Street Fighter 1 - The Worst Fighting Game

[@MattMcMuscles]

Get $5 off your next order through my link sponsr.is/magicspoon_mcmuscles_0724 or use code MCMUSCLES at checkout. Or look for Magic Spoon in your nearest grocery store!

[@nightgates9603]

Can you do Bikini Karate Babes.

[@RelixasVlogsandGameClips]

if you think this is the shit, try tiertex's street fighter version.

[@taihenta1780]

4:08 I really appreciate your content - but you really did a sacrilege by not mentioning the laughter of the bosses

[@gonzalotorres5282]

You should do the same treatment to "Guilty Gear: The Missing Link" for the PS1. Thing is... a fever dream. A garage demo.

[@ArtemusWolfwood]

You would be sponsored by a cereal company

[@SniperDiplomat]

Everyone in my class as a kid: "Weird how they made Street Fighter 2 when there's no Street Fighter 1."

[@ironmaster6496]

for real, i've spent my entire childhood and most of my teenage years not even knowing there was a street fighter 1

[@captainmartin1219]

lol. I play the first game in the arcade and it was okay. Nothing to write hone about, but you could see some good ideas that needed to be worked out.

[@btr3k]

"It does look a lot like that Turbo-CD game Fighting Street, though..."

[@strykah92]

​@@btr3k​ "and Fighting Street never had a sequel, for some... reason....."

[@Noblesavage31]

me as a kid forreal lol im 32 now

[@Wolfedge75]

"Joe was supplanted by Ryu as the protagonist at the 11th hour" ...huh. That would kind of explain why the characters Capcom tried to replace Ryu as the narrative protagonist (Guile, Alex, Abel & Luke) were all blonde western tough boys.

[@InfinitySevens]

IIRC Rashid is technically considered "the SF5 narrative protagonist" so he's sort of the exception.

[@ThomasVvV]

And in SF6 Ryu was replaced by a weird creature shaped like a toilet

[@walterlucero5757]

@@InfinitySevens Street Fighter V had so many protags and antags in the game! I thought they all took their tuns with every update.

[@registereduser]

No one has a theme like Guile, tho.

[@allfodas]

The "Joe Syndrome"

[@hibikikensaki]

We can all agree though that Street Fighter 1 nailed one thing. That logo still rules to this day.

[@IDHLEB]

Capcom changed it to a generic one. Just like they did with the music.

[@pun_dimen]

I agree

[@KentaroMiyamoto21]

It's actually surprising that THIS was the start of one of most iconic franchises in gaming.

[@ElZorroHonesto]

Heya!

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

Yeah, such humble beginnings of an iconic franchise.

[@EdKolis]

The exact same thing happened with the Space Empires series of strategy games. The first one was little more than a prototype, and wasn't even released until the third game came out, as a curiosity!

[@xavierjuno4572]

The same could be said for the first Megaman game on the NES, seriously what is it with Capcom and good sequels?

[@indicaonly2143]

You have no clue. They’d b a line outside of Walmart as a kid just to get to the arcade machine and play.

[@000mjd]

I always admired Nishiyama humillity when people ask him about be the father of SF series and denied that claim since even himself recognized that he never would make something so good like SFII by his own, and Fatal Fury is his "SFII"

[@fredsorre6605]

Its actually really annoying that dumb idiots calls Ryo Sakasaki as a Ryu ripoff when in reality he was designed by Takashi Nishiyama Ryu's original designer he even took Ryu's original Red\Orange Hair color from the original Ryu design The Art of Fighting is such an underrated game that people ignore despite all the features that it had before anyone else did on screen character damage as you see their faces and cloths change through the fight and the desperation moves changed fighting games for the better.

[@NetBattler]

Yet people bashing Keiji inafune even though the original creator let him flesh out the Megaman franchise...

[@xavierjuno4572]

​@@NetBattlerI think they bash him more for his recent shenanigans rather than his legacy towards Mega Man imo

[@NetBattler]

@@xavierjuno4572 no,they bash him because he's the one who fleshed out Megaman franchise and not Akira even though he is the one who gave inafune permission to do it,I even encountered brain dead post claiming it's Akira who's the real creator when in reality both of them were involved when they made Megaman 2.

[@4x13x17]

​@@NetBattlerNo? Everyone bashes him because of the westernization period of japanese IPs, beginning with NG3.

[@MelRetro]

The REAL Ones call it by its TurboGrafx-16 title: “Fighting Street”

[@RinaRetro]

😄

[@SorcererLance]

with with surprisingly much better-sounding music

[@stephenmontgomery5807]

hells yeah TG CD gang gang

[@jdcyber6217]

"What strength! But don't forget there are many guys like you all over the world." And make sure to say that line with a handful of marbles in your mouth.

[@snazzrin.7185]

@@SorcererLance the power of cd technology :}

[@Sean_Bird]

At least Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game will be happy knowing it’s not the only SF game on the list of worst fighting games.

[@Outrack]

Nah, it's just so bad that it couldn't even be best at being the worst.

