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"HADOKEN!"note 

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. 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 with multiple versions and revisions:

Main Series

Side Games

Media Spin Offs include:

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Film

Literature

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Web Original

Western Animation

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:

The series itself is part of a 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 title. Several characters from here has since joined the playable roster of Street Fighter, with Metro City, the setting of Final Fight, becoming the primary setting for Street Fighter 6.
  • 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 and his daughter Jessica from Final Fight. The first two games, Saturday Night Slam Masters (a.k.a. Muscle Bomber: The Body Explosion), and Muscle Bomber Duo (the only game to retain its Japanese title 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: The International Blowout) was simply a Super Street Fighter II-esque fighting game with a wrestling theme, and background cameos by Zangief and Balrog.
  • Captain Commando, a beat 'em up set in a future version of Metro City and starring the titular Captain Commando, an early and since abandoned mascot for Capcom whose first three letters of both of his names form the name the company's name.
  • Rival Schools, a series of 3D fighting games featuring Japanese high school students beating the hell out of each other. Orignally, its only connection to the Street Fighter series was Sakura from Alpha appearing in the first game as an unlockable Guest Fighter. Then many years later, Hinata and Tiffany made a background cameo in one of the stages added Street Fighter V. This was followed by Akira joining the playable cast as DLC, and a new Rival Schools themed stage that has Akira's teammates Edge and Gan appearing. Akira's moveset even includes her older brother Daigo as an Assist Character.
  • Strider, a series of platformers featuring a ninja from the titular organization defending a future Earth from terrorists including an intergalactic conqueror. Zeku, who had previously appeared in a single scene in Alpha 2 as the teacher of Final Fight protagonist Guy, is playable in V with a look and storyline which heavily suggests he's the founder of the Striders.

In addition to the aforementioned spin-offs, the series also inspired at least three different animated adaptations, Japanese manga, plus several toylines (one of which was actually mixed in with G.I. Joe). There are also several art books, the latest of which was released in August 2014. College Humor's Street Fighter: The Later Years is a parody of Street Fighter II. There's also Future Cops, a little-known live-action Chinese action/comedy adaptation starring Palette Swap Captain Ersatzes of the main characters.

The innovations and impact of the Street Fighter series can never be overstated, as evidenced by the number of imitators and competitors, 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 DLC pack for Asura's Wrath has the title character going up against Ryu, Akuma, Oni, and Evil Ryu, also providing the possibility that Street Fighter takes place thousands of years after Asura's Wrath. Ryu also appears as a downloadable Guest Fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and as part of the regular roster in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where Ken joins in as a Moveset Clone and Guile is a summonable Assist Character. A number of Street Fighter characters are guest fighter in Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, which later lead to Ryu become an original Ranger himself (the Crimson Hawk Ranger). He would later be joined in Legacy Wars by Chun-Li, who also became a Ranger (with the decidedly mundane title of "Chun-Li Ranger"), which would then see both characters arrive in the fighting game Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid in their Ranger identities (with Chun-Li now going by the mantle of the "Blue Phoenix Ranger").

Furthermore, Capcom and Arika's collaboration on the Street Fighter EX series, which was designed as an Alternate Continuity from the main Street Fighter canon from the start, spawned enough memorable characters, music themes, and concepts to branch off into their own series. Around the same time, Arika developed a similar game called Fighting Layer which was published through Namco and featured two characters from the EX series amongst an entirely new cast, to see what they could do without the Capcom characters. Finally, two decades later, the Arika-owned EX cast was revived almost in full through Fighting EX Layer an explicit Spiritual Successor to their late '90s offerings. Canonically, Street Fighter and Fighting EX Layer belong to two different worlds due to the differing companies, while the Arika characters have been given bios on Capcom's new Shadaloo Combat Research Institute profile site. Thus, it can be said that they have two diverging histories following the SFEX games.

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


Street Fighter provides examples of:

