Street Fighter

""HADOUKEN!""

For the Sonny Chiba martial arts series, see The Street Fighter.

Street Fighter is a long running series of Fighting Games by Capcom, that have basically defined the genre.

Before Street Fighter, most fighting games were side-scrolling beat 'em ups in the style of Kung Fu Master or Double Dragon. Even the relatively few one-on-one fighters that predated the original Street Fighter had, at most, only a handful of characters (only one or two of them playable), and extremely simplistic controls. Street Fighter (specifically its first sequel, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior) gave the genre depth, popularity, and, most importantly, legitimacy. Even modern fighting games cling tightly to the features and tropes innovated by this series.

The series not only has multiple games, but some of them are their own series:


 * Street Fighter (the first game)
 * Street Fighter II
 * Street Fighter: The Movie (technically two different games, an arcade version and a console version)
 * Street Fighter Alpha
 * Street Fighter EX
 * Street Fighter III
 * Street Fighter IV

Media Spin Offs include:


 * Street Fighter (the first movie)
 * Street Fighter II the Animated Movie
 * Street Fighter IIV
 * Street Fighter the Legend of Chun Li
 * Street Fighter (American comics)
 * Street Fighter (1990s Western Animation series)

In addition to the normal Street Fighter and Alpha series, Capcom also released a number of partially-related peripheral series, as an attempt to cash in on its success:
 * Cyberbots: A mecha-themed fighting game that's actually a pseudo sequel to Armored Warriors, a Final Fight-style beat 'em up featuring the same mechas.
 * Darkstalkers: which uses horror-themed characters, such as vampires, yeti, werewolves, succubi, and even Frankenstein's Monster.
 * Rival Schools: A series of 3D fighting games featuring Japanese high school students beating the hell out of each other.
 * X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes: A couple of Marvel Comics licensed fighting games. The former features characters strictly from X-Men; while the latter includes characters from the whole Marvel Universe, such as Spider-Man, Captain America, and the Hulk.
 * This led to the inevitable Massive Multiplayer Crossover (see Capcom vs. Whatever for full details), which includes X-Men vs. Street Fighter (self-explanatory), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (again, self-explanatory), Marvel vs. Capcom (which now included characters from other Capcom games like Mega Man and Captain Commando), Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (which introduced even more Capcom characters, including some odd Original Generation ones like Amingo, the granddaughter of the original Son Son and the pirate Ruby Heart), Namco x Capcom (a genre shift to turn-based strategy RPG), Tatsunoko Production vs. Capcom (self-explanatory), and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
 * The Capcom vs. SNK series, is an even bigger Massive Multiplayer Crossover, featuring characters from two different companies both known for their 2D fighting games. Although, the original Capcom vs. SNK and its upgraded rerelease Capcom vs. SNK Pro merely consisted of Street Fighter and The King of Fighters characters (with Morrigan from Darkstalkers and Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown), the sequel Capcom vs. SNK 2 contains a greater range of characters from both companies' fighting game catalog. Later on, SNK made their own title,  ~SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos~ . Unlike the other titles, the roster choices were a bit more... unorthodox.
 * Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter take this a step further, with Street Fighter characters going up against Tekken characters. The collaboration in game development marks the first time ever that we'll see a 2D fighting game series crossing over with a 3D fighting game series.

The series itself is part of a small Shared Universe between a few Capcom games including:


 * Final Fight, which was originally titled Street Fighter '89 before they realized that the game played nothing like the original Street Fighter after which they then changed the name.
 * Slam Masters, known as Muscle Bomber in Japan, a trilogy of wrestling games featuring artwork by Tetsuo Hara (of Fist of the North Star fame) and featuring Haggar of Final Fight fame. The first two games, Saturday Night Slam Masters and Muscle Bomber Duo (the only game to retain its Japanese name in the overseas versions) were arcade-style wrestling games with Street Fighter-esque special moves added to the mix, while Ring of Destruction: Slam Masters II (a.k.a. Super Muscle Bomber) was a Super Street Fighter II-esque fighting game with a wrestling theme.
 * Captain Commando, a beat 'em up set in a future version of Metro City and starring the titular Captain Commando whose first three letter of both of his names form the name Capcom.

