10 Things You [Probably] Didn't Know About…Street Fighter

Calling all you gamers! Level up your retro gaming knowledge with our latest installment of fact-finding awesomeness! Yep, this time to help celebrate our latest collection of seriously cool Street Fighter TShirts which have just hit the site (go take a peep!), we're digging into the combo loving, button smashing and sometimes controller throwing world of the iconic Street Fighter game franchise.

So! Take a leap with us into this weird and wonderful world and check out some of these pretty funky facts! Enjoy....

1. It was almost a failure

Now this might come as a shock, but back when this game was first released, multiplayer was relatively new. Launching into arcades, the concept of playing another human rather then just the AI didn't instantly catch on. However after a fair few weeks and good word of mouth, competition between players became a big deal and still is today.

2.Lost in translation!

Sheng Long’s name was born out of a mistranslation of ‘shoryuken’, Ryu’s iconic attack. When the AI taunted players by saying they would need to beat 'shoryuken' to triumph, translators assumed it was talking about the character, rather than the move.

3. Combos were an accident.....sort of.

Gamers being gamer, will always want more. More custom, better gameplay or design. Well this was certainly the case back in the day. Once hackers had begin to redesign parts of the game to make it easier, one of the tricks was to make the time between moves shorter to allow more damage. The game's designers caught wind of this idea and set about creating move combos to allow people to do just that and included this in their next release, Street Fighter 2.

4. Speaking of which, Street Fighter still holds multiple world records.

...including Including: “First Fighting Game to Use Combos”, “Most Cloned Fighting Game”, “Biggest-Selling Coin Operated Fighting Game”, and “The Most Prolific Fighting Game Series”.

5. Ken's Cheap Trick.

Ken’s theme song was inspired by Cheap Trick’s song, Mighty Wings. Yes, that Mighty Wings. From the Top Gun soundtrack. Ken, you can be our wingman any day.

6. In the family!

Ken and Guile are related! Their wives are sisters.

7. The Hadouken is actually a pair of hands!

You heard it folks! It's not blue fire or perhaps a water cannon but in fact the shape of Ryu’s hands, coloured blue to make it look more menacing.  Can you spot it?

8. Character concepts...

Numerous character concepts were made but never used for Street Fighter II including a fat clown, which was later mutated into Rufus in Street Fighter IV, and Zubaz, a man with a leather whip and ripped shirt which was later used as inspiration for The Baz in Divekick.

9. Girl Power!

Little known fact, Chun-Li was the first playable female character in a fighting game.

10. Ken was the first Street Fighter character to be given a last name (Masters)

When Street Fighter toy figures were produced in the U.S., Mattel felt it would be confused with their own toy, Ken Carson (as in, Barbie and Ken). Now THAT would be a celebrity couple!

So there you have them folks! Know any other cool facts? Let us know below in the comments section. Don't forget to check out our latest range of Street Fighter Merchandise to show your love for this true 80s and 90s legend.

xoxo