Street Fighter

Lore & Background

The world of Street Fighter is built on the premise of open martial-arts tournaments where fighters from every nation and discipline test their skills against one another. Ryu, the wandering karateka in his white gi, and his fiery rival Ken, the red-gi American, anchor the series as archetypal protagonists whose rivalry has spanned decades of games. Their shared training under the legendary Gouken and their parallel mastery of the hadouken and shoryuken make them near-mirror images, a duality that Smash preserves by giving both characters nearly identical move sets.

Beneath the tournament spectacle, the franchise weaves in darker threads. The Shadaloo organization, led by the tyrannical M. Bison (known as Vega in some Western releases), seeks world domination through mind control and super-soldiers. Akuma—Gouken's other disciple—pursues the ultimate technique, the Raging Demon, at the cost of his own humanity. These antagonists and anti-heroes add moral weight to what is, at its core, a celebration of physical mastery and personal growth.

The franchise has expanded across numerous entries, from the arcade revolution of Street Fighter II in 1991 to the modern Street Fighter V and beyond, each iteration refining the roster, the combat systems, and the interconnected lore of rivalries, lineages, and organizations that make the world feel lived-in and vast.

Reader's Guide

Street Fighter brings a staggering 22 playable fighters to both Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, making it one of the most heavily represented franchises in the series. The roster spans the full spectrum: protagonists like Ryu and Ken, the iconic Chun-Li, the military-flavored Guile, the sumo powerhouse E. Honda, the wrestler Zangief, and the boxers Balrog and Urien. Villains and anti-heroes include M. Bison, Akuma, Vega, and Juri, while wildcards like Cammy, Fei Long, Cody, Dan, Kolin, Menat, R. Mika, S.F. Alex, and T. Hawk round out the group.

The dedicated "Street Fighter" stage recreates the classic tournament ring with its crowd backdrop and shifting camera angles, giving the franchise a visual home in Smash. Each fighter's special moves are drawn directly from their SF move lists—hadouken projectiles, shoryuken uppercuts, lightning kicks, psycho power beams, and flash kicks—so players instantly recognize the DNA of the original games.

Cross-universe interactions shine in the way SF's grounded martial-arts aesthetic contrasts with Smash's more fantastical roster. A hadouken from Ryu colliding with a fireball from a different universe, or Chun-Li's lightning kick trading blows with a character from a sci-fi world, captures the playful spirit of the crossover. Akuma's darker, more aggressive presentation also creates a natural narrative tension with other villainous fighters, adding a layer of story-mode flavor without requiring a specific plot role.

The sheer volume of SF characters in Smash means that in a full-team match, the Street Fighter side can field a complete roster of styles—striking, grappling, projectile, and power—making it a franchise that thrives in both solo and team play.

Did You Know?

• Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, originally designed the characters for the 1987 Street Fighter, giving the franchise its distinctive anime-influenced visual style.
• In Smash Bros., Ryu and Ken share nearly identical special movesets, a direct nod to their shared training under the same master in the Street Fighter lore.
• Street Fighter II (1991) is widely credited with establishing the modern fighting-game formula—best-of-three rounds, character-select screens, and combo-based combat—that the genre still follows today.
• M. Bison's Psycho Power in Smash Bros. is a chargeable projectile, mirroring the way the move functions in the original fighting games where holding the button builds up a larger, more powerful blast.