Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Street Fighter

Go To

See also:

Index:

    open/close all folders 

    Games 

    Other Media 

The series as a whole

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Ryu. Is he an exceptional example of the warrior spirit and also one of the finest examples of how a Blood Knight can be a genuinely good person? Or is he a flat out generic "karate man" who doesn't have a life outside of fighting? The former often like to point out his Character Development in the Street Fighter Alpha series. The latter often point that aside from the first game, Ryu is very much a Supporting Protagonist as well as a Living MacGuffin in the main series.
  • Bragging Rights Option:
    • Akuma is traditionally one of the most well-rounded characters in the series, with incredible combo potential. He's built specifically for players that enjoy Ryu and Ken, but want to be exceptionally flashy. His super attack, the Raging Demon, is an especially awesome and humiliating way to defeat an opponent, being one of the most damaging throws in the game and serving as proof that you've read your opponent's moves. Ending a round with it even produces a unique screen flash with a giant Kanji appearing (usually "Heaven").
    • This also often applies to Evil Ryu as well, who possesses extremely similar abilities to Akuma.
  • Complete Monster: See here
  • Fandom Rivalry: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat was one of the biggest ones in fighting game history, with both games being highly innovative in their genre. Many fighting game fans in the '90s debated on which series was better and/or who would win their favorite matchups like Sub-Zero vs. Ryu. When both series regained their popularity in the seventh generation of consoles, this largely settled into a Friendly Rivalry between the fandoms, with many on both sides hoping for a proper crossover.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • Ryu and Chun-Li have almost no canonical interest in romance, let alone a stated interest in each other. And yet Fanon really likes the idea of pairing them. Street Fighter V's "Hot Package" special edition cover art◊ only adds more fuel to the fire. The Street Fighter EX2 Plus manhua actually has them getting married. Some officially licensed merchandise also get in on the act, such as this Ryu x Chun Li-themed◊ limited edition Pocky box art◊ from 2019, designed by none other than renowned Street Fighter artist Kinu Nishimura.
    • His vague orientation aside, fans have toyed with the idea◊ of Zangief getting together with his No. 1 fan, R. Mika.
    • On the Crack Pairing side, there's R. Mika/Hakan. Many wish these two would at least cross paths, even if their encounter doesn't become romantic (which wouldn't be good, given Hakan is Happily Married with kids).
    • Juri/Cody and Juri/Adon, as far as hetero Juri pairings go. This despite Cody having his own complicated romantic history that doesn't involve Juri.
  • Fan Nickname: Due to their names being shuffled depending on the country, Balrog, Vega and M. Bison are often referred to as Boxer, Claw and Dictator to maintain consistency between regions.
  • Fanon:
    • It's a general consensus in the fandom that Ken beat Ryu when they met during the events of II. Ken promised not to marry Eliza until he defeated Ryu in a fair fight (during their match in Alpha 2, Ryu was preoccupied with other matters, namely the aftermath of his fights with Sagat and Akuma), and their marriage turned out to be canon. By the time of IV (one year later), Eliza is expecting a child and actually gives birth to Mel in SSFIV; Mel appears as a child in III.
    • Chun-Li is usually given a surname of Xiang/Zhang (originating from the live-action movie, where most of the characters were given full names). It might actually be Chung, but this piece of info reportedly came from a source in the early '90s and was probably forgotten or kicked out of canon by Capcom. The games don't bother giving Chun-Li a full name (unless that is her actual full name, given how most Chinese given and family names are monosyllabic).
    • Thanks to the first live-action movie and American cartoon, several additional names have stuck such as Ryu's last name (Hoshi), Sagat's first name (Victor), Guile's full name and rank (Colonelnote  William F. Guile), and since he was called Dr. Dhalsim in the movie, Dhalsim would be his last name.
    • In the EX series, a common theory claims that EX is meant to be a retelling of Street Fighter Alpha/Street Fighter II. This one isn't so far-fetched, given the appearance and apparent motivations of the cast, the SFII and SFA vets in particular, and also how some of the Arika characters' stories was entwined with the SF universe (like Doctrine Dark being an ex-USAF soldier under Guile's command who went crazy after his entire unit was decimated by troops commandeered by Rolento, or Allen having a rivalry with Ken).
    • Ibuki is highly subjected to this, particularly in rumors that she's the daughter of Geki from the original Street Fighter.
    • Fans often assume that the Shadow transformation from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter happens in the series as well. UDON even used it in the comic.
