It's astounding just how much Street Fighter 2 got right. The controls are tight, the graphics are crisp (even now, provided you appreciate pixels), and the music is interminably catchy. But perhaps its biggest triumph is its roster, which started out at a mere eight fighters. For a fighting game to thrive, players need to feel truly invested in their chosen character, establishing the kind of deep connection that can carry across multiple games and even decades. SF2 put forth the kind of designs that are still iconic and appealing almost 30 years later.

Take a trip with us down memory lane as we examine how the original World Warriors stayed the same, even as game platforms and graphics were changing. Be sure to maximize each image (by clicking the little 'expand' icon in the upper right) for the full effect, because it's incredible to see these subtle evolutions up close. With on the horizon, let's take a look back at the legendary fighters who got us here.

Special thanks to for the backgrounds.

Ryu is a paradox, given that he's a nondescript leading man who's somehow unforgettable. It's got to be his plain-yet-immediately-recognizable outfit, which (like the design of so many national flags) consists of only three bold colors. This makes him about as visually interesting as a crash test dummy - especially next to some of Street Fighter's oddballs like Necro or Sodom - but his modest appearance matches his nomadic lifestyle and detachment from notions like glory or fame. Ryu is a World Warrior in every sense, traveling the globe with a singular focus: become stronger.

Despite the fact that Honda's always hundred-hand slapping opponents or torpedoing his entire body at them headfirst, he's actually a pretty nice guy. Sumo wrestling is as much about tradition (like the real-world practice of tossing salt before a match) and prestige as it is two large dudes slamming into each other, and ol' Edmond fights for the honor of his beloved sport rather than any directly self-serving means. His gigantic eyebrows and red, kabuki-style facepaint make him look intimidating, but Honda's all smiles outside of the ring. He's also absurdly muscular for a sumo wrestler - or any human being, really - which looks even more exaggerated given his hunched, low-to-the-ground fighting stance.

It's a fact: kids love Blanka. Don't believe me? Just take a look back at some of the old Street Fighter products and advertisements and you'll see a recurring trend: . A cross between a gorilla and the Jolly Green Giant, this Brazilian beast is the ultimate Street Fighter wild card. Ryu? Chun-Li? Guile? They could almost pass for everyday people. Not Blanka; he's one-of-a-kind, and that made him the de facto poster boy (poster beast?) for Street Fighter 2. If you knew anything about video games in the '90s, and you saw this guy's smiling face rolling your way, you knew exactly what game was being advertised.

It all starts with the hair. Guile's pristinely trimmed, impossibly large flat top is his most notable trademark, besides his stalwart patriotism and passion for being a family man. He seems to suffer from 'Resting Soldier's Frown Face' (or RSFF as it's known in the medical community), though it's hard to blame the guy: he lost his Air Force buddy Charlie Nash to the evil machinations of M. Bison's Shadaloo. Now he travels the world searching for any clue related to Charlie's supposed death, taking the time to hurl Sonic Booms, comb his blonde mane, and whip on a pair of sunglasses mid-fistfight wherever he goes.

Ken Masters is that cool older cousin or fun uncle you had growing up. He's got a sweet sports car, a smokin' hot stable-and-monogamous relationship with his wife, and that blistering red gi which he probably dyed himself. While Ryu has always been the Street Fighter straightman, Ken isn't afraid to let his hair down and bring some style to the fight. Or at the very least crack a smile. However, his easygoing demeanor belies a forceful and finely-tuned fighter who is every bit Ryu's equal - as seen in the two black belts they share.

If all law enforcers took as much pride in a sense of justice as Chun-Li, the world would be a better place. She may not dress like your typical Interpol agent - what with those spiked bracelets and Princess Leia-esque hair buns - but she takes her job to serve and protect seriously as she searches for her father's killers. And if you're in need of motivation when doing leg presses at the gym, just imagine how grand life would be if you had the same kind of sturdy, tremendous thigh muscles as Chun-Li. If you want to high-kick hundreds of times in the blink of an eye, you're going to need some serious lower body strength.

Zangief's character design tells a story, one of struggle and triumph in the Russian wilderness. The pronounced scars on his legs, arms, and back are a testament his grueling bear-wrestling training regimen that has molded him into such a destructive warrior. His inhumanly large muscles display his resolve and dedication to becoming a grappler without equal. And finally, that mohawk and beard reveal that the big guy is not without a sense of humor - or, at the very least, was a fan of The A-Team growing up. Just don't say anything negative about his glorious homeland of Mother Russia, unless you want to go for a ride in a Spinning Piledriver.

