About video games, and movies, the timing plays a huge role.
For example a lot of people loved the original Mortal Kombat movie when it came out because Mortal Kombat was the biggest thing on the planet when it comes to video games.
Mortal Kombat was basically the Grand Theft Auto of the 90s, perhaps bigger considering the movies, toys, and arcade culture.
It was all over the news, high government officials, and TV hosts were constantly talking about it, not to mention churches, and parents. Even the music would play on the radio, and nightclubs.
When the second movie came out people didn't like it as much because the popularity wasn't as big. Even though it was still immensely huge, it wasn't prime time anymore like when MKII first came out with blood on the Super Nintendo.
However I was a huge fan, it was prime time for me because I didn't get to enjoy it earlier, and as a consequence I absolutely loved the second movie, even more than the first one.
People later revisited the movies, and now they realize the movies weren't as great as they thought, and everything surrounding them was mostly pure hype. Yet, they can still remember the great feeling they had when they first saw them because the timing was right.
However it is important to notice that having a good lore definitely helps. Mortal Kombat has one of the best ones in the industry, dealing with Ninjas, Cyborgs, Emperors, Deities, inter-dimension travelling, war, death, resurrection, pure violence, etc..
Street Fighter may have something a tiny bit more grounded in reality like world travelling, and straight up street fighting, even with things like the Hadouken involved.
However with all of that, having one of the biggest action actors on the planet (Jean Claude Van Damme), and releasing on prime time, people quickly realized that even with all the hype that sold tickets, the movie wasn't as great as they would have wanted. So that's also important to consider.