Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior (Arcade, SNES port) 1991, Capcom
To my knowledge, only Pac-Man has been a more successful arcade game than Street Fighter 2. This game was EVERYWHERE from 1991 to 1995. My family went on a vacation to Disney Land in California when I was 12. My folks were stoked because we were a short shuttle ride away from the happiest place on earth. My two brothers and I were excited, too. But it was because there was a huge arcade right next to our hotel and we knew by its size that it would have at least 2 arcade machines of Street Fighter 2. We played every night we were there. And then when we left, my dad had to fill the rental car up with gas. While waiting in the car, my older brother saw they had the arcade inside the gas station, which we played for fifteen minutes longer than it took for my dad to finish filling up. We all drank, ate, and lived this game. I would dream about it at night. When this came out on SNES, my friends and I would have parties that would last all night; you'd play until you lost, then you'd go to the back of the line and wait your turn again. I loved this game, so it was puzzling how BAD I was at it. I could only win consistently with Blanca and only because the reach of his uppercut was so great and no one could get away from his jump+kick. As I got better, I started using Guile, but i still wasn't very good. Same with Mortal Kombat. I enjoyed 2D fighting games, but sucked at them. Capcom recognized that they had a monster success and released no less than six versions of the EXACT SAME GAME; Super Street Fighter, Street Fighter Turbo, Super Street Fighter Turbo... It got pretty annoying by the end, but there was always a market for it. Despite being six years old, arcade owners claimed that the cabinet stayed busy and successful well into 1997, unheard of in a business obsessed with turn over and the "next big thing." This game was a whale that swallowed everything in its way. The SNES and Genesis were neck and neck in the 16 bit console race. Because the Nintendo's version of Street Fighter 2 was better and more importantly, came out first, the Super N won. It's also highly influential, even today. It paved the way for Tekken, Virtua Fighter, and a host of other successful clones. It also made possible complete pieces of crap, like Clayfighters, so you have to take the good with the bad. Oh, a little useless fact about this author that I'm strangely proud of. We frequented a lot of arcades when I was young. I was one of the only people I know who actually played the original Street Fighter (1987) arcade before the sequel came out four years later. It was a decent game. I played 3 quarters or so before getting bored. In 1991, when I saw a couple guys playing this great NEW game, I recognized Ryu and Ken, but it took me a while to remember where I'd seen them.
Street Fighter 2 - Arcade Grade: A
Street Fighter 2 - SNES Grade: A-