Street Fighter - The Golden Age Part I

Just when you think Street Fighter IV comes from 3 prequels...

Street Fighter I


First released for the arcade in 1987, though it did not achieve as much popularity as Street Fighter II, it helped establish the foundation of fighting games genre. You get to play as Ryu or Ken and compete against 10 CPU fighters. Special attacks like Hadoken, Shoryuken and Hurricane Kick are present.


For gamers, the special moves are VERY hard to execute. Landing a special move on your opponent however, is satisfying because it could drain quarter to a half of your opponents health bar. In other words, you can knock out your opponent in 3 shoryuken blows!

Street Fighter II


Street Fighter II helped create a golden era of fighting games. Every gamer knows Street Fighter! It was so hyped that kids and adults all over the world were talking about it. Hadokens and Shoryukens became commonly use in daily lives. Gamers flocked through arcades to drop their quarters in order to experience it. Hardcore gamers practiced their way to master every special moves and combos.


Then we have the crappy Street Fighter movie and the Hong Kong spoof comedy. It also helped popularize dozens of other fighting games like Fatal Fury, World Warriors, Art of Fighting, King of Fighters etc.


The special moves in Street Fighter II are simplified and easier to perform. The creator has reduced the damage of special moves in order to allow longer fights and depth to the game. With each character having their own unique moves and style, the game not only requires you to master the moves, but to strategies as well. With amazing visuals and sound effect back in the old days, Street Fighter II became a hit to the arcade and home consoles.

The popularity of Street Fighter II has spawn numerous ‘expansion’ and ‘add-ons’ to the franchise.

1991 – Street Fighter II : World Warrior
1992 – Street Fighter II : Champion Edition (Dash)
1992 – Street Fighter II : Hyper Fighting (Turbo)
1993 – Super Street Fighter II
1994 – Super Street Fighter II Turbo (X)


The expansions have greatly improved the game mechanics and system with added new elements to make Street Fighter more interesting and appealing to new and veteran gamers. The obvious improvements to the series are speed (Turbo) and super combo (Turbo X).

Interesting Facts

There is a bug which allows player to ‘cancel’ normal move animation straight to a special attack without delay. The creator has then implemented this bug as ‘combo’ attacks which are popular until now.

There are numerous mods and hacks to the arcade version since Champion Edition, allowing players to perform mid air special moves and hadokens for every fighters. You can even change fighters in the middle of the game.



The game is officially ported to consoles like SNES & Sega Genesis in 1992. Due to its popularity, a ‘pirated’ NES version of the game is also available for those who do not own a SNES or Genesis.



Just when fans taught Capcom is coming up with a sequel, they are wrong. There’s a prequel to a sequel and to a sequel again... before Street Fighter III.

Stay tune to the ‘sequel’ of this post...