Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II, the sequel to Street Fighter, improved many of the concepts introduced in the first game, such as the use of command-based special moves and the six-button configuration, and offered players a choice of multiple playable characters, each with its own fighting style and special moves. Street Fighter II is considered to have triggered the fighting game boom of the 1990s. Its success led to the production of several updated versions, each of which offered additional features and characters compared to the previous versions, as well as many home versions. Some of the home versions of Street Fighter II games have sold millions of copies. The SNES port of the first Street Fighter II has been Capcom's best-selling game of all time since 2008. Street Fighter II follows some of the conventions and rules established in its 1987 predecessor. The player competes in a series of two out of three fights. The objective of each round is to use up the opponent's life energy before the timer runs out. If both opponents knock each other out at the same time or the timer expires while both fighters have an equal amount of life energy left, a "double KO" or "draw" is declared and more rounds are played to sudden death. In the first Street Fighter II, a fight could last up to ten rounds if there was no clear winner; this was reduced to four rounds starting with the Champion Edition. If there is no clear winner at the end of the last round, either the computer-controlled opponent wins in a single-player match or both fighters lose in a 2-player match. After every third match in single player mode, the player participates in a "bonus match" for additional points. The bonus games include (in this order) a car destruction event, a barrel destruction bonus game where barrels are dropped from a conveyor belt above the player, and a barrel destruction bonus game where barrels are flammable and stacked on top of each other. The bonus games have been removed from the arcade version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Like the original, the game is controlled with a joystick in eight directions and six attack buttons. The joystick allows the player to jump, duck, and move the character towards or away from the opponent, as well as protect the character from enemy attacks. There are three punch and three kick buttons with different strength and speed (Light, Medium and Heavy). The player can perform a variety of basic moves in each position, including grappling and throwing attacks that were not present in the original Street Fighter. As in the original, the player can perform special moves by entering a combination of directional and button commands. Street Fighter II differs from the original by offering a choice of several playable characters, each of which has its own fighting style and special moves. Also, the player can perform a different move during an animation, combining several basic and special moves. These two features will be expanded in later parts.