Fighting in the Streets

Coinciding with the release of the fourth game in the series, I will now ramble about a fighting game that first presented some of the conventions that would be (and still are) the standard in later games of the genre. That game is no other than the original arcade classic “Street Fighter” and those features were the six attack buttons, special command based techniques and bonus rounds.

Controlling a Japanese martial Street Fighter known only as Ryu, you’ll compete in an international tournament and fight in a series of matches against other characters controlled by the computer, in order to prove you’re the greatest fighter in the world.

Whenever a second human player enters the tournament, he / she will take control of Ken, who is a former trainer partner and now rival of Ryu. Whoever wins will continue to travel around the globe fighting the rest of the opponents. After defeating all nine fighters from the five different countries you travel to (Japan, USA, England, China and Thailand) you’ll face the final boss named Sagat (who would reappear in the sequel).

Probably what I remember most about the game are the special moves and techniques that can be achieved by specific button combinations. These would be largely expanded on later games, but the initial three were the “Psycho Fire”, “Surge Fist” or “Hadōken” (everyone who has played this game has said it at least once during combat!), the Dragon Punch” “Shoryūken” or “Rising Dragon Fist, and last but not least the “Hurrican Kick” or “Tornado Whirlwind Kick”.

If you’ve never kicked an opponent unconscious on Street Fighter, do yourself a favour and play street fighter online (not exactly the same, but more like SF 2), download it and save it for later or get an arcade emulator to play an exact copy and start the fighting ASAP. Click on the link to check some info and pics about the original arcade cabinet and learn all combos and moves in the strategy wiki.