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157-1075: BlazBlue (ブレイブルー) is a fighting game series created by Arc System Works , and later localized in North America by Aksys Games and in Europe by Zen United. An anime adaptation aired in 2013. The series has sold 1.7 million copies in August 2012. The series has the roster with each game releases, revealing the wave of playable characters from Calamity Trigger to other ones with different personalities in Central Fiction . They made appearances on game crossovers and other associated media. Two official events were held in Japan in June 2009 and February 2010, called BuruFesu 2009: Riot Summer ( ぶるふぇす 2009 -Riot Summer- ) and BuruFesu: Spring Raid ( ぶるふぇす -Spring Raid- ) (contraction of "BlueFestival"). It features

314-483: A 3rd Strike semi-final match held at Evolution Championship Series 2004 (Evo 2004) between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong . During this match, Umehara made an unexpected comeback by parrying 15 consecutive hits of Wong's "Super Art" move using Chun-Li while Umehara had only one pixel on his health bar. Umehara subsequently won the match. "Evo Moment #37" is frequently described as the most iconic and memorable moment in

471-933: A Taiwanese firm produced 20,000 copied arcade units in 1991; in Taiwan, up to 150,000 clone units were manufactured by 1992. Many counterfeit units were in South Korea , such as a trader selling about 100 Street Fighter II PCBs by 1992. Seven different versions of the game claimed to be sequels in 1992, mostly from Hong Kong, and one named Champion of Champion Editions reportedly was in British arcades. Capcom and its partners took legal action against counterfeit arcade units in regions such as Southeast Asia , North America , South Korea, and Puerto Rico . The numerous home conversions of Street Fighter II are listed among Capcom's Platinum-class games, with more than one million units sold worldwide. In Japan, 1 million copies of

628-428: A series of updated versions were released with additional features and characters, starting with 1992's Street Fighter II: Champion Edition ; its major successor was Street Fighter III in 1997. Street Fighter II follows several conventions and rules established by its 1987 predecessor Street Fighter . The player engages opponents in a series of timed one-on-one, close-quarters combat matches. In order to win

785-571: A best-of-three matches format like later fighting games, and has training bonus stages . The Player vs Player edition of Karate Champ , released later that year, is also the first fighting game to allow two-player duel. It influenced Konami 's Yie Ar Kung Fu , released in October 1984. The game drew heavily from Bruce Lee films, with the main player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like in Bruceploitation films). In contrast to

942-475: A boxing game featuring a behind-the-character perspective, maneuvers such as blocking and dodging, and stamina meters that are depleted or replenished by blows. Karate Champ was developed by Technōs Japan and released by Data East in May 1984, and is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre. A variety of moves can be performed using the dual-joystick controls. It uses

1099-519: A brutal and gruesome finishing move onto the defeated opponent. Prompted by the announcer saying "Finish Him!", players have a short time window to execute a Fatality by entering a specific button and joystick combination while positioned at a specific distance from the opponent. The Fatality and its derivations are arguably the most notable features of the Mortal Kombat series with cultural impact and controversies . Fighting games often include

1256-411: A character's health, and the round continues until a fighter's health reaches zero. Hence, the main goal is to completely deplete the health bar of one's opponent, thus achieving a " knockout ". Games such as Virtua Fighter also allow a character to be defeated by forcing them outside of the arena, awarding a "ring-out" to the victor. The Super Smash Bros. series allows players to send fighters off

1413-470: A fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane , where characters navigate the plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games allow limited movement in 3D space, such as Tekken , while some are set in fully three-dimensional environments without restricting characters' movement, such as Power Stone and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm ; these are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. The fighting game genre

1570-526: A game had such longevity". In 1991, 50,000 arcade units were sold worldwide, including 17,000 units in Japan, with Capcom reporting continued production of arcade units due to repeat orders. In the United Kingdom, Your Commodore reported in July 1991 that spectators were betting on players at London West End arcades. Between early 1991 and early 1993, Street Fighter II had captured about 60% of

1727-511: A game that featured unprecedentedly detailed pre-rendered 3D graphics and vastly improved on the core concept of combos, presenting a way faster gameplay than most other games of that era, specific combo-breaker maneuvers, and the "Ultra", a series of combined finishing moves surpassing the number of 20 hits. Many of the games of that period were low budget clones of the more popular games, and in some cases this led to controversy; in 1994, Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East over

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1884-417: A greater number of animations, but otherwise play like those rendered in two dimensions. Games that are fully three-dimensional without a 2D plane are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games. Aside from restricting movement space, fighting games confine the player's actions to offensive and defensive maneuvers. Players must learn each game's effective combinations of attacks and defenses. Blocking

2041-482: A hit when countering zoning. The opposite of turtling , rushdown refers to a number of specific aggressive strategies, philosophies, and play styles across all fighting games. The general goal of a rushdown play style is to overwhelm the opponent and force costly mistakes, either by using fast, confusing setups or by taking advantage of an impatient opponent as they are forced to play defense for prolonged periods of time. Rushdown players often favor attacking opponents in

2198-555: A number of games that sparked another surge in fighting game popularity. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in early March 2008 to universal acclaim and went on to set a new record in sales, at one point selling at 120 units per minute. Another game was Street Fighter IV , the series' first mainline title since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which was released in early 2009 also to critical acclaim, having garnered praise since its debut at Japanese arcades in July 2008. The console versions of Street Fighter IV , as well as

2355-431: A player at any time. The game also introduced pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre. In 1988, Home Data released Reikai Dōshi: Chinese Exorcist , also known as Last Apostle Puppet Show ,

2512-563: A popular genre for amateur and doujin developers in Japan. The 2002 title Melty Blood was developed by then-amateur developer French Bread and achieved cult success on the PC . It became highly popular in arcades following its 2005 release, and a version was released for the PlayStation 2 the following year. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise in online gaming . In 2004, Mortal Kombat: Deception , Dead or Alive Ultimate , and

2669-441: A realistic fighting engine that features three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favor of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head. Video game enthusiasts took an interest in fictional crossovers , which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game. An early example of this type of fighting game

2826-524: A response to hackers of the original Street Fighter II game to add new features. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat series in America and the Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II . Throughout this period, the fighting game

2983-479: A roster of eight playable characters. This includes Ryu and Ken—the main protagonists from Street Fighter —plus six new international newcomers. In the single-player tournament, the player fights the other seven main fighters, then the final opponents—a group of four CPU -only opponents known as the Grand Masters, which includes Sagat from Street Fighter . Playable characters: CPU-exclusive characters, in

3140-403: A round, the player must either completely drain the opponent's health bar by landing attacks, or have more health left than the opponent when the timer runs out. Neither fighter wins the round if they have equal health when time expires or if they simultaneously knock each other out. The first fighter to win two rounds is declared the victor of the match. While a single-player game is in progress,

