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| Teams & Paths, Part 1 At the core Street Fighter is a game that requires skill and the ability to learn combination moves, discover hidden moves and develop tactics when fighting opponents. This basic game design has served the series well and has been copied time and time again by developers from all over the world. There are many reasons no other studio has been able to reap the same success as Capcom in the fighting genre. Imitating the Street Fighter games and evolutions rather than developing a unique title has been at the forefront as to why other studios fail to gain any success. The lack of an established art and animation teams with superb programming and visionary direction from Noritaka Funamizu, Akira Nishitani and Yoshiki Okamoto also hurts competitors chances for gaining any ground on Capcom. However these elements do become stagnant if nothing else is added in the life of the genre or franchise. The Street Fighter series has provided the largest number of evolutions in the genre, some of these include hidden moves, special moves, combos, a plot and continuity. Other titles from several studios have also contributed unique elements to the genre. SNK put layers from where fighters could strike each other in the game Fatal Fury. Virtua Fighter was among the first dedicated 3D fighting games, Tekken took the concept of fantastic characters similar to SF and placed them in three dimensions as well. Tohshinden and Tobal No. 1 were among the first to mix elements of 2D and 3D fighters and allow free 360 degree reign of a level. Mortal Kombat innovated live actors in the place of cartoon sprites and the controversial fatalities. Primal Rage introduced stop-motion clay animation in sprite design as well as massive, loopable combos. Killer Instinct introduced CGI-rendered sprites and broadened the combo to the infinite realm as well as created a system of stopping combos. SNK introduced archtypical swordmasters in Samurai Spirits. Eventually SNK tied together previous titles (Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury and Ikari Warriors) into one game and added the team element in the game King of Fighters. Capcom followed suit by creating the VS series and mixing characters from other titles, not solely one universe, into one fighting game. The idea of a combining games and characters from the same universe and introducing a team element seemed absolutely perfect for the Street Fighter universe more so than any other element from the aforementioned titles. Even taking Street Fighter to three dimensions did not have the same appeal, nor would serve the franchise best. |
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