August 27, 2017
By Ryan Porzl
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| Street Fighter 1 Flyer |
It was 30 years ago when the video game world saw the debut of one of the biggest franchises in it history make it's debut: Street Fighter. Originally one of the earliest games in the fighting genre, Street Fighter introduced things that were never seen before in fighting games and changed the genre forever. Unfortunately, the franchise had humbled beginnings as the game came and went before falling into obscurity. It wouldn't be until Street Fighter II's release four years later that the series finally caught on and became a phenomenon. With the 30th Anniversary coming, what better way then to look back at the original that started it all?
Characters
Street Fighter featured twelve characters from around the world with the player having to go through at least ten of them in order to win the game. The characters are as follows
Ryu- From Japan, Ryu is a young Japanese fighter who travels the world testing his skills and enters the World Warrior tournament in order to prove his strength against the best fighters in the world. Ryu is the main character in the game and along with Ken has appeared in every Street Fighter game ever since.
Ken- From the U.S.A, Ken is Ryu's American rival and former training partner. Unlike the other characters in the game, Ken doesn't participate in the World Warrior Tournament unless the player is playing as him. Instead, he decides to enter the American Martial Arts tournament which he emerges victorious from. Like Ryu, Ken has appeared in every Street Fighter game since.
Birdie- From England, Birdie is a former professional wrestler turned criminal and bouncer with the look of a giant punk rocker and uses both boxing and wrestling moves. Birdie is the first opponent the player faces in England. Birdie would later return as a playable character in the three Street Fighter Alpha games as well as Street Fighter V where his skin color notably changed from white to black.
Eagle- From England, Eagle is a bodyguard of a wealthy family. His weapon of choice are a pair of kali sticks as he specializes in Bojutsu, a martial art that uses a staff and translates to "staff technique". Eagle is the second opponent in England. Eagle later returned as a playable character in the games Capcom vs SNK II and an updated version of Street Fighter Alpha III.
Gen- From China, an elderly professional killer and assassin known throughout the Chinese underworld who has created his own deadly form of martial arts though he follows his own code of never harming people who can't fight or are defenseless while preferring to fight honorable and formidable fighters such as Ryu. Gen is the second opponent the player faces in China Gen is later revealed as the trainer behind Street Fighter II character Chun Li. Gen later appears as playable character in Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter IV while appearing in Street Fighter V.
Lee- From China, Lee is martial artist who specializes in Chinese martial arts. Not much else is known aside from the fact that he is the uncle of Street Fighter III characters Yun & Yang while apparently knowing Chun Li. Lee is the first opponent the player faces in China. Lee has yet to appear in any future games.
Retsu- From Japan, Retsu is a Japanese martial artist who had just been expelled from his temple due to him using forbidden techniques. He now trains to improve his skills and seeks repentance. It's since been revealed that he is a friend to Ryu & Ken's master Gouken as well as Street Fighter II character Dhalsim while having met Street Fighter III's Oro. Retsu is the first character the player faces in Japan. Retsu has yet to appear in any future games.
Geki- From Japan, Geki is a ninja who uses ninjutsu. His weapon of choice is a claw on his wrist while also using ninja shurikens and teleportation. Given his use of a claw and knowing ninjutsu, it is possible that Geki was the trainer or inspiration behind Street Fighter II character Vega. Geki is only one of two to use a weapon with Eagle being the other. Geki is the second opponent the player faces in Japan. Geki has yet to appear in any future games.
Joe- From the U.S.A., Joe is a former underground martial arts champion and the former undefeated kickboxing Champion of America but was forced to be an outlaw on the road due to violent outbursts and financials problems. He's since started competing in indy wrestling under the name "Super Star". Joe is based off American Kickboxer and Karate fighter Joe Lewis. At one point, fans believed Joe was the caucasian that appeared in the opening of Street Fighter II but this has since been debunked. Joe is the first opponent the player faces in the U.S.A. Joe has yet to appear in any future games.
Mike- From the U.S.A., Mike is a professional boxer who was killed an opponent in the ring. Mike originally learned how to box after spending time in prison for robbery. Upon his release, he began competing to earn money for the poor while teaching children how to box. Like Street Fighter II's Balrog, Mike is based off of boxer Mike Tyson. At one point, fans believed Mike was the african-american that appeared in the opening to Street Fighter II but this has since been debunked. Mike is the second opponent the player faces in the U.S.A. Mike has yet to appear in any future games.