3297-400: A second player may join at any time, immediately starting a head-to-head match. The winner continues the game in single-player mode. The original Street Fighter II allowed up to 10 rounds per match; this maximum is reduced to four rounds starting with Champion Edition . If there is no clear winner by the end of the final round, either the computer-controlled opponent will win by default in

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3454-489: A selective game speed, introduces powered-up special moves called Super Combos, and adds a new hidden character. All arcade Street Fighter II games have been ported to various platforms, as individual releases and in compilations. In 1995, Capcom released a prequel successor, Street Fighter Alpha , and then a full sequel in 1997, Street Fighter III . Despite this, Street Fighter II continued to be popular and Capcom has released further home versions revising or expanding

3611-522: A sequel. Capcom began to make fighting games a priority after Final Fight was commercially successful in the United States. Yoshiki Okamoto recounted: "The basic idea at Capcom was to revive Street Fighter , a good game concept, to make it a better-playing arcade game." Development of Street Fighter II took about two years and about 35 to 40 people, with Noritaka Funamizu as a producer, and Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda in charge of

3768-613: A series of bosses , and Enter the Dragon (1973), about an international martial arts tournament. Other inspiration is Japanese martial arts works, including the manga and anime series Karate Master (1971–1977), and Sonny Chiba 's The Street Fighter (1974). Before martial arts games, the earliest video games with fist-fighting are boxing games , featuring battles between characters with fantastic abilities and complex special maneuvers. Sega 's black-and-white boxing game Heavyweight Champ , released for arcades in 1976,

3925-504: A series of revisions, each refining the play mechanics, graphics, character roster, and other aspects of the game. The first update was Street Fighter II: Champion Edition , released in arcades in March 1992. It rebalances characters' power levels, allows both players in two-player matches to select the same character (distinguished by alternate costume colors) and allows players to choose the four previously computer-only boss characters. It

4082-487: A set number of lives (called stocks) for each player (usually three), and if the score is tied between two or more fighters when time runs out, then a " sudden death " match will take place by delivering a single hit to an opponent with 300% damage. Fighting games widely feature health bars , introduced in Yie Ar Kung-Fu in 1984, which are depleted as characters sustain blows. Each successful attack will deplete

4239-493: A set number of rounds (typically three ), beginning with the announcer's signal. If the score is tied after an even number of rounds (such as 1-1), then the winner is decided in the final round. Round decisions can also be determined by time over, which judge players based on remaining health to declare a winner. In the Super Smash Bros. series, the rules are different. Instead of rounds, the games usually give players

4396-473: A single-player campaign or tournament, where the player must defeat a sequence of several computer-controlled opponents. Winning the tournament often reveals a special story-ending cutscene , and some games also grant access to hidden characters or special features upon victory. Tekken introduced the concept of story modes in 1994 with the first arcade full motion video cutscenes for each character's victory. In most fighting games, players may select from

4553-684: A single-player match or both fighters will lose in a two-player match. After every third match in the single-player mode, a bonus stage gives a chance to earn additional points by smashing a car, wooden barrels, or metal oil drums. After each match, the location for the next one is selected on a world map . Like in Street Fighter , the controls are an eight-directional joystick and six attack buttons. The joystick can jump, crouch, walk left and right, and block. A tradeoff of strength and speed are given by three punch buttons and three kick buttons, each of light, medium, and heavy. The player can perform

4710-465: A type of action game where two (in one-on-one fighting games) or more (in platform fighters ) on-screen characters fight each other. These games typically feature special moves that are triggered using rapid sequences of carefully timed button presses and joystick movements. Games traditionally show fighters from a side view, even as the genre has progressed from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) graphics. Street Fighter II , though not

4867-482: A variety of playable characters with unique fighting styles, special moves, and personalities. This became a strong convention for the genre with the release of Street Fighter II (1991), and these character choices have led to deeper game strategy and replay value. Custom character creation, or "create–a–fighter", is a feature of some fighting games that allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium

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5024-593: A variety of basic moves in any position, including new grabbing and throwing attacks. Special moves are performed by combinations of directional and button-based commands. Street Fighter II differs from its predecessor due to the selection of multiple playable characters , each with distinct fighting styles and special moves including combos. According to IGN , "the concept of combinations, linked attacks that can't be blocked when they're timed correctly, came about more or less by accident. Street Fighter II ' s designers didn't quite mean for it to happen, but players of

5181-426: A variety of computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other. The popularity of Street Fighter II surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand. Street Fighter II was also responsible for popularizing the combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for

5338-765: A variety of posters, artbooks, apparel and figurines. On February 11, 2017, Arc System Works announced a collaboration with Tecmo Koei 's Team Ninja to release Arc System Works Costume Set, consisting the costumes of some characters from BlazBlue and Guilty Gear for Dead or Alive 5: Last Round in March 2017. Fighting game The fighting game genre of video games involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking , grappling , counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into " combos ". Characters generally engage hand-to-hand combat , often with martial arts , but some may include weaponry. Battles are usually set in

5495-468: Is "one of the best fighting games yet seen in the arcades" and a "brilliant" coin-op. In the June 1991 issue of Sinclair User , John Cook gave the arcade game an "addict factor" of 84%. He praised the gameplay and the "excellent" animation and sound effects, but criticized the controls, stating players "might find the control system a bit daunting at first [with] a joystick plus six (count 'em!) fire buttons [but] it's not that bad really". He concluded "this

5652-523: Is a basic defense against basic attacks. Some games feature more advanced blocking techniques; for example, Capcom's Street Fighter III features a move termed " parrying ", which can be immediately followed by counter-attack, skipping the temporary stun a block would have put them in. A similar stun state is termed "just defended" in SNK 's Garou: Mark of the Wolves . An integral feature of fighting games

5809-451: Is a common element of gameplay . Fighting games emphasize the height of blows, ranging from low to jumping attacks. Thus, strategy requires predicting adversarial moves, similar to rock–paper–scissors . In addition to blows, players can utilize throwing or grappling to circumvent blocks. Most fighting games allow a grapple move by pressing two or more buttons together, or simply by pressing punch or kick while being directly adjacent to

5966-547: Is bound to appeal to you if you like the beat 'em up style of game." Jeff Davy of Your Commodore praised the game for its large sprites, character animation, varied opponents, character moves, and two-player mode. Computer and Video Games later referred to Street Fighter II as the "game of the millennium" in 1992. The SNES version of Street Fighter II was very well received. In Electronic Gaming Monthly ( EGM ), its panel of four reviewers gave it scores of 10, 9, 10, and 9, adding up to 38 out of 40, and their "Game of

6123-414: Is considered the first video game with fist fighting. Vectorbeam 's arcade video game Warrior (1979) is sometimes credited as one of the first fighting games; in contrast to Heavyweight Champ and most later games, Warrior is based on sword fighting duels and uses a bird's-eye view . Sega 's jidaigeki -themed arcade action game Samurai , released in March 1980, features a boss battle where

