A strange little side quest
Before the next round of BFFs Guide To Breakup, here is a piece of the bigger picture. Barbie Fashion Designer became a major software hit in 1996, selling more than 500,000 copies in two months and proving there was a large audience for fashion-focused computer play. And then there is this: Street Fighter II, released in 1991, turned head-to-head arcade fighting into a worldwide phenomenon and helped define the modern fighting-game genre. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.