From arcade sensations to esports staples, and a little JCVD in between, here are our picks for the contenders to the fighting game franchise crown
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.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 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 live streaming platforms like Twitch.In 2023, the latest entry of the franchise arrived with Street Fighter 6, reimagining the series for a new era and drawing renewed interest through top billing at tournament events like Evo. To celebrate its second anniversary, we’re taking a trip back through time to definitively rank each of the previous mainline games in the series, not including crossovers (sorry, Marvel vs.