6280-502: Is considered to be the "Dark Age" of fighting games. The two most prolific developers of 2D fighting games, Capcom and SNK, combined intellectual property to produce SNK vs. Capcom games. SNK released the first game of this type, SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium , for its Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld at the end of 1999. GameSpot regarded the game as "perhaps the most highly anticipated fighter ever" and called it

6437-458: Is distinctly related to the beat 'em up genre, which pits many computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters. The first video game to feature fist fighting is Heavyweight Champ (1976), but Karate Champ (1984) actually features the one-on-one fighting game genre instead of a sports game in arcades . Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released later that year with various fighting styles and introduced health meters , and The Way of

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6594-476: Is mitigated by technology such as GGPO , which synchronizes players by quickly rolling back to the most recent accurate game state, correcting errors, and then jumping back to the current frame. Such games include Skullgirls and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition . The first fighting games were fundamentally inspired by martial arts films , especially Bruce Lee 's Hong Kong action cinema . Films include Game of Death (1972), where Lee fights

6751-606: Is not a port , but a separately produced game based on the same premise. Capcom released Street Fighter III in 1997 which features improved 2D visuals, but is also unable to match the impact of earlier games. Excitement stirred in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades, and Sega eventually ported the game to its Dreamcast console. Meanwhile, SNK released several fighting games on its Neo Geo platform, including Samurai Shodown II in 1994, Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995, The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to its The King of Fighters franchise. Garou: Mark of

6908-729: Is the 1996 arcade release X-Men vs. Street Fighter (which later became the Marvel vs. Capcom series), featuring comic book superheroes and characters from other Capcom games. In 1999, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups from various franchises, such as Pikachu vs. Mario . In the early 2000s, the fighting genre boom turned to bust. In retrospect, multiple developers attribute its decline to its increasing complexity and specialization, and to other factors such as over-saturation . This complexity shut out casual players, and

7065-559: Is the best fighting game to date. Nintendo Power scored it 16.2 out of 20, stating that the "hottest arcade game around has been faithfully reproduced for this Super NES conversion" and that it "is just like having the arcade game at home!". Nintendo Power ranked it the best SNES game of 1992, above The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in second place. Computer Gaming World in April 1994 said that " Street Fighter II now enters

7222-519: Is the final boss in the arcade mode. The mist steps also allow combos to be performed as a manner of "crouch dashing," or when the Mishima player could run to the opponent while crouching since regular running prevented executing easy combos. Polygonal fighters became trendy and many developers started to make them. Further all-new titles were released in 1995: Zero Divide on the PlayStation,

7379-511: Is the use of "special attacks", also called "secret moves", that employ combinations of directional inputs and button presses to perform a particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. Some special moves, which play an animation portraying an aspect of the character's personality, are referred to as taunts . Originated by Japanese company SNK in Art of Fighting (1992), these add humor, and they effect gameplay in certain games, such as improving

7536-430: Is to force an opponent to take significant risks to approach the zoning player's character, or to stall out the in-game timer, which causes the player with more health (typically the one doing the zoning) to win. The effectiveness of the latter strategy varies from game to game, based on the effectiveness of zoning tools as well as the length of the in-game timer and the rewards characters can receive for successfully landing

7693-499: The Gundam: Battle Assault series. This genre is distinctly related to beat 'em ups, another action genre involving combat, where the player character must fight many enemies at the same time. Beat 'em ups, like traditional fighting games, display player and enemy health in a bar, generally located at the top of the screen. However, beat 'em ups generally do not feature combat divided into separate "rounds". During

7850-619: The Amstrad CPC development by Creative Materials was canceled. This standalone handheld machine was missing Chun-Li and Dhalsim. The Game Boy version of Street Fighter II was released on August 11, 1995, in Japan, and in September 1995 internationally. It is missing Dhalsim, E. Honda, and Vega. The graphics, character portraits, and stages are based on Super Street Fighter II , although some moves (ex: Blanka's Amazon River Run) from Super Street Fighter II Turbo are included. Because

8007-848: The PlayStation 2 and Xbox , and in Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded for the PlayStation Portable . In 2011, all three games were released on iOS devices as the Street Fighter II Collection , though the compilation was later delisted from the App Store . In 2018, Street Fighter II was one of the many games included in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for the PlayStation 4 , Nintendo Switch , Xbox One and Windows . Street Fighter II spawned

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8164-455: The Tekken , Soul and Dead or Alive franchises continued to release installments. Classic Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat games were re-released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade , allowing internet play, and in some cases, HD graphics. The early part of the decade had seen the rise of competitive video gaming, referred to by the term Esports . The rise in esports saw

8321-656: The Xbox version of Street Fighter Anniversary Collection became the first fighting games to offer online multiplayer and have received positive reception from critics. While the genre became generally far less popular than it once was, arcades and their attendant fighting games remained reasonably popular in Japan during this time period, and remain so even today. Virtua Fighter 5 lacked an online mode, but still achieved success both on home consoles and in arcades; players practiced at home and went to arcades to compete face-to-face with opponents. In addition to Virtua Fighter ,

8478-462: The samurai player character confronts a boss samurai in one-on-one sword-fighting combat. One-on-one boxing games appeared on consoles with Activision 's Atari VCS game Boxing , released in July 1980, and Sega's SG-1000 game Champion Boxing (1983), which is Yu Suzuki 's debut at Sega. Nintendo 's arcade game Punch-Out was developed in 1983 and released in February 1984, as

8635-491: The "solid" gameplay, and it was considered the top game at the American Coin Machine Exposition (ACME) that month. In May 1991, Julian Rignall of Computer and Video Games gave it ratings of 94% for graphics, 93% for sound, 95% for playability, and 92% for lastability, with a 93% score overall. He criticized the original Street Fighter for being a "run-of-the-mill beat 'em up with little in

8792-470: The 1980s to 1990s, publications used the terms "fighting game" and "beat 'em up" interchangeably, along with other terms such as " martial arts simulation" (or more specific terms such as " judo simulator") and "punch-kick" games. Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in video game magazines up until the end of the 1990s. With hindsight, critics have argued that the two types of game gradually became dichotomous as they evolved, though

8949-466: The 1993 arcade game Fighter's History , which supposedly plagiarized Street Fighter 2 . Data East's largest objection in court was that their 1984 arcade game Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre, which predated the original Street Fighter by three years, but the reason the case was decided against Capcom was that the copied elements were scènes à faire and thus excluded from copyright. Sega AM2 debuted in

9106-649: The Exploding Fist (1985) further popularized the genre on home systems. In 1987, Capcom 's Street Fighter introduced special attacks , and in 1991, its highly successful sequel Street Fighter II refined and popularized many genre conventions, including combos. Fighting games subsequently became the preeminent genre for video gaming in the early to mid-1990s, particularly in arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including franchises like Street Fighter , Mortal Kombat , Super Smash Bros. , and Tekken . Fighting games are

