25 Facts You DIDN'T Know About Street Fighter

25 Facts You Didn’t Know About Street Fighter

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at 25 facts about “Street Fighter” that you may not have known about!

A Real Punch Pad Masher

Today, we all know what a “Street Fighter” cabinet looks like. It’s the same as any other fighting game cabinet with two sets of joysticks with four to six buttons for punching, kicking, and everything. But there was a time where you could play a different iteration of “Street Fighter” using a completely different control scheme. Rather than use standard buttons, some cabinets had players use two big pads that they could punch and mash in order to perform attacks. The pressure applied to the pads would determine whether you performed a light, medium, or low attack. Unsurprisingly, the six-button cabinets proved to be more popular than the punch padded ones.

The Prehistoric Streets

As most die-hard fans know, “Street Fighter” was created by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto. But what’s kind of astonishing is how both individuals have little to do with the franchise after the first game. Shortly after “Street Fighter’s” release, both Nishiyama and Matsumoto would leave Capcom to go work at SNK only to make two more fighting games. Nishiyama would quickly churn out “Fatal Fury” while Matsumoto would create “Art of Fighting”. Eventually, Matsumoto would act as producer for future “Fatal Fury” and “Art of Fighting” titles. As for Nishiyama, he would leave SNK in 2000 to start his own studio called “Dimps”, which you likely know for “Freedom Wars”, “Dragon Ball Xenoverse”, “Soulcalibur VI”, and “Street Fighter X Tekken”.

A Brief [and Regretful] Pivot

For its entire lifespan, “Street Fighter” has been known to be, well, a fighting game series and nothing else. Whenever we’ve gotten a spin-off, it’s usually something like the “Alpha” or “EX” games where it’s “Street Fighter” but with brand new spins. But “Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight” was a completely different kind of game. Ken is now a scientist with cybernetic implants who travels different dimensions in an effort to track down the person who killed his lab partner. No one seems to have an answer as to why this was marketed as a “Street Fighter” game, but it has largely gone ignored and forgotten by the fighting game community.

Happy Accidents

We owe a lot to “Street Fighter II” and the innovations it brought to fighting games as a whole. Without the discovery of executing combos, who knows what the landscape would look like now? But here’s the funny thing: combos were never supposed to be a part of the game. Yes, they are quite actually a bug. In an interview with gaming magazine Edge, producer Noritaka Funamizu came across the combo system when testing the bonus stage for bugs. Said Funamizu, “I taped the sequence and we saw that during the punch timing, it was possible to add a second hit and so on. I thought this was something impossible to make useful inside a game, as the timing balance was so hard to catch. So we decided to leave the feature as a hidden one.”

Fighter Fantasy?

While we’re talking about “Street Fighter II”, there is one other interesting facet to this game that might strike fans of video game soundtracks. Along with Isao Abe, Yoko Shimomura composed the music for “Street Fighter II”, having composed for various Capcom games years prior. Not only would this be the only “Street Fighter” game she ever made music for, it was also the final Capcom game she composed music for as she left to go work at SquareSoft in 1993. Shimomura has since become more widely known for her work in “Kingdom Hearts”, the “Mario & Luigi” games, and “Xenoblade Chronicles”. Shimomura would return to the series with “Street Fighter 6”, but only to contribute one song called “Edge of Triumph”. And yes, it is a hell of a tune.

The Secret of EX

Speaking of music composers jumping ship, Capcom actually managed to snag talent from rival companies for future “Street Fighter” games. One such case occurred during the development of “Street Fighter EX”. For the first 3D entry in the series, Capcom managed to recruit Shinji Hosoe, Takayuki Aihara, and Ayako Sasō to create the music and sound effects. All three composers had recently left Namco and had experience working on games like “Tekken 2”, “Galaxian 3”, “Soul Edge”, and…“Ridge Racer”! So, if “Street Fighter EX’s” sound design felt very Namco-esque, that is why.

Fiercely Fighting Fatigue

When you look at all of the “Street Fighter” games that have been released since 1987, you’ll find that quite a large amount of time had passed between “Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike” and “Street Fighter IV”. Indeed, the decade-long wait was kind of why SFIV was such a big deal. But why did it take so long to get the fourth mainline game? Well, Capcom executives simply believed that fighting games had waned in popularity, part of this notion stemming from the lukewarm performance of “Street Fighter III” and its rereleases. To R&D head Keiji Inafune, there was a serious case of franchise fatigue. In less than a year, “Street Fighter IV” sold more than two and a half million copies. The initial version and its rereleases have since quadrupled that count.

What’s in a Name?

One of the most contentious points in “Street Fighter Alpha’s” development was not in the mechanics or the roster, but the name. When the game was merely a prototype, it was simply dubbed “Street Fighter Classic”. Eventually, it was planned to call the game “Street Fighter Zero” until Capcom’s marketers in its North American offices said the title had a “negative meaning”. Capcom’s North American offices wanted to call it “Street Fighter Legends”. Ultimately, they all settled on “Street Fighter Alpha” to signify “a new beginning” for the series.

Blowing Through Budgets!

