Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior - On This Day

Martial arts video games in the 1980s mostly came down to beating a bunch of enemies by levels. We had both Double Dragon and Final Fight series and then came Street Fighter. It was a fighting game in which the fights took place in a one-on-one format, with a time limit, the attacks were blocked, and there were hidden moves that had to be reached with a combination of keys. The first Street Fighter was noticed, but only with the second part did Capcom gain world fame.

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior was first available on arcade machines in 1991 and then appeared on this day 30 years ago in Japan on the then Super Nintendo console. The great novelty of the second part concerning the original was the possibility of choosing different fighters, each of whom had a specific style of fighting and their moves. There were eight of them in the selection, and four were exclusive as computer opponents.

Street Fighter 2 did not have a special story, but its characters were characterized through proverbs at the end of the battle, and their nationality also determined the locations where the fight took place. There were sympathetic cultural stereotypes, so the Japanese sumo wrestler E. Honda fought in the bath, and the Indian yoga guru Dhalsim among the elephants.

As for the fight itself, there were new moves compared to the first part, such as an attack in which you could grab and throw your opponent to the floor. However, the biggest interesting thing about Street Fighter 2 is that the system of combining attacks in that game was created based on an error or bug. After the game's creators noticed that it was possible to combine two attacks into one, they decided to leave it in the game thinking that the timing to take advantage of that bug would be too difficult for players to overcome. But the thing they feared would spoil the game eventually became its most popular part, and the combo system grew into the basis of all subsequent Street Fighter games.

Street Fighter 2 was massively popular, so in 1992 it immediately appeared on a bunch of platforms at the time including the Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and PC. Upgrades soon followed: SF2: Champion Edition, SF2 Turbo: Hyper Fighting, The New Challengers, and Hyper Street Fighter II ... Later we had Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers.

With so many releases, it's no wonder that the game has been played by more than 25 million players in just two years. By 2019, Street Fighter 2 was the best-selling fighting game, and Capcom is estimated to have grossed over ten billion dollars in total. Of course, most of the earnings came from the sale of arcade machines.

Street Fighter 2 was the best-selling fighting game until 2019. {alertInfo}

Street Fighter 2 has served as an inspiration to many other martial arts manufacturers. His appearance did not go unnoticed in popular culture either, so in 1994 a film with Jean-Claude Van Damme was made. Numerous musicians have mentioned the game and the characters from it in their songs, and Street Fighter 2 tournaments are still played on the competitive scene.