9263-823: The Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from Karate Champ , but nevertheless achieved critical success and afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity on home computers in PAL regions, becoming the UK's best-selling computer game of 1985 . In North America, Data East ported Karate Champ to home computers in October 1985, becoming one of the best-selling computer games of the late 1980s. Other game developers also imitated Karate Champ , notably System 3 's computer game International Karate , released in Europe in November 1985; after Epyx released it in North America in April 1986, Data East took unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over

9420-443: The February 1994 issue of Gamest , both Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Street Fighter II were nominated for Best Game of 1993, but neither won (the first place was given to Samurai Spirits ). Super ranked third place, and Turbo ranked sixth. In the category of Best Fighting Games, Super ranked third place again, while Turbo placed fifth. Super won third place in the categories of Best Graphics and Best VGM. Cammy, who

9577-545: The Game Boy only has two buttons, the strength of punches and kicks is determined by the duration of button presses. Street Fighter II , Champion Edition , and Turbo are in the compilation Capcom Generation 5 for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn , which was released in North America and Europe as Street Fighter Collection 2 . All three games are in Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for

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9734-674: The Heavenly Bride , Shin Megami Tensei , World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck , and Mario Paint . They later gave the Turbo update a score of 36 out of 40. This made Street Fighter II Turbo their highest-rated game of 1993, and the twelfth game to have received a Famitsu score of 36/40 or above. The arcade game was well received by English-language critics upon release. In March 1991, RePlay said that "the graphics and sounds are tops" while praising

9891-528: The Mega Drive/Genesis version of Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition with 1.65 million sales. In total, more than 14 million copies were sold for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis consoles. The SNES version of Street Fighter II was Capcom's best-selling single game until 2013, when it was surpassed by Resident Evil 5 . The Amiga version was successful in the United Kingdom, where it became

10048-541: The Month" award. Sushi-X (Ken Williams) gave it a 10, calling it "The best! Street Fighter II is the only game I have ever seen that really deserves a 10!" Martin Alessi gave it a 9, describing it as "the best cart available anywhere! Incredible game play!" Ed Semrad gave it a 10, saying "The moves are perfect, the graphics outstanding and the audio exceptional. Get one of the new 6 button sticks and you'll swear you're playing

10205-806: The Sixth Annual Grand Prize, as published in the February 1993 issue of Gamest , winning again as Best Action Game. It placed No. 3 in Best VGM, No. 6 in Best Graphics, and No. 5 in Best Direction. The Street Fighter II Image Album is the No. 1 Best Album in the same issue, with the Drama CD version of Street Fighter II tied for No. 7 with the soundtrack for Star Blade . The List of Best Characters only had Chun-Li at No. 3. In

10362-546: The Super Famicom in Japan by December 1992. By 1994, Street Fighter II had been played by an estimated 25 million people in the United States alone, across arcades and homes. All versions of Street Fighter II are estimated to have grossed a total of $ 10.61 billion in revenue, mostly from the arcade market. As of 2017 , it is one of the top three highest-grossing video games of all time, along with Space Invaders (1978) and Pac-Man (1980). Street Fighter II

10519-534: The Super Famicom version were sold in June 1992 within the first two weeks of its release, at a retail price of ¥ 10,780 (equivalent to $ 85.12 then, or $ 185 in 2023). The February 1992 issue of Gamest in Japan said that, due to low stock, the console versions were selling for much higher at ¥15,000 (equivalent to about $ 119.19 at the time, or $ 259 in 2023). It topped the Japanese Famitsu sales charts from June through July to August 1992. It

10676-545: The United Kingdom, Street Fighter II replaced Super Mario World as the bundled game for the SNES, and the SNES and Amiga versions made it the second best-selling home video game of 1992, below Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive. Worldwide, four million Street Fighter II cartridges had been sold by September 1992, 5 million units by the end of 1992, and over 6 million by 1993. The SNES version became

10833-460: The United States. On the US RePlay arcade charts for July 1992, Champion Edition was number one on the upright cabinets chart (above Midway 's Mortal Kombat ) while the original Street Fighter II was number two on the coin-op software chart (below SNK 's World Heroes ). Street Fighter II generated $ 1.5 billion (equivalent to $ 3.26 billion in 2023) annually in 1993, making it

10990-566: The Western-developed FX Fighter on PC and Criticom on console, and Sega's arcade Fighting Vipers - on top of Tekken 2 , an updated Battle Arena Toshinden 2 , and console ports of Tekken and Virtua Fighter 2 . A multitude of new polygonal releases arrived in 1996 from both prime and smaller developers, major games being Virtua Fighter 3 , Soul Edge , Dead or Alive , Last Bronx (in Japan), and

11147-531: The Wolves from 1999 (part of the Fatal Fury series) was considered one of SNK's last great games; the company announced that it would close its doors in late 2001. Electronic Gaming Monthly reported that in 1996, U.S. gamers spent nearly $ 150 million on current generation fighting games, and in Japan, fighting games accounted for over 80% of video game sales. The fighting game genre continued to evolve, with several strong 3D fighting games emerging in

11304-522: The arcade competitive dynamic from achieving personal-best high scores to head-to-head competition, including large groups. Street Fighter II became the best-selling game since the golden age of arcade video games . By 1994, it had been played by an estimated 25 million people in the United States alone. Worldwide, more than 200,000 arcade cabinets and 15   million software units of all versions of Street Fighter II have been sold, grossing an estimated $ 10 billion in total revenue, making it one of

11461-462: The arcade version." GamePro printed two reviews of the game in its August 1992 issue, both giving it a full score of 5 out of 5; Doctor Dave described it as "Capcom's best arcade conversion yet" while Slasher Quan stated that almost "everything's perfect in the Super NES version" and that it is "a nearly flawless conversion of the arcade original that's made even more enjoyable by new options and

11618-437: The arcades in 1996, porting it for the PlayStation in 1998. It spawned a long-running franchise , known for its fast-paced control system, innovative counterattacks , and environmental hazards . The series again included games important to the success of their respective consoles, such as Dead or Alive 3 for the Xbox and Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360 . In 1998, Bushido Blade , published by Square , introduced

11775-435: The base for future titles. Later we were able to make the timing more comfortable and the combo into a real feature. In [ Street Fighter II ] we thought if you got the perfect timing you could place several hits, up to four I think. Then we managed to place eight! A bug? Maybe. The vast majority of in-game music was composed by Yoko Shimomura . This is ultimately the only game in the series on which Shimomura worked, as she left

11932-498: The basis for his fighting game Street Fighter . Nintendo's boxing sequel Super Punch-Out was released for arcades in late 1984 and ported by Elite to home computers as Frank Bruno's Boxing in 1985, features martial arts elements, high and low guarding, ducking, lateral dodging, and a KO meter. This meter is built up with successful attacks and, when full, enables a special, more powerful punch to be thrown. Broderbund 's Karateka , designed by Jordan Mechner and released at

12089-583: The best fighting game ever to be released for a handheld console. Capcom released Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 for arcades and the Dreamcast in 2000, followed by sequels in subsequent years. Though none matched the critical success of the handheld version, Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO was noted as the first game of the genre to successfully utilize internet competition. Other crossovers from 2008 included Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe . The most successful crossover, however,

