Street Fighter is one of the best 2D fighting games ever presented to the world.
Although I myself have not actually played the first and original Street Fighter,
I have played the sequel that made this series so popular:
Street Fighter II: the World Warrior.
Although the game is now dull and slow to today's comparisons,
it led the way for the rest of the series, with its characters
(Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Zangief, Dhalsim, E. Honda, Guile, Blanka)
and bosses (Balrog, Vega, Sagat and Bison).
It later came to pass that Capcom would release 2 other versions of this labelled:
Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and
Street Fighter II Turbo.
This allowed the use of the normal bosses and added a 'TURBO" mode, respectively.
The next in the series was
Super Street Fighter II: the New Challengers,
which introduced four new characters
(Cammy, Fei Long, T. Hawk, and Dee Jay).
In addition to these characters, it also introduced a new concept: the Super Move.
Each character had two Super Moves which took off large amounts of health when their Super Bar filled.
This would be a model for the later games in the series.
Again, Capcom released a souped up version called
Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Grand Master Challenge.
This included the 'TURBO' mode as well as a secret character: Akuma.
Capcom then decided to make two games based on the story after the original Street Fighter
and before the second tournament: Street Fighter II:
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams
and
Street Fighter Alpha 2.
(Japan released versions called Zero and Zero 2)
Introduced in these games was the multiple Super Bar, allowing for a maximum of 3 Supers at a time,
which could be used seperately or together for more powerful effects,
and Alpha Counters which were used to block and counter-attack an opponant.
With Ryu, Ken, Chun Li and Sagat leading the way,
Street Fighter Alpha added Guy and Sodom from Final Fight and introduced
Rose, Adon, Birdie and Charlie as well as three secret characters: Bison, Dan and Akuma.
In Street Fighter Alpha 2, Capcom revived Gen from the original Street Fighter,
added Zangief and Dhalsim from Street Fighter II, and introduced new characters Rolento and Sakura.
Again Capcom added a new feature to this game by introducing Custom Combos
which speeds up the characters attacks and recovery time from these attacks in a time period,
allowing for high number combos and quick attacks.
Capcom then created 3 cross-over games with Marvel Comics based X-Men: Children of the Atom -
X-Men vs. Street Fighter,
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
and
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.
Although these games had both charcters, I was sort of sad to see the controls were from X-Men
and not Street Fighter (ie. Super Moves).
Welcome additions from these cross-overs were the Super Jump and dashes.
The difference between this and the other games, both Street Fighter and X-Men,
was the character selection: a team of two characters, one battling at a time and
interchangable during battle - allowing for each other to regain some health.
Of course with this addition, rounds were abandoned.
Capcom finally continues with the story by releasing
Street Fighter III: the Next Generation.
This game erradicated most of the old characters, excluding Ryu and Ken, in corralation with the
storyline,
and added 9 totally new characters: Ibuki, Oro, Alex, Elena, Dudley, Sean, Necro
and the Twin Dragons: Yun and Yang Lee.
Shortly after, Street Fighter III: Second Impact,
was introduced with two new characters: Urien and Hugo.
Akuma was also brought back in this sequel.
A sad change in these games was that although the Super Moves, renamed Super Arts,
was increased to three per characrer, only one of them could be used throughout the game.
Capcom recently embarked into the 3D fighting catagory with the releases of
Street Fighter EX, EX Plus
and EX 2.
I had briefly played the first of this series, and am looking forward to play the other two.
Capcom's most recent release however has been Street Fighter Alpha 3, (known as Zero 3 in Japan). The only resembence this latest release has to its predessor (Street Fighter Alpha 2) is its great graphics and some aspects of gameplay. Otherwise, Capcom has made several additions that make this entirely a different game. To begin with, we see the appearence of some characters from previous games (Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II): E. Honda, Blanka, Fei Long, T. Hawk, Cammy, and Dee Jay, as well as the secret character Guile. There are also several new characters to join the cast: Karin, and twins, Juli and Juni. To add to this, Capcom has also added several new gameplay features. After selecting a character, the player must also select a mode to play in. These include V-ISM, X-ISM, and Z-ISM. Each affects the type of Power Bar used and therefore the type of super combos that can be used. Another new feature is the Guard Meter, which decreases with every blocked attack. Once the entire bar is depleted, the character is left vulnerable for a short while. With these new features, playing this game requires some new strategies from any of the older versions.