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    #-G 

  • Action Girl: Kicking off with Chun-Li, the first woman of note in the genre fighting toe-to-toe with the men, the series' roster of female fighters has increased broadly as the series has progressed, with other prominent action girls added in every iteration; Cammy, Sakura, Ibuki, Juri, and Manon, for example.
  • Adaptational Villainy:
    • Zangief is easily the most infamous example as he was often depicted as a member of Shadaloo in various American and Japanese adaptations of the series back in the 1990s. The only cinematic adaptation during the '90s that didn't cast Zangief as a villain was Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and he just had a cameo fight with Blanka. Fortunately for Zangief, this trend seems to have stopped over the course of the 2000s as later adaptations do depict Zangief as a hero for Russia like how he is in the games.note  Wreck-It Ralph has him as a "bad guy," but emphasizes that that's just his job in the game, and he's actually a nice guy.
    • Sagat was more of a downplayed example of this. Yes, he was a villainous member of Shadaloo, but older and newer adaptations have a strong tendency to play up his role with Shadaloo a lot more than the games did, normally depicting him as someone who has committed various crimes under Shadaloo, while in the games, he is more of a noble demon who really didn't do much for Shadaloo (especially during the Alpha series where Sagat really started to play up his noble demon persona).
    • Adon has been depicted as a Shadaloo member in certain Street Fighter manga adaptations. While Adon is indeed quite the Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, he was never really deemed a villain in the games.
  • 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. It essentially collected everything into one handy compendium.
  • Alternate History: The Street Fighter canon is nominally set during the 1990's (and early 00's as of Street Fighter 6), but the technology seems all over the place (such as Juri and Rasheed alluding to social media and the former bringing up what's clearly a modern iphone) and the Soviet Union might have outlasted its historical counterpart by a few years considering Zangief's appearances as a Soviet Union representative post-1991 (although it seems to be gone c. 1998).
  • 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,[[note]]which is basically an exaggeration on the results of consistently oiling up in a Mediterranean country yellow-toned Oro, Necro and Twelve that are as white as the snownote , 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.note  And let's not get started about the various palette swaps.
  • Anger Is Not Enough: The Satsui No Hado is a powerful Ki born of negative emotions, including that of rage and anger - it makes whomsoever succumbs to it incredibly powerful and grants access to numerous Dangerous Forbidden Techniques, and Ryu succumbs to it in an attempt to kill Akuma, who has all but mastered it. It's not enough, and it's only through accessing The Power of Nothingness That Ryu is able to eventually defeat Akuma.
  • The Anime of the Game:
  • 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.
  • Barefoot Sage:
    • Dhalsim is a master yogi who's wisened by years of self-mastery and curbing conflict, hence why he goes everywhere barefoot (also because he can freely levitate and teleport, so he doesn't need to ever touch the ground).
    • Oro is a 140-year-old hermit and candidate for one of the most powerful fighters in Street Fighter canon. He tends to keep to his training and meditation, hence his preference for going barefoot.
  • The Beautiful Elite: There is an incredibly exclusive in-series club known as the "International Debutantes Society" note  with four of the current cast noted as members. Each member originates from a nation associated with a distinct type of prestige:
    • Pullum; Saudi Arabia (huge financial wealth)
    • Blair; Monaco (ritzy exclusivity)
    • Julia; England (class, heritage and tradition)
    • Karin; Japan (refinement and courtesy)
  • 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. Back then, the music was associated with the stages, not the characters. However, since each character had their own stage, the music effectively extended to them as well. It went to an extent that the SFII music was remixed into the World Warriors' new stages in Alpha and Alpha 2, and solidified by the time of IV, with most characters not having a home stage.
  • Boulder Bludgeon: One of Cody's dirty fighting tricks is to pick up some stones and then throw them at people mid-fight. Later on, in Street Fighter V, he's got a variant; he can toss up a stone and then punt it with his steel pipe like a baseball to hit enemies at range.
  • Break Meter: Starting with II, each fighter has a stun meter. Most games hide it, but the Street Fighter III and V games show the fighters' stun meters. When one becomes full, the affected fighter is stunned and sees Circling Birdies while stunned.
  • Canon Foreigner:
    • Po-Lin and Wong-Mei from the Street Fighter II manga. Po-Lin appears in Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li.
    • Lt. Gibson in the Street Fighter comic and Street Fighter - Round One: Fight!
    • Ren and Ran Kanzuki in the Street Fighter III: Ryu Final manga.
    • Vincent in the Street Fighter IV comic.
    • Nida in the Malibu Street Fighter comic.
    • The new fightersnote  in White Wolf's Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game.
    • Lucinda Davila, El Fideo, Escher, La Lupa, Lo Fat, Wo Fat, The Great Oni (not the same as the one from Saturday Night Slam Masters), Quinn, Raymond Wang, Satin Hammer, and Lord Zing in the Street Fighter Animated Series.
    • Raven, an unnamed prisoner in the Street Fighter movie, was planned to appear in the game adaptation.
    • Albert Sellers, the British Minister of Justice in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.
    • Damdo, Donu, Eden, Han, Kikun, Kokuja, Ortega, Lo Yang, Rinko, Sodom & Gomorrah, Soong, Yo Senkai, Zochi, and Zoltar in Street Fighter II V.
