Street Fighter (video game)

Street Fighter is a series of popular video games developed by a Japanese video game company called Capcom. The first title in the series, released in 1987, was only a modest success, but its sensational sequel turned the series into a multimedia franchise. Widely hailed as the grandfather of fighting games, Street Fighter II pits martial artists of different nationalities and fighting styles against each other in hand-to-hand combat. The bouts are mano-a-mano, and the competitive nature of the game drew millions of enthusiasts to test their hand-eye coordination against others at video game arcades, where players input secret button combinations to execute powerful "special moves." Clever programming by the game's developers enabled button combinations that were unprecedented in number and complexity, cementing Street Fighter II's status as a standard fixture in arcades around the world. The popularity of arcades began waning in the late 1990s and Street Fighter entered a long period of decline, but the series experienced renewed interest and sales with the release of a well-received fourth installment in 2008.