the Alpha/Zero and EX series did that (Alpha 3 on PSX made you work a little bit to unlock the PSX exclusive characters/forms), then there was also CvS and some of the Marvel games, but that was mixed in with a point and shop system I think.
Alpha games had characters unlockable from the select screen with codes, usually intentionally unbalanced ones. I guess I wasn’t thinking of CVS or Marvel in that bucket as well, and EX was from a different developer. The real model for unlocking new characters in the old Street Fighter games was to put out a new edition of it, like Hyper Fighting or Super Turbo, that came with balance and mechanics changes, which meant you had to buy the entire game over again instead of just the characters.
Alpha 3 on Playstation made you work a bit on the tour mode to unlock Guile, Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma (raise a character to level xyz). Shin Bison might also have only been selectable after beating him somewhere.
the Alpha/Zero and EX series did that (Alpha 3 on PSX made you work a little bit to unlock the PSX exclusive characters/forms), then there was also CvS and some of the Marvel games, but that was mixed in with a point and shop system I think.
Alpha games had characters unlockable from the select screen with codes, usually intentionally unbalanced ones. I guess I wasn’t thinking of CVS or Marvel in that bucket as well, and EX was from a different developer. The real model for unlocking new characters in the old Street Fighter games was to put out a new edition of it, like Hyper Fighting or Super Turbo, that came with balance and mechanics changes, which meant you had to buy the entire game over again instead of just the characters.
Alpha 3 on Playstation made you work a bit on the tour mode to unlock Guile, Evil Ryu, Shin Akuma (raise a character to level xyz). Shin Bison might also have only been selectable after beating him somewhere.
Fair enough. But to answer the question, I definitely did not remember this, haha.