Street Fighter’s cover boy has battled with demons, gods, superheroes, Pac-Men, and even himself.
Here’s a look back at his journey.
The wait is over andStreet Fighter Vis out.
Well, some of it is out,but theres my review for that.
He may not be themaincharacter anymore, but a lot of stuff does revolve around his existence.
Ryu first showed up in 1987sStreet Fighter.
He and Ken are the only selectable characters with player 1 being Ryu and player 2 being Ken.
All three attacks are secrets that players have to discover on their own.
In the end, they face Sagat, a 7-foot-tall Muay Thai master with one eye.
In terms of canon, Ryu wins the final battle and tears Sagats chest open with a Shoryuken.
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At the time, that was all there was to it.
Generic karate guy won a generic fighting tournament and the game congratulated you for winning.
There was no lore.
Then cameStreet Fighter IIin 1991.
Its basically the coolest hook they could have come up with to build on such a generic predecessor.
Also, one of Kens throws is slightly different.
Otherwise, there were virtually no differences at the time, although that would change in the following decades.
While they fought the same, their identities were established to be very different.
Ken is a rich, flashy guy with a girlfriend on the side.
Ryu, on the other hand, is just a wanderer who wanted nothing more than to fight.
But for real, it was probably for the best that Ryu didnt show up.
Bison and Sagat were there and that probably wouldnt have ended well.
It was a mistranslation and was supposed to be about his Dragon Punch.
We were very gullible in the pre-internet days.
Sheng Long became a thing in the U.S.
The SNES manual forStreet Fighter IImentioned him by name.
He was intended to be a character in the arcade game based on the live-action movie.
Plus the Malibu Comics series featured him as a character.
Ah, the Malibu comic.
AKA the one that only lasted three issues until Capcom told them to stop.
Ryu is the main character and all, but he only has two memorable moments here.
One is when they decided to ship him with Chun-Li.
I mean, it makes sense.
The other big moment sees Sagat and Balrog beat the hell out of Ken and then scalp him.
Ryu then had his own horrificSe7enmoment when he received a special package.
Annnnnd thats what got the comic cancelled.
Ken Masters is one of those users.
Ryu ends up going through the tournament and helps Ken regain his control.
He ends up defeating Bison and puts an end to his plot.
The story is also notable for introducing Gouken, the guy who actually DID train Ryu and Ken.
The third volume is an odd story involving evil clones that are never explained.
Japan gave us a couple attempts atStreet Fightercartoons in the mid-90s.
First came 1994sStreet Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which is basically the inspiration forStreet Fighter Alpha.
Bison wants to make an army of mind-controlled soldiers and someone like Ryu would be a keen choice.
Ken snaps out of it and they team up to seemingly destroy Bison.
That leads to the outright ridiculous ending cliffhanger where Bison tries to run Ryu over with a semi.
The fact that Bison never did that as a super in any of the games is totally bullshit.
The movie was turned into a bizarre console game calledStreet Fighter: The Interactive Movie.
It was basicallyPokemon Snap.
If you lose, you get to see the ending of the actual movie.
The cyborg then goes on to destroy Bison and wanders the world much like Ryu would have done.
Plus the lack of headband on Ryu always kind of bothered me.
It also ended with Ryu and Ken teaming up to defeat Bison.
Ryu and Ken are slimy swindlers who make a run at scam people on both sides.
It lasted two seasons, but with a noticeable shift.
See, the first season was aGI Joeknockoff that took after the movie.
Guile and Blanka were missing completely and wouldnt reappear for several years.
They still got theGilligans Islandand the rest!
treatment in the intro, but it was still something.
In use, they tended to take out any and all opponents in one or two hits.
None more notable than Ryo and Robert fromArt of FightingandKing of Fighters.
Alphatook place in-betweenStreet FighterandStreet Fighter II, back when Capcom had yet to really establish much of the storyline.
More importantly, it redefined Ryu.
The Dark Side of the Karate Force, pretty much.
Essentially, the manga invented Evil Ryu.
It even retconned the events ofStreet Fighterso that Ryu didnt simply beat Sagat in a fair fight.
He was going to end up being like Akuma, only worse.
