Street Fighter (Arcade)

"One must acknowledges the predecessor". That words don't come from some historic person, by the way. Unless you think that i am historic enough to you (which -let's be honest- i'm not). Following my own word, thus i play the Street Fighter before the 2nd ones which become trendsetting of fighting games. Yep, instead of the famous Street Fighter II , i review the obscured Street Fighter (1987) 

Here we have some artistic graffiti that presumably made by some talented Capcom's fans. Besides the largest graffiti of all "Capcom", there's also graffiti of Capcom's game titles. Such as: Wings from presumably Legendary Wings, Section Z, Avengers, Trojan and the least readable ones on right bottom corner: Commando. But suddenly some bloke punches the wall from behind, making the Capcom graffiti destroyed. I know that it's not entirely destroyed but still. Although he has rules to cue the title of the game, i can't forgive him for breaking this fine graffiti. I will get him as soon as i start the game.   

But before i can get to the street fighting, i have to choose which country should i go first. The countries are represented by their flag, sure. But i don't think it's necessary for Capcom to draw the flags in such realistic way: pinned with nail on each corner. Just plain flag will be fine. Anyway, i think that git is from USA so i choose the star and stripes flag.

Yes, that's him! As there's no character selection, i'm stuck as the pioneer of Shoto: Ryu. I don't mind about that as i like naive fighter like him. I notice that his hair is red like in Street Fighter Alpha series. Later his hair turns to brown in Street Fighter 2 and much much later in Street Fighter V it becomes black. While in Capcom Vs SNK, Ryu's hair is dark blue. It amazes me for Capcom to be so indecisive creative with the hair of Ryu meanwhile Ken Master (the 2nd player in this game) always has blonde hair.

Just like its sequel, SF uses 6 buttons: 3 buttons to punch, and 3 buttons to kick. There's 3 strength of punch/kick: weak, medium, and strong. Left or right direction to move left or right. Up for jumping and down for crouching. Hold away direction to block enemy's attack. All the basic are here.

 

As you expect from the legendary shoto guy, Ryu can unleashes Hadou Ken. It will be great if it hits but as you can see Joe manage to jump out of it and he delivers the finishing blow swiftly. 1st match goes to him.

What a smug face! And also cocky laughter. Engineer_taunts12.wav   

Of course, Ryu can do Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku or Tornado kick as what Ryu shouts it. The move can deal substantial amount of damage if it connects. That also goes to Hadou Ken. But here's the thing about the special moves: they're difficult to pull off even if you're get used to their input which are very easy. They don't have the same consistency as the later installment is another way to say it.      

I have no idea what happens here. Yes, we got hit at the same time. I know that much. But what's the detail? I really don't know or rather don't remember. You can tell that the situation is chaotic as our body fly close to each other while there's unconnected hit splash on far right.  

Eventually, i can beat him. Not so cocky now with bruised face, aren't you? Do note that, every fighter has the same quote as Joe's, except for the boss.

Next opponent is Mike who i assume is Mike Tyson and i fight him near Mt. Rushmore, the most American place besides near Liberty Statue. He's not tougher than Joe. Next! 

I'm big embarrassment of martial art world because i let everyone here knows that i suck at breaking a stack of roof tile. In my defense, this minigame use an "unorthodox" mean: you have to press the button with correct timing instead of mashing the button like in first Mortal Kombat which i can nail it everytime. Everyone looks angry except for that bloke in front row with brown jacket. He looks confused and as if says "What on earth did i just see?". I like him.

After that embarrassing martial art exhibition, i travel back to Japan. I said travel back because Ryu's home is in Japan, you see. Once again, i complaint about the correctness of my beloved country, Indonesia's  geography. Java Island is only 8%. Borneo/Kalimantan Island lose some weight and is that Halmahera Island on east of it? That's way too close! Besides there's supposed to be Sulawesi Island which has the size of 90% Borneo/Kalimantan Island and it's not there. Irian Island lose its "head" at western part. This geography is slightly more accurate than in Mario Is Missing!. Only slightly.

My first opponent is Retsu...and he already down. Never bring a (presumably) pacifist monk to street fighter tournament! That's a valuable lesson, we can learn. Hey! I reckon that huge building on background is in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. That's another thing that we can learn.

Next opponent is Geki, the ninja. Man! He sure likes to teleport a lot. You're not Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Get back here and fight!

He stops teleporting but now he chucks shuriken at me. A dozen of them! I know you're ninja but please! Don't be so jerk like that! You can block the shuriken but the blocking aren't so responsive just like in case of special moves. Heavy_jeers05.wav

Eventually, i can defeat the bastard ninja. With that, i can move on to this wooden block breaking minigame. the 2 on bottom are easy to deal with. As for the one on top...isn't so easy. I notice that my straight vertical jump has lower height than my forward/backward jump. Or maybe i can use jumping punch to deal with that ones instead of jumping kick. By the way, i'm impressed with people totem on the left. 

