1UP just recently published an article discussing Street Fighter II's 20th anniversary. A lot of the 1UP staff are interviewed to ask about their experiences with Street Fighter II back in the day, so if you are interested in their relation to this game then check out the article. Here's a grab.
But we gave Street Fighter II a chance anyway, because it looked ridiculously good, even for a Capcom game. And we were stunned. There may have been only a dozen on-screen characters (and you couldn't even control four of them!), but each was huge, unique, and blessed with an embarrassment of animation. The breadth of the fighters' movements was matched by the diversity of their moves and the depth of the possible strategies. Mike Haggar and friends could punch, kick, jump, swing a mean steel pipe, and sacrifice a chunk of health to perform a secret move; the World Warriors could deliver punches and kicks in three different levels of strength apiece, and each of those varied further, contextually, according to the fighters' current stance and motion.
Tip sent in by NowhereMan082.
Street Fighter 2 is the best by far; it completely changed 1 on 1 fighting games, believe that. I remember playing one or two 1 on 1 fighting games before Street Fighter 2 came out. One such game I used to play on an Arcade in a sweetshop, I can't remember the name of it. Had only three who didn't seem unique at all and used hit points rather than an energy bar. From what I remember it was little more than two characters standing next to each other while punching. The Street Fighter 2 Arcade also had six buttons rather the standard 3 buttons. Street Fighter 2 was genre defining I feel every 1 on 1 that came after it basically propelled itself forward on Street Fighter 2's shoulders.
Street Fighter is the best!