Controller

Street Fighter, as with most other game franchises, require a device for Inputs to be made by a player, Unlike many other game franchises, Street Fighter was made with the intention of using a joystick with 8 directions and six buttons, preferably next to each other.

Since Street Fighter has always been designed for this specific layout, some features that modern controllers for game consoles are redundant, such as pressure sensitive analog sitcks.

Types of controllers
Because of Street Fighter games being ported to many different consoles, as well as enthusiest level players and companies making their own, throughout the years many types of input devices are available.

Controller
These are among the most common input devices as they usually come with the console the game is being played. They tend to be cheaper in terms of pricing than most specialized controllers, and have higher applicibility with different game genres. These are not as common in Street Fighter due to their layouts, as modern controllers only have four buttons near each other and they tend to not be in the same formation as in arcades. Furthermore players have to reach to the triggers for the remaining attacks. While this is rectified somewhat by customizable controllers, players do not have "easy access" to all their buttons. Some players also report hands hurting when playing some more execution heavy characters. Some players do notably go to gaming events using default controllers that come with systems.

Touch Screen
These tend to be more common for mobile ports of games. Modern handheld consoles such as the Playstation Vita and Nintendo 3ds also have touch screens besides their physical buttons. These tend to use the touch screen for easy one button specials (they usually can bypass usage requirements such as Guile's Sonic Boom not needing a charge.

Keyboard.
An option mostly in PC ports, Keyboards are an option for players of said ports. When using a keyboard it is recommended to use specified gaming keyboards (usually mechanical but membrane or even hybrid keyboards exist), that has "anti ghosting" features. This allows for more key presses that are useful for doing some actions such as EX Special Attacks. With normal run of the mil keyboards there tends to be a key limit that prohibits simple gameplay options such as back throws.