[@registereduser]

Real Battle On Film

[@marccaselle8108]

Play street fighter one for Mugen, it's actually playable and it's really cool.

[@kenterminateddq5311]

@@marccaselle8108 Is it the original or a hacked version? I didn't think McMuscles would make a Street Fighter 1 episode for the Worst Fighting Game series since it did led to Street FIghter II.

[@marccaselle8108]

@@kenterminateddq5311 it's a Mugen version, so essentialy a hack of the arcade version. It plays smoother and you can actually pull off special moves and super moves were added also

[@taipansghost]

It's actually insane when you really think about how street fighter actually took off with its sequel. When you say "the Original Street Fighter" most people think you are referring to Street Fighter II probably Turbo edition too.

[@ahuras238]

I played SF1 after SF2 and was shocked how awful it was in comparison. Kudos to the devs for improving the design in the sequel, but it's amazing they were able to create a franchise off the first game.

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

Funny enough street fighter 1 made an appearance in the anime Hi-score girl and even that show detailed have wack the controls are for that game.

[@dylansmith9317]

Yeah, I know! Like you think of Street Fighter, you always think of 2. Like with Terminator and World War; there WAS a first one, but everyone always talks about the sequel!

[@taipansghost]

@@dylansmith9317 lol the reference 😂

[@TetsuDeinonychus]

@@dylansmith9317 With Terminator it's a real shame because I think the first one is really the best.

[@DRCEQ]

I had the... misfortune of finding the big button cabinet in an arcade once. It was pretty unresponsive, and my hand hurt by the end of the 2nd stage because you had to really slam down on them. They were not responsive.

[@YukaTakeuchiFan]

There's something that amuses me regarding the fact that "git gud scrub, DK bongos OP as fuck" has "Translate to English" directly underneath it.

[@davedavidson8208]

​@@YukaTakeuchiFan "get a good scrub"

[@antiantifa886]

I remember those huge buttons! I was 8 trying to push em down!🤣

[@cocodojo]

They were as responsive as trying to give a gorilla CPR with only your left pinky, because unless you actually pressed down HARD, those suckers didn't even budge or move a little. I think they repurposed those buggers for Sonic Blast Man arcade machines...

[@SaiTaisho]

And the responsiveness was not helped (or possibly entirely caused by) the fact that the instructions were vague on exactly how hard you actually needed to hit them for the various levels. Meaning people were absolutely smashing the damn things when they were never designed to be hit that hard. Thus breaking them, thus requiring people to hit even harder to get them to work.

[@richardxavier5442]

Great video, Matt McMuscles, but don't forget there are KZbinrs like you all over the world.

[@LostHorizons0]

Why would he forget that ? And why is that even relevant ?

[@Teknanam]

@@LostHorizons0 Its a joke referencing the one win line in Street Fighter 1.

[@LostHorizons0]

@@Teknanam oh ok I guess I missed that joke 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Teknanam]

@@LostHorizons0 "What strength, but don't forget there are many guys like you all over the world." I'm surprised you missed it considering Matt does showcase it in the video. No harm done though.

[@mortenera4423]

​@@TeknanamYou really think he actually watched the video?

[@alexsummerdown831]

“What strength, but don’t forget there are many fighters like you all over the world.” - every opponent.

[@TeruteruBozusama]

Maybe they all saw the same movie and quote it 😅

[@thecaptain6520]

Wawawawawawaw

[@IkeWarchol302]

"You've got a lot to learn before you beat me, Try again, kiddo."

[@universalperson]

Random trivia: In the game Rainbow Islands (NOT made by Capcom) you can kill the final boss in one hit under certian conditions. If you do you get the message "What strength! But don't forget there are many monsters like me, all over the world!" This was a couple months after Street Fighter.

[@LendriMujina]

This is oddly really fitting, because the _first_ game ever released for the TurboGrafx-CD was the port of Street Fighter 1(/Fighting Street), and the _final_ game ever released for the TurboGrafx-CD was the port of Rainbow Islands.

[@TemporaryApe]

@@universalperson this could be the most obscure Easter egg in gaming?

[@Cawshes]

Bubble Bubble was Capcom right?

[@LendriMujina]

@@Cawshes Taito.

[@AesirSW]

I genuinely wonder what they were thinking with the deluxe cab, like imagine if that somehow took off and we had EVO tournaments with people slamming on DK bongos or something to get the same effect

[@MattMcMuscles]

In the 80s, it wasn't out of the norm. Companies were always trying weird control gimmicks to stand apart, which is good! They should do that. The baffling part is that they clearly didn't test it enough to see if the buttons would break, or if people would get tired slamming them.

[@appliedcetology676]

EVO... ha! There was nothing like that. At all. The movie "The Wizard" (which came out later) was a "What if..." scenario at the time. As in, "What if nation-wide video game tournaments existed?" As Matt notes: it was to attract attention. The shit I saw back in the day: Big-ass sniper rifles, wooden shotguns with a 10-foot distance to the projection screen for skeet, pinball cabinets with a videogame portion you played up top when your ball went there, a goddamn submarine periscope - all sucked ass except the skeet-shooting game.