    • Rosanov, Sadler, Shun, and Wallace from Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation.
    • Fuka and an old monk, and Sayaka in Street Fighter Alpha: Generations.
    • Senzo and another version of Sayaka in Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist.
  • Canon Immigrant:
    • Gouken first appeared in the manga Street Fighter II: Ryu.
    • Delta Red member Lt. Hanna Ackerson first appeared in the manga Super Street Fighter II: Cammy Gaiden.
    • Dr. Senoh, the old scientist working for Shadaloo, first appears in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and makes a cameo appearance in M. Bison's Street Fighter Alpha 2 ending.
    • Karin first appeared in the Sakura Ganbaru! manga before being introduced in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
    • Chun-Li's father was unnamed until being named Dorai in Street Fighter II V. Street Fighter V goes with the name Dorai.
    • The Eiga Street Fighter II Memorial Kōshiki Fanbook suggests that the man standing by the pole in Chun-Li's stage is a Monitor Cyborg.
  • Canon Welding: 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 and then to Ultra Street Fighter IV with Rolento, Hugo, and Poison.
  • Cast of Expies: Every character in the franchise takes a lot of cues from other characters in film, television and video games as well as real-life celebrities as shown in the franchise's Shout-Out page.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: With time, each character's facial characteristics has become 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. This is especially evident since Street Fighter IV.
  • Central Theme: "The Answer Lies In The Heart of Battle". Street Fighter's most central theme revolves around the spiritual and physiological benefits of martial arts (and combat in general), and how it can imbue life lessons to make one a better person. This is most demonstrated with Ryu. His Shadow Archetypes (reflections of what he could become) include Sagat, Dan, M. Bison and Akuma, while his Paragons (people who demonstrate what he should become) are Gouken, Oro and Dhalsim. The metaphysical force that symbolizes this, the Dark Hadou, is loosely described as nothing but the overwhelming desire to win or defeat others at any cost—not fighting for fun or self-improvement. Ryu finally overcomes the Dark Hadou when he realizes this, and focuses his fighting philosophy on always moving forward and improving rather than merely winning. Other characters such as Chun-Li, Guile, Karin and Sagat also learn this lesson, which leads to them becoming better people as well. Also, the theme here is almost meta, because it can be applied to players of the game as well, in particular the infamous Scrubs and ""Stop Having Fun" Guys" who don't even enjoy playing the game or improving and just want to win at all costs.
  • Charge-Input Special: The closest to a codifying franchise for this trope, beginning all the way back with Street Fighter II.
    • Guile, one of Street Fighter's premier Long Range Fighters, is the Trope Codifier of charge inputs. In every appearance, his moveset has always featured his two Signature Attacks the Sonic Boom and Flash Kick. Sonic Boom travels incredibly far compared to other projectiles, but also allows Guile to move alongside it, granting him a greater degree of area control. Flash Kick is a powerful anti-air move that covers most of the space above Guile, being great for catching opponents who try to jump over him.
    • Chun-Li like Guile has two recurring signature attacks, the "Kikoken"note  and "Spinning-Bird Kick". Though the Kikoken input has ZigZagged across games, sometimes requiring a half-circle input instead. Spinning-Bird Kick is a powerful multi-hitting move that covers a wide horizontal reach. She can also perform a stronger variant that doesn't move her forward, but is invincible on startup, making it a great counter tool.
    • The sumo wrestler E. Honda has two charge-input specials, "Sumo Headbutt" and "Sumo Smash". Sumo Headbutt sends him flying forward with a quick but powerful head-ram, and Sumo Smash has him fly up and come down with a powerful Ground Pound. Honda uses these moves to pressure his opponent from across the screen and trick them into blocking, allowing him to use his powerful Grapple Move the "Oicho Throw".
    • All of Blanka's Rolling Attacks are performed with charge inputs. The payoff for the charge is an unparalleled range of fast, far-travelling melee attacks that can attack from almost any angle.
    • Balrog has to charge to perform his devastating "Dash Punches". These can attack from almost the entire screen with the heavy variant and have a large hitbox thanks to Balrog's massive tree-trunk arms. His Buffalo Head also uses a charge input, save for the V variant that's instead a different command.
    • Decapre from IV can use "Scramble" to do a short-range teleport forward or diagonally upwards, which can be followed up by either landing or slamming straight down, a sliding kick, or a dive kick, depending on the button pressed and which version of the move she did. Her "Psycho Sting" is a fast lunging uppercut, and she also has Cammy's "Spiral Arrow" as a charge input, except it's an air-only move. She's rather unusual for a charge character in that she's very rushdown and mix-up-focused, a very rare trait for charge characters in the series.
  • Circling Birdies: When a fighter is stunned, angels, birds, bells, stars, or mini-Grim Reapers will show up around the stunned fighter. They each make their own sound, to boot. Angels are easier to break out of stun, while grim reapers mean that the stunned fighter has the most difficulty to break out of stun.
  • Comic-Book Time: In the early Street Fighter II games, the characters were given specific birth dates 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 the 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. You can particularly tell when comparing the stated birth years to how characters seem to age: As of Street Fighter 6, Dhalsim is portrayed as a wisened old sage (complete with a bone-white beard) while Zangief looks more or less the same he always did, despite both characters being only three years and five months apart according to their last stated birth years.