One of the most striking aspects of Dhalsim's design is also one of the most contradictory. Dhalsim is himself a yoga master and a pacifist, though he routinely goes against that belief to help raise money for his village in underground fighting tournaments. So if fire-spitting Stretch Armstrong is such an enlightened warrior, why does he wear a necklace of human skulls!? Nothing says 'Zen' like three dead people hanging around your neck. Maybe it's for the intimidation factor - I mean, the poor guy does fight a Russian bear-wrestler and a Brazilian monster-man. Whatever the case, it has endured as a bold fashion accessory to this day.

You feel that in the air? The constant buzzing of press releases and hype trailers? It's E3 season, and that means it's time to get excited once again about the future of video games. Usually, the E3 lifecycle works like this: watch a trailer and some gameplay footage for a hot new game at E3, get really excited about it, wait about a year or two, then finally walk to your local store and pick up a copy of the game.

Sometimes, though, games get stuck at the 'waiting' step and never find a way to get out. Time continues to march on, E3s come and go, and these games either disappear into the aether, or get cancelled outright, leaving behind a video or two and brief demo a handful of people actually got to try. So let's gather ‘round, reminisce on promises left unfulfilled, and pour one out for these E3 vaporware games.

When the Wii was originally unveiled at E3 2006, Nintendo also showcased an array of games that would make a case for its then-unheard-of motion controls. Look at all these beautiful people flailing the Wii Remote around as they wield a virtual sword, baseball bat, or hammer! And while demoed games like Red Steel, Wii Sports, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess saw the light of day, it was Project H.A.M.M.E.R. that was doomed to get the axe.

In Project H.A.M.M.E.R., you would play as a burly dude covered in power armor, and your objective was to swing around a massive sledgehammer, obliterating every enemy and object in sight. That seems to be about as far as the dev team got, as the game was considered "paused" as of E3 2007. While not officially cancelled by Nintendo, it's been nearly nine years since its initial unveiling, so make of that what you will.

Some console names are a bit strange (seriously Nintendo, the Wii?), while others are a bit more obvious, perfectly encapsulating what the machine is and does (like the PlayStation). But no name is more perfect than The Phantom, a console developed by Infinium labs that, other than brief showing at E3 2004, never saw the light of day.

The Phantom was a console developed by Infinium Labs (rebranded as Phantom Entertainment in 2006). Revealed in 2003 then arriving at E3 in 2004, the idea behind it was, at the very least, ambitious. For under $399, The Phantom was to be a PC that hooked up to your TV like a console, letting you download and install games directly to the device via the internet. It was essentially a Steam Machine before Steam was even a thing, but release dates came and went as the machine's release ended up pushed beyond 2005, finally removed from Phantom Entertainment's website in 2006. Perhaps the world just wasn't quite ready for a living room PC solution, but at least there's a silver lining to this story: Phantom Entertainment still exists, and - a couch-based keyboard originally designed for the The Phantom console.

Exclusives are important for any console manufacturer. Each box essentially does the same thing, so you have to give people a reason to buy your machine over the competition's. So when Sony announced in 2007 that a game from the studio behind Grand Theft Auto was coming exclusively to PlayStation, it was perceived as a big get for the company that sat firmly in second place.

It's unfortunate, then, that the only official image we've seen of the game since its E3 unveiling was the logo. A few screenshots have leaked out since then, and publisher Take-Two still claims that the game is in development. Rockstar Games is known for taking its sweet time developing games, but eight years on a single game is a bit much.

The 21st century hasn't exactly been kind to LucasArts. For every Knights of the Old Republic, there was a Star Wars Kinect; for every Mercenaries, there was a Fracture. It wasn't exactly a surprise when LucasArts effectively ceased operations in 2013 following Disney's acquisition of basically everything George Lucas owned. But it was still a shame - especially because it meant cancelling the one project that could have put LucasArts back on the map: Star Wars 1313.

Starring a young Boba Fett, Star Wars 1313 would have followed the bounty hunter's first adventures, and made it out to be a third-person shooter filled with heavily-scripted set-pieces, similar to Uncharted. Except, y'know, it's Star Wars. While the demo looked promising, 1313 was officially canned a year later, as LucasArts laid off the majority of its staff.

Some games are lucky enough to escape their vaporware fate, and there's probably no greater turnaround story than Prey, that somehow actually turned out alright considering the circumstances. Unfortunately, its sequel didn't end up so lucky.

