Happy 25th Birthday Street Fighter

Street Fighter, or SF, made its debut on August of 1987, and the rest they say is history. Starting out as an arcade game, then Capcom started importing it onto the NES, then to the 2nd and 3rd console generations like the Playstation, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, then onto the 3rd generation like the PS3 and Xbox.

You remember this guy, right?

My first interaction with Street Fighter was at one of our local arcades near my school, I think I was around 9 or 10 years old then. I'd head there after class just to hang out and buy toys like most kids my age that time do. And then, right then and there, I saw this cool fighter arcade game where a lot of kids were so busy lining up to just to get to have a crack at it; Street Fighter II (although at times there was just one badass player hogging all the glory, and playing time).

Getting to know the original characters like Ryu and Ken, Chun-Li and Cammy, and Guile from the bottom of my heart was really fun. With the Hadokens and the Shoryukens, I'd just button mash myself to death but never really reaching the final boss M. Bison. Then boom! In comes secret character Akuma (geekasm). The epitome of badassery was never the same again (hello air fireballs?!).

Messatsu!!

By the time I reached high school, Capcom and the Street Fighter franchise did something crazy, innovative and awesome at that time; vs collaborations with Marvel. And boy did it really set the bar for fighting games even higher. X-Men Children of the Atom, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom; these games just kept us hooked both at the arcade and on our PS1 consoles at home. Yeah we were that addicted to it.

Come present time, 2012. A lot of Street Fighter games have been released, new characters have emerged, friendships developed, tournaments and skirmishes won and lost, and despite all that I'm still having a blast and enjoying this amazing franchise.

Cherry blossoms :)

Cheers to Street Fighter for 25 wonderful years of awesome fighting game memories. Thank you to Capcom for developing such a wonderful franchise and keeping it alive and kicking after all these years. For me, this is truly a masterpiece that no gamer should miss. Thanks for the memories!

As a treat to their fans, Capcom Unity made some cool SF avatars.
You can also follow Capcom Unity on Twitter.

My PSN ID is NinjaKabute. You can also follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates on my blog, PS3 news, manga, the NBA, photography, or just my gaming experience cramped up in 140 characters.