Street Fighter series

Street Fighter (ストリートファイター), or commonly abbreviated as SF, is a popular series of fighting games in which the players pit combatants from around the world, each with his or her own special moves, against one another. Capcom released the first game in the series in August 1987.

Street Fighter
Street Fighter made its debut at the arcades in 1987, designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto. The player took control of a lone martial artist named Ryu, who competes in a worldwide martial arts tournament spanning five different countries (United States, Japan, China, England and Thailand) and ten opponents (two per country). The player could perform three basic types of punches and kicks (which varies in speed and strength) for a total six attack buttons and three special attacks: (the Wave Fist in which the player launches a fireball, Rising Dragon Punch and Hurricane Kick; or the Hadouken, Shoryuken and Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku in Japanese) that could be performed only by executing specific motions. A second player could join in any time and take control of Ryu's rival, Ken, during competitive matches and play the rest of the game as Ken if they won.The original "Street Fighter" has been noted by fans of the series for the considerable difficulty in executing special moves compared to its sequels. The original game used pressure-sensitive pads to measure the three strengths of attack used in the game. The harder the player hit the pad, the stronger the attack was. The pads quickly became damaged, and Capcom eventually abandoned them.

The original Street Fighter did not achieve the same kind of success as its successors, although it was ported to many popular home computer systems of the time as well as the TurboGrafx-CD console by NEC Avenue under the changed title Fighting Street. It wasn't ported to another console until its inclusion in Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed for PlayStation Portable and Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

After the release of the original Street Fighter, Capcom produced an NES game known as Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight. This futuristic action game bore no real connection to the original Street Fighter, although the English localization of the game changed the main character's identity from Kevin to Ken, implying that he is the same Ken from the original Street Fighter.

The side-scrolling beat-em-up Final Fight was originally promoted with the working title Street Fighter '89. While the game's title was changed due to its drastically different gameplay, Final Fight (unlike 2010) does take place in the same fictional universe as later Street Fighter games.

Street Fighter II series
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, released in 1991, was the first true sequel to the original Street Fighter. It was one of the earliest arcade games for Capcom's CPS hardware and was designed by the duo of Akira Nishitani (Nin-Nin) and Akiman (Akira Yasuda), who were previously responsible for Final Fight and Forgotten Worlds. Notably, even when SF2 was released, Capcom had no idea what sort of phenomenon it was about to create. It believed that the game would do somewhat (but an unknown quantity) better than its CPS-based contemporary games, Final Fight and MERCS.

Street Fighter II was the first one-on-one fighting game to give players a choice from a variety of player characters, an option which created hitherto unknown levels of depth and replay value for an arcade game. Each player character had a fighting style with roughly 30 or more moves, including previously nonexistent grappling moves such as throws, as well as two or three special hidden attacks per character. In the game's single-player mode, the player's chosen character is pitted against the seven other main characters before confronting the final four opponents, who were CPU-controlled characters that were not selectable by the player. Like in the original, a second player could join in and compete against the other player in competitive matches, with the multiple available characters allowing for more varied matches. Street Fighter II proved to be popular due to all these factors, eclipsing its predecessor in popularity, eventually turning Street Fighter into a multimedia franchise. Numerous home ports of Street Fighter II followed the original arcade game. In fact, demand for the game was so high that pirates created an unsanctioned, copyright-infringing Famicom/NES version, which saw a very limited release in Asian markets. Computer versions were released for 16-bit PCs, first by a number of copyright-infringing fans who strove to develop a PC version of the game, and later by Capcom, working with an external programming house.

The first official update to the series was Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (pronounced Street Fighter II Dash in Japan, as noted by the prime symbol on the logo), which allowed players to play as the four previously non-playable bosses and also allowed two players to choose the same character (with one character drawn in an alternate color pattern). The game also featured slightly improved graphics (including differently colored backgrounds) and refined gameplay. A second upgrade, titled Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting (or Street Fighter II Dash Turbo), was produced  in response to the various bootleg editions of the game. Hyper Fighting offered faster gameplay than its predecessors and new special techniques  (such as Chun-Li's Kikoken or Dhalsim's Yoga Teleport).

