History YMMV / StreetFighterII

* TierInducedScrappy: ''Street Fighter II'' has had one of the longest competitive lifespans of any competitive fighting game, and has a had quiet a few of these, particularly in ''Super Turbo:''
** '''High tier examples:'''
*** O. Sagat is in famous for his high and low Tiger Shots which make approaching him damn near impossible, and even if you have a fireball of your own it's very difficult to win fireball wars against him. Jumping over a Tiger Shot? Sagat's Tiger Uppercut is a strong anti-air that takes off huge amounts of damage. His zoning is infamous for making certain characters totally irrelevant against him.
*** Vega in ''Super Turbo'' is considered to be ''the'' best character in the title thanks to his mobility and devastating mixup game with left-right Sky High Claw. Getting knocked down once against a competent Vega almost feels like a LuckBasedMission if you can block his Sky High Claw. Even without that, Vega boasts impressive range and mobility, and has positive matchups across the board.
** '''Low tier examples:'''
*** ''Super Turbo'' Cammy feels like she wasn't finished. Her anti-air is impressive, but that's about it. Her range is lacking and she has to take a lot of risks to get in on her opponent. Any blocked Spiral Arrow will lead to Cammy eating a huge punish, and her matchups are abysmal. There's a few Cammy diehards, but for the most part the character is absent in competitive play.
** '''Examples of both:'''
*** ''Super Turbo'' E. Honda is a weird case. On one hand, he lacks approach options, doesn't have a fireball, his super won't connect all the time, and relies on turtling to win matchups (which is hard, especially against projectile characters). On the other hand, his Hundred Hand Slap has ''incredible'' range and damage, [[https://wiki.supercombo.gg/w/Super_Street_Fighter_2_Turbo/E._Honda#Stored_Oicho and he can take advantage of a glitch to store his Oicho throw.]] Oicho already has zero startup and no whiff animation, with the stored Oicho it makes it impossible to play footsies against Honda without getting thrown. Even worse, Honda can get his opponent in a throw loop in the corner. Depending on the matchup, Honda will either struggle to approach and get chipped out by fireballs and uppercuts, or he will Oicho throw his opponent into oblivion.

** Bison qualifies in a roundabout manner, thanks to his hamminess in the [[Film/StreetFighter movie]] and [[WebAnimation/YouTubePoop the]] [[WesternAnimation/StreetFighter American]] AnimatedAdaptation. See MemeticBadass below and the [[Memes/StreetFighter Memes page]].

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Zigzagged. A casual gamer playing this after games like ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Alpha 3]]'', ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII 3rd Strike]]'', or ''IV'' may wonder what all the fuss was about, [[SeriousBusiness but it's definitely averted in]] TournamentPlay.

%%* StoicWoobie: Guile.
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The original ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterI Street Fighter]]'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness sucks by modern standards]] and wasn't considered anything fussing about in its day either, with only two playable characters that are just a few pixels from PaletteSwap, unresponsive controls, and special moves that rarely (if ever) work. ''Street Fighter II'', on the other hand, became the TropeCodifier for the FightingGame genre with better controls, more moves, a deeper story and tons of characters.

** Guile, "The Family Man".

** In another effort to make itself a notable update from the previous two entries, ''Hyper Fighting'' introduced new alternate colors for each character, but made them the default colors instead of their canonical colors, with the CPU opponents stuck with these colors and the endings not even bothering to make them more consistent. Capcom had a nasty habit of toying with this further in later games such as Super Turbo (which not only locks the original colors behind cheat codes, but also downgrades them into not being able to use super combos), ''Alpha 2 Gold'', ''Alpha 3'', and the first two ''Street Fighter III'' games. It wasn't just exclusive to the Street Fighter games, as three of the five ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}'' games and both ''[[VideoGame/SaturdayNightSlamMasters Muscle Bomber Duo]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/SaturdayNightSlamMasters Super Muscle Bomber]]'' were also guilty of this.

** The CPS-1 version opening movie features a white blonde guy punching a negro black-haired guy, which was met with disdain from American fans. Fast forward two decades later and the Black Lives Matter movement was established in light of a black man dying at the hands of a white police officer.

** The Japanese only Dreamcast version of ''Super Turbo'' featured online play and has an unlockable DIP switch menu.

** ''Turbo Revival'' for the GBA, surprisingly. Despite having to cram a 6-button fighter on a system with only 4, the gameplay is still surprisingly fluid (helped by a optional "Easy Control" mode that simplifies special moves). Not to mention that it sports exclusives stages for many fighters (even Akuma, who also now has a Super--the Shun Goku Satsu) plus you can even unlock [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Shin Akuma]]. The music, though, pales in comparison to the arcade and even the SNES port.

