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Street Fighter

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This article is about the fighting game series. For the motorcycle, see Street Fighter (motorcycle). For the sport, see street fighting. For the Japanese martial arts movie, see The Street Fighter.
Screenshot of Street Fighter (arcade).

Street Fighter (abbreviated SF) is a popular series of fighting games where the players pit combatants from around the world, each with his or her own special moves, against one another. The first game in the series was released by Capcom in 1987.

Series synopsis

Street Fighter made little impact when it was first released. However, it had a novel control system which involved a joystick and two large hydraulic buttons, where the force of the button press determined the strength of the punch or kick, with three varying strengths of both punches and kicks. Many of these machines, because of players' tendencies to hit the buttons too hard and damage the controls, were retooled to using more traditional buttons, thus giving way to the six-button layout that would be the standard for Street Fighter games to come. This game also introduced the trademark special moves of the Fireball (Hadouken), Dragon Punch (Shoryuken), and Hurricane Kick (Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku); Note that Hadouken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku do not translate into the misnomers they are today, thanks to Capcom of America/USA. In fact, they translate directly as Surge Fist, Dragon Fist, and Whirling Leg Kick. Also, however, they are notoriously much more difficult to perform at will than in the sequel, because they could easily knock out an opponent in one or three hits, which would seriously disrupt game balance. In this game, only Ryu or Ken were playable characters (depending on which side of the cabinet the player plays), and there were ten enemies to defeat, distributed in five countries:

Despite its relative obscurity, it had some of the feature that were improved on its sequel, and many of these characters appeared on the subsequent games.

File:Street Fighter 2.png
Street Fighter II (arcade).

Street Fighter II was one of the most popular games of the early 1990s. It is widely acknowledged as the premier fighting game of its era, and perhaps to date, due to its game balance with regard to the timing of attacks and blocks, which was unparalleled at the time; and due to its interesting (and subsequently widely copied) "combo" system in which experienced players could execute complex fighting moves (now known as special moves) by moving the joystick and tapping the buttons in certain combinations. These complicated fighting moves were given names, such as the Dragon Punch and the Hurricane Kick, which provided a framework for players to have conversations about their games. The game features eight fighters that players can choose from Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, Guile, E. Honda, and Chun-Li), plus four bosses (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison). It was followed by a slew of other games of similar design, some by Capcom, some by other companies. One of the most well-known early competitors to Street Fighter II was Mortal Kombat, followed shortly afterwards by Virtua Fighter. SNK also created a few series that borrowed, to varying degrees, from Street Fighter II, but enabled them to develop a reputation for fighting games similar to Capcom's; Art of Fighting, King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury are the three most notable examples.

Capcom created an update to Street Fighter II called Street Fighter II': Champion Edition. In this update, the four bosses were playable. It also was the first fighting game to have same character matches.

After Street Fighter II': Champion Edition, many modified bootlegged versions of the game were released by certain distributors. Many arcades (even large corporate owned ones) embraced these bootlegs. The bootlegs were widely distributed until Capcom released its answer to the bootlegs: Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

Among the notable features of the bootleg versions were:

  • The added ability for players to change characters partway through a match.
  • The ability for characters to perform special moves in the air as if the character was on the ground.
  • Simplification of certain special moves (IE: no charge for charged moves).
  • Faster game pace.
  • Adding new moves to certain characters, some of which were incorporated into Turbo.

In 1993, Capcom released another version of the game, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. As the subtitle implies, four new characters were added; Fei Long, Cammy, Dee Jay, and T. Hawk. The Super in the title suggested to gamers the graphical enhancements possible due to the new hardware the game ran on. Among these were redrawn character portraits for the returning characters, 8 available colors for each character's costume, and new animations, such as new attacks for the bosses such as Vega and Balrog, new special moves such as a Red Fireball for Ryu and a Flaming Dragon Punch for Ken, and a new fireball animation for Chun-Li (whose old animation was one of her standing punches with a blue-colored Yoga Fire, but who now had a fan-pleasing pose in which she stuck out her rear to throw the fireball).

In 1994 came Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which was originally released in the arcade & later on the 3DO, featured enhanced speed, difficulty, and a remixed soundtrack. It also featured a new character, Akuma, who had not only inherited all of Ryu and Ken's special moves, but could also produce a fireball in the air, and could perform a very powerful super move called the Shun Goku Satsu (literally means Instant Hell Murder a.k.a. The Raging Demon). It was also the first game in the series to have super combos. Because of these new features and its superb game balance and classic cast of characters, it remains a fan favorite in the series to this day, and it is still played in many tournaments. The game was released in the Street Fighter Collection sets for the Sega Saturn and PlayStation. It was released later for the Sega Dreamcast with an online matching service feature, but only in Japan. In 2001, a graphically simplified version of the game was released for the Game Boy Advance under the title Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Revival.

In 1995, a prequel of Street Fighter II and sequel of Street Fighter was introduced, called Street Fighter Alpha (Street Fighter Zero in Japan). It was followed by two sequels, Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Zero 2 in Japan) in 1996 and Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Zero 3 in Japan) in 1998. Street Fighter Alpha had improved graphics compared to the Street Fighter II series and introduced a super combo gauge similar to that in the fighting game series, Darkstalkers. The graphics have a heavy anime influence, and the series attempts to explain more of the characters' backstories as well as introducing new ones. The console ports of Street Fighter Alpha 3 are notable in that several characters not in the original arcade release, are included as extra fighters, making it into a consummate 'best-of-Street-Fighter' game, as well as further bridging the gap between SF1 and SF2.

A 3D version of the series, Street Fighter EX, was released in the arcades in 1996 and developed by the company Arika. It was later followed by two sequels, Street Fighter EX 2 and Street Fighter EX 3.

The long-waited sequel Street Fighter III was released in 1997. The game introduced a high number of animation frames meaning the graphics had smoother animation compared to the previous Street Fighter games. In addition, the game had the total of eleven playable characters with nine new characters and two returning characters, Ryu and Ken. The Street Fighter III game also received two more updates called Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact - Giant Attack and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - Fight For The Future which expanded the character roster and added new gameplay elements such as new fighting moves.

Adaptations for other media

The series has inspired several movies. Street Fighter (with Jean Claude Van Damme), Street Fighter II: The Movie (Japan, Animated) and Street Fighter Alpha (Japan, Animated). There is also Street Fighter (a USA animated series), and Street Fighter II V (an anime series). A Hong Kong movie version was also released in 1993 called Chao ji xue xiao ba wang [1] roughly translated School King (and aka Future Cops), but it was an "unofficial" adaption so the characters name was heavily changed (one notable play on word is E. Honda is changed to Toyota). Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung are in this movie, which was directed by Hong Kong sleaze director Wong Jing (famous for his God of Gambler trilogy).

In terms of literature, there have been various Street Fighter books and comics produced, including a role playing game adaptation released by White Wolf in 1994. In 2005, UDON translated Street Fighter: Eternal Challenge. This is the first SF history and art book written in English. UDON is currently producing a Street Fighter comic as well.

Software piracy

This game has been ported illegally to the Famicom in Asia. It has appeared in several multicarts in China. One of the more popular titles was known as Master Fighter, that had several sequels.

One of the versions of this game that appeared on a multicart had Mario in it which has Zangief's skills (Super Mario Fighter III).

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Street Fighter.

Template:Major Street Fighter Characters

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