The third entry in the Street Fighter II series was released in 1992 -the same year as the previous game, Champion Edition. They were only released a few months apart, but Capcom had never planned for this update. The reason why it was made was due to the popularity of the Champion Edition hacks -these bootleg versions contained things such as faster game speed and the ability to do special moves in the air. They had become so popular that they were making more money than the official version in some places. To counter this, Capcom got their lawyers to get the hacked versions removed from arcades, whilst releasing a new version which contained the features of them, albeit in a toned down manner.

The result was Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting, which boasted greatly increased game speed along with several new moves or abilities for most of the characters -Ryu and Ken could do their hurricane kicks in the air, Dhalsim could now teleport and more. But despite these additions, this was seen as a lazy update -the new animation for Chun-Li's fireball consisted of her doing her close fierce punch animation, whilst releasing two blue yoga flame sprites overlapping each other, for example. Some people also didn't like the increased speed, with many struggling to keep up with the new faster pace of the game.

Despite this, the game was still wildly popular and still the best fighting game available in 1992. Ports to the most popular consoles followed, whilst Capcom continued work on a "true" sequel -Super Street Fighter II.