10 Video Games That Made You Say "WTF Were They THINKING?!"

6. Abandon The Fighting Genre - Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight

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Capcom

Street Fighter II had such an unprecedented influence on the gaming world, it's easy to forget there was a Street Fighter 1.

Despite Street Fighter's imprecise controls and lack of character selection, it was a gamechanger. After all, it was the first beat 'em up that required specific button inputs to perform Special Moves. Realising they were onto something huge, Capcom decided to expand on this idea, which led to the creation of Street Fighter II.

But before running with that notion, Capcom released Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight - a platformer, where you play as Street Fighter regular, Ken Masters.

But this isn't the cocky, shoryuken-master fighter you're familiar with. Instead, Ken was revised into a cybernetic scientist, who travels the galaxy to stop his traitorous colleague from creating a superhuman army. What does have to do with street-fighting? Absolutely nothing.

Because this abominable offshoot was Street Fighter in name only, it bombed in spectacular fashion. Fortunately, Capcom learned their lesson and applied the core mechanics of the original to forge Street Fighter II, changing the gaming industry forever.

It was a close call, though. After Street Fighter 2010 tanked, Capcom could've scrapped the franchise entirely.

Contributor

James Egan has been with Whatculture for five years and prominently works on Horror, Film, and Video Games. He's written over 80 books including 1000 Facts about Horror Movies Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about The Greatest Films Ever Made Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts about Video Games Vol. 1-3 1000 Facts About James Bond 1000 Facts About TV Shows