| Street Smart | |
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Japanese arcade flyer of Street Smart. |
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| Developer(s) | SNK (Arcade) Treco (Genesis/Mega Drive) |
| Publisher(s) | SNK (Arcade) Sega (Genesis/Mega Drive) |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Mega Drive/Genesis |
| Release date(s) | Arcade 1989 Genesis/Mega Drive 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Fighting game/Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | 1 or 2 players |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Display | Horizontal Raster |
Street Smart (ストリートスマート) is a 1989 beat 'em up arcade game developed and published by SNK. The game's objective is to win money, girls and glory on the streets. It is notorious for its level of difficulty requiring a great deal of brawling before the player's opponents go down. It is also notable by North Americans for being one of the earliest arcade games to show the anti-drug slogan, "Winners Don't Use Drugs".
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The gameplay resembles some beat 'em ups that predate it like Technōs Japan's 1986 Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun and 1987 Double Dragon arcade games, where the player can move in all eight directions in an arena fight and the player can kick, punch or do special moves. Unlike most beat 'em ups however, the players fight in an enclosed arena space, which makes it also resemble Taito's 1985 Onna Sansirou - Typhoon Gal. The player can choose to fight either as "Karate-Man", a martial arts expert with lightning quick moves, or "Wrestler" (sometimes known as "Crusher") with a powerful punch. Street Smart contributes to the genre by adding co-operative multiplayer for team battles against boss characters; however, the players will always have a "Grudge Match" in the next round to determine who gets a bonus life/points, but the two players can play through the entire game together. It also contributes to the genre by adding a simple combo system that is the first of its kind, which players can make normal moves become part of a string of combos, much like in some beat 'em ups that predate it.
This arcade game was ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1991. The port was developed by Treco and published by Sega, which uses fewer colors and uses the top and bottom black frames to compensate for the large sprites animating on screen. However, the game implements a betting system where players can win money for winning a fight or throwing one (Similar to the later PSP game The Con) as well as a new last boss. The Genesis/Mega Drive port also lacks the two players vs. the CPU mode (two players only fought onscreen in the "Grudge Match" after each taking turns against a CPU opponent). This was done due to memory limitations of the cartridge at the time. In the Genesis/Mega Drive port, "Karate Man" wears a red outfit instead of white. Both characters are also given a new spinning "power move" that can take an enemy down in one hit (by pressing all three buttons at once) but reduces the player's health. There are three endings to the game, depending upon if the players are broke or not when the final boss is defeated. Should players be "broke" the final image is that of the players in rags, sitting in the gutter. Attaining a respectable amount of money will see the character well dressed, in a fashionable car with an attractive girlfriend. If the character earns an outstanding amount of money (usually gained by gambling all winnings on the player to win before each round), he is shown as a made man with four girls, in an apartment full of money. A final difference between the Genesis/Mega Drive port and the arcade game, is in the console version's ability to grant the player "points" at the end of each successful match that can be assigned to character attributes. The player can gain a larger lifebar, greater speed or power, for example, so that their character will be much more deadly by the end of the game than at the beginning.
The original arcade version was later included in the 20-game compilation follow-up of SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1, titled as SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 0, which was released in Japan on April 27, 2011.
The background music heard in the first stage was later reused as the two-player battle theme for SNK's 1991 fighting game Fatal Fury for the Neo Geo.