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10 ways Street Fighter changed games for ever
As Street Fighter celebrates 30 years at the top, we look at how it revolutionised an entire genre and gave the global video industry a much-needed boost.
As Street Fighter celebrates three decades of fireballs, dragon punches and spinning piledrivers, we take a look at 10 ways the franchise changed the world of video games for ever.
It revived an entire genre – twice
More buttons, more options
Encountering Street Fighter in the arcades for the first time was an intimidating experience; while most coin-op cabinets had three buttons at most, Capcom's 1987 title had six – three punch strengths and three kick strengths. This set-up might have seemed like overkill at the time, but it lent the game unparalleled strategic depth; weaker attacks were faster and therefore carried less risk, while stronger blows dealt more damage but left you open to a counter-attack. Street Fighter II would refine this style still further, and it could be argued that Capcom's fighter normalised larger button quotas for the entire industry – the SNES pad offered six buttons in 1990, while Sega would release a six-button controller for its Mega Drive to coincide with the launch of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition.
Choice is everything
Prior to the launch of Street Fighter II, the simple notion of having more than one character to master didn't occur to games developers; even the original Street Fighter limits you to a single set of moves, shared across the near-identical Ryu and Ken. With the 1991 sequel, these two heroes were joined by six additional playable fighters, each with totally different strengths, weaknesses and special moves. From the hulking Russian wrestler Zangief to the green-skinned monster Blanka, each combatant played totally differently from the rest, and each was given a unique backstory which explained their motivations for entering the World Warrior tournament. From that moment onward, players expected every game of this type to offer the same kind of depth and characterisation.
It gave the arcade industry a stay of execution
While the arcade industry is a mere shadow of its former self today, its demise could have come a lot sooner were it not for Street Fighter II. The coin-op glory days of the '70s and '80s had started to fade in the early '90s thanks to the console boom, and players were starting to realise they could get the same standard of experience at home thanks to the Mega Drive and SNES. The release of Street Fighter II triggered a surge of interest in arcade games, drawing players back into amusement centers in their millions and encouraging other companies – such as Midway, SNK and many others – to create their own fighting games which in turn attracted more customers. Throughout the 1990s, Capcom's fighting games generated millions in revenue for arcade operators and gave the industry a second 'golden era' of popularity. Well, maybe silver, but you get our drift.
Competition is key
Video games have always been about competition – Atari's Pong was a two-player game, after all – and through the arcade era the allure of setting a high score was what turned gaming into such a social pastime. However, few games engendered the same degree of local multiplayer madness as Street Fighter II; previous fighting games like Double Dragon and Final Fight had been about co-operative play, but Street Fighter put aside such camaraderie and expected you to do your utmost to utterly destroy the person standing next to you. Queues would form at machines all over the world as impromptu 'winner stays on' contests erupted and coins were laid along the cabinet indicating whose turn was next. When Street Fighter II hit the SNES this combative atmosphere was transferred to the domestic arena, and friends would assemble around each other's houses to test their mettle and prove their supremacy. Today, esports has embraced the series and the world's best Street Fighter players – the likes of Daigo and Bonchan – earn serious money competing in the game professionally in front of thousands. True, gaming has always been about competition, but few games took things as seriously as Street Fighter.
It introduced the idea of incremental updates
This one sounds dry, but hear us out – it’s a big one. Street Fighter II was such a success that Capcom realised it could grow the franchise with regular updates rather than having to worry about creating traditional sequels. This approach was actually triggered by the fans rather than Capcom itself. Demand for the game was so high that pirated arcade boards began to appear, which offered extra features such as new moves, faster gameplay and the ability to play as the four 'Grand Masters' – the end bosses who were off-limits in the original Street Fighter II. Capcom countered these illegal boards by releasing the 'Champion Edition', and would later release Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo in an effort to keep the series profitable. For better and for worse, these incremental updates were massive money-spinners in both the arcades and at home, where regular ports to domestic consoles kept fans contented. In the modern era, these regular updates have allowed Capcom greater control over the direction of the series, making rebalancing and fixes easier to deploy and keeping players engaged with new content and characters.
Crossover chaos
This year's Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite is a long way from being the first game of its kind; Capcom was experimenting with crossover titles way back in the early '90s. X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes were early attempts to shoehorn superheroes into a Street Fighter-style environment – complete with similar special moves – but it was 1996's X-Men vs. Street Fighter which gave us what we really wanted: the awe-inspiring spectacle of Capcom's Street Fighter cast facing off against the likes of Cyclops, Gambit and Wolverine. Ryu and company were practically superheroes anyway, so the set-up didn't seem too ridiculous. Since then we've had Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom and even Capcom Vs. SNK, the latter of which saw Capcom and its bitter rival SNK – creator of Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown and King of Fighters – duke it out for dominance of the one-on-one arena.
It settled a console war
It might seem like an exaggeration but Street Fighter II was perhaps the single biggest weapon Nintendo had in its arsenal when it came to fighting Sega's Mega Drive / Genesis, at least in the early years of the 16-bit console war. A long-time Nintendo supporter, Capcom decided to bring the game to the SNES first, with a domestic release taking place in 1992. Sega fans eventually got their hands on Champion Edition a short time later, but this period of exclusivity helped Nintendo's 16-bit system make significant gains on its rival, especially in Japan. In the west, copies of the Japanese import version of the game changed hands for many times more that its recommended retail price as gamers found the wait for the official release to be too painful; had Capcom decided to support both the SNES and the Mega Drive at the same time, things could have been very different, but back in 1992, any gamer worth their salt simply had to own a SNES for Street Fighter II. Despite strong sales of the Mega Drive, it was ultimately a lead Sega were never able to overcome, and saw the company eventually exit the hardware business after the failure of its subsequent Saturn and Dreamcast consoles.
Hitting the mainstream
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