Street Fighter some history
Street Fighter – We are in 1987. The emblematic fighting game was born … well, not really, even if the idea was not totally innovative at that time since other titles almost similar had been released long before. Karaté Champ was the forerunner in this field by proposing the first 2D fighting game in horizontal scrolling, in 1984.
This franchise has humble origins. At the time, it released a particularly simple arcade game. Players could only play with the characters Ryu and Ken, fighting with simple punches and kicks. The beginning of this game is not surprising. However, over the years, new features were discovered.
Street Fighter II, the arcade and console revolution
Four years after the first launch, the arcades were getting ready to welcome the expected Street Fighter II. I don’t need to tell you how excited gamers were at that time. It was, no more and no less, the most played arcade title of all time. Was it justified ? The question didn’t even arise. The game offered the possibility to choose among 8 fighters, with different styles of clothing and fights. It also integrated a story line for each of them to script the main mode of this little gem.
A novelty that will motivate the most assiduous players to go to the end of the arcade mode and defeat the terrible Mr. Bison. You will have the possibility to do so with, for example, the first female character created in a fighting game: the famous Chun-Li.
But where the game is really impressive is on the visual level. What a marvel!! The graphics are stunning, the sets and animated backgrounds are beautiful. Add to this, memorable musical themes specific to each of the characters, and you have the fighting game that revolutionized the genre in 1991.
Street Fighter EX a new era of history
Moving now to 1996, the first 3D games arrive on 32-bit consoles and in arcades and to follow the trend of Tekken, Virtua Fighter and other trendy fighting games, Capcom updates and gives us Street Fighter EX (1996) – Arcade
The franchise’s first polygonal 3D games, which abandon the successful graphic and artistic features of previous versions. Gameplay remains the same to maintain the series’ origins, but the transition to 3D has disappointed many due to bland graphics lacking vibrant colors and details. New characters lack charisma, while familiar ones like Ryu, Ken, Guile, Akuma, Zangief, Bison, and Chunli remain prominent.
Is it always preferable?
Few games have made as much of an impression as Street Fighter. He did it with fighting games. The game developed by Capcom still retains this image as a pillar of the fighting game: to this day, many fighting games are still based on its mechanics, and characters like Ryu, Chun Li or Blanka have been part of pop culture for a long time.
In addition to having greatly contributed to the development of fighting games as we know them today, Street Fighter II has been a huge commercial success.
Most games can only dream of having the kind of influence Street Fighter has had over the years. It has been the standard for fighting games for decades and it still has a crossover influence that you rarely see in games.
Even today, Street Fighter is still very popular with gamers. Thanks to the Internet, fighting game enthusiasts have the possibility to subscribe to their favorite activity on the web. There is no need for a game console anymore, as everything is now done online.