Adon- From Thailand, Adon is the top student of Sagat. Egotistical and arrogant, Adon hopes to one day escape Sagat's shadow and prove himself to be more than "The Emperor of Muay Thai's" disciple. Adon is the first opponent the player faces in Thailand. Adon later appeared in all three Street Fighter Alpha games as well as Super Street Fighter IV.
Sagat- From Thailand, nicknamed "The Emperor of Muay Thai", Sagat has already established himself as the best muay thai fighter but desires to be considered the best fighter in the world. As a result, he created the first World Warrior tournament in the hopes of proving his superiority. Interestingly enough, if the player gives Sagat the shoryuken during the fight with him then he will get his signature chest scar. Sagat is the second opponent the player faces in Thailand and the final opponent in the game. Sagat has appeared in almost every Street Fighter game since with the exception of Street Fighter III and it's enhanced versions as well as Street Fighter V.
Gameplay
Street Fighter 1 was a fighting game which meant that the player or players pick a character to play as and fight until one has run out of energy in their life bar or until time runs out at which point, the one with the most energy left is declared the winner of the round. Each round lasts 30 seconds. Like most fighting games, it's best two out of three rounds with the winner being the first to win two rounds. If the third round results in a tie due to the same amount of energy, then the player loses if they're playing against the computer while both lose if it's two player. The player or players each have a joystick to move their character around while pressing up allows the character to jump and down to duck. In the original arcade version, there was only two buttons, one to punch and one to kick with the amount of damage given depended on how hard you pushed the button. Later versions would have six buttons with three punch buttons and three kick buttons with each having different speed and strength as one button being light but fast, one being medium, and one being heavy but slow.
The game sees the player play as either Ryu or Ken with the player having to travel to four countries: The U.S.A, China, Japan, and England with each country featuring two opponents to fight. Once the player defeats the two opponents in one country, they'll travel to another until all four are completed. Once the player beats all four countries, they travel to Thailand to face "The Emperor of Muay Thai" Sagat & his disciple Adon and if they succeed, then they win the game. If the player loses at any point, they can be given the option to continue but in home versions, they're only given a limited number of continues.
Being one of the first fighting games, Street Fighter 1 introduced things that became common in both future Street Fighter games as well as future fighting games in general including the use of special moves which are used by doing a certain combination on the joystick followed by pushing one of the punch or kick buttons. The game also featured bonus games including destroying bricks and tables. If the player is able to use enough power to destroy all the bricks or destroy all four tables before time runs out, they earn bonus points as well as an extra continue in the home version. The bonus round became popular enough to appear in future Street Fighter games like Street Fighter II and the Final Fight series only they're giving different tasks such as destroying a car before time runs out or destroying all the barrels on screen while Mortal Kombat had the brick breaking type bonus round which they called "Test Your Strength" where you tried to increase your power enough before pushing a button to destroy the object.
Unlike future fighting games, Street Fighter 1 did not have a character select screen or allowed you to choose which ever fighter you wanted. You could only choose between Ryu or Ken with the first player playing as Ryu while the second player played as Ken. If you chose to play as Ken then you would have to defeat Ryu first before being able to advance and play the single player mode as Ken. Both Ryu and Ken played the same as neither was stronger or faster than the other while they each had the same three special moves. The three moves were the Hadouken or Surge Fist which was a fireball they shot out of their hands, the Shoryuken or Rising Dragon Fist which was a jumping uppercut, and the Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku or Tornado Whirlwind Kick which was a jumping spinning kick.
Production
Street Fighter 1 was originally directed and produced by Takashi Nishiyama and planned by Hiroshi Matsumoto who had previously worked on an overhead beat 'em up game called "Avengers". Following Street Fighter 1, the two left Capcom and went to work for SNK (which ironically had a few crossover games with Capcom) where they helped work on games from series like The Art of Fighting, Star Ocean, The King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury. Eventually, they moved to Dimps and would later return to the Street Fighter series with 2008's Street Fighter IV.
