Brief History of Street Fighter games

20 years ago this month, I met the love of my life. No, I'm not talking about the missus, I'm talking about my one great gaming love, my digital mistress since I was a spotty teen, the Street Fighter series. Despite the years I'm as far down the rabbit hole as I've ever been and I'm not the only one who feels like that. Destructoid recently ran an article called Happy 20th Birthday to Street Fighter II: World Warrior. So to show my love and admiration of all things Street Fighter, here is Arcade Throwback's brief history of the legendary franchise.

Street Fighter (1987)

Let's be honest, the first Street Fighter was a poor game (CVG gave it 2/10 when they reviewed it 1987). That said, many of the basic themes and mechanics that made the other games so popular were in place right from the beginning. The player took control of young Japanese fighter, Ryu, as he fought his way around the globe, taking on such characters as Birdie the British punk, Gen, an elderly assassin, Adon, a Muay Thai kick boxer and finally Sagat, a myopic 7' tall Muay Thai master. Capcom did attempt a novel idea in the top tier version of the arcade cabinet. Instead of normal micro-switch buttons for kick and punch, it featured two giant, pressure sensitive buttons. The idea being the harder you thumped the buttons, the harder Ryu (or some blond American called Ken if you were player 2) kicked and punched his opponents. It was a great idea in principle, but we are taking about a machine that was in accessible to all manner of show offs, drunks and all other types of pillock, so invariably the buttons were broken. Not that was Street Fighter 1's only problem. The timings for the animations were a bit off, so you never quite felt like you were in control. The game even featured Ryu's legendary Hadouken fire ball attack, but even the best players struggled to pull it off consistently. It's a shame, because as you can see from the image above-right, it was a great looking machine, with a big, arching spine and semi-circular control platform.

Lee putting the smack down on a young, inexperienced Ryu.

I first played Commodore C64 version of Street Fighter, which was as bad as any coin-op conversion in those days and between that and the lacklustre arcade version, I could easily have forgotten about the series, but like most Street Fighter fans, it was the sequel that seduced me.

Street Fighter II series (1991 - 1994)

I remember reading a review of Street Fighter II: The World Warriors in CVG in the Spring of 91. The reviewer (which I believe was none other than Julian "Jaz" Rignall) raved about it and I thought it looked brilliant.  I first played it in a Great Yarmouth seafront arcade a few months later and I've been hooked ever since.

Scrappin' on the dock of the bay

That first taste of the game was short and sweet, as it was just a two week holiday affair. I didn't get to play it very much and did not find out about the game's trademark special moves (having never discovered them in the handful of times I played the original either). Thankfully, I was 16 by now and after the summer holiday's I was in the 6th form, wearing skinny jeans and Motley Crue T-shirts and generally feeling like quite the grown up. For the first time in my life I was making the five mile journey into town on my own to play the game in the local arcades and got to know other  local players. Together we discussed tactics and secrets and soon mastering the Ryu and Ken's dragon punch and the Hadouken or most challenging of all, Zangief's spinning pile driver, became an obsession.

From sequels to updates

Over the course of the next 18 months or so, as players got more and more skilled, the game changed a number of times. In 1992 Capcom released an official update, called Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (the apostrophe apparently means 'upper' in Japan) or Street Fighter '92 as my friends and I called it. As well as a few updated portraits, Champion Edition made Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison playable characters for the first time, opening up a greater variety of gameplay and tactics than ever before.

Sagat and M. Bison, perhaps the two most popular additions in Champion Edition.

But Champion Edition wasn't the only update and while Capcom developed a reputation for constantly updating their games, they also weren't the only ones doing it. In 1993 a few hacked versions of Champion Edition started to appear in the arcades, which bent the rules of the game dramatically. Perhaps the most famous of these bootleg versions was Rainbow Edition, which had such changes as adding the ability to perform special moves in mid-air, long and wide dragon punches for Ryu and Ken, super slow fireballs, fireballs for E. Honda and most bizarre of all, being able to change character mid-match, by pressing the start buttons. It was fun for a while, but it totally broke the game's already questionable balance. Check out the video below to see some of the craziness in action.

