Still the Champ

In the saturated world of glossy fighting game titles with more polish than sense, one title still reigns supreme. Allen looks back on the grandfather of competitive console fighting games: Street Fighter

I can still remember the first time I walked into my local arcade and saw this huge group of people swarmed around a brand new machine called Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. I wondered then, “I don’t even remember playing Street Fighter I, let alone part two.” Being around 11 or 12 at the time, I thought nothing of it. After watching a few games of Hadokens and Sonic Booms however, I was hooked.

My first experience with Street Fighter II is very similar with that of many others. For over 25 years, the game has gone on to make billions of dollars worldwide. So for a game with such a simple premise — one guy (or girl) beats up the other person using special powers and attacks — what makes it so popular?

Many believe that the popularity of Street Fighter II lies in the wide array of characters presented to players when it first came out. The original eight world warriors — Ryu (Japan), Ken (USA), Guile (USA), Chun-Li (China), Dhalism (India), Blanka (Brazil), Ehonda (Japan) and Zangief (USSR) — were  more than any other game at that time. Most games during this time were centered around one or two main characters and villains. What Street Fighter II introduced was an intricate versus system where two human players would fight to see who would be the world warrior champion, as well as an elaborate story for all the playable characters and not just one or two main heroes.

After months of spending countless quarters in the arcades, both the Nintendo and Sega systems declared that they were bringing the popular game to home gaming systems. Millions (including myself) flocked to the store to purchase the game. I can remember the bliss I felt at finally being able to play with friends at home and not have to wait in line in the arcade for my turn at the buttons. Countless weekends and after-school hours were spent practicing and dueling against friends, and strategies were brewed on how to beat a particular foe with my favorite character.

During those days, we all had our own “theories” on who was the best character in the game and what moves to do in certain situations. Looking back, I can safely say my friends and I knew nothing.

Street Fighter II has become a phenomenon and has spawned countless copy cats and other fighting game titles all trying to take the top spot. Games like Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown and Virtua Fighter were all made by rival companies looking to compete with Street Fighter as the genre’s top game.

Street Fighter had to evolve and did so with expansions to the game such as Street Fighter II Championship Edition, Turbo Fighting, Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Each new edition added something new to the game, be it through new characters, speed of the game and new moves for the original cast. However, Street Fighter II’s multiple expansions caused many to wonder when the sequel, Street Fighter III would actually be released.

Street Fighter III wasn’t completed until 1997, a whole six years after Street Fighter II’s initial release. I can still remember how excited my friends and I were to play after all the hype that surrounded the new sequel. I can also recall, after that first quarter fell into that arcade machine, how disappointed I was at the initial Street Fighter III game. Gone were almost all my favorite characters such as Sagat, Zangief and Guile as they were replaced by characters like Alex, Necro and Ibuki. Ryu and Ken were there but other than that, the game felt like it was nothing like my beloved Super Street Fighter II Turbo.

My friends and I played little of Street Fighter III until we heard of an internet sensation of how one of the professional players won the world championship by doing an impossible feat. I must say after seeing that video, my friends and I were so inspired to play once again. Seeing the game after it had evolved into something new, I was actually happy to see some of the changes that they made. Returned were several of my favorite characters such as Akuma and Chun-Li, and the gaming system introduced a parrying mechanic which gave many characters who could not throw a “fireball” a fair chance to win.

We did play Street Fighter III a bit but gone where the days of weekend warrior fighting sessions or after-school duels. While the gameplay got better, the nostalgia was gone and we all soon dropped Street Fighter III altogether. To this day I wonder: was it that I was getting too old for video games or did my passion direct me into a different game?

I had begun to play other fighting game series such as Tekken and Soul Calibur, and while I had won multiple championships in both game series, I longed for a new Street Fighter game. Like me, many of the game’s fans patiently waited until 2008 when Street Fighter IV was released and boy was it impressive. The new bright graphics, the fresh new gameplay and the virtually unknown move sets gave me the inspiration to commit fully to playing Street Fighter again. All of my favorite Street Fighters returned with new moves and new combos. Needless to say, this was the fighting game I was waiting for.

One of the biggest draws of Street Fighter IV is that with today’s technology like Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, you are never too far away from playing against another person. We now have the ability to play against people who are in different parts of the world. Through the Internet, gamers of today have access to information that would have been beyond their reach before.

I would have never have thought that a hobby which turned into a passion almost 25 years ago would lead me to this. And while we may have gone through the ups and downs of several video game eras, the game that started many on the path of the world warrior is still the champ of the fighting game genre.

Featured Image by: udoncrew.deviantart.com

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