In addition to the aforementioned spin-offs, the series also inspired at least three different Animated Adaptations, a little-known live-action Chinese action/comedy adaptation starring Palette Swap Captain Ersatz's of the main characters Future Cops, Japanese manga, plus several toylines (one of which was actually mixed in with G.I. Joe). An officially sanctioned, fan-made short film is set to be released on May 6, 2010 and a parody of Street Fighter II. It also had a Tabletop RPG that used the White Wolf system, better known for angsty gothic horror.

The innovations and impact of the Street Fighter series can never be overstated, as evidenced by the number of imitators and competitiors, not to mention its enduring popularity and fame, seen everywhere from an Easter Egg in Mega Man X to Sabin's Blitzes in Final Fantasy VI.

Outside of the main series, a confirmed DLC pack for Asura's Wrath has the title character going up against Ryu, Akuma, and Evil Ryu.

Shout-Out sheet found here.


 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: With Ham and Cheese.
 * Capcom Sequel Stagnation: Perhaps the purest example alongside Mega Man.
 * Cherry Tapping
 * Combos as we know them wouldn't exist without Street Fighter.
 * Hurricane Kick: Also known as the Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku.
 * Kamehame Hadoken: The second part of the name is the name of the fireball move by Ryu, Ken, and others (just wasn't called that in the west, even though they still said it in the game).
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Courtesy of Dudley.
 * Ryu and Ken: And Akuma and Sakura and Dan. Also Guile and Charlie (and Remy to a lesser extent); Cammy, Juni, and Juli; Gill and Urien; and Yun and Yang (who underwent Divergent Character Evolution starting with Street Fighter III 2nd Impact).
 * Shoryuken: From the Dragon Punch Rising Dragon Fist, to the Tiger Uppercut, and even kick versions with Chun-Li, Cammy, and Fei-Long.
 * Shotoclone: Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Dan, Sakura, and Sean; Sean's projectile attacks take the form of basketballs (save for his first Super Art, the Hadou Burst), though. Amazingly enough, Gouken is actually a subversion of this, as he fights very differently from the typical Ryu/Ken-type - he does have his own unique take on the Hadouken, but his Shoryuken is only used as a super, and he has many other moves that no other Ryu/Ken-type has. There's also Allen Snider and Kairi from the EX series; Kairi, in particular, became the Akuma analogue when Akuma left after the first game.

"Ryu: Shoes? No, I can certainly afford them; I go barefoot for comfort."
 * All There in the Manual: The series actually has a pretty extensive background story, but you'll have to get all the supplementary materials (like the numerous guides by Gamest or Arcadia, as well as Studio Bent Stuff's All About series) to gather the info. For those without access to Japanese resources or not literate enough at the language to understand them, the Street Fighter Plot Guide has plenty of fan-translated bios from those guides.
 * UDON released the World Warrior Encyclopedia in late 2010, featuring character profiles cobbled together from every official source imaginable, no matter how obscure--essentially, collecting everything into one handy compendium.
 * Amazing Technicolor Population: While for the most part the cast of the games have plausible skin tones, the series manages to give us a few exceptions: we have green-skinned Blanka, blood-red Hakan, yellow-toned Oro, Necro and Twelve that are as white as the snow, Gill who's half red, half blue, no less, Dhalsim who also tends to have some unnatural alternate skin colors like grey or orange among the others, Birdie who has a green color, grey M. Bison. Slate-Blue Seth (justified since he's an artificial creation)... and let's not get started about the various Palette Swaps.
 * Ascended Fanboy: The UDON crew currently handles a huge amount of official Capcom art for many different series, but mainly SF, the primary focus of their collective admiration.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Ryu, Ken, Gouken and Zangief.
 * Blood Knight: The Satsui no Hadou/Surge of Murderous Intent grants immense fighting power, but ultimately has the user develop a insatiable desire to fight, driving it to wander the world challenging strong fighters to a battle to the death.
 * Bootstrapped Theme: Every character, as early as II. This is because the music was for the stage, and not its respective character.
 * Bonus Material: There are a few of these. Most of them seem to make fun of Ryu and his Limited Wardrobe.
 * Cast of Snowflakes: With time, each character's facial characteristics has gotten more and more defined, to the point that you could show merely the face, without any other reference, of every character and know exactly who it is. Especially evident since Street Fighter IV.
 * Charged Attack: Both kinds.
 * Circling Birdies: And stars...and mini-Grim Reapers.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer
 * Comic Book Time: In the early Street Fighter II games, the characters were given specific birthdates that coincided with the current ages of the characters at the time and the release dates of the games (i.e. Cammy was born on January 1974 and is said to be 19 in Super Street Fighter II, which came out in 1993). As years went by, it became obvious that Capcom had to age the characters if they wanted to maintain consistency, so they used vaguer dates in the Alpha and III series (i.e. Sakura was born on March 197X in Alpha 2) before they finally stopped giving out the years of birth in IV.
 * Crossover: The characters have also appeared in Pocket Fighter, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and Capcom Fighting Evolution.
 * Capcom vs. Whatever: A constant staple, with characters from the series having appeared in the three main crossovers (Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom), Namco X Capcom, and Street Fighter X Tekken games.
 * With Asura's Wrath as well, as stated above.
 * Cool Hat: Bison, natch.
 * Rolento sports a cool beret.
 * Death Cry Echo
 * Development Gag
 * Divergent Character Evolution: Ryu and Ken used to be identical in almost every aspect gameplay-wise, but from Super Street Fighter II onward, they both received several changes that made the characters much different from each other (Ryu's refined Hadouken techniques, Ken's different kicks and the Flaming Shoryuken). In 3rd Strike, Ken's EX Hurricane Kicks hit multiple times and launch the enemy while Ryu's hit once for the normal versions and hits the enemy away while keeping him in place in the EX version.
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Half the cast. Lampshaded in Street Fighter IV:


