Feature: Silver Screen: Street Fighter 2 The Animated Movie (360)

As soon as the opening credits appear you’re treated to the start of a great soundtrack, musically everything about the movie is brilliant. From the orchestrated music to hearing Them Bones by Alice in Chains as Ken drives his Ferrari in the countryside. The first sequence is of a short fight between Sagat and Ryu and from here you really start to understand why the movie has been emblazoned with the 15 certificate. The origin of Sagat’s scar explained as a fierce dragon punch makes a fountain of blood appear from his chest.

It all gets even more grittier with cursing in frequent use and the now infamous Chun Li shower scene. Yes, Chun Li gets her chest out in a lovely way to please those crazy Japanese types who love nothing more than animated breasts. All leading up to one of the best fights in the movie when Vega shows up and I’m sure the director had a reason for Chun Li to be wearing next to nothing in this scene. As absurd as all this is it never detracts from an interesting story that does a fantastic job of threading together each fighters personal story into one.

Naturally M.Bison is the villain of the piece accompanied by his ever trustworthy threesome of Vega, Balrog and Sagat. Leader of the Shadaloo criminal organisation his master plan is to kidnap the worlds best fighters and turn them into his slaves. He wants Ryu, but settles with Ken leading to a climactic battle between the two shoto specialists. While this was certainly never going to win awards for acting the voices do capture each characters personality perfectly. We have the gruff voice of Guile, the sarcastic Ken and not to mention the well defined vocals of Dhalsim.

Unfortunately, any form of special edition doesn’t seem to exist. So no extras apart from a few trailers and due to the age of the movie expect these to be the same stuff released on any Manga movie ever during the 90’s (Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll to name just a few). However do make sure you opt for the uncut version. Most notably the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection on Xbox claims to come with the full uncut edition of the movie, which is just a bare faced lie. Blood is cut, nudity gone and the swearing has all been dubbed over. So the basic, red boxed DVD is all that’s available if you want the purest experience.

Without the limitations of a budget and not to mention getting a cast that can both act and look similar to the characters they’re portraying makes an animated movie a perfect proposition when it comes to an adaptation. This is not just recommended for fans of the game, but also those that love their anime.

Words by Adam Gulliver