Street Fighter 6 is more than two years old. It is venerably a huge hit for Capcom. The game has sold more than five million copies as of June of this year. That’s an insane amount, especially when you consider its predecessor, Street Fighter V, took four years, around twice as long, to hit those sales numbers.
As the Street Fighter series has gone on for decades, I think it would be fun to look back at the evolution of the franchise and see how well they all stack up against each other.
Now, as there are a lot of games, I will have to impose a few guidelines as, if I didn’t, this ranking list would be incredibly long. After all, although it’s slapped with the number “6” on it, Street Fighter 6 isn’t the 6th game of the franchise. First off, I’ll only be looking at the mainline entries. So, I won’t be including the Street Fighter EX games or the Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game version. This also means spinoffs like X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Street Fighter X Tekken won’t show up either.
Second, I will be lumping in the “mini-sequels” in with each other and grading them as a whole. So, when I mention Street Fighter III for example, that’ll include New Generation, 2nd Impact – Giant Attack and 3rd Strike. This also means I’ll have to rate these on how each game left their mark, both good and bad. Unofficial mods like Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition and Street Fighter One: Remake are also going to be excluded. Third, I’ll also be looking at how well they played when they were released based on my memory. A game like the original Street Fighter II may feel slow today. But back then, the speed was more than acceptable.
Even with all the exceptions and bunching together, we have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s go start!
This goes to show the first isn’t always the best… or even good.
I have a distinct memory of when, during Street Fighter II’s peak, some people thought the name was a joke. Why? Because they’ve never heard of Street Fighter 1! Honestly, that seems to be for good reason because, if you did play Street Fighter 1 when it was released, it still played terribly! I don’t think many people would’ve given Street Fighter II a chance if they played Street Fighter 1. It’s that bad!
It’s not even how completing special moves would only happen once every 34 attempts. Both Ryu and Ken‘s (the only two playable fighters) normals didn’t feel useful as they didn’t do enough damage while the CPU opponent would pummel you with specials consistently. I don’t think anyone should play this other than the novelty of seeing how lucky we are Capcom got their act together in Street Fighter II.
#6 Street Fighter V
It’s not a bad game… now. But when it came out initially? Woof!
People had high hopes for Street Fighter V. It was coming off the heels of Street Fighter IV, the game that revived the franchise and the fighting game genre. To be fair, the gameplay when it came out was more than decent. There were some cool changes, like the V-System and all that. The initial roster was also… okay as it had fan favorites like Chun-Li and Charlie Nash. But there’s a reason why it took a while before Street Fighter V sold 5 million copies. That’s because the original version sucked!
To say Street Fighter V was a barebones game would be being very generous. I mean, it didn’t even have an arcade ladder at the start! The graphics were also pretty ugly, with fans memeing Ken’s “banana hair” and all the clipping through the character models. While Capcom really couldn’t do anything about the graphics for the original characters, future DLC characters like Menat looked much better. They also kept adding content to it, eventually making it the feature-rich game it is when it ended. Still, because of its awful start, I have to set Street Fighter V as the second-to-the-worst entry of the franchise.
#5 Street Fighter III
Are you surprised the Street Fighter III is this low on the ranking? Frankly speaking, so am I!
There’s no doubting that Third Strike is great. Heck, most Street Fighter fans will say Third Strike is one of, if not, the best fighting games ever. The problem is I have grade Street Fighter III as a whole. That means I have to lump in New Challengers and 2nd Impact – Giant Attack in with Third Strike. And that entire package, especially with New Challengers, really bring Street Fighter III down a lot.
Capcom just made a lot of unforced errors when it came to making New Challengers. Besides Ryu and Ken, everyone were brand new characters… and weird! It was also not friendly for newbies, alienating potential new blood from playing. This is especially true for the Parry system and practiced players would immediately whup players who were just trying the game for the first time. Things did get marginally better with 2nd Impact – Giant Attack… but not by much. EX Specials were added to the franchise for the first time at this point. Gameplay also was more fluid but still too tough for newbies. While Hugo felt like a dud because of how slow he is (but was proven to be a great character much later), Urien felt fresh despite him essentially being a weaker version of the game’s final boss, Gill.
Now, don’t hate me but, as good as Third Strike is, I have a big problem with it, Simply put, the game isn’t balanced. You need to be a specialist to really squeeze out all of the potential from characters like Twelve and Q. They also hit Sean hard with the nerf hammer. Even if the game is great, you’ll only really see the top tiers (and Hugo) in high profile tournaments. So, yeah. For these reasons, I have to put the entire Street Fighter III series at a low spot.
No, it’s not an anime fighter. It just looks like one.
Street Fighter Alpha/Zero is a weird entry of the franchise if you think about it. It came out during Street Fighter II’s reign at the arcades… but it wasn’t a sequel. It was a prequel and it takes place before Street Fighter II. It used a more cartoony/anime style to distinguish it from Street Fighter II. It also didn’t play like Street Fighter II, with things like air-blocking added to the mix. There was also more focus on story, particularly with the first couple of entries. Throughout Alpha/Zero’s three games, Capcom kept on adjusting each entries game mechanics, making them feel unique, even from each other.
The first game was… good. It wasn’t great but good enough. It felt pretty slow, even if you selected Turbo speed. Still, this was the first time they acknowledged that Street Fighter shared the same universe with Final Fight as it had Guy and Sodom. Capcom further improved the game’s mechanics with Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 2. It substituted the first game’s Chain Combo system with the new Custom Combo system, which uses Super Meter. Fan favorites like Sakura and Final Fight’s Cody.
