Street Fighter Alpha 2 (also known as Street Fighter Zero 2) is a 1996 fighting game originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware by Capcom, and later ported to the SNES. Israel has found some beta SFA2 screens for the SNES/SFC version. These were published in the “Club Nintendo” magazine in Mexico.
According to the magazine, SFZ2 was going to include “an special chip to aid in data an sprite processing to make the game more fluid”. The description matches Nintendo’s SA-1 chip but there are no confirmations if it was going to be an SA-1 game.
There is some evidence that it could have been the case, thought:
1. The characters seem to be bigger in the beta, at least in the Rolent vs Vega shot. In the Sakura vs Sakura shot you can tell by the size of her thighs.
2. In the final build, the shadows flickered while in the beta they don’t (both can be seen in the shots). Why is this relevant? In the finalized game the flicker doesn’t look good. Why didn’t they just leave them like in the beta?
Israel thinks that they were indeed aiming towards a SA-1 cartridge but late in the development cycle they switched to a SA-1 + S-DD1 because of space constrains and maybe in the last few weeks decided to settle for a S-DD1 only cart due to costs concerns.
The screenshots were published in August 1996 so that means the the screenshots were taken in June or July. SFA2 was released in November so it must have gone gold in October at least.
Some differences noticed in the screenshots:
- The game used to have a custom font for the character names. This was changed to a default SNES font.
- Win icons were red (Sakura vs Sakura screenshot)
- Shadows didn’t flicker, both are visible in the screenshots.
- Characters seem to be a little bigger than their final iterations.
Thanks to Israel for the contribution!
Images:
What do you think about this unseen game? Give your vote!
Would you like to add more info, screens or videos to this page? Add a comment below!
- Dragonkind [XBOX/PS2 – Cancelled] - 02-12-2023
- Damnation: Hell Breaks Loose [PC – Prototype] - 07-10-2023
- Marvel 2099 : One Nation Under Doom [PC, PSX – Cancelled] - 03-06-2023
By using an Action Replay code it is possible to unlock Shin Akuma as a selectable character (7E1C2714 for player 1, 7E1C4F14 for player 2). Why Nintendo did not include this as an ingame code like the PSX/Saturn versions is beyond me. I discovered this after watching YouTube videos of Shin Akuma SNES combos.
http://www.romnation.net/srv/download/rom/42676/snes/Street-Fighter-Alpha-2-U.html
Is that a link to this particular beta version?
That is ridiculous, as to why Shin Akuma has to be selected via Action Replay.
Well, i have a Club Nintendo Chile magazine from 1996, where i found very interesing things about the history of this port; before the E3 ’96, CAPCOM told to this guys her last game was be a Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior’s Dream port, but then in the EXPO they told her very last game gonna be a Marvel Super Heroes port. Finally, when they back from the Expo CAPCOM finally said her final games are Marvel Super Heroes: War of Gems and the Street Fighter Alpha 2 port.
So, my questions are; is that info real? there would exist a SFA:WD beta or alpha from the SNES? Is this beta of SFA2 avaliable somewhere? Well, maybe we never know. But al least, we have sites like U64 who reveal some mysteries about the unpublished, cancelled or beta videogames. Who konws, maybe the nest time i visit this page, 1 of my questions could be answered ;)
Thanks for the info and greetings!
We would need an expert about Street Fighter to really know about those rumors.. or maybe try to ask to someone that worked at Capcom in those years :O Untill then..
The screenshot with Chunli & Nash also appeared in an issue of EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) back in the summer of 1996 in the special article about the home ports of SFA2.
Thanks a lot for the info Roger! I’ll try to find out a scan of that EGM :O
you should take a look at:
https://eludevisibility.org/2018/street-fighter-zero-2-japan-prototype
there’s also a file so you can test it.