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers, the third revision, gave the game a complete graphical overhaul and introduced four new playable characters (Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay and T.Hawk). This game gave previous characters new basic moves (such as giving Vega standing kicks), new special moves (such as Vega's diving claw), and improvements to existing special moves (such as Ryu's flaming fireball or Ken's flaming dragon punch). It was also the first game for Capcom’s CPS II arcade hardware. The fourth and final arcade version, Super Street Fighter II Turbo: The Ultimate Championship (or Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge) brought back the faster gameplay of Hyper Fighting, along with a new type of special techniques known as “super combos” and hidden character Akuma.

Street Fighter II: The Movie was combination of digitized graphics with a version of the Street Fighter II engine, featuring all of the movie's stars. Every main SF2 fighter is included, plus a couple of new characters: Captain Sawada, from the movie, and Blade, a character with a bazooka, knives, and stun rod. Some characters have new moves inspired by the movie, such as Bison's lightning bolt fingertips attack.

Numerous home versions of the game had been release for various platforms including the Super NES, Sega Genesis, PC Engine, 3DO, PlayStation, Dreamcast and Saturn, Sega Master System among other platforms. Most of these games had been released individually or through compilations such as Street Fighter Collection and more recently the Capcom Classics Collection series. Most notably, Capcom released Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition, a modified version of Super Turbo that allows player to select characters from all five versions of the game, was originally released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox and also saw a limited release in Japanese arcades. Emulated versions have also been recently included in downloadable game services. The Wii's Virtual Console received the SNES versions of Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting, and Super Street Fighter II, and the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade received an online enabled version of Street Fighter II′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

In a recent press release, Capcom has announced that an updated version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo will be coming soon to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade service later in the year. The game, to be called Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, will have fully redrawn artwork, including HD sprites 4.5x the original size, done by artists from UDON. This will be the first time the Street Fighter characters will have new sprites, drawn by Capcom, since Capcom vs. SNK 2 in 2001.

Street Fighter Alpha series
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (Street Fighter Zero in Japan and Asia) is the first entirely new Street Fighter arcade game developed by Capcom since the first iteration of Street Fighter II. The game used the same art style Capcom previously employed in Darkstalkers and X-Men: Children of the Atom, with settings and character designs heavily influenced by Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Alpha expands on the Super Combo system from Super Turbo, by extending Super Combo meter into three levels (allowing for more powerful super combos), and also introduces Alpha Counters and Chain Combos (also from Darkstalkers). The plot of Alpha is set between the first two Street Fighter games and fleshes out the back stories and grudge matches held by many of the classic SF2 characters. It features a playable roster of ten immediately playable characters (and three unlockable fighters), comprising not only younger versions of established Street Fighter II, but also characters from the original Street Fighter and Final Fight.

Rather than being a mere upgrade, Street Fighter Alpha 2 has end up being a full sequel, featuring all-new stages and endings for each character (some overlapping with those from the original Alpha). It also discarded the Chain Combo system in favor of Custom Combos (which required a portion of the Super Combo meter to be used). Alpha 2 also retained all thirteen characters from the original, adding five new characters to the roster along with hidden versions of returning characters. Alpha 2 was followed by a slightly enhanced arcade release titled Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha and was released in Japan, Asia and Brazil, was ported to home consoles as Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold (Zero 2 Dash in Japan). The home versions added Cammy as a hidden character.

The third and final Alpha game, Street Fighter Alpha 3, was released in 1998 (following the release of the original Street Fighter III and 2nd Impact). Alpha 3 introduced three selectable fighting style and further expanded the playable roster to 28 characters (including three hidden characters). Console versions of the three games (including the original Alpha 2 and the aforementioned Alpha 2 Gold) were released for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn, although versions of specific games in the series were also released for the Game Boy Color, Super NES, Sega Dreamcast and even Windows. The home console versions of Alpha 3 further expanded the character roster by adding the remaining "New Challengers" from Super Street Fighter II, along with Guile, Evil Ryu and Shin Akuma (the latter two were omitted from the arcade release). The Dreamcast version of the game was backported to the arcades in Japan under the title of Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper. A version of Upper (simply titled Alpha 3 outside Japan) was released for the Game Boy Advance and added three characters from Capcom vs. SNK 2. A PlayStation Portable version titled Alpha 3 MAX (or Zero 3 Double Upper in Japan) contains the added characters from the GBA version and Ingrid from Capcom Fighting Jam.

