Curated playlist
Street Fighter characters
- Birdie (Street Fighter)In 1987, Birdie debuted in the original Street Fighter as a pale-skinned punk fighter representing the United Kingdom. By the time he returned in Street Fighter Alpha, he was depicted as Black. Designer Naoto "Bengus" Kuroshima handled the…
- Ibuki (Street Fighter)Ibuki made her first appearance in Street Fighter III: New Generation in 1997, and the very ponytail she was given nearly broke the animation team. That single design choice ballooned her character data to between 1.2 and 1.3 times the…
- Makoto (Street Fighter)Makoto is a Street Fighter character who made her debut in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, and she arrived not with fanfare but with a simple mission: save her father's crumbling dojo. She punches through a crowded roster of…
- Sakura KasuganoSakura Kasugano almost never made it into Street Fighter Alpha 2. Designer Akira "Akiman" Yasuda submitted a concept for a high school girl fighter during development, and the team cut it. He returned to his desk, the idea seemingly…
- Alex (Street Fighter)Alex, the primary protagonist of Street Fighter III: New Generation, arrived on the scene looking like nobody who had come before him in the franchise. Long blonde hair, face paint stretching from his eyes downward, green overalls, and a…
- Captain SawadaCaptain Sawada was not supposed to exist. In 1994, when the Street Fighter film went into production, a Japanese martial artist named Kenya Sawada had already been lined up to play Ryu, one of the franchise's most iconic fighters. Capcom…
- Akuma (Street Fighter)Akuma, known in Japan as Gouki, is a fictional character from Capcom's Street Fighter series who first appeared not through an announcement or a trailer, but as a secret. Players who met the right conditions in Super Street Fighter II…
- Gill (Street Fighter)Gill, the final boss of the Street Fighter III series, is a character built around an unusual contradiction. He wants to conquer the world, yet his designers never wanted him to feel like a villain. He wears almost nothing, stands nearly…
- Oro (Street Fighter)Oro is a fictional fighter in the Street Fighter series by Capcom, and he may be the strangest character ever designed for a competitive fighting game. He stands 161 cm tall, with yellow skin, solid red eyes, and a bald head trailing a few…
- DhalsimDhalsim arrived in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991 wearing a garland of human skulls. He was gaunt and fought in a style no video game character had attempted before. His arms and legs could stretch the length of the arena to…
- Juri (Street Fighter)Juri Han arrived in Street Fighter in 2010, and she did not arrive quietly. The development team at Capcom cycled through 400 to 500 ideas before settling on her final design. Among the rejected concepts: an old woman, an ice skater, a…
- Laura MatsudaLaura Matsuda made her debut in Street Fighter V, the 2016 entry in Capcom's long-running fighting game series. She was revealed at the Brasil Game Show on the 8th of October 2015, four months before the game itself reached shelves. From…
- ZangiefZangief is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series. His final size traces to four words from producer Akira Nishitani: "Please make him much bigger." Before that moment, the design team worried he would be rejected for…
- Balrog (Street Fighter)Balrog made his first appearance in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991, throwing punches for a criminal organization called Shadaloo. In Japan, the same character goes by an entirely different name: M. Bison, with the M standing…
- Kimberly JacksonKimberly Jackson made history in 2023 as the first female African American playable character in the Street Fighter franchise. The question her arrival posed was not just who she was, but how Capcom had built her. What would it take for a…
- Ryu (Street Fighter)Ryu, the protagonist of Capcom's Street Fighter series, has been the subject of an unusual piece of research. A 2019 study calculated that he would need to move at nearly 70 miles per hour, about 110 kilometers per hour, to actually pull…
- Sean MatsudaToshi Sadamoto stood before a deadline that threatened to derail Capcom's Street Fighter III: New Generation. The team had run out of time to finish the character Hugo during development in 1997. They needed an empty slot filled…
- Elena (Street Fighter)In 1997, Capcom released Street Fighter III: New Generation with a new character named Elena. Akira Yasuda and Hiromi Kotobuki created her to be the first fighter from Africa in the series. The team wanted a female character because they…
- Guile (Street Fighter)Guile has Shadaloo's dictator, M. Bison, by the throat in the ending of the original Street Fighter II. He reminds Bison exactly who he murdered, ready to finish him for good. Then his wife's voice and his daughter's presence stop him from…
- Ken MastersKen Masters had already spent years fighting in Capcom's Street Fighter series when a single defensive read turned him into a legend beyond the arcade. At a tournament, with 26 seconds left on the clock, Daigo Umehara's Ken blocked and…
- Vega (Street Fighter)Vega arrived in Street Fighter II in 1991, unlike any fighter the game had seen before. He was a Spaniard fighting in a style that merged Japanese ninjutsu with Spanish bullfighting, and "Spanish Ninja" was the nickname that stuck. Players…
- R. MikaRainbow Mika, the blue-masked professional wrestler of Street Fighter Alpha 3, made her debut in 1998 wearing a leotard with heart cutouts and pigtail hair, fighting her way through a male-dominated roster. She was not built to be subtle.…
- Seth (Street Fighter)Seth, the chief executive officer of the Shadaloo Intimidation Network, is one of video gaming's most contradictory villains. He rules a weapons division built on stolen power. A device called the Tanden Engine sits embedded in his…
- CammyNoritaka Funamizu, Capcom's research and development head, felt the game needed another female character besides Chun-Li. He commissioned Akira Yasuda to create this new fighter for Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers in 1993.…
- Chun-LiChun-Li walked into arcades in 1991 inside Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. She became the first playable female character in a fighting game to gain mainstream recognition. Capcom designer Akira Nishitani later summed up the thinking…
- Dee JayDee Jay made his first appearance in 1993, bursting onto screens in Super Street Fighter II as one of just four new fighters added to the roster. He was a Jamaican kickboxer and breakdancer with a grin on his face and a music career he was…
- F.A.N.G. (Street Fighter)F.A.N.G entered the Street Fighter series in 2016 with an obsession he wore openly: the number 2. His introduction cutscene had him promising to defeat his opponent in exactly two minutes. He proclaimed himself the second most important…
- Necro (Street Fighter)Necro is a character from Capcom's Street Fighter fighting game series, and he arrived in 1997 carrying a contradiction at his core: a grotesque living bioweapon who just wanted to go home with his girlfriend. His real name is Illia, a…
- Sagat (Street Fighter)Sagat towers over every other fighter in the original Street Fighter at 226 centimeters tall, bald, scarred, and wearing a black eyepatch. When the game launched in 1987, he stood alone at the end as the sole boss fight, a final wall for…
- Sodom (Final Fight)Sodom is a fictional character from Capcom's Final Fight and Street Fighter series, and he may be the most self-defeating figure in all of fighting game history. He dresses in a samurai kabuto, tabi, geta, and blue jeans. He wields ancient…