I move on to England to fight...Oh shoot! It's Birdie! There's no throw at all in this game. But even without his devastating throw, Birdie is very dangerous thanks to his high-damaging headbutt...on my crotch!

Therefore, i change my strategy a bit from "Jumping kick a lot" to "Crouching sweep a lot with just a bit of jumping kick" and it works well! I notice that store's name is Block Heads. Maybe Birdie is the owner if you what i mean. ;p

Next opponent is Eagle. Compare to some miserable git who like to teleport around and throw shuriken a lot, a bloke with pair of batons feels way fairer. You may recognize him from Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on PSP and his stage is also the same here. That makes 2 character that i encounter so far that appears in other Street Fighter game. Maybe that castle there is a part of Cammy's stage in Street Fighter II. Or maybe i was wrong.

Finally! I can throw soul fireball at him and i got perfect health! Sniper_cheers06.wav

This time, i must break a stack of concrete block. Is it just me or the audience mostly look stoned?

Yep, i failed again. I learnt nothing and everyone look disappointed and furious. No one win.

Then i move to China and fight Lee on none other than The Great Wall of China! What other famous landmark that we can use to establish fighting match other than the wall? The forbidden city? Well. It's forbidden for street fighting, y'know?

Wow! I fight the old man assassin Gen himself, this time. By the way, this is how i fight most of the time. Lots of jumping kicking and crouching sweep. I can't show you more "artistic"  fighting style because of the inconsistent input of special moves. I'm big fool, indeed.

Next stop is Thailand, land of elephant and Muay Thai boxing. First strike that happens in the match is: Adon punches me in the nut in air. Now, i see the trend of evil characters in Street Fighter Alpha in here: they like to aim my genitalia. The cheeky sods. Besides that, Adon here like to jumping attack on me until i'm cornered. Do you know what will be nice in this situation? A responsive dragon punch! You can imagine if it's very hard to do Hadou Ken then unleashing dragon punch is almost impossible. I can only do it once when i don't need it.   

Of course, the next opponent is Adon's mentor: Sagat. Man! He looks very smug.

Fine! You can be smug as your Tiger Shoot can depletes my health by 60% in a flash.

On next round, i get my revenge by shooting Hadou Ken at him! How do you like that? >:) 

Okay, fine! You win! 3X

 

As you expect from the final opponent, Sagat is harder to beat than that ninja sod. Besides his projectile deal devastating damage, Sagat also is the only one who is sensible enough to dodge my sweep by raising his feet. But he's not in SNK Boss' tier of unfairness. With more sweeping/jump kicking and savestate, i beat him eventually.

I try to recreate a dramatic scene where Sagat get his famous scar along his torso by doing dragon uppercut as finishing blow but it's really tricky to do so i give up. Instead i give him Hadou Ken which less dramatic but satisfying enough.

Also, it's satisfying to see Sagat's bruised face. I kind of wonder why Sagat is the best street fighter in the world as his stage isn't in street. He should be disqualified as street fighter from the beginning.

After watching recap of defeated faces of my opponent, i'm told that i earn the title of "King of The Hill". Not "King of The Street"? Sure, whatever. As long as not "King of Fighter" because that's belong to SNK.

Then i got to write my name for top score. Those tigers may cue Sagat but damn! They look very dorky. They're certainly not representative of Sagat's might, for sure.

As for "Insert coin to continue" screen, there's  this time bomb that also serves as countdown to game over. Why using time bomb? Is it necessary to punish the street fighting failure with a bomb? According to some rumor, Final Fight the pioneer's of side scroller brawler, is supposed to be the sequel of this game by the name of Street Fighter 89 but later Capcom rename it and make the real sequel much much later. Therefore explaining the time bomb here.

Capcom's Street FIghter (1987) is the early Street Fighter game and probably the best fighting game at the time. But for nowadays' standard, the game is really janky thanks to rough control. Besides unresponsive blocking and special moves that i have mentioned, the left/right movement isn't like what you want.  You expect smooth sidestep, right? But this game implements jerky sidehop instead. Due to that, the special moves become unresponsive or you will be defenseless in longer period if you try to input the special move command. Also the jumping kick is janky. Ryu will only extend his leg after he's in last 15% arc of his jump not as soon as you press the kick button like what you expect. The damage ratio is chunky this can mean either good or bad, it's up to your judgment. Personally, i like fighting game that deploys relative big damage value like in Asura Blade or Asura Buster thus making the game pace brisk. The music isn't catchy and not worth to listen for. The voice is horrid. It's too bass-y and muffled.

Aside for historic value or curiosity, there's no reason for you to play this prototype of Street Fighter as the gameplay is straight bad. You better play the famous Street Fighter II or Fighting Master. That last one is my personal taste, by the way. But one thing that's good in this game is Ryu wears shoe! Wicked, isn't?