[@MoonlightStrider]

@@MattMcMuscles Also the insurance risk of such buttons, you wouldn't want to be an arcade owner having to deal with claims from angry parents because their little sprog broke their wrist punching a huge button in the hopes Ryu would punch harder

[@sukugaru5167]

On the weird controls, there was an 80s arcade boxing game with handles that you swung around to simulate punches. Can’t remember its name or who made it, though.

[@Sansanmar]

​@MasterofKnees world heroes would later use this scheme, hold punch for fierce or tap for jabs, and for it was worth, it felt natural in that game!

[@ArkThePieKing]

You know I can't help but wonder what a world without Street Fighter 2 would look like. Can you imagine Fatal Fury retrospectives with lines like "And his previous work was a middling arcade game called Street Fighter, one of the progenitors of the fighting game genre." The idea of Street Fighter being a throwaway footnote in history like Yie Ar Kung Fu is a fascinating what if scenario to me.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

I mean, SF2 and its sequels were huge influences in so many ways, not just in the genre, or gaming in general, but pop culture. Like, there was a Street Fighter RPG by White Wolf that used their Storyteller system, and the more in-depth combat system they developed for it had adaption rules for use in the various World of Darkness lines...

[@diegorivas1991]

@@ArkThePieKing The undisputed champion spot and the blue print for every other fighting game that came after probably would ended up being achieved by Fatal Fury wich was on development at the same time as SFII.

[@TheLongLivePlay3]

Absolutely love it that there was a time where you'd just call a videogame "Violence Fight"

[@Zuxtron]

As opposed to calling it "Pacifist Fight".

[@sor3999]

Yeah, they probably wanted "Violent Fight". Japanese products with hilariously bad grammar is still a thing today.

[@diegorivas1991]

@@sor3999 "Engrish" is called, wich by the way still affects japanese media and every now and then isn't fixed at all in localization.

[@Diggy22]

Tbh, playing SF1 is a guilty pleasure. Getting good with SF1's wonky controls is like sandbagging myself to train for SFII and onward. If you can bang out a few hadokens and tatsus in SF1, every other game will feel like a breeze.

[@kaiser9321]

I understand Matt’s struggles with the game, I personally played with just a keyboard and I have an almost solid way to play the game generally. I understand the controls like this: Every special you know from the sequel is here, but the inputs have to be precise (especially Shoryuken). Negative edge is the only way to go, and returning to neutral resets the input buffer. You absolutely MUST release the button last. (You’ll have to input the special move again if you return to neutral) Dragon punches are OP, spam them to win. (All the more reason to learn how to execute one!) I’m about 100% certain every special move is the same anyways, regardless of strength.

[@spoonshiro]

I played Street Fighter 2 a ton as a kid but wondered why nobody ever talked about the original game. Then I played SF1 on the Capcom Classics Collection and it all became very clear!

[@Filthy_Larry]

Oh man it ain’t that bad at all. It’s just that it ain’t no street fighter 2. 😂

[@Historicutuber]

Yeah same thing happened to me with the anniversary collection

[@theawesomeike6085]

There's a timeline where Joe is the one giving a handshake to Cyclops in X-Men vs Street Fighter, Joe is in Smash, Joe is in Fortnite, Joe is a Power Ranger, Joe is in American Dad vs Family Guy Kung Fu II Turbo, Joe from Streets™, a timeline where Joe is one of the biggest videogame icons of all time

[@ironmaster6496]

meanwhile fatal fury stars a japanese guy.....it's just Ryo, Ryo would have been the main character of Fatal Fury and Joe would be called Terry

[@sor3999]

Either that or Street Fighter dies as it is with pushing such an unremarkable character.

[@Trunks1stApprentice]

​@@sor3999Not necessarily. If they ran with Joe as the main character and SF was still popular enough to warrant a sequel, Joe could have gotten a design overhaul and fleshed out backstory that made him more distinct and appealing.

[@RaDicAL808]

What strength, but don’t forget there are many fighters like you all over the world!

[@Xaero83ZX]

Most iconic line in fighting game history 🤣

[@SorcererLance]

more accurately; "Wot strain! Bot dun fogeh deh ah menni faitas laik yu ah oba dah whirl"

[@ehhorve857]

@@SorcererLance man I luv phounetik speling.

[@RaDicAL808]

@@SorcererLance I could hear it as I read that. lol

[@venom74799]

@@SorcererLanceThis is how I remember hearing it except a smidge more wub in it.

[@discoron77]

No wonder the fights had no spectators, everyone was hanging out waiting for someone to break those tiles.

[@Macrochenia]

So it's kind of a homecoming that Terry Bogart is coming to Street Fighter VI as a DLC character?

[@BenetteG]

It becomes full circle

[@CapcomSegaFanBoy]

Why does his last name make me crave yogurt?

