If you want to see a game that has games upon games, it is Street Fighter. Strangely enough, there is only one Street Fighter 1. This is one iteration that never gained up a great deal of popularity due to the fact that you fight Ryu vs Ken and that's about it. It's garnered a small cult following that looks upon it as sentimental, humble beginnings. Street Fighter 2 catapulted Capcom to brand new heights along with their monumental success with their Mega Man series.
Street Fighter's sequel spawned new iterations with new characters and gameplay to go on top of its already awesome control and gameplay. This game and Mortal Kombat brought about a new standard for fighting games. Street Fighter was more PG rated with a great lean toward Japanese Animation that appealed to a very wide demographic.
This was flashier, brighter and looked very good on both Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, along with a number of other ports. The 16-bit graphics sharpened with every add-on and more characters were brought into the fold as the fighting became faster and the competition became fierce. Street Fighter III brought new life to the arcades, but it was a very long gestation. It didn't sell especially well on the Dreamcast, nor were the arcades doing especially well at the time of its release. Even though it didn't have as notable a roster as Street Fighter 2, the add-ons and iterations still brought new life to the competition that was the Street Fighter fandom.
Then came a brand new upgrade with Street Fighter IV. It may have been late to the 3D crowd, but it learned a lot along the journey, it seems. The fourth installment was a bombastic success and, much like its predecessors, only got better with time. With Super, Arcade Edition and Ultra, the roster grew to gargantuan heights. It included so many former characters, new characters as both heroes and villains. Good luck following the plot becasue I gave up on that long ago.
The characters have very inventive techniques, many of the new characters either sporting brand new fighting styles or new forms to old styles. Everyone will tell you that Dan brought quite a bit to Ryu and Ken's fighting style. That's a fun little story to look into. The Ultra verion's roster is so huge with this game, you'll definitely find some favorites among them and even some that you gel with rather well.
Basically, this is the big gathering of the tournament because you've got both M. Bison and Akuma to deal with. On top of that, you'd really be surprised just how many people are villains with their own agendas. It makes up for this by having such ridiculous amounts of heroes at the same time. So, for every Juri, you've got El Fuerte and Ibuki. Sakura is a bit of a blend of both Ryu's style and with a tiny dash of Chun-li, if she used her fists more. It's really just a random mishmash. Either pick them or pick the red guy who pours oil on himself. Do you like that guy? I don't like that guy.
Many will consider this the pinnacle of Street Fighter and it's really hard to argue. Future titles were disappointing, as Street Fighter V came out to lukewarm reception because of its barebones features and characters. Everyone has their opinions on this series and here at the Virtua of Planets, we'd like to stop at four. The Street Fighter Anniversary collections are fine enough for all of the classic titles and if you can get ahold of Street Fighter IV, don't hesitate to do so. We must stop M. Bison... or Vega... or.. Balrog? Wait, let me check on that.