Rather than start issuing litigations, Capcom responded with their own tweaked version: Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting. Based on Champion Edition, Hyper Fighting added faster gameplay, multiple character colours and new move sets. Unlike the bootleg versions, Hyper Fighting did not totally break the game's balance and serious Street Fighter players soon adopted Capcom's official update. It was with Hyper Fighting that I switched from being a Ryu player to being a Blanka player, as he was one of the characters to get a few new moves, most notably a vertical cannonball attack.

The Super Street Fighters

Shortly after Hyper Fighting, Capcom released Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. As the subtitle suggests, this update added new characters to the roster. Fei Long was a blatant Bruce Lee clone; DeeJay was yet another kick boxer, this time from Jamaica; despite sharing his name with John Travolta's gang in Grease, T. Hawk was actually a giant native American grappler and finally there was the bare-butt cheeked British agent, Cammy. But SSFII didn't just introduce new characters. Most of the artwork was updated, so the whole game looked more vibrant, plus the announcer's voice was changed. Perhaps most interesting of all for serious players, the game now tracked combos, and displayed the hit count and points accordingly.

Super Street Fighter II was much more than just a roster update

In 1994, Capcom released the final Street Fighter II update, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which gave The New Challengers a taste of Hyper Fighting speed (selectable by the player at the start of the game), as well as a bit of rebalancing. Perhaps most importantly of all, SSFIIT added air combos and Super meters, which when filled, allowed the play to off enhanced special moves called Super Combos, which were more dazzling and also more devastating than the standard special moves. It was a mechanic that would go on to form the backbone of the Street Fighter franchise going forward.

And so, after five updates in two years, everyone was expecting a sequel. Nobody expected what Capcom actually did.

Street Fighter Alpha series (1995 - 1998)

Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dream (or Street Fighter Zero as it was known in Japan) was a prequel, set between the first Street Fighter and Street Fighter II. This gave Capcom licence to play around with the roster. Only a handful of characters from the Street Fighter II series reappeared, although several characters from the original made an appearance, as well as a couple of new characters also also, much to the delight of Capcom fans in general, Cody, Guy and Sodom from Final Fight. What was also notable was the change in art style, which switched to a more anime look. The game also saw the expensive of the Super metre, so that players could chose been a three tier metre that could be triggered at each tier for vary degrees of damage, a a single bar to deal massive damage in a single Super Combo, or a timed period of increased damage in lieu of an actual Super Combo.

Cody laying the boot into new girl Karin with a Super Combo

Capcom released two sequels between 1996 and 1998, with largely unchanged mechanics, but bigger and bigger rosters. During this time the Street Fighter franchise itself got a whole lot bigger, but not necessarily a whole lot better.

Street Fighter EX series (1996 - 1999)

Sega's Virtua Fighter was the first of many 3D polygonal beat 'em ups to emerge in the mid-90s and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Namco fired back with Tekken and Soul Edge, Tecmo released Dead or Alive, Midway took Mortal Kombat into the third dimension with the woeful Mortal Komat 4 and in 1996 Capcom handed the Street Fighter franchise over to Arika to develop a 3D spin-off. The result was Street Fighter EX and while not as terrible as  Mortal Kombat 4, it was not a great game.

Ugly, blocky and slow, but SFEX did have a few good ideas and characters in it, such as Skullomania.

In true Street Fighter style, Capcom kept updating it, with EX Plus hitting arcades in 1997, EX 2 in 1998 and finally EX 2 Plus in 1999. Despite the iterations most of the problems that plagued the first EX persisted throughout the series. Which is a shame, because the new characters were, on the whole, pretty good — which is more than can be said for the next big Street Fighter instalment.

Street Fighter III series (1997 - 1999)

The official sequel to the biggest arcade game of all time was a little lost in the crowd of spin offs, prequels and versus games that Capcom were putting out. Indeed, when it first came out most fans were a little disappointed, especially in light of how good the Alpha series was. SFIII ditched all but Ryu and Ken from the roster, added a bunch of new characters, most of whom were a lacklustre compared to other introductions over the years. Grappler, Alex, took the lead as the game's main character, but unlike Ryu and Ken, he was generally not popular with gamers. As this was a sequel, the final boss was new too, so uninspiring that a decade one from when I last played Street Fighter III all I can remember is that his name of Gill. He was certainly no M. Bison.

