All Street Fighter Games Ranked

Street Fighter is among the most prestigious franchises in Fighting Games and gaming as a whole. It was one of the very first video games to come out soon after the mid-1980s crash, leaving the industry dire. Over the years, Street Fighter endured, and although it would be one of the last few remaining “Arcades First” franchises, with other titles such as Mortal Kombat enjoying success in the new console market, with the release of Street Fighter 6, we can well and truly say the franchise as a whole has now embraced all platforms equally.

Over those decades, however, not all Street Fighters games were made equals. That is not to say they were bad, of course, just that there are clearly some that hold up to the test of time better than others. 

Of course, there is no single best game within the Street Fighter franchise, and this is for various reasons. Technological development has allowed SF to expand into the cross-platform experience that it is today, something developers could only dream of back in the 90s. The genre's evolution must also be considered since the interaction of Street Fighter’s core principles has consistently pushed what a mainstream Fighting Game is for decades.

So take our ranking as to which Street Fighter games you should play if you have the chance to do so. Some of these are certainly more difficult to find than others, and even more so the hardware required to run them.

12. Street Fighter EX

Starting out the list with the ugly duckling of the franchise. That is not an insult tho, we all know how the story goes. Even though Street Fighter EX is the first 3D-modeled Street Fighter, it is pretty ugly by modern standards, but it still has a special kind of charm inside. Released in 1996, it was obviously criticized for its massive shift from 2D sprites to 3D models.

11. Street Fighter

Yes, the original is this far down in the list. If we were looking to classify these titles as to how much they impacted the genre, then it would break well into the top 5. But we must take the rose-tinted glasses for a second and be honest with ourselves. Street Fighter is a great game for 1987, not necessarily for 2023. That said, it's a piece of Gaming history, it spawned a multi-decade franchise, and for that reason alone, you should try to find an arcade to see how far the whole industry has come.

10. Street Fighter EX 3

Back to the 3D side games of Street Fighter, though, as you might have noticed, we jumped over the second entry. This is simply down to the fact that, all things considered, EX 2 is a superior game to EX 3. The small graphical fidelity it gained being in Playstation 2 was damaged by its close release to other, more popular, SF titles. That said, the technological development of the EX series as a whole would in part be translated to the main series.

9. Street Fighter Alpha

Alpha, or Zero as it was known in some regions, was the first major leap for Street Fighter, adding a new mechanic. Although not all of them would carry forward into future installments, and thus it found a home right on the edge of our top 10, it does a good job at showing how much Capcom was carefully balancing the need to experiment and iterate the core elements of the franchise, while also adhering to the powerful aesthetic it created for itself.

8. Street Fighter EX 2

Street Fighter EX 2 was the last 3D-modeled entry for many years after the 90s. It earned a promotion to 9th because it did capture a strong sense of what might be to come. Mortal Kombat will be the first of the major contenders, outside of titles like Tekken, to claim mainstream success with a 2D fighting game inside a 3D stage, but EX 2 still proves a fun game in the franchise.

7. Street Fighter Alpha 2

Released in 1996, just a year after the first game in the Alpha series, its sequel managed to improve on the original both in terms of graphics and mechanics. It suffered slightly from the general trend towards 3D models at the time, as seen in the EX series of games, these were popular and a glimpse at what was to come, but the classic sprites allowed for the core SF gameplay of the time to shine far better.

6. Street Fighter III

Coming at the beginning of the end of the rapid development of Street Fighter in the late 90s, SF3 had an uphill battle to deal with the franchise burnout. Other fighting games were starting to catch up it, and the ballooning amount of versions for each game was making it difficult for casual players to pick up one Street Fighter game to play from its massive library. That said, it is a worthy sequel, and even though its predecessor is higher up on the list, the two made it possible for the franchise to come back a few years later.

5. Street Fighter Alpha 3

The last Alpha-series title, its tight mechanics and compelling characters, including the cohesive story of the games, made it a very popular Street Fighter entry. For many young players, this was their introduction to Street Fighter at the turn of the millennia. At the time, and for years after, critics would call it one of the best Fighting Games titles to be developed.

4. Street Fighter V

The fifth installment in the franchise had, to put it mildly, a rocky start. The game was well received by critics, especially as it built upon the core mechanics of its predecessors, but it felt slightly unfinished for some.

However, after the release of the Arcade Edition of the game, everyone universally agreed that Street Fighter V was now a game worthy of the franchise. A few new characters and updates showed the value of continued developer support, having lasted in the competitive FGC for over seven years.

3. Street Fighter 6

It might be a tad too early to say Street Fighter 6 deserves to be among the top 3 titles in the series. Still, it's also an argument worth making, especially if you are a new player to the franchise or even Fighting Games in general. Street Fighter 6 is a complete package at release that avoids the missteps of SFV while venturing deeper into its gameplay to find new ways to challenge new and old players alike. Time will tell if SF6 will be remembered in 20 years' time like our last two picks are. Still, for an industry that can sometimes feel saturated and stale, SF6 has brought up its own ideas to the table and once again pushed Street Fighter forward alongside its contemporaries.

2. Street Fighter IV

Still one of the most well-liked Street Fighter games out there. For the first time in the franchise’s history, 3D graphics proved to be a massive benefit to the fidelity and visual appeal of the games. Its core gameplay was solid and provided a blueprint for many of the future Street Fighter games.

1. Street Fighter II

There is just nothing in this world that could challenge the excitement many players had when Street Fighter II came out. It was a monumental improvement over the original, and its visuals were mind-blowing for the time. You can still experience some of this with the remake: Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. Years of playing have also allowed it and its competitive scene to thrive.

Because of that, its availability today that it claims our number one spot. It's a piece of not just gaming history but of living gaming history, one you can play and explore alongside the modern releases and gain a perspective on why Street Fighter has built such a large community over the decades.

Whether it be modern or classic, the Street Fighter franchise as a whole has been at the cutting edge of fighting games culture. The fact it has remained among the big series in the scene is a testament to its core gameplay mechanics and exploring each entry can give you insight into how it and other series in the genre developed.