Street Fighter 2010

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Street Fighter 2010
Developer(s) Capcom
Publisher(s) Capcom
Release date(s) Flag of Japan JPN August 3, 1990
Flag of United States USA August 8, 1990
Genre(s) Beat 'em up, Platform game
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) Pre-ESRB
Platform(s) NES
Media 6-megabit cartridge
Input joystick, two buttons
Street Fighter 2010
Street Fighter 2010

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight (2010 -ストリートファイター- Ni Maru Ichi Maru Sutorito Faita?), is a 1990 action platform game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game is a futuristic themed action game where the player takes control of a cybernetically enhanced fighter who must fight against a breed of alien and mutant creatures in a series of boss battles. While not actually related to Capcom's Street Fighter series, the game is notable for its English localization, which changed the main character's identity and backstory from Kevin to Ken to imply that he is the same Ken from the original Street Fighter.

Contents

[edit] Story

Humankind sought a new land to claim. They began immigrating to other worlds. In this society made up of humans and aliens, atrocious crimes were committed. Thus began one of humanity’s darkest times...

The criminals were able to harness the incredible power of many cyborgs... but in 2010 AD, creatures called "parasites" with much more destructive power appeared. These parasites would merge with a body, causing it to grow a beetle-like shell of armor, and so bring forth considerably more power.

To confront this situation, the galaxy police sent the cyborg officer Kevin Striker. His orders are to destroy the parasites and gather their power, which would open a dimensional gate to the next area, though the gate would only remain open for 10 seconds, after which it'd close and Kevin would die. With this in mind, he sets out on his mission.

The U.S. manual states that the parasites (called in it a virus) was actually created by a society of scientists to make humans stronger and resistant to any climate, but it had gotten out of control. This fits with the Japanese version's introduction.

[edit] Main Characters

[edit] Kevin Striker

Kevin is a cyborg cop in the year 2010 AD in service of the Galaxy Police (Grave Crimes division), codenamed Type Valentine MX-5 (MX-5 for short). Armed with an energy bullet, his mission is to erradicate out of control parasites and their mutated hosts, gather their power, and proceed through to the next world.

Feeling pain everytime he gets hurt (something he shouldn't feel as a cyborg) and that "something is crawling around inside of him", he finds out ultimately that he is one of the parasites himself. Dr. Joseph, who was one of the researches behind the parasites, had created Kevin in order to use him as a weapon to control the universe, led along this path to gain more and more power. Refusing to be used in such a manner, he fights against the doctor, and then is left to ponder his fate.

At the end of the game, he receives a message from headquarters, telling him Earth is being overrun by terrorist cyborgs. Debating the matter in his mind for a moment, he chooses to continue fighting, and returns to Earth.

[edit] Dr. Joseph

He is responsible for the development of the parasites in order to create the strongest living body. Hinted in game to be related to Kevin, it's quite possible he's Kevin's father, and at the very least wiped some of his memories. He sees little use in trying to use his ideas for good, instead turning them to evil to try and take over the universe. His main means to accomplish such, Kevin, refuses to join with him, and Joseph ultimately mutates himself into a monster to try and destroy Kevin, before his creation puts an end to him.

In the US version of the game, it was he storyline wise that killed Troy and stole the "cyboplasm". Oddly, while Kevin's story was drastically changed, Joseph's was not as much, and direct conversations between himself and Kevin are more similar to the original japanese storyline for the game on the whole.

[edit] Localization Issues

Box art of the japanese game
Box art of the japanese game

Street Fighter 2010 was released in August of 1990 in Japan and in the United States the following month, but due to changes between versions much confusion surrounds the game's transition from Japan to the U.S. It has been widely reported that Street Fighter 2010 was not a Street Fighter game upon its original release and that Capcom U.S.A. added the Street Fighter name when it came out in the U.S. to capitalize on the franchise's growing popularity. This account is not true: The game carried the same title in both countries for the most part (though the title may very well be 2010: Street Fighter, given the order of the text). The sub title "The Final Fight", however, WAS added by Capcom USA.

To cash in on the Street Fighter name some more, Capcom USA went out of their way to change the story, and change Kevin's name to Ken. According to the US game's intro, Ken turned himself into a cyborg to make up for the gap between his time as "king of the street fighter circuit" to now (a gap of exactly 25 years given by the game, which would have meant Ken had won the first Street Fighter tournament, when it was actually Ryu that had done so according to the later Street Fighter II storyline). The character's story was further altered to have him as the creator of the "cyboplasm" responsible for the mutants in the game, and a dead partner named Troy. The story from the U.S. version is shown below for comparison's sake:

"Ken had no interest in the Frontier, until his partner Troy was killed. Someone had broken into their lab, stolen their invention, and left Troy as a mere puddle of jelly on the floor. Even though it's been 25 years since Ken was king of the street fighting circuit, it's nothing a few good bionics can't fix.

Fortunately for him, the killer's path is very easy to trace. Every Frontier world the killer visited became quickly infested by the "cyboplasm" Ken and Troy had developed. In small doses, it gave people the strength they needed to remain alive, but an overdose and the cyboplasm would come alive, taking over the host's mind and body, turning them into mindless, violent mutants."

Although many games have been released that take place in the Street Fighter universe, no other game in the series references any element of Street Fighter 2010, leading to the possibility that the game has been retconned out of the official canon entirely. Furthering this problem, the rewrite by Capcom USA has resulted in a lot of confusion over the years, with many people believing that this was indeed Ken, and not realizing this is a separate character entirely, and a very separate game.

[edit] References


In other languages