The History Of Street Fighter

Street Fighter is one of the most popular and respected gaming franchises in the history of gaming. The game spawned multiple related industries, a huge and loyal fan base, and a Street Fighter online community rivaling any other game out there. Street Fighter might not have been the first person-on-person fighting video game, but the Street Fighter game is the one that catapulted the genre to the heights it still resides in to this day.

Street Fighter made its debut at the arcades in 1987, designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto.The player took control of a lone martial artist named Ryu, who competes in a worldwide martial arts tournament spanning five different countries (United States, Japan, China, England and Thailand) and ten opponents (two per country). It was a unique introduction mostly because of its controller structure, where actual button pressure determined in-game force, and its addictive combat.

The player could perform three basic types of punches and kicks (which varies between speed and strength) for a total six attack buttons and three special attacks (the Fireball, Rising Dragon Punch and Hurricane Kick; (or the Hadoken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku in Japanese) that could be performed only by executing specific motions.

In 1991 Street Fighter made its reputation with the introduction of Street Fighter II . What really made Street Fighter II the most popular game of the early 1990s was the ability of advanced players to use complex moves such as the hurricane kick. This game was also the inventor of the combo move in the fighter-on-fighter game.

In 1992 an upgraded version of Street Fighter II was launched and included more opponents, more moves and improved graphics. Until now, is still considered the greatest one-on-one fighting game of all time. The first console game version of Street Fighter II was for the Super Nintendo and came out in 1992,But the graphics were inferior and did not accurately represent the arcade experience.

In 1993 another update was issued for the arcade version of Street Fighter, called Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. It included four new opponents to face off with in the game.

In 1995 an alternative series of Street Fighter games were released under the Alpha badge. The Alpha game was a prequel to Street Fighter II and a sequel to the original Street Fighter and became its own series.

Street Fighter III hit the scene in 1997 and this is when the street fighter online nostalgia really started to take hold. Street Fighter III was received with mix reviews as classic Street Fighter fans found the game to be less instinctive and more defensive than the first two games. Street Fighter III did not hit the home console market until 1999. The next generation of Street Fighter games went 3D with the EX series of games.

Street Fighter spawned movies, including the original staring Jean Claude Van Damme, books, thousands of Street Fighter Online websites, wallpapers, screen savers, ring tones and more.