Posted by Koopa42 on Oct 4, 2010 00:12 (Oct 4, 2010 00:12)
The Street Fighter franchise is considered by many (not all) to be the pinnacle of 2D fighting games. This is a view I happen to agree with having played almost all versions and crossovers (x-men vs. capcom vs. marvel vs. the kitchen sink).
In 1987 Capcom released a 2D fighting game called Street Fighter, a simple idea of a lone fighter travelling the world picking fights with various other Street Fighters. It promised a new concept in game play and a revolutionary control system that would take the world by storm. Well it didn’t, although the ideas were sound and the game play was indeed more advanced than many the predecessors of its genre. The so-called ‘revolutionary’ control system comprised of 2 pressure sensitive pads per player as opposed to standard buttons, which was supposed to gauge the strength of any attack on how hard the button was ‘hit’. Obviously this put an enormous strain on the actual hardware resulting in a high breakdown rate, making many owners weary of putting it in their arcades (as well as many supposed player injuries caused by crazy ass players actually trying to kick the pads). So the button bashing, lawsuit-inducing system was consigned to the ‘could have been’ lot of arcade history, and replaced with the now all too familiar 6-button kick/punch system we all know and love. Each button varying the strength of kick or punch and the ‘short, strong, fierce’ system was born.
In the same year that the original Street Fighter was released a man called Yoshiki Okamoto was making huge arcade hits such as 1943 The Battle of Midway (also a Capcom title) the sequel to the massively popular 1942 (also a Capcom/Okamoto title). It was in 1989 that Okamoto had his biggest hit to date with Capcom’s Final Fight, a 2D scrolling fighter that had hints of the greatness that would be added to the Street Fighter franchise. Capcom put Okamoto in charge of creating their newest 2D fighter, Street Fighter II ‘The World Warrior’ and after that Capcom never looked back.
The World Warrior stuns the World
4 years after the original, SFII The World Warrior hits the arcades in 1991 and literally set the bar for all 2D fighters for the rest of the 90s. Okamoto had truly astonished with a brilliant multi hit combo based game system with a massive 8 playable characters. Each character had a unique fighting style (well almost, lets not count Ken and Ryu) and combo system.
For me (and many others) it was the first instance of combo play, where as in certain situations and with certain moves after hitting an opponent once, they were unable to block the following 2 or 3 moves. This combined with devastating ‘special attacks’ made the games replay value immense do to wanting to discover new attacks and new combos. The special moves were also groundbreaking, needing the combination of joystick movements and button presses to release a multitude of uniquely devised attacks. Also there was the masterstroke of having 4 hidden boss characters and for me this is the best addition in any game. When I first got to them it was such a great feeling. I was lucky because I really hadn’t read about them, so when their faces appeared I was totally
street fighter 2 was amazing. i remember we all used to try and figure out a cheat on the snes to be the 4 bosses lol, would buy computer magz every month to see if a cheat had been found! so many good memories playing this. i used to be able to complete the game on the hardest setting with any character! a while ago i played this for the first time in about 15 years! took me a very long time to complete the game and only managed with chun li
Oct 30, 2010 02:01:53 (
Oct 30, 2010 02:01
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