** While the simplified moves and character lineup (only nine characters) of the UsefulNotes/GameBoy port can be forgiven due to the systems obvious limitations, the unresponsive controls, single digit framerate and slow as molasses physics utterly destroy the gameplay, leaving it a barely playable mess.

** Zigzagged with the 3DO port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. While the graphics are far more accurate to the arcade version than other ports and features excellent music, the game ''loads when you jump''. Though the loading times are faster than expected for a game of its era, they are still slow loading times and interfer with player controls, rendering it nearly unplayable unless you are playing single player. The score system is also not accurate in the least and backgrounds don't scroll. [[{{Bowdlerise}} Then there's the censorship of blood and bruises.]]

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The original ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterI Street Fighter]]'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness sucks by modern standards]] and wasn't considered anything fussing about in its day either: two playable characters that are just a few pixels from PaletteSwap, unresponsive controls, special moves that rarely if ever work. ''Street Fighter II'', on the other hand, became the TropeCodifier for the FightingGame genre with better controls, more moves and tons of characters.

** Guile isn't too far behind either thanks to [[MemeticMutation his theme going with everything]]. And then [[MemeticMutation his going home to be a family man]].

** The CPS-1 version opening movie features a white blonde guy punching a negro black-haired guy, which was met with disdain from American fans. Fast forwards two decades later and the Black Lives Matter movement was established in light of a black man dying at the hands of a white police officer.

** The CPS-1 version opening movie features a white blonde guy punching a negro black-haired guy, which was met with disdain from American fans. Fast forwards many years later and the Black Lives Matter movement was established in light of a black man dying at the hands of a white police officer.

** The CPS-1 version opening movie features a white blonde guy punching a negro black-haired guy, which was met with disdain from American fans. Fast forwards many years later and the Black Lives Matter movement was established.

* AmericansHateTingle: T. Hawk isn't well liked by Mexican players due to him being a Native American despite being identified as Mexican in nationality and birth.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Zangief dances with the late Mikhail Gorbachev in his ending for ''II''. 'Nuff said. Also his nationality was USSR, which collapsed in the same year the game was originally released.

** In another effort to make itself a notable update from the previous two entries, ''Hyper Fighting'' introduced alternate colors for each new character, but made them the default colors instead of their canonical colors, with the CPU opponents stuck with these colors and the endings not even bothering to make them more consistent. Capcom had a nasty habit of toying with this further in later games such as Super Turbo (which not only locks the original colors behind cheat codes, but also downgrades them into not being able to use super combos), ''Alpha 2 Gold'', ''Alpha 3'', and the first two ''Street Fighter III'' games. It wasn't just exclusive to the Street Fighter games, three of the five Darkstalkers games were also guilty of this.

* AmericansHateTingle: Mexicans hate T. Hawk and Japan hates Dee Jay, respectively.

* AmericansHateTingle: Mexicans hate T. Hawk and Japan hates Dee Jay, respectively.

** "Vega" is a fairly common Spanish surname, making the Western change of Balrog's name at least ''slightly'' tolerable despite name changes flying in the face of the creators' artistic vision. In addition, a balrog is [[Creator/JRRTolkien a fictional creature]] known for being large and monstrous, making it a thematically fitting name for the ruthless boxer. That said, ''''nothing'''' is more fitting for a Mike Tyson expy than "Mike Bison," which does not even ''remotely'' belong on an evil, megalomaniacal dictator.

** "Vega" is a fairly common Spanish surname, making the Western change of Balrog's name at least ''slightly'' tolerable despite name changes flying in the face of the creators' artistic vision. In addition, a balrog is [[Creator/JRRTolkien a fictional creature]] known for being large and monstrous, making it a thematically fitting name for the ruthless boxer. That said, ''nothing'' is more fitting for a Mike Tyson expy than "Mike Bison," which does not even ''remotely'' belong on a dictator.

** "Vega" is a fairly common Spanish surname, making the Western change of Balrog's name at least ''slightly'' tolerable despite flying in the face of the original creators' vision. In addition, a balrog is [[Creator/JRRTolkien a fictional creature]] known for being large and monstrous, making it a more fitting name for the ruthless boxer.
** Cammy's [[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/snes/b/ssf2cam.htm ending]] in ''Super Street Fighter II'' has Bison claim they were in love rather than her being his clone, with implied brainwashing as the cause and leaving her devastated either way. The American cartoon also used the "brainwashed lovers" plot point, and several fanfic writers have written about the localized revelation of [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs her being his clone]] ''[[BreadEggsBreadedEggs and]]'' [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs lover]].

