All twelve characters from the previous Street Fighter II games returned, with many having their basic and special techniques refined to adjust the overall balance. Some of the characters received new special techniques such as Ryu's Fire Hadōken (renamed Shakunetsu Hadōken in the Street Fighter Alpha series), a flaming Shoryuken for Ken, Zangief's Atomic Buster and M. Bison's Devil Reverse.

Four new characters were also introduced to the game in addition to the returning roster, expanding the number of playable characters to sixteen. The new characters include T. Hawk, an indigenous warrior from Mexico whose ancestral homeland was taken from him by Shadaloo; Cammy, a 19-year-old female special forces agent from England with a mysterious past tied to M. Bison; Fei Long, a Hong Kong movie star who wishes to test his martial arts against real opponents; and Dee Jay, a kickboxing musician from Jamaica seeking inspiration for his next song.

The number of opponents fought in the single-player mode against the computer remained unchanged. As in the previous game, the player fought against eight initial opponents, followed by the Four Devas (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison). Because of this, not all the characters featured in the game would be fought by the player. The bonus rounds from previous versions were still featured in the game.

Super NES

The Super NES version of Super Street Fighter II, released on June 25, 1994 in Japan, and during the same month in North America and Europe, was the third Street Fighter game released for the console, following the original Street Fighter II and Street Fighter II Turbo (a port of Hyper Fighting). It was released on a 32 Megabit cartridge and featured support for the XBAND online network. The SNES port featured several new game modes such as Group Battle and a Time Challenge, as well as the eight-player Tournament mode from the arcade version, in addition to the previous games' Arcade and Versus modes. Due to hardware limitations, certain music and sound effects were replaced with different renditions. Like in the SNES version of Turbo, the background music stops playing between rounds, and as a result the music restarts from the beginning at the start of each round. Unlike the Genesis version, the SNES port has the blood for the character's beat up portraits removed or replaced with sweat (most likely due to Nintendo's strict policy during the early 90's).

Sega Genesis

The Sega Genesis version was released simultaneously with the SNES counterpart on all three regions. Although there are many differences between the SNES and Genesis ports, the two versions are almost identical in terms of content. Like its SNES counterpart, the Genesis port supported the XBAND network as well (although, only for its North American release). The Genesis version was released on a 40 Megabit cartridge, which allowed the inclusions of voice clips of the game's announcer stating the names of the countries before each match, although the audio quality is not of the same level as the original arcade game. In the Options menu, the player can choose to play the Super Battle mode on "Normal" or "Expert" modes. The latter increases the number of opponents from the arcade version's 12 to all 16 characters. This version has been re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on November 8, 2011, the PAL region on April 12, 2012 and in North America on April 26, 2012.

X68000

The X68000 version was released exclusively in Japan on September 30, 1994. The graphics are reproduced faithfully from the arcade version, with only a few omissions made (the message when a new challenger interrupts a match in 1-Player mode has differently-colored fonts, and the aurora in Cammy's stage is of a different color as well). In terms of voices, all the spatial processing and echo processing specific to the CP System II hardware were removed. Like the X68000 version of Street Fighter II Dash, the game is compatible with multiple PCM drivers on a X683000 or higher models. A message from the game's sound team is hidden in one of the ADPCM sound files containing music. Like the previous X68000 port, it was sold with an adapter for the CPS Fighter joystick controller.

FM Towns

The FM Towns version was released exclusively in Japan on October 28, 1994. The player characters reproduced faithfully from the arcade version, but the backgrounds lack the original's parallax scrolling effect. The Q-Sound soundtrack of the arcade version is reproduced faithfully in this port, with an arranged version offered as an alternative as well (the same version later featured in the 3DO port of Super Turbo). A color edit that allows players to alter each character's color schemes was added as well. Like the X68000 version, it also included an adapter for the CPS Fighter joystick controller.

Other versions

Super Street Fighter II was released for IBM-PC and compatibles (PC CD-ROM) and Amiga in North America and Europe in 1995. Both ports were based on the SNES version.

The game is also included in the original Street Fighter Collection for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, released in 1997. However this version lacks the 8-player tournament that appeared in arcades and on the SNES and Genesis ports.

In the February 1994 issue of Gamest, Super Street Fighter II was nominated for Best Game of 1993, though it was eventually ranked at third. In the category of Best Fighting Games, Super won three more third place prizes in the categories of "Best Fighting Games," "Best Graphics," and "Best VGM." Cammy, who was introduced in Super, placed fifth place in the list of Best Characters of 1993, with Dee Jay and T. Hawk at 36 and 37.

• All About Capcom Head-to-Head Fighting Games 1987-2000. A.A. Game History Series (Vol. 1) (in Japanese). Dempa Publications. Sept. 2000. ISBN 4-88554-676-1.