Awesome / Street Fighter

Examples from Tournament Play should go under Pro Gaming.

Subpages:

• Street Fighter II
  • Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
  • Street Fighter II V
• Street Fighter III
• Street Fighter Alpha
• Street Fighter IV
• Street Fighter V
• Street Fighter 6
• Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist

Games

• Any time Ryu lands the Shin/Metsu Shoryuken. The game freezes and the opponent vibrates for about 1-3 seconds after each blow. Just seeing it in action gives you an idea of how obscenely powerful and painful the move really is. It's not hard to imagine how Sagat got that scar.
  • Speaking of painful, IV ups the oomph factor with the extreme close-ups of the move, especially the final Shoryuken to the opponent's chin, which is strong enough to deform the opponent's jaw (but only if they're male).
• This is quite possibly one of the most awesome fights ever fought in Street Fighter III (here's a lower quality version of the whole match).
  • For people not familiar with SF3, here is a quick briefing: Ken (the dude, played here by the legendary Daigo Umehara) has very little health at the beginning and it drops to nigh zero after a few seconds. Then Chun-Li (the girl, played by Justin Wong) starts her super attack, kicking the opponent about a dozen and a half times in a very close succession. The rules are simple: if Ken gets hit at all, even blocking, he loses. What he does is parry every single one of her eighteen lightning fast attacks (which, by itself, is nearly impossible - he has to press forward just as she strikes, and the timing is ridiculously unforgiving) and jumps just before the last one so he is in position to start his own super attack and take her down for the win. The crowd went absolutely wild.
    • The timing actually isn't that unforgiving. The awesomeness actually comes from the emotional aspect of a complete situation reversal: When Chun Li gets in a kick at 0:21 of the 57 second clip, everyone suspects the match is essentially over. Ken has no health, and so the next blow Chun Li deals will KO Ken, even if Ken blocks (because blocking reduces damage, but does not completely negate it, and Ken is at such a low health level, that even the reduced damage would be enough to defeat him). Then, at 0:27, we see the tell-tale blue flash of a super. This is where you expect the match to end with Chun Li winning. Ken parries the first blow (parrying completely negates damage to 0). Okay, fine, parrying the first blow is pretty easy, and you figure it's a desperation move, because really, Ken has no other options, but he's just delaying the inevitable. Ken parries the next blow, and the one after that. Wow, the guy playing Ken is pretty good. And the next, and the next. This is when it finally sinks into your mind that Ken might actually be able to go all the way— when you hear the cheering suddenly jump up really loud. He just keeps parrying and parrying. When he parries the final blow in the air at 0:32, your heart is racing, because he actually managed to parry the whole attack sequence. Ken survived. That was unthinkable. He did it. But this is only the beginning. Ken then lands with two kicks, followed by his own blue flash, indicating that he is starting his super. And when this happens, your eyes suddenly dart up to check Chun Li's health bar. Could it be? Is it possible that Ken might actually KO Chun Li with this super? And indeed, her health bar is around 5%, and the super connected! That's it. Chun Li is out. Ken did it. It is with this realization that the roar of the crowd transforms into a feverish pitch.
    • What adds to the defeat, is that if you notice the score above the life meters, Ken has about 28,000 points when the video starts, while Chun-Li has 100,000. The cool part is that with all the technicals, combo kicks, and the Super finish that Ken performed, the final score is Chun-Li: 107,000; Ken: 107,500.
    • Along a similar vein, this. Not only did he parry the move, he did a 720 motion in the middle of it. Sweet.
    • The entire moment is immortalised in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. To clarify, his reveal trailer has him facing off against Little Mac, which has a gameplay segment where Ken pulls off a perfect shield (the parry), then uses his Final Smash where he starts off with the parry animation again, followed by Shippu Jinraikyaku which launches Little Mac into the jumbotron. The fact that one of the most famous crossover franchises references this is a grand testament to this battle's legacy as Evo Moment #37.
• Alpha 3 introduced Cody to the Street Fighter canon. Cody is the closest thing to a Badass Normal the series has. To wit; he punches through three feet deep concrete walls... with his bare hands. One of his special moves involves kicking sand with as much force as a Shinku Hadouken. And not only can he curbstomp Akuma, but Oni even admits that he would be a very challenging foe. Try to remember that Oni can trade blows with an actual god. And unlike other characters of similar power, Cody doesn't use Ki at all. He just pounds his opponents into the ground with sheer physical strength and skill.
• Most every ending of Alpha 3 gives your character a chance at a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Unfortunately, most of them aren't canon, but that doesn't really detract from watching E. Honda defeat Bison with one Sumo Torpedo or watching Charlie kill Bison twice, then shoot him down in his plane and nuke him when he still won't die after that.
  • The best example is Zangief destroying Bison's power source by repeatedly piledriving E. Honda into it.
• Street Fighter IV features Gouken, and he demonstrates how powerful he really is now with his "Power of Nothingness" in his and Akuma's endings by firstly, taking Ryu's Shinkuu Hadouken with no damage and not even blocking, and secondly, stopping the Raging Demon dead in its tracks without even moving with his back turned. Dodging and surviving the Shun Goku Satsu is one thing, but Gouken stopped it without even moving. With his back turned.
  • Gen did nearly the same thing and at least a year earlier to boot. The officially stated trick to beating the Shun Goku Satsu is emptying one's mind of all thoughts and feelings. Granted, this is still something only absolute masters can do, people in the realm of power Gen, Gouken and Oro occupy.
• More of a crowning moment of awesome for all of fighting games, but without Street Fighter, it would have never existed. Ode to the 2-Hit Combo is a magnificent, heartfelt love letter to the entire genre and all of its fans, and turned a combo video into a work of art.
• It's uncertain whether Necalli's story mode depicts something that actually happened or is merely a prophecy of tragedies to come, but seeing him effortlessly destroy and consume three of the most powerful characters in the series, including nigh unkillable big bad M. Bison, is pretty undeniably impressive. Eat your heart out, Akuma!
  • Necalli may want to eat his words on that last one; in Akuma's story mode, Necalli eats Akuma, and the latter BURSTS OUT OF THE FORMER'S STOMACH.

