All the ‘Street Fighter’ Games, Ranked
Hadōken! It’s sounds like a nonsense word, and it mostly is, despite translating to “Wave Motion Fist” from Japanese. But when shouted, it embodies a pop culture phenomenon that triggers nostalgia in multiple generations of gamers — and probably people who may have never even touched a controller.
The most famous move in perhaps all fight games, Street Fighter’s Hadōken, and by extension the Shōryūken (“Rising Dragon Fist”), represent a pinnacle of a certain type of gaming: culturally accessible, wildly addictive competitive play that anyone can pick up. Maybe you have the quarter motion of the joystick committed to memory, maybe you’ve flailed at an arcade cabinet long enough to accidentally pull one off, it doesn’t matter. The joy of blasting your buddy with ki is universal, nonetheless.
It all began back in 1987, when Capcom first unveiled Street Fighter, a revolutionary (for the time) new arcade title that allowed players to settle their scores (pun intended) not by beating each other’s records, but by beating each other’s ass. Starring series mainstay Ryu and featuring pressure sensitive punch pads, it was a fun little oddity that opened the door to one of gaming’s greatest dynasties and changed the face of digital entertainment forever.
But the true revolution began in 1991 with the release of Street Fighter II. Perfecting every idea the first game introduced, it brought together simple, yet mechanically deep controls, a globe’s worth of culturally diverse characters, and a punchy presentation that would take arcades — and eventually living rooms — by storm.
From here, the series would have its ups and downs. From an astronomical number of reissues and confusing titles, competing sub-series that would cannibalize and divide fans, and eventually falling out of favor as a crowded field of both competing fighting games and new genres, the legacy of Street Fighter would, perhaps fittingly, mostly live on in dedicated underground communities and people’s memories, before ultimately finding its footing in the burgeoning esports world and livestreaming platforms like Twitch.
But now, Street Fighter is ready to return to the world’s stage and take back its crown with the upcoming launch of Street Fighter 6. Having played it extensively both in pre-release and open beta, it’s safe to say that there’s cause to be excited. Ahead of its arrival, we’re taking a trip back through time to the front of the coin line to definitively rank each of the previous mainline games in the series, but no crossovers (sorry, X-Men fans).
The list was built from cross discussion (and debate) between Rolling Stone staffers, contributing journalists, our Twitch viewers, and of course, the FGC (fighting game community) itself via Discord.
One heavy caveat though: as touched on above, Street Fighter is a series that can be confounding to discuss. While there’s only a handful of mainline entries (versus say, Mortal Kombat’s 12), practically every game in the series has been reissued multiple times with new characters, balance tweaks, and UI overhauls. Sometimes, a game will get a direct sequel in a sub-series, other times it’s considered an update. So, to keep things manageable, we’re technically ranking the “series” of mainline games here.
That means Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II, and Super Street Fighter II: Turbo will all count as one entry. Trust us, it’s easier this way.
And with that… fight!
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Street Fighter
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA Yes, it’s true. First is the worst. Despite kicking off the franchise and introducing pretty much the entire concept of a one-vs-one fighting game as we know it, the very first Street Fighter game is easily the worst entry in the series. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto and released in arcades in 1987, the game did introduce several industry standard conventions, including the six-button layout, special moves, the fundamentals for 1v1 fighting, and of course the eclectic roster of international fighters including mainstays Ryu and Ken. But today? It is rough to play. Rigid to control, it’s fun for a few minutes before you yearn for something better.
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Street Fighter: The Movie
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA By 1995, Street Fighter mania had already reached its apex. The second game had been in rotation for four years, competitors were aplenty, and of course, Hollywood had already disgraced itself with a deliciously awful adaptation. Capitalizing on 1994’s campy Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle, two versions of this game were produced: one for arcades by Incredible Technologies and one by consoles by Capcom themselves. The latter actually plays vaguely like a Street Fighter game, but both borrow the visual technique of the series’ main rival, Mortal Kombat, featuring digitized version of the film’s actors (including Kylie Minogue!) rather than sprite-based models.
Ultimately, it’s a bad game elevated by ludicrous novelty, just like the film that inspired it.
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Street Fighter EX
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA Five years after the smashing success of Street Fighter II, the series was having something of an identity crisis. Amid stiff competition from not just likes of Mortal Kombat, but a whole slew of arcade and console series like Namco’s Tekken — which transcended both sprites and digitization with fully 3D polygon models — many felt that that the OG needed to evolve to survive.