Keiji Inafune, who later gained fame working on Capcom's Mega Man series which debuted a few months later, got his start in Capcom by designing and illustrating the character portraits for Street Fighter 1.
Release and Reception
Characters
Street Fighter featured twelve characters from around the world with the player having to go through at least ten of them in order to win the game. The characters are as follows
Ryu- From Japan, Ryu is a young Japanese fighter who travels the world testing his skills and enters the World Warrior tournament in order to prove his strength against the best fighters in the world. Ryu is the main character in the game and along with Ken has appeared in every Street Fighter game ever since.
Ken- From the U.S.A, Ken is Ryu's American rival and former training partner. Unlike the other characters in the game, Ken doesn't participate in the World Warrior Tournament unless the player is playing as him. Instead, he decides to enter the American Martial Arts tournament which he emerges victorious from. Like Ryu, Ken has appeared in every Street Fighter game since.
Birdie- From England, Birdie is a former professional wrestler turned criminal and bouncer with the look of a giant punk rocker and uses both boxing and wrestling moves. Birdie is the first opponent the player faces in England. Birdie would later return as a playable character in the three Street Fighter Alpha games as well as Street Fighter V where his skin color notably changed from white to black.
Eagle- From England, Eagle is a bodyguard of a wealthy family. His weapon of choice are a pair of kali sticks as he specializes in Bojutsu, a martial art that uses a staff and translates to "staff technique". Eagle is the second opponent in England. Eagle later returned as a playable character in the games Capcom vs SNK II and an updated version of Street Fighter Alpha III.
Gen- From China, an elderly professional killer and assassin known throughout the Chinese underworld who has created his own deadly form of martial arts though he follows his own code of never harming people who can't fight or are defenseless while preferring to fight honorable and formidable fighters such as Ryu. Gen is the second opponent the player faces in China Gen is later revealed as the trainer behind Street Fighter II character Chun Li. Gen later appears as playable character in Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Street Fighter IV while appearing in Street Fighter V.
Lee- From China, Lee is martial artist who specializes in Chinese martial arts. Not much else is known aside from the fact that he is the uncle of Street Fighter III characters Yun & Yang while apparently knowing Chun Li. Lee is the first opponent the player faces in China. Lee has yet to appear in any future games.
Retsu- From Japan, Retsu is a Japanese martial artist who had just been expelled from his temple due to him using forbidden techniques. He now trains to improve his skills and seeks repentance. It's since been revealed that he is a friend to Ryu & Ken's master Gouken as well as Street Fighter II character Dhalsim while having met Street Fighter III's Oro. Retsu is the first character the player faces in Japan. Retsu has yet to appear in any future games.
Geki- From Japan, Geki is a ninja who uses ninjutsu. His weapon of choice is a claw on his wrist while also using ninja shurikens and teleportation. Given his use of a claw and knowing ninjutsu, it is possible that Geki was the trainer or inspiration behind Street Fighter II character Vega. Geki is only one of two to use a weapon with Eagle being the other. Geki is the second opponent the player faces in Japan. Geki has yet to appear in any future games.
Joe- From the U.S.A., Joe is a former underground martial arts champion and the former undefeated kickboxing Champion of America but was forced to be an outlaw on the road due to violent outbursts and financials problems. He's since started competing in indy wrestling under the name "Super Star". Joe is based off American Kickboxer and Karate fighter Joe Lewis. At one point, fans believed Joe was the caucasian that appeared in the opening of Street Fighter II but this has since been debunked. Joe is the first opponent the player faces in the U.S.A. Joe has yet to appear in any future games.
Mike- From the U.S.A., Mike is a professional boxer who was killed an opponent in the ring. Mike originally learned how to box after spending time in prison for robbery. Upon his release, he began competing to earn money for the poor while teaching children how to box. Like Street Fighter II's Balrog, Mike is based off of boxer Mike Tyson. At one point, fans believed Mike was the african-american that appeared in the opening to Street Fighter II but this has since been debunked. Mike is the second opponent the player faces in the U.S.A. Mike has yet to appear in any future games.