    • Until Capcom canonized it, Charlie Nash's name was the combination of his American and Japanese names.
    • Many fans claim Rose is a grown-up Anita from Darkstalkers.note 
    • Many fans interpret Cammy as a Butch Lesbian due to her masculine nature and the way she dresses, as well as her friendship with the other females on her team.
  • Fountain of Memes: Bison thanks mostly to having several memes in the live action movie and animated series.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: One of Guile's win quotes after defeating an opponent would be "Go home and be a family man!" Interestingly, Guile would later be voiced by Travis Willingham, who became a family man after having a child, Ronin, in 2018 with Laura Bailey, who voices Chun-Li.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Pretty much one of the biggest complaints about Street Fighter is that it's one of the most popular fighting game series. Some newcomers who are interested in the games may start to despise them since the series attracts so many pro-gamers and fighting game champs who've mastered all the characters and their tactics, resulting in a Curb-Stomp Battle for newbies trying to get into it. The fact that certain characters can spam attacks until an opponent can die also results in some players rage quitting and ditching the games entirely. It certainly doesn't help that even some of the most dedicated fans of the franchise view the series as Capcom's primary source of easy money.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
    • Ryu, unsurprisingly for the poster boy of the series. Ships range from, well, Chun-Li, to Cammy, to Ken, to Sakura, and just about every other character you can think of.
    • Chun-Li gets this as the series' de-facto mascot alongside Ryu. She's been shipped with the latter himself, Ken, Guile, Cammy, Juri… the list just goes on.
    • Juri also invites a lot of shipping with her rather, "playful" demeanor towards Cammy and Chun-Li. And if that wasn't enough, she's also been shipped with SF6 newcomers Kimberly (since the two had their reveal trailers debut simultaneously) and Manon (of course she has).
  • Memetic Badass:
    Comment on Guile's Theme: I fell asleep with this playing, I woke up ripped with a tattoo of the American flag on my newly formed 32 inch left bicep.
    • Akuma, the fighter who killed Bison like it was nobody's business in Street Fighter II, is the Street Fighter series' premiere example of an SNK Boss, and whose appearances outside of Street Fighter equal that of Ryu's. He was able to bring Asura to a standstill, wiped the floor with Galactus, is canon to the story of Tekken, and is one of the four veteran fighters to appear in Street Fighter III.
  • Memetic Molester: M. Bison, due to his actions in regards to The Dolls, one of whom is his Opposite-Sex Clone, and his female Enemy Without Rose, who he's had a tendency of either knocking out, whisking away, or possessing, as well as his new Ultra in Super Street Fighter IV, the Psycho Abortion, has shades of this. In particular:
    Bison (to Dhalsim -— Street Fighter Alpha 3): "You have an excellent body."
  • Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Blanka is well-liked by Brazilian gamers despite him being associated with a quite stereotypical view of the Amazon Jungle. This is because Street Fighter II was the first widespread example of an individual video game character explicitly representing the country. However, a great number of Brazilian gamers felt disappointed after learning he's not a native Brazilian after all.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Many fans tend to complain whenever a Street Fighter adaptation that has M. Bison as the Big Bad casts Guile as The Protagonist instead of Ryu. In Street Fighter II and its variations, Bison is the personal arch-nemesis of Guile, not Ryu. The developers also considered Guile the protagonist of the game, though starting with the Alpha series, Bison does take an interest in Ryu for his plans and by V, Ryu is the only one who can stop him.
  • Moe: Chun-Li is the biggest source of Badass Adorable fan art. Sakura, Ibuki, and Elena, all of whom are spunky, happy-go-lucky fighters who attend high school (formerly in Sakura's case), aren't too far behind in this department.
  • Porting Disaster: The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection was supposed to be a celebration of the entire franchise, and stars almost every release from the very first up to 3rd Strike, missing only Hyper Street Fighter II. However, while it's mostly fine for casual players, various downsides with the collection let it down; from the choices of what games could play online, only being four of twelve titles to which most preferred Alpha 2 instead of Alpha 3 among other controversies, to the awkward input delay the collection had and its "rewind" netcode that is much maligned, to the fact that the game uses Save States to launch its matches, killing most background variety in online play due to the stage being pre-designated, and even introducing oversights where very specific match-ups that get Zangief's stage inexplicably start with the Turbo setting one notch higher than standard. For those who play Street Fighter seriously, it's considered one of the worst ways to experience the franchise. It's also solely the arcade releases of the games, meaning no bonus characters, rebalanced versions like Alpha 2 Gold, extra modes like Dramatic Battle, being stuck with the horrifically broken max-difficulty AI of Super Turbo, and so forth. Living and breathing on a faulty online doomed it to mixed reception and swift abandonment by the community.
