I do a Games History course for my degree, my task is to write a 2000 word essay on Street Fighter. The essay can be on “any” aspect of street fighter, it could be about the gameplay, the street fighter 2 that revolutionised fighting games, the revolution of arcades thanks to it, capcoms success, ANYTHING!
So i’ve decided to talk about various random chunks above, i’m mainly talking about Street Fighter 2 because its success and how it changed many things, im focusing on the gameplay aspect more than the business aspect for Capcom.
What i’m after is ideas to add to my Essay, the more interesting or unknown it is the more marks I get. It could be about the evolution a character, or perhaps how its played professionally such as people learn about how many frames an ability takes to use. “ANYTHING” at all, so if you guys can just throw loads of random ideas at me, that would be fantastic
So far ive planned to talk about SF2, and what that done to the the gaming industry, for the consumers and how many other companys started to copy it. Ill talk about how it plays and why it was popular, then planning to move on to the many games that Capcom spawned as improvements to the previous Street Fighters…
So yes, any info you guys may be able to add, please go for it!
Are you doing this with absolutely no prior knowledge of the series? You could get 2000 words easily just talking about the precedents/mainstays in the industry that SF2 set. Things like cancel combos (2-in-1s), super combos in ST, multiple characters, fireball/shoto characters, dizzies, etc. I don’t know if that’s something you’d like to write about, but it’s a start.
PS: Check my glossary in the Saikyo Dojo if you get confused on the jargon.
I think he likely know the more commonly known bits of info but is looking for some ideas, insights, etc. that he might have missed so as to make a better paper.
Personally, for me, SFII and it’s iterations was a major precursor to our current age of constant patching, updating. IMO SFII was one of the first major examples of a company taking the initiative to learn how the players were playing their game and then use that as a way to improve it - the most obvious example would be how combos started as “glitch” in SFII, yet became an integral part of the game such that they were being measured and scored by the time Super rolled around.
2000 words is a lot fewer than you think. Try to stay focused and use as little fighting game jargon as you can.
I’d personally talk about the mini arcade revolution of the early 90s sparked by SF2, the lull, and reemergence of the popularity of the genre following sf4. This gives insight in to the scene people on the outside can understand.
Maybe give a bit of history of the competitive scene? Like, talk about the Legend of Tomo, and the other OG champs like Jeff Schaefer etc., and then like the rise of Valle, the Valle vs. Daigo moment, into the current dominance of the north american scene by Justin Wong, and his rivalry with Daigo.
There’s a lot of history in Street Fighter, 2000 words should come together pretty easily, just stay away from technical stuff if you can, no games history course instructor wants to read about FADC ultra.
Just read the thread on my sig and the Tomo Ohira one. Forget the Alpha and SF3 BS, they are not as important in the first place and 2k words is already not enough for SF2.
Seek out the Jeff Schaefer vids and the Tomo thread and a few other things like it around here. Those will be good for history of the early competitive scene.
Actually I know quite alot about the series, been a fan since SF2 the main target of my essay is research, the interesting information I can talk about in it the better grade I get. I know quite a good bit already… but talking about things what d3v said, how combos started as a glitch from SF2, thats like WOW! knowledge, major points for my work with that.
Thanks for the tips guys, please keep them coming if you can
