playing most home ports of arcade fighters before the late 90's isn't that fun. before the ps1 and n64 with analog sticks you're probably dealing with a mushy d-pad, systems couldn't match the power of arcade cabs, and you've got better options that were designed for your console in mind. I get the appeal of bringing the fight home to play with friends and without a bunch of quarters, but its just a no-go nowadays. imo this applies to street fighter, mortal kombat, fatal fury, etc.

luckily, I've got an arcade next to me so ive been able to experience a lot of these games that I didn't really like due to their home console controls. and while street fighter 2 on the arcade is pretty much the same as its home versions, it undoubtably feels better to conquer with a proper stick. give it a shot if you have the chance. it won't turn this into an instant classic, but not having to wrestle with the controls is most of the battle.

As someone who's only experience with fighting games is the Smash Bros series, (and a little bit of Mortal Kombat (2011) back when that first came out), I've always felt like I've been missing a big gap in my gaming knowledge base. So I figured, what better game to start filling that gap with than Street Fighter II! Which is why I started with Street Fighter 1. And Street Fighter 1 is just... very bad.

But Street Fighter II is great! Playing through the arcade mode, I felt like I was getting a microcosm of fighting game experiences. I'd get super excited whenever my opponent would bust out some insane special move I'd never seen before, like Chun-Li's spinning kick. Fighting Guile made me face what it's like to fight someone who just sits in the corner and spams projectiles. Fighting E. Honda made me face the reality that sometimes *I* was the guy sitting in the corner spamming projectiles. When facing off against Ken, I felt the thrill of planning what my next move should be and then successfully executing on it all within a split second. And then going up against M. Bison I realized that sometimes pure button mashing might be the only chance at victory.

But what's a fighting game if you're only playing by yourself? I knew I had to try my skills against real life, honest-to-goodness gamers. So I got four of my friends and we had our own tiny tournament. Now only one of them had any real experience with the game prior to this, so I was expecting the whole thing to be a bit of a mess. But it turned out to be insane. At our skill level, this had no business being as exciting as it was. There were constant close calls, several upsets, nearly every match went into game three. A grand finals that, with a bracket reset, lasted for ten whole games. It was glorious. Shoutouts to @SewerGoblin for nearly knocking me out in round one, @BaddaBoomie for causing a serious upset, LavaViper for nearly going all the way, and @Donjitsu for winning the whole thing.

This game is a ton of fun, and I'm excited to keep exploring the genre!

plenty of improvements here, I'm sure playing this with someone would suffice and be more enjoyable but man does the solo experience suck ass. from the get go the CPU picks up difficulty right away and I almost gave up pretty early but then started cheesing the game as E Honda. special fuck you to whoever coded Guile and Vega they were just straight assholes. it's interesting how impactful this game is for the rest of the franchise onwards in regards to the character design and certain character moves. it's pretty obvious why the car bonus stage is very much remembered and referenced compared to the 2 other bonus stages lol. I know there's documentation and guides on how to properly defeat each character but fighting them feels like a massive effort even with the safety net of SF30TH Collection's save states.

A perfect fighting game. There's no fluff, it looks and sounds great, and it's got a nice roster of fighters with their own unique qualities. It's got some combos and abilities to learn, but it's not needlessly complex--just about anyone can pick it up and get decent at it. I'd also call it surprisingly grounded compared to other franchises. And yes, that is saying a lot when one of the characters is a green lightning monster. If you're looking for a barebones, but polished fighting game experience, this is the title for you.