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The history Of

The seeds of change had been planted six or seven years earlier, but the arcade industry had hardly noticed. Sega had been working on 3-D simulation games since Hang On debuted in 1985, and by 1991 the company had released the cutting edge jet combat simulator G-LOC and was readying the genre-defining race game Virtua Racing for a 1992 release. Capcom, for its part, had studied both Data East's 1984 one-on-one fighting game Karate Champ and Konami's 1985 title Yie Ar Kung Fu before releasing its own game, Street Fighter, in 1987. Like Hang On, Out Run, After Burner and other 3-D simulation titles, Capcom's lonely Street Fighter had found a niche - it was different from everything else, and so people wanted to play it.

It even inspired a clone that appeared a year or so later, SNK's Street Smart, which let characters move not only left and right but in and out of the screen as in most popular beat-'em-ups of the time, and players could fight against two enemy characters at once, so the game felt more like boss stages from a walk-and-punch than anything else.

Then one day, StreetFighter 2 arrived. No wait, that doesn`t do it justice. One day, Streetfighter exploded on the scene, gutted other arcades, and stood tall upon their burnt out shells while screaming " F*ck y`all, who`s the man ?" while scratching it`s crotch. It was just THAT DAMNED GOOD. Arcades everywhere saw their profits skyrocket overnight, and you were guaranteed a twenty minute wait to get your sweaty palms on the bloody thing. Even then it was only likely to be in a 2 player battle. There was a good 6 month period when it was so popular that on a weekend there would be constant two player battles from when the arcade opened until it managed to get everyone to leave. There would be a constant flow of credits feeding the machine, and skilled players could stay on for a dozen or so battles before a loss would force them off.

Cries of encouragement would be shouted at players battling to get a win and advice and opinion would flow thick and fast. Losers would check they had money ready and stand prepared to jump on again at the earliest opportunity, all the while analysing what they did wrong and formulating new strategies and wathcing the current players techniques intently. The game was all that mattered. Streetfighter 2 changed everything. Never before had we had to do the unusual joystick & button combinations to perform moves like the Dragon Punch and whirlwind kick. These occassionally complicated motions are everywhere now, but then...sheesh. Could we do the damned things ? No. In fact , we couldn`t even work them out !

It was like forbidden knowledge. This is hard to believe folks, but we used to watch the chosen few who could do the moves and still couldn`t work out how the hell they did the dragon punch. After all , it`s a quick circular motion, practically quicker than the human eye can catch. It was literally months before we learnt how to perform these now-legendary moves. American gaming magazines like C&VG would bring out entire special edition magazines detailing the characters, their bios, moves, best combinations etc. However, mastery of the Dragon Punch was as impressive a skill to have as being able to pull women at that age. It meant you were a tier above the rest of your combatants, you stood out and could expect people to bother you asking for advice. You were the local "Top Gun", and the one people would run to when a new kid entered the arcade and bragged he could take on all comers and win.

It was gun slinging and duels at sunrise, 20th century style. The plot of the game by modern standards is fairly cliched stuff. A group of elite warriors battle to see who is the greatest. They all have their own motivations and reasons for battling, and their own array of fighting styles and special moves. Some of the characters were carried on from the original Street Fighter game, which was a fairly sub-average beat em up. The controls were bad, the gameplay a little shoddy. But Ryu and Ken were there, with their dragon balls. Sagat too, only in the sequel he was carrying a large scar on his chest from Ryu's Dragon Punch. Why did StreetFighter change the face of arcade gaming forever?

There was something pure about the game. You went in there and tried to beat the other guy into a quivering mess. No powerups, movies, apologies or doubts about it. You were there for only one reason.

The learning curve. It took time to learn a fighters strengths and weaknesses, his special moves, how best to attack and defend, how to adapt your moves to your opponents style, and be able to use the character to his best. And then there were many other characters to learn. Most people had about 3 fighters they were very strong with, and would choose to play the one which suited their mood best, or perhaps to surprise a challenger. Fighting an agile opponent like Vega would be vastly different to fighting Eddie Honda.

A fighter to suit all skill levels Newcomers would likely use Eddie Honda, Blanka or perhaps Chun Li. Their special moves were executed by simply rapidly pressing one button, like Eddies 100 hand slap. Being able to do damage with these moves was a confidence builder, and by taking on one trickier move at a time you could slowly build up confidence in your moves arsenal. Fighters like Ryu, Vega and Sagat had harder to execute moves with related higher satisfaction for your skills.

Characters you cared about Each fighter was a well-rounded thought out person. There were no shallow lightweight characters thrown into make up the numbers. Ryu for example was a lone figure, a man who lived for the fight itself and has no interest in acclaim or prizes.

Zangief was a russian who wrestled with bears to build strength and wanted to represent the power and might of Russia to the world. Even the beast Blanka was fighting as a means to search the world and find out who he was. It's a testiment to the characters that they have endured so strongly to date and have appeared in many formats including movies, comic books, action figures etc. What was StreetFighter 2's lasting impact?

Endless sequels by Capcom For two solid years after SF2, we begged and demanded for a SF3. It just never happened. Capcom themselves seemed to have been caught sleeping by the success of SF2 and were initially reluctant to release anything that might spoil the glory. Slowly at first, they found the nerve to create slight variants, a few extra fighters, the ability to block in mid-air, combo moves, super special moves etc etc.

Bit by bit they did the minimum required to keep up with the growing amount of clone fighting games being made by their competitiors. Sadly it got badly out of control and there are now more variants for more formats than I could care about. None matched the original for impact or originality. We eventually got a SF3 sometime around 2000. The fact I can't be bothered looking up the date tells you how much I care. It was at least 6 years too late.

The franchise continues to be milked for every possible bit of worth. Fighting games were here to stay. So many beat-em-ups, on so many formats owe SF2 a debt of gratitude. All the programmers,artists,designers of all the fighting games need to acknowledge that SF2 made video game fighting into an artform and made sure pixelated violence would always have a place in the hearts of gamers.

Capcom have got one of the most recogniseable video game brands in the world with Street Fighter yet they seem unable or unwilling to actually live up to it's legacy. Rather than spend the money and time to develop something truly special they only throw out generic clones with minor updates at all too frequent intervals.

With ridiculous names like "StreetFighter EX Plus Alpha" they only display their absurdity for all to see. Why can't we have original characters, rather than "cousins of Ryu". Why can`t we have new combat moves rather than just keeping up with other fighting games? Why couldn't the series have moved to full 3D when that was the rage, rather than a 3D looking 2D game ? (the afforementioned SF: EX Plus A)

From time to time I`ll see the latest SF game on the shelves and have a look out of fond memory, but it seems nothing will ever recreate the impact of the original. Capcom should give something back to the franchise which has turned them into the behemoth they are today. In closing, I'd like to say that if your life truly does flash before your eyes immediately prior to death I actually look forward to reliving the SF2 era. A golden age of gaming, when SF2 was the King of the realm, the vaults were overflowing, the peasants happy and the good times were commonplace. Zangief reels from a Blanka barrel roll A 20 ton sumo wrestler knees a lady in the gut repeatedly Shocking ! (sorry) Guile fires up a sonic boom The awesome Dragon Punch Blanka brutally bites the enemy Ryu ducks to avoid Sagats Tiger Uppercut, a variant of his own Dragon Punch Kens whirlwind kick rains damage on Ryu Title Screen Kens vistory screen