Release Date: 1987
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
It is rare to see a game that is revolutionary in its gameplay and mechanics yet gets completely overshadowed by its direct sequel. That is exactly the case with Street Fighter.
Recently, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior celebrated its 25th anniversary. Capcom’s iconic competitive fighting game was responsible for the fighting-game boom arcades saw in the 1990s. Look back four years, however, and you will see Street Fighter, a game that invented all the mechanics and gameplay its sequel enjoyed. Yet very few people have seen an actual cabinet, and many people don’t even know what it looks like.
Street Fighter was released in 1987 and was home a lot of “firsts”. Apart from being the first in the series, it was the first game to ever use complex joystick moves and button presses as a way of performing special attacks. Deluxe cabinets were the first to use pressure-sensitive rubber pads that players would pound on. The strength of the hit would determine the strength of the attack. These fell out of favor quickly after people started hurting themselves. The regular cabinets sported six buttons, another first. And in a very obscure first, this is the first game the purported father of Mega Man, Kenji Inafune, worked on (he did the character art).
[youtube id=”UNdzDETPDBM” autoplay=”no”]
The six-button cabinet plays remarkably similar to its sequel. You play as Ryu or Ken and fight opponents in four locations around the world. Some familiar characters are familiar to vets, like Adon, Birdie, and final boss Sagat. The rest, however, are totally forgettable. Also note, you have no real choice as to who you will fight as. Player one is ALWAYS Ryu; Player two is ALWAYS Ken. The only way to beat the game as Ken is to start a two-player game and beat player one. The game will then allow you to continue play as Ken.
The special attacks are also another point of contention. Ryu and Ken’s signature attacks are present: Dragon Punch, Fireball, and Hurricane Kick. Pulling them off, however, was an issue back then, as the instructions for pulling them off weren’t printed on the cabinet. There was also no internet back then to look it up. Players had to resort to either gaming magazines or experienced players to learn. Once the player learned them, it was a bit of a chore to execute them. The controls feel a bit stiff, probably due to the game’s animation, which was not as smooth as its descendants.
Still, for the time, Street Fighter was a well-received game. It saw home ports for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST home computers. It also saw a console release on the TurboGrafx-CD, where it saw a name change to Fighting Street.
Does it still hold up? Barely. Being the first, it pales in comparison to its later versions. The inability to select any fighters other than Ryu or Ken will turn off many, and the digitized voices are hilariously bad. Even with these faults, however, it is a very important touchstone in video game history.
For those looking to try it out, there are a couple of options. Ports were made as part of Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. PSP owners can pick up Capcom Classics Collection Remixed. The TurboGrafx-CD version Fighting Street is also available on Wii’s Virtual Console. For Street Fighter fans who want to discover the series’ origins, this is a title you should definitely check out. It’s crusty but quite interesting.
Good: First one-on-one fighter; introduction of special attack inputs
Bad: No choice of fighter; controls were stiff; no easy way to learn special attacks back then
Final score: 6/10
