6 Button-Smashing Facts about Street Fighter You May not Have Known
For a game that made its debut in Japanese arcades in 1987, Street Fighter has had quite an interesting history. We’ve come up on the 23rd Anniversary of the Street Fighter saga, and for that we’re celebrating some of the lesser-known facts about one of the most iconic fighting games to bless arcades and consoles across the globe.
Street Fighter has attracted fans from all parts of the world, and has actually been one of the most competed-over arcade games since Capcom released the first title.
Here are six interesting facts about Street Fighter you might not know.
1) Ken and Ryu are the only characters that have appeared in every single Street Fighter title. In the first Street Fighter, you could only play as Ryu by default in single player, and player two as Ken in multiplayer. The two are best friends (and rivals) from different sides of the world. Ken is an American-born fighter, and Ryu from Japan. According to the storyline, their tournament lead them to take on the final boss, Sagat. In the final battle between Sagat and Ryu, Ryu defeated Sagat, leaving him with his iconic facial scar.
2) In Japan, ‘Balrog’ is known as ‘M. Bison’ — the ‘M’ standing for Mike, an intentional parody of Mike Tyson. When the game went international, Capcom was suggested to change the name of the character, because he actually resembled Mike Tyson to the point of an infringement lawsuit. When they changed the names of the characters, they actually just switched M. Bison and Balrog’s names around. Balrog is now commonly referred to as ‘Boxer’, and M. Bison is referred to as ‘Dictator’.
3) The largest competitive Street Fighter event to date was Evo 2010. With 1800 entrants and cold, hard cash riding on the line for the champion, it was a hard battle fought and eventually won by an esteemed champion by the name of Daigo Umehara. Closely following him in second was an American by the name of Ricky Ortiz. Third place was taken by a Korean under the handle ‘Infiltration’.
Here is a video of the final battle of Evo 2010, in case you were interested:
4) There were two American Street Fighter movies made, the first, titled Street Fighter starring Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile, and Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue as Cammy. The second adaptation released in 2009 was called Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li which stars Kristin Kruek as Chun-Li, Chris Klein as Charlie, Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog, and one of those dudes from the Black Eyed Peas (Taboo) as Vega.
5) Super Street Fighter 4 was the first game in the series to be released on console before hitting the arcade. The simple answer to why this happened, is because the arcade industry is slowly dying. Blame it on the recession, or newly formed anti-social behavior with this generation of couch-dwelling gamers. Arcades in North America are slowly closing their doors, making it difficult for game companies to justify making a true arcade game over a console game.
6) Street Fighter X Tekken is the first time that a Street Fighter game will actually become a crossover [Edit: with Namco]. Capcom does come out with a lot of crossovers, but this is the first time they’ve teamed up with Tekken. Announced at the “Street Fighter Mania!: SSFIV and Beyond” panel at Comic-Con 2010, it is another benchmark in the Street Fighter history books.
2.) In Japan, Vega = Dictator, Balrog = Claw, and M. Bison = Boxer. In America, Vega = Claw, Balrog = Boxer, M. Bison = Dictator. It was a three way switch.
6.) Capcom does come out with a lot of fighting game crossovers:
X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996)
Marvel Superheros vs. Street Fighter (1997)
Marvel vs. Capcom (1998)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000)
Capcom vs. SNK (2000)
Capcom vs. SNK 2 (2001)
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (2008)
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011)
Two of those specifically only have Street Fighter characters for Capcom and the rest include many, many Street Fighter characters.
1. Sagat's iconic scar is on his chest, not his face. He does have a scar on his face, but this was not caused by Ryu's decisive Dragon Punch in the final battle of Street Fighter.
6. Street Fighter X Tekken is most certainly not the first Street Fighter crossover game. Title's such as X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Street Fighter have existed for well over a decade. Furthermore, Capcom has been whoring out the Street Fighters in many other crossover games, such as the Capcom vs SNK and Marvel vs Capcom series', its most recent crossovers being Tatsunoko vs Capcom and the forthcoming Marvel vs Capcom 3.
how is #4 'little known'?
most of the errors have been pointed out already (man there are a bunch), but one more.
6. The Tekken roster is NAMCO characters not KONAMI characters.
They have also crossed over with SNK. Tatsunoku and the Marvel series don't really count as total crossovers because the properties were licensed by Capcom.
With the Tekken and SNK games both Capcom and their respective partners, in this case Namco and SNK respectively, ALSO got the rights to make their own version of the crossover.
Sagat's facial scar is from Dan's Father, who is the one who took Sagat's Eye. Sagat killed him for it, and Dan's main motiviation is avenging his father's death. (in addition to being a combination parody of Ryo and Robert from SNK's Art of Fighting)
This list is poorly researched at best. :
super street fighter 4 was out in the arcades in japan well before bing relased on consoles.
Tekken is produced by Namco, not Konami.
SAGAT's facial scar and missing eye was taken my Dan's Father Gou Hibiki….in revenge Sagat killed Gou. Hence why Dan always yells out to his Father in SF4 and is after revenge against Sagat.
Ryu inflicted Sagats chest scar….but he also stole his honor and title of worlds strongest fighter…hence why Sagat is also for revenge.
So I'm afraid point one is slightly off….
Street Fighter IV was released in arcades first. Not consoles.
This writer should be fired or disciplined if this website expects me to take them at all seriously.
Well, I for one didn't know that they call Balrog "M. Bison" in Japan… weird.
Err.. I thought X-Men Vs Street Fighter was the first SF crossover? This list is wrong.
This list should be called "6 Button-Smashing Facts about Street Fighter The List's Author Didn't Really Know"