Street Fighter III series
The true sequel to Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III: The New Generation, made its debut to the arcades on the CPS3 hardware in 1997. Street Fighter III discarded the character roster from previous games (only Ryu and Ken returned), introducing several new characters in their place, most notably the female ninja Ibuki, twin brothers Yun and Yang, and grappler Alex. Street Fighter III introduced the "Super Arts" selection system and the ability to parry an opponent's attack. Several months after its release, it was followed by 2nd Impact: Giant Attack, which made adjustments to the gameplay and added two new characters, as well as the return of Akuma and bonus rounds. 3rd Strike: Fight for the Future, released in 1999, was the third and last iteration of Street Fighter III, bringing back Chun-Li and adding four new characters to the playable roster.

The first two Street Fighter III games were ported to the Sega Dreamcast as a compilation titled Double Impact. Ports of 3rd Strike were released for the Dreamcast as a stand-alone game and then included in the compilation Street Fighter Anniversary Collection for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Street Fighter EX series
A 3D version of the series, Street Fighter EX, was released in the arcades in 1996 and was developed by the company Arika. Due to Capcom only allowing the Street Fighter characters for license, these games are not a part of the Street Fighter canon. It was later followed by three arcade follow-ups and three home console games:


 * Street Fighter EX (Arcade, 1996)
 * Street Fighter EX Plus (Arcade, 1997)
 * Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha (PlayStation, 1997)
 * Street Fighter EX2 (Arcade, 1998)
 * Street Fighter EX2 Plus (Arcade, 1999/Playstation, 2000)
 * Street Fighter EX3 (PlayStation 2, 2000)

Arika also released a spin-off of Street Fighter EX in arcades, called Fighting Layer. The game play was very similar to the EX games, and even featured two of the EX characters (Allen Snider and Blair Dame), but was not an actual Street Fighter game, and was distributed by Namco.

Future Street Fighter games
Prior to the Jamma show (officially the Amusement Machine Show) in Tokyo in 2005, rumours were circulating that Capcom would unveil a new entry in the series, most probably Street Fighter IV. These reports proved erroneous, however. Though Capcom dropped hints that a new "combat game" would be unveiled at the show, this turned out to be War of the Grail, a 3D battlefield game yet no information was revealed for two years. Several factors would seem to count against the possibility of the series receiving another installment: 2D games have dramatically decreased in popularity, and 2D fighters are now considered little more than a niche market. This is also coupled to the rising costs of producing video games in the modern industry—Capcom has reused the sprites of some of the characters in its games for over a decade at this point, unable to justify the expense of redrawing them against projected sales of the games.

Recent 2D Capcom fighters have focused more on the formula of SFA3 and the vs., series by including as many characters as possible, often from different fighting series. Examples of this include the Capcom vs. SNK games and the more recent Capcom Fighting Evolution. Another trend is the near-extinction in arcades of traditional arcade games such as the Street Fighter series in favour of party games (witness Dance Dance Revolution and similar games). Furthermore, current-generation arcade and home hardware have a smaller amount of RAM (into which animation frames are loaded) than a new-generation 2D game would probably require. However lately, the new generation of arcade systems intends to base itself more directly on computer hardware, making arcade systems practically upgradeable computers running the game, bringing on the latest CPU and graphics card technology as well as great RAM capacity. The future game The King of Fighters XII, announced on this year's Tokyo Game Show will be using these advantages.

Rumors of Street Fighter IV being in development were sparked in July 2005 at the San Diego Comic Convention where a Street Fighter panel was held. Representatives from Udon Comics and Capcom USA said that there is something in the works. However, given the fact that the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology was announced later on in the year, they might have been referring to that title. As Hyde Park entertainment and Capcom have announced a new Street Fighter movie to be released in 2008, Capcom have also stated a multi-platform to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Street Fighter which includes new games.

