Street Fighter II - Capcom

Developer:  Capcom

Year:  1991

Genre:  Fighting

Production:  200,000

Game Play

Street Fighter II follows several conventions and rules established by its 1987 predecessor Street Fighter. The player engages opponents in a series of timed one-on-one, close-quarters combat matches. In order to win a round, the player must either completely drain the opponent's health bar by landing attacks, or have more health left than the opponent when the timer runs out. Neither fighter wins the round if they have equal health when time expires or if they simultaneously knock each other out. The first fighter to win two rounds is declared the victor of the match.

While a single-player game is in progress, a second player may join at any time, immediately starting a head-to-head match. The winner continues the game in single-player mode.

The original Street Fighter II allowed up to 10 rounds per match; this maximum is reduced to four rounds starting with Champion Edition. If there is no clear winner by the end of the final round, either the computer-controlled opponent will win by default in a single-player match or both fighters will lose in a two-player match. After every third match in the single-player mode, a bonus stage gives a chance to earn additional points by smashing a car, wooden barrels, or metal oil drums. After each match, the location for the next one is selected on a world map.

Playing Street Fighter II on an arcade machine

Like in Street Fighter, the controls are an eight-directional joystick and six attack buttons. The joystick can jump, crouch, walk left and right, and block. A tradeoff of strength and speed are given by three punch buttons and three kick buttons, each of light, medium, and heavy. The player can perform a variety of basic moves in any position, including new grabbing and throwing attacks. Special moves are performed by combinations of directional and button-based commands.

Street Fighter II differs from its predecessor due to the selection of multiple playable characters, each with distinct fighting styles and special moves including combos. According to IGN, "the concept of combinations, linked attacks that can't be blocked when they're timed correctly, came about more or less by accident. Street Fighter II's designers didn't quite mean for it to happen, but players of the original game eventually found out that certain moves naturally flowed into other ones." This combo system was later adopted as a standard feature of fighting games and was expanded upon in this series.