Given the state of the arcade industry at that point, there was little expectation that Capcom was about to experience the classic Field of Dreams scenario where it builds the game and people flock to play it. Yet it happened. Street Fighter II arrived and just exploded in popularity, as prolonged positive word of mouth from established arcade fanatics caused other game players to leave their homes and check out the revolutionary new thing in arcades. Some people wanted to master Ryu and Ken's Shotokan karate, others wanted to learn Zangief's wrestling moves, and still others were obsessed with Guile's flash kick and E. Honda's sumo 100-hand slap attack. SF2 machines were hardly vacant for long, and most of the time had people lining up to insert quarters for 15-297 seconds worth of play. So arcade owners bought more machines and even clones when they emerged - late '91's Fatal Fury, and mid-'92's Mortal Kombat, World Heroes and Art of Fighting were just a few, with SNK ironically falling back upon 3-D movement simplified from Street Smart to power Fatal Fury, and Midway resorting to digitized artwork (used in Terminator 2) and secrets (a la Smash TV) to lure crowds.

Guile vs. Ken in Street Fighter II