[@Totavier]

I'm still surprised that Capcom never wanted to remake this game or at least enhance it. It would be nice to see one day Street Fighter: The Good Edition. 😂

[@TheChilaxicle]

In some ways you can think of the Alpha series as their remake/enhancement although obviously it's quite different.

[@pigglesgoomshby7249]

I mean yeah for all intents and purposes, the Alpha series is a sort of revamp to SF1, where it serves as a link between 1 and 2, and it brought back Adon, Birdie, Gen, and technically Eagle (Although he was thanks to Capcom vs SNK) all with revamps to make them fit SF2’s core gameplay and the series’s new art direction At this point I can’t really see them putting in the effort to remake SF1 when the series and its characters have evolved far beyond that point

[@ToddHollywoodGAC]

There are 32,000,000 versions of Street Fighter 2.. they couldn’t fix this shitfest?!

[@robertoricci3393]

Because SF2 totally eclipsed it and nobody knows it except who grew up in the mid-late 80's. There are some fan-made versions that make it better.

[@LordQuadros]

Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Ha-doken! Hup! Hup! Hup! Owwwright!

[@holdencawffle626]

Lol.....so true Late 80s, in The Goldmine, Solano mall, fairfield CA

[@jackstar6018]

Thats it!!!!!!!!🤟🏽

[@deathsyth8888]

I'll give the first Street Fighter a soft pass on it being in consideration for the "Worst Fighting Game". It was released in the early years of the fighting game genre so things were still being figured out.

[@Coconater]

Yea it came out in a time where we didnt bitch about mechanics. We just got good and that was that.

[@Bends95]

💯

[@humanconvertile]

I think you could say that in terms of stuff like mechanics, character selection, and presentation, but games back then had basic things like responsive controls and good hit detection. I don't think it being an early concept of a fighting game means it couldn't have been playable.

[@pattersong6637]

Absolutely. This game is terrible but it's really not its fault that it's terrible.

[@Reiderreiter]

I feel the same way about Karate Champ. Yes, through modern eyes it’s one of the most unplayable pieces of shit in video games history. But it was also one of the pioneers as a genre. It’s like judging an alpha vs. the finished game released.

[@TheAwsomeuser]

Really crazy how one crappy game turned into a huge franchise

[@lukelaser5397]

Bullshit franchise

[@buzzlightyer2948]

​@@lukelaser5397someone got double perfected in this comment section

[@stevest8675]

Exactly. A huge franchise

[@BeardedNerdSE]

I played the original big button version in 2019, on a cabinet in Kawazaki Warehouse before it shut down. It was indeed even worse than playing it on later versions with six buttons. Nevermind the impossibility of selecting what attack you want to do, the lag from having to hit a spongy button with a decent amount of force means that any kind of timing goes right out the window.

[@40088922]

probably, the only reason why I wouldn't rate it the Worst Ever is because of how early into the genre it was. it would be like calling a baby dumb and useless, while it's true, there's good reason for it. that said, if it came out just 2 years later, it would be there... then again, if it wasn't for its sequel, we would have a hard time even having a current reference level of fighting games to begin with, so I guess there really are no "ifs" in history

[@diba9281]

No adult who can't do anything is dumb and useless

[@flamemdq]

At least Retsu is now a good npc in Sf6

[@supervoltekka593]

Fun Fact: You can cheese the entire game by hitting your opponents once, then back off into the corner and block for the rest of the round and they can't do a damn thing about it. I learned that from Guru Larry's Fact Hunt book :D

[@Spikero2]

Chip damage?

[@Skul1ManEXE]

Time stalling

[@Jutrzen]

Nothing fun about that.

[@claudiobizama5603]

Hello You

[@kaiser9321]

I don’t think you can, most will get in and just hit you randomly, though I haven’t tried this method for myself.

[@InfernoScorpion14]

Did you know Sagat references this game in CVS2? One of his round win quotes is (with thick engrish) "Try again, kid!"

[@MoonlightStrider]

And if memory serves me correct there's a costume in SFV that is basically SF1 Sagat pre scarred that overides his win quotes with that same quote

[@WraxTV]

Ryu also has a victory screen quote where he says something like "What strength! But I won't forget there are powerful warriors like you all over the world!"

[@peposo7]

And Wolverine does in Marvel vs Capcom 1. Pretty much what the NPCs say when you lose.

[@Ahng_Noying9574]

Another SF1 references from Sagat in CvS2 is his CAP groove portrait. Really, take a good look at it, then glance again at this video's thumbnail.

[@residentfan1521]

5:45 and now with SF6 year 2, Fatal Fury is canon to SF. 9:08 Retsu is in SF6’s story mode. First appearance since SF1, not counting comics and drama CDs.

[@-Ryu]

I remember that first tournament. While it hasn't aged as well as later entries, I still look back fondly on it. Not the shoes, though. I never liked wearing those shoes.

[@Toschez]

Street Fighter 1 is like NES Metroid. Each well-respected for its innovation, but improved tenfold in the sequels.

[@ZeoHidra]

You really should do the awful Ultraman game on the SNES, which copies the style of SF1 and Human Killing Machine (which is to say the controls feel like the controller is made of cardboard). Add in the fact you need to finish the opponent with a max level super after their health runs out or else they'll just start regenerating it, also (as according to canon) once the 3 minute timer runs out you will lose even if you have more health.

[@MoteofLobross]

I remember SF1 was a bit of an urban legend in the area where I grew up. People would either say it didn't exist or made up complete BS about what it was like when they claimed to came across a cabinet. At least till a local Wal Mart put in a machine some time in 92 or 93. As awful as it was, I spent a ton of quarters trying to beat it for the good two or so years it was there.

[@FouLuX]

Another interesting point is that as Nishiyama created both Street Fighter and Fatal Fury he was effectively competing with himself in a way😎

[@robbyrobot3303]

Street Fighter 1 looks and plays like they released its Amiga port first to arcades

[@shlomophobe5582]

Back in the early 90s my oldest brother worked in an arcade near us on Long Island, NY called SpacePlex. Some may recognize it as the place Katie Beers was infamously abucted from . But for our basement , my brother grabbed something much more benign : A working Yie-Arr Kung Fu cabinet. All of my brothers and I became expert at beating the snot out of the entire lineup of opponents : Feedle, Fan, Sword, Club, Tonfa, etc . We grinded so hard to get gud that none of these opponents posed any challenge whatsoever. However , after beating the entire series of armed opponents, out came a shirtless , unarmed, unassuming fellow called Blues . Without fail , every single time we faced him, he proceeded to ferociously compact our fecal matter in a matter of seconds . None of us ever figured out how to beat him

[@Mazing78]

Somebody tell Ryu that Dorothy wants her slippers back.

[@travisjordan3853]

If he had gone with silver slippers instead he'd still have them since the original novel is in the public domain.

[@malinalungu407]

and there's a reason why Ryu is always Barefoot for the rest of Eternity

[@automaycry220]

Was about to say it'd be funny to have Ryu in his red slippers as a costume in SF6 but let's be real, I'd need to sell a kidney to afford the way they've pay walled all the extra content.

[@Xirvet]

If you're genuinely curious what a SF1 Ryu would look like in 3D as an alt costume, just look at UMVC3's DLC. That was Ryu's alt

[@walterlucero5757]

You could always play "red Slippers" Ryu in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Either one.

[@Darthemed]

Whoa now, Pit Fighter does have more spectators in the backgrounds.

[@MattMcMuscles]

That did come out in 1990 though.

[@Darthemed]

@@MattMcMuscles It is the '90s, and there is time for standing in the back of a warehouse, pumping your fist up and down.

[@budgetcoinhunter]

@@Darthemed Did not expect _that_ reference.

[@allfodas]

​@@MattMcMusclesAND It was "the style at the time"

[@glacierwolf2155]

Funnily enough, I heard somewhere, probably from Thogi's Arcade's Street Fighter Retrospective, that Street Fighter 1 was _originally_ going to have unique dialogue for each foe that Ryu defeated, but the one line was chosen due to hardware limitations. I could be wrong, though.

[@chesspunk489]

Games that I would consider to be the ultimate sequel to the first game: 1. Twisted Metal 2 2. Legacy of Goku 2 3. Street Fighter 2 4. Megaman 2 5. Jurassic Park 2 for the gameboy 6. Super Mario Land 2 7. Kirby's Dreamland 2

[@thenoodledrop]

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as well

[@thenoodledrop]

and Super Smash Bros. Melee

[@chesspunk489]

@@thenoodledrop I agree with you

[@mikescorpio13]

Ms. Pacman tops them all

[@Cobra2323]

Half life 2

[@Seacage]

As a child I ones entered the arcade to find the original cabinet with the rubber buttons. It was pretty catchy to see and I put my coin in. It was totally unplayable especially for a weak child. I remember people smashing the buttons with elbows to be able to use fierce attacks. After that I felt in love with SF2, and only years later I realized that the two games were connected.

[@jamesmason7979]

Basically, Joe walked so Terry Bogard could run and so Alex and Luke could run and stumble. 😂

[@budgetcoinhunter]

At least Alex found some vindication later. People were actually happy to see him in SF5.

[@Omnirok12]

nah, ppl like luke now largely thanks to memphis memes and his voice actor's charisma

[@willdiesel8431]

​@@budgetcoinhunter that's because it was ridiculous that he was playable in that crossover and the game wasn't widely available on most consoles. People were plenty disappointed by him in many facets upon his return to a mainline game.

[@Fanky_Milton]

I'm 50 years old. This was an experience in our mall arcade (one of 2 arcades). We lined up to play each other. It was utter madness because all you did was TRY to get specials to go off. Yet we pounded away on the big pads. When SF II came we all had to adjust to actual strategy and a responsive game. It was a simpler time. What else where we going to play, Pit Fighter? We hated it even back then.

[@Flint-Dibble-the-Don]

45year old here. Those were the days. Best birthday party I ever went to was a friend's parents rented Aladdin's Castle arcade on a Friday after they closed. Then handed us rolls of tokens. It was around the time the T2 game came out. It was the shit. PS I kinda liked pit fighter on the Genesis.

[@Carn_Is_Done]

As bad as this Street Fighter had aged, I'm still impressed how beautifully Street Fighter II has held up in every department too. :)

[@R-Blazer]

14:30 That's surely the funniest Booing I've ever heard!

[@humanconvertile]

I will say the revamped soundtrack for the TurboGrafix 16 CD version of this game (infamously titled "Fighting Street") is actually really good. Gen's theme in that version is one of the best of the series.

[@NinjaSYXX]

Make fun of me Matt! I was a hype af 5 year old kid when i found this big button cab for the first time in south florida. This was after playing the TG16 version.

[@enkiduthewildman]

3:15 names _Yie Ar Kung Fu_ and _Urban Champion_ as prior titles but ignores _Karate Champ_ ?

[@bobkerolls13]

Seriously, where's the respect for the true champ! KARATE CHAMP KARATE CHAMP

[@BrassMountainLion]

... and Galactic Warriors 😮

[@appliedcetology676]

Indeed.

[@mikescorpio13]

@@bobkerolls13 arcade Karate Champ was the best until SF1 came

[@aripauli6035]

Rough beginnings indeed. Time hasn’t been kind to Street Fighter 1.

[@memesandhoi2924]

Man imagine a timeline where SF never took off. I wonder how that would've shaped the fighting game genre.

[@DuvJones]

I'll be honest I don't think it would have existed. Street Fighter would just be one game in a long line of games in the 80s that would just go forgotten.... And then Street Fighter II happened, we all know what happened after that. But had the series stopped here, that was it. This game getting a sequel is the luckiest thing for the genre, because to this you can point at the games that take inspiration from Street Fighter directly. Art of Fighting & Fatal Fury simply would not have happened, and with them goes The King of Fighters.... Darkstalkers wouldn't have happened, and with that goes the entire Anime Fighting Game genre (so the entire fighting game catalog of Arc System Works, French Bread, and others) and the Marvel vs series. It takes almost 20 years to find a game that isn't inspired by Street Fighter to have any type of influence... And that is the entire Platform Fighter genre, popularized by Smash Bros (and even that is somewhat questionable).

[@robdillenger4763]

For a game that's 37 years old, the backgrounds and character models look pretty dang good. The way the screen scrolls with the action was probably mind-blowing for the time. Look at the clips at the start of the Mechanics segment around 13:00, you fight buff boxer guy in Mt Rushmore, teleporting ninja with claws in a peaceful lake/forest/mountain scene, then a fight against your American pallete-swarp in a trainyard with a cityscape. Animations are ind of jank, but you can still read what's going on.

[@HisVirusness]

I've only been officially subscribed to you for a short time, but getting this in my notifications gave me a feeling of joy I haven't felt in way too long.

[@claytonrios1]

You'd think that with all of the different editions that Street Fighter games get that Capcom would try to make the original one better over time too. The AVGN had a point when he recommended Street Fighter The Good Edition!

[@chidorisnake22]

I mean, there is Street Fighter One, but that's Mugen. Personally, you'd think that with all the RE remakes they've been doing, they'd remake SF1 officially at some point. I'd actually love to see how a modern version of SF1 would play.

[@claytonrios1]

@@chidorisnake22 With the gameplay advancements of Street Fighter 6?

[@TheRogueWolf]

Super Deluxe Turbo Championship Edition....

[@chrisbg99]

Before I was really familiar with the lore I thought the first Alpha was a remake of Street Fighter.

[@chidorisnake22]

@@claytonrios1 I'd imagine it'd feel closer to an Alpha game than 5 or 6.

[@ItsKaraBowdit]

that pre-match fanfare scared my cat and i feel like this game should lose more points for that

[@joelthorstenson5278]

Here again to nominate Powerpuff Girls: Chemical Xtraction

[@MisterDamocles]

OG Street Fighter hasn't aged like a fine wine. Nor has it aged like milk either. I say it's like a flat soda.

[@Playboyjoker707]

My memory of sf 1 is seeing tupac play it in the movie "juice"

[@VulpeRenard]

I have a memory of playing this in an arcade at Point Pleasant when I was somewhere around 5. It's very fuzzy and I was pretty sure I remembered there only being two buttons, but I certainly don't remember them being those massive spare tires. I also had a very distinct memory of my punches and kicks almost never coming out when I pressed the buttons. It could be entirely possible that the giant rubber buttons broke shortly after installing the machine, and someone jerry-rigged two spare normal arcade buttons onto it without realizing they needed pressure sensitive input, but that's just postulation on my part. Could also be that my brain just has corrupt memory nodes regarding something that happened over 30 years ago.

[@MrTwistedTheater]

I’ve always adored that at least part of the reason this game isn’t beloved is that they literally hadn’t invented combos yet. Absolutely bonkers to think about. Imagine being in the room when they accidentally created combos

[@humanconvertile]

From my understanding, combos in SF were in the original SF2, but they were an accidental thing unintentionally allowed by the game's mechanics lol

[@Morrigan101]

​@@humanconvertile combos into special moves

[@shakes5847]

@@humanconvertile Yeah this. It was pretty much completely by accident.

[@ChannelTheChange]

As much as I followed this series, I never once thought about Street Fighter 1 being one of the games in the ring but great video. SF1 is actually one of my favorites in the franchise. Fun fact: if you watch the movie Juice, Street Fighter 1 is the game Tupac plays all through the film.

[@FoxMan_FF]

At least Street Fighter 6 brought back Retsu. I'll always be thankful for that.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I like that the knockback slows down dramatically, but I can imagine it getting old after a while.

[@TheRogueWolf]

If I'm remembering right, SFII actually did this as well, but rarely and only for about half a second.

[@rcblazer]

I think the Nerd put it best. "With all the updates Capcom was making to Street Fighter 2, why not one for the original game? 'Street Fighter: The Good Edition!" Luckily that technically does exist with Street Fighter One.

[@timothyschlatter757]

Matt's point at the end about how he couldn't believe that this game spawned a sequel(not to mention a whole franchise) is the exact way I feel about my favorite franchise Metroid. That first game is rough but hot damn after that we got Super Metroid and Metroid Prime.

[@xavierjuno4572]

Honestly the same could be said about the Mega Man franchise as well

[@BinaryHedgehog1]

The reason why specials feel so inconsistent is because there is almost 0 input leniency. SF1's motions require almost frame perfect execution, whereas SF2T, for example, has 7 frames of leniency for each direction in a motion.

[@TheNeoVid]

I'll never forget watching people play this in the arcade. Everyone who knew how to do a fireball would get up to Adon, and then lose immediately as his specials launched him over them all. I never even saw Sagat.

[@tyrus1235]

With the amount of continues I had to use to beat the game in the 30th Anniversary Collection... If I was at an arcade I'd be living in the streets afterwards lol

[@scw1980]

I remember those days perfectly. In all honesty it wasn't until Street Fighter 2 that I was able to at least get up to Sagat in the arcades and to be honest only did so 4 times.

[@MaddMountains]

Aside from the impossible task of executing the special moves, the thing I hate most about this game is that Ryu hops instead of walking. It messes up the timing of executing said impossible special moves.

[@TheBurpMan]

I played the original Street Fighter before Street Fighter II just once in 1990 and it was so forgettable I didn't realize that SF2 was a sequel to THAT game until months after its release. In my local arcade Street Smart was waaaay more popular if we talk about 1vs1 arcade games... or even Karate Champ. Specials input are way easier to do by holding the button, do the motion and release it, just in case.

[@mresturk9336]

"Wut stwength! Buht doh fo-git dere are many guhs like you all ovir da woild"

[@seatspud]

"Yew und yoah daw-tah ah dumed!"

[@Peremptor]

Holy crap so Terry being in SF6... he basically 'could' have been the SF1 protagonist... well Joe but you get the idea. COOL.

[@BigBossBr4z1l]

SF 2 is one the best (if not the best) sequel to a game ever. When compared to the first one you can't even say it's the same franchise. 8 playable characters, 3 sub bosses, 1 boss, remarkable ost, different endings for each fighter, all of them have their own personality and fight style (except Ryu and Ken). But mainly, the gameplay is a hugeee step ahead the predecessor. I never saw a SF 1 arcade machine ever, but i grew up playing SF 2 on arcades and Mega Drive (and still play it to this day). The vanilla 2 is so nostalgic to me. I just knew about SF 1 years and years after playing SF 2. Even though looked obvious there was a prequel, it was so obscure that i never thought about it back in the day.

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

Has any video game franchise ever had such a jump in quality from original game to sequel as Street Fighter? The first being is borderline unplayable and the second one practically invented the concept of head-to-head competitive vvideo games. What other franchise has THAT kind of chasm between original game and sequel?!

[@blockhead134]

Street Fighters janky inputs come from the fact that they were designed for the original pressure sensor control scheme. They were programmed to register the power of your hit before inputting the command, so all special moves have a weird negative edge

[@MJRLHobbyStuff]

Yo Tilt arcade in Windward Mall in Kaneohe Hawaii had a SF1 cab with the rubber buttons. Me and my friends would run around the playground at recess throwing dodge balls at each other like hadokens and every weekend we would go to play and watch. It was less about the gameplay and more about the spectacle of watching a person slam on the machine. There was nothing in the arcade like it. I feel lucky to have seen one and played on one

[@JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI1701]

I always want to live in a World in which the SF Series *ALWAYS* began with Street Fighter 2! There is NO Street Fighter1!

[@Xorcist77]

I'm gonna keep nominating Sega's 1992 "masterpiece, cough cough..." Holosseum. Some nights I stare up at the ceiling wondering what else I could have done with that 50c.

Funny thing, as a kid, when I first saw this game, while traveling with my family, I absolutely loved it. Even though I actually saw and played SF2 for the first time very little time after, a lot of this game still stayed in my head for years and years. Characters, stages, the opening... And I still was in shock when I finally saw it again in a magazine in my late teens: everything was stuck in my head and I still couldn't remember how awful the art (and later, when replaying it, the gameplay and sound) was. But, thanks to that memory, I always rejoice when Capcom brings back a character from this game. Here's hoping we get to see Joe and Lee in SF6! :D

[@pattersong6637]

This game is terrible. It absolutely was not terrible when it came out in the same year I was born. This game crawled so every future game in its style could sprint. This game has an excuse for being terrible: no one knew any better in 1987. The other games you review do not have that excuse.

[@Metal_Mayhem2024]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Mike is Balrog. What happened was, he used his first name for the first game. He used his last name, Bison, but it got switched with a fellow boss character when the tournament came to America

[@eyeguydojima7131]

I've beaten this game and I still felt bad.

[@ray8236]

When this game came out it was revolutionary. There had never been any fighting game like it before. It was so popular that they made SF2. SF2 garnered worldwide attention. SF1 was the Blackberry before the touchscreen smartphone.

[@tiradegrandmarshal]

SF1 is the game I tell people who haven't played it to play through it once, mashing the Hadouken motion and mashing punch, and then never touch it again. It's interesting to play once just to see where the series started, but it's genuinely a bad game.

[@williamfoster9978]

If the original fits in the "Grand Trash Masters" category, then you might just pick any of its ports by Tiertex and give it the crown. The ports by Pacific Dataworks actually lie in between.

[@FastTquick]

I wonder: Why was the TurboGrafx-16 port of Street Fighter renamed to “Fighting Street?”

[@TheBurpMan]

Capcom had some problems with the copyright of Street Fighter, it was supposedly originally owned by Namco at some point before the release of SF1 as "Street Fight". The issue was ultimately resolved after the release of Fighting Street. Okamoto commented about this some years ago in a KZbin video.

[@GAMEPRODELTA]

Apparently Namco owned the rights to the name "Street Fight" for videogames at the time, so Capcom altered the name to avoid paying royalties.

[@AdrienMorley-ck4eb]

Sagat is pure bullshit, in all versions of SF1. Blocking his tiger shot "only" took a 1/4 of the life bar instead of half. To this day I hate him with all my heart. I bagged him once after MONTHS and just never played it again.

[@_ADiSSY]

Well, now I'd be interested in seeing Joe come to sf6 and see the win quotes between him and Terry

[@Ironcorgi2]

It’s crazy this managed to even get a sequel that defined a genre given all the missteps in this game

[@Roge9]

ah SF1, the game I want to force people who want strict execution for basic stuff to play.

[@MarcusFigueras]

The concept of street fighter 1 being just a boss rush version of NES Kung Fu makes a lot of sense with the whole only two playable characters thing

[@twood3118]

"A big ol' giant ass to play" That's the most Maximilian line you've ever said Matt

[@Mickey-v7p]

“Hey, Street Fighter 1 may not be that good but don’t worry, we’re gonna do it better in the sequel and this time, there will be more playable characters like the badass Chinese female butt kicker with the ironclad legs, an Indian dude who can stretch his body and spit fire, an all American bloke with a badass flattop and Russia’s Number One wrestler!” -Takashi Nishiyama “The moment M. Bison graced your arcade cabinets, it was the happiest and most frustrating day of your meaningless lives but for M. Bison, it’s just another day at the office!” -M. Bison

[@seishino]

I remember playing with the big pressure sensitive buttons. I could only get through about two matches before giving up from exhaustion.

[@tniwde1]

Given the changes on the names in SF2, you could say Mike was also carried over from SF to SF2 as M. Bison

[@alvinmasligaming]

Compare it with fighting games at that era. Like Yi Ar Kungfu by Konami, The Kungfu or China Warrior by Hudson. (Mat mention that in this video, thank you) And I remember the first time I saw SF1 as a lil' kid at arcades, I remember SF1 was the most beautiful graphic then others. You know, while others like 8-bit graphic style, this one 16-bit style.

[@theblackboxpodcastshow1791]

Dude I’m 62 and I played street fighter 1 with both consoles setups , yes both consoles were frustrating but those consoles were expensive and the arcade made a lot of money from them. Street fighter 2 of course was a major upgrade BUT, because I played SF1 so much , when SF2 came out, I was a pro at it , once I figured out Ryu’s specials were the same input , I spent only 3 dollars to play half the day and was hard to beat and “ turtling “ Guile “ origins began in part from guys who played SF1 .

[@hybridplc]

You've got to play some *Dangerous Streets* on the *AMiGA*

[@InfinitySevens]

Yes! Only learned of it through the AVGN CD-32 vid but man oh man I'd love to see a deeper look at it.