Street Fighter 2 turns 30 and some never stopped playing

Street Fighter 2, one of the most important fighting games – and video games of all time, is now 30 years old. On February 6, three decades have passed since Ryu and company arrived at the arcades, and the fighter’s classic gameplay has spawned countless impersonators.

In a post on its Twitter page, Capcom celebrated the game’s 30th anniversary with a brief game clip. Street Fighter 2 was much more successful than its predecessor, which was a very limited game that featured only two playable characters: Ryu and Ken. Both played basically the same way.

After the initial success of Street Fighter 2, Capcom ported the game to several different systems and released sequences that added new features and characters. Among them were Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. On the Switch, Ultra Street Fighter II also gives players the choice of a new or classic art style, working on classic mechanics in a game that looks like it could have been released today.

Of course, the Street Fighter series continued well after the many versions of the second game. Street Fighter 3, Street Fighter 4, Street Fighter 5 and Street Fighter Alpha were successful on their own merits, but Street Fighter 2 will probably always be the biggest game in the series. It even has its own home arcade cabinet Arcade1Up, and an updated version announced last month will feature art as the original case. Along with several versions of the game, it includes classic Capcom arcade games like Darkstalkers and Strider.