Recently, Capcom made mention of the release of a new 2D fighter; though this turned out to be Sengoku Basara X, a collaboration between Capcom and Arc System Works based on the Sengoku Basara series, and not a new iteration of the Street Fighter series.

On October 17, 2007 Capcom unveiled Street Fighter IV at a Capcom Gamers Day event in London. Capcom has released a trailer for Street Fighter IV, but no gameplay was shown. The game will be in 2.5D, and Capcom said that the trailer provides hints on what the gameplay will be like. Also to note is that this fourth iteration's story will chronologically fall in the events that occur after the second Street Fighter tournament and the third Street Fighter Tournament, making this game (chronologically) the 5th in the series (including the Alpha series).

Capcom has also licensed Street Fighter to developer Daletto for a PC versus fighter, Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation. The game solely uses the PC's mouse for combat, and the characters are customizable to some degree. Confirmed thus far are Ryu and Chun-Li, as well as two new characters, Hiko and Teiran.

Film and animation
The series has inspired several movies.
 * Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (animated movie produced by Group TAC)
 * Street Fighter (live-action film produced and released by Columbia Pictures and Universal Pictures, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme)
 * Street Fighter II V (animated television series produced released by Group TAC)
 * Street Fighter (American animated series)
 * Street Fighter Alpha (original video animation produced by Group TAC)
 * Street Fighter Alpha: Generations (animated movie produced and released by Manga Entertainment)

A Hong Kong movie version was also released in 1993 called Future Cops, or Chao ji xue xiao ba wang(超級街頭霸王(called 超級學校霸王 in Taiwan)) roughly translated School King (and a.k.a. Future Cops), but it was an "unofficial" adaptation so the characters names were heavily changed (one notable play on words is E. Honda is changed to Toyota). Andy Lau and Jacky Cheung are in this movie, which was directed by Hong Kong director Wong Jing (famous for his God of Gamblers trilogy).

In the Channel 4 sit-com Father Ted, Father Dougal McGuire and Father Damien (Damo) Lennon play Street Fighter.

In October 2006, Hyde Park Entertainment and Capcom announced its intention to produce a film adaptation of the game series in a joint venture, with the storyline to focus on the Street Fighter character Chun-Li. Screenwriter Justin Marks was attached to write a script for the adaptation. Street Fighter is set for a 2008 release for the 20th anniversary of the fighting game series. The film adaptation is part of Capcom's multi-platform launch for 2008 that will also launch video games and a potential TV series in 2008.

On December 21 2007, it was announced that the new film will be titled Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li, and will star Kristin Kreuk in the title role.

CollegeHumor contains a satire called Street Fighter: The Later years, a series documenting the fighters ten years after the game's tournament ended.

Comic books
There have been various Street Fighter comic books produced, including Masaomi Kanzaki's Street Fighter II manga (one of the few Street Fighter manga titles translated into English), and a role playing game adaptation released by White Wolf in 1994.

Masahiko Nakahira did four different Street Fighter manga series: Cammy Gaiden (translated and released in English as Super Street Fighter II: Cammy by Viz Media), Street Fighter Zero (translated and released in English as Street Fighter Alpha), Sakura Ganbaru and Street Fighter III: Ryu Final. Street Fighter Alpha, Sakura Ganbaru and Street Fighter III: Ryu Final have all been released in English by UDON. Two characters created by Nakahira, Evil Ryu (introduced in Street Fighter Alpha) and Karin Kanzuki have been integrated into the Street Fighter canon.

Malibu Comics launched a Street Fighter comic series in 1993, but it flopped, lasting only three issues. Asian comic book publications outside Japan were also available; that contains canon-type storylines or totally unrelated to the official backgrounds from Street Fighter Universe (Practically just borrowing characters and their special moves). These publications arose at the era when Street Fighter II was popular in the Asian continent, especially Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia (The most popular publication was from Jade Dynasty which was based in Hong Kong). Most of these publications were not yet known to be legally licensed from Capcom.