12246-473: The best-selling arcade game in ten years. Electronic Games noted in its October 1992 issue, "Not since the early 1980s has an arcade game received so much attention and all-out fanatical popularity." It was similarly successful in Australia, where it was performing strongly after 16 months on the market, with Leisure Line magazine noting in 1992 that not "since the days of Space Invaders (1978) has

12403-403: The best-selling fighting arcade video game franchises that have sold at least 10,000 arcade units . The prices of fighting game arcade units ranged from $ 1,300 (equivalent to $ 2,800 in 2023) for Street Fighter II Dash ( Champion Edition ) in 1992, up to $ 21,000 (equivalent to $ 44,000 in 2023) for Virtua Fighter (1993). In addition to unit sales, arcade games typically earned

12560-555: The best-selling home computer software of 1992, though only being available for the last 16 days of the year. Street Fighter II also topped the UK's Amiga sales chart in January 1993, and the UK's Atari ST chart in March 1993. In 2008, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix broke both the first-day and first-week sales records for a download-only game. Street Fighter II was the best-selling fighting game with 15.5   million units sold across all versions and platforms, until it

12717-588: The boxer's similarities to Tyson could have led to a likeness infringement lawsuit . The characters in the Japanese version have more than one win quote and if the player loses a match against the CPU in the Japanese version, a random playing tip will be shown at the bottom of the continue screen. While the ending text for the characters was originally translated literally, a few changes were made due to creative differences from Capcom's U.S. marketing staff. For example,

12874-408: The character each player is currently using. As a result of this, a concept called "footsies" has emerged, frequently defined as players jockeying for position and using low-commitment moves at distances where neither character has a particular advantage. Depending on the game, character, and move used, a player may be rewarded for a decisive blow with a strong positional advantage, strong enough that

13031-404: The company for Square two years later. Isao Abe, a Capcom newcomer, handled a few additional tracks ("Versus Screen", "Sagat's Theme", and "Here Comes A New Challenger") for Street Fighter II and became the main composer on the subsequent versions. The sound programming and sound effects were overseen by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, the composer on Street Fighter . Location testing began in Japan. It

13188-457: The company's best-selling single consumer game software, at more than 6.3 million units, and it remains its best-selling game software on a single platform. By 1993, 10 million units of all home software versions had been sold, and 11.9 million units for Nintendo and Sega consoles by March 1994. The SNES versions of Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Street Fighter II had 4.1 million and two million unit sales, respectively, followed by

13345-402: The convenience of home fighting." Super Play gave it a 94% score, stating that with "the inclusion of Champion Edition ' s Character vs. Character select and the extra options, I would even go so far to say that this is actually better than the coin-op." Electronic Games gave it scores of 95% for graphics, 92% for sound, and 93% for playability, with a 94% overall, concluding that it

13502-478: The corner of a stage or as they get up from a knockdown; both situations severely limit the options of the opponent and often allow the attacking player to force high-risk guessing scenarios. Spacing is the act of positioning a character at a range where their attacks and movement tools carry the lowest risk and the highest reward. The concept is somewhat akin to that of footwork in martial arts. The desired position for play varies based on what tools are available to

13659-440: The critically acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5 was released to very little acclaim in 2007, its update Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown received much more attention due to renewed interest in the genre. Numerous indie fighting games have also been crowdfunded on websites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo , the most notable success being the tag team fighting game Skullgirls in 2012. Later, in 2019, Ubisoft reported that

13816-501: The end of 1984, is a one-on-one fighting game for home computers that successfully added plot to its fighting action, like the beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master . By early 1985, martial arts games had become popular in arcades. On home computers, the Japanese MSX version of Yie Ar Kung-Fu was released in January 1985, and Beam Software 's The Way of the Exploding Fist was released for PAL regions in May 1985; The Way of

13973-610: The fast motions of a joystick, and so players had difficulty executing special moves with any accuracy. The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. Yoshiki Okamoto 's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre thus far. This allowed players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The graphics took advantage of Capcom's CPS arcade chipset , with highly detailed characters and stages . Whereas previous games allowed players to combat

14130-563: The fighting genre during the 1990s and inspiring other producers to create their own fighting series. Additionally, it prolonged the survival of the declining video-game arcade business market by stimulating business and driving the fighter genre. It prominently features a popular two-player mode that obligates direct, human-to-human competitive play, inspiring grassroots tournament events, culminating in Evolution Championship Series (EVO). Street Fighter II shifted

14287-472: The first fighting game to use digitized sprites and motion capture animation. Meanwhile, home game consoles largely ignored the genre. Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of the few releases for the Sega Genesis , but was not as popular as games in other genres. Technical challenges limited the popularity of early fighting games. Programmers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize

14444-451: The first fighting game, is considered to have standardized the genre, and similar games released prior to Street Fighter II have since been more explicitly classified as fighting games. Fighting games typically involve hand-to-hand combat, though many games also feature characters with melee weapons. Fighting characters are usually based on humans, but there are also games that are entirely based around mecha robot characters, for example

14601-548: The free-to-play platform fighting game Brawlhalla reached 20 million players, with it climbing to 80 million by 2022. In 2018, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch was released. It became the best-selling fighting game of all time, topping its Wii predecessor Super Smash Bros. Brawl and introduced nearly 90 characters through its default mode and through downloadable content or DLC, having sold 34.22 million copies worldwide. Later in

14758-681: The game and character design, respectively. The budget was estimated at $ 2,450,000 (equivalent to $ 5,480,000 in 2023). Funamizu notes that the developers did not particularly prioritize Street Fighter II ' s balance ; he primarily ascribes the game's success to its appealing animation patterns. The quality of animation benefited from the developers' use of the CPS-1 hardware, with advantages including allowing different characters to occupy different amounts of memory. For example, Ryu can occupy 8  megabits and Zangief 12 megabits. The combo system came about by accident: While I

14915-522: The game began gaining considerable popularity in Japanese arcades. In Japan, Game Machine magazine listed the game on their April 1, 1991 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade cabinet of the month, outperforming games such as Detana!! TwinBee and King of the Monsters , before Street Fighter II topped the charts two weeks later. It went on to become the highest-grossing arcade game of 1991 in Japan, and then it again became

15072-410: The game controls, which created a sense of mystique and invited players to practice the game. Following Street Fighter's lead, the use of command-based hidden moves began to pervade other games in the rising fighting game genre. Street Fighter also introduced other staples of the genre, including the blocking technique, as well as the ability for a challenger to jump in and initiate a match against

15229-424: The game outside Japan because it felt that "unrestrained" 3D fighting games were unenjoyable. Sega also attempted to introduce holographic 3D technology to the genre with Holosseum in 1992, though it was unsuccessful. Several fighting games achieved commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's Eternal Champions . Nevertheless, Street Fighter II remained