Film

• While the Street Fighter live-action movie is generally agreed to suck (some say in a good way), Raul Julia's performance as Bison is unquestionably the best thing about it. In a sign that the producers knew this, Bison gets to spend an entire scene hammily ranting about the new world he plans to build. It's in the running for the best scene in the movie.
• When Chun-Li confronts Bison about his killing of her father, building up a dramatic tension as she reveals her entire motivation (while at the same time belittling him because he was a mob lord unable to beat a group of farmers)... and then Bison admits he can't remember it:
  Chun-Li: My father saved his village at the cost of his own life. You had him shot as you ran away. A hero — at a thousand paces.
  Bison: I'm sorry... I don't remember any of it.
  Chun-Li: You don't remember!?
  Bison: For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.
  • As this article from Cracked put it:
    "That's why Dhalsim can't breathe fire in this movie. They needed all the burn for that one line."
• Later in the same scene, Bison taunts Chun-Li about how her bodyguards are gone and she's at his mercy... Cue Chun-Li giving him a smug smirk, snapping her wrist bindings, and tells him that was her plan all along. Chun-Li wasn't locked in a room with Bison, Bison was locked in a room with Chun-Li!
• Out of all the characters Vega is among the closest to his game counterpart, having the looks and flamboyance down, the narcissism and going berserk when he face is damaged, and the claws.
• Guile's Rousing Speech to get the entire army to join him in attacking Bison.
  "Troopers, I just received new orders. Our superiors say the war is cancelled. We can all go home. Bison is getting paid off for his crimes, and our friends who have died here... will have died for nothing. But... we can all go home. Meanwhile, ideals like peace, freedom and justice, they get packed up. But, we can all go home. Well, I'm not going home. I'm gonna get on my boat, and I'm going upriver. And I'm going to kick that son of a bitch Bison's ass so hard, that the next Bison wanna-be is gonna feel it! Now, who wants to go home, and who wants to go with me?"
• Guile and Bison reference their in-game quotes when facing off.
  Guile: Bison. Are you man enough to fight with me?
  Bison: Anyone who opposes me will be destroyed.
• This exchange before Guile and Bison fight is pretty awesome.
  Bison: You have made me a happy man.
  Guile: Next, I'll make you a dead one.
• After beating down Sagat, Ken throws him back the gold statue he stole earlier, and fires back:
  Ken: I owe you one. If I hadn't met you... I might have become you.
  • In the same scene, Ryu is fighting Vega, and uses the Hadouken! Granted it's depicted as just a brief flash of light, but still.
• After Bison is revived and blasts Guile with lightning.
  Guile: What happened to the purity of unarmed combat?
  Bison: This is merely Superconductor Electromagnetism. Surely you've heard of it. It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka. It levitates my desk, from which I ride the saddle of the world. And it levitates... me.
• And of course, one cannot forget Bison's last words...
  Bison: You still refuse to ACCEPT my godhood? Keep your own God! In fact, this might be a good time to PRAY to Him! For I beheld SATAN as he FELL FROM HEAVEN! LIKE LIGHTNIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!
• The comic book adaptation adds onto Ryu and Ken's fight with Vega and Sagat; after Ken defeats Sagat, the latter picks up a gun and tries to shoot him. Ryu then jumps in and hits him with a Shoryuken, giving Sagat his signature scar. Ryu also ends up outright killing Vega by stealing his mask and using it to block a stab from his claw, pulling said claw off Vega's arm, and then slamming him onto it to impale him.
  Vega: Handsome fighters never lose!
  Ryu: Oh, really? If that's true... (grabs Vega and throws him down toward the upward-pointing claw)
  Vega: NOOO-!
  Ryu: (as Vega is skewered on his own weapon) ...you've been pretty too long.
  • Also from the comic, Bison, in a very cool Call-Back to what he intended to do to Guile as he eulogized him, actually gets to snap someone's spine.
• The final shot of the movie◊ is all the heroic faction of characters doing their victory poses from the game itself.