UDON has been licensed by Capcom to produce an American comic book based on the Street Fighter franchise, in addition to Darkstalkers and Rival Schools. This series draws not only on the established Street Fighter canon, but also occasionally addresses various continuity retcons, and even draws from fanon and non-official sources as well. In 2005, UDON released Street Fighter: Eternal Challenge, the first Capcom series history and art book to be translated into English. More recently, UDON has announced continuation on its currently running Street Fighter series (based on SF: Alpha and Super SF Turbo) and is expecting to launch a Street Fighter III series in 2008.

Card games
On April 14, 2006 Sabertooth Games released a Street Fighter set for it's Universal Fighting System (UFS) game along with a set for Soul Calibur III. This was not the gaming companies first release for UFS, that being a Battle box for Penny Arcade released in February 2006. As the name implies, UFS is to be a universal system. There are plans to incorporate other licenses into the game, slated for December 2006, being based on SNK's King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown.

The first set for Street Fighter featured cards for Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Ken, Ryu, Sagat and Zangief. A later expansion, Street Fighter: World Warriors, included the remaining characters from the original Street Fighter 2 arcade series, Blanka, Balrog, E. Honda, Guile, M. Bison and Vega. Another set, titled Street Fighter: The Next Level, was released in December 2006, parallel with the SNK release. The characters included are Akuma, Fei Long, Dudley, and Cammy. A new expansion, Street Fighter: The Dark Path was released February 14, 2007 along with the next Soul Calibur Set, Soul Arena. Characters include a new version of Chun-Li and (Evil) Ryu, along with Adon, Charlie, Rose, Sakura, T.Hawk and Twelve. A new set, entitiled Street Fighter: Extreme Rivals, which was released in May 2007, features Cody, Dee Jay, Ibuki, R. Mika, and a new version of Ken.

In July of 2007 Sabertooth Games will release an exclusive Battle Pack featuring a battle between Ryu and Akuma. These 2 sixty card decks will be fully compatible with the Universal Fighting System and contain 36 unique cards.

There is currently a free demo deck request form to try out the UFS CCG at Sabertooth Games Demo Deck Request Form.

Another trading card game, the now discontinued Epic Battles (released by Score Entertainment), also featured Street Fighter characters, as well as characters from other fighting game franchises, such as Mortal Kombat.

Role Playing Game
White Wolf released a storytelling game based on the series in 1994 (featuring characters from Super Street Fighter 2). The system used many of the game mechanics of the World of Darkness games. The system is now out of print but retains a small following on the internet.

Unauthorized conversions
Street Fighter has been ported, without Capcom's authorization, to the Famicom in Asia. It has appeared in several multicarts in China. One of the popular titles was known as Master Fighter, that had several sequels (including one featuring Nintendo character Mario). Due to memory limitations of the Famicom system, the bootleg copy was unable to list all the available rosters; the only characters available are Ryu, Guile, Chun-Li, Zangief and non playable M. Bison (his original Japanese name—Vega, was misspelled as Viga). Another title is Super Fighter III, and due also to hardware limitations, only nine among the normal roster of twelve are selectable characters (missing were Balrog, E. Honda, and Zangief). Character names, captions and subtitles during the endings are also removed. Chun-Li's stage was redesigned as the Forbidden City outdoors rather than one of China's busy streets.

In 1992, the Hotel Keitel bootleg group in Korea released a Korean version of the game known as SFIBM, running on PC compatibles. Programmed by Jung Young Dug, the first release had only Ryu and Guile available. Eventually all the characters were released (although hand drawn versions of SNK's Andy Bogard and Terry Bogard replaced Vega and Balrog in some versions). However, SFIBM is said to have been one of the inspirations for the creation of the M.U.G.E.N fighting game engine.

The gameplay was quite poor, but many of the data files were unoptimized and available for editing. After the game had proliferated to the West, Derek Liu and Brian Chan used this information to edit the files into SFLiu, the closest translation of Street Fighter II Turbo the game engine could allow. After adding in Balrog and Vega, they updated the files to Super Street Fighter II standards.

As more and more editors worked on the game, more patches were created. The most widespread of these patches were SFWarm by Stan Warman (which added new features for all the characters), SFJenn by Jenn Dolari (which added the Mortal Kombat characters of Mileena and Kitana) and SFNinja (which replaced most of the roster with parody versions of Mortal Kombat's numerous ninjas).