Street Fighter Spent 35 Years Training The Fighting Game Genre

gamerant.com:

August 30 is the 35th anniversary of the original arcade Street Fighter, and it has been an eventful 35 years. Initially conceived as a kung-fu beat ’em up entirely focused on boss fights, Street Fighter has grown to become the face of the fighting game genre. Any fighting game taking place on a two-dimensional plane will inevitably draw some comparison to Street Fighter thanks to how influential it was in the genre’s formation. Both the series and its development team have driven countless imitators that either spun off in their own direction or died out, and the pattern repeated itself after Street Fighter 4 served as a sort of reset point.

With an expected release in 2023, Street Fighter 6 will usher the franchise onto the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. It's an exciting time for the Street Fighter series, and even though SF6 won't make the current anniversary, many are excited. It seems to be made as a response to criticisms of Street Fighter 5 feeling too restrictive, and will be celebrating the franchise its own way by bringing back successful elements from all other entries. Street Fighter 6 wouldn't be where it is without the rise and fall of its predecessors, and parallels can be drawn between Street Fighter’s efforts and the fighting genre itself.

Street Fighter 6 is Moving the Franchise's Story Forward After 23 Years, and That's a Big Deal

Things started off on a rocky foot with Street Fighter 1. It introduced a number of characters that would become mainstays and prototyped the use of special moves and three strengths for punch and kick attacks. Unfortunately, it executed all of these horribly, and it took 1991's Street Fighter 2 reinventing itself to get things right. This is the game that began a fighting game