Street Fighter (1987). Play online

Summary

Street Fighter changed arcades the moment it hit the cabinets in 1987. Capcom’s first competitive fighter gave players a joystick plus either six classic buttons or a pair of pressure‑sensitive pads that measured light, medium or hard strikes—something never seen before. The game introduced the now‑standard six‑button layout and command‑based specials such as Hadōken, Shoryūken and Tatsumaki, letting us discover the inputs on our own.

A match is a best‑of‑three, each round lasting under 30 seconds; you need two rounds to move on through ten foes from five nations, with the final two battles set in Thailand. Bonus rounds let you smash bricks or a wooden table for extra points. If the third round ends in a tie, the computer automatically wins, which kept the pressure high.

Arcade operators loved it—regular upright cabinets topped the US tables while Japan’s deluxe pneumatic version ranked third on the upright list in October ’87. Under the hood it ran on a custom 68000 board with a YM2151 FM chip, delivering crisp stereo sound that still feels distinctive today.

Storyline

Street Fighter drops you into the classic arcade tournament where Ryu, a young Japanese martial artist, seeks to test his strength.

He faces a colorful roster of international fighters: Retsu, a disgraced Shorinji Kempo instructor; Geki, a ninja wielding a tekkō kagi; Joe, an underground full‑contact karate champion; Mike, a former heavyweight boxer with a dark past; Lee, a Chinese boxing specialist; and Gen, an elderly assassin with his own killing art.

The battle continues with Birdie, a towering bouncer mixing wrestling and boxing, and Eagle, a polished British bodyguard who fights with Kali sticks.

After clearing these eight opponents, the journey leads to Thailand, where Ryu confronts Adon, a lethal Muay Thai master, before the final showdown with Sagat, the self‑styled “Emperor of Muay Thai.”