Adon- From Thailand, Adon is the top student of Sagat. Egotistical and arrogant, Adon hopes to one day escape Sagat's shadow and prove himself to be more than "The Emperor of Muay Thai's" disciple. Adon is the first opponent the player faces in Thailand. Adon later appeared in all three Street Fighter Alpha games as well as Super Street Fighter IV.
Sagat- From Thailand, nicknamed "The Emperor of Muay Thai", Sagat has already established himself as the best muay thai fighter but desires to be considered the best fighter in the world. As a result, he created the first World Warrior tournament in the hopes of proving his superiority. Interestingly enough, if the player gives Sagat the shoryuken during the fight with him then he will get his signature chest scar. Sagat is the second opponent the player faces in Thailand and the final opponent in the game. Sagat has appeared in almost every Street Fighter game since with the exception of Street Fighter III and it's enhanced versions as well as Street Fighter V.
Gameplay
Street Fighter 1 was a fighting game which meant that the player or players pick a character to play as and fight until one has run out of energy in their life bar or until time runs out at which point, the one with the most energy left is declared the winner of the round. Each round lasts 30 seconds. Like most fighting games, it's best two out of three rounds with the winner being the first to win two rounds. If the third round results in a tie due to the same amount of energy, then the player loses if they're playing against the computer while both lose if it's two player. The player or players each have a joystick to move their character around while pressing up allows the character to jump and down to duck. In the original arcade version, there was only two buttons, one to punch and one to kick with the amount of damage given depended on how hard you pushed the button. Later versions would have six buttons with three punch buttons and three kick buttons with each having different speed and strength as one button being light but fast, one being medium, and one being heavy but slow.
The game sees the player play as either Ryu or Ken with the player having to travel to four countries: The U.S.A, China, Japan, and England with each country featuring two opponents to fight. Once the player defeats the two opponents in one country, they'll travel to another until all four are completed. Once the player beats all four countries, they travel to Thailand to face "The Emperor of Muay Thai" Sagat & his disciple Adon and if they succeed, then they win the game. If the player loses at any point, they can be given the option to continue but in home versions, they're only given a limited number of continues.
Being one of the first fighting games, Street Fighter 1 introduced things that became common in both future Street Fighter games as well as future fighting games in general including the use of special moves which are used by doing a certain combination on the joystick followed by pushing one of the punch or kick buttons. The game also featured bonus games including destroying bricks and tables. If the player is able to use enough power to destroy all the bricks or destroy all four tables before time runs out, they earn bonus points as well as an extra continue in the home version. The bonus round became popular enough to appear in future Street Fighter games like Street Fighter II and the Final Fight series only they're giving different tasks such as destroying a car before time runs out or destroying all the barrels on screen while Mortal Kombat had the brick breaking type bonus round which they called "Test Your Strength" where you tried to increase your power enough before pushing a button to destroy the object.
Unlike future fighting games, Street Fighter 1 did not have a character select screen or allowed you to choose which ever fighter you wanted. You could only choose between Ryu or Ken with the first player playing as Ryu while the second player played as Ken. If you chose to play as Ken then you would have to defeat Ryu first before being able to advance and play the single player mode as Ken. Both Ryu and Ken played the same as neither was stronger or faster than the other while they each had the same three special moves. The three moves were the Hadouken or Surge Fist which was a fireball they shot out of their hands, the Shoryuken or Rising Dragon Fist which was a jumping uppercut, and the Tatsumaki Senpu Kyaku or Tornado Whirlwind Kick which was a jumping spinning kick.
Production
Street Fighter 1 was originally directed and produced by Takashi Nishiyama and planned by Hiroshi Matsumoto who had previously worked on an overhead beat 'em up game called "Avengers". Following Street Fighter 1, the two left Capcom and went to work for SNK (which ironically had a few crossover games with Capcom) where they helped work on games from series like The Art of Fighting, Star Ocean, The King of Fighters, and Fatal Fury. Eventually, they moved to Dimps and would later return to the Street Fighter series with 2008's Street Fighter IV.
Keiji Inafune, who later gained fame working on Capcom's Mega Man series which debuted a few months later, got his start in Capcom by designing and illustrating the character portraits for Street Fighter 1.