  • Continue Countdown: A Continue Countdown shows up in just about every game in some capacity, usually showing your beaten character off to the side as the clock counts down. The odd one out being the first game, which showed a time bomb ticking down. If the player decided not to continue? Boom.
  • Continuity Snarl: Ibuki's ending in Street Fighter III: New Generation and 2nd Impact depict her in her school uniform, which hints that she's a teenager, and her 3rd Strike ending shows her entering college. The problem is that when she returned for Super Street Fighter IV, which is speculated to be set at least five years before III,note  Ibuki is shown to be a young teenager starting high school, and this status was maintained for her in V. Unlike Sakura, who by IV has graduated from high school and in V is officially an adult, leaving little to no doubt over her age, Ibuki's appearances in the interquels made her actual age in the three games subject to debate.
  • Crossover:
  • The Dark Side: A recurring theme in the series is that there are good reasons and methods for fighting and bad ones:
    • The most famous example is the Satsui no Hadou, which is used by Akuma and opposed by Ryu and Gouken. It's explained that their fighting style started as an assassination style, and thus each move's true and original form was meant for killing. The Satsui no Hadou occurs when a practitioner of the style gives in to the desire to win at all costs, thus walking a path full of death and destruction.
    • Bison's Psycho Power is stated to gain its strength from the suffering, fear and hatred of others. Bison himself embodies it and has become something no longer human (if he ever was human). Rose, on the other hand, embodies the good form (Soul Power) and is far weaker, but much kinder and more human (at least in appearance and behavior).
    • Whatever mysterious power that Charlie Nash channels in SFV is speculated in-universe to be related to the Satsui no Hadou. Fittingly, Charlie himself has been consumed by a thirst for revenge.
  • Death Cry Echo: Used ever since the very first game to indicate that a character is down for the count. Since IV, however, the death cry doesn't echo unless it's the match-winning round.
  • Deck of Wild Cards: All of Shadaloo, the criminal empire controlled by M. Bison, is full of Big Bad Wannabes who backstab and betray one-another, or even want to supplant the evil dictator himself. Bison, a card-carrying Social Darwinist, is usually amused by this and often even develops his plans around the expectation of betrayal, as seen in Street Fighter IV. During a noteworthy scene in Street Fighter V, Bison is pleased to see his Co-Dragons fighting amongst each other and muses that it might be fun to let them kill each other to see which one would win out.
  • Decomposite Character: Akuma and his brother Gouken both started as shout-outs to the fictional character of Sheng Long, who was believed to be Ryu and Ken's master. Akuma appears and defeats Bison, just as Sheng Long was rumored to do. Both inherited moves that Sheng Long was rumored to possess, such as air fireballs, red fireballs, and multi-fireballs. The fake design used in Electronic Gaming Monthly was even used as a basis for Gouken. Interestingly, Sheng Long himself is now considered a distinct character, appearing in the World Tour mode of Street Fighter 6.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Ryu and Ken used to be identical in almost every aspect gameplay-wise (justified as it was the only way back then to have a pure mirror match, 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 Kick hit multiple times and launch the enemy while Ryu's hits once for the normal versions and hits the enemy away while keeping him in place in the EX version (i.e. his Shinku Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku super is downgraded into his EX Tatsu).
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap:
    • It is retconned in the Alpha series that Ryu did not defeat Sagat at the first World Warrior competition. Sagat had Ryu utterly beaten before Ryu unleashed the Satsui no Hadou and sucker-punched Sagat after the match was technically over. All this serves to do is cast doubt on Ryu's status as Sagat's better, so that Sagat can still be technically undefeated.
    • Bison is retconned in Alpha to be utterly unstoppable when at the peak of his powers. Every time he was defeated, it was either without his cape, after the Psycho Drive was destroyed, or while he was occupying an inferior body. Even his death to Akuma was retconned, and Bison remains one of the most insanely powerful characters in the entire series.
  • Energy Ball: Certain characters can weaponize their ki (vital force) by releasing it as concentrated energy spheres that fly towards the opponent. The most recognizable example is Ryu and Ken's Hadoken, which manifests as a blue fireball that is shot from their palms.
  • Enhanced Punch: Ryu and Ken's special move, Shoryuken, is a rising punch enhanced by ki. Sagat's nasty scar on his chest is caused by taking one of these from Ryu.
  • Excuse Plot: There's plenty of supplementary materials, character endings and All There in the Manual information throughout the series, but most of the franchise was very much formatted like the arcade standard. The result is that it took from 1987 to 2008 with Street Fighter IV for story to start being emphasized in any meaningful way that wasn't filled with many a Retcon and a bare minimum for character motivations. And even then, it took extra materials for IV to expound upon its ideas too. The first dedicated Story mode in Street Fighter would come post-release with Street Fighter V, and then subsequently be reworked and expounded upon in a different, more exploration-focused manner as World Tour mode in Street Fighter 6.
