Every Street Fighter Game, Ranked (Best to Worst) - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

Street Fighter has seen a ton of improvements over the years but which title in the franchise is considered the best?

Capcom’s Street Fighter franchise is perhaps the most famous video game series. It began in 1987 with the original Street Fighter (also called Fighting Street) and has since grown to the point of success that many thought impossible for a video game franchise. The series has branched to multiple forms of media: animated television shows, live-action movies, and live international tournaments, to name a few.

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There are so many Street Fighter titles that it is easy to forget some, so here is a list of the best Street Fighter titles. Likely, you won’t agree with where we placed some of these titles on the list. But, hopefully, we’ll encourage you to revisit a Street Fighter game that you’ve written off.

Updated April 19, 2022, by Christopher Sanfilippo: As Street Fighter celebrates its thirty-fifth anniversary, we’ve decided to re-examine the series’ various iterations. In particular, we visited some of Street Fighter 2’s most recent ports. For instance, Hyper Street Fighter 2 celebrated franchise history by allowing players to choose variations of their favorite fighters throughout the SF2 series. The latest launch, Ultra Street Fighter 2, is the most feature-rich, introducing new characters and modes.

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Street Fighter

The original Street Fighter, launched in 1987, was revolutionary. It began the fighting game genre and secured Capcom as the king of the genre. Of course, there were one-on-one fighting games before Street Fighter, like Yie Ar Kung-Fu and Karate Champ, but Capcom introduced special moves to the mix. This game also gave us the dragon punch and Hadouken.

The controls were a little stiff, and the voice samples were comically incomprehensible, but the game gave people something relatively new in video games – direct competition with another player.

Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game

Honestly, there’s not much to say about Street Fighter: The Movie that others haven’t said before. It was a disaster, period. Though Capcom had helped fund the movie, it was money in the hole. It also didn’t seem like the screenwriters had done enough research. Just take one look at Blanka, and you’ll understand.

A year later, Capcom launched a game based on the film, with a photographic art style similar to the Mortal Kombat games of the era. To its credit, it is functional and fun, but it’s nothing special. Like the movie, it is incredibly shallow (but unintentionally hilarious).

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight

It’s a bit of a stretch to call this a Street Fighter game, but that’s precisely the message that the English localization conveyed. The player is supposed to believe that Ken, after the events of every mainline game, went to space to slay his friend’s murderer. In the unbelievable events that follow, Ken uses his cybernetic powers in an attempt to save the world.

The funniest thing about this game is that not even the critics bought it. They could see right through the veneer: this shouldn’t have been labeled Street Fighter. Yet, the game still bears this inaccurate title on both the 3DS and Wii U Virtual Console.

Street Fighter X Mega Man

Around the time of the Mega Man revival in 2009, a team of fans started creating a game that re-imagined each boss as Street Fighter characters — preferably ones with strong personalities. Capcom gave the game funding to tie in with Street Fighter and Mega Man’s 25th anniversary.

The stages play out like a regular Mega Man game, and they even include perfectly placed references to each series. In addition, the bosses all have a super gauge that will activate their special attack if you hit them enough. This game is truly a labor of love honoring two of Capcom’s most significant franchises.

Street Fighter EX Series

The EX series, beginning in 1996, was Capcom’s attempt at bringing the Street Fighter franchise to the 3D world. Unfortunately, the hardware at the time was not ready for this. The games did not look refined, and the control was slightly off. Instead, this series became more of a novelty than anything else.

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Capcom improved on the series with EX2 in 1998 and EX3 in 2000 by bringing back custom combos and increasing the roster of available fighters. Despite these improvements, the series was never taken seriously by fans.

Rival Schools

If you’ve ever played collegiate or youth sports, you know that the competitive aspect is essential. Rival Schools takes place in the Street Fighter universe, where several schools investigate missing people cases. Hurling accusations, each school blames the other; therefore, they fight over it. Eventually, the story reveals that the principal of one of the schools had been behind it all along. Rival Schools plays similarly to EX but includes a unique team fighting system.

When it comes to the game’s roster, you’ll recognize Sakura Kasugano, who got added to bolster its sales. Furthermore, a recent Street Fighter 5 entry, Akira Kazama, was also introduced in this game.

Street Fighter Alpha

Capcom began the Alpha series in 1995, and the series was a prequel to Street Fighter II. The game introduced characters into the franchise from Final Fight, like Guy and Sodom. It also brought back characters from the first Street Fighter, like Birdie and Adon.

Gamers welcomed the game for breathing new life into the franchise. Alpha introduced a new anime-inspired art style that would influence the series for years to come. In addition, this was the first Street Fighter game to include the three-tiered Super Combo system, a feature that has been in every title of the franchise since.

Street Fighter 5

When this title first launched in 2016, fans of the series were not happy (to say the least). Capcom removed the single-player arcade mode but promised to update the game and include it later. They really should have delayed the game until that feature was ready to be included.

This title is a PlayStation 4 exclusive, except in Japan, where it also launched as an arcade cabinet. Additionally, Street Fighter 5 got panned for its small roster of characters and lack of third-party controller support. Criticism aside, this title looked fantastic, and the controls were excellent.

Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition

Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition received a warm welcome from fans. The game looked great, and the controls were perfect. Unfortunately, this title suffered from significant balance issues. The computer-controlled opponents become very cheap after a few bouts.

The game does “that thing” in some fighting games where the AI opponent immaculately counters your attack in a way no human opponent can. Many controllers were probably thrown against the floor in frustration because of this title.

