One of Capcom’s biggest franchises has got to be fighter beat ‘em up series Street Fighter. First released in 1987, they were originally only available in arcade cabinets in arcade centres and involved the player playing as main character Ryu and taking part in a tournament fighting different characters all around the world. Street Fighter as a franchise has spanned five further main game titles, multiple crossover games with other franchises, and many other spin-off series, making Street Fighter one of the highest-grossing video game series of all time. This influenced other types of media for the series like comics, manga and movies. Ranked below are the top five best Street Fighter games.
Final Fight (Street Fighter 89):
In 1989, Final Fight was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. This title was intended to be a sequel to the hugely successful Street Fighter arcade release in 1987. However, the difference of this particular title was that they decided to try something new with their formula. Instead of following the fighter brawler style, Final Fight is a side scroller classic beat ‘em up title, meaning that instead of the game being a versus where players would fight each other stage after stage, players would be working together walking through a fictional city and fighting their way through multiple AI-controlled enemies like thugs and several other unique characters with different traits.
Street Fighter X Tekken:
Street Fighter X Tekken was the 4th highest-grossing in the franchise, and was released in March 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For this particular title, Capcom decided to do a crossover with Namco’s Tekken, another hugely successful fighting game. It took the world by storm as fans of both series were brought together in this collaboration. Players were able to create tag team matches where they could pick up to two characters on their team, and they could switch character mid-battle. The game was very successful, and was complimented for its roster of characters and gameplay mechanics where fans of both series were not disappointed.
Street Fighter V:
Street Fighter V was released back in February 2016 on PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. This title was a Capcom/Sony console exclusive, making it only available on the PlayStation 4 console at the time. An update, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, was released in 2018, improving its interface and giving the fans the arcade mode they had been requesting. The second update, named Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, was released in February 2020 and gave fans all stages, characters, and costumes.
Street Fighter IV:
This title was first released in 2008 and it was co-developed by Capcom and Dimps. The arcade versions of this game were released across arcades on initial release. It was not until 2009 that this title was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The following year, the title had made its way to IOS and LG Android devices, and received critical acclaim across all available platforms. By 2012, it was also available on all Android devices on the Play Store. The gameplay itself was similar to Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but included features from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, which are two very well received Street Fighter titles in terms of gameplay.
Street Fighter II:
This is the best-selling Street Fighter game of all time, selling over 15 million units worldwide. Occasionally known as Street Fighter: The World Warrior, this title had its arcade release in 1991; a direct sequel to the first Street Fighter game from 1987. After the success of Street Fighter, Street Fighter II vastly improved the game in many ways, giving the game a larger roster of playable fighters and more of a story to the game in the arcade mode. Like the first game, players travel the world to fight other characters in a tournament with the best two out of three in matches to win each round. In the third round, players are given a bonus stage where they can destroy objects for extra points. Due to it being released during the 1990s, when there were arcades on every other block, Street Fighter II was one of the most sought after arcade cabinets at the time. This led to the game being ported to the SNES, Game Boy, and home computers so people could play at the arcades as well as at home.
Street Fighter has become so huge, it has also led the game to the world of eSports with international tournaments to find the best Street Fighter players. Tournaments are held all over the world across different versions of the game. In the UK tournaments are held in locations depending on the season. VSFighting hosts Birmingham, Play Expo hosts Manchester, and Xtreme Gaming hosts Colchester, to name a few.