I'm passionate about video game archaeology—like Indiana Jones, but without the canibals and gaining weight comfortably at home. That's why this time we unearth "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior" and expose a bug that, if used correctly, breaks a level of the game quite rudely. We're talking about the unstoppable combo glitch that completely drains the health of one of the fighters of Capcom's classic (even if it's full).
Because these combos require a lot of skill to pull off successfully, and they only work against Vega (the one with the claws), this bug could go unnoticed by most mortals (myself included) until now. Today, 26 years after the game's release, a brave soul finally took charge of reproducing, recording, and uploading them to YouTube, in a video with never-before-seen hits.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/uztcMs6A_I4How the Glitch Works
The bug in question, as already mentioned, only works against the claw-loving and flamenco character: the agile Vega (known as Balrog in Japan). It happens that Vega can still be attacked while falling to the ground, if he is knocked down by a particular type of hit at specific points on the screen. This allows you to keep connecting hits ad infinitum, until his health bar is completely empty.
As the user Desk explains in the video description: "I spent a lot of time testing combos of what could be done with this glitch against a 'CPU-controlled dummy.'"
"Simply there was no other way to do it, since the four boss characters are not playable in SF2:WW. This means I had to slowly learn how to manipulate the actions of the CPU-controlled Vega. These combos require a lot of precision to take advantage of the glitch, you have to measure Vega's steps at specific points on the screen. This manipulation of the artificial intelligence was vital."
Why It Wasn't a Big Deal
As you can see, no matter how serious the bug was, it didn't cause too much trouble for players of the classic Capcom fighting game. First, because it was (and is) very difficult to exploit. Second, because it could only be used against a character that was not playable in SF2:WW, so it could not be exploited in multiplayer. That's why the one receiving the unfair beatings was the CPU. No human being was harmed during this bug.