Anime & Manga

• Street Fighter: Alpha manga
  • The scene in which Vega attempts to kill the dark hadou possessed Ryu and Adon, along with Sodom, Cammy, and Chun-Li. All hope seems lost, then suddenly a Shadaloo officer strikes the Spanish assassin before he can press the button to kill them. The officer is revealed to be Guy who disguised himself as a Shadaloo soldier to fight Bison, but revealed himself to save their lives. He makes quick work of Vega, then stops Evil Ryu from killing Adon by kicking several oil drums at him Final Fight style. Then Guy faces off against Ryu, blocking and countering every punch from his Shun Goku Satsu while urging him to control his killing intent before landing one final blow to Ryu's face that knocks him out, subduing him and returning him to regular Ryu.
  • Sakura standing up to Bison, even before she's into the whole "street fighting" business. Sure, she's but a noisy fly to him at that point, but that sort of thing takes guts.
  • Ryu defeating Bison and destroying his VTOL with his Shin Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku and then finishing the job with a Shin Shoryuken that wouldn't have been out of place in Dragon Ball Z.
  • Nearly every part of the final battle between Ryu and Bison is like something out of Dragon Ball Z. Each of Ryu's Hadoken's, and tasumaki senpukyaku's are turned up to eleven
• Ryu Final: Street Fighter III:
  • Ken defeating Gill purely on account of the love for his family, at which point Ken stops being a warrior for fun, glory, or for the sake of fighting, and Ryu can't even compare to him anymore. Ryu then departs to find his own strength, mastering the Power of Nothingness to defeat Akuma.
  • Ryu's awakening to the Fist of Wind during his match with Dudley.
  • The entirety of the Whole Episode Flashback to the aftermath of Sagat's original defeat at Ryu's hands. Especially him palming a falling tree (and leaving deep gauges on its bark with his fingertips) to keep it from crushing a child, and blocking a hail of bullets with his hand.
  • Ryu and Sagat's final rematch. If Oro was astonished, and Sagat's scar bled again in joy, what else is there to say?
  • Ryu figuring out the Shun Goku Satsu, surviving it, AND countering it all while being on the receiving end despite a broken right arm, a broken left hand, and a broken leg.
  • After taking several hits, Ryu willingly lowers his defenses and allows Akuma to punch through him so he can counter. Akuma, impressed, allows Ryu to defeat and kill him.
• Sakura Ganbaru!:
  • Sakura figuring out how to do the Hadoken within hours of having it explained, and never having trained for it. Even Dan is terrified at the kid's potential.
  • Karin graciously acknowledging Sakura as her perennial, but friendly, rival. Which is quite a change considering the Udon comics went the "enemies" route.
  • Speaking of Karin, her "bonus feature" manga at the end of each book has at least one per issue, culminating in her falling from an airplane and using a security rope (which she was using to fight while on top of the airplane... long story) to wrap around a bridge and land perfectly safely, merely ripping a streetlight from the asphalt in the process. Remember: In Everything, Be Victorious!
  • Master assassin Gen undergoing a Heel Realization and a Heel–Face Turn in the span of a few seconds merely because a leaf from a sakura tree blocked his deadly Zan-ei from directly striking Sakura herself. A leaf. Even his eyes, previously angry and black as pitch, returned to a kindly, human appearance afterwards.
  • Zangief, defeated and battered beyond belief by Sakura and Cammy's combined assault, refuses to fall over because his body is as much his Russian comrades' as it is his, and he cannot, will NOT, let it fall. So he throws his hands in the air and goes into his victory pose, and remains standing as he loses consciousness.
  • Sakura finally meets Ryu after chasing him all over the globe, and the first thing she does is challenge him to a fight. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
  • Sakura's fight with Ken is pretty great. Up until that point, Sakura had defeated all of her major opponents with a combination attack, ending with a Souoken. She tries this on Mr. Masters...who promptly tanks it, smiles, and knocks her out with a cross counter Shoryuken. This is a crowning moment for both of them, since she still managed to break 5 of his ribs and he gave Sakura her very first loss.

