Street Fighter
| Street Fighter franchise | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) | Fighting |
| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Various |
| First release | Street Fighter August 30, 1987 |
| Latest release | Street Fighter IV July 18, 2008 |
Street Fighter (ストリートファイター, Sutorīto Faitā), commonly abbreviated as SF, is a popular series of fighting games in which the players pit competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own special moves, against one another. Capcom released the first game in the series in August 1987.[1]
History and development
Street Fighter (1987)
Street Fighter made its debut in the arcades in 1987. It was designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto. The player took control of lone martial artist Ryu, who competed in a worldwide martial arts tournament, spanning five countries and ten opponents. A second player could join in at any time and take control of Ryu's rival, Ken.
The player could perform three types of punch and kick attacks (which varied in speed and strength) and three special attacks: the fight fire, Dragon Punch and Hurricane Kick. These were performed by executing special motions with the controls.
Street Fighter was ported to many popular home computer systems of the time including PC. In 1988, it was released on the game to give players a choice from a variety of player characters with different moves, an option which created hitherto unknown levels of depth and replay value for an arcade game. Each player character had a fighting style with approximately 30 or more moves (including previously nonexistent grappling moves such as Fighter II#Hyper Fighting|Street Fighter II′ - Hyper Fighting]] (or Street Fighter II Dash Turbo in Japan), was produced in response to the various bootleg editions of the game. Hyper Fighting offered faster gameplay than its predecessors, different character colors and new special techniques (such as Chun-Li's Kikoken or Dhalsim's Yoga Teleport).
Super Street Fighter II, the third revision, gave the game a complete graphical and musical overhaul and introduced four new playable characters (Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay and T.Hawk). Super gave the characters from previous games new frames of animations (such as giving actual jumping punches for Vega and Sagat), new special moves (such as Bison's Devil's Reverse and Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadoken), and improvements or changes to previously existing special moves (such as Ken's Shoryuken or Chun-Li's Kikoken). It was also the first game for Capcom’s CP System II arcade hardware. The fifth and final arcade installment, Super Street Fighter II Turbo (Super Street Fighter II X in Japan) brought back the faster gameplay of Hyper Fighting, a new type of special techniques known as "Super Combos" and a hidden character Akuma.
Numerous home versions of the Street Fighter II games have been produced following the original game. The original Street Fighter II was ported to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. As of 2008, the original SNES game is still Capcom's best selling game.[2] It was followed by a Japanese-only version of Street Fighter II Dash for the PC Engine in 1993. Hyper Fighting received two different home versions as well in 1993, an SNES version titled Street Fighter II Turbo, and a Sega Genesis counterpart titled Street Fighter II′ - Special Champion Edition (Street Fighter II Dash Plus in Japan). The following game, Super Street Fighter II, was also ported to the SNES and Genesis in 1994. During that same year, Super Street Fighter II Turbo was later released for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, and also a PC version for Windows, by the now defunct Gametek was released.
In 1997, Capcom released the Street Fighter Collection for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, a compilation which includes Super and Super Turbo, as well as the newer Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold. It was followed by Street Fighter Collection 2 (Capcom Generation Vol. 5 in Japan), also released for the PlayStation and Saturn, which includes the original Street Fighter II, Champion Edition, and Hyper Fighting. In 2000, Capcom released Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service in Japan for the Dreamcast, a version of the game which featured an online two-player versus mode. In 2003, Capcom released Hyper Street Fighter II for the arcades in Japan and Asia to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the series, a hybrid version of Super Turbo which allows player to select between versions of characters from all five previous Street Fighter II games. Hyper was released its North America and the PAL region via its ports for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox (released as part of the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection along with Street Fighter III 3rd Strike). In 2005, the three games in Street Fighter Collection 2 were included Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. A version of Super Turbo (along with the original Street Fighter) was later included in the 2007 compilation Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2, also released for the PS2 and Xbox.
An updated version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo came to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade service in November 2008.[3] The game, titled Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, has fully redrawn artwork, including HD sprites 4.5x the original size, done by artists from [[UDONJay, Ibuki, R. Mika, and a new version of Ken.
- Street Fighter 15th Capcom Japan's Street Fighter 15th Anniversary homepage
- ^ CAPCOM History
- ^ "CAPCOM - Platinum Titles".
- ^ Capcom Entertainment expands digital initiative with new downloadable games, Capcom Entertainment Press Center, 2007-04-12.