Four facts you (probably) didn’t know about Street Fighter

First names exchanged, fictional character and copious saga: the Street Fighter license is not short of anecdotes.

Enough, Street Fighter VI is out. Seven years after Episode V, the saga is renewed, especially in graphics and accessibility, to the delight of fans of fighting games, such as the professional player Kaiyan, but also for beginners. It’s also an opportunity for Tech & Co to return to the token license of fighting games in four entertaining tales.

From a mistranslation… to one of the most powerful characters in the game

Did you know that a Street Fighter character owes its existence to… a translation error? in Street Fighter IIreleased in 1991, Ryu’s avatar repeats on several occasions: “If you don’t beat shoryuken, you won’t be able to beat”.

Here, Ryu is referring to one of his special moves, “shoryuken”. But when the game reached the West, the mistranslation changed everything: a confusion of Chinese and Japanese led to the English version saying Ryu “You have to defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance”. Among the players, there is no doubt that Sheng Long is a secret character, perhaps too powerful, to unlock.

The bug became a legend, and video game magazines at the time, where players found codes and tips, capitalized on it, making the enigmatic Sheng Long’s pass for the ultimate fighting master while, at Capcom, he was then never. unavailable. It wasn’t until 2008, after countless rumors, that Capcom decided to officially introduce the character of Sheng Long. And his motto is clearly not accidental: “You have to beat me to have a chance.”

First names and confusion

This is perhaps one of the most famous anecdotes Street Fighter: The main characters in the license have undergone some name changes during their adventures. when out of Street Fighter II In the US, Capcom preferred to rename “Mr. Bison” to “Balrog” due to the similarity of the name to Mike Tyson, who was then a major boxing star.

But then we had to rename Balrog (who was another character) to Vega, and Vega (who was also a character) to Mr. Bison. From Japan to the USA, the apparent confusion that resulted between players of different horizons prompted them to find new nicknames to qualify the characters…and the habit remained.

The risky cinematic exercise

Like many video game licenses, Street Fighter He hasn’t escaped a movie adaptation — an often complicated exercise that rarely turns out to be a good idea. This was unfortunately the case for Capcom’s mainstay. Many movies have been made based on the games, but one in particular has written history.

With Jean-Claude Van Damme in the title role, as well as Kylie Minogue and Raoul Julia, Street Fighter: Ultimate Fighting, Inspired by Street Fighter IIAnd It is the so-called “whole turnip”, so much so that the movie has gone into legend. The shooting was so chaotic that the British daily Watchman Dedicating to him, in 2019, A.J Long article revealing behind the scenes. Here’s the trailer, for the bravest.

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Street Fighter It achieved, in 2011, the record for the largest game series of all time. It has already offered, for more than ten years, 133 titles, if we count the games and their various clones – practically uncountable. As for the “official” games, their number is about thirty.

Street Fighter 6, which was released on June 2, is the latest license. It should also be the authorship that will allow the series to pass the symbolic limit of 50 million games sold. According to the latest figures reported by Capcom, at the end of 2022, Street Fighter It reached 49 million in sales.