An early Street Fighter spinoff (released just a year before Street Fighter II made the series popular) that attempted to predict how street fighting would've evolved 20 years into the future.
Contrary to popular belief, the English version of Street Fighter 2010 was actually developed before the Japanese version despite its allegedly later release. Evidence for this can be found on the internal data from the Japanese ROM, which contains leftover text string from the English opening at offset 0x158EE, as well as the graphic for the game's subtitle, which went unused in the Japanese version. Moreover, the Japanese manual features a screenshot from the English version of the vs. screen at page 16.
The two versions are identical graphically and mechanically, with the only differences between them being the title screen, the name of the protagonist, the language used for the cutscenes and the addition of a staff roll for the Japanese version. However, the story for the two versions differ significantly. Whereas the American version tries to pass itself off as a futuristic sequel to the original Street Fighter starring Ken as a scientist turned cyborg seeking to avenge the death of his lab partner, the Japanese version made the protagonist into a new character named Kevin, a cyborg employed by the Galaxy Police tasked with annihilating a breed of creatures known as Parasites.
Because of the English version's earlier development, it is unclear if the identity change was made on the Japanese side or the American side due to the lack of any official statement from the original developers.
The U.S. version is subtitled The Final Fight, namedropping yet another Capcom game (that was incidentally planned as a Street Fighter spinoff as well). The Japanese version changes the coloring of the Street Fighter logo and omits the subtitle, likely to avoid confusion with the Super Famicom conversion of the actual Final Fight that would be released four months later. Because of this, the "TM" mark is placed on an unusual position next to an empty space.
The Japanese title screen credits a company called Status (ステイタス) on the copyrights text. This was a Capcom subsidiary that was also involved with the first Breath of Fire and the Super NES version of Magic Sword. Apparently it was an insurance company established in 1950 that Capcom bought at some point and used as a shell company for some of their games to get around Nintendo's publishing restrictions. Status was later dissolved in 2004.
The text scrawl is significantly shorter in the Japanese version and as a result, the opening music isn't played fully (although they make up for this by using it again for the ending credits). The Japanese text scrawl also displays the title as "2010 Street Fighter", despite the text string being stored in the same order as the American version at offset 0x16E3E.
English
Japanese
Transcript
Translation
STREET FIGHTER
2010
THE FINAL FIGHT
2010
STREET FIGHTER
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
KEN HAD NO INTEREST IN
THE FRONTIER. THEN HIS
PARTNER TROY WAS KILLED.
SOMEONE BROKE INTO THEIR
LAB， STOLE THEIR
INVENTION， AND LEFT TROY
AS A PILE OF JELLY ON
THE FLOOR. IT'S BEEN 25
YEARS SINCE KEN WAS KING
OF THE STREET FIGHTER
CIRCUIT， BUT THAT'S
NOTHING SOME GOOD
BIONICS CAN'T FIX.
FORTUNATELY， THE
KILLER'S PATH IS PRETTY
EASY TO TRACE。 EVERY
FRONTIER WORLD THE
KILLER VISITED BECAME
QUICKLY INFESTED BY TROY
AND KEN'S REMARKABLE
CYBOPLASM。 IN SMALL
DOSES， IT CAN GIVE
PEOPLE THE EXTRA
STRENGTH THEY NEED TO
REMAIN ALIVE. IN LARGE
DOSES， IT COMES ALIVE
AND TAKES OVER THE BODY
AND MIND OF ITS HOST，
TURNING THEM INTO
VIOLENT， MINDLESS
SUPERMEN OR， IN SOME
CASES， SUPERALIENS.
ONLY THE SKILLS OF A
STREET FIGHTER CAN PASS
THIS GAUNTLET AND
DESTROY THE EVIL FIEND
RESPONSIBLE. AND KEN
WILL AVENGE HIS FRIEND'S
DEATH IF IT IS THE LAST
THING HE DOES.
“MX5， WE HAVE ADDED A
PERSONAL TELEPORTER TO
YOUR BIONICS. IT
REQUIRES A GREAT DEAL OF
ENERGY SO YOU WILL HAVE
TO MOVE IN SMALL JUMPS.
DESTROY TARGETS IN EACH
AREA AND COLLECT THEIR
ENERGY. WHEN YOU HAVE
ENOUGH POWER， THE
INTERDIMENSIONAL DOOR
WILL OPEN AUTOMATICALLY.”
The cutscene prior to the final boss battle differs significantly between the two versions in the order that the images are shown. Also, the antagonist gets an additional last line in the Japanese version.
English
Japanese
Transcript
Translation
“WELCOME KEN.”
「ようこそ，我 最高けっさくケビン。」
“TROY?!”
「最高けっさくだと...。」
“OF COURSE。 WHO ELSE
COULD CONTROL THE
CYBOPLASM. I CAN CAUSE
PAIN IN ALL MY VICTIMS，
JUST AS I'VE BEEN
CAUSING PAIN IN YOU.”
The Japanese version proceeds to a credits sequence after the ending cutscene following the final shot of Kevin jumping to Earth.
STAFF
PROGRAMMER
H.M.D.
MOE
YOSHILIM
ACTOR CREATER
BENGIE
LUCKY.M
TAMA
SCENE CREATER
TADATCHIN
NOBURIN
MUSIC DIRECTOR
TAMIE
PLANNER
MIATA YAMAMOTO
EXCLUSIVE PRODUCER
PROFESSOR F.
SPECIAL THANKS
SCOTT
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!
PRESENTED BY
CAPCOM
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