  • Recurring Fanon Character: In Street Fighter II, one of Ryu's winquotes states "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance!". Players immediately began to speculate who Sheng Long was, and it eventually became rumored that Sheng Long was the name of Ryu and Ken's unseen master. Electronic Gaming Monthly seized on this idea and launched an April Fools' issue in which they gave a detailed (and false) description of the absurdly difficult and convoluted way to unlock Sheng Long as a boss. But there was no Sheng Long; Ryu was telling his opponent that to stand a chance, they had to overcome "Sheng Long", which is a translation error for his "Dragon Punch". However, Capcom liked the idea so much that they later introduced Akuma for Super Street Fighter II Turbo. This did not end fan rumors or fanon about Sheng Long, however, and EGM again posted another April Fools' prank for Street Fighter III. Years later, for Street Fighter IV, Capcom finally introduced Ryu and Ken's real master, Akuma's brother Gouken, who had almost all of the abilities that EGM had once claimed Sheng Long had, stated "You must defeat ME to stand a chance!", and had "aka Sheng Long" as one of his equippable titles just to put the issue to bed. Despite all of that, though, Sheng Long is still a popular fanon character and occasionally reappears as an alter ego of Gouken, a third brother to himself and Akuma, or a forgotten student who trained alongside them, amongst others.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: If you buy the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, you have to be careful of which version you buy. Western/World releases only have the World releases of the series, which means that Super Turbo's infamous Game-Breaking Bug of a maxed out AI that makes the game nearly unplayable but for the most experienced players is in full effect. If you buy the International/Japanese version of the collection, you can select both World and Japanese versions of the games, which means you can play the JP Super Turbo without the cracked out difficulty. Naturally, unless you buy it online on consoles via a Japanese region account, all digital versions will otherwise be the World release.
  • So Bad, It Was Better: A minor example. The first live action film and the cartoon series are both meme fountains for their cheesiness. More faithful adaptations like Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and the UDON comics, despite being well-received throughout the fandom, don't get quoted anywhere near as much.
  • Star Trek Movie Curse: The canonical entries. The second and fourth games in the series are remembered as the games that respectively launched and reinvigorated the fighting game genres. The first game, which played very differently, has been largely forgotten in the shadow of its successors, the third is seen as great but not quite on the level of the second (except in competitive circles, but even then the game wasn't viewed very positively in the early days), and the fifth is highly divisive due to the limited features and it being seen as too unfriendly for casual gamers.
  • Theme Pairing: Since the release of Super Street Fighter IV, Guy from Final Fight is shipped with Ibuki on the basis that both characters are ninjas.
  • Ugly Cute: Blanka. A green-skinned feral guy with fangs, clawed fingernails, and orange/red masses of hair on his head, chest, forearms and shins, who can electrify his opponents. But he loves his mother and friends (like his "master" Dan and Sakura), and can be very nice if he doesn't consider you a bad guy.
  • Values Dissonance: Also overlaps with Artistic License – Sports as well, from a Japanese POV with both Mike in SFI and Balrog in SFII: In their original backstories, they were originally both expelled from boxing after they accidentally killed their opponents in the ring. In Japan, killing your opponent in an official-sanctioned martial arts match (boxing, karate, judo, etc.), even if it was accidental, could and can destroy the career of the person responsible for it. Since both Mike and Balrog are Americans, their backgrounds were retconned with more realistic explanations as to why they aren't professional boxers anymore—that they ignored the rules of the ring and were overly violent.
  • Viewer Pronunciation Confusion:
  • Woolseyism: Cammy's English ending in Super Street Fighter II has Bison claim they were in love rather than her being his clone, with implied brainwashing as the cause and leaving her devastated either way. The American cartoon also used the "brainwashed lovers" plot point, and several fanfic writers have written about the localized revelation or her being his clone and lover.

