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Street Fighter II turns 30 years old



Street Fighter 2 turns 30 years-old today.

The legendary fighting game launched in Japanese arcades on 6th February 1991, according to a tweet from Capcom.

Street Fighter 2, which established and popularised the fighting game genre, is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. The Super Famicom (SNES) version of the game, which debuted in June 1992, became a megahit that sold 6.3m units worldwide.

Street Fighter 2 broke through into the popular culture, with characters such as Ryu, Ken, Guile and Chun-Li appearing in multiple mainstream media over the years, including the ill-fated 1994 live-action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia.

Street Fighter 2's explosive popularity and wonderful mechanics are well-documented, but Capcom's 2013 film celebrating the game's 25th anniversary is a great start.




On a personal note, Street Fighter 2 is perhaps the video game that had the most influence on me growing up. As a shy 10-year-old, my love for the game forced me to confront intimidating South London arcades. I would put my money down to play next on a crowded cabinet tucked away within the bowels of Streatham's now lost MegaBowl, beating opponents twice my age. Every day after secondary school I would pump my pocket money into the latest version of the game, desperately trying to improve.

At weekends I would hop onto the 159 into the West End to watch the best London had to offer in the Trocadero, marveling at the skill on show. Later on the SNES, I would play until my thumbs bled, each 360 degree d-pad rotation for Zangief's spinning piledriver tearing a new layer of skin clean off.

My love of Street Fighter 2 has continued, undiminished, in the 30 years since. Each new release presents new possibilities, new mechanics, a new brilliance. And while my glory days are behind me, my memory of summers spent studying frame data and practising combos now hazy, I can still pick up a controller and pump out a Sonic Boom on muscle memory alone.

So, here's to you, Street Fighter 2: the true GOAT.


 
It was just one of those arcade machines u dont walk by. And if u do...in the back of ur mind ur thinking, i gotta come back for that.

Whether u were at an arcade, a pizza place... a walmart. It was super necessary to hop on that Street Fighter 2 machine.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
One of the biggest and most important video games of all time.
Growing up the arcades were everywhere. My uncle who knows nothing to this day about video games still knows HOUDOKEN!

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In alot of ways it was one of the games that popularised video games altogether. Its just as important as Pong, Mario, Pacman, Space Invaders Etc.

Not many Games had the responsiveness and smoothness of Street Fighter 2. It was unique and the best fighting game of its time.

The Characters, Music, Graphics, moves and Gameplay was something special at the time. And still is. Was a perfect combination for video games
 
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skneogaf

Member
The year is 1991 and some friends told me about a new game that had replaced final fight on the arcade machine in the video rental shop in the area I lived in, so we went to see what it was as we all loved final fight.

We got there and there was a huge group of kids and teenagers waiting for their go so we got in a makeshift queue and waited for our go.

It was a fighting game called street fighter 2 that was 1 vs 1 and we both put our money in and he chose a skinny Indian man and I chose a huge Russian dude and the fight started.

His skinny Indian man hit me from the opposite side of the screen and my Russian man couldn't even get close to him.

I got absolutely demolished 2-0 but wow what a game! 😍

I've been obsessed with street fighter games ever since and I sometimes setup a zangief vs dhalsim fight on my own arcade machine.

XQlSj9g.jpg
 
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Dev1lXYZ

Member
I encountered SFII the first time at a beach resort. At the time it hadn’t blown up, so we knew nothing about it aside from a mention in EGM that it may be the next Final Fight(‘89) with screens. I was blown away by the large sprites and the action on screen. Dhalsim’s stretching limbs was something never before witnessed in a video game. It was something that was exciting and otherworldly to contemplate gameplay wise. Of course, he was my first ever pick. I knew nothing about the special moves and trying to press different button combinations to make him split flames confused me. About a month later, it exploded like a bomb everywhere. EGM started printing move sheets and character bios in extra thick issues. The generation before mine had PAC-MAN Fever, we had the same in order of magnitude. What a time to be alive.
 
such an inspirational game. Games like Injustice 2 & Overwatch dont exist without street fighter.

Hero shooters probably dont exist without street fighter tbh
 

Enjay

Banned
Which Street fighter 2 are they talking about exactly? There were 15 of them. Also good on capcon for showing restraint and not rereleasing it yet again at full price.
 