Movie budgets can be a migraine and a half, especially when you’re dealing with big names in Hollywood. That’s kind of what went wrong with the 1994 adaptation of “Street Fighter”. Capcom only forked over a measly budget of thirty-five million dollars, yet blew almost all of the budget on simply casting Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia as Guile and M. Bison respectively. Eight million was spent on just Van Damme! Julia’s payment has yet to be determined. Regardless, the rest of the budget had to be put towards significantly lesser-known actors and cheap as hell sets. The movie wound up making a little under a hundred million bucks at the box office.

The Many Movies of “Street Fighter”

What some of you may not know is that there are more “Street Fighter” movies than just the 1994 adaptation. Some are solid movies while others…not so much. We’ll never forget the travesty that was 2009’s “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li”. However, we’ll also never forget how awesome the 1994’s “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” was, and the same thing can be said about the OVAs based on “Street Fighter Alpha” and “Street Fighter IV”. But if you really want a live-action adaptation, the TV series “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist” isn’t perfect, but it’s decent enough for just about any fan to appreciate it.

Saturn Secrecy

Some may not consider “X-Men vs. Street Fighter” to be a “Street Fighter” game exactly, but it's still dealing with the cast, so we’re counting it for this list. Regardless, did you know that there was supposed to be a better console port for this game? Yes, there was supposed to be a SEGA Saturn port of “X-Men vs. Street Fighter”, but by the time development had begun, Western retailers had already started phasing the Saturn out due to poor sales. The port was only ever released in Japan, which caused some “fans” to accuse Capcom of playing favorites with platforms. Capcom responded by giving us Westerners a PS1 port…two years later.

The Hackneyed PS1 Versions

Ideally, the PS1 versions should be fairly decent ports, but “X-Men vs. Street Fighter” and “Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter” wound up being super botched versions of their arcade cabinets. If you have played either, you’ll be familiar with their 2v2 format and how you can call in assists and switch between your two fighters. However, the PS1 ports removed this feature due to the technical limitations of the console. Frame data is also inconsistent as several characters had frames removed in order to save on RAM usage. As a result, these ports have gone down as a couple of the worst fighting game ports ever made.

A Hadouken to the Nintendo 64

During “Street Fighter III” and “EX’s” lifespan, rumors began circulating that Capcom was planning to bring the games to console, particularly the Nintendo 64. Several gaming outlets, including IGN, saw these ports running on hardware during preview cycles, too. So, the builds do exist, but they were ultimately canned. The reason for this was due to the N64’s poor specs; the console simply could not run either game at a decent pace even with the 64DD attachment. It wasn’t until the Dreamcast launched when SF3 made its console debut, and it only did so on that platform. “Street Fighter EX” would only get ported to the PS1.

Shooting for Esports

Today, we give Capcom props for bringing “Street Fighter V” around. For the longest time, SFV was a game scorned by just about everyone with its lean content, awful story, and reliance on online play. Those are the main beats folks remember from the vanilla version, but there was a brief period where Capcom got more egregious in the monetization. We complain about paying to watch SF6 tournaments now, but remember when Capcom tried getting us to wear branded cosmetics in 2018? Yes, if you went online with, say, Ryu and kept in-game ads on, you’d load into matches with Ryu decked out in logos and brands on his outfit. What did you get for doing this? A bigger payout in Fight Money. Thankfully, it never caught on, but the feature is still present in SFV at the time of this video.

The Weirdest of Flashbacks

“Street Fighter IV” has seen a couple of reiterations that were just as good as the others, but would you believe we almost got a version that would have gone bigger? At one point, Capcom was working on a version called “Street Fighter IV Flashback” that aimed to replicate SFIV’s feel while incorporating elements of “Street Fighter II” in speed. But the most interesting part of this canceled iteration is the single-player portion. There would have been a whole campaign revolving around Ryu and would have played similarly to “God of War”. Why this version was canned is anyone’s guess, but some ideas, such as the new control scheme that was planned, would be reused for “Tatsunoko vs. Capcom All-Stars”.

Third Strike’s the Charm?

“Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike” has had a really bizarre history in terms of popularity. When the game first launched in 1999, folks were rather lukewarm to it. Sure, reviews praised it fairly, but this was when players were really getting tired of Capcom milking the crap out of the IP with new sequels and new versions of those sequels and sequels to those revisions of those sequels. It wasn’t until console ports started popping up when the game started gaining more attention. Even streamers such as Maximilian Dood helped get the game more and more recognition. Now, it’s widely regarded as one of the best fighting games ever made, right next to “Street Fighter II”.

A Poor Choice of Two-Dimensional Words

Looking at the past couple of decades, it’s hard to imagine “Street Fighter” ever going back to 2D visuals. An odd thing to say, but once upon a time, Capcom never imagined the series would ever make the transition to 3D. As 3D gaming became more prominent in the 90’s, gaming outlets and investors were trying to pressure Capcom to bring “Street Fighter” to the third dimension. Producer Noritaka Funamizu infamously stated in 1997, “We feel that 3D is not really suitable for head-to-head fighting ... and, to be frank, Capcom doesn't really have the techniques to display high quality graphics in 3D." The company would release “EX 2” a year later and “EX 3” two years after that.

