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Street Fighter Innovations
One really great game that often gets passed up for it's much more successful sequel is Street Fighter by Capcom. It wasn't the most popular arcade game ever and it was only ported to one obscure home system. BBQ is probably getting pissed at me right now for calling the TurboGrafx-16 CD "obscure".
The game reminds me of early bands of a musical trend that do not get super popular but inspire the next wave of hits. Street Fighter/ Fighting Street is the Green River of fighting games.
All good fighting games use some of the conventions that came from the first Street Fighter. For example:
Shouting out special move names:SHORYUKEN!
Ending Quotes:What strength! but don't forget there are guys like you all over the world.
Mini Games:There was the breaking of tiles minigames. It was cool
Selectable paths:Lead the way for the selectable heros that made SF2 so popular.
Greater interaction and control:SF gave the player a wide choice of moves. Previous games were based on super simple controls.
Compressed time for stylish effects:The game slowed down when you got a really good hit. Not as cool as "bullet time" but it is a start.
Analog buttons:There were two flavors of the arcade game. One had these huge rubber button that were the size of your fist that you had to pound to get a fiece punch out of.
6 buttons:The other was the now standard six button layout but this used to get double takes in the late 80s. It was after this that game makers started using more data to communicate with the controllers.
Different fighting styles:Every fighter had a different move and abilities. This was a big deal in the 80s.
Good AI:It took more than one punch and kick to win and button mashing didn't help you. SF is the hardest game in the series.
More animation for a more realistic sprites:Instead of bad guy A and B 40 times in a row like Double Dragon and Kung Fu Master.
Special moves like fireballs:They did a hell of a lot of damage and they established the international standard for throwing a fireball. They just didn't exist before this game.
Ryu, Ken, Balrog (he was called Mike), Birdie, Eagle, Gen and Sagat were all from Street Fighter one. Luckily this game is emulated perfectly in MAME but I still would like to see this included as a special feature on a future Capcom fighting game.
Look Ryu used to be a Red Head and wear little red slippers!
This game was required to spawn Street Fighter 2 the savior of the arcade and killer game of the 16bit era. For that it has my respect.
Jake at February 26, 2003 
Games
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Comments
The Turbografx is obscure, at least in this country. That's what happens to a system when you have marketing geniuses who decide, "Well, we've just got to release Camp California for all the Turbografx players here in the USA. Hmm, Dracula X? Nah, these Americans don't want that."
By the way, Ryu has red hair and a white head band in the Alpha games. Although his hair isn't quite so bloody-red looking.
Posted by: BBQ at February 26, 2003 4:36 PM
Don't forget Keith Courage in Alphazone as a pack in instead of Bonk or Legandary Axe.
Posted by: Jake at February 26, 2003 4:41 PM
Yeah, it's too bad the TG16 never caught on over here. It was a blast playing multiplayer party games like Bomberman, MotoRoader and Dungeon Explorer with 4 other friends. Back then games with more than 2 players were unheard of. Then came the CD-ROM unit, another first for console units. With that, came pretty much my all-time favorite RPG: Ys Book I & II.
Anyways, I have to comment about the SF AI... if you knew how to pull the secret moves, especially the Shoryuken, you were pretty much unbeatable in the arcades against the computer or other players. Try this... mash the buttons and constantly enter the dragon punch motion for continuous hell against opponents.
Posted by: dE at February 26, 2003 7:07 PM
btw, I'm digging 2D Fighters Week. Keep up the good work man!
Here are some of my (obscure) 2D fightin' favorites: Ranma 1/2 Danto Musabetsu (PCE), AdvanceVG (PCE), Samurai Shodown 2 (NG), and Pocketfighter (PSX).
Posted by: dE at February 26, 2003 7:13 PM
You know, I have waited through most of the week without throwing my two cents in on the matter. But there seems to be a huge lack of attention to 2D fighting games that are not Capcom...or at least Mortal Kombat in particular...
Posted by: Mici at February 26, 2003 8:13 PM
Hey don't forget Adon was in Street Fighter one also. His back looks like a tray of freshly baked muffins! I never had the old fashioned Turbografx, I went for the Turbo Duo when it went on sale for $100. My pack-ins were Ninja Spirit, Gate of Thunder, Bonk 1 & 2, and Ys 1 & 2. Ys 4 was another supremely excellent game that was not brought over here thanks to brilliant marketing. But we got Sherlock Holmes alright!
Posted by: BBQ at February 27, 2003 12:28 AM
The TurboDuo was just released at an odd transition in gaming in the states. Slim it down, speed up the disc speed, toss in a couple more controller ports and provide the Avenue6 or the 6 button pads the Duo-RX (I think Fighting Street supported the Avenue6) came with and the classic gamer would eat it up. Heck, Sega pushed the Genesis 3 for years and years.
Back to fighters, don't forget Asuka 120% Burning Fest. (which went on to be awesome on the Saturn) and Advanced Variable Geo (mentioned eariler in another comment) as great fighting games on the Duo that never made it stateside. Ahh.. if US publishers were only more susceptive to anime girls back then.
Posted by: Evolver at February 28, 2003 12:39 AM
Why has this not been re-released yet? We've had countless Street Fighter 2 collections. C'mon Capcom. For the 2-D fighter fan boy in all of us.
Posted by: James at January 18, 2006 10:59 AM
im Akhilesh im streetfighters fan i like streetfighter
Posted by: Akhilesh at June 2, 2006 1:18 AM
Jesus, this game is old. I rmember the first time I played and o yes it was awesome..... my heart near stopped when I found it was released for the TurboGrafx-16 under the name Fighting Street and it was hard to get a hand on the game and the console (its cause I live in Ireland :P) Yeah well this game was nothing like SfII which was ridiculosly priced on its release for the Snes if any1 remember it was like £75!!!!!!! If you are a fan of the Series you must play this game!!!!!
Posted by: Gearoid at April 30, 2007 2:39 PM
hardest in the series? somebody's never played super turbo against the computer. that cheating motherfucker is nearly impossible to beat...
Posted by: Anonymous at July 9, 2007 12:39 PM
