Over time, SFII has sustained a unique cultural reach. Its music is sampled on multi-genre tracks, from a terrible 1994 pop-rap single (which I bought on cassette), to works by Kanye West, the Arctic Monkeys, and Nicki Minaj (whose 2018 single Chun-Li merged empowerment and exotica). Its characters inspired a show-stopping gag in Jackie Chan's Hong Kong action caper City Hunter (1993) as well as the surreally awful Hollywood blockbuster Street Fighter (1994, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia and Kylie Minogue). More recently, they've been referenced in movies including Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and Shazam (2019) – and when SF characters became playable within Fortnite's epic Battle Royale (since 2021), it felt like meeting old friends. Tiger88
top of page
bottom of page