 * Energy Ball: What most of the projectiles amount to. "HADOKEN!"
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Well, not... exactly.
 * Fan Service: Pretty much every female fighter's outfit, with the exception of Makoto (at least until you use her Ultra in IV).
 * Fireballs: The Hadoken is not one (it's just a ball of ki). However, Akuma and Ryu's Shakunetsu Hadoken is one.
 * Fixed-Floor Fighting
 * Gentle Giant: Happens a few times over the course of the series, or as gentle as these characters get: the running theme that loving the challenge of the fight does not necessarily make you a violent person. Judging by in game quotes, Zangief, Hugo, T. Hawk, Honda and Hakan, some of the largest and most physically imposing characters in the series, are all extremely nice, modest, social people who fulfill a "gentle warrior" archetype. Most of them have a Let's Fight Like Gentlemen approach to fighting, and are mostly concerned about having fun and a challenge, not hurting people. Sagat also gains shades of this after his Heel Face Turn.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Cammy, which she keeps in pigtails.
 * Handwraps of Awesome: Adon, Akuma and Sagat.
 * Subverted with Akuma, as he wraps his with rope.
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: The depiction of Russia. Not that other countries have it much easier...
 * Intercontinuity Crossover: The Alpha series brings over several characters from the original Final Fight as playable characters. Namely Cody, Guy, Sodom, Rolento, and Maki. This extends to Super Street Fighter IV with Cody and Guy.
 * Invulnerable Attack
 * Ki Attacks
 * Lampshade Hanging: A few games make fun of Chun-Li's legs.
 * Leitmotif: Overlaps with Bootstrapped Theme. From II all the way up to Alpha 2 Gold, every character kept their easily recognizable themes (in the case of the Final Fight characters, their tunes were based off of stage BGMs from their debut game, but weren't necessarily the music they were affiliated with in FF). Starting with Alpha 3, they were finally given new themes, although the rival battles in IV restored the trend.
 * Subverted in Street Fighter III 2nd Impact. Every character that returned from New Generation, excluding Ken, Sean, and Gill, received a new version of their previous theme, but in 3rd Strike, everyone except for Alex and Yun & Yang were given new themes. In fact, Dudley and Ibuki's themes in IV are based off of their 3rd Strike themes.
 * Limit Break: Several fighters have attacks that can only be done with full super bars.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: 64, excluding the Arika characters introduced in the EX series, boosting the number to 82 or the ones from the movie games and Mouse Generation, boosting it to a whopping 89 in this case. With so many, it's pretty easy to see why Capcom forgets about them, actually. And that's not even going into the NPCs. Or those who never appeared in a video game.
 * Mad Libs Dialogue
 * Mind Control Device: The cyberchips as well as some help from a statue and Bison's psycho-power in Street Fighter II V and a machine in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie also with help from Bison's Psycho Power. Both of these also tie in with...
 * Mind Control Eyes: Both Ryu and Chun-Li in the Street Fighter II V series and Ken in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. In each case, all three victims' sclera of the eye turn pink instead of white (moreso in Street Fighter II V). This is most likely as a result of Bison's Psycho Power which helped brainwash them.
 * Modesty Shorts: Sakura wears gym shorts under her school uniform. Ditto for Karin in Alpha 3 and Ibuki (in her alternate outfit) in Super IV, only with bike shorts instead.
 * Monster Modesty: Blanka never wears more than a pair of pants. Considering he wants to be seen as a human being, you'd think he would dress up a bit more.
