1987's Street Fighter wasn't the first fighting game—see the likes of Yie Ar Kung Fu and Karate Champ—but it remains the most influential. With three levels of attack speed and strength for punches and kicks mapped to six buttons (replacing an earlier version with pressure-sensitive pads), along with three special attacks that required a specific combination of button presses and joystick movements, Street Fighter was far more complex that its trivial title implied.
Street Fighter II improved on its predecessor to that point that it was almost unrecognisable. Eight playable characters. Hugely improved graphics. And a combo system that—while fabled to have come about by accident, rather than by design—resulted in huge depth. For children of the '90s, huddling round a coveted cabinet in a local chippy, mini-cab station, arcade, or wherever else one would randomly turn up, Street Fighter was a rite of passage.
Many of those children, myself included, went on to enter tournaments. A lucky few became superstars. Others became heroes. Despite its ups and down—particularly when it comes to female participants—the fighting game community that evolved out of Street Fighter is thriving. 2015's Evo tournament, arguably the largest fighting game tournament in the world with a prize pot of over $300,000 (£200,000), was watched by just under four million people. The most popular game in the tournament? Ultra Street Fighter IV, which drew more 250,000 viewers on Twitch during the momentous final between Momochi and Gamerbee. Sure, Evo might ostensibly be about more than just Street Fighter thanks to having games like Super Smash Bros. Melee and Killer Instinct on its roster, but to the average joe who might not know his high kick from his Hadouken, Street Fighter is Evo.
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