10 Mistakes That Still Haunt Street Fighter
Largely regarded as the grandfather of the fighting game genre, Capcom's Street Fighter II revolutionized the gaming industry, paving the way for a long-running franchise and a slew of copycats. The series laid dormant for many years as the genre transitioned to 3Ds, but the franchise came back into the ring in 2008 with Street Fighter IV to rave reviews.
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While Street Fighter V's reception was more mixed, Street Fighter 6 represents a true return to form for the series, forming the blueprint for further bouts with the world warriors. With this recent success, it's worth remember how often the franchise fell short of the championship belt.
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9 The Original Street Fighter Hasn't Aged Well
There's a reason the original Street Fighter has been relegated to obscurity while Street Fighter II is regarded as the series' true start. Since the genre was still in its infancy, many features that players would expect are either absent or really unrefined in SFI.
Players could only step into the ring as Ryu or Ken with the two martial artists serving as Player 1 and 2, respectively. Special moves such as the Hadokuen and Shoryuken were originally regarded as cheat codes, and as such, are much more difficult to pull off in this installment. The original Street Fighter is worth a look for historical purposes, but no more than that.
8 Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
No title showcases just how plastic Capcom's fighting franchise was during its infancy quite like Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight. The game shifted from a 1 on 1 fighter to an action platfomer and centered around a cybernetically enhanced Ken Masters.
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Amazingly, the original Japanese version had even less to do with the original game as it featured an entirely new character named Kyle as the protagonist. To this day, the series never attempted anything like this again, with Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight serving as a weird footnote in Capcom's history.
7 Street Fighter V's Initial Release
While much fun could be had with Street Fighter V's mutli-player matches, there's no denying the original release was lacking in content. Players who wanted to fight on their own were stuck with an emaciated story mode which featured only a few matches per character divided by dull slideshow cutscenes.
The traditional arcade mode was also perplexingly absent from the vanilla version. This dearth of options resulted in a fighter with very little lasting appeal, especially compared to the likes of Mortal Kombat X. Capcom would thankfully rectify this with later editions to V, but the damage was done.
6 Street Fighter X Tekken
While many thought it impossible, Capcom and Namco had their respective fighting series toss hands with Street Fighter X Tekken. Originally meant to be the first entry of an ambitious two-part crossover, this 2D fighter would be the only dedicated matchup between the two brands.
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Even more lamentably, Street Fighter X Tekken fell well short of the Company's previous crossover fighters with its unwelcome implementation of micro-transactions. The gem system that was meant to give characters a sense of customization resulted in woefully unbalanced online matches. What's more, Xbox owners got the shaft as the PlayStation 3 version boasted exclusive characters such as Cole McGrath.
5 Street Fighter EX
With the rise of polygonal fighters like Tekken and Dead or Alive, Capcom decided to go where the wind was blowing with Street Fighter EX. Developed by Akira, the EX sub-series tossed Ryu and the gang into the the 3D fighting genre.
While the first title fared much better than Mortal Kombat's leap into 3D, subsequent entries were uppercutted by Namco and Sega's efforts. After the underwhelming reception towards EX3, the series wisely went back to 2D with Street Fighter IV.
4 Street Fighter II's Game Boy Port
Porting a six-button fighter to a handheld with only two buttons was always going to be an uphill battle, but this problem was exacerbated by Street Fighter II's unresponsiveness and late release on the Game Boy. Handheld versions of Mortal Kombat 1, 2, and Primal Rage had already hit the scene, making this port long overdue.
What's worse, performing moves is an absolute chore due to the game's poor control and slow nature. The port's one bright spot of is the faithful 8-bit chiptune renditions of Yoko Shinomura's superb soundtrack. Fortunately, the Game Boy Advance would prove to be a more capable platform for Capcom's famous fighter.
3 The Series' Confusing Mistranslations
Mistranslations have plagued the series from the very beginning. Ryu's Street Fighter II win quote seemingly referred to a mysterious combatant named "Sheng Long." While this was referring to Ryu's Dragon Punch, it inspired a wave of urban legends and April Fools' pranks which claimed that the mysterious fighter could indeed be unlocked.
2 Street Fighter The Movie The Game
In what is one of the oddest examples of media tie-ins, Capcom and Incredible Technologies collaborated on a game based on a movie which was itself based on a game. Dubbed Street Fighter The Movie The Game, players were able to duke it out with Hollywood actors portraying their favorite fighters.
Unfortunately, Incredible Technologies' arcade title was poorly received, resulting in Capcom developing an entirely different version of the game for consoles in-house. Street Fighter The Movie The Game was panned by gaming publications for essentially being little more than a re-skin of Street Fighter II: Turbo plagued by some slowdown and embarrassing digitized actors.
1 The Abysmal Live Action Films
The Street Fighter brand has been blighted with two abysmal live action film adaptions that failed to capture the fun and personality of its source material. Not even Die Hard screenwriter Steven E. de Souza or thespian Raul Julia could save the first film's muddled pile of underwhelming fights and clichéd dialogue.
As bad as its 1994 film adaption is, it's a masterpiece compared to its sophomore outing. Legend of Chun Li sank even lower with changes made to the source material that harm more than help, a wildly uneven tone, and some truly dreadful performances.
NEXT: 10 Capcom Games We Wish Weren't Canceled
Source: CBR - Comic Book Resources
