Street Fighter II: The 1991 video game that packs a punch

Stepping into a video game arcade in the early 1990s, one particular title pulsed through the neon haze: Street Fighter II (SFII). This competitive fighting game from Osaka-based company Capcom debuted in 1991, and drew throngs to its vibrant visuals, distinctive moves and jet-setting playable characters: brooding warrior Ryu (Japan); his tousled buddy/rival Ken (USA); volatile sumo wrestler E Honda (Japan); electrifying Amazonian man-beast Blanka (Brazil); peppy martial artist and Interpol officer Chun-Li (China); fire-breathing yogi Dhalsim (India); combats-clad pilot Guile (USA); and hulking wrestler Zangief (Russia). Its pulse-quickening soundtrack (composed by Yoko Shimomura) cut through any surrounding clamour, and remains instantly evocative decades later.

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Since its original release, SFII has given rise to copious tie-in merch (spanning collectible figures to clothing and cologne), adaptations and updates. It’s also the subject of a new book, Like a Hurricane: An Unofficial Oral History of Street Fighter II, collated by US videogaming writer Matt Leone. In the foreword, SF series commentator James Chen observes that: “SFII wasn’t just a popular video game. It was a cultural phenomenon unlike anything we’d seen since Pac-Man. While games like Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda had massive fanbases, they were still considered kids’ properties… Adults did not take video games seriously. But SFII appealed to everyone.”

Such mass appeal placed SFII coin-op cabinets across everyday settings: at fast-food outlets, shopping malls, video-rental stores, entertainment centres and more. It proved a formative event for countless players of all backgrounds. Leone tells me about an early 90s Californian summer when he spotted a truck delivering a SFII machine, and chased it on his bike to its destination. Seth Killian, a former gaming tournament competitor/commentator who would later become a Capcom senior manager (and have a SFIV boss character named after him), describes discovering SFII at a “hole-in-the-wall” arcade in suburban Illinois.