Anniversary: Of A Shoryuken!

[Neon Ignition]

Officially, on 30th August this year it will be Capcoms 25th Anniversary of the Street Fighter franchise. They've said they're planning lots this year to celebrate that fact and even created a little logo for the occasion:



Imagine the sheer number of down, down forwards, forwards-punches that have been performed since day one. What are your memories of the fabled fighting series and which particular installment do you feel is the greatest one to date?

[nakamura]

A very hard question.

I guess SFII series would edge it as I still play them now from time to time but there are several games I love from each one.

Super SFII, Street Fighter Zero and Capcom vs SNK are my three favs with Capcom coming out on top.

[J0e Musashi]

I must have been around 13 and I remember not being able to do a Dragon Punch. Well nobody could do a Dragon Punch then. Except for a boy called Terry. He would always say "Do a small circle in the corner". Took me a while to get it.

I have so many memories of SF2/CE it's unreal. Easily more than any other game.

[Neon Ignition]

Fo me it's fairly comfortably the Alpha series with Alpha 2 perhaps taking the crown for individual installment. They nailed the balance between the gameplay, mechanics and style. I used to dream of an Alpha 4 but I don't think it'd be worth doing now as SF4 pillaged the line up enough. It'd have to be 2D.

[Brad]

I've probably answered this before here but:

Student bar, McEwan's Lager, T-Bone Steak Roysters and me and my mate playing each other at SFII. Me as Blanka or Guile and him as Chun-Li. Happy days.

[speedlolita]

I really wish Third Strike got the recognition it deserves among people who don't play it properly. So so much better than any other offering of Street Fighter, except arguably ST.

[Dogg Thang]

Fo me it's fairly comfortably the Alpha series with Alpha 2 perhaps taking the crown for individual installment.

Yep, totally agree with this. For me, Alpha 2 got most things right and is definitely my fave in terms of character line-up and feel (bgs, music etc).

I have a huge soft spot for Pocket Fighter though and think it's a massive shame it never got a sequel. And, at the very least, a good handheld version. It's such a fun game with fantastic sprites, lovely animation and great music.

[nakamura]

I really wish Third Strike got the recognition it deserves among people who don't play it properly. So so much better than any other offering of Street Fighter, except arguably ST.

Nothing to do with not playing it properly, I just find it to be utterly charmless due to half the character roster being rubbish. Characters like Q, Necro, Twelve, Urien, Hugo, Oro and Gill ruin the game for me. I don't want to be fighting a mutant which is partly why I prefer KoF.

[J0e Musashi]

I'd largely grown out of SF by the time 3S came out. I did play quite a bit of New Generation in our local Sega Park, but considering I know hardly anybody that even plays games nowadays let alone fighters, the game was/is largely wasted on me. Plus I agree with nakamura that the charas have zero charm. I bought the recent PSN version (out of pure nostalgia, and the fact that I have owned every single SF home release ever, erm released), but I've prolly played it for less than five minutes.

For me SF was all about being in the right place at the right time. I was right in the middle of SF2 taking over the entire world. There has been no other game like that, and there probably never will be. Everywhere you went there was a cabinet running the game. Sweet shops, chip shops, cab offices, cinemas, bowling alleys... You name it, they had a cab.

Those as they say, were the days.

[dataDave]

Those still are the days where I'm at, bitches!

All the classics lined up in a row, from CE to 3S... there's only me that plays them too. Everyone else is dedicated to either SSF4 or TTT2.

[fuse]

Third Strike for me. Also when it comes to the Zero series, I'm one of the only people I know who prefers Zero 3 to Zero 2 Alpha. A while back I actually did a little bit about Street Fighter for another site I write for here, if anyone's bored and wants a read.

[Sane]

IV for me.

[Baseley09]

It doesn't matter how good 3S is, it has nothing.

It's always going to be about Champion Edition, or that first time I saw/heard the intro to Super, OMFG Ryu bouncing on a 29" sit down.

The first Alpha/Zero game was cool and had good music.

[endo]

Nothing to do with not playing it properly, I just find it to be utterly charmless due to half the character roster being rubbish. Characters like Q, Necro, Twelve, Urien, Hugo, Oro and Gill ruin the game for me.

You wash your mouth out! Hugo is far from rubbish and charmless!

Purely in terms of gameplay, it's Third Strike for me, by quite some way. I don't think I've played any game as much as I've played that.

Very tough choice though because of the original Street Fighter II having so many more memories for me. As J0e said, SFII had a special quality, going beyond simply being a game, that no other game has ever replicated. Being at the age I was when it came out, playing it in arcades and finding it just about anywhere you can imagine (and then playing it at home on the Super Famicom, holy ****!) it really was a special time. Sigh.

[Skull Commander]

I do enjoy the IV series, but Street Fighter II takes it for me. Over the years that series has had so much time spent on it, and no matter how good follow ups have been they have never been quite so magical. III series is just far too technical for me and the characters are sub SNK.