  • Expy: The franchise was inspired by numerous works of fiction and real life figures that came before it. As such, some characters in Street Fighter are the series equivalents of other fictional characters and celebrities.
    • Ryu is inspired by Mas Oyama/Ken Asuka from the manga Karate Baka Ichidai.note 
    • Sagat is based on Reiba from Karate Baka Ichidai. In fact, the plot of Street Fighter is based on the arc where Yoshiji Soeno prepares his fight against Reiba.note 
    • Eagle is inspired by the Bodyguard from the Bruce Lee movie Fist of Fury.
    • Zangief is inspired by real-life Russian pro-wrestler Victor Zangief/Zangiev right to the character's surname.
    • M. Bison/Vega/Dictator is inspired by Yasunori Kato from Teito Monogatari and General Washizaki from Riki-Oh.
    • Balrog/M. Bison/Mike/Boxer is inspired by Mike Tyson, especially in his Street Fighter II portrait art. His star-shaped hairstyle is based on that of Yoshiyuki Takagi from Osu! Karate Club, who had it as a sign of status. Star-shaped shaves are a recurring thing in Takahashi Kouji's works, and he returned the attention by illustrating Takagi cosplaying as Balrog in Karate Club, along with other references to Street Fighter II.
    • Guile is inspired by Rudol von Stroheim from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specifically the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency arc.note 
    • Fei Long is (obviously) inspired by Bruce Lee. He is, after all, a Bruce Lee Clone.
    • Dee Jay is inspired by Billy Blanks, the martial artist creator of the Tae Bo fitness system.
    • Gill from Street Fighter III is also inspired by Kars from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specifically the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency arc.
    • Abel is inspired by mixed martial artist legend Fedor Emelianenko.
    • Alex is inspired by Hulk Hogan. This is referenced by his intro pose when fighting Hugo, whose design is also inspired by André the Giant.
    • Twins Yun and Yang are respectively inspired by Duo Maxwell and Trowa Barton of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing fame. Yun's look and use of skateboards might be paying homage to skateboarding legend Kien Lieu as well.
  • Fanservice Pack:
    • While Chun-Li has always been a Ms. Fanservice, at first it was more by virtue of being the Token Female among a cast of very fit martial artists and warriors than Chun-Li herself being overtly sexual. From Street Fighter IV onwards, she's been given a lot more revealing outfits while the improved graphics allowed for far more detail than the 16-Bit era including Panty Shots, turning her into a much more sexualized Anime Chinese Girl.
    • When Cammy debuted in Super Street Fighter II, she wore a green leotard that didn't QUITE fully cover her bottom. When the prequel Street Figther Alpha 2 rolled around, her now-teal leotard was redesigned with a full-on Thong of Shielding. She would retain this look in all the crossover games, and when the green version made its return in the "present day" in Street Fighter IV, it too now had a thong back, which has remained ever since.
    • Ibuki has a reverse example, as she has historically been very busty despite her young age in comparison to other females such as Chun-Li and Cammy. In IV she was third only to Rose's 96CM and C. Viper's 98 CM with her own 95CM. However she has noticeably been toned down in V, being brought down to arguably in contention with other flats such as Menat and Sakura. Seeing her in Necalli's win screen shows just how much she shrank. That being said, some of her new costumes - particularly the school uniform and the sporty bikini - accentuate her legs in ways her previous look didn't.
  • Far East Asian Terrorists: Shadaloo, who are based in Thailand and have a hand in every major form of crime.
  • Fireballs: Albeit the Hadoken attack looks like a blue fireball, it's actually a ball of ki). However, Akuma and Ryu have mastered the Shakunetsu Hadoken, an enhanced version that ignites the opponent on contact.
  • 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, best seen in his ending from Super Street Fighter IV.
  • The Greatest Style:
    • This is Played for Laughs concerning Dan Hibiki, who created his own martial art called as "Saikyo Style",note  which is all but powerful.
    • Ansatsuken is used by Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Gouken, and a few others. It is generally shown to be the deadliest martial art in the entire series and the reason why Bison keeps coming after Ryu. It's also why Akuma wants him. The martial art, notably, also produces the Dark Hadou. Sakura and Dan both have a small amount of training in it, which is what makes them dangerous to World Warrior levels. Even if Dan shows a little bit of a good thing is a major bad one.
    • Karin's Kanzuki-style martial arts is apparently one of the most elite styles. Karin's story mode states that the best techniques of the style are those which are rare even for the heads of the family (by design, its strongest member) to fully master. Amongst its abilities is the skill to defeat enemies with nothing but a Battle Aura, and (according to Karin herself), the ability to levitate like Dhalsim. It's telling that, on Street Fighter V's stat chart, Karin is second only to Akuma in technical skill ranking.
    • Part of the reason why Sagat went so crazy after Ryu's defeat, before it was retconned, is that his Tiger style Muay Thai was considered the greatest in the world with him as its greatest master. Sagat's defeat rebutted this. While not strong to the level of superhuman abilities, Sagat pushed himself after this defeat that while he may not be able to achieve Ansatsuken levels of destruction, his Tiger style is certainly a second best at worst.
    • Oro, a 130 year old man whose Senjutsu mastery allows him to defeat even Ryu with one arm. All so he can take the wandering warrior under his wing to pass on his style/knowledge. Oro's power is such that even Akuma backs down rather than go all out. Sure, it's played as they both realize it would be a mutual kill, but Akuma has been shown to split mountains. Backing him down? Not bad for a 130 year old man.

