Street Fighter II: Barrel Drop

The Context: You hate M. Bison. I don't care which character is being played, everybody has a reason to defeat this evil dictator. But that doesn't mean the World Warriors can't have a little fun along the way. When not pounding the stuffing out of their competition, our favorite combatants can use their fireballs, shock moves and spinning bird kicks against inanimate objects. But don't blink, because like the original Street Fighter, these bonus stages are over in well under a minute. Beating these bonus stages is key if you plan on unseating "NIN" from the leaderboard.

The Rules: As twenty wooden barrels fall from the ceiling, it is up to the play to destroy every last one before time runs out. The player is scored on each barrel is destroyed, with an additional bonus for not missing a single one. But it's harder than it looks, because some barrels require more than one powerful hit. In a two-player game, each person battles to see who can break the most barrels. Once completed, it's back to the mean streets of hand-to-hand combat.

The Verdict: It may not be the Street Fighter II bonus stage everybody remembers, but this barrel drop is a great two player diversion. You can't go wrong with a giant scoreboard letting each player know how they're doing, especially when it comes to a competitive game like Street Fighter II. Will you two work together to destroy all of the blocks or will this devolve into yet another brawl? The choice is yours in this creative stage. It may not be anything fancy, but the barrel drop is yet another great reason to play through this Capcom arcade classic.

Completely Missing the Point: There's something about his Street Fighter II barrel drop that has always confused me: Who is dropping these barrels on Ryu? I can understand beating up a car and a brick wall, but why would anybody drop wooden barrels from a conveyer belt? For one thing it would take some effort to set everything up, especially if you also have to rig the scoreboards together. It's a lot of work for little payoff. If this was M. Bison's doing, then no wonder these World Warriors are so keen on kicking his butt.