The idea that arcade versions of certain games are harder to optimize revenue isn't new, but there are several titles that go to the extreme of cheating to take all your coins. One of the most blatant examples is Street Fighter II. Unblockable hits, moments of invincibility, shorter recovery times, and attacks at impossible speeds are just a few of the dirty tricks the game uses.

Street Fighter 2 Cheats!
Street Fighter II

I admit I can beat the first Mortal Kombat on its highest difficulty (nothing too weird or elegant), but Mortal Kombat 2 in arcade edition... is another story. I always suspected that the game cheated, connecting hits and moves impossible to reproduce with the controls. Once Kitana entered berserk mode with her damn fan, game over. Anyone can understand that the goal of arcade machines is to make money, but at the same time we expect a legitimate challenge, something that makes us come back for more again and again.

Now, if there is a particularly frustrating game when it comes to cheating, it's Street Fighter II. The Desk YouTube channel is dedicated to teaching broken combos, strategies, and other resources for the most popular fighting games, but this time it decided to return to the classic that is Street Fighter 2... and demonstrate that it cheats:

Street Fighter 2 is a Cheater

  • The first case is a sort of God mode. When two human players face off, attacks connect exactly as expected, but against the CPU, they are arbitrarily ignored.
  • Next, we have changes when a character is stunned. In Street Fighter 2, the CPU recovers in just twelve frames (0.2 seconds), while in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, that time drops to three frames.
  • The third example takes us to the one- or two-second charge that certain special moves require. Apparently, that charge isn't necessary when the CPU controls the characters, because it executes all those moves with extreme ease.
  • The fourth case of cheating in Street Fighter II is mashing. Several attacks per second (something we can't do with our normal controls) and no chance to escape doom the player to lose that round. Blanka's bite? A machine gun.
  • Finally, we have attacks that are impossible to block. The player does the right thing and sets up a good defense, but the CPU launches the hit and connects anyway, which doesn't happen in PvP.

Desk's video is excellent, and it wouldn't be a bad thing if it became a series, but even better are the comments. From "Capcom owes me a couple of Super Nintendo controllers" to "throwing my Sega Genesis from a fourth floor was justified," humor and frustration go hand in hand.