    H-Z 
  • The Hero's Idol:
    • The Series Mascot, Ryu, finds himself a fan and semi-apprentice in Sakura, a teenage martial arts fan. Sakura's own fighting style is based on studying Ryu's, including copying many of his Signature Movesnote  while putting her own twist on othersnote . He himself is very supportive of her pursuits and will spar with her whenever they meet.
    • The series' premier grappler Zangief is a monumental figure in the world of pro wrestling, and the main inspiration to series regular Rainbow Mika. She follows news of his career passionately and even becomes his understudy in V, and will go total Fangirl whenever he displays his Iron Body technique.
  • Hoax Hogan:
    • Alex from Street Fighter III is not exactly a copy of Hulk Hogan, but has some elements of him, like the t-shirt ripped before fights as well the intro against Hugo, who also is an André the Giant expy, as Hogan and André got before their iconical fight in WrestleMania III.
    • Zangief's Battle Outfit in Street Fighter V is a clear reference to "Macho Man" Randy Savage. However, one of his palettes is a Hogan reference with blonde hair and beard instead brown. As referenced in CFN website:
      Sgt. Ashida: For color 12...looks like he's ready to rip his T-shirt off.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: Chun-Li wasn't introduced until Street Fighter II. Due to Sequel Displacement, the entire Street Fighter II cast is better known than the non-holdovers from the first game.
  • Intercontinuity Crossover: Street Fighter crosses over with other continuities in Marvel vs. Capcom, SNK vs. Capcom, Taisen Net Gimmick: Capcom & Psikyo All Stars, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Street Fighter X Tekken, SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, Namco × Capcom, and Project × Zone.
  • Invulnerable Attack: The most infamous example is the Shoryuken—most versions of which are invulnerable during at least the first few frames of startup. Most characters have at least one invulnerable attack that can be used for reversals. More powerful versions (such as EX or Super variations) may be invulnerable throughout most, or all of the attack.
  • Ki Manipulation: The co-TropeNamer of Kamehame Hadoken, and one of the most famous examples of this trope. The stable character archetype of Street Fighter, the Shoto Clone, is able to throw some sort of energy projectile from their hands. Other characters can use Ki to enhance physical attacks (such as M. Bison's Psycho Crusher or Guile's Somersault/Flash Kick).
  • 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.
  • Limit Break:
    • By filling up the Special Bar, the player can either use some of it to perform enhanced versions of the character's special attacks or spend all of it to unleash a single powerful move.
    • IV would introduce the Revenge Gauge mechanic. When it's at least 50% full, the player can perform a cinematic, highly-damaging attack.
  • Literal Metaphor: By IV, martial arts, as in fighting visual arts. Within IV, there is the use of paint and ink, and much of its cinematics showcases itself with an inkwash style like Okami. By the time of V, it goes all out with clay sculpting, theater and performance art....
  • Lost in Translation: M. Bison was a pastiche of Mike Tyson. However, the localization changed his name to Balrog, and M. Bison would become the Big Bad dictator's name instead.
  • Martial Artists Are Always Barefoot: Several characters in the franchise are martial artists who are often barefoot:
    • Ryu didn't wear shoes from II to V. While he can certainly afford them, he goes barefoot for comfort.
    • Street Fighter III has three female fighters who fight barefoot: Elena, Ibuki and Makoto. The last, despite being known to stay in her gi (complete with no shoes) even during the cutscenes, was later confirmed to wear shoes outside the fights after all, thanks to the Street Fighter IV alternate costumes. Outside the female cast, it's limited to Sean, Urien and Gill, and, like Ken, they wear shoes outside of battle, only depicted barefoot when fighting.
    • Juri Han does not wear shoes. She is usually either barefoot or wearing taekwondo ankle wraps. Even when she wears a bodysuit in in V, her bare toes are still exposed.
  • 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 (more so 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 with. While larger and more muscular characters (such as Zangief, Alex and Hugo) tend to do more damage in single hits, as well as take more damage or possess Super Armor, smaller characters may deal more damage overall (with combos or more Difficult, but Awesome moves). Also, mass and weight do nothing to stop a character from being launched or juggled by smaller characters.
  • National Stereotypes: Used with great effect since the series' inception to enhance characterization. Most characters in the series are designed with classic national archetypes in mind. Examples are listed below by nation:
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The English voice acting in the games and adaptations have a tendency to play with this. If you are from Europe, or to a lesser extent the Americas, you will probably get an accent. If you are from Asia, you most likely will not outside of Calling Your Attacks (except for Dhalsim and Hakan).
  • Not Just a Tournament: Multiple instances:
    • 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.
    • For the tournament in Street Fighter III: New Generation/2nd Impact, 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.
    • In Street Fighter 6, Ken and JP were setting up a clean installment of the World Fighting Championship tournament with the philanthropic goal of drawing in tourist money for the impoverished Fictional Country of Nayshall, only for JP to steal the tournament to turn it into a money-laundering front. That tournament takes place in the World Tour mode.
  • Only Known by Initials: This only applies to international versions of the Street Fighter games, in relation to M. Bison (Dictator). No one knows what the "M" stands for in this case. In the Japanese version, M. is simply short for "Mike", as Mike Bison (Boxer) is a thinly-veiled Expy of Mike Tyson. Other characters who use initials all have known first names (Edomondo "Edmond" Honda, Thunder Hawk), codenames (Crimson Viper), or ring names (Rainbow Mika).
  • Passion Is Evil: The Satsui no Hadou is the surge of violent emotion that originally fueled the Ansatsuken martial art used Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Dan and Gouken. The more fiercely and passionately one fights, the easier it is to become lost to the Satsui no Hadou. According to some sources, merely attempting to use the Shun Goku Satsu (Raging Demon) forever alters the personality of the user and drives them insane. Akuma is the first and only known person to use it and remain some lucidity (although not completely unchanged).