The first live-action film

  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Bison's famous declaration of But for Me, It Was Tuesday after Chun-Li gives her backstory conveniently ignores that she painted him as a coward. Is he so self absorbed that he missed that detail completely, or does he sincerely think Chun-Li must be remembering wrong or making it up since he can't imagine himself fleeing the way she described? Alternatively, Bison's early years were regularly spent being repelled by peasant communities armed with farm equipment and this has happened so many times he can't even keep in straight anymore.
  • Awesome Ego: M. Bison. He has a Napoleonesque painting of himself in his living room and plans to establish a Capital City and a currency named after him. No one's complaining, though.
  • Awesome Music: Not many people know that the movie had its own soundtrack, a collection of soundtrack-exclusive hip-hop songs from some of the biggest and best at the time. A video was even produced for the MC Hammer song "Straight to My Feet," whose video prominently features Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Guile is attacked by a hitman posing as a waiter while discussing his plan for dealing with Bison with the other Allied Nations personnel. It is revealed that the hitman was working for the Shadaloo Tong. However, this scene is never mentioned again and serves no purpose, since Sagat (the Tong's leader) is already in captivity at that point.
  • Broken Base:
    • The film itself gets this. There are those who consider it to be a terrible, In Name Only adaptation that pales in comparison to the likes of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Others, however, consider it to be a fun lighthearted adaptation. They also like to point out that the series didn't have much of a plot at the time of the film's release.
    • Guile being the protagonist instead of Ryu. Some see it as a modern example of Mighty Whitey. Others feel making Guile the protagonist makes sense since the Alpha games weren't made yet, and at the time Ryu didn't have a personal relationship with Bison while Guile did.
    • Blanka being the mutated form of Charlie. In the games, Blanka and Charlie are completely different characters and Shadaloo has nothing to do with Blanka. Some, however, actually like the idea behind this subplot as it gives Blanka a sense of importance in the storyline, while Guile's deceased war buddy Charlie was only talked about and never seen until the Alpha series. The movie both explains Blanka's appearance and shows Charlie's connections to Guile.
  • Cliché Storm: A few of the most prominent action movie clichés show up.
  • Critical Dissonance: The movie was ripped apart by critics and some fans, but was still a big box office success. It was also Van Damme's second highest grossing movie at the time, only slightly below Timecop by a couple million in profit.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: Bison's (in)famous Tuesday line. Chun-Li emotionally called him out for having her father killed. Bison couldn't remember it because it was, well, Tuesday. Sure, it's horrible, but the build-up and delivery of the line was so glorious that it spawned a trope and a meme that often runs on this.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Even those who hate the movie love Zangief. It helps that Andrew Bryniarski captured the essence of the character, looked the part, and had some of the film's best lines.
    • Dee Jay, who tends to get the snarkiest lines and expressions, as he's not on-board with Bison's brand of madness but is too smart to say it to his face.
    • Vega only has four lines total, but is one of the characters most accurate to his game counterpart, including the looks department. His implied relationship with Sagat also won him fans.
  • Evil Is Cool: Bison is fondly regarded by fans, thanks to the acting chops of Raúl Juliá.
  • Fountain of Memes: There's a reason that on the meme page for the franchise, most of the ones from the film come from Bison — virtually every line he has is quotable, some just more than others.
  • Friendly Fandoms: With Masters of the Universe. Specifically Julia's Bison and Frank Langella's Skeletor. Both being entertainingly hammy villains in otherwise campy films, played by veteran actors who chose their roles because their kids were fans of said franchises.
  • Ham and Cheese: Juliá's portrayal of Bison. It's even the page picture on the trope page:
    "For I beheld Satan as he FELL FROM HEAVEN! LIKE LIGHTNING!!!"
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Charlie's last words to Guile "I can't go back my friend. Not like this." After he accepts his fate when Bison's fortress is about to be destroyed. Charlie's fate in Street Fighter V is even worse, but he accepts it regardless.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: Guile flirting with Chun-Li at the end of the movie becomes this after Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey, who have voiced Guile and Chun-Li, respectively, since Street Fighter IV, got married in real life.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Ho Yay: Vega and Sagat can be read as being in a relationship. Sagat praises Vega's fighting skills as nearly equal to his own, Vega knows him well enough to read his intentions via glances and is very close to him in the prison scenes, and they tag-team Ryu together.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Many watch the movie just to see Juliá's performance as Bison.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The charismatic, witty M. Bison clawed his way from a mere drug dealer and killer to rule Shadaloo via brilliance and skill. Attempting to conquer the world, Bison demands ransoms for hostages as a front for his real scheme of turning captives into new Super Soldiers, to wipe away all distinctions between mankind so the world may know peace under his fist. Bison intends to force nations to submit to him economically and utilize his own currency in place of theirs, while putting in a multitude of contingencies against the heroes when they come to stop him. With a respect towards Colonel Guile, his nemesis, Bison also enters into battle with a set number of advantages to empower himself, even as he savors the chance to engage and kill Guile in direct combat. Rarely taking anything personally, Bison brings a unique charm to his dark vision, convinced his rule is best for all humanity.
