The Street Fighter series began in 1987 with Capcom's original arcade release, a relatively simple fighting game that introduced the world to Ryu and Ken but failed to make a significant impact. The series truly exploded into cultural phenomenon status with Street Fighter II in 1991, a revolutionary arcade fighter that established the template for modern fighting games with its precise controls, memorable characters, and special combo attacks.
The success of Street Fighter II in arcades naturally led to an avalanche of home conversions, each attempting to capture the arcade magic on domestic hardware. The PC Engine received Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, which despite some compromises in animation frames, delivered surprisingly faithful gameplay that showcased the system's capabilities. The Genesis version of Champion Edition became one of the platform's defining releases, proving that 16-bit home consoles could deliver arcade-quality fighting experiences that rivaled the original.
Nintendo's Super Street Fighter II for SNES represented the pinnacle of 16-bit fighting game conversions, featuring enhanced graphics, additional characters like Cammy and Fei Long, and refined gameplay mechanics that many consider superior to the original arcade release. Meanwhile, computer enthusiasts experienced the series through Super Street Fighter II Turbo on Amiga and MS-DOS, ports that brought variable speed settings and enhanced special moves to home computers, though with varying degrees of success depending on hardware configurations.
The series continued evolving with the Street Fighter Alpha sub-series, beginning with the original Alpha in 1995, which introduced air blocking, chain combos, and a more anime-inspired art style that influenced games like Darkstalkers and Guilty Gear. Street Fighter Alpha 2 refined this formula further, adding custom combos and character-specific gameplay mechanics that would influence fighting game design for decades to come, cementing Street Fighter's position as the definitive fighting game franchise across multiple platforms and generations.