Comics

• From the UDON comics, the battles of Ryu and Ken versus the Shadaloo thugs led by Balrog and Vega at Ken's wedding and Chun-Li, Fei-Long, and Gen versus the triad led by Jianyu and Xiayu are especially memorable. But probably the best is Charlie, who was seemingly killed, fighting Bison while also charged with Psycho Power.
• From Cammy’s backstory after getting released from Bison’s control by Rose, she goes to try and live a normal life despite her amnesia. At that moment, a group of heavily armed terrorists strike the area she was at, which awakened her fighting instincts. By the time Delta Red arrived to deal with the situation, they were shocked to see that Cammy, an unarmed civilian, had utterly beaten the ever living crap out of all the armed terrorists long before they got there.
• During the tournament, Vega is defeating Ken, and then steals from his pocket a letter from Eliza (which she had told him beforehand to only open if he needed inspiration). Vega reads it out loud, "It's a boy", then mockingly continuing "a boy who, unfortunately, will never meet his fath...". This gives Ken the Heroic Resolve to get back on his feet and hit Vega with a Shinryuken before he can finish the sentence.
  I'm gonna have a SON!!!
• Akuma utterly kicking M. Bison's ass as he calls out how Bison is a fraud posing as a fighter who heavily relies on his devices and artificial power, while Akuma had dedicated his life and being to perfecting the way of the fist.
  Akuma: You are no fighter! You! ARE! NOTHING!
• After 12 issues of soul-searching, Ryu finally confronts Akuma for his murder of Gouken, and finds out what kind of fighter he truly is.
• In Unlimited, Ryu overcomes his darkness and perfects the Power of Nothingness. The result: Shin Ryu who is everything Ryu is plus more similar to Shin Akuma. The entire 12th issue of the comic is one long fight between Shin Ryu and Oni, with Shin Ryu reducing Oni back down to Akuma at the end.
• It's worth something awesome that there exist three consecutive stories dedicated to the Capcom Wrestling Association. Two in the FCBD special, one in its own Wrestlepalooza special.
  • The first is Dan vs. the entire Iwashigahama Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling league, with the odds stacked high against him, and yet it ends up as a Win-Win situation for both sides.
  • The second story is set in the 80's with Mike Haggar fighting against Zangief. Zangief then calls in his back-up, Mikhail Gorbachev, with both double teaming against him with the might of Soviet Russia. Haggar then gets his own back-up: It's Ronald Reagan with a Bald Eagle. Both Haggar and his back up defeat the Soviets in the ring with good-old American tactics. After the match, Reagan suggests that Haggar get into politics, foreshadowing his eventual tenure as the Mayor of Metro City.
  • The Wrestlepalooza special takes the cake, also acting as a Very Special Episode. This time, we have Alex, fresh from his fight against the Secret Society, acting as a sting within the CWA by Haggar, knowing that Belger is the one operating it. As Alex investigates, he soon discovers that Belger is working with F.A.N.G, imbuing some of his fighters, including Abigail, with bursts of Psycho Power. Alex then calls out Belger in the ring, leading to a fight with Belger's own Humongous Mecha. Alex himself is aided with Rainbow Mika, Yamatano Nadeshiko, and Dan in the fight, with Belger having a 'roided-up Abigail as well. Haggar and Tom provide a Big Damn Heroes moment with Haggar being the one to finish off Belger.
    • If the fights weren't enough, Dan himself finally gets to Earn His Happy Ending, as he now gets to be the chairman of the CWA, with Haggar also looking to make Cody into his successor as the Mayor of Metro City. Adding to this, Dan also manages to rope in most of the wrestlers in the series as part of the CWA, which not only involves himself, Alex, Mika, and Nadeshiko, but also Zangief, Honda, Hugo, Poison, El Fuerte, Yoko, and the same IJWPW league that kicked his ass in the FCBD special.

The Cartoon

• Blanka crushes Vega's mask in "Eye of the Beholder," making him go berserk with rage.
• In "Cammy and the Bachelor," Bison awakens Cammy as his sleeper agent with a deadly glare, completely turning the tide of battle in his favor.
• In "Cammy Tell Me True", one comes when Bison is fighting both Cammy and Chun-Li. Cammy attacks, screaming all the injustices Bison has done to her, and he just knocks her away with "Business is business!" Then Bison gives this awesome line when Chun-Li confronts him about killing her father:
  Chun-Li: Monster! You killed my...
  Bison: Yes, yes, I killed your father. What is it with you women anyway? I killed my father too, and you don't hear me whining about it!
• Sagat built an escape mechanism into his firing squad wall in case he ever got to be on its receiving end.
• Guile and Sagat teaming up to defeat Bison by spamming Sonic Boom.

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