The first eight computer-controlled opponents are: from Japan, Retsu, an expelled Shorinji Kempo instructor,[12] and Geki, a tekkō kagi-wielding ninja;[11] from the United States, Joe, an underground full-contact karate champion,[13] and Mike, a former heavyweight boxer who once killed an opponent in the ring;[14] from China, Lee, an expert in Chinese boxing,[10] and Gen, an elderly professional killer who has developed his own assassination art;[15] and from England, Birdie, a tall bouncer who uses a combination of wrestling and boxing techniques,[16] and Eagle, a well-dressed bodyguard of a wealthy family who uses Kali sticks.

[20] In turn, the boss fights were inspired by the Bruce Lee's martial arts film Game of Death (1972).

[22][24] The gameplay of Karate Champ, Kung-Fu Master and Yie Ar Kung Fu provided a basic template for Street Fighter.

Keiji Inafune, best known for his artwork in Capcom's Mega Man franchise, got his start at the company by designing and illustrating the character portraits in Street Fighter.

Nishiyama drew several inspirations for developing the original gameplay of Street Fighter from martial art styles he was practicing,[27][22] and Inafune based several character designs on the manga Karate Baka Ichidai.

[29] Nishiyama was also inspired by popular Japanese shōnen manga and anime, including an energy attack called Hadouho (lit.

the "Wave Motion Gun") from the 1970s anime series Space Battleship Yamato as the origin of the Hadouken move.

In the worldwide versions, Ryu's and Ken's voices were dubbed so that they yell the names of their moves in English, such as Psycho Fire, Dragon Punch, and Hurricane Kick.

Subsequent localized releases until Street Fighter IV left the Japanese voices intact; since Street Fighter IV, the series contains English voice acting, and Asian characters use Japanese names for certain special moves and super combos among otherwise English dialogue.

There was no six-button controller for the TurboGrafx-CD at the time, so the attack strength is determined by the duration of the button-press, akin to the deluxe arcade version.

[31] Versions for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Amiga, and Atari ST were developed by Tiertex and published by U.S. Gold in 1988 in Europe.

However, the alternate six-button version was more successful, selling in the tens of thousands, with estimates ranging from between 10,000 and 50,000 units sold.

[20] In Japan, Game Machine listed Street Fighter on its September 15, 1987, issue as the fifth-most-successful upright arcade unit of the month,[42] before reaching No.

[44] In the United Kingdom, the Coinslot charts, in the August 1988 issue of Sinclair User, listed Street Fighter as the top-grossing dedicated arcade game of the month.

However, the review said "the fairly repetitive nature of the game, and the large amount of physical effort needed to play it, will prevent Street Fighter from being much more than a novel experiment in coin-op technology" but that only "time will tell".

[1] In September, Tony Thompson of Crash said it "breathes new life" into martial arts games, with a "huge" cabinet, "big" characters, pads where "the harder you hit the pads the harder your character hits" and "secret techniques" but criticized it for making his "hands hurt".

[49] Part of the appeal was the use of special moves that can only be discovered by experimenting with controls, which created a sense of mystique and invited players to practice the game.

[50] Street Fighter introduced other staples of the genre, including the blocking technique and the ability for a challenger to spontaneously initiate a match against a player.

However, due to this encouraging damage, Capcom soon replaced it with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium, and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre.

[54] Street Fighter also influenced Sega AM1's Makoto Uchida as lead designer of hack and slash beat 'em up Golden Axe (1989), particularly with combo moves.