  • Pinball Spin-Off: See here for more details.
  • Prefers Going Barefoot: Ryu didn’t wear shoes from II to V. While he can certainly afford them, he goes barefoot for comfort.
  • Promoted to Playable: Bison and his lieutenants became playable in the second iteration of II.
  • Prophet Eyes: Irises and pupils seem to be optional in the world of Street Fighter. While some characters may have a justification (e.g. Dhalsim's spiritual connections and Bison being fueled with Psycho Power), there's really no good explanation for Badass Normals like Sagat and Hakan to have them.
  • Punch-Kick Layout: One of the longest-recorded series to use this button layout; the original arcade cabinets for Street Fighter only had two buttons per player, so each button was designated as a punch and kick input which could be held to increase the attack's strength. Street Fighter II, thanks to now having a six-button setup, is what popularized the light-medium-heavy selection for punching and kicking, giving fighters more options to work with than the previous game. All three punch attacks generally can be canceled into special moves; this isn't the case with kicks, which on the flip side have more range and knock back than punches.
  • Ret-Canon:
  • Rival Final Boss:
    • The first two games of the Street Fighter Alpha series operate like this, as the last fighter your character faces is often a rival of theirs instead of the Big Bad. M. Bison (said Big Bad) isn't quite up to his level of prominence in Street Fighter II since this saga is a prequel to the events of SFII, but a few characters (Charlie, Chun-Li, Guy, and Rose) have him as their rival.
    • Street Fighter Alpha 3 mostly avoids this, as Bison is the Final Boss for the majority of the cast, with other character-specific battles taking place at Stages 5 and 9. The lone exception other than Bison himself (whose Final Boss is Ryu) is Evil Ryu, who faces Final Bison as the Sub Boss before moving on to fight Shin Akuma at the end of his Arcade route.
    • Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact follows this trope if your character has a Friendly Rival, making that rival your character's Final Boss and making Gill the Pre-Final Boss in that instance.
    • Street Fighter IV inverts this slightly, as the player character's Rival Battle comes right before the real Big Bad, Seth. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike before it followed a similar trajectory with the fights preceding Gill.
    • Street Fighter V's Cinematic Story Mode ends with Shadaloo defeated. However, after the credits there is one last fight, as Ryu and Ken have yet another rematch.
  • Serial Escalation:
    • The evolution of attacks. Probably started with Super Turbo and its Super Combos. From there they became multi-level in Alpha and everyone got multiple super attacks, evolved into Super Arts by III, and then Ultra moves were introduced starting with IV.
    • The setting itself also got more and more extreme as time went on. For instance initially the Satsui no Hadou was just described as a dark ki energy that could corrupt a well-meaning fighter if they become too consumed with the thought of victory at any cost. They'd become stronger by relying on it but be less inclined to show mercy or fight honorably. By IV it is more akin to an evil spirit that can impose its destructive will on a fighter. Evil Ryu was initially just a cocky, somewhat angry fighter in the Alpha series but IV's interpretation paints him as a violence-mongering demon that strives to rip his foes to shreds. Oni apparently shows what can happen to someone if they take it all the way and let the Satsui no Hadou use their body as a host and not merely as a supplement to their own power; a far cry from Shin Akuma, which was only Akuma without restraint but still fully in control of his actions.
  • Shared Signature Move:
    • Practitioners of Ansatsuken ("Assassination Fist") and its derivative styles all share variations of the three same special moves: the Hadoken, the Shoryuken, and the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku. Compare Ryu and Akuma for example; Ryu's Hadoken set the precedent for other characters' usage, being a simple fireball that travels straight forward at varying speeds and powers. He can also power it up to stronger variants like Shinku Hadoken ("True Void Surge Fist"), Shakunetsu Hadoken ("Scorching Surge Fist"), and Denjin Hadoken ("Electric Blade Surge Fist"). Akuma can perform Shakunetsu Hadoken as well as his own version called "Gohadoken" ("Great Surge Fist") which imbues it with dark power. He can also perform one-handed Gohadoken in the air, something other characters including Ryu haven't mastered, which shows just how proficient he's become with the technique.
    • Guile learned his iconic Sonic Boom projectile from his good friend, Charlie Nash. To show his superior proficiency, Charlie can perform the technique one-handed as opposed to Guile's two. The two of them also have their unique variations of the attack; Charlie can perform a double Sonic Boom by burning his super meter, and his super move in V has him strike an opponent with a melee variant that slices them down the middle. Guile can power up his Sonic Boom into "Sonic Hurricane", a powerful super move, or perform "Sonic Blade" where he creates a vertical Sonic Boom that can combine with the base projectile.
    • Users of the Satsui No Hado, including Akuma, Evil Ryu, and Kage, have access to similar abilities. There's "Ashura Senku" which is a short-ranged teleport that lets the user phase through enemy attacks, lending to aggressive close-range combatants like the aforementioned. But more iconic than that is the "Raging Demon" technique, a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that strikes at an opponents soul. It's so fast and so brutal that the screen is completely blacked out most of the time, and is a perfect showcase for how far an Ansatsuken user can fall to darkness.
  • Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: Two of the central characters, Ryu and Ken, have identical special moves. However, Ryu is geared towards the projectile Hadoken attack while Ken is geared towards the Shoryuken uppercut. Their Super Combos are tailored towards these moves to highlight their preference.
  • Shout-Out: Refer to the dedicated page.
  • Skeleton Motif: The Shadaloo symbol used by Vega/M. Bison is a skull with wings on the sides.
  • Super Special Move: Many supers from the hand-drawn era of Street Fighter live by this trope, especially Street Fighter II where supers were introduced to the series (specifically Super Street Fighter II Turbo).
    • Many of Ryu's super moves are simply versions of his standard attacks that he's achieved greater mastery of.
