Everyone has seen the legendary Hadoken from Street Fighter. Even though it has become prettier over the years, it has hardly changed. While other games are criticized for lacking revolution, for Street Fighter, that is its greatest strength.
When I first entered the massive world of Street Fighter on the Xbox 360, I was captivated by a fascination that has not left me until today. I dove into the fourth installment and set a goal that would drive me from then on: I wanted to master the Hadoken, Ryu’s signature move. What initially seemed like an insurmountable hurdle turned out to be a triumphant experience after countless attempts.
Since then, the Hadoken has accompanied me in all the Street Fighter installments I have played over the years. It is more than just a special move – it is a reminder of my beginnings, of the time I invested, and of the moment of victory that came at the end of every effort.
Even though it is the simplest move in the game, the Hadoken has become my constant companion. It symbolizes for me a series that has changed over 34 years, yet remains fundamentally the same.
It all started with Street Fighter 2, which remains a legacy to this day. A legacy that has not only shaped entire generations of fighting games but has also deeply embedded itself into pop culture.
Junya Christopher Motomura, a designer at Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball FighterZ), said about the game: Street Fighter II was the game that ignited my imagination and passion for game development (Source: gamedeveloper.com).
Michael Murray, a game designer in the Tekken Project
team, has only positive things to say about it:
Street Fighter really established the VS fighting genre. Mastery of complex inputs leading to rewarding animations/attacks in the game, characters with unique abilities each from different places around the world, stages with visual themes and music tailored to specific characters and based on certain locations – all of these are elements that became standard in subsequent games.
Source: gamedeveloper.com
Combos, movement, and the eccentric characters laid the groundwork for series like Tekken, Mortal Kombat, and Guilty Gear. However, if you compare Street Fighter 2 with Street Fighter 6, released 32 years later, you will see: Not much has really changed. But even if that seems odd, it is precisely that which is the greatest strength of the game.
The Mechanical Constancy – Why the Gameplay is Still Good
The mechanics of Street Fighter 2 were good then and still are today. In 1991, Street Fighter 2 established not only characters that we still know but also control conventions that have remained unchanged. Ryu’s iconic Hadoken was performed in 1991 with the combo Quarter Circle Punch
and it is still the same today. The same goes for the other characters.
These control conventions belong not only to the old characters but are also used for new fighters with new moves. Thus, the control established back then is as much a part of the genre as the legendary fighters Chun-Li or Ryu. Anyone who could perform the Hadoken in 1991 can do it today.
The gameplay remains the same despite improving graphics and more powerful technology. Street Fighter has always been about accurately judging distance, noticing the opponent’s weaknesses, and striking at the right moment.
Appropriately, the basic controls on paper are quite simple and intuitive. With the stick or the D-pad, you move left and right, crouch, and jump, and the other 6 buttons are 3 kicks and 3 punches. Anyone who sees Street Fighter for the first time understands the gameplay. The other player’s life must be brought down to 0, and the buttons perform attacks.
Street Fighter is easy to learn, extremely hard to master.
The 6th installment is, broken down to its core mechanics, the same game as its 34-year-old predecessor, just prettier. But that is a significant advantage.
The Human Constancy – The Importance of Characters as an Emotional Anchor
Isn’t that a point of criticism? One might think that the lack of evolution is a major point of criticism, but that is the greatest strength of Street Fighter. Especially when viewed beyond pure mechanics. Fighting games do not have classic storytelling. There are story modes and small snippets in arcade modes, but the comparatively extreme absurd story is never in the foreground.
The visual design of fighters is the most important clue for players. They should not only look cool but also give hints about what kind of fighter they might be. This is important for the character selection screen before a fight, so players have a reason to choose a fighter even without prior knowledge.
The animations in battle represent the personality of the fighter. Even if Akuma and Ryu have similar moves, the aggressive animation of Akuma shows that he is more brutal.
Because of simple peculiarities, many players choose a character they not only see as their main fighter in one game but also in future installments of the series. You spend countless hours with characters that might even accompany you for a lifetime.
The return of a character can lead to an emotional reaction because you want to see how the character is faring these days. This is evident in the reveal of new characters in Season 3 of Street Fighter 6:
The Evolution in Detail – How Street Fighter Evolves Anyway
The gameplay of Street Fighter does not need to be revolutionized, but rethought. Even if the basic mechanics and ideas do not change, Street Fighter must still create variety so that the individual games remain special.
Unlike series like Resident Evil or Final Fantasy, which regularly turn gameplay and even the genre upside down, Street Fighter needs to contextualize the known and established mechanics anew. This makes the series shine in two aspects.
The first aspect relates to gameplay. New gimmicks like V-Triggers, perfect counters, or Focus Attacks are not mechanics that remain forever, but they bring freshness to the game, sometimes more positively received than others. The well-known fighters and their mechanics remain, but with new gimmicks, they can be interpreted differently.
This also inspires the veterans of the series and their creativity. A new stage emerges with new circumstances that the well-known fighters must adapt to. Additionally, new fighters change dynamics and give individual titles their own tone.
The second aspect is presentation. The fighters are the heart of every fighting game and they cannot remain visually stagnant either. The various Street Fighter installments also try to distinguish themselves within their atmosphere. New costumes and a different soundtrack are enough.
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike musically and visually draws from jazz, creating a different flow than, for example, Street Fighter 6, which is heavily influenced by hip-hop and streetwear. Thus, each title has its own personality, even if the fundamental gameplay principle is like before.
Many fighting games rarely revolutionize themselves, but why should they? The gameplay is so refined that one can focus on audiovisual aspects like characters, atmosphere, or graphics.
Certain elements of Street Fighter become iconic because they experiment with the refined mechanics without fundamentally changing them. Players develop an emotional bond with characters whose stories they do not even know because they can focus on them.
Street Fighter is not just a game, but a cultural heritage, a tradition that continually reinvents itself without forgetting its origins. Street Fighter is like Tetris. Sometimes in a new guise or with new gimmicks, Tetris remains Tetris. And the Hadoken has remained a Hadoken for over 30 years. A popular fighting game on Steam gets a skin that probably no one expected: “Now I can play as her without looking like a fool”
