Happy Birthday Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior is twenty years old this month. To celebrate, here's Santora2007 thugging his way through story mode with series posterchild Ryu. Looking back at the original arcade issue, it's interesting to note how the Boss characters were kept secret, only being revealed to the player after a certain amount of victories. There's also extra background detailing that got phased out of subsequent installments, and special moves deliver absolutely devastating amounts of damage.

Street Fighter II kickstarted a global fighting game obsession, geared towards head-to-head competitive play. The arcade industry had slumped in competition to home consoles in the 1980s, Street Fighter II's success allowed a coin-op resurgence that spawned the likes of Mortal Kombat, SNK's yearly King of Fighters installments, and Sega's Virtua Fighter series. To this day, fighting games and competitive play remain constants in the arcade scene. Series creators Capcom continue to tinker with the formula, their most recent iterations including a 3D home console version, and a new Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.