A short journey through Street Fighter history
Street Fighter, often referred to as SF was first released by Capcom in 1987 on an arcade machine. The release of this game created a whole new genre of fighting games.
Created by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, Street Fighter 1 didn’t have a Vs. mode. However, with the release of Street Fighter II in 1991, the franchise took a big step forward by creating the rule book for those that followed.
Street Fighter II
Street Fighter II introduced versus mode along with unique moves and combos for each player. Given its huge success, Street Fighter was not bound to arcade cabinets and outgrew its arcade machine start by being hugely ported to personal computers and home gaming consoles. There were also many spin-offs along with Champion, Turbo, Anniversary Edition, and ports to home consoles.
SF II combined sales sit at around 10 million.
Not including SF 6, SF has had 8 installments/spin-offs and holds the fighting game franchise sales record making it Capcom’s flagship series.
Each release has brought unique Characters, features, and moves with varied success.
SF core releases and platforms
While Street Fighter arcade machines remain popular, with the rise of gaming consoles, initial porting and now dedicated releases continue to be popular for PC and other gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation. This has also flowed onto various relaunched retro gaming consoles like arcade fight sticks and HDMI game sticks that are retro game plug-and-play ready for your TV.
Street Fighter was built to be played shoulder to shoulder. The MiniBeast bartop and the Pandora Box Dual Deck both carry Street Fighter artwork, and the board’s games list shows which entries made the cut. The newer releases need more grunt than a 1991 cabinet, so the MegaBeast handles those from a PC and covers more of the franchise.
- Street Fighter – 1987
Arcade - Street Fighter II – 1991
Introduced versus mode and unique character moves/combos
Arcade - Street Fighter III – 1997
Introduced new attack and defence moves including leap attacks, dash, retreat, and high jumps. Maintained 2D design.
Platforms: Arcade, Dreamcast - Street Fighter IV – 2008
Introduced Focus attacks – the ability to cancel and deliver a counterattack to opponents along with Ultra Combo attacks
Platforms: Arcade, PS3, PC, Xbox 360 - Street Fighter V – 2016
Introduced SF EX moves along with an energy bar that can be filled and used to for powerful attacks. Launched to mixed reviews, the Arcade Edition was released in 2018 followed by Champion Edition in 2020
Platforms: PS4, PC - Street Fighter 6
The seventh installment modernises Street Fighter gameplay, visuals, and effects while maintaining its heritage. Released in 2023 guaranteeing the SF franchise will hold strong into the future.
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Arcade, Windows
Crossover Series - Marvel Capcom SNK
Capcom had already released Marvel-licensed titles and followed this up with X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in 1996. This was a 2 player Vs tag team setup followed up with Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter in 1997, Marvel Vs Capcom in 1998, and Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 in 2000 and after a long break Marvel Vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds in 2011.
Given the crossover success Capcom partnered with SNK to bring SF and King of Fighters characters together in Capcom Vs SNK in 2000, Capcom Vs SNK 2 in 2001, and several ported spin-offs to the Naomi and Neo Geo consoles.
Street Fighter on Screen
Street Fighter reached cinemas twice in 1994, and it has kept returning to the screen ever since. The timing is rarely accidental – each adaptation arrives on the back of something happening in the games.
1994: two films, four months apart
Street Fighter II had been running in arcades since 1991. By 1994 it was the game people meant when they said Street Fighter, and both films that year adapted it directly rather than the series around it.
Capcom went first. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie opened in Japan that August, directed by Gisaburō Sugii and animated by Group TAC – the first fully animated film in the franchise, and one that reached cinemas in Australia, the UK, the US, France and Spain.
Universal followed in December with the live-action Street Fighter, written and directed by Steven E. de Souza. Jean-Claude Van Damme played Guile; Kylie Minogue played Cammy. It took US$99.4 million against a US$35 million budget, and Capcom reported ¥15.5 billion back once home media was counted.
Raul Julia played M. Bison, and he took the part for his children. They were fans, and they helped him research the role. He had been living with stomach cancer for years by then. He died of a stroke two months before the film opened, making it his final theatrical performance – the film is dedicated to his memory, and the role earned him a posthumous Saturn Award nomination.
1995–2005: the games looked back, and the films followed
Street Fighter II V (1995) took Super Street Fighter II Turbo and did what an arcade cabinet had no room for: it sent a young Ryu and Ken around the world before any of it happened. Sugii directed again.
The Alpha games were prequels too, filling the years between the first Street Fighter and SFII – and the animations went with them. Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation arrived in 2000, released in Japan as Street Fighter Zero.
Street Fighter Alpha: Generations followed in 2005, into the quietest stretch the franchise has had: Street Fighter III had come and gone in 1997, and no new mainline game would follow it for eleven years. Generations was made for the English-language market first, and had no official Japanese release until it was bundled onto a Blu-ray years later.
2009–2016: the comeback, and the fans
Street Fighter IV ended the hiatus in 2008. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li followed within months, a theatrical tie-in with Kristin Kreuk in the lead.
What came next started outside Capcom entirely. In 2010 two British martial artists, Joey Ansah and Christian Howard, put a short film called Street Fighter: Legacy on YouTube. Ansah was a fan of the games and made it to show what a faithful version looked like – unlike, pointedly, the two films already out there. At Comic-Con in 2012, Capcom granted them the rights to make the full production.
Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist was crowdfunded on Kickstarter, released on YouTube in 2014, and put out as a film by IFC in 2015. It covers Gouken and the Ansatsuken backstory the games had only ever hinted at. A sequel series, Resurrection, arrived in 2016 alongside Street Fighter V.
Capcom handed its franchise to two fans on the strength of a short they had made themselves – and the story they chose to tell was the one the games had left unexplained.
2026
Legendary acquired the film and television rights in 2023, the year Street Fighter 6 launched. The new live-action Street Fighter opened on 16 October 2026 through Paramount, directed by Kitao Sakurai, with Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken and Callina Liang as Chun-Li.
Thirty-two years after the first.
Fun Facts
- Takashi Nishiyama directed and produced many well-known titles while working at leading games houses. While at Irem titles he worked on included Kung-Fu Master and Moon Patrol. Moving to Capcom his work included Mega Man and Street Fighter 1 with the signature Hadouken / Hadoken move meaning wave motion fist. Moving to SNK he helped create the Neo Geo console along with titles including Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, and Metal Slug before moving on to found Dimps
- Chun-Li is the first female fighting arcade character
- Street Fighter was the first fighting game to give each character unique moves
- Street Fighter II was the first to introduce Versus mode
- The success of SF II influenced Midway to green-light the Mortal Kombat project which was released at the height of SF II popularity in 1992
- In Street Fighter II repeated attacks can make the opponent dizzy, this inspired Mortal Kombat to create its iconic – finish him! which evolved into Fatalities
Street Fighter 6
Gaming, animation, and visual effects have come a long way and it has been a while since we’ve seen a big leap forward for Street Fighter.
Well now is the time. Having played the new Street Fighter 6 while it looks modernised, it still respects its heritage and looks and feels like it should.
SF 6 developers have taken the time to respectfully re-create this iconic game while delivering modern appeal and content from graffiti, to hip hop and revised scenes. You can expect to find iconic and new fighters along with their backstory, theme, and music carefully incorporated into the game.
Not to mention Street Fighter 6 takes moves and combos to a whole new level!
SF6 uses Capcom’s proven RE Engine originally used on Resident Evil 6 and was released mid-2023 on PC, Playstation, Xbox, Steam, and Arcade in December 2023 by Taito.