Street Fighter II's been an integral part of popular culture ever since it first arrived way back in 1991.
The unusual character designs, the immersive backgrounds, the music - they've all become pretty much the blueprint for how fighting games work to this day, and with something this groundbreaking, you'd imagine it all sprung from a fertile imagination, right?
As noticed by Dennis Zopfi on Twitter, a lot of the background designs were borrowed - no, let's be honest, RIPPED - from a '70s movie directed by Walter Hill and starring Charles Bronson called Hard Times. Don't believe us?
So I'm watching the 1975 movie Hard Times with Charles Bronson, being an underground fighter.
And I recognise two #StreetFighter 2 stages, on a dock and one in a factory. Ken and Zangief's SF2 stage, this can't be a coincidence 😲@StreetFighter @CapcomFighters pic.twitter.com/4A9nrhCCf0— Horizon Zero Dennis 🗿 (@GG_DennisZopfi) March 18, 2018
Needless to say, you can't trust anything on the internet so we decided to check it out for ourselves to either prove or refute the theory. Here's one fight from the film. Take a look at the setting. Wire-mesh fences around a ring in a factory.
Now look at Zangief's stage.
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It's not just Zangief's stage either. Here's another scene from the movie that takes place on a pier in front of a rickety old boat.
Look familiar? That's because it's this.
If that wasn't enough to convince you, the movie itself was released in Japan under an alternate title - The Street Fighter. Yes, really.
So, yes, as it turns out, everything we've ever thought about Street Fighter II is a lie and all those years spent perfecting the Shoryuken have been a waste of time.
Via Twitter
