Street Fighter (Japanese: ストリートファイター Sutorīto Faitā?) is a 1987 arcade game developed by Capcom. It is the first competitive fighting game produced by the company and the inaugural game in the Street Fighter series.
While it did not achieve the same worldwide popularity as its sequel Street Fighter II when it was first released, the original Street Fighter introduced some of the conventions made standard in later games, such as the six button controls and the use of command based special techniques.
A port for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx CD console was released under the title Fighting Street (ファイティング・ストリート Faitingu Sutorīto?) in 1988. This same version was later re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on November 2, 2009, and in the PAL region on November 5, 2009.The player competes in a series of one-on-one matches against a series of computer-controlled opponents or in a single match against another player. Each match consists of three rounds in which the player must knock out an opponent in less than 30 seconds. If a match ends before a fighter is knocked out, then the fighter with the greater amount of energy left will be declared the round's winner. The player must win two rounds in order to defeat the opponent and proceed to the next battle. If the third round ends in a tie, then the computer-controlled opponent will win by default or both players will lose. During the single-player mode, the player can continue after losing and fight against the opponent they lost the match to. Likewise, a second player can interrupt a single-player match and challenge the first player to a new match.
Street Fighter was produced and directed by Takashi Nishiyama (who is credited as "Piston Takashi" in the game) and planned by Hiroshi Matsumoto (credited as "Finish Hiroshi"), who both previously worked on the overhead beat 'em up Avengers]. The two men would leave Capcom after the production of the game and were employed by SNK, developing most of their fighting game series (including Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting).
The duo would later work for Dimps and work on Street Fighter IV with Capcom. Keiji Inafune, best known for his artwork in Capcom's Mega Man franchise, got his start at the company by designing and illustrating the character portraits in Street Fighter. Nishiyama drew several inspirations for developing the original gameplay of Street Fighter from martial art styles he was practicing at the time.
Two different arcade cabinets were sold for the game: a "Regular" version (which was sold as a tabletop cabinet in Japan and as an upright overseas) that featured the same six button configuration later used in Street Fighter II and a "Deluxe" cabinet that featured two pressure-sensitive rubber pads. The pressure-sensitive pads determine the strength and speed of the player's attacks based on how hard they were pressed. In the American and Worldwide versions of the game, Ryu's and Ken's voices were dubbed so that they yelled the names of their moves in English (i.e.: Psycho Fire, Dragon Punch, Hurricane Kick). Subsequent localized releases left the Japanese voices intact. Street Fighter IV contains both English and Japanese voice acting, although characters from Asia still use Japanese names for certain special moves, Super Combos, and Ultra Combos amidst otherwise English dialogue.
- Street Fighter was ported under the title Fighting Street in 1988 for the PC Engine CD ROM in Japan and 1989 for the TurboGrafx-CD in North America. This version features a remastered soundtrack. As there was no six-button controller for the TurboGrafx-CD at the time this version was released, the strength level of the attacks is determined by how long either of the action buttons are held. This version was published by NEC Avenue in North America and Hudson Soft in Japan and was developed by Alfa System. The cover artwork featured Mount Rushmore, which was one of the locations in the game.
- Versions of Street Fighter for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, DOS, Amiga and Atari ST were published by U.S. Gold in 1988 in Europe. These ports were developed by Tiertex. The Commodore 64 actually got two versions, released on the same tape/disk format - the NTSC (US) version developed by Pacific Dataworks and published by Capcom USA, and the PAL (UK) version by Tiertex and U.S Gold.
- Hi-Tech Expressions ported the game to MS-DOS computers. Hi-Tech also re-released the game as part of the Street Fighter Series CD-ROM collection.
- An emulation of the original arcade version is featured in Capcom Arcade Hits Volume 1 (along with Street Fighter II': Champion Edition) for Windows, Capcom Classics Collection Remixed for the PlayStation Portable and Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2.
- An emulation of the original arcade version will be featured in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows)
The game was commercially successful in arcades. On the Coinslot charts, printed in the August 1988 issue of Sinclair User, Street Fighter was the top dedicated arcade game.
The arcade version was well received. Tony Thompson of Crash, in its October 1987 issue, said it "breathes new life" into martial arts games, with a "huge" cabinet, "big" characters, pads where "the harder you hit the pads the harder your character hits", and "secret techniques". In its January 1988 issue, Julian Rignall and Daniel Gilbert said "it adds a new dimension with pneumatic punch buttons" and the action is "gratifying" with "great feedback from the buttons" but "there's very little to draw you back" after the novelty wears off.
Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games, in its December 1987 issue, said it had "huge" Sprite (computer graphics) sprites, "among the most realistic" characters, and "intense" action, but requires mastering the controls, including punches, kicks, stoop kicks, flip kicks and backward flips. She said "the competition is intense" and the deluxe version "is much more fun."
Sinclair User awarding the game a maximum and claiming it was "one of the games of the year", while Computer and Video Games said it had "no lasting appeal whatsoever"|
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