Street Fighter 2

Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior took the franchise to the next level and made fighting games widespread. There were so many copycats of this game that it would take forever to name them all. But, no matter where you saw this game, be it an arcade or gas station, there was a crowd of people around it waiting for their turn.

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The game was slightly unbalanced, though. Guile’s attacks were too strong, and more characters needed a projectile or a counter for projectiles. Many gamers don’t know that Capcom was originally going to make Chun Li’s health bar shorter than the other characters (Because of misogyny). Still, fortunately, they came to their senses and decided against that.

Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition

SF2: Champion Edition was similar to the original. However, the four bosses from the previous version were made playable in this title. The game was also more balanced, much to the chagrin of those who mainly chose Guile.

The inclusion of the bosses as playable characters injected new life into the title, but the bosses were also very over-powered – especially M. Bison. This game was also the first Street Fighter title in which two players could choose the same character.

Street Fighter Alpha 2

Street Fighter Alpha 2, released in 1996, expanded on the first Alpha title by adding four new playable characters (two are from Street Fighter 2), new stages, and new music tracks. Furthermore, this title introduced Sakura and Rolento to the series.

With its strong roster, improved visuals, and tight controls, Alpha 2 is a fan favorite among many gamers. Get the special Gold edition if you’ve never played Alpha 2 and want to try it. This game is considered the definitive version of Alpha 2.

Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo

In Super Puzzle Fighter 2: Turbo, a mélange of Darkstalkers characters and Street Fighter favorites throw hands under different circumstances. Puzzle Fighter combined the conventions of competitive puzzle games, like Puzzle Bobble, with traditional fighting game mechanics. In turn, this game was a unique experience.

Super Puzzle Fighter 2: Turbo remains a cult classic in the gaming world. For instance, the title received an HD Remix version for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Furthermore, Puzzle Fighter launched a short-lived sequel for mobile devices in 2017. We’ll see SPF2 Turbo launch again in Capcom’s upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection.

Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition

In light of Street Fighter’s thirty-fifth anniversary, the passing of a fifteenth anniversary pales in comparison. However, this landmark was a huge deal back in 2003. As a result, Capcom developed a unique version of Street Fighter 2 to commemorate the occasion. The resulting title was Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition.

Not to be confused with Street Fighter 2′ Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Hyper SF2 is a bold port of the game that allows players to choose any version of Street Fighter 2’s characters throughout the series. In other words, it is possible to face the Champion Edition of Chun-li against the Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo version of Cammy, etc. Each character variation sports the same move set, animation, voice acting, and character portrait from their respective game.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo was the final version of Street Fighter 2 launched in the nineties. It included all the original characters, the four bosses from the original, four all-new playable characters, and the secret boss Akuma. These additions increased the number of playable characters to seventeen. Many of these additions have become fan favorites.

Game mechanics also changed for Super SF2 Turbo. In addition, players had the option of choosing a turbo mode; this sped up the gameplay and made matches much more intense. This version also allowed up to four arcade cabinets to be linked for tournaments.

Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers

Finding a place for Ultra Street Fighter 2 on this list was tricky. Is it the definitive version of Street Fighter 2? Not exactly. However, it is the most feature-rich and certainly stands on its own against Super Turbo. This game is a Nintendo Switch exclusive launched in 2017. It essentially updated Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo: HD Remix with a few extra bells and whistles.

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Ultra Street Fighter 2 took plenty of risks. For instance, the game includes a Buddy Battle mode that facilitates local co-op battles against series bosses. Another neat, albeit subpar, feature is the Way Of The Hado mode, a 3D action mode that uses joy-con gyroscope controls to replicate Ryu’s special moves. Still, like its predecessors, Ultra SF2 plays best in a single-player arcade campaign or against a friend.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

When Capcom launched the third Alpha title in 1998, it had twenty-eight playable characters in the arcade. The home ports of Alpha 3 boasted a roster of 32 playable characters. As a result, alpha 3 is one of the most balanced Street Fighter games regarding the characters’ strength and gameplay.

The graphics and animation were about as good as 2D fighters get. The player control in Alpha 3 was also just about perfect. This title also allowed players to choose different fighting styles for each character.

Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition

Capcom heard the fans’ complaints about the initial release of Street Fighter 5 and addressed those problems when they released the Arcade Edition in 2018. There is now a single-player campaign mode, filling in the absence of the previous version. In addition, all the characters that were only available via DLC in the previous version are available in Arcade Edition.

This game gets heavily criticized for including advertisements during load screens. Why Capcom thought this would be a good idea is still a mystery. However, even with these flaws, which don’t affect gameplay, this is still one of the best fighting games ever made.

Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike

Third Strike was the last version of Street Fighter 3, launched in 1999. Capcom had finally moved on from Street Fighter 2 and gave gamers what they had been waiting almost a decade for – a true sequel that gave us new characters. The roster of available characters is varied and well-balanced in Third Strike. The graphics, animation, and control are all excellent.

The sound quality in Third Strike is next level, though (or was twenty years ago anyway). The sound assaults the player, but in a good way that gets you pumped to play. Don’t bother with any other version if you want to play Street Fighter 3.

Ultra Street Fighter 4

Ultra SF4 is the definitive version of Street Fighter 4 and the best of the Street Fighter Franchise – which puts it near the top of the list of best fighting games ever made. This version balanced the gameplay to an optimal level. Gone is the cheating by the computer-controlled players (see the Arcade Edition entry).

Capcom added five new players, including an all-new character – Decapre. Ultra Street Fighter 4 also holds the distinct title of the last Street Fighter game launched in North American arcades. Every aspect of this game is near perfect, from the graphics to the control. Many thought Capcom would never top Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike, but Ultra Street Fighter 4 proved them wrong.

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