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RAIDEN1

Member
Which Street fighter 2 are they talking about exactly? There were 15 of them. Also good on capcon for showing restraint and not rereleasing it yet again at full price.
The original "vanilla" Streetfighter 2 released in Japanese Arcades Feb 6th 1991
 

chriskun

Member
I will never forget the first time seeing chun li’s thighs the first time in the arcade. There was actually a gradient showing how THICC! they were! And then seeing Blanka, dahlsim ect. So fucking cool, my fav series of all time.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Yeah, it practically birthed/popularized the fighter genre. A big improvement over the original.

In alot of ways it was one of the games that popularised video games altogether. Its just as important as Pong, Mario, Pacman, Space Invaders Etc.

Not many Games had the responsiveness and smoothness of Street Fighter 2. It was unique and the best fighting game of its time.

Also The Characters, Music, graphics, moves and gameplay was something special at the time. And still is. Was a perfect combination
 
My first memory was Ryu burned by Dhalsim in the attract mode in the arcade. I threw a bunch of twenty pence into it. (Quarters I Guess, Ireland had pounds then). I met one of my best friends through a random game. It was wild, showing each other moves, playing winner stays on,. It defined what I remember as arcade play, and competitive play. John Romero might say it was DOOM, but he was saying that while playing Street Fighter (Love ya John). No matter what game I play today, Street Fighter is a given when a bunch of mates come around. There's not a bunch of guys waiting around for their turn of Bloodborne.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Best characters to use:

1. Ryu/Ken (same shit for casual gamers although googling it there's slight differences in timing or whatever)
2. Blanka (not sure why people didn't like using him. Strong, fast jumps, and weird attacks and hit zones. Loved using him)
3. Guile
4. Zangief
5. Chun Li
6. Honda
7. Dhalsim
 
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Ozzie666

Member
Could have technically been the third in the series if Final Fight wasn't renamed and altered somewhat.

What an Epic moment this game was for Super Nintendo, so quick from release too.
 

yurinka

Member
The best videogame ever, period.

It was a fucking insane success in the arcades, and its port for consoles (SNES) remains as the 7th best selling Capcom game ever, back then the top 1.

Just for fun, the next best selling Capcom game ever in the ranking (8th) is Street Fighter V. Which as I remember even if it was released 5 years ago it will get in a week or two a new character, a new game mechanic, a big gameplay rebalance, more costumes and I think a new stage or two.
 
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dave_d

Member
Best characters to use:

1. Ryu/Ken (same shit for casual gamers although googling it there's slight differences in timing or whatever)
2. Blanka (not sure why people didn't like using him. Strong, fast jumps, and weird attacks and hit zones. Loved using him)
3. Guile
4. Zangief
5. Chun Li
6. Honda
7. Dhalsim
Wait, as I remember it the 2 most effective characters (as in for winning tournaments) where Guile and Dhalsim. (Admittedly I was a Honda player. I had an advantage at my local arcade that nobody else played him so it was hard for others to get used to me playing him.)
 
I will play SF2, SF Zero and SFIII until I die. Masterpieces.

It is incredible how much the devs got it right with SF2. It is the backbone of the entire genre. I remember Harada saying in an interview that he only did Tekken in the right way (Tekken 3) after he understood fully the SF2 gameplay.
I got into playing Street Fighter when they released Alpha 3 and thought it was a pretty good entry with an interesting cast of fighters. Not just the characters from Final Fight but Adon (from Zero) was also really fun to use. Beautiful graphics too.
 

UnNamed

Banned
I don't think there is an equivalent in today's market, it's not just about sales or downloads like Minecraft or Fornite, it was also about the extreme hype and make ports that could change the market. Maybe something like GTA, but it's not quite the same. Probably the only equivalent at the time was Doom, same hype, same quality, same trends. Is there some equivalent to Doom and SF2 these days?
 
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Belmonte

Member
I got into playing Street Fighter when they released Alpha 3 and thought it was a pretty good entry with an interesting cast of fighters. Not just the characters from Final Fight but Adon (from Zero) was also really fun to use. Beautiful graphics too.

I love Zero series art and characters! My favorite art in the entire fighting game genre and one of my favorites in all gaming.

IMO SF2 art is the most iconic, SF3 has the best animation and SF Zero the best character design and overall art.
 

PUNKem733

Member
The GOAT. I can't imagine the money I pumped into this (and the sequels) at the age of 14, 91-95. Getting help in the arcades to pull off dragon punches (god how hard it was to do one), to winning a couple of local tournaments, thanks for the memories.
 

K1Expwy

Member
If there's any video game out there that would qualify as "most important game of my life," it is and always will be Street Fighter II
 
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