I think you hit the nail on the head. I grew up with Street Fighter and never really connected the dots as to why I love the game so much.
Sure it had pretty good graphics for the time, and gameplay was great as well.
But the real differentiator was the ability to "compete" with other people.
Not just compete, but the fact that you plopped down 25 cents and within 3 minutes one of your lost. At the time we didn't have much money, so 25 cents per game play was quite a lot. So it really came down to being great and trying to beat as many people as possible so that your 25 cents could last longer.
It was probably my first real memory of truly being competitive at life.
Oh yeah! While I preferred the games there focused on co-op, I could see the appeal of Street Fighter. My friend seemed to have a decent amount of fun seeing how long he could last in single player, but the constant second player putting in a coin was what it was all about. Some of them would tell me later that they spent their weekly allowance on trying to 'git gud' beating my friend.
Sure it had pretty good graphics for the time, and gameplay was great as well.
But the real differentiator was the ability to "compete" with other people.
Not just compete, but the fact that you plopped down 25 cents and within 3 minutes one of your lost. At the time we didn't have much money, so 25 cents per game play was quite a lot. So it really came down to being great and trying to beat as many people as possible so that your 25 cents could last longer.
It was probably my first real memory of truly being competitive at life.