15386-663: The game years later: namely Hyper Street Fighter II released in December 2003 (later given an arcade release); Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix , released in November 2008 and a remake of 1994's Super Street Fighter II Turbo ; and Ultra Street Fighter II : The Final Challengers released in May 2017, adding three characters who previously debuted outside Street Fighter II updates. In addition to official updated versions, numerous counterfeit modified versions of Street Fighter II were in wide circulation. For example, nine different counterfeit versions were available on

15543-528: The game. Yie Ar Kung-Fu went on to become the UK's best-selling computer game of 1986 , the second year in a row for fighting games. The same year, Martech 's Uchi Mata for home computers featured novel controller motions for grappling maneuvers, but they were deemed too difficult. In the late 1980s, side-scrolling beat 'em ups became considerably more popular than one-on-one fighting games, with many arcade game developers focused more on producing beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups. Takashi Nishiyama used

15700-573: The genre into "true 3D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever". The "sidestep" in the game, however, consisted of shoulder rolls instead of actual sidesteps. That year, Namco released Tekken 2 , which introduced actual sidestepping or "mist steps" as first released in arcade games and in the international fighting game community. These moves are only exclusive to its two protagonists, Heihachi Mishima and his son, Kazuya Mishima , and his counterpart transformation which

15857-428: The genre of Best Action Game (the award for fighting games was not established yet). Street Fighter II placed No. 1 in Best VGM, Best Direction, and Best Album, and was second place in Best Graphics below the 3D Namco System 21 game Starblade . All the characters except M. Bison (known internationally as Balrog) are on the list of Best Characters of 1991. Street Fighter II Dash was awarded Best Game of 1992 in

16014-400: The genre with the 1993 arcade game Burning Rival , but they gained renown with the release of Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It is the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it

16171-504: The global coin-op market, including 10,000 units installed in the United Kingdom by mid-1991, with individual machines in the UK estimated to be taking between £ 70–1,000 per week over the next two years. Street Fighter II generated an estimated annual revenue of £260 million in the UK alone for the two years between mid-1991 and mid-1993, totaling £520 million ( $ 913 million at the time, equivalent to $ 1.98 billion in 2023). The company sold more than 60,000 arcade machines of

16328-467: The grounded realism of Karate Champ , Yie Ar Kung-Fu moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action with a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style. The player could also perform up to sixteen different moves, including projectile attacks, and it replaced

16485-595: The highest-grossing arcade game of 1992 . Street Fighter II Turbo became the highest-grossing arcade game of 1993 , with Street Fighter II Dash ( Champion Edition ) at number four and The World Warrior at number nine. Street Fighter II was similarly successful in the Western world . In the United States, the game was more immediately successful as it exceeded expectations in test markets, with individual machines earning $ 1,300–1,400 per week, Capcom USA sales representative Jeff Walker predicted it would "become

16642-488: The history of competitive video gaming, compared to sports moments such as Babe Ruth's called shot and the Ice Hockey Miracle on Ice . It inspired many to start playing 3rd Strike, which brought new life into the fighting game community (FGC) during a time when the community was in a state of stagnation. Dead or Alive 4 became the first fighting game to have a televised competitive esport scene as it

16799-435: The home port of Tekken 2 , cementing 3D as the future of the genre. In 1994, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II , including Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo . These games feature more characters and new moves, some of which are

16956-471: The international versions was designed as a pastiche of real-life boxer Mike Tyson and was originally named M. Bison (short for "Mike Bison", with "Mike" being one of the American opponents faced in Street Fighter ). Vega and M. Bison were originally named Balrog and Vega, respectively. When Street Fighter II was localized for the overseas market, the names of the bosses were rotated, out of concern that

17113-540: The kit of 1991" and RePlay magazine said the game showed there was "plenty of life" left in the then struggling arcade business. By March, it had become a blockbuster and the top-grossing game in the United States, giving a substantial boost in earnings for street operators. It topped the RePlay arcade software charts from May 1991 through August 1992, for a total of 16 months. On the Play Meter arcade charts, it

17270-417: The late 1990s, traditional 2D fighting games began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty due to 3D fighters. Although the release of Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series, both it and Street Fighter: The Movie flopped in arcades. A home video game also titled Street Fighter: The Movie was released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn , but it

17427-469: The late 1990s. Namco 's Tekken (released in arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its sequels also becoming some of the console's most important games. The Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1995's Soul Edge (known as Soul Blade outside Japan) to Soulcalibur VI in 2018. Tecmo released Dead or Alive in

17584-425: The latest game Tekken 8 , which was released in January 2024 sold over 2 million copies in its first month alone. Thus, the 2020s have had a marked resurgence in fighting games that has been deemed a new golden age in fighting games. The following are the highest-grossing fighting game franchises, in terms of total gross revenue generated by arcade games , console games , and computer games . The following are

17741-420: The majority of their gross revenue from coin drop earnings. Street Fighter II Designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and Akira Yasuda , who had previously worked on Final Fight , Street Fighter II is regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time and the most important and influential fighting game ever made. Its launch is seen as a revolutionary moment within its genre, credited with popularizing

17898-419: The market for fighting games became smaller and more specialized. Even as far back as 1997, many in the industry said that the fighting game market's growing inaccessibility to newcomers was bringing an end to the genre's dominance. Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the late 1990s to early 2000s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles. The early 2000s

18055-434: The mid-2020s, the genre achieved another renaissance with the arrival of Street Fighter 6 and its immediate success, together with Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 . Street Fighter 6 sold over 1 million copies within five days after its launch, and sold over 3 million copies by January 2024. Mortal Kombat 1 sold over 2 million copies in its first two months, and garnered over 3 million copies by January 2024, while

18212-414: The more advanced CP System II , allowing for updated graphics and audio, and introducing four new characters, but relieving the speed increase of Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting . It was followed by the fourth update, Super Street Fighter II Turbo , released in February 1994, combining the improvements of Super Street Fighter II with the previous Turbo (Hyper Fighting) edition. It allows for

18369-400: The most popular, spawning a Champion Edition that improved game balance and allowed players to use boss characters that were unselectable in the previous version. Chicago's Midway Games achieved unprecedented notoriety when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. The game featured digital characters drawn from real actors, numerous secrets, and " Fatality " finishing maneuvers in which

18526-484: The name of Guile's fallen friend (who later debuted as a playable fighter in Street Fighter Alpha ) was changed from Nash to Charlie , since a staff member from Capcom USA said that Nash is not a natural sounding English name. Although the original punching-pad cabinet of Street Fighter had not been very popular, the alternate six-button version was more successful, which began to generate interest in

18683-434: The one-on-one boss battles of his earlier beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master as the template for Capcom 's fighting game Street Fighter , combined with elements of Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu . Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world, which was dominated by beat 'em ups and shoot 'em ups at the time. Part of the game's appeal was the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with