Enter the EX series. Technically proficient enough to be recognizably Street Fighter, but aping Tekken and Virtua Fighter’s visual style, this sub-series dazzled players who wanted something “modern” from the franchise and continued through multiple arcade and console releases. Thankfully, Capcom would continue producing multiple other fully 2D iterations for the “purists” among us.
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Street Fighter Alpha
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA The first major follow-up to Street Fighter II, the Alpha series were prequels to that game’s (admittedly sparse) story. Taking place between the first two entries, the Alpha trilogy delivered slightly younger versions of II’s roster, tons of new fighters, as well as reintroducing several characters from the original game. It also served to bridge the gap between Capcom’s beat ‘em up Final Fight, cementing that these two series take place in the same world.
Its anime-inspired sprite designs were lifted from X-Men: Children of the Atom and reused for most major crossover title for the next few years, marking the visuals as the definitive Street Fighter “look” for a whole generation of players who may have been too young for the SNES/Genesis era. With fast paced, frenetic controls, the Alpha games remain immensely playable. Arguably, even more so than II.
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Street Fighter II
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA Here it is, the grandaddy of the entire fighting game genre! There are too many reasons to count as to what made 1991’s Street Fighter II the cultural juggernaut that it was. It took everything that first game tried to do and perfected the execution. With its lush pixel visuals, unique characters, and ease of play, it informed an entire generation of games to come.
And although it may have kickstarted some of the industry’s worst tendencies, namely constant iterative re-releasing, its five releases from 1991-1994 at least felt like distinct upgrades. Widely available on every console and whatever local bar acade is in your trendiest neighborhood, it holds up remarkably well. And while its impact alone could give it the top spot — it was the #1 best selling fighting game ever well into the 2010s — subsequent games in the series would build on its foundation to improve (or blow up entirely) what this game had to offer.
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Street Fighter V
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA Although its image has softened with time, 2016’s Street Fighter V had some major issues at launch. The first Street Fighter released in the “modern” era of gaming, it released as a bare bones game intended to be updated with live service features and “season passes.” In today’s world, steeped in Fortnites, that alone might’ve not been issue but for a game whose predecessor reinvigorated the entire fighting game community, it was a tough pill to swallow.
So how is it this high on the list? Well, they fixed it. Over five seasons, Street Fighter V went from a barebones joke to the most robust offering in the series. Visually striking and complex, it remains the one of the biggest games in the FGC and esports community — that is, until Street Fighter 6 comes along.
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Street Fighter III
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA You might’ve thought that this would be #1, and for good reason. Street Fighter III is widely considered the pinnacle of the series mechanically and stylistically and has gone down in history as one of the most intensely competitive games ever made. Initially released in 1997, culminating in its final form 3rd Strike in 1999, III is actually one of the least accessible games in the franchise. Capcom’s first attempt to reboot the franchise, it initially eschewed the entire roster of the series’ beloved characters, before caving for a pittance. Releasing in tandem with the Alpha and EX series, it creates a divided fan base of casual players looking for a good time and coin op kings whose intricate knowledge of hit boxes and parry timing intimidated newcomers.
But in the grand scheme, it’s practically a perfect game. Redesigned to break away from Alpha’s sprites, it has some of the most stunningly fluid pixel work ever made — the kind of 2D design that most modern games could never touch. It’s complex, but never complicated. It helped define the world of esports with a major presence at Evo, which of course, gave us the single greatest moment in competitive gaming history.
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Street Fighter IV
Image Credit: CAPCOM USA If Street Fighter II defined the genre and Street Fighter III defined its community, what could Street Fighter IV possibly bring to the table that would top it all?
Easy. It saved everything.
In 2008, the gaming landscape had changed dramatically from the Nineties heyday. Arcades were functionally dead, with console gaming domination and online play taking hold. People were playing massively multiplayer online RPGs and shooters like Call of Duty. Street Fighter and the fighting genre as a whole, had mostly faded into obscurity, with sales dipping across every major franchise and only dedicated communities pushing to keep the flame alive.
Street Fighter IV changed that. It was a moment. Going back to its roots with gameplay inspired by Street Fighter II, but with an array of new concepts and accessibility features, it was designed to bridge a generational gap. Using beautifully rendered 3D models, but adhering strictly to its 2D plane, it played the way gamers remembered Street Fighter while creating something entirely new. Walking back the an entire genre from the brink, it helped pave the way for a fighting game revival that’s still happening today. SFIV may not have invented the game, but it’s the reason we’re still playing it.