They also added a bunch of new technical features that many fans were not ready for. Most notable of these changes was the parry. Tap the joystick forwards at the critical moment and it was possible to deflect an attack, rather than just block it, given skilled players a brief window to launch a punishing counter attack. Just go on YouTube and look up "The Beast Unleashed" for a crowning example of this. Visually the game was gorgeous, with a stunning numbers of frames of animation for each character; clothes billowed, tassels flapped and the moves flowed with unrivalled fluidity.

Initially, Alex was the poster boy for Street Fighter III, but that soon changed.

Thankfully, Capcom could see things needed improving. Over the next 18 months they released two updates, 2nd Impact: Giant Attack added more new characters, including a very familiar looking wrestler with sunken eyes and floppy hair. From a gameplay perspective 2nd Impact added EX Specials, which were more powerful special moves that used part of the Super Arts meter, throw and grapple escapes, and character specific taunts.

But it was 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future that really won people over again. Among the editions were fan favourite Chun-Li and the brilliant Makoto, plus a load more new gameplay features, including air parries, parries during guard stuns, plus a post fight grading. SFIII was now a legitimately great game and now that players had had time to get used to new, more technical gameplay, it was as popular as ever on the tournament scene. Which is a good thing, because Street Fighter fans had to make do with it for almost a decade, before they got a new instalment.

Street Fighter IV series (2008 - 2010)

A lot can happen in 10 years. For the Street Fighter franchise, it survived the death of the arcade through numerous spin-offs and anniversary collections, but they were for a niche audience. Fighting games were no longer mainstream, first person shooters had taken over. And so when Street Fighter IV was first released in 2008 it was amazing Capcom had bothered to resurrect the franchise at all, but in doing they also resurrected fighting games as a whole.

SFIV got almost everything right from the beginning. The new art style was striking, compelling and made smart use of 3D. And roster was pretty good, right off the bat, with most of the new characters fitting right in. The game also ditched the parry system in favour of a simpler, but more versatile Focus Attack, a powerful, universal guard breaking attack, which can be used to cancel specials, but which can be cancelled itself to create a double feint. Forget rush downs and combos, with SFIV you have to be defensive. Jumping at your enemy or constantly fireballing will get you no where against a skilled opponent in SFIV — you have to master the Focus Attack.

If you thought the Alpha series being set between Street Fighter and Street Fighter II was confusing, SFIV was set between II and III. What that meant was that Capcom and developers Dimps had licence to include all twelve members of the original cast. The game also introduced a host of great new characters. There was amnesiac French soldier, Abel; luchador El Fuerte; sexy female spy, Crimson Viper; and my favourite of the new guys, the lardy kung-fu fighter, Rufus. New computer controlled characters included Akuma's older brother Gouken and new box, the chromed genetically enhanced head of the SIN organisation, Seth.

Great graphics, great characters and great mechanics, SFIV has it all.

As with its predecessors, SFIV got a an update in the form of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, which was released in 2010 and contained more changes to the gameplay, plus a slew of new characters.  Returning characters included Adon from the first game, DeeJay from SSFII, Makoto, Yun, Yang, Ibuki, and Dudley from SFIII and Cody and Guy from Final Fight.

The franchise and the genre had come pretty much full circule, and the fighting scene in general was reinvented.

The spin-offs

As well as the main three Street Fighter series, there have been a number of spin-offs that aren't part of these main branches of the games. Some you will doubtless be familiar with, others... not so much.

The Vs games 

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Street Fighter Vs games. There's been a surprising number of them over the years and on the whole they add a lot more crazy than the regular games. Here's a quick break down of them all:

• X-Men vs Street Fighter
• Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
• Capcom vs SNK: Millenium Fight 2000
• Capcom vs SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium 2001
• SVC Chaos
• Tatsunko vs Capcom: Ultimate All Stars

And they are just the ones that appeared in the arcade. There were a whole bunch more on home consoles. As the titles suggest, these games pitch Capcom and Street Fighter characters against characters from other  arcade franchises, comic books and anime series. On the whole, the other characters are well designed and implemented, so much so games like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 have become staples of the fighting game tournament scene. Even for someone like me, who doesn't know a massive amount about comic books, it's great to see Zangief take on The Incredible Hulk or Felicia face down Wolverine.