18840-439: The opponent to recover if they timed them correctly. Its success led to fighting games becoming the dominant genre in the arcade game industry of the early 1990s, which led to a resurgence of the arcade game industry. The popularity of Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and becoming the defining template for fighting games. SNK released Fatal Fury shortly after Street Fighter II in 1991. It

18997-490: The opponent. Other fighting games, like Dead or Alive , have a unique button for throws and takedowns. Projectiles are primarily in 2D fighting games, like the Hadouken in Street Fighter . Projectiles can simply inflict damage, or can maneuver opponents into disadvantageous positions. Especially in 2D, zoning is defensive play that focuses on using relatively risk-free attacks to keep the opposing player away. The object

19154-482: The order of appearance: Takayuki Nakayama stated in an interview that many character design ideas were trialled and dropped along the development process. Rejected character designs for Street Fighter II included another bullfighter and an American amateur wrestler. With the exception of Sagat, the Shadaloo Bosses have different names in the Japanese version. The African-American boxer known as Balrog in

19311-461: The original Street Fighter II , including about 20,000 to 25,000 units in the United States. It was followed by Street Fighter II′ ( Dash or Champion Edition ), of which 140,000 arcade units were sold in Japan alone, where it cost ¥ 160,000 ( $ 1300) for each unit, amounting to ¥22.4 billion ($ 182 million) revenue generated from hardware sales in Japan (equivalent to $ 407 million in 2023), in addition to about 20,000 to 25,000 units sold in

19468-517: The original game eventually found out that certain moves naturally flowed into other ones." This combo system was later adopted as a standard feature of fighting games and was expanded upon in this series. The leader of the Shadaloo organization, M. Bison, in his global domination plan sets up a world fighting tournament, to select the best fighters to work in his Shadaloo organization through brainwashing. The original Street Fighter II features

19625-760: The player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence, and was adapted for home game consoles. The home version of Mortal Kombat was released on September 13, 1993, a day promoted as "Mortal Monday". The advertising resulted in line-ups to purchase the game and a subsequent backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence. The Mortal Kombat franchise would achieve iconic status similar to that of Street Fighter with several sequels as well as movies, television series, and extensive merchandising. Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat 's financial success with similar games, including Rare Software with Killer Instinct ,

19782-528: The point-scoring system of Karate Champ with a health meter system, becoming the standard for the genre. Irem 's Kung-Fu Master , designed by Takashi Nishiyama and released in November 1984, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that, at the end of each level , featured one-on-one boss battles that resemble fighting games. It is based on Hong Kong martial arts films, specifically Jackie Chan 's Wheels on Meals (1984) and Bruce Lee's Game of Death . Nishiyama later used its one-on-one boss battles as

19939-411: The rewarded player can minimize the number of viable moves available to the other player. Doing so, and then taking advantage of the opponent's limited options, is called pressure. Common forms of pressure include making a player guess whether they should block high or low, or keeping the opposing player trapped in the corner and punishing any attempts to escape. Fighting game matches generally consist of

20096-411: The rise of major international fighting game tournaments such as Tougeki – Super Battle Opera and Evolution Championship Series , and famous players such as Daigo Umehara . An important fighting game at the time was Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike , originally released in 1999. The game gained significant attention with " Evo Moment 37 ", also known as the "Daigo Parry", which refers to a portion of

20253-564: The same character in a match, which is not possible in the original arcade version. The second player uses the same alternate color palette introduced in Street Fighter II: Champion Edition . The four Shadaloo Bosses are still non-playable, but the code enables their Champion Edition color palette. Tatsuya Nishimura, who had recently joined Capcom from TOSE , arranged the soundtrack with assistance from Shimomura, Abe, and Sakaguchi. The American SNES cartridge

20410-479: The series as the platform fighter subgenre due to its deviation from traditional fighting game rules and design. Several games such as Marvel vs. Capcom and Dead or Alive have featured teams where players form "tag teams" to fight duels, but a character may be swapped by a teammate. Some fighting games offer the endurance challenge of a series of opponents. Online games can suffer lag from slow data transmission , which can disrupt split-second timing. This

20567-655: The sports game genre. Fighting games involve combat between pairs of fighters using highly exaggerated martial arts moves. They typically revolve primarily around brawling or combat sport , though some variations feature weaponry. Games usually display on-screen fighters from a side view, and even 3D fighting games play largely within a 2D plane of motion. Games usually confine characters to moving left and right and jumping, although some games such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters allow players to move between parallel planes of movement. Recent games tend to be rendered in three dimensions, making it easier for developers to add

20724-467: The stage when a character reaches a high percentage of damage; however, the gameplay objective differs from that of traditional fighting games in that the aim is to increase damage counters and knock opponents off the stage instead of depleting life bars. Beginning with Midway's Mortal Kombat released in 1992, the Mortal Kombat series introduced "Fatalities", where the match victor inflicts

20881-545: The strength of other attacks. Some characters have unusual taunts, like Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha . Combos that chain several attacks are fundamental to the genre since Street Fighter II (1991). Most fighting games display a "combo meter" of progress through a combo. The effectiveness of such moves often relates to the difficulty of execution and the degree of risk. These moves are often challenging, requiring excellent memory and timing. Predicting opponents' moves and counter-attacking, known as "countering",

21038-413: The top three highest-grossing video games of all time as of 2017 and the best-selling fighting game until 2019. More than 6.3 million Super Nintendo (SNES) cartridges of Street Fighter II were sold, making it Capcom's best-selling single software game for the next two decades, its best-selling game on a single platform, and the highest-selling third-party game on the SNES. Due to its major success,

21195-604: The two terms may still be conflated. Sports-based combat games are games that feature boxing , mixed martial arts (MMA), or wrestling . Serious boxing games belong more to the sports game genre than the action game genre, as they aim for a more realistic model of boxing techniques, whereas moves in fighting games tend to be either highly exaggerated or outright fantastical models of Asian martial arts techniques. As such, boxing games, mixed martial arts games, and wrestling games are often described as distinct genres, without comparison to fighting games, and belong more in

21352-404: The updated Super Street Fighter IV , sold more than 6 million copies over the next few years. The success of these two games, among others, sparked a renaissance for the genre, introducing new players to the genre and with the increased audience allowing other fighting game franchises to achieve successful revivals of their own, as well as increasing tournament participation. Tekken 6

21509-428: The way of thrills and spills" but praised the sequel for being "absolutely packed with new ideas" and special moves. He noted the "six buttons combining with 8 joystick directions to provide more moves than I've ever seen in a beat 'em up" and praised the "massive, beautifully drawn and animated sprites, tons of speech and the most exciting, action-packed head-to-head conflict yet seen in an arcade game," concluding that it

21666-556: The world. RePlay noted in January 1993 that Street Fighter II had "single-handedly re-ignited the worldwide black market in counterfeit PCBs and speed-up kits". Many counterfeit arcade units often outsold official Street Fighter II arcade cabinets in various markets. For example, about 200,000 counterfeits were in Mexico alone, where Capcom did not officially sell the game. Bondeal from Hong Kong produced 3,000 copied arcade units per month for markets such as Latin America , and

