La saga Street Fighter celebrates its 35th anniversary this year and does so with the announcement of a new installment, the sixth, although later we have some more games that have been fueling the fights of millions of users around the world for years. So when we arrive at 2022, it's time to look back to know everything that hides one of the best-known video game franchises and profitable in history.
Many fights, but also stories
The history of Street Fighter dates back to the year 1987, when Capcom launched its first game for arcade machines with a first outline of what will be the formula of the fighting genre that it will help to consolidate. It must be remembered that already in those days there were titles that allowed us to star in one-on-one games to blows where at the end of a couple of rounds, the champion was proclaimed.
And it is that fighting games are currently one of the most relevant niches thanks, among others, to the work of brands such as Capcom, which with its Street Fighter they have maintained and fed an industry that over the years has tempered the number of games available. Now, we have franchises that are more stable over time, such as Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Kombat o Injustice that, to the phenomenon of delivery or DLC that they launch, we must add some consolidated Scenes of eSports that keep them always in a constant process of updating.
Street Fighter It is one of those sagas that, surely, you have tried at some time and that from that first fight already marked you forever. No? These are all the games that have come from the franchise directly related to the lore of his characters.
Street Fighter (1987)
Originally released in 1987 for arcades (JAMMA board), it only had Ryu and Ken and a rather rudimentary catalog of blows and barely a dozen enemies spread over five settings (Japan, USA, China, England and Thailand). . Of course, we could already hit the opponent with the famous Hadoken and Shoryuken although obtaining them was complicated. Above all because It was one of the first arcade games to use six buttons. to accommodate the combinations of kicks and punches with which it was possible to attack. If you want to play it today, it's available in the 30th Anniversary Collection that was released in 2017.
Street Fighter II (1991)
We arrive at the key moment in the history of the saga. The game that marks a before and after, not only for Capcom, but for the entire fighting genre, which obtains a nature card and becomes one of the favorites of the users. With it come the Super Nintendo and later Mega Drive versions, featuring Ryu, Honda, Blanka, Guile, Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, Zangief, and Dhalsim. That without forgetting the Balrog, Vega, Sagat (who already appeared in the Street Fighter original) or M. Bison. With this cartridge, the stories of the characters enter the scene and the possibility of completing each of their paths to access different endings that will be, from that moment, one of the incentives of the franchise.
In this game the fight becomes more complicated, the movements are more refined and in the following years will offer fans versions with variations different from the original game: Street Fighter II Champion Edition (1992) Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting (1992) Super Street Fighter II The New Challengers (1993) Super Street Fighter II Turbo (1994) and Hyper Street Fighter II (2003)
Street Fighter Alpha series (1996-1998)
Between 1996 and 1998, Capcom launches for arcades (and consoles like PlayStation, Saturn, Dreamcast and portable) three games that are considered a kind of spinoff of the Street Fighter that we can consider as main, and that narrate events that fill in the gaps left by the main titles. Also Known As Street Fighter Zero In Japan and other countries, we will meet the wrestlers at an earlier age and will be able to learn about some of the key events that will mark their lives. In these titles we find characters as classic as Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Sagat, Akuma and M. Bison, or Cammy and Sakura, or Maki (who comes from Final Fight), Eagle or Yun (of Street fighter iii) who will also join the definitive cast of the franchise.
Street Fighter III (1997)
It is a direct continuation (argumentally and because of the situations it deals with) of Street Fighter II where we can control only ten fighters, although later several will join to make up a much broader cast. At first we will have Alex, Dudley, Elena, Ibuki, Ken, Necro, Oro, Ryu, Matsuda, Yang and Yun and later with the version Second Impact of the game it will be done by Gouki, Hugo Andore and Urien for, finally in the version of Third Strike, receive Chun-Li, Makoto, Remy and Twelve. Originally released for arcades and the CPS-3 board, it came to PlayStation, it was left with the desire to do it on Saturn but later it was landing on other machines such as Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Street Fighter IV (2008)
https://youtu.be/6RtscXKi-yo
Success Street fighter iii and all the games in between that kept feeding the voracity of the fans (Crossovers with fighters from SNK, Marvel, etc.) meant that it was not necessary to launch a game focused on the stories of the original characters, those that fed the 90s lore of the franchise. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, Capcom sees the launch window for a new installment canonical and this fourth part arrives for arcade games, PS3, Xbox 360, PC and, for the first time, for iOS and Android mobile phones.
It is the first to bet on adding 3D graphics but maintaining the 2D effect of the originals so as, according to the words of one of its creators, not to end the legacy of the old Street Fighter II. In Street Fighter IV we have the first contact with the famous Focus Attack in addition to the Ultra combos and the old control scheme with six buttons is recovered. Arguably, we meet old acquaintances again of the saga so we can control Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, E. Honda, Blanka, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison, Abel, Crimson Viper, Rufus and El Fuerte. As final bosses appear Akouma and Gouku.
Street Fighter V (2016)
In the month of February, it arrived for PS4 and PC, which will be until the launch of Street Fighter 6 the last of the canonical installments of the original 1987 franchise games. Maintains the 2D aesthetic with three-dimensional graphics and it is the first that practically becomes a service, with seasons that follow one another with new events focused on multiplayer and, above all, on the competitive eSports scene. You do not have to pay every month, but downloadable content does not stop coming out that increases the list of fighters, enemies. etc So much so that from the initial 18 of Street Fighter V, we have gone to the current 45: Abigail, Akira Kazama, Akuma, Alex, Balrog, Birdie, Blanka, Cammy White, Charlie Nash, Chun-Li, Cody Travers, Dan Hibiki , Dhalsim, E. Honda, Ed, Falke, FANG, G, Gill, Guile, Ibuki, Juri, Kage, Karin Kanzuki, Ken Masters, Kolin, Laura Matsuda, Lucia Morgan, Luke, M. Bison, Menat, Oro, Poison , Mika, Rashid, Rose, Ryu, Sagat, Sakura, Seth, Urien, Vega and Zeku.
Street Fighter 6
Capcom announced in February 2022 that it was working on a new installment in the saga. Unfortunately, the announcement was limited to a fairly visual teaser that serves to give us an idea of ​​where we will go graphically, but that completely avoids giving a date or showing the first brushstrokes of the game. Supposedly in the summer of 2022 they will give more information about it, so we should have news about it very soon. And yes, it is the first game in the series to use decimal numbers in the title.
In what order to play each title?
These games that tell us the personal stories of the fighters encompass events that are not always counted sequentially, Therefore, as in other universes related to video games, movies or television, a specific order must be followed to understand why some fighters disappear for a while and others are younger despite the fact that the game is, nominally, more recent than an earlier one. So this is the order you have to follow:
- Street Fighter
- Street Fighter Alpha
- Street fighter alpha 2
- Street fighter alpha 3
- Street Fighter II
- Street Fighter IV
- Street Fighter V
- Street fighter iii