And that became Ryus big conflict.
This would become one of the central plots ofStreet Fighter Alpha 2and3.
Bison wants to capture Ryu and use his powerful body as a host for his own soul.
Sagat wants a rematch, but is conflicted about the hows and whys.
As the story goes, Bison captures Ryu and turns him into a brainwashed slave.
Ryu fights against the mind control and is able to destroy M. Bisons body with a massive Hadoken.
Bisons soul lives on, and so does Ryu, who wanders off to fight another day.
In the 90s, Ryu started showing up in more crossovers, starting withX-Men vs. Street Fighter.
Even when hanging out with the Marvel heroes.
He did get murdered by Omega Red in RedsMarvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighterending, so there is that.
At least they got creative with him inMarvel vs. Capcom.
Rather than throw Akuma and Ken into the game, they turned them into alternate styles for Ryu.
Most of Ryus crossover endings have him searching around for new opponents, no matter how ridiculous.
InGem Fighter Mini-Mix, he fights Tabasa fromRed Earthin hopes that she can lead him to a worthy foe.
Then theres his ending inTatsunoku vs. Capcom.
He saves some Snow Pirates from an Akrid, a gigantic cyber dragon thing fromLost Planet.
What about you?!
I will seek out a stronger opponent.
Ryus coolest inter-franchise counterpart comes inMarvel vs. Capcom 3.
Then they releasedUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3with Iron Fist added in as a playable character.
Since that above ending was no longer meaningful, they changed it up.
Akuma challenges him and in the next image, we see Ryus new calling.
No wonder people wanted an Asian Iron Fist.
Suddenly, Im mad that Marvel never made any comics for their Capcom crossovers.
Shifting gears, Ryu starred in 2000sStreet Fighter Alpha: The Animation.
Its not especially memorable, but does take a stab at push the Akuma-is-Ryu concept even more.
As ofStreet Fighter III, Ryus seemingly conquered the Dark Hadou completely.
Now hes just focusing on mastering his art and being the best that he can be.
While hes no longer the main hero of the series, hes become a bit of a legend.
Masahiko Nakahira would do another manga about Ryu calledStreet Fighter III: Ryu Final.
Its a story about Ryu trying to figure out the real meaning behind his existence.
Whoever spars with him comes out of it wiser and better off.
Ryu fights Akuma and we get some real closure to their rivalry.
Akuma, like many others, becomes wiser and better off from fighting Ryu.
Come on, man.
Ryu returned to form inStreet Fighter IV.
He remained his usual self with not much new to talk about.
Otherwise, Ryu just Hadokens a waterfall in his intro and a big computer thing in his ending.
The ending has Pandora open up and practically swallow Ryu and his dark energies.
After a bright flash, Pandora and Ryu are gone, leaving Ken alone in wonder.
As DLC, Ryu gets his own chapter where he simply appears in Asuras world and challenges him.
They have a ridiculously over-the-top fight that involves going to the moon and it ends in a draw.
And that theory actually kind of fits!
Ryu was portrayed by Mike Moh in 2014sStreet Fighter: Assassins Fist.
Its pretty rad and will be getting two follow-ups.
Ryu is the main character in UDONsStreet Fightercomic book series.
When they do get around to doing theStreet Fighter IItournament, Ryu reaches the finals after defeating Sagat.
As it is right now, Ryus still dealing with the darkness within.
He even went into full Evil Ryu mode before Gill tempered it and turned him back to normal.
Not as a way to help him.
Just as a way to show off his own godly power.
The most interesting and inventive part of the comics is Ryus origin story.
As shown inStreet Fighter Origins: Akuma, Akumas master Goutetsu had a unique way of testing his students.
If they turned down the vengeance, which Gouken did, then they were truly ready.
Akuma and Goukens father was a former assassin trained by Goutetsu who quit and became a farmer.
He killed them all and the battle razed their village to the ground.
Gouken arrived just in time to rescue a little boy whose parents had been killed in the chaos.
That boy, naturally, was Ryu.
Way better than simply making him Akumas kid.
Keep in mind, Rufus and Hakan have been able to advance into the final eight.
And now, I leave you with this.
