History VideoGame / StreetFighterI

-->-- '''[[{{Narm}} The warbled voice of the defeated opponent after finishing a stage]]'''

* NoAntagonist: Since this is the only playable World Fighting Championship tournament that is not run by a criminal organization or criminal, there is no BigBad. While Sagat organized this tournament, he is morally clean in this game and therefore not a BigBad.

It's a far cry from [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII the sequel]] that revolutionized the industry, but it did feature many of the staples of the series: a six-button control setup; the best-out-of-three match structure; Ryu and Ken, naturally; and even many of the now-common motions for special attacks. Notoriously, the original cabinet for the game had a two-button, [[PressureSensitiveInterface pressure-sensitive layout]] rather than the standard cherry switch six-button layout, one for punches and one for kicks, to control the strength of the attack. It was confusing to use and more expensive to maintain than most standard cabinets, so a new cabinet that featured the more familiar six-button configuration seen in all the follow ups was offered as a cheaper alternative.

It's a far cry from [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII the sequel]] that revolutionized the industry, but it did feature many of the staples of the series: a six-button control setup; the best-out-of-three match structure; Ryu and Ken, naturally; and even many of the now-common motions for special attacks. Notoriously, the original cabinet for the game had a two-button, pressure sensitive layout rather than the standard cherry switch six-button layout, one for punches and one for kicks, to control the strength of the attack. It was confusing to use and more expensive to maintain than most standard cabinets, so a new cabinet that featured the more familiar six-button configuration seen in all the follow ups was offered as a cheaper alternative.

It's a far cry from [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII the sequel]] that revolutionized the industry, but it did feature many of the staples of the series: a six-button control setup; the best-out-of-three match structure; Ryu and Ken, naturally; and even many of the now-common motions for special attacks. Alternate arcade cabinets could be found that were also the first to use a two-button, pressure sensitive layout rather than the standard cherry switch six-button layout, one for punches and one for kicks, to control the strength of the attack. It was confusing to use and more expensive to maintain than most standard cabinets, so a version that featured the more familiar six-button configuration seen in all the follow ups was offered as a cheaper alternative.

** [[EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference Ryu is quite different in terms of design]]; his hair is red and he wears a pair of red shoes. ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'', in line with its status as an {{interquel}}, would give Ryu auburn hair as a sort of transition between his red hair here and his brown hair in [[VideoGame/StreetFighterII the sequel]], but would not reverse [[DoesNotLikeShoes Ryu's preference for going barefoot]] that was established in ''SFII''.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Considering the time the game was made.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: A few of the characters introduced here (Joe, Lee, Retsu, and Geki) never showed up again. Mike is an unusual case, as while there is another boxer known as Mike Bison in Japan,[[note]]Balrog outside Japan[[/note]] who was introduced in the sequel, Capcom considers them to be separate characters.

* LongBusTrip: Only Ryu, Ken, and Sagat would return in ''Street Fighter II'', while Birdie, Adon, and Gen would not come back until the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' series along with Eagle in ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]]''. Geki, Retsu, Joe, Mike, and Lee have yet to make a return appearance as fighters in any further game.[[note]]Retsu and Lee have their own character cards in the original ''[[VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom Card Fighters Clash]]'' for the Neo Geo Pocket and its sequel.[[/note]] Joe has it the worst as he isn't mentioned even in speculative canonicity.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The A.I. opponents, even as early as your very first battle, [[PerfectPlayAI have high reaction times]] [[FakeDifficulty that seem to be reading your inputs]], and can knock you out in about four or five hits. So naturally the only way to really assure victory is to either be obscenely good at fighting with the ''terrible'' controls, abuse the hell out of your special moves to K.O. them in only three hits, or use the aforementioned AIBreaker strategies. This rapidly goes FromBadToWorse in the Sagat battle, because he has special moves too -- and they can K.O. you ''in two hits''.

A port of the game, ''Fighting Street'', was released for the [[UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 TurboGrafx-CD]] (and, later, the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} [[http://geekwing.net/posts/803 Virtual Console]]) as well as more properly named ports on PC.

* {{Shoryuken}}: [[RuleOfThree Good luck pulling off this, too]], but when you do, it's worth the effort. With perfect positioning and/or some luck, landing it will score a [[OneHitKill One-Hit K.O.]] on the opponent. [[note]]It's actually three, as it can hit up to three times with each hit takes off 1/3 of the opponent's LifeMeter.[[/note]]

--> ''"What strength! But don't forget there are many guys like you all over the world!"''

---> ''"What strength! But don't forget that there are many guys like you all over the world!"''

---> ''"You've outlasted the best. You are now the strongest [[TitleDrop street fighter]] in the world!"''

--> ''"I wish you good luck!"''

-->-- '''[[{{Narm}} The warbled voice of the defeated opponent after finishing a stage]].'''

''Street Fighter'' is a FightingGame which was released in arcades in 1987 and the first installment in the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' series. The game features two martial artists, Ryu and Ken, who travel around the globe taking on some of the best fighters in the world, culminating with a match against the massive Thai kickboxer Sagat.

* DualTonfas: Technically kali sticks, but Eagle fights with these.

* DisproportionateRetribution: The continue screen is a 10-second time bomb. Assuming that it's intended to kill the player, this is an unusually extreme punishment for losing.

