The Story Timeline Order of Street Fighter Games
Street Fighter is a franchise of fighting video games. Street Fighter is one of the oldest fighting game franchises and is played worldwide by fighting game fans. Street Fighter II (1991) is often credited of having popularized the fighting video game genre and defining the standards of this genre in the video game industry.
What Are Street Fighter Games Like?
Street Fighter video games are fighting video games, and feature the classic fighting game gameplay popularized by Street Fighter II (1991). Street Fighter II (1991) is often considered to be the game that set the standards for the fighting video game genre, and inspired a generation of fighting games that featured a similar gameplay, such as Mortal Kombat (1992) and The King of Fighters (1994). Street Fighter video games typically feature a game characters roster featuring multiple characters, each with a unique fighting style, that can be selected by the player in the upcoming game fights. These game fights usually feature two fighters, one on each side, in a match that is either between the player and an AI-controlled character, which in fighting games is often called CPU, or between a player and another player.
The fighting games community often refers to Street Fighter video games as "footsies" games, referring to their grounded fighting gameplay, which is also seen in Mortal Kombat (1992) and The King of Fighters (1994), unlike "air dasher" fighting games, such as Darkstalkers (1994) and Guilty Gear (1998), which in turn often feature a more fast-paced fighting gameplay. Fighting video games with a more grounded gameplay, such as Street Fighter II (1991), often rely on strategic positioning and combo delivering.
In What Order Should I Play the Street Fighter Games?
The Street Fighter video games can be played and enjoyed in any order. However, considering that the game characters of Street Fighter video games have their own backstories and motivations, and that many Street Fighter games are connected, story-wise, it is suggested to play the Street Fighter video games in chronological story order for the most comprehensive story experience.
The Chronological Story Order of Street Fighter Video Games
This is the chronological story order of the Street Fighter video games. This is not the same as the chronological order of release of these games. Instead, this is the order in which the story events of the different Street Fighter games take place. This is the suggested order in which to play these games for the most comprehensive story experience.
It is important to note that some Street Fighter video games had some parts of their stories retconned, being eventually replaced, story-wise, by subsquenet games. In the case of the games that were retconned, story-wise, I marked them with a parenthesis in this chronological story order I wrote of the Street Fighter video games.
Some Street Fighter video games, specially Street Fighter II, are known by different names and different versions. For example, Street Fighter II features the versions Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II and so forth. While these different versions can be considered to be technically different games, these different titles generally feature the same main storyline. For this reason, I included these different versions in the same placement in my chronological story order of the Street Fighter video games.
Street Fighter (1987)
(Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams | Street Fighter Zero)
Street Fighter Alpha 2 | Street Fighter Zero 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3 | Street Fighter Zero 3 | Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior | Street Fighter II: Champion Edition | Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting | Super Street Fighter II | Super Street Fighter II Turbo | Hyper Street Fighter II | Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix | Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers | Street Fighter: The Movie (1995 video game)
Street Fighter IV | Super Street Fighter IV | Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition | Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition | Ultra Street Fighter IV
Street Fighter V | Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition | Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
(Street Fighter III: New Generation) | Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact | Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Some Street Fighter video games are known by multiple names. For example, Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, is also known simply as Street Fighter Alpha, and also as Street Fighter Zero. All of these names refer to the same video game.
Regarding Street Fighter: The Movie, it is a video game released in 1995 based on the movie Street Fighter: The Movie which was released in 1994. To avoid confusion, in this article, I refer to the video game Street Fighter: The Movie as Street Fighter: The Movie (1995 video game).
Regarding Street Fighter III, it is important to note that while Street Fighter III: New Generation was retconned, story-wise, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike were not, and remain a part of the Street Fighter video games storyline continuity.
Street Fighter Spin-Off Games
Some Street Fighter video games either take place in completely different continuities than the other Street Fighter games, or feature crossover game characters, such as Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and X-Men vs. Street Fighter. These games generally are not a part of the main continuity of the Street Fighter video games storyline, and can thus be considered to be spin-off video games. This is a list of these games.
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
Street Fighter EX | Street Fighter EX Plus | Street Fighter EX Plus α
Street Fighter EX2 | Street Fighter EX2 Plus
Street Fighter EX3
Street Fighter X Mega Man
Street Fighter X Tekken
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
The Story Timeline Order of Street Fighter Games
This is the story timeline order of the Street Fighter video games. In other words, this is the timeline of the story events of the Street Fighter video games, in which they appear in chronological story order as well as with the year in which each game is set. It is important to remember that the years written in this story timeline are not necessarily related to the year of release of these games, but rather, to the fictional years in which these games take place. For this reason, these fictional years could be called "Street Fighter video games years", "years in the Street Fighter games universe" or "years in the Street Fighter games story timeline".
1987 Street Fighter (1987)
1988 (Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams | Street Fighter Zero)
1988 Street Fighter Alpha 2 | Street Fighter Zero 2
1990 Street Fighter Alpha 3 | Street Fighter Zero 3 | Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
1993 Street Fighter II: The World Warrior | Street Fighter II: Champion Edition | Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting | Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers | Super Street Fighter II Turbo | Hyper Street Fighter II | Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix | Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers | Street Fighter: The Movie (1995 video game)
1994 Street Fighter IV | Super Street Fighter IV | Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition | Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition | Ultra Street Fighter IV
???? Street Fighter V | Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition | Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
1998 (Street Fighter III: New Generation) | Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact | Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
The story timeline of the Street Fighter video games is challenging to write, because some games had their time periods retconned. For example, Street Fighter II was originally set in 1991, and then retconned to be set in 1993. Additionally, in many cases there is not clear information available regarding the time period in which certain Street Fighter video games are set, such as Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3, as well as Street Fighter V. In some cases, there are also anachronisms, such as in Street Fighter V, which theoretically is set before Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, but features techonology that was not yet available during Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. However, this can be considered secondary chronological details that, in my opinion, do not interfere in the overall storyline or story experience. What I want to convey is that any attempt to write a comprehensive story timeline of Street Fighter video games is a challenging task, due to these various factors, and thus it is possible that my timeline may not be completely accurate. However, even though I cannot have complete confidence in the years I wrote for all of the Street Fighter video games in the story timeline I wrote, I have confidence that their chronological placement is accurate. In other words, even though not all years may be precise, the chronological order of the games is precise, and this is true for both the chronological story order and the story timeline I wrote.
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