21823-576: The year's highest-grossing entertainment product, above the film Jurassic Park . In January 1994, Capcom referred to Street Fighter II as "the most successful video game series of the decade" while promoting Super Street Fighter II . In early 1994, Capcom projected sales of Super Street Fighter II to reach 100,000 arcade units. According to the March 1995 issue of GameFan , the game had earned "billions of dollars in profit". In addition to Capcom's official arcade units, many pirated counterfeit Street Fighter II arcade clone units were sold across

21980-725: Was Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii . Featuring 40 characters from Nintendo and third-party franchises, the game was a runaway commercial success in addition to being lavished with critical praise. In the new millennium, fighting games became less popular and plentiful than in the mid-1990s, with multiplayer competition shifting towards other genres. However, SNK reappeared in 2003 as SNK Playmore and continued to release games. Arc System Works received critical acclaim for releasing Guilty Gear X in 2001, as well as its sequel Guilty Gear XX , as both were 2D fighting games featuring striking anime -inspired graphics. Fighting games became

22137-529: Was a multi-million seller in Japan by December 1992. In the United States, 750,000 units of the SNES version were sold between July 15 and September 30, 1992, with a retail price of $ 74.99 (equivalent to $ 160 in 2023). According to Electronic Gaming Monthly : "Never has a game taken the country [by] storm as this one has." It remained America's top-selling Super NES game for much of late 1992, in August and then October, November, and December. In 1992 in North America, 2 million units were sold. In

22294-466: Was also published in North America by Hi-Tech Expressions . These versions suffer numerous inaccuracies, such as missing graphical assets and music tracks, miscolored palettes, and lack of six-button controls due to these platforms having only one or two-button joysticks as standard at the time. Though officially advertised by US Gold along with the C64 and ZX Spectrum conversions and anticipated in magazines,

22451-419: Was building off the popularity of its previous iteration and was still positively received, selling more than 3 million copies worldwide by August 2010, one year after its release. Other successful games that followed include Mortal Kombat , Marvel vs. Capcom 3 , The King of Fighters XIII , Dead or Alive 5 , Tekken Tag Tournament 2 , Soulcalibur V , and Guilty Gear Xrd . Though

22608-474: Was designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the creator of the original Street Fighter , which it was envisioned as a spiritual successor to. Fatal Fury placed more emphasis on storytelling and the timing of special moves, and added a two-plane system where characters could step into the foreground or background. Meanwhile, Sega experimented with Dark Edge , an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. However, Sega never released

22765-479: Was easier to learn than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat , which has six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio. In 1994, Namco released Tekken , the rival arcade game using cutting-edge 3D polygon technology. The 1995 PlayStation game Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking

22922-448: Was followed by a second update, Street Fighter II Turbo : Hyper Fighting , released in December 1992, increasing the playing speed and giving some characters new special moves. It was Capcom's official response to a wave of unauthorized modifications for arcade cabinets of Champion Edition , such as the so-called "Rainbow Edition" The third update is Super Street Fighter II : The New Challengers , released in September 1993, using

23079-675: Was introduced in Super , placed fifth place in the list of Best Characters of 1993, with Dee Jay at 36 and T. Hawk at 37. In the January 30, 1995 issue of Gamest , Super Street Fighter II X (known as Super Turbo internationally) placed fourth place in the award for Best Game of 1994 and Best Fighting Game, but did not rank in any of the other awards. The Super Famicom (SNES) version was critically acclaimed. Famitsu ' s panel of four reviewers gave it scores of 9, 9, 9, and 8, adding up to 35 out of 40. This made it one of their five highest-rated games of 1992, along with Dragon Quest V: Hand of

23236-412: Was making a bug check during the car bonus stage... I noticed something strange, curious. I taped the sequence and we saw that during the punch timing, it was possible to add a second hit and so on. I thought this was something impossible to make useful inside a game, as the timing balance was so hard to catch. So we decided to leave the feature as a hidden one. The most interesting thing is that this became

23393-415: Was not immediately successful in Japan, as most arcade players were initially playing it solo, rather than multiplayer as originally intended. Yoshiki Okamoto was disappointed with its initial performance, and was told he should have produced another solo beat 'em up like Final Fight instead. After Japanese arcade magazine Gamest began publishing articles informing readers about the "battle play" feature,

23550-539: Was re-released in November 2017 as a limited edition item to celebrate the anniversary of the Street Fighter series. U.S. Gold released versions of Street Fighter II for various home computer platforms in Europe, namely the Amiga , Atari ST , Commodore 64 , PC ( DOS ), and ZX Spectrum . These were all developed by Creative Materials, except the ZX Spectrum version by Tiertex Design Studios . The PC version

23707-522: Was released for the Super Famicom on June 10, 1992, in Japan, followed by a North American release for the SNES in August and a European release in December. It is the first game released on a 16-megabit SNES cartridge. Many aspects from the arcade versions were either changed or simplified in order to fit into the smaller memory capacity. This version has a secret code allowing both players to control

23864-476: Was surpassed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2019. Like the arcades, the home conversions were impacted by copyright infringement . Upon release of the SNES version in 1992, thirteen different unauthorized versions were reportedly available for the Super Famicom. The original arcade version of Street Fighter II was awarded Best Game of 1991 in Gamest ' s Fifth Annual Grand Prize, which also won in

24021-446: Was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents. The genre was also very popular on home consoles. At the beginning of 1996, GamePro (a magazine devoted chiefly to home console and handheld gaming) reported that for the last several years, their reader surveys had consistently yielded 4 out of 5 respondents name fighting games as their favorite genre. In

24178-425: Was the first game to include such a feature. Fighting games can support a two-player duel, sometimes by letting a second player challenge the first at any moment during a single-player match. Some games allow four-player simultaneous competition. Uniquely, the Super Smash Bros. series has allowed eight-player local and online multiplayer matches, beginning with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U , though many classify

24335-550: Was the only fighting game included in the esport league, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), in 2007 and 2008. The league was operated and fully broadcast by DirecTV in association with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and STAR TV . Dead or Alive has been credited for launching the careers of pro-gamer turned Koei Tecmo employee, Emmanuel Rodriguez, and the highest-paid women pro-gamers, Kat Gunn and Vanessa Arteaga . The late 2000s featured

24492-404: Was the top-grossing video game during January–February 1992 and May 1992. Street Fighter II was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1991 in the United States, and one of the top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits of 1992 (below Champion Edition ). Its success was considered phenomenal; by 1992, it had turned around the convenience store segment of the coin-op industry and become

24649-432: Was then exhibited in the United Kingdom at London's Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) in January 1991. The same month, Capcom held a two-week location test in North America, before unveiling the game at Capcom's distributor conference on February 1, 1991, held at Marriott Harbor Beach , Fort Lauderdale, Florida . Capcom introduced Street Fighter II as its "greatest video game ever". Street Fighter II

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