  • Narm Charm: There is some kind of charm behind all the intentional and unintentional hilarity.
  • Presumed Flop: Unlike the previous two video game adaptations Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Double Dragon (1994), Street Fighter actually managed to bring its money back in spite of the negative reception, with $99.4 million on a $35 million budget.
  • Questionable Casting:
    • Jean-Claude Van Damme being cast as Guile, apparently at the behest of Capcom executives and one of the first ones cast. It fits with the whole "guy who kicks people" aspect, but there's an inherent and undeniable silliness in Guile —an all-American U.S. soldier who proudly hails from the United States of America— having a Belgian accent thicker than waffle batter.
    • Exactly whose idea was it to cast a 52-year-old classically-trained theater actor with absolutely zero martial arts background in an action movie based on a video game? Raúl Juliá's kids, that's who. However, as it turns out, he's by far the most memorable character of the movie for his Large Ham performance, so it all turned out good.
    • In the games, Cammy is a muscular Amazon with a British or Japanese accent. So, this role obviously goes to tiny Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue. She was apparently cast at the absolute last minute before shooting began in South East Queensland, because they needed someone in Australia who could be counted on to learn lines fast. Lucky for them Minogue had experience as a soap opera actress and could do exactly that. For what it's worth, while Cammy in the games is certainly toned, she's also 5'2 and much emphasis is placed on her stature, so mayhaps if Cammy had her game backstory the casting would go over better.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Leatherface plays Zangief.
    • Vega was Jay Tavare's first acting role. Modern gamers might recognize him as the voice of Code Talker.
    • Modern fans of Ming-Na Wen — recognizing her most for her roles as Mulan, Melinda May, and Fennec Shand — may be surprised to know that she was the female lead in a video game movie, and that she played a character as iconic as Chun-Li, no less.
  • Rooting for the Empire: On the one hand, you have Van Damme as the boring, traditional hero giving a bland, corny performance. On the other, you have the magnificently absurd and entertaining performance of Juliá, a great actor who tragically died in his prime shortly after completing the film, and chose it to be his last role so his kids could enjoy it. He also has the stupid but entertaining Zangief and Deadpan Snarker Dee Jay on his side. Who do you think the audience is siding with?
  • Sacred Cow: An unusual example in that, while the movie itself is fair game for ripping it, even its biggest detractors won't critcize Raul Julia's turn as M. Bison - partly because of him dying shortly after its completion, but also because, quite frankly, he singlehandedly makes the movie worth watching.
  • So Bad, It's Good: One of the most prominent among game-based films.
  • So Bad, It Was Better: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li might be better made, but everyone agrees it's much more unwatchable than the 1994 movie for taking itself too seriously, compared to how the older one runs on camp and Ham and Cheese.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • The electric effects for Bison getting electrocuted, and the bolts he fires from his gauntlets in the climax look like they were drawn in MS Paint.
    • The line "They get packed up" during Guile's Rousing Speech has a clearly different audio quality, indicating it was dubbed in later. Which gets pretty funny when you realize this means the movie's crew apparently thought that rather weak line was still better than whatever the original line was.
  • Spiritual Successor: Heroic army lead by a handsome blond American takes on a crazy megalomaniac who wants to take over the world and his shiny-domed weapons supplier, with both sides full of colorful personalities and, in the villains' case, footsoldiers with unique headgear who can't shoot worth a damn. Are we sure this wasn't originally a script for an unmade G.I. Joe film?note 
  • Took the Bad Film Seriously:
    • Watch the "making of" featurette on the DVD. The actors seem well aware of the ridiculousness of the movie they are making. Director Steven E. de Souza seems to be under the impression that he's making the next Die Hard or Lethal Weapon, though in the commentary he notes the tongue-in-cheek nature of the film.
    • Juliá is a standout example: yes, he's being a ham to such a degree that's he's practically consuming parts of the set, but it's absolutely clear it's how he thought the character should be best approached. He took the role of Bison because his kids really wanted him to, and it is obvious when watching that he's doing his absolute best to give them a performance to remember and that would delight them... because he knew that the cancer he's struggling with would claim him sooner rather than later.
  • Video Game Movies Suck: Unless you're in the So Bad, It's Good camp.
  • Vindicated by History: Fans are a lot kinder to this movie than they were when it first came out. Some like it for the So Bad, It's Good factor, while others Watch It for the Meme. In addition, there are those who think that while this was cheesy, given Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li's even more thorough panning it could have been a lot worse.
  • Watch It for the Meme: Specifically, watch it for Juliá's ham-tastic acting.

