Do You Remember Street Fighter?
Generally speaking, when people bring up the earlier installments in the Street Fighter franchise, they bring up Street Fighter II. This makes sense because Street Fighter II was a huge success from both a critical and a commercial perspective, so much so that it established a number of mechanics that are now fundamentals of the fighting game.
One excellent example is the combo, while another excellent example is the head-to-head competition enabled by its setup, which is something that has spread beyond fighting games. Summed up, it is no wonder that updated versions of Street Fighter II are still being made in the present even though it is closing on three decades since its initial release, whereas Street Fighter languishes as the forgotten original.
Wood You Play Street Fighter in Present Times?
Unfortunately, it seems probable that Street Fighter will continue to languish as the forgotten original for the foreseeable future barring some kind of unbelievable occurrence that cannot be predicated at this point in time. In part, this is because it has a number of problems of its own. For example, the player was limited to controlling either Ryu or Ken, who had the exact same mechanics.
Something that is bound to prove a huge disappointment to people who have become accustomed to the expansive rosters of well-established fighting game franchises. Never mind the fact that the roster of opponents isn’t exactly that impressive either at a total of 10 characters including the two bosses Adon and Sagat. Furthermore, it should be mentioned that while Street Fighter was innovative for its time, it is now so old and outdated that it is actually missing a lot of the fundamentals that most people have come to expect from fighting games.
As a result, while interested individuals can find a way to play Street Fighter through legitimate channels with relative convenience, it is hard to believe that there are a lot of people who would be interested in buying it on its own. For proof, look at how the simplest and most straightforward method for getting it is buying the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, which happens to include an emulation of the game.
Considering the problems with Street Fighter, it is difficult for blame people for not having much interest in it no matter how important it might be to either the history of the Street Fighter franchise or the history of fighting games as a whole.
Further Considerations
Of course, there is one other issue to people choosing to play Street Fighter on their own initiative. Simply put, it is overshadowed by its much more successful follow-up, particularly since they were released with a relatively short period of time between them. As a result, while there are lots of people who are willing to go to great lengths to indulge their sense of nostalgia, most people are going to focus on Street Fighter II rather than Street Fighter in that regard.
As a result, Street Fighter can’t even benefit from the wave of nostalgia that has been overtaking the entertainment industries in recent times, thus putting it even further out of consideration.
