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Street Fighter Week: The evolution of Ken and Ryu

Two of gaming's most iconic fighters are dissected, game by game

Words: Tyler Wilde, GamesRadar US

Table of Contents
Street Fighter | Street Fighter II | Alpha series | Street Fighter III | EX series | SF: The Movie and Gem Fighter | Marvel vs. Capcom series | SNK vs. Capcom series | Misc. games | Sprite comparison | SSFIITHDR and Street Fighter IV | Comics, films, and more 

X-Men vs. Street Fighter - 1996

The trend of matching Capcom characters against those of other publishers would not be short lived. In this case, Ken and Ryu battle the X-Men heroes in their Alpha forms. While the actual character sprites aren't new, the visual grandness of their special moves have been upped to match the mutants' powers.


Above: A very large fireball

While the stories in crossover games are not part of the official Street Fighter canon, they generally stay true to the characters. Ryu is thanked by Cyclops before wandering away, you guessed it, in search of another challenge. Ken can be found with his son playing none other than X-men vs. Street Fighter.

Trivia: X-Men vs. Street Fighter is the first game to include Street Fighter characters alongside "tag-team" gameplay. The PlayStation port, however, does not feature tag-team gameplay due to memory limitations. Instead, the alternate character only appears during special attacks. The Saturn version (only released in Japan), however, is a true arcade port.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes - 1998

While the art style of the character portraits is still pretty "Alpha-ish," the characters are in their post-Alpha garb. Marvel vs. Capcom is one of the only games in which Ryu appears without Ken along side him as a playable character. But wait - down, back, medium punch and...


Above: It's Ken! Uh, kind of...

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes - 2000

Ken returns as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, though he is only available after unlocking. The characters are back to their pre-SF II look (Ryu with a white headband). The character art is oddly boyish - are these prepubescent versions of Ken and Ryu?


 
8 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Grundler24  - 9 months 7 days ago 
First???
The arcade version of this is amazing, i've gotten the chance to play it
at an arcade in china town and my friends grandpa owns it so i got free tokens and played it forever. SF never seems to end its reign of ass kicking.
Bigpapa360  - 9 months 2 days ago 
Second.
Man I love seeing how all these games get their start.
Auron00  - 9 months 2 days ago 
Not that anyone will really care too much, but, just to keep this retrospective a bit more clear, Ken Masters was never an actor, he is a world famous martial arts tournament champion in america (multiple times over even) and his father is the third richest man in the world (in the SF world anyway).
Sonneilon  - 9 months 2 days ago 
Reading thru all these, feels like I should get a degree with all this SF knowledge now!
WiqidBritt  - 8 months 30 days ago 
what? no mention of Violent Ken in SVC Chaos?
Arukami  - 8 months 27 days ago 
All beatiful recalls....aboveall th first SF! and SFII with that big pic with Vega with his hands open...i'll Kill you!!!!!! U understand me!!! I'll kill you Vega! XDDD!
Great article!
beoftw  - 8 months 21 days ago 
lol street fighter 2: the animated movie shold have gotten alot more praise than it did. imo i thought it was alot better than the otheres.
jackrabbitslims  - 8 months 8 days ago 
"and apparently a variety of nuts in his cheek to consume later" LMAO. Great article, I love catching up on the history of street fighter.
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