The American series

  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • In "Getting to Guile," Guile has a dream where Escher turns into, of all things, a werewolf. The same episode had giant versions of the cast pushing Guile around. That's not even getting into the bacon house monster that Guile and Bison walk inside of in said dream sequence.
    • Every time Blanka flips out in the later episodes.
    • "Final Fight":
      • A restaurant patron is caught and dragged by a hook after Damnd throws a smoke bomb inside the building. It isn't revealed who caught him or what happens to him afterwards.
      • Damnd sticks electrical equipment into his mouth for no apparent reason.
  • Bizarro Episode: "The Warrior King." Even if you knew about the crossover event that was going on at the time between this show and all the other USA Network original cartoons (Savage Dragon, Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, and Wing Commander Academy), the presence of the eponymous character, his homeworld depicted in the opening scene, and the orb that powers it just make the whole episode an Out-of-Genre Experience for the show.
  • Broken Base:
    • There are many fans who feel that this is a bad adaptation of the series, much like the 1994 movie. Others, however, feel that while the series is flawed, it is not as bad as most make it out to be. Those who like it have noted that the series started to become a bit more accurate to the games as it went on.
    • Much like the live-action film, Ryu and Ken effectively get Demoted to Extra in favor of Guile becoming the main character. Naturally, this rubbed some fans of the games the wrong way that the first cartoon for the series ended up not actually being about the actual poster duo. The second season actually rectified this somewhat by giving the duo more spotlight episodes and paying respects to their own stories from the games.
  • Complete Monster:
    • M. Bison, once again a monstrous megalomaniac, is the ruthless leader of Shadaloo seeking world domination. Prior to the series, Bison has Cammy's parents murdered and brainwashes her into being a loyal servant to him. Bison makes various terrorist attacks across the globe, such as attempting to experiment on humans with a deadly virus; attempting to blow up a reactor to kill millions of people; forcing Guile to relive his worst memories in order to brainwash him and fight his own allies; threatening to use a plane filled with bombs to destroy cities; and trying to destroy all of North America by causing a comet to crash-land on Earth. Bison would later try to have Guile fight Cammy, knowing they're close friends. After using the Statue of Kali on himself, Bison decided that if he can't rule the world he might as well destroy it. To this end, he steals the Doomsday Code to activate every nuclear weapon on the planet to nuke the entire world.
    • "Strange Bedfellow" & "The World's Greatest Warrior": Akuma lacks any positive traits he has in the games and is more sadistic and eviler in this series. Seeking to devour both M. Bison's and Guile's chi, Akuma stirs up chaos across both factions, laying waste to a city and blowing up a power plant—causing a blackout and setting a whole city on fire—all to instigate two factions into war. Akuma watches as both Bison and Guile fight each other to the death planning to kill either one of them to devour their chi. Akuma would later attack his brother, draining him of his chi which would slowly kill him if Akuma isn't defeated.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: One similar to the example in the movie. Near the end of the final episode "Cammy Tell Me True", Chun-Li tries to call Bison out for having her father killed. A completely unfazed Bison replies "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!" in such a hammy and gleeful manner you can't help but laugh.
  • Evil Is Cool: Bison is one of the most popular characters in the series due to his Fountain of Memes.
