Street Fighter

The Street Fighter is a franchise mostly comprised of one-on-one fighting games developed and published by Capcom.

Street Fighter

Street Fighter's Gameplay.

The original Street Fighter was released in the arcades in 1987. Unlike its successors, you could only play as Ryu and fight through 10 CPU controlled opponents. There is a 2-player mode where the second player would play as Ken.

While the game was successful during its time, it was nowhere near as popular as its sequel was which didn't result in much in terms of piracy and/or bootlegs. Zemina ported the game to the MSX and Sega Master System (running in SG-1000 mode) under the name Street Master. NTDEC's Fighting Hero notably appears to be based on this game; controlling a character named Leon who is a copy of Ryu and has to fight against several CPU opponents.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior

Street Fighter II title screen (SNES).

Street Fighter II was released in arcades in 1991. The sequel added playable characters to the game and included varying attacks and special moves among the characters. It is often cited as having revolutionized the genre and received various ports to many consoles. This game would later receive various updates: Street Fighter II': Champion Edition (Street Fighter II Dash in Japan) made the boss characters playable, Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting added new moves and let you changed the speed of the game, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers introduced four new characters (T. Hawk, Dee Jay, Fei Long, and Cammy) and made balance changes, Super Street Fighter II Turbo made more balance changes, introduced super attacks and added Akuma as a hidden boss, Hyper Street Fighter II allowed all the previous versions of the characters playable, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD which introduced more balance changes as well as updated the overall presentation and allowed online play, and Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers added Evil Ryu and Violent Ken and added several new modes and balance changes.

In Taiwan, the Street Fighter II: Champion Edition was distributed by Hung Hsi Enterprise. This version appears to be the one that was often pirated and hacked to make such versions as Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition and Street Fighter II Koryu, as their name often remains in the ROM.

The Super Famicom/SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis ports have also been hacked, producing versions such as Street Fighter II: Champion Edition for the SNES and Street Fighter III: 18 Person for the Mega Drive.

As there was no Famicom/NES version of the game, several pirate Famicom ports were made such as Street Fighter II: The World Warrior by Hummer Team and released by Yoko Soft, Street Fighter II Pro by Cony Soft and Super Fighter III by an unknown developer and publisher. Seicom would publish a Game Gear and a Sega Master System port called Jang Pung II.

Street Fighter Alpha/Zero series

Street Fighter Alpha's title screen.

The first Street Fighter Alpha (known as Street Fighter Zero, in Japan) was released in arcades in 1995, a successor to Street Fighter II in terms of gameplay, but a prequel in terms of plot, taking place between the first Street Fighter, and Street Fighter II. It's also considered to be a spin-off series, as it spawned two sequels, Street Fighter Alpha 2 (released in 1996 at arcades) and Street Fighter Alpha 3 (released in 1998 at arcades). While Street Fighter Alpha 2 is more of a remake of the first Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 3 is more of a successor with a few new gameplay features, and its advancement of the plot (though still taking place before Street Fighter II).

The first game has been pirated, which is titled Street Fighter Zero 2 '97 for the NES. While it is titled "Zero 2," it's based on the first game as none of the characters from Street Fighter Zero 2 appear and all the graphics and some of the music tracks are based on the first game. Street Fighter Zero 3 was ported to the Game Boy Color by several Ex-Sachen developers under the name Street Fighter Zero 4.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter

'X-Men vs. Street Fighter title screen

X-Men vs. Street Fighter is a crossover spin-off game between Street Fighter and Marvel's X-Men franchise released in 1996 for the arcades. The gameplay is a notable departure from the Street Fighter series, it's notable feature includes a tag-in system where you select two characters and switch between them.

A Mega Drive and a Super Famicom port were developed under the same name released in 1998.

Street Fighter EX series

Street Fighter EX's title screen

A spin-off series developed by the game company Arika and published by Capcomm the Street Fighter EX series features 3D graphics, new characters, and new mechanics that differentiate from the original and Alpha/Zero series of Street Fighter games. While the series contained 3D Graphics, it still retains its traditional 2D style of gameplay, despite the lack of walls of which most, if not all installments of Street Fighter contain. Street Fighter EX was released in 1996 in arcades, and its sequel Street Fighter EX 2 was released in 1998. Both games contain one remake, both having been titled "Plus" at the end of their names. The original versions were never released on home consoles, only their remakes, and were exclusively released on PlayStation consoles. The final installment of the series, Street Fighter EX 3 was the first Street Fighter game to not be released in arcades, and was exclusive for the home consoles, plus, it's the only Street Fighter game (that isn't a crossover with another franchise) to include tag play.

Street Fighter EX + Alpha (named after the PlayStation port of the first Street Fighter EX) was ported for the Super Famicom in 1997. The graphics have a combined mixture of rotoscoped 3D models from Street EX Plus Alpha, and Street Fighter Alpha sprites, except for the EX exclusive characters, which were just rotoscoped, but still meant to be in the style of the Street Fighter Alpha sprites.

Bootlegs and Unlicensed Clones

Due to Street Fighter II's popularity, it was often cloned and hacked; often changing the attributes of the characters such as speeding them, making them throw out projectiles when they originally couldn't, allow special moves to be performed in the air, and much more. Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition is often a notorious example.

As stated, various ports were attempted to port the game to consoles it wasn't available on; such as the Famicom/NES, the Sega Master System, and the Game Gear. These versions either seem to be based on the arcade version of Street Fighter II: Championship Edition or the SNES port.

Street Fighter II's popularity also influenced many other fighting games to come out and when it came to unlicensed games, this was no exception. NTDEC would produce Fighting Hero and Fighting Hero III, the former based on the first Street Fighter while the latter is more inspired by Street Fighter II. (There is no Fighting Hero II, suggesting the "3" was to pretend as if it was a sequel to Street Fighter II.) SuperTone Electronics and Hummer Team would also release Street Fighter IV for the Famicom, whose names are based on Street Fighter II, but the game itself is more of an original fighting game. Seico's and Open Corp's Jang Pung 3 for the Sega Master System follows a similar suit, being an original fighter despite using a name based on the Korean name for Street Fighter II. While Yingxiong Chuan - World Hero and Janggun-ui Adeul are much more non-infringing with Street Fighter II (mostly because they're based on already-existing media), they still seem to be inspired by the game or at least, the fighting game craze at the time. (Yingxiong Chuan - World Hero is also based on the Super Fighter III engine as well.)

Some characters from the franchise have managed to appear in other bootleg ports. Ryu, Chun-Li, and M.Bison (Vega in Japan) have shown up in Cony Soft's World Heroes 2. The King of Fighters '98 for the Mega Drive has Ryu, Cammy, and Guile as their own team. The sequel drops Cammy and adds M. Bison back in. Ryu also appears in Top Fighter 2000 MK VIII.

Translations

Chinese:

• 快打旋風 (Simplified: 快打旋风, Pinyin: Kuài dǎ xuànfēng, Jyutping: Faai3 Daa2 Syun4fung1, translates to "Quick Hit Whirlwind") - Name used in Taiwan.
• 街頭霸王 (Simplified: 街頭霸王, Pinyin: Jiētóu bàwáng, Jyutping: Gaai1tau4 Baa3wong4, translates to "Street Overlord") - Name used in mainland China and Hong Kong.
  • The name is often simplified to 街霸. (Pinyin: Jiēbà, Jyutping: Gaai1Baa3)

Korean:

• 스트리트 파이터 (Hangul: Seuteuliteu Paiteo) - Official name for Street Fighter in South Korea.
• 장풍 (Hangul: Jangpung) - Nickname for Street Fighter, used to describe the Hadouken special attack.