as well as Street Fighter II.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
There are a few things that Strip Fighter II actually does very well. Many of us might not want to admit it, but a universal male gaming experience is pausing during a fighting game on just the right frame to view the hottest pose from our favorite female characters, from Mai Shiranui to Cammy to Morrigan Aensland. It seems like Strip Fighter II was built around this one single premise.
Almost every single move or animation in Strip Fighter II results in the character becoming disrobed or creating some sort of sexy pose. It’s almost impressive how this much detail went into making these fighting game sprites as erotic as humanly possible (by 1992 standards).
The sprites themselves are quite large and visually distinct: there’s even a bigger “muscle mommy” character among the cast. This kind of diversity and level of detail is imperative in a game that is almost completely centered around the viewing pleasure of the female characters. While less titillating, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the background art for each stage is actually well-done. Generally speaking, and ignoring the bizarre adult nature of it all, the art in Strip Fighter II is almost as good as the art in any Capcom or SNK fighting game released for home consoles during this era.
And of course, there is not a lack of actual “stripping” in the game. If you’re not playing the game on easy mode, winning one round against an opponent will reveal a pixelated photograph of a real woman along with a textbox of something in Japanese. Winning a second round will reveal the same woman but, uh, stripped. You’ll need to beat each of the characters to view all of the photographs.
All of this is pretty much what one would expect from a game with the title “Strip Fighter II.” And if that’s only what you expected, then this game executes its purpose nearly flawlessly. It definitely beats Strip Mahjong.
Gameplay Takes a Back Seat
The original Street Fighter II game was pretty good, but Street Fighter II didn’t become great until Street Fighter II Turbo was released. Originally, Street Fighter II had only eight characters and the game speed in general was relatively slow and sluggish.
Strip Fighter II is much like the original Street Fighter II in that there is a small roster of characters and the overall speed of the game is slow. This is understandable given that Strip Fighter II is a blatant cash grab to capitalize off of Street Fighter II’s popularity, but it’s important to emphasize this because it sets expectations: Strip Fighter II is likely not going to be as good as the game it is ripping off. The fighting game genre would rapidly evolve thanks to relentless innovation from the likes of Capcom and SNK, but Strip Fighter II was very much stuck in the tradition of early, unpolished fighters.
The six characters in Strip Fighter II loosely correspond with the eight characters in the original version of Street Fighter II, somewhat adapting their movesets and backgrounds into parodied sexy female archetypes.
Yuki represents the definitive Ryu fireball-and-uppercut character and she’s also the designated Japanese character. Amanda serves as the game’s grappling powerhouse by adopting Zangief’s heavy wrestling throws, albeit relocated to a Brazilian stage. Like Chin-Li, Nina utilizes a rapid-mashing kick mechanic. Martha mirrors Cammy’s English origins and forward-advancing specials. Bella borrows T. Hawk’s Native American aesthetic while utilizing a mash-activated charge reminiscent of Blanka. The odd one out is Medusa, but you could say that she occupies the long-range zoning role of Dhalsim.
However, despite the similarities to Street Fighter II characters on paper, the way in which the actual moves are executed in Strip Fighter II are incredibly unconventional, even bordering on downright bizarre. Strip Fighter II supports the 6-button PC-Engine controller, which would be perfect for a fighting game, but it’s woefully underutilized.
There are technically light, medium, and heavy punches/kicks, but there is little functional difference between the three strengths of punches and kicks. Additionally, most special moves in the game only require a heavy punch or a heavy kick. As such, there is little reason to use the other four buttons, rendering them largely redundant. This only serves to “strip” away much of the nuance a fighting game should have.
But that’s not even the most bizarre part. Several characters rely on a “triple-tap” or “double-tap” movement inputs to activate special movies. It’s not uncommon for a double tap to dash a character forward and backward in a fighting game, but that’s not what I’m talking about. On both Martha and Nina, tapping forward three times unleashes a powerful special move. You can cheese through the game pretty easily with Nina because of this. Similarly, some of Bella’s special moves require a double-tap mid-jump.
Strip Fighter II Fulfils Its Purpose
If you are booting up Strip Fighter II looking for the deep, frame-perfect play of a classic Capcom or SNK fighting game, you are going to be severely disappointed. It’s clunky, it’s slow, and the control scheme is a clown fiesta. It’s a fighting game where the mechanical nuance was “stripped” away in favor of monkey brain neuron activation.
Yet, it’s impossible to completely write Strip Fighter II off as just another piece of adult shovelware. Against all odds, Strip Fighter II accomplished exactly what it set out to do. It managed to outshine the endless sea of low-effort Strip Mahjong slop by wrapping its adult content in a visually impressive, albeit mechanically broken, 16-bit fighting game package. And also against all odds, Games Express somehow managed to birth a bonafide (using this term loosely) fighting game franchise that is still kicking over three decades later.
It might be broken, it might be a blatant cash grab, and it might even be downright disgusting to you, but it’s still kind of fun. And isn’t that the point?
