Street Fighter review: What if its giving Super Mario Bros. live-action, but I love that?

In terms of quality, 2026 has been a bleak year for big-budget video game adaptations.

Yes, yes, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made over a billion dollars, and Mortal Kombat II turned a lean profit.

But they were also two of the very worst movies I've seen all year.

The former made me all too aware of what a short span of time we have in this life, and how much of it I was obliged to sacrifice for a relentless Nintendo ad.

The latter urged me to ask , "The bar is in hell for video game movies, huh?" SEE ALSO: 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' review: Death is coming for us all So, my expectations were admittedly very low for Street Fighter, the latest movie adaptation of the Capcom video game series known for badass characters and eye-popping special moves.

I'm more surprised than anyone to confess that I had an absolute blast at this movie.

Directed by Kitao Sakurai, Street Fighter leans hard into a '90s aesthetic of glorious neon lighting, hard-hitting pop music, unhinged action, and a general lustiness that's been bled out of mainstream American cinema.

Plus, Sakurai and co-writer T.J.

Fixman understand that the best way to have fun in this franchise is not to take it too seriously.

Street Fighter (2026) has a lot of spinning plates in terms of plot One might well argue too many! First off, you've got egomaniacal tyrant M.

Bison (a sneering David Dastmalchian ) hosting the World Warrior Tournament II to set a trap for the first tournament's winner, Ryu (Andrew Koji).

See, Bison is so power-hungry that he wants to milk all the "psycho power" from Ryu's body to fuel his own.

There's just one problem: Ryu has gone missing after the death of his sensei, Gouken, and the subsequent estrangement from his best friend, Ken Masters (Noah Centineo).

Meanwhile, Ken emerges from Ryu's shadow to become a stunt fighter who battles panda bears and parked cars to line his own pockets and those of his manager, Dan (Andrew Schulz).