Release and Reception
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| Fighting Street Cover |
Street Fighter 1 was officially released in Arcades on August 30, 1987 in Japan while eventually being released in North America and Europe later in the year. The game would eventually be ported throughout 1988 on many home computers including the Commodore 64, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, and the ZX Spectrum. The game was also released on the NEC PC Engine CD on December 4, 1988 in Japan and it's American counterpart The Turbografx CD in 1989 where the title for some reason was changed to "Fighting Street". It would later be re-released on Microsoft Windows in 2006 and the Turbografx CD Fighting Street version was re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in 2009.
Upon it's release, Street Fighter 1 was a commercial success in the arcades and mostly earned positive reviews especially the arcade version. In the August 1988 issue of Sinclair User, Coinslot charts had Street Fighter 1 as the top dedicated arcade game. Sinclair would later consider it one of the best games of the year. The game also enjoyed positive reviews from Crash magazine in it's October 1987 and January 1988 issues claiming it "breathed new life in martial arts games" while later considering it "gratifying" while the December 1987 issue of Computer and Video Games wrote positively on the sprites, realistic characters, and "intense" action though it did criticize it for not having much lasting appeal. Your Sinclair scored the ZX Spectrum version an 8/10. However, not all reviews were positive as the Commodore 64 version scored poorly and the game hasn't aged well in the 30 years since it's release with people such as The Angry Video Game Nerd commenting on the lackluster controls and difficulty in pulling off the special moves especially in the Fighting Street version.
Aftermath
While Street Fighter 1 did well in arcades, it never set the world on fire and despite being ported, it eventually disappeared by the beginning of the 1990s. In spite of this, Capcom would attempt to continue Street Fighter and eventually requested a sequel. In late 1988/early 1989, a new game called "Street Fighter '89" was shown at a trade show but unlike the original Street Fighter which was a fighting game, Street Fighter '89 was a beat 'em up type of game. This would be a problem as people at the show would bring up how the game was nothing like Street Fighter. Seeing potential in the game, Capcom continued working on it and eventually released it in 1989 with a new title called "Final Fight". Final Fight would become another classic series for Capcom and Capcom would not forget the series' roots as crossovers would happen as Chun Li made a cameo appearance in Final Fight 2 while the characters Guy, Cody, Sodom, and Abigail would appear in later Street Fighter games. Another "Street Fighter" game would follow in 1990 called "Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight" which was even more weird. Again, like Final Fight, Street Fighter 2010 was not a fighting game but a platforming/side scrolling game. It was marketed as a science fiction spinoff to Street Fighter but had absolutely nothing to do with Street Fighter. It actually got to the point where the American version tried to tie it to Street Fighter by changing the name of the main protagonist Kevin into Ken and added a bit in the story about him being a former martial arts champion in an attempt to say the main character was the same as Ken from the first Street Fighter.
Finally, on February 6, 1991, the world would finally get a real Street Fighter sequel when Capcom released "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior" into arcades. The game would be a huge success and a phenomenon in the video game industry as it not only became one of the most popular games of all time but also popularized the fighting game genre which eventually led to future fighting game franchises that were released through the 90s including Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and Super Smash Bros. to name some. Street Fighter II would prove popular enough to the point where Capcom released seven enhanced versions of it over the next 26 years. Since then, Street Fighter has continued with the Street Fighter Alpha trilogy, the Street Fighter EX Trilogy, Street Fighter: The Movie, Street Fighter III (which had two enhanced versions), Street Fighter IV (which had three enhanced versions), and Street Fighter V. Street Fighter characters have appeared in many crossover games including the Marvel vs. Capcom series, the SNK vs. Capcom series, and Street Fighter X Tekken. The franchise also proved big enough to also have merchandise, cartoons, and movies both live action and animated. Sadly, Street Fighter 1 hasn't benefited from the popularity as it's only been ported twice with one being on Microsoft Windows in 2006 and on the Wii Virtual Console in 2009 while never getting an enhanced release like the later games got.
Closing
Street Fighter 1 is an interesting game as it's not as celebrated as other original games and has been forgotten but it introduced new things to fighting games and it's also fascinating how it wasn't an enormous success but would be the beginning of one of the most successful series of all time. Now 30 years after Street Fighter began, it's interesting to look back at how it began and how the series wasn't an overnight success like many other classic video game series have been.
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