** "Vega" is a fairly common Spanish surname, making the Western change of Balrog's name at least ''slightly'' tolerable despite flying in the face of the original creators' vision. In addition, a balrog is [[Creator/JRRTolkien .

** Any player fighting a CPU controlled Ryu, considering that he often spams out more [[KamehameHadoken Hadokens]] at an inhuman rate. Especially if one plays as Zangief.

** Akuma's Zanku Hadoken (the diagonal air fireball) is considered a major reason he's banned in tournaments. The vast majority of the cast just doesn't have a meaningful answer to it: it comes out at an odd angle, Akuma is usually well off the ground when performing the move, it's hilariously safe due to its favorable hitboxes and Akuma being able to trip guard, and moves that normally go through projectiles don't block it. A semi-competent Akuma player can use it to trap and pressure with hilarious ease while the opponent struggles to do anything back.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The eventual fate of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix''. Many top players complained that about the balance changes, specifically that these weren't the ones that they suggested. Combine this with the fact that the game never got an arcade port in Japan and you can see why the game failed to replace the original ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' as the standard for competitive play. ''Ultra'' likewise failed to replace original ''Turbo'' for similar reasons.
* TierInducedScrappy: ''Street Fighter II'' has had one of the longest competitive lifespans of any competitive fighting game, and has a had quiet a few of these, particularly in ''Super Turbo:''

*** O. Sagat is in famous for his high and low Tiger Shots which make approaching him damn near impossible, and even if you have a fireball of your own it's very difficult to win fireball wars against him. Jumping over a Tiger Shot? Sagat's Tiger Uppercut is a strong anti-air that takes off huge amounts of damage. His zoning is infamous for making certain characters totally irrelevant against him.
*** Vega in ''Super Turbo'' is considered to be ''the'' best character in the title thanks to his mobility and devastating mixup game with left-right Sky High Claw. Getting knocked down once against a competent Vega almost feels like a LuckBasedMission if you can block his Sky High Claw. Even without that, Vega boasts impressive range and mobility, and has positive matchups across the board.

*** ''Super Turbo'' Cammy feels like she wasn't finished. Her anti-air is impressive, but that's about it. Her range is lacking and she has to take a lot of risks to get in on her opponent. Any blocked Spiral Arrow will lead to Cammy eating a huge punish, and her matchups are abysmal. There's a few Cammy diehards, but for the most part the character is absent in competitive play.

*** ''Super Turbo'' E. Honda is a weird case. On one hand, he lacks approach options, doesn't have a fireball, his super won't connect all the time, and relies on turtling to win matchups (which is hard, especially against projectile characters). On the other hand, his Hundred Hand Slap has ''incredible'' range and damage, [[https://wiki.supercombo.gg/w/Super_Street_Fighter_2_Turbo/E._Honda#Stored_Oicho and he can take advantage of a glitch to store his Oicho throw.]] Oicho already has zero startup and no whiff animation, with the stored Oicho it makes it impossible to play footsies against Honda without getting thrown. Even worse, Honda can get his opponent in a throw loop in the corner. Depending on the matchup, Honda will either struggle to approach and get chipped out by fireballs and uppercuts, or he will Oicho throw his opponent into oblivion.

* TheWoobie: Cammy learns that she's either Bison's clone or former lover, depending on the version, and the revelation leaves her devastated.

** "Vega" is a fairly common Spanish surname, making it somewhat more appropriate for him than the dictatorial Bison. In addition, a "Balrog" is [[Creator/JRRTolkien a fictional creature]] known for being large and monstrous, making it a more fitting name for the ruthless Boxer than for the narcissistic and graceful Claw.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: The original ''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterI Street Fighter]]'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness sucks by modern standards]] and wasn't considered anything fussing about in its day either: two playable characters that are just a few pixels from PaletteSwap, unresponsive controls, special moves that rarely if ever work. ''Street Fighter II'', on the other hand, became the TropeCodifier for the FightingGame genre with better controls, more moves and tons of characters.

* RecurringFanonCharacter: One of Ryu's win quotes states, "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance!" Players immediately began to speculate who Sheng Long was, and it eventually became rumored that Sheng Long was the name of Ryu and Ken's unseen master. ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' seized on this idea and launched an April Fools' issue in which they gave a detailed (and false) description of the absurdly difficult and convoluted way to unlock Sheng Long as a boss. But there was no Sheng Long; Ryu was telling his opponent that to stand a chance, they had to overcome "Sheng Long", which is a [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation error]] for his "Dragon Punch". However, Capcom liked the idea so much that [[AscendedMeme they later introduced Akuma]] for ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. This did not end fan rumors or fanon about Sheng Long, however, and ''EGM'' ''again'' posted another April Fools' prank for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''. Years later, for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', Capcom finally introduced Ryu and Ken's ''real'' master, Akuma's brother Gouken, who had almost all of the abilities that ''EGM'' had once claimed Sheng Long had, stated "You must defeat ME to stand a chance!", and had "aka Sheng Long" as one of his equippable titles just to put the issue to bed. Despite all of that, though, Sheng Long is still a popular fanon character and occasionally reappears as an alter ego of Gouken, a third brother to himself and Akuma, or a forgotten student who trained alongside them, amongst others.