Plan E for V

During its run, “Street Fighter V” saw quite a number of characters get added to the roster over the course of several years. Five whole seasons in total tacked on thirty new characters! However, that was not the original plan. Capcom was planning to launch a new “Street Fighter” relatively early in the 2020s. Just one problem - we got hit with a pandemic in 2020! This drastically affected SF6’s development time, and the team needed to figure out a way to pivot for more revenue. And so, SFV got a fifth and final season that added Akira from “Rival Schools” and a number of old favorites from previous games with Luke’s debut setting up his role for SF6.

A Hidden Delay?

So, we just mentioned something about “Street Fighter 6” having been delayed? Yeah, but there’s a bit of an asterisk to that. At the time of its delay, Capcom hadn’t even announced or revealed “Street Fighter 6”. The only reason anyone knows of the game’s delay is because of word of mouth within the FGC. When SF6 was supposed to launch originally is anyone’s guess, but it’s no question that video game companies like Capcom were completely disrupted when the pandemic began. There was a lot of uncertainty as to when this game or that game would launch, which likely caused the company to remain tight-lipped until they knew for sure that development was coming to a close relatively soon.

A Moment of Nostalgia

To this day, “Street Fighter X Tekken” is one of the most notorious fighting games ever made. Regardless of how well the game plays, you don’t have to go far to find someone bringing up the on-disc DLC or the monetization around the gem system. But what most folks seem to forget is that this crossover was initially a bigger deal when it was first announced. For the longest time, Capcom and Namco did view each other as rivals, and fighting game fans usually divided themselves with “are you with ‘Tekken’ or ‘Street Fighter’?” So, when the two companies announced this joint venture, it came as a pleasant shock to many of us.

Balance or Chaos

We all complain about how certain games aren’t “balanced properly”, but there’s been a growing acceptance that games can be fun the more unbalanced they are…sometimes. When games do get balanced to a meticulous degree, games become rather stale. Capcom saw this response firsthand way back when they launched “Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter”. The staff did their best to make every fight feel as fair as possible, but player feedback told them this was not what they had wanted. Fans were pretty vocal about how they loved the chaos of “X-Men vs. Street Fighter” as MvSF suddenly restricted players from potentially ridiculous combos. Capcom would make note of this for future titles.

A Humble Origin

Shortly after the contentious launch of “Street Fighter X Tekken”, we saw Ryu and the other World Warriors crossover with another notable IP: Capcom’s own Blue Bomber, “Mega Man”. “Street Fighter X Mega Man” was a 2D platformer in the same vein as the classic “Mega Man” games, but with the twist of using “Street Fighter” characters as bosses in lieu of the usual Robot Masters. But this crossover was never in the cards for Capcom had it not been for one random email. The game had started as a simple fan game developed by Seow Zong Hui. Hui had met with Capcom Senior VP of consumer software Christian Svensson at EVO 2012 and showed him the game. Svensson then showed the game to Capcom’s higher-ups. Not only were they amused by the game, they even offered to provide funding, marketing, and even QA testing. “Street Fighter X Mega Man” saw decent reviews, but it remains to be only available on PC.

Shaping the World, One Shoryuken At A Time

To say “Street Fighter” has had some influence on the world of entertainment is a bit of an understatement. See, the reach this franchise has had doesn’t stop at video games or schlocky video game adaptations - it actually bleeds into the world of sports, too. Over the years, UFC promoters have cited “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Kombat” as peripheral influences to the creation of mixed martial arts as a sport and a reason for why UFC was formed. Some of the fighters like kickboxing legend Uriah Hall, have even leaned into this and referenced the game when winning fights.

The First Guest Fighter

When Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui was added to “Street Fighter 6”, we noticed a lot of outlets and social media influencers incorrectly label her as “the first guest fighter” in the series. Like…it was A LOT of outlets and influencers to an almost absurd degree. Though “Rival Schools” is a part of the “Street Fighter” story because of Sakura, Akira was technically a guest fighter in SFV. Before that, we had “Street Fighter X Tekken”, which was a “Street Fighter” game that used “Tekken” characters. Not only that, but Pac-Man, Mega Man, Toro, Kuro, and Cole MacGrath were all guest characters from Namco, Capcom, and PlayStation. But we can go back even further than that. Did everyone just forget about Poison being a “Final Fight” character before appearing in “Street Fighter Alpha 2” and becoming playable in “Ultra Street Fighter IV”? And people say that I don’t do my research.

Quarter-Circle M1?

While we all play fighting games with controllers and fight sticks, there was a very brief period where you could play a “Street Fighter” game using nothing more than a computer mouse. In 2008, one of Capcom’s subsidiaries, Daletto, released a new “Street Fighter” game that was played entirely with a mouse, titled “Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation”. Along with Ryu, Chun Li, and Ken, players could fight as Batsu or Akira from “Rival Schools”, various characters from “Cyborg 009”, and even then-United States President Barack Obama. The game was only released in Japan, and almost no one was impressed by this brief outing. Don’t bother trying to play it yourself - “Street Fighter Online” was discontinued ages ago.

Was there a “Street Fighter” factoid that surprised you? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays.