How an experiment spawned a whole new genre of video games

It’s tough for Generation Z to imagine a time during which video games were a battle solely between the player and the CPU. We’re talking about the late 1970s and early 1980s, when companies like Nintendo, Sega, and Atari, all of which were still in the 8-bit gaming space, were selling home gaming consoles by the dozen. Arcades—sporting a dim, neon lighting and big, flashy machines boasting a range of games—along with a lingering smell of stale cigarette smoke, became the place to hang out if you were one of the cool kids.

The multiplayer concept hadn’t kicked in yet, especially a “versus” mode wherein two players could compete with each other. But all of that changed in 1987 when Japanese game developer Capcom released ‘Street Fighter’—a video game that would go on to be known as the pioneer of fighting games and establish the template for thousands of similar games that would follow suit.

There have been numerous crossovers and spin-offs of the game ever since, as well as animated movies, toys, collective figurines, handbooks, and even magazines that dedicated themselves to Street Fighter art and gameplay. Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in the now-cult classic Street Fighter film in 1994.

It is safe to say that when the game debuted in arcades in 1987, it was touted as being “cutting edge”. The game itself was fairly straightforward. In a nutshell, Street Fighter is a competitive fighting game designed by Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto. A player controls a Japanese martial artist called Ryu, who competes in a worldwide martial arts tournament spanning multiple countries, with the aim of being the best martial artist in the world. A second player can control Ryu’s American friend and rival, the jovial and blonde Ken Masters. Each player can perform three kicks, three punches, and three special attacks that can be activated by special joystick and button combinations. Each fight comprises best-of-three rounds, with each round lasting a maximum of 30 seconds.

The iconic game, which became Capcom’s flagship product, earning the company billions of dollars in revenue over the course of time, goes on to complete 35 years in 2022. There’s a reason for its success, most of which revolves around the evolution of its crisp and seamless gameplay, as well as a roster of characters that players could relate to and resonate with. But when Capcom first released the game in 1987, it was clunky. At the time, Capcom’s aim was to move into the business of selling high-end arcade cabinets. Up until then, the company had a reputation for creating software that could be used in existing arcade cabinets. With Street Fighter, Capcom wanted to create a special, customised cabinet, with two large, pressure-sensitive pad-like interfaces that players had to hit in order to execute a punch or a kick. The idea was that the company could sell these high-end cabinets to arcade owners for a higher price.

The experiment seemed to have backfired though. Developers at the company soon realised that a player couldn’t repeatedly play the game at an arcade because hitting the pad interfaces over and over again sucked the life out of them. Nishiyama and the rest of the team went on to change the control panel—and for the first time, the world was introduced to a six-button panel on an arcade gaming machine (instead of the traditional four). This would go on to become the template for all future fighting games.

“The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 changed the gaming industry forever,” says 30-year-old Moin Soorya, an avid gamer based out of Mumbai. “In Street Fighter, you could only pick one of two characters. But with the arrival of SFII also came a whole new cast of playable characters, each of them having their own martial arts style. I was instantly hooked. There used to be an arcade called Space Jam near Juhu Beach. I used to go there every weekend, with whatever little pocket money I could save, and battle it out at the SF machine.”

Token-operated arcade cabinets were the norm back then. Street Fighter took things a step further because now, people could use ‘coins’ or ‘tokens’ to play against the CPU until they lost a game, in which case, they would have to put in another coin to continue. But more importantly, Street Fighter allowed two players to challenge each other—which meant that people would put in two coins to play. It also meant longer playing hours at the Street Fighter cabinet, with everyone wanting in on a piece of the action to exhibit their skills. For the first time, a player could win, and more importantly, lose, to another player in real time, at the same machine.

“Special attacks like Ryu and Ken’s Hadouken and Shoryuken have carved out their place in history as flagship moves,” says Ishaan Chaddha. “The game also went on to invent, what we call the ‘quarter circle’ or ‘half rotation’ input, which, when used along with an action button such as kick or punch, executes moves like Hadouken. All the fighting games that I have played ever since Street Fighter utilise the same concept. It pretty much set the standard and blueprint for the future of all fighting games.”

Capcom had pushed more money than ever before into the launch of Street Fighter II and the game was an instant global success, even though it began to pick up pace slowly at first in Japan. There have been innumerable sequel releases to the game, with SFV being the last one released in 2016. The mechanics of the game have come a long way, from being its clunky former self in 1987 to becoming beautifully choreographed and seamless fights.

The Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo) was a tournament founded in 1996 wherein players from across the world competed to be the best in their respective fighting games. It is a chance for those who are a part of the fighting game community to showcase their talents and go on to become Evo Champion. Street Fighter’s contribution to the tournament—as well as to help revive a dying interest in fighting games—is a story that never gets old.

Evo 2004 was a highly anticipated event that took place in California. Thousands congregated in the hope that they would get to watch Justin Wong (American) and Daigo Umehara (Japanese)—both of whom were touted to be the best when it came to Street Fighter—face off against each other. To add to the excitement, these two legends had never played against each other; both have extremely different playing styles, with Umehara touted to have a slight upper hand with his more traditional and defensive gameplay. Wong, on the other hand, was (and still is) a master that can turn the tables at any given point.

Wong’s choice of character was Chun Li while Umehara opted to go with Ken. Wong nailed the first round, and Umehara the second. It all came down to who would win the ‘final round’ of the match.

In the final round, Wong played it smart and had a tactical upper hand over Umehara, slowly draining his energy with timed attacks. Wong’s Chun Li had a fair amount of health left whereas Umehara’s Ken had barely a pixel of health left; his health bar looked practically empty except for a speck. A single attack by Chun Li, if it connected, would knock out Ken. Wong’s eyes lit up as he began sensing a win, and he decided to go in for the jugular.

What happened next is referred to as ‘Evo moment 37’—a moment of exceptional brilliance executed by Umehara under tremendous pressure, in a room filled with thousands of screaming fans.

Wong used Chun Li’s multi-hit “super art” with the aim of inflicting what is called “chip damage” in the fighting game community. Chip damage occurs when a player’s energy reduces marginally upon blocking another player’s attacks. Chun Li’s 15-hit move was sure to knock Ken out of the game. But instead of blocking it, Umehara chose to parry all 15 attacks—something that was unheard of and is not humanly possible, even today. In order to execute 15 successful parries, Umehara had to predict exactly when Wong would launch his special attack, and then, use split-second timing to parry each of Chun Li’s attacks. By parrying the move, no chip damage was inflicted upon Ken, who then, instantly after parrying, went on to execute a special move of his own and knockout Chun Li with just a few seconds left on the clock. Fans went ballistic and this iconic moment went on to be called ‘Evo moment 37’, and Umehara had the Daigo Parry named after him.

Today, Street Fighter is a game that has some of the most hardcore fans in the fighting game community, most of them who play and practice hours every day, hoping to have an Evo moment of their own. But miracles such as the Diago Parry don’t happen every day. It takes a special kind of game to evoke true rivalry between players—and Evo Moment 37 is a testament to this fact.