* LongBusTrip: Only Ryu, Ken, and Sagat would return in ''Street Fighter II'', while Birdie, Adon, and Gen would not come back until the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' series along with Eagle in ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]]''. Geki, Retsu, Joe, Mike, and Lee have yet to make a return appearance as fighters in any further game. [[note]]Retsu and Lee have their own character cards in the original ''[[VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom Card Fighters Clash]]'' for the Neo Geo Pocket and its sequel.[[/note]] Joe has it the worst as he isn't mentioned even in speculative canonicity.

** Ryu defeating Sagat with his Shoryuken, [[EveryScarHasAStory leaving Sagat with his iconic chest scar]] that served as the foundation of his heated rivalry with Ryu for sequels to come was a {{retcon}} from ''Street Fighter II''. Not only does the first game not have this, [[GracefulLoser Sagat takes his defeat quite well]]. [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Later on, this too would be retconned]]: Ryu ''didn't'' win the tournament, Sagat did. However, Ryu's [[TheDarkSide darker instincts]] took over and he scarred Sagat with a cheap shot [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Metsu Shoryuken]] after the match ended.

* LongBusTrip: Only Ryu, Ken, and Sagat would return in ''Street Fighter II'', while Birdie, Adon, and Gen would not come back until the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha'' series along with Eagle in ''[[VideoGame/CapcomVsSNK2MarkOfTheMillennium Capcom vs. SNK 2]]''. Geki, Retsu, Joe, and Lee have yet to make a return appearance as fighters in any further game. [[note]]Retsu and Lee have their own character cards in the original ''[[VideoGame/SNKVsCapcom Card Fighters Clash]]'' for the Neo Geo Pocket and its sequel.[[/note]] Joe has it the worst as he isn't mentioned even in speculative canonicity. Mike was clearly originally the character known as Mike Bison from Street Fighter II onward (whose name was changed to "Balrog" in the US to avoid trouble with Mike Tyson, upon whom he was based), but CAPCOM has since retconned this Mike and Mike Bison/Balrog as being the same person as of the ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' era. [[note]]Geki is hinted to either have trained Vega, or be a member of Ibuki's clan, or a member of a rival clan to Ibuki's -- the latter is seen in her ''[[ComicBook/StreetFighter Legends]]'' miniseries.[[/note]]

* SuperSpecialMove: Sagat has a couple of these.
** Tiger Genocide is a combo stringing together his Knee and Uppercut specials. Later versions would add flourishes like a flaming uppercut as the finisher.
** "Tiger Cannon" is an empowered Tiger Shot that deals multiple hits, and has a much bigger hitbox. ''V'' would downplay this though by reducing the move to a V-Trigger.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: A few of the characters introduced here (Joe, Lee, Retsu, and Geki) never showed up again. Mike (last name Bison) is an unusual case, as he's clearly the character Western audiences know from Street Fighter II onward as "Balrog," (which is the claw-wielding character's name in Japan, while "Vega" is the dictator character's name in Japan) but CAPCOM has treated him as a different character due to the name switch, which only occurred to avoid potential legal trouble with Creator/MikeTyson, on whom the character was based.

** If you're expecting the game to end with Ryu defeating Sagat with his Shoryuken, [[EveryScarHasAStory leaving Sagat with]] [[GoodScarsEvilScars his iconic chest scar]] that served as the foundation of his heated rivalry with Ryu for sequels to come, then you'll be disappointed to learn that there's no such ending in this game unless you finish him with a Shoryuken yourself. That was purely a {{retcon}} from ''Street Fighter II''. Not only is there no scar, [[GracefulLoser Sagat takes his defeat quite well]]. [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Later on, this too would be retconned]]: Ryu ''didn't'' win the tournament, Sagat did. However, Ryu's [[TheDarkSide darker]] [[KillingIntent instincts]] took over and he scarred Sagat with a cheap shot [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Metsu Shoryuken]] after the match ended.

** If you're expecting the game to end with Ryu defeating Sagat with his Shoryuken, [[EveryScarHasAStory leaving Sagat with]] [[GoodScarsEvilScars his iconic chest scar]] that served as the foundation of his heated rivalry with Ryu for sequels to come, then you'll be disappointed to learn that there's no such ending in this game. That was purely a {{retcon}} from ''Street Fighter II''. Not only is there no scar, [[GracefulLoser Sagat takes his defeat quite well]]. [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Later on, this too would be retconned]]: Ryu ''didn't'' win the tournament, Sagat did. However, Ryu's [[TheDarkSide darker]] [[KillingIntent instincts]] took over and he scarred Sagat with a cheap shot [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique Metsu Shoryuken]] after the match ended.

* DifficultButAwesome: All three special moves are hard to pull off, but take off 1/3 of the enemy's entire LifeMeter for each hit; the main issue arises from the game processing input not on button press but on button ''release''. The classic {{Shoryuken}} is the biggest example of this, requiring an awkward stick input (right, down, down-right; known as a Z-motion or the Dragon Punch motion in more modern terminology), but not only does it do up to 3 hits--i.e. an ''instant K.O.'' if all of them connect--it's ''{{unblockable|Attack}}''. Mastering the Shoryuken allows you to cheese the entire game.