Street Fighter’s Creator Left Capcom and Released One of the 1990s’ Best Fighting Games 34 Years Ago Today

In 1987, Capcom released Street Fighter, which set the stage for the genre-defining fighting franchise. If you’re more familiar with Street Fighter II than you are with its predecessor, there’s a reason for that. While Street Fighter II is easily one of the most influential and best-selling games of the golden age of arcade video games, Street Fighter was a step in that direction. The game, directed by Takashi Nishiyama, is an evolution of the boss battles from Kung-Fu Master, taking them out of a side-scrolling beat-’em-up and making the fights the only feature. 

Its six-button gameplay offered all manner of special moves, and Street Fighter did well enough to garner a sequel. Street Fighter II picked up where Street Fighter left off, evolving the game into the basis of all fighting games that followed, and it wouldn’t have come about had it not been for Nishiyama. After creating Street Fighter, Nishiyama left Capcom to work for SNK, where he directed his next big fighting game: Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. If you know anything about the SNK Neo Geo, you know it’s a bastion for excellent fighting games, and most consider the Fatal Fury franchise to be its best.

Fatal Fury Was Incredibly Popular Throughout the 1990s

Fatal Fury: King of Fighters was released for the Neo Geo MVS arcade system in 1991, competing against Street Fighter II in arcades worldwide. The game helped establish the Neo Geo as a fighting game platform, as it was its first in the genre. While there was a home video console version of the Neo Geo that could play the same games as the arcade cabinets, it was prohibitively expensive, so most people experienced Fatal Fury in arcades until it was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Genesis, and other consoles. Still, it looked and worked best on the hardware it was designed for, so fans lined up to play it in their local arcade.

Nishiyama wanted to create a fighting game with a proper storyline and characters players could relate to, so he gave the characters complex backstories right out the gate. He wasn’t able to make this happen with Street Fighter, so he envisioned Fatal Fury as its spiritual successor. When it was released, Fatal Fury was in direct competition with Street Fighter II, but the two differed in important ways, ensuring each title had its dedicated fan base. Street Fighter II placed great emphasis on combos, while Fatal Fury focused more on timing special moves and its overarching narrative.

After its release, Nishiyama referred to Fatal Fury as “my Street Fighter II” because it achieved what he was unable to do with Street Fighter. For players, Fatal Fury was another fantastic fighting game they could play, similar yet different enough from Street Fighter II to be exciting. As a result, the game did exceptionally well throughout its time in arcades and in home console ports. It didn’t achieve the same level of success as its primary rival, but it carved out a nice niche in the fighting game market. Fatal Fury’s success resulted in the establishment of a massive franchise that continues to this day.

The Fatal Fury Franchise Lives on

Fatal Fury’s development came at a time when fighting games were in their infancy, and numerous sequels followed. The arguably best is Garou: Mark of the Wolves, the last Neo Geo title released in 1999. Still, the franchise endures, as Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves was released in 2025 on all major consoles, and it has done exceptionally well in an era where fighting games aren’t the biggest piece of the video game pie. Of course, Street Fighter remains one of Capcom’s biggest franchises, as the sixth mainline game was released in 2023, and there will likely be more. Regardless, there’s no denying the success of its primary rival, which is one of the best fighting game franchises ever created.

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