was to become the model of all other successful fighting games for at least a decade. With an outstanding cast of 8 playable characters and 4 unplayable bosses, this was THE game to play if you were anybody in the early 90's.
That original cast of eight was Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim, Guile, and E. Honda; the original Eight World Warriors. As the series progressed, the world warriors would expand to include 12, with the new editions being Fei Long, Cammy, Thunderhawk and Dee Jay; all four coming from the breakthrough Super Street Fighter 2. Yet, even after nearly 70 or 80 characters exploded into the Capcom versus fighting game universe, members of those original eight are still looked upon most fondly.
By far the most popular member of that elite group of eight was Ryu. Along with almost as popular WW (World Warrior) Ken. The two were virtually identical in body structure, in costume and moves. I suppose it could have been laziness on the part of Capcom, but it did do a wonderful job of setting up the huge rivalry between the two characters. Why Ryu pulled ahead in popularity over ken, we may never know, but i have some possible answers:
- Ryu has a one-hit knockdown tatsumakisenpuukyaku (hurricane kick). This is better than ken's multiple-hit knockdown because Ken players could mistime the move and only hit 4 out of 5 possible hurricane kick hits and could then leave himself open for counterattack.
- It always seemed that ryu's hadoken (fireball) was just a lot better than ken's. As time progressed, the differences were a lot greater, ryus fireball came out a lot faster than kens and set the other guy on fire if close enough and was slightly more powerful, while ken got a fire-dragon punch.
- Ryu and Ken had drastically different dragon punches. While ryu's was basically vertical, kens shot out at a 60 or 50 degree angle (dernit, the metric's got to me!). Each one had weaknesses. While ryu's went vertical and had to be closer to make contact, there was less room for comeback by the other character if he missed, and it was almost the opposite for ken; he had a higher chance of making contact, but he could be punished severely after missing.
- ryu has always been slightly faster than Ken, while ken is slightly stronger. I guess people just prefer finesse over brute strength. Personally, Ryu has always been my favorite because he didn't look as scruffy as ken. Just kidding (^_^), but i have always liked Ryu better.
- another thing! Maybe its the storylines! While Ken went on after sf2 to get married to Eliza and have a bunch of Kids and live a normal life, Ryu became the everdrifting vagabond! Maybe it is the common street fighter 2 player's fascination with hobos, or with hobos who kick a lot of ass that draw them to Ryu. hmm....
If you want to see a little .gif animation of Ryu throwing a hadoken, click HERE