      • Shinku Hadoken for example is an empowered version of the standard Hadoken, dealing more hits and sometimes using purple coloring to differentiate itself. There's also "Denjin Hadoken" which empowers it with lightning.
      • And then there's one of Ryu's strongest attacks, the "Shin Shoryuken" ("True Rising Dragon Fist"). He begins with a basic Shoryuken that freezes an opponent in place and then unleashes an even stronger one that sends them flying.
    • Sakura, Ryu's fan and apprentice, learns both the Hadoken and its enhanced version, the Shinku Hadoken.
    • Ken, similar to Ryu, incorporates classic Shotoclone moves into his supers.
      • His classic super move, Shoryureppa, is a string of multi-hitting Shoryukens, sometimes ending in a powerful, fiery variation.
      • He also has Shinryuken ("God Dragon Fist"), an extra powerful Shoryuken that engulfs the area around Ken in violent flames.
      • 6 presents an inversion in the form of "Jinrai Kick", which is a weaker version of his iconic "Shippu Jinraikyaku", performing three kicks rather than the full No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. That said, Shippu Jinrai still appears as a super.
    • Chun-Li's signature "Hyakuretsukyaku" ("Hundred Rending Legs") amp up to become "Senretsukyaku" (the same name, but a thousand!). Several similar attacks exist, like "Hoyokusen", which utilize Hyakuretsukyaku's movements, often with other attacks interwoven for variety.
    • Guiles' Sonic Boom projectile is a key part of his kit in all of his appearances, and then his super, Sonic Hurricane, is that but more powerful. While it doesn't travel as far, it has a larger hitbox, does multiple hits, and can be canceled into a standard projectile, making it effective at finishing off low-health opponents.
    • Balrog's "Crazy Buffalo" is a rapid string of his signature "Dash Punches", usually ending with a big, final punch to sell the power of the move.
  • Talking Is a Free Action: In Street Fighter IV, activating a Ultra Combo momentarily stops time. Even if the opponent was in the middle of an attack.
  • Too Long; Didn't Dub: In IV, almost no English voice actor will say "Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku" and simply Kiai when a Hurricane Kick is performed instead.note 
  • Tournament Play:
    • This is one of the first video games which was suited for tournament play. Even today, professional tournaments use nearly every Street Fighter game; check here for some tutorials on advanced Street Fighter strategy.
    • The underlying plot of the Street Fighter world is essentially tournament play: the Street Fighter tournaments exist to crown the greatest fighter in the world.
  • Vague Age: An odd case directly tied with the franchise growing to be tremendously popular, and so Capcom applied Comic-Book Time after II to ensure the series' potential longevity onwards. In the original II release the characters all had clear cut birthdates in their bios, and the game was meant to be set in 1991, as such using Ryu -born in 1964- and Chun-Li -born in 1968- for reference were 27 and 23 years old respectively back then; however, it didn't take long for Capcom to start omitting birthdates for newer characters in following revisions, as soon as the Alpha series debuted Capcom began to state birthdates as 19XX. III was, for a while before 6 came out, the last game in the series chronologically, first released in 1997 it was still assumed to be set in the year of its release, thus Ryu and Chun-Li would be 33 and 29 years old respectively, anyone else introduced, however, were all left up for people to wonder based on their appearance and social life. There was a 11 real-life years gap between the release of III and IV, in 2008, yet IV is chronologically set before III, by then a fleeting timeline was in full effect, Capcom no longer mentioned any dates whatsoever, IV had then-current technology and fashion despite being set before III, it clearly took no place in the real nineties but in a vague ”modern” time period; even Ryu and Chun-Li couldn't have their ages correctly pinpointed anymore since IV never mentions how many years it is set before "III", so they are anywhere below 33 and 29 but above 27 and 23. Eight years later V in 2016 was released, and the exact same situation from IV repeats itself, being set before III included, but shortly after IV. In 2023, a breakthrough happened, 6 is finally set after III but by then everything is as vague as it can possibly be, no one can say for certain how old anyone is supposed to be anymore, rough estimates are an option and fans often joke about Ryu and Chun-Li being 59 and 55 in 2023, but for decades at that point Capcom no longer dealt with official ages or dates for any character and setting.
  • Wolverine Publicity
    • Ryu and Chun-Li are unquestionably the faces of Street Fighter. They have been in every crossover project involving the series without exception.note  They've become so ubiquitous that the first footage ever shown of Street Fighter V features them in battle against each other.
    • Ken is probably one peg below them, having appeared in every Street Fighter game (including the two that Chun-Li did not; notable since the original plan was to nix both Ryu and Ken from the III series entirely) but missing out on a few crossover titles.
  • Women Are Delicate: A more controversial purposeful design choice is how female characters tend to have lower total health numbers than males. Chun-Li's health was a huge talking point among the developers and while she started the same as the males more recent games have had her and the other girl fighters below the average of 1000. Some females such as ninja girl Ibuki are expected to be low health while male ninjas such as Guy are at the standard. Ryu tends to always be at the 1000 mark.
  • World's Best Warrior: What the tournaments are (generally) held to find, although sometimes the ones hosting the tournament have ulterior motives.
  • World of Badass: Every playable character is a martial artist to some extent and four of the five main series iterations revolve around worldwide tournaments. Each and every character being a badass in their own right is to be expected.
  • World of Buxom: Pretty much every gal in the series has a lot of stuff above those pecs. Even the younger girls are quite well-endowed. Basically, the only flat out exceptions to this are Sakura, Karin, Juni, and Ingrid.
  • World Tour: A trademark of the series. You travel around the world to fight other characters.
  • You Don't Look Like You: You can make a case for this 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 (for example, Rose's render has her resemble Monica Bellucci, whereas her in-game model is more along the line of this).

You must defeat my Shoryuken to stand a chance!

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Gomen-ne!

Sure you are, Chun-Li.

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