Welcome to the sixteenth episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years, the show where we put old school video game endings into proper context. Whether you call it Street Fighter or Fighting Street, Capcom's 1987 one-on-one brawler has the best worst ending of all time. We prove it by showing you both the arcade and TurboGrafx-CD endings in this brand new episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years!


I don't know about you, but I'm old enough to remember playing the original Street Fighter back in the arcades. When I close my eyes, I still can picture the giant buttons you're supposed to punch and the annoying announcer trying (and failing) to pronounce the names of well-known countries.

Whether you call it Street Fighter or Fighting Street, this was not a good start for what would become one of the most popular franchises of all time. The controls are stiff, the moves are hard to pull off, there are only two characters to choose from and there isn't much of a story to talk about. In fact, the game never even bothers to give Ryu and Ken an incentive to fight. So instead of making one up, I'm just going to read exactly what is written in the Fighting Street instruction manual:

"Get ready for non-stop action as you take on 10 different opponents from five different countries in this awesome martial-arts marathon. Retsu and Geki from Japan. Joe and Mike from the U.S. Lee and Gen from China. Birdie and Eagle from England. And no matter which country you choose to fight in first, you'll end up facing the biggest and the badest Kung-Fu Kings, ADON and SAGAT from Thailand (if you're good enough!). Each different opponent has their own specialty, and a bag of "tricks" that make this round-the-world battle a truly challenging adventure loaded with surprises. Move from country to country by defeating the two opponents who are out to test your best martial-arts skills. Find a partner and two can play simultaneously! You can choose to be Ryu, or instead opt to be Ken. Either way, your "Fighting Street" awaits you, so shape up and ship out!"

If you cringed throughout that description, just wait until you see how terrible the arcade ending is.

The 1980s were a hotbed for terrible endings, but this may be the best worst ending of all time. Between the garbled voice and the anti-climactic "King of the Hill" prize, Street Fighter's conclusion has always felt like a punishment. When I look back at this game, I'm honestly a little surprised Capcom decided to greenlight a sequel.

Now here's the moment in our show where I reveal that the people responsible for porting Street Fighter to the TurboGrafx ended up creating a better ending. Does it have better voice acting? Sharper graphics? A deeper story? No, it's basically the same cinema, except for one important change. Here's how Fighting Street ends.

Yes, it still has the garbled voice and the stupid "king of the hill" nonsense, but this ending adds an important scene where we see Ryu board an airplane. It's a simple change, but it makes a big difference. It's a great visual and I like the not-so-subtle nod to the HuCard on the airplane. Look, these endings are terrible, but I have a hunch that garbly-voiced announcer is going to stick with you for years to come. You're welcome.