The game was playable for two, although, players took control only of Ryu during Arcade mode fighting battles against ten computer controlled opponents from different nations. But for 2P versus, second players would play as Ryu's best friend and training partner, Ken Masters. On that time before playing Street Fighter with controllers, people played this game with joysticks and buttons at the Arcades. Players would perform Ryu's most remembered techniques such as "Psycho Fire" (波動拳 Hadōken, "Surge Fist"), the "Dragon Punch" (昇龍拳 Shoryūken, "Rising Dragon Fist") and the "Hurricane Kick" (竜巻旋風脚 Tatsumaki Senpū Kyaku, "Tornado Whirlwind Kick").
At the end of the game, players would fight against Ryu's most deadliest rival, Sagat. Sagat and Ryu's rivalry would begin in this game as we all remember that massive scar on Sagat's chest, casued by Ryu's Metsu Shoryuken.
Street Fighter II and Special Editions
Players would no longer only play as Ryu and Ken, but play as six new fighters. As well as old returning enemies. New techniques, new awesome fighting styles such as: Karate, Sumo, Kung Fu, Boxing, Ninjitsu, Military Hand-to-Hand Combat and Thai Kickboxing were seen in this awesome title.
Street Fighter II was so popular that it spawned special editions with new colored costumes, fiery Hadoukens and Shoryukens, and even aerial Hurricane Kicks. Everyone remembers special Street Fighter II editions such as: Champion Edition, Hyper Fighting, New Challengers, Super Turbo, Anniversary Edition and HD Remix. New Challengers introduced four new fighters: Cammy, Dee Jay, Fei Long, and T-Hawk. The game was more story driven than it's predecessor, and each fighter fought in The World Warrior tournament to either prove themselves the best or for a personal vendetta against the game's main antagonist, Bison. Each of them have their own endings as well.
Street Fighter II not only spawned an Animated Movie, which was a great success, but also an anime and US cartoon series. In 1994, a live action movie was released with Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile and Raul Julia as Bison. Reviews for the movie were overwhelmingly negative by both fans of the game and movie critics. The US cartoon series was a follow-up to the movie and it was not as successful as the anime. In 2009, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li was released, and was received with the same negativity as the first live action movie. Legend of Chun Li was more Street Fighter Alpha than Street Fighter II.
Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter III
Street Fighter Alpha and it's sequels would have upgraded graphics and sprites, random voice acting, and so on. The voice acting of Street Fighter Alpha would not only include shouts of techniques, but also some random dialogue such as Ken saying: Yatta Ne!.
The gameplay would be the same in terms of punching and kicking, but this is the first game to introduce new features such as the Super Combo system, in which characters would unleash techniques so powerful that could defeat opponents in a flash, such as Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu ((瞬獄殺, "Instant Hell Murder"). As the sequels were made, more new characters appeared, including ones from Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II. The last Street Fighter game on the SNES was Street Fighter Alpha II, since at that time the Nintendo 64 would be released. However, Street Fighter Alpha would still be on the Game Boy Color, and Alpha III would be on Arcade, PlayStation and even the Game Boy Advance.
A special trivia is that Ryu's sprite sheet from SF3 would be used for a flash movie titled "Ryu vs. Scorpion", in which Ryu would fight against Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. That flash movie garnered insane positive reviews.
Street Fighter IV
The story of the game takes place several months after Street Fighter II, and Bison's encounter with Akuma. The S.I.N. corporation began another fighting tournament in order to draw out the most powerful fighters on Earth to complete the BLECE project. Each character has their own reasons for entering this tournament, but S.I.N.'s real desire is to lure Ryu to them in order to analyze the Satsui no Hadō, believed to be the last piece of data needed to complete BLECE. The tournament is publicly organized by S.I.N., apparently using preliminary matches and a point system to determine who is allowed to enter (as shown by the conversation between Seth and his lackey about how Dan Hibiki was able to "squeak by with just enough points to qualify"). It can be assumed that the only participants in the tournament are the playable characters in SFIV not including Seth.
The new characters are Abel, Crimson Viper, Gouken, Rufus, Seth, and El Fuerte (Spanish for The Strong One). In Super Street Fighter IV, the characters included were the ones from Street Fighter, Super Street Fighter II and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. The game also included an animated movie known as Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind.
God Bless and Play Hard Gamers!