![In an illustration, Ryu attempts to punch Alex, who barely dodges out of the way.](jpg/eba6072377c79107a7b04ad765204f6c.jpg)
1987 saw the start of something huge, though no one knew it at the time. Capcom’s Street Fighter seemed like just another arcade game. Nice graphics, sure, but no one could have guessed that just four years later its sequel would spark a revolution that transformed arcades as we knew them. Suddenly everyone and their sister was beelining for the nearest Street Fighter II cabinet, jostling to put their quarters on the line to face off with strangers in a new form of combat.
Now, over 30 years later, Street Fighter remains the most respected franchise in fighting games. We love ‘em, you love ‘em, and today we’re going to assess them all to sort the best from the worst, reminisce over Street Fighter’s rich legacy, and remind you that you really, really ought to play some Su…wait, sorry. Getting ahead of ourselves.
Games will be judged on historical importance, but more so on gameplay, aesthetics, continued relevance, and how fun (or not) they are to play today.
We set two ground rules to keep this from getting unwieldy. One: “Street Fighter” must be in the title (we only made one exception). Two: no Marvel or versus games. They’re a whole other gameplay universe unto themselves and would have made this endeavor twice as lengthy. And it’d be pretty nonsensical to try and assess Marvel Super Heroes or Tatsunoko alongside, say, Street Fighter 6.
In any case, the ranking we arrived at is not beyond reproach and is far from scientific...but it is correct. Here we go!