Familiar faces from Marvel and Capcom come together is this OTT fighter.

Street Fighter: The Movie — the game (1995)

Oh boy, that Jean Claude Van Damme Street Fighter movie was terrible. Really very bad indeed. It was so bad that the Mortal Kombat movie that followed seemed like friggin' Citizen Kane in comparison. Perversely for a movie based on a game in the first place, Capcom put out a game based on the movie. Developed by Incredible Technologies, it used digitised versions of all of the movie's stars, much like Mortal Kombat had done in the original few games.

The game used much of the same mechanics as Alpha game, but added a whole load of new tricks that would carry over into later games, such as the ability to cancel special moves. It also added exclusive special movies to many characters, such as a pig tail whip for Cammy, which never saw the light of day again.

It was better than you might have expected and needs to be mentioned for the lasting contributions it made to the series, but in honesty, I'd had rather played SSFIIT or Alpha at the time.

Super Deformed Fighters

For a while in the 90s video games went crazy for super deformed characters and Capcom were no exception. In 1996 they released Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, which, as the name suggests, was a puzzle game involving Street Fighter (and Darkstalkers) characters. Despite what the title also suggests, this wasn't a sequel; the Roman numeral in the name was a parody of previous Street Fighter games — for some reason.

Rather than being a simple cash-in, Puzzle Fighter was a brilliant, competitive puzzle game. The idea was to match gems by colour to make massive gem blocks, then break them with a breaker gems that floated down periodically. When you break a load of gems they get sent to your opponent's play field for them to deal with, only now they have a counter on them before your opponent can break them. Flood your opponent's play field and you win. However, there were lots of tactics to consider. Firstly, each character sends gems in particular patterns, which may include grouping colours together in a way that can spell trouble for you if your opponent can get their counters down to zero and send them back at you. Also, as you get a few seconds warning before blocks are dumped on you, it's possible to mitigate the damage by breaking a load of your existing gem blocks (and sacrificing any big attack you were planning). The game is a real tug of war and victory can be snatched from the jaws of defeat right at the very last second. Despite the cute and colourful graphics, the game play was as vicious as the fighting games.

Ken Masters laughs at school girl Sakura's misery. What a tough guy!

In 1997, Capcom released Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix featuring the same super deformed characters as Puzzle Fighter. This time it wasn't a puzzle game, but a pared down fighting game that used aspects of the later Street Fighter games, Darkstalkers and, in particular, an oft-forgotten Capcom fighting game called Red Earth. It is elements borrowed from Red Earth that provide the titular gems. As you bash opponents, Puzzle Fighter-like gems fall from them. Collecting these charge up the three gauges, which determine the power of your character's special moves; the more powerful the special move, the more gems your opponent will drop. The game's controls were greatly simplified from any of Capcom's other games, with just one punch button, one kick button, a special button and a taunt button. However, since all of the character's special moves were performed in the same way as in the games they came from, playing Gem Fighter is remarkably familiar. 

Ahh, doesn't Akuma look cute with his big massive head?

Like Puzzle Fighter, Gem Fighter is brimming over with charm. I love how there are other characters in the background doing crazy things (Bison on a sledge, anyone?) and how certain special moves will cause characters to change clothes mid-attack. If, like me, you have young kids who want to play the fighting games daddy (or mummy) plays, Gem Fighter is a great compromise and it's easy for players of all skill levels to have fun with it.

And so...

I know to the casual observer it's just another button mashing beat 'em up, but to the devoted, like myself, the changes Capcom and co have made over the course of the past two decades have been significant. As such I've bought maybe a dozen different versions of the game and enjoyed each one in different ways. World Warriors is the purest version of the game, Alpha 3 was a culmination of everything that made the series great, Street Fighter III had a strange cast, but required more skill that any other 2D beat 'em at the time and Street Fighter IV kick started a fighting game revival. 

MTW