  • Fight Scene Failure: The up-and-down animation quality causes a lot of instances of clumsy-looking fights. Attacks tend to be very slow and clumsy, and several attempts at translating the game's special moves just look downright goofy; they never managed to get the Hurricane Kick to look right.
  • Fountain of Memes: Bison has several memes that are very popular today.
  • Growing the Beard: Season 2 has several character arcs through its episodes (i.e. Blanka's accidental further mutation, a growing rivalry between Ken and Ryu, Cammy's brainwashing, and Bison's acquisition of an ancient healing statue that, over the course of the season, drives him to world-destroying insanity). All this and Final Fight too. Adding in some Alpha characters didn't hurt either.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Bison's back-up plan in "The Medium is the Message", which involves Balrog faking footage of Guile, Blanka, and Chun-Li destroying sacred idols in a temple to anger the populace, is even harder to watch now that such technology exists in real life and is available to pretty much anyone.
    • When Rose looks at her cards, the final one is "Doom," which is portrayed as a flaming tower. In almost every one of her endings in the games, she bites the dust or is somehow otherwise imperiled.
    • In "The Warrior King," Bison gains control of the Orb of Power, which can create all sorts of weather and nature phenomenon, and holds the world for ransom with it; one of his demonstrations of power is to create a flood in Tokyo, Japan. Fourteen years later...
    • In Episode 2, Chun-Li finds out the nuclear plant in Wuhan, China has been taken over by Bison and his soldiers. Not wanting to go back to her old hometown, Chun-Li says "So Wuhan is in trouble? Good riddance." Yea... about that...
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Many fans complained about how "The World's Greatest Warrior" depicted Gouken as merely being "injured" by Akuma. It would later be established in Street Fighter IV that Gouken did not die and was simply hiding while recovering after Akuma attacked him.
    • In "The Warrior King", Chun-Li wears a formal dress to a ball. She wants to get out of it and into her Street Fighter uniform as quickly as possible, though, because she has a hard time fighting in the dress. In Street Fighter IV, she wears a dress as an alternate outfit. The popularity of the dress would eventually lead to it being her default alternate outfit.
    • "No one has ever defeated Sagat, and no one ever will!" Cut to Street Fighter IV, when Sagat is top tier.
    • Guile's Flash Kick sends out a projectile in addition to working as an anti-air attack. More than 20 years later, Guile's V-Trigger 2 in Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition buffs his Flash Kick the exact same way.
  • Memetic Badass: Bison.
  • Narm: Some of the music falls into this; it's meant to be dramatic, but the melodramatic way it's executed evokes giggles instead. One such example is the music heard when Cammy tells Bison, "Nicely done, love. Here, give us a big kiss", and Guile shakes his fists: "NOOOOO!!!"
  • So Bad, It's Good: For those who consider the series to be a guilty pleasure.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: In "Final Fight", Mike Haggar is relegated to the sidelines while Cody, Guy, Ryu, and Ken join forces to help save Haggar's daughter Jessica from the Mad Gear Gang. In the game, Haggar is one of the three playable characters and, to some, is an example of a Memetic Badass. So his limited role in this episode is a letdown.
  • Wangst: Blanka is sometimes criticized for being incredibly whiny about the whole "mutation" thing. While he was unwillingly mutated, literally every single appearance that centered around him had him angsting in some way or another.
  • Watch It for the Meme: Admit it — you're watching to see Bison yell stuff in a hilarious manner.

