Street Fighter board game launches on Kickstarter, smashes funding target in 24 hours
Street Fighter might not be the most obvious franchise fit for a board game adaptation, but this new project looks pretty cool all the same.
Street Fighter: The Miniatures Game is a new, officially-licensed board game based on the classic arcade fighter series, and is yet another addition to the series line-up as Capcom continue to celebrate last year's milestone of 30 years of Ryu, Ken and company. The game has just launched on Kickstarter, soaring past its initial $400,000 funding goal with ease.
The game uses decently-sized miniature figures of classic Street Fighter characters and takes place on a grid-based board with '3D' obstacles that opponents can be knocked into. It can be played in a 1v1 mode or curiously also in teams, where players work together to take down bosses like M. Bison and Vega.
The figures in particular feel like a strong selling point for Street Fighter fans - they're about the size of a standard issue Nintendo amiibo figure and appear to have a pretty nice level as detail, as pictured above.
The core of Street Fighter is the actual combat, of course, and that's dealt with here through a combination of dice rolls and cards you draw split into categories like Projectiles, Specials, Strikes and Events. Each card features artwork that seems to be taken from a variety of official Street Fighter sources including the games and the Udon comics. There's a few stages mentioned in the actual kickstarter - a dojo and the air force base from SF2 - and there may be more hidden away as stretch goals.
Interestingly, the project is currently planned as a Kickstarter Exclusive - so if you don't back it now, there'll be no way to get it. Jasco Games appear to be reserving the right to sell more later, however, noting in the Kickstarter that they might consider making a retail version of the game "in the far future".
The project is coming from Jasco Games, who previously launched a Mega Man board game with Capcom, also kickstarted. That game has some pretty mixed reviews over on BoardGameGeek - so perhaps keep that in mind if you're tempted to back. This time Jasco is also partnered with Angry Joe, the YouTuber, who is taking a credit as a creator, project director and co-designer of the game. He's already produced a video about his involvement, if you'd like to hear more on that from the horse's mouth. There's also a video showing off how the game is played:
As a regular Street Fighter player (as a disclaimer, I haven't backed this project, but I'm seriously considering it), I'm very curious to see how this Kickstarter shakes out. The game looks far more fun than the Mega Man effort, and the way in which it appears to retain and use Street Fighter's most recognizable mechanics is admirable.
It's already funded and there are already add-on packs where you can grab extra characters from Street Fighter 3, 4, 5 and Alpha on top of the six figures included initially and the two bonus boss figures, but stretch goals will now potentially offer as many as 12 additional character figurines and card decks depending on how well the kickstarter does.
Head on over to the Street Fighter: The Miniatures Game Kickstarter to learn more about the game. If you'd rather play the real thing, Street Fighter 5: Arcade Edition is pretty damn good now, and just got a significant balance patch update earlier this week.