Street fighter II

After countless quarters eaten and far too many re-releases, we're celebrating the release of the original version of Street Fighter II across arcades in North America. That's right, Street Fighter II has officially turned 25—let that sink in for minute. Sure, Street Fighter II Turbo, Championship Edition, Super, and all the other versions of the game have their own subsequent anniversaries to come as well, but this is the anniversary of the one that matters the most. Let's not act surprised at how many times Capcom re-released Street Fighter IV when the company has been doing this from the get-go. More importantly, let's look at the monumental influence Street Fighter II had, as it basically introduced the fighting game genre to the masses when it started spawning crowds around its arcade cabinets in the '90s.

Brock Lesnar destroyed a car on WWE's Monday Night Raw, and some talented YouTuber added sound and visual effects from Street Fighter II's bonus stage to it.

Ryu and the Street Fighter II gang made it look easy when they were destroying cars with their fists and bare feet.

There's no Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile in these accurate and amazing trailers for the upcoming fan film, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist.

It’s tempting to skip directly from 1987’s Street Fighter to 1991’s Street Fighter II to celebrate the success Capcom had in refining the fighting game formula, but a lot can happen in four years.

Snake versus mongoose. Chocolate versus peanut butter. Ryu versus Ken. Such rivalries have existed since the dawn of time, and while the first two are outside of our area of expertise, the friendly competition between fierce-eyed Ryu Hoshi and blonde-haired Ken Masters is one we can safely pick a winner for. These two train as brothers, occasionally putting their skills to the test with a bit of s