Old school crawl plan

I had previously said that I wouldn't rigorously research release dates to make sure all my orders are correct. However, I kinda did. I mean, it wasn't rigorous, but I pulled some release dates off Wikipedia and GameFAQs, and put the titles in order. Here's what we've got. Thirty nine titles, all in (more or less) chronological order.

1. Street Fighter
2. Street Fighter 2
3. Fatal Fury
4. Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition
5. Fatal Fury 2
6. Street Fighter 2: Hyper-fighting
7. Fatal Fury Special
8. Super Street Fighter 2
9. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
10. King of Fighters '94
11. Fatal Fury 3
12. Street Fighter Alpha
13. King of Fighters '95
14. Marvel Superheroes
15. Real Bout Fatal Fury
16. Street Fighter Alpha 2
17. King of Fighters '96
18. Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold
19. Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
20. King of Fighters '97
21. Darkstalkers 3
22. Real Bout Fatal Fury 2
23. Street Fighter Alpha 3
24. King of Fighters '98
25. Street Fighter III: Third Strike
26. Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper
27. King of Fighters '99
28. Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves
29. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
30. Capcom vs. SNK Pro
31. King of Fighters 2000
32. Capcom vs. SNK 2
33. King of Fighters 2001
34. King of Fighters 2002
35. SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos
36. King of Fighters 2003
37. King of Fighters Neowave
38. King of Fighters XI
39. King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match

Of course, I'm not yet certain that I'll play every single title. Is it really necessary for me to play five versions of Street Fighter 2, two version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 and two versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3? I don't think so.

But that's the order, anyway. Interesting. It was also fascinating to see them lined up. Of course, my collection isn't complete, and having (for example) Darkstalkers 3 without having 1 or 2, or Street Fighter III: Third Strike without having New Generation or Second Impact could confuse rather than elucidate. And yet, I struggled with exactly how the Fatal Fury and Street Fighter subseries matched up to each other, because Fatal Fury 3 and Real Bout Fatal Fury seem to form a small subseries (despite the titles indicating otherwise) with similar gameplay and sprites that was "extra" compared to the various Street Fighter subseries. That's still true, but seeing that Fatal Fury 3 was out before Street Fighter Alpha kinda confirms to me who was the lead in that development, and who was the follower. (Real Bout Special and Real Bout 2 were much more "Alpha" like.)