* SequelDisplacement: Before the Internet and a few rereleases, you could count the number of people who played the original ''Street Fighter'' on one hand. Turns out, it's for the best. These games (or, at least, series of games) are the most well-known games of the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' franchise; when most people talk about ''Street Fighter'', chances are that they really mean ''Street Fighter II''. It is one of the most innovative and popular video games of all time; it brought the "tournament fighter" genre to the masses and popularized six-button controllers, and its influence has not waned in the years since its debut.
* SignatureScene: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY0KBMkvDyo The intro]] of ''Super Street Fighter II'' is iconic, due to it being SimpleYetAwesome, and cool as hell. It's to the point where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kalsCPXfaQ it was even remade]] for Ryu's ''Smash'' trailer.

** Zigzagged with the 3DO port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. While the graphics are far more accurate to the arcade version than other ports and features excellent music, the game ''loads when you jump''. Though the loading times are faster than expected for a game of its era, they are still slow loading times and interfer with player controls, rendering it nearly unplayable unless you are playing single player. The score system is also not accurate in the least and backgrounds don't scroll. [[{{Bowdlerise}} Then there's the censorship of blood and bruises.]]
** The MS-DOS version of ''Super Turbo'' had controls that worked pretty well...for the menus, moving, and jumping. But for most keyboards and fast computers, the controls for fighting were ''crippled''. Whether you're mashing the designated keys like a maniac or steadily pressing one at a time, it can still take a long time to get the game to register and carry out your attack. There is also the fact that the copy protection system for earlier versions didn't even correspond to the right words in the manual that you were supposed to type without a patch.

* RecurringFanonCharacter: One of Ryu's winquotes states "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance!". Players immediately began to speculate who Sheng Long was, and it eventually became rumored that Sheng Long was the name of Ryu and Ken's unseen master. ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' seized on this idea and launched an April Fools' issue in which they gave a detailed (and false) description of the absurdly difficult and convoluted way to unlock Sheng Long as a boss. But there was no Sheng Long; Ryu was telling his opponent that to stand a chance, they had to overcome "Sheng Long", which is a [[BlindIdiotTranslation translation error]] for his "Dragon Punch". However, Capcom liked the idea so much that [[AscendedMeme they later introduced Akuma]] for ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo''. This did not end fan rumors or fanon about Sheng Long, however, and ''EGM'' ''again'' posted another April Fools' prank for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII''. Years later, for ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', Capcom finally introduced Ryu and Ken's ''real'' master, Akuma's brother Gouken, who had almost all of the abilities that ''EGM'' had once claimed Sheng Long had, stated "You must defeat ME to stand a chance!", and had "aka Sheng Long" as one of his equippable titles just to put the issue to bed. Despite all of that, though, Sheng Long is still a popular fanon character and occasionally reappears as an alter ego of Gouken, a third brother to himself and Akuma, or a forgotten student who trained alongside them, amongst others.

** As mentioned above, the 3D simulation ride has Vega trying to escape into our world. In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', it's Bison who asks the titular protagonist if he's "going Turbo" (i.e. breaking the rule of leaving one's own g
** Even in-universe, Vega is continuously mocked due to being [[McNinja a Spanish ninja]]. Cue ''Series/AguilaRoja'', a Spanish series featuring a heroic Spaniard ninja as the main protagonist.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: One of the criticisms of ''Ultra Street Fighter II'' is that it's little more than a port of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix'' and what additions it does have, such as 3 new playable characters that are more powerful versions of old ones and the widely panned Way of the Hado mode, add little to the core experience. It also doesn't help that it has a $40 release price, when HD remix originally was a $15 game.
* LadyMondegreen: A mistranslation of "You must defeat my {{Shoryuken}} to stand a chance" to "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance" led to the existence of a [[https://streetfighter.fandom.com/wiki/Sheng_Long Sheng Long]], so to say (see RecurringFanonCharacter below for more).
* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Out of all the ''Street Fighter'' characters, Chun-Li has the most fan-made pairings, namely with Ryu, Ken, Guile, Charlie, [[HoYay Cammy, and Juri]]. While it's not really bad when it comes to most [[ShipToShipCombat shipping wars]], it has