Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior by Capcom, the game that arguably put the Super Nintendo on the map for many gamers (I lived through it and remember the scene vividly). When Capcom released Street Fighter II into the arcades though, it had a similar effect. Gamers were flocking to this new fighting game and were gladly dropping quarters into it. It seemed that arcades were experiencing another Space Invaders like event where even non gamers were coming in and at least checking things out, if not participating. As the name suggests, there was a previous Street Fighter game but it’s popularity was nothing compared to that of the sequel.

The original Street Fighter 2 game only offered players eight characters to choose from (can you name all eight? Bonus points for the bosses too) to challenge the remaining seven combatants and four boss characters. What set SF2 apart from other fighting games at the time (Fatal Fury on the Neo Geo platform for example) is that SF2 offered the ability to create combos- the method of linking several moves together in an unblockable chain.

Arcade games were never the same after Capcom dropped Street Fighter II, forever changed. This could be considered a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective. The one on one fighting game craze was upon us and arcades were all too happy to remove a classic like Asteroids, that was probably barely covering the light bill to run it, for the newest snazzy one on one fighting game. We have Street Fighter II and Capcom to thank for that. We also owe thanks to Capcom for probably helping arcades in general limp along for another eight to ten years before becoming completely obsolete.

Got a Street Fighter II fan, or are on yourself? Check Ebay for games, toys, movies, whatever or grab a copy on Amazon !

Like this: Like Loading...

Related