Most people consider Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 2 to be the pinnacle of the series. I’m different. I still think Alpha/Zero 3 to be the best mostly because of how much stuff it has! A deep 25 roster on the arcade version with many more added when it arrived on home consoles. Different ISMs, adding variations to each character, with more added later. But the best thing for me was the full fledged story you get from playing the arcade ladder, eventually facing off against a ultra-powerful version of M. Bison. Better yet, Charlie Nash actually survives his encounter with M. Bison!
Still, the things holding back Street Fighter Alpha/Zero are the fairly weak initial entry and air blocking. Air blocking, which was retained for all entries of the series, was just too powerful and useful, making some matches kind of a slog to get through. Even so, the Alpha/Zero series was generally great.
#3 Street Fighter 6
Recency bias? Probably.
Yeah, I know Street Fighter 6 is relatively new. As I mentioned, it’s only been out for a couple of years now. But even in its young age, it already has a lot going for it.
Capcom knew they messed up with Street Fighter V’s launch. So, they overcompensated with the follow up. Street Fighter 6 was more than just a complete fighting game. It was a complete fighting game with an adventure RPG built in! While most fighting game enthusiasts won’t actually touch World Tour, it is a fun addition. And it’s a great way to learn how to play Street Fighter for newbies!
But when it comes to the meat of Street Fighter 6, the actual fighting game, it’s definitely no slouch! The entire Drive System mechanic feels so refined… almost. While Drive Impact, Drive Rush, Drive Parry and Perfect Parry really add a lot to keep the game exciting, I still have issues with Drive Reversal. It just doesn’t come off as useful because of how slow it it. Still, that’s a very minor gripe.
The roster, including most of the new characters, feel viable as Capcom worked their butts off to balance things out. Capcom also figured out how to get gamers who haven’t touched a fighting game with Modern controls. Although controversial for a lot of the hardcore fighting game community, I do think Modern controls is good overall. However, despite how good Street Fighter 6 is, I can’t really place it higher. That’s because the next two entries pretty much secured their spots.
#2 Street Fighter II
Yep, I’m kind of shocked this is in second place myself.
There’s no deny the legacy of Street Fighter II. It’s the game that started the entire fighting game craze and resurrected the arcade scene. It spawned a whole new franchise for Capcom. It created what most people think of when you try to describe what a fighting game is. So, what’s keeping it from the top spot?
For one thing, Capcom simply refused to make a real sequel and just kept updating the game. When they made Champion Edition, which made the four bosses playable, that was good. Give us more. With Turbo/Hyper Fighting, they sped up the gameplay and added new moves for some characters. They even differentiated Ryu and Ken a whole lot here. Great. But when are you making a sequel, Capcom? Super Street Fighter II added four more characters. Okay… are you eventually gonna make an actual sequel, Capcom? This is getting ridiculous! While the actual lifespan of Street Fighter II was only three years, it felt like ages because of the tiny incremental changes that started to get old fast.
It certainly didn’t help that it was running on old hardware for the majority of its life. Other companies were trying to jump on the fighting game bandwagon and they wanted to use better graphics. Yet Street Fighter II kept the same look throughout its run. It made it look old, especially when you had games like Fatal Fury with its big sprites and Mortal Kombat with its digitized graphics.
Without a doubt, the pinnacle of Street Fighter II was its last entry, Super Street Fighter II Turbo. It was kind of marred with balancing issues as Vega/Claw was just super annoying to deal with. But that’s a minor gaffe as this was Street Fighter II’s final form. Capcom improved the speed, actually made Ryu and Ken feel like different characters and just played beautifully.
I’m not sure if this is controversial but, in my opinion, the best series of Street Fighter games came from Street Fighter IV. Like Street Fighter II, Street Fighter IV has a great legacy. It reinvigorated a franchise that was supposedly dead. It also resurrected the fighting game genre as a whole.
Also, like Street Fighter II, it also had a lot of reiterations and mini-sequels but it lasted for much longer. The first Street Fighter IV game came out in 2008 and the last version, Ultra Street Fighter IV, came out in 2014. But the big difference is, even though this lasted longer, each new entry added something significant. Whether it be new characters or new Ultras or game mechanic changes like delayed wake-ups or Red Focus Attacks, these new additions kept each new entry feel fresh.
Besides, the original gameplay from the first entry already gave players a lot of freedom. You can try to do a longer, more damaging combo but, as they’d be more challenging, you might drop them. Or you can go for a simpler, easier combo for sure damage. The risk and reward between the two made each match exciting. The main gameplay gimmick, the Focus Attack and Focus Attack Dash Cancel, had a ton of uses, both offensively and defensively. This allowed players a lot more ways to express themselves as well.
What made me pick the Street Fighter IV series as the best Street Fighter entry is its consistency. While each sequel would have a “black sheep” like Street Fighter III’s New Challengers and Street Fighter II’s Super Street Fighter II iteration. Street Fighter IV never really had a “bad” version. Even the worst entry, Ultra Street Fighter IV, was still incredible. So, mainly because of how it never failed in general, I have to give Street Fighter IV the top spot and crown it as the best Street Fighter game.
Do you agree with this list? What would you put on the top spot? I’m not going to ask which one earns the worst because we all know its Street Fighter 1. Anyway, let me know in the comments section below!
3rd World Geeks 
Nice 👍