Daigo Explains How Street Fighter II Caused Modern vs Classic Debate

The classic vs modern controls debate is one that doesn't really die down as most pro players are opposed to it while a lot of people like them for their accessibility. Legendary Street Fighter competitor, Daigo Umehara, in a recent stream, framed the debate a little differently, explaining how Street Fighter II was in some ways responsible for this very debate. 

In this stream, Daigo was speaking with huge FPS streamer Shaka. Daigo expressed just how big of an impact Street Fighter 2 made on the Japanese scene when it was released in 1991. 

Daigo explained that the game brought on some innovations that people had never seen at the time, especially the concept of special moves which enabled players to do some amazing things through a combination of commands and controls. This, according to Daigo, is why a lot of the older crowd for Street Fighter games are critical of modern controls. Since modern controls allow players to carry out special moves with one button, it felt like a throwback to pre-Street Figher days when two buttons were all most games had. 

Street Fighter introduced the concept of a 6-button layout and that this made pulling off specials feel satisfying. For that satisfaction to be taken away by the ease of modern controls is something that a lot of veterans do not like. 

Daigo also spoke on some other innovations that Street Fighter II brought including character size and characters having some voice lines. These were things that games of that era did not have, so when Street Fighter II brought these innovations, it really supercharged the arcade scene. 

Street Fighter 6 is popular and is the closest game to reach the heights of Street Fighter II and has therefore, brought in a new generation of fighting game players. 

Daigo will partake in the Red Bull Kumite coming up next month, and also accepted a challenge for a ft10 against MenaRD.