Best Street Fighter games: Games ranked from best to worst

STREET Fighter is one of the most popular fighting series around, and is often thought of as a grandfather to the genre.

Known for its difficulty to pull off the right combination of blocks, combos and counters, there’s an art to learning a Street Fighter game.

Street Fighter 6 is just around the corner, so we’ve taken a look back through the series to show you some of the best.

Here’s all the Street Fighter games ranked best to worst.

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike

When Street Fighter 3 came out fans only felt disappointment, but then Third Strike came out and people’s opinion on this entry began to change.

It was punishing in ways the previous games weren’t, and it took the best players to show us what it was capable of.

Once fans had seen what combos were possible, everyone was desperate to master it for themselves.

It was so popular in fact, that if you have a PS3 and a copy and get them both going, you’ll find a passionate community still ready to fight.

Ultra Street Fighter 4

Street Fighter 4 brought 2D fighting games back into the mainstream long after arcades closures had left them for dead.

The Ultra version is the best way to play it, with a huge roster of 44 fighters.

Focus Attacks brought SF4 into the spotlight, but it was the sharp gameplay that left its impression on fans.

While incredibly difficult to pull off, the damage that could be achieved from long combos was incredibly satisfying.

Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers

Turbo may have put Street Fighter 2 on the map, but we like The New Challengers for its updated roster of fighters.

This is the game to play if you want to capture that arcade or early SNES era of fighting games.

It has the sharpness of SF2 Turbo, but with the extra characters, there are even more combos to learn.

This is another entry that maintains its avid fan base to this day.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

Before Street Fighter characters learned to dash, gameplay was very different, and if you want to try it out, Street Fighter Alpha 3 is the way to go.

The Alpha series updates the gameplay built in SF2, and improves on it, making it one of the best ways to enjoy classic fighting games.

This spin-off series had a huge influence on future games in the mainline series.

Not only because of the characters it introduced, but with one of the most charming art styles in the whole franchise.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition

While the launch wasn’t the most successful, the Champion Edition of SF5 is some of the series’ best work.

As of the latest patch, the game has a huge roster of fighters, great mechanics, and a great single-player campaign.

While it has a 3D art style, it is still very much a 2D game, taking the series to the next generation.

It’s the latest in the series and also a good place to start.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars

Tatsunoko is the company in charge of some of the world’s most beloved manga and anime characters.

This crossover game takes these beloved characters and pits them against Street Fighter’s might.

It’s a Wii-only game outside of Japan, and despite this, it was still incredibly popular.

While it’s one of the series’ most niche entries, it’s also one of the most fun.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter

As the name suggests, this game is a crossover with the X-Men mutants and the Street Fighter champions.

This kicked off the long-running Capcom vs. spin-off games, which pit these fighters against characters from other series.

It had Street Fighter’s fast-paced fighting, and characters that are now fighting game staples.

It was also the first game to introduce Cyber Akuma as a boss fight.

Capcom vs. SNK 2

This one looks a bit out of place, as the SNK characters use sprites made for other games.

The 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds don’t really mesh well, but it’s one that should be tried.

However, it’s still a great fighting game, and the EO version adds easier controls, and four extra characters.

This one still manages to feel like the golden days of fighting game crossovers.

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter

Released shortly after the X-Men crossover, this game introduces more Marvel characters to the roster.

This has become a series in its own, now known more succinctly as Marvel vs. Capcom.

However, not much is added from X-Men vs. and it felt more like a stopgap than a game in its own right.

Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers

Released exclusively on Nintendo Switch, it changes lots of the things that people love about SF2.

Combo timing has changed, grapple breaks are in, and it plays all in widescreen.

It also has the option to play with the Turbo HD graphics, which you shouldn’t.

Street Fighter EX 3

The EX series was not developed by Capcom, and is a very bizarre entry into the franchise.

This is a 3D entry in the series which introduced tag mechanics similar to Tekken Tag Tournament.

Street Fighter X Tekken

Seeing Street Fighter characters take on Tekken fighters is an interesting concept, with some long-awaited match-ups.

However, the Gems system changed the game, making it very confusing for new players to adapt.

This made things more customisable for experienced players, but was ruined by the fact that you could buy them online.

Street Fighter

Street Fighter was the series’ humble beginnings, and like most series, the first game isn’t the best.

While SF is known for having three buttons each for punches and kicks, the original had just one.

The pressure you put on each button determined the strength of the attack, leaving many ruined cabinets.

Street Fighter: The Movie

In an attempt to monopolise on the popularity of Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter: The Movie (the game) used the cast and costumes from the now-infamous film.

Despite having stars like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue, the arcade game just wasn’t very good.

It won’t be showing up in gaming compilations any time soon.

Written by Dave Aubrey and Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.