 * Muscles Are Meaningless: Played straight and subverted at the same time. In a series where petite and deceptively adorable women use implausable fighting skills and many characters possess supernatural abilities able to render physical strength null and void or have had their (possibly artificial) bodies fundamentally altered, characters like Zangief and Alex (who rely almost completely on strength and deadly technique) are able to match them in most cases (tier rankings notwithstanding). In fact, the increasingly absurd Heroic Build doesn't just benefit the men; some of the ladies are visibly ripped due to their training. Take a look at Cammy, Makoto's arms (in IV), Juri (her abs, in particular), and Chun-Li (her legs in any game, as well as her arms in the Street Fighter Alpha series) for example.
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The characters with accents are far outweighed by those without.
 * Not Just a Tournament: In Street Fighter II, Bison's holding a tournament to get revenge on the characters who ruined his plans in Alpha 3. In Street Fighter IV, Seth from S.I.N. (Shadaloo Intimidation Network, the weapons division of Shadaloo) holds a tournament to gain data (and Ryu) to complete his BLECE Project, an unknown bioweapon. The tournament in Street Fighter III: New Generation/2nd Impact subverts this, though. The Illuminati is judging people worldwide to see who is fit to live in the new utopian world foretold in their ominous prophecy. Their leader Gill is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
 * Off-Model: Between the Capcom sequels, animated and live action films, and the Art Shift from sprite to 3D model, no one knows what "On Model" is supposed to look like anymore.
 * Panty Shot: Avoided mostly, since Chun-Li has tights and Sakura wears gym shorts underneath.
 * Pinball Spinoff
 * Poor Communication Kills: The typical contrivance to make rivals out of fighters who would otherwise simply fight the tournament.
 * Promoted Fanboy: Several former and current professional players are now or have worked behind the scenes with Capcom on their games. Specifically David Sirlin, who worked on Super Street Fighter II HD Remix and Seth Killian who now works at Capcom as the "Special Adviser for Street Fighter" among other things. HD Remix also had a soundtrack done by artists from OverClocked ReMix meaning that the entire game's soundtrack was done by Promoted Fanboys.
 * It turns out that a good portion of the Japanese cast of IV were avid fans of the series in its heyday.
 * Promoted to Unlockable: Bison and his lieutenants.
 * Roundhouse Kick: Many characters have this as their fierce kick move.
 * Shout-Out: Refer to the dedicated page.
 * Tournament Play: This is one of the first video games which was suited for tournament play. Even today, professional tournaments using damn near every Street Fighter game in history exist; check here for some tutorials on advanced Street Fighter strategy.
 * The underlying plot of the Street Fighter world is essentially Tournament Play, too: the Street Fighter tournaments exist to crown the greatest fighter in the world.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda: The infamous Sheng Long rumor, perhaps the first and most famous example of this trope.
 * Several other Street Fighter-related legends are outlined on that trope's page.
 * World of Buxom: Pretty much every gal in the series has a LOT of... stuff above those pecs. Even the younger girls are still quite well-endowed.
 * You Don't Look Like You: You can make a case for the trope everywhere in the series with the obvious differences between artwork and sprites, but the most evident case of this is in IV, where the in-game models look drastically different than the CGI-models used for artwork and bios. Your Mileage May Vary on who is ultimately bettered or worsened by this (for example, Rose's render has her resemble Monica Bellucci, whereas her ingame model is more along the line of this).