Street Fighter II re-released on new cartridges that might set your SNES on fire
In celebration of the Street Fighter series’ 30th anniversary, Capcom is partnering with the video game collectables company iam8bit to release its most legendary installment, Street Fighter II, on new Super NES cartridges. Costing $100 each and including a bunch of other goodies, like a fancy foil box and a “premium instruction booklet,” these reproduction cartridges are being limited to a 5,500-piece release. 4,500 of those will come in opaque “Ryu Red,” while 1,000 lucky collectors will randomly receive the even more limited glow-in-the-dark “Blanka Green.” They’re currently up for preorder and will be shipping in November.
iam8bit stresses that these cartridges aren’t licensed by Nintendo, which stopped handing out its Seal Of Approval to SNES games nearly 20 years ago. They will be able to run in a real Super NES, though, so they’re theoretically more than just a showpiece. But if you take a look at the store’s product page, you’ll find a wild disclaimer warning that using it in an actual console might be disastrous:
WARNING: Use of this reproduction game cartridge (the “Product”) on the SNES gaming hardware may cause the SNES console to overheat or catch fire. The SNES hardware is deemed a vintage collectible, so please exercise extreme caution when using the Product and make sure there is fire extinguishment equipment nearby. Use of the Product is at the sole risk of the user.
iam8bit is touting this as the first in a “Legacy Cartridge Collection” line, which implies we might be seeing more of these releases in the future, presumably so long as this doesn’t actually set all that many beloved consoles on fire.