UDON's comic books

  • Complete Monster:
    • M. Bison is once again the power-hungry and despicable leader of Shadaloo. Originally taught in the ways of Soul Power, Bison discovered and embraced Psycho Power in its stead, choosing to pay his old teacher a visit to demonstrate his might, wiping out the village where she resided and killing its inhabitants. In the present, Bison acts as the world's most dangerous terrorist leader, killing the loved ones of several characters, selling weapons to terrorists, and kidnapping and brainwashing young women to act as his merciless enforcers, notably ordering Juni to murder her own mother to test her indoctrination. When one of his most precious assets—a female clone of himself named "Killer Bee"—is freed from her brainwashing to begin a new life as Cammy, Bison holds her newfound friends hostage to force her back into his service. Eventually, Bison completes the almighty Psycho Drive weapon, using it to annihilate several manned navy vessels and hold the rest of the world at gunpoint. Bison then hosts a tournament reserved for powerful warriors, aiming to brainwash them for his army. When Akuma appears and ruins his plans, Bison calls it quits and tries to steal Cammy's body to save himself.
    • Vega is M. Bison's narcissistic, sadistic right-hand man. Originally an underground cage fighter who would often murder his opponents, Vega is a known psychopath with a habit of killing people on a whim, with even his own allies not being spared from his bloodlust. In his cruelest outing, Vega sought revenge against Ken Masters for defeating him, crashing a party of his so he could leave him a bloodied mess on the floor, keeping him alive with the intent to make him watch as he brutally tortures his fiancée to death. Following the initial fall of Shadaloo, Vega inherited the technological subsidiaries of the organization, selling the shapeshifting Twelves off to Gill for his own shady purposes, while hosting macabre parties where he murders men as an "art performance" for his guests to enjoy.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • There's one story in the New Generation GN where E. Honda and Hakan argue before the Olympic Wrestling Committee to have their respective sports represented in the games. They're outraged when they're told the next available spot for both sports would be in the 2032 games. The IOC dropped wrestling from the Olympics about two weeks after the GN came out.
    • A gag strip had tryouts for the roster of Street Fighter V. One such audition was by Shoma Sawamura, although he had to decline due to conflicting with his numerous Madden Kombat schedules. Come August 5, 2020, Akira Kazama was announced as the Guest Fighter for V.

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top