Street Fighter II

Street Fighter II was a revolutionary arcade game by Capcom that not only single-handedly changed the entire face of arcades for several years after it's release, but strongly dictated sales trends for the consoles it was released on.

The game featured a line up of eight characters which a player could choose from to battle all the other fighters around the world. Once the other characters had been defeated, four boss characters could be battled, ending with M. Bison (Vega in Japan).

Please see the Street Fighter II move list for a list of all the special moves.

Cast and story
M. Bison, ruler of Shadoloo crime syndicate based in Thailand, sponsors the "second" Street Fighting tournament. The first one ended when Ryu defeated the reigning champion, muy-thai kick boxer Sagat, with a devastating Shoryuken uppercut across his chest. Several of the events that lead to the second tournament have been retconned since the development of the Street Fighter Alpha series which takes place between Street Fighter I and Street Fighter II. (Although it is commonly believed that Ken competed in the first Street Fighter tournament due to his appearance in the game as the second player, he did not actually participate according to Capcom's official continuity.)

Selectable characters

 * Blanka: A mutant who grew up in the jungles of the Amazon in Brazil, after being separated from his mother in a plane crash. He enters the tournament in hopes of finding his mother.
 * Chum Li: A member of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, who is searching for clues leading to the identity of her father's murderer. She suspects that M. Bison is responsible.  She is considered to be a student of master martial artist and fellow street fighter Gen.
 * Dhalsim: Generally a pacifist, Dhalsim uses his Yoga endowed super-natural limb stretching abilities to compete in the tournament to raise money for his impoverished village.
 * E. Honda: Dismayed by the thought that the world does not take Sumo Wrestling seriously, Edmond sees the tournament as the opportunity to prove to the world that sumos are the ultimate fighters.
 * Guile: Aware that his senior officer, and best friend, Charlie died at the hands of M. Bison during a dangerous escape, Guile is bent on avenging his friend's death and taking M. Bison down at any cost, possibly even the love of his family.
 * Ken Masters: The son of a wealthy business man, Ken was an unruly child until his father thought it might be best to send him to Japan to learn discipline through martial arts training. Along with his sparring partner Ryu, under the training of Gouken, he became one of the greatest fighters with a passion for proving it.
 * Ryu: Orphaned at a very early age, Ryu was adopted by Gouken who raised and trained him in the art of Goutetsu-ryū Ansatsuken. Eventually, Ken joined them in Gouken remote mountain home in Japan, and the two became fast friends.  Events in Ryu's life lead him to constantly struggle between the mastery of fighting techniques, and the mastery of self control.  As a result, he seeks out a constant stream of fighting challenges to test his own abilities.
 * Zangief: After becoming the greatest wrestler in all of Russia, and loosely entering several world competitions, the second Street Fighter tournament gives Zangief an opportunity to simultaneously prove that he is the greatest fighter in the world, and single handedly shut down the ruthless Shadoloo crime syndicate for his motherland.

Boss characters

 * Balrog: Once a great boxing champion in America, Balrog was disgraced when he was stripped of his title for his brutality and increasing use of illegal moves such as head butts. Full of shame, he is recruited by M. Bison to become a high ranking henchman in Shadoloo, giving him a purpose again.
 * Vega: Vega prizes beauty above everything else in life. The son of a Spanish bullfighter and a Japanese ninja, he has combined techniques from both parents in to a deadly martial arts that involves the use of a claw weapon on one hand.  M. Bison recruits him for his ability as an assassin and due to his reputation for cruelty.
 * Sagat: Once the greatest muy-thai kick boxer and mighty world street fighting champion, Sagat experienced tremendous shame for losing to diminutive (compared to himself) Ryu. Forsaking everything else, he trained endlessly for a rematch with Ryu when he encountered M. Bison.  With no interest in Shadoloo, he declined the invitation to join until M. Bison promised him that if he joined, he would almost certainly face Ryu again.
 * M. Bison: Seeing himself as the rightful dictator of the world, M. Bison appreciates the power of the human fighting spirit, and technology's ability to enhance it, over firearms and weapons of mass destruction. M. Bison officially hosts the second tournament of world warriors in an effort to isolate and employ only the greatest warriors that the world has to offer, forcefully if necessary.

Controls
One player may compete against the computer, or two players may simultaneousy compete against each other. Each player has an 8-way joystick and 6 buttons.

The buttons on the arcade are typically laid out in the following fashion: The L, M, and H stands for light, medium, and hard respectively. In general, light attacks are less powerful and faster, and hard attacks are more powerful but slower, with medium attacks in between.

The joystick works intuitively in that pressnig left will generally move your character left, and pressing right will generally move your character right. But it is more important to think in terms of relative direction. For this reason, all instructions are given with respect to forward and backward since the left and right directions change purpose when your character switches directions.
 * If your character is facing to the right, then pressing left on the joystick means backward, and pressing right on the joystick means forward.
 * If your character is facing to the left, then pressing left on the joystick means forward, and pressing right on the joystick means backward.

The following directions assume that you are facing right, the starting direction of every fight for player one, who begins on the left side:

Rules
Each battle consists of best-of-three round match between you and your opponent. At the start of each round, both player's life or health bars are full. The first player to drive the other player's health bar to zero wins the round. The first player to win two total rounds wins the match and moves on to the next opponent. If a single player loses to the computer, the game is over and the player must continue to rematch the recent opponent.

Attacking
To win a round, the player must use his or her character's attack moves to damage the opponent, and block or dodge the opponent's attacks. Each player may attack from a standing or crouching position, or they may jump in to the air and attack. To attack from a standing position, press any single attack button. To attack from a crouching position, pull the joystick in a downward direction (including both diagonals) and press any single attack button. To attack from the air, direct your character to jump straight up, or jump in a diagonal position, and press any single attack button in mid-air.

Blocking
To block an attack, a player must push backwards on the joystick when the opponent attacks (otherwise, pressing back on the joystick moves the player away from the opponent.) Blocking can be done standing which blocks middle and high attacks, as well as attacks in the air, but does not block attacks which are low to the ground. Blocking can also be down crouching by pressing the joystick diagonally down and back. A Crouching block will successfully block low and middle attacks. High attacks will usually go over your character's head if they are crouching, but a crouching block does not defend against air attacks.

Special Attacks
In addition to normal attacks there are attacks known as command moves and special moves. Command moves are special combinations of a joystick direction and a particular attack button that produces a different attack than when the button is pressed alone. A special move is a move that requires a more complicated joystick motion and an attack button to perform. For example, Ken and Ryu's fireball attack, called Hadouken, is performed by sliding the joystick in a circular sweeping motion from down to forward, and finished off with any punch button. In this example, the strength of the punch button used happens to dictate the speed at which Ken and Ryu's fireball attack travels across the screen. Special attacks can be blocked like any other attack, but they do what's known as "tick damage." That is, even when blocked, they removed a single hit point from your health bar. Most special moves have a pause associated with them that leave you vulnerable to attack if you miss the opponent, or "whiff".

Throwing
The last form of attack available in this game is a throw. Throws are executed by standing immediately next to your opponent, pressing the joystick either towards or away, and pressing a punch or kick button. If performed correctly, your character will grab the opponent and toss them to the ground in a manner specific to your character's fighting style. Different characters have a different array of throws, so while some characters can throw with the medium punch button, not all characters can. In general, every character can throw with the hard punch button, and no character can throw with the light punch or light kick button. Throws are unblockable.