While a sequel was reportedly in development shortly after the first game's release in 2006, it wasn't officially unveiled until 2011. Taking place after the events of the first game, Prey 2 would have followed the adventures of US Marshal Killian Samuels, a single human living among an array of alien races, hunting bounties and earning cash to survive. Prey 2 made a showing at E3 that year, but shortly after, rumors began to swirl about its cancellation. Bethesda continued to deny rumors until 2014, when Bethesda VP Pete Hines confirmed that development on the title had ceased.

So Nintendo struck paydirt with the Wii, and games like Wii Fit and Wii Sports flourished with an audience who would have never thought to pick up a gaming console in their lives. In an effort to keep that gravy train rolling, Nintendo wanted to create a controller that everyone could use, a controller so simple, all you have to do is put your finger in it and sit there. Enter the Vitality Sensor.

In an ideal world, the Vitality Sensor would have gathered the player's biometric data (namely, their pulse) and the game would then take that data and react accordingly. But despite an initial announcement by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata at E3 2009, the device essentially disappeared without a trace. It wasn't until 2013 that Iwata confirmed why this strange peripheral never got released: turns out, it only worked for . It doesn't sound like that big of a gap, but when ten percent of the people who buy your product are returning it because they think it doesn't work, it's probably best to shelve it.

Peter Molyneux is basically the Willy Wonka of game design - except Molyneux's Fizzy Lifting Drinks don't do much more than taste like an off-brand Sprite and give you a slight caffeine buzz. Not that he makes bad games; it's just that they end up kind of pedestrian in comparison to the pie-in-the-sky promises that he makes leading up to their release. And there's perhaps no greater example than Molyneux's ability to over-promise and under-deliver than Project Milo.

The idea (as these things tend to go) looked promising, as you interacted with a virtual young boy with voice and hand gestures via Kinect, and the boy would react to your statements and change over time. It all sounded a bit too good to be true, especially considering , despite Molyneux's insistence to the contrary. Considering Molyneux's departure from Microsoft in 2012, it's doubtful this project will be completed.

You'd be forgiven if you don't remember the original Phantom Dust on the Xbox. Even though it was developed by Microsoft Japan, it's still pretty niche, combining third-person action, card-collecting, and multiplayer arena battles. Microsoft's been on a rebooting kick lately, taking old properties that the publisher owns and getting other studios to remake them for Xbox One. Phantom Dust was the latest to supposedly get the treatment, complete with an E3 2014 trailer.

But within a year of its announcement, the studio behind the remake , leaving the ultimate future of Phantom Dust in question. Microsoft has stated that they are committed to the title and that development still continues, but it's probably going to be another couple of years before we ever see anything about this strange hybrid again. I suppose getting shut down quickly is better than getting strung along for years, but still - that was fast.

Las Vegas, that strip of hedonism and hubris out in the middle of the desert, has never really been immortalized in video games (though Fallout: New Vegas gets it pretty close). There are casino games, sure, but there's never been been a game that fully encapsulates the celebrity DJ/bottle service/$7.99 all-you-can-eat buffet experience that Las Vegas is really known for. And thanks to the cancellation of This Is Vegas, we're going to have to wait even longer.

First hinted at in 2006, the splendor of This Is Vegas wasn't fully revealed until 2008, and was scheduled for release later that year. Unfortunately, thanks to publisher Midway's own personal financial woes (many of them likely brought on by This Is Vegas' ballooning costs, as the publisher reportedly spent Keep the Vegas dream alive.

Here it is: the White Whale of vaporware. Blizzard is known for only releasing games when they're "done", which of course means they take years longer to make than most, and the studio isn't afraid to shelve something if they don't think it's worth continuing - even if that means cancelling a game after years of development. StarCraft: Ghost would have put players in the role of the titular sniper as she sneaks her way through various sci-fi environments, completing objectives, and shooting Zerg in the face.

Unfortunately, development didn't go as smoothly as you'd expect. Originally planned for a 2003 release, Ghost underwent numerous delays, and even changed hands from developer Nihilistic to Swingin' Ape Studios. It was then relaunched at E3 2005 and slated for a release in 2006 - which came and went, and Ghost was still a no-show. Around that time, a little game you've probably never heard of called World of Warcraft released, and Blizzard decided to pour resources into its new MMO rather than continue working on a stealth-based PS2/Xbox game, so it put Ghost on indefinite hold. If you're still holding out hope, don't: Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime finally put a bullet in this one, confirming its cancellation in 2014.

Nothing to see here. Move along.