Through the use of a hack, one YouTube user has created a video highlighting the wild differences between Street Fighter 2's original bosses and their later playable incarnations. The classic fighting game's bosses - Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison - are now franchise staples, but began as unplayable boss characters players could only challenge by beating up the main cast of the game's eight characters. One recent tool changes that, making these Street Fighter 2 bosses playable.
Street Fighter 2's original bosses were well known for their difficulty, and not being able to practice against them with another player makes that challenge even tougher to overcome. With a hack called "Street Fighter 2 Plus Plus," this changes, making the boxer, clawed warrior, Muay Thai expert, and dictator playable for the first time in their debut game. With this hack in place, players are able to finally see "how the sausage is made," with the Street Fighter bosses' fight mechanics on full display.
Fighting game Youtube video creator "desk" did a deep dive into this hacked version of the game, listing off the limitations and gameplay quirks of these now-playable boss characters. Not only are these bosses missing special moves that would define them in later Street Fighter games, but three out of four of them are missing one very basic mechanic: the ability to throw.
In addition to his wall-crawling Izuna Drop, the bullfighting Spanish ninja also has an aerial throw, giving him two different throws to work with compared to the other bosses' pitiful zero. Other than the lack of throws, all the bosses have one big weakness that can be exploited as well. Special moves such as M. Bison's Psycho Crusher have frames where they can be attacked for bonus damage. There's a risk/reward factor here, as these frames are tied to each boss's strongest attack. The bosses don't have a lot of what players might consider "buffs," but there are things there that would lately get ironed out in future releases. The most interesting of these would also fall to M. Bison, whose classic Double Knee Press isn't a special move, but a basic kick.
With the bosses making their first playable appearance in the arcade classic's first revision, 1992's Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition, there are plenty of other ways to play as the classic game's big bads. But if players are curious about the ins and outs of the game that kicked off the 90s fighting game boom, this hack is definitely worth looking into.