A strange little side quest
Merge Mushroom may feel immediate, but the ideas around strategy games have been evolving for a very long time. The word 'checkmate' is linked to the Persian expression 'shah mat', used when the king was trapped. The same trail leads to another fact: Street Fighter II, released in 1991, turned head-to-head arcade fighting into a worldwide phenomenon and helped define the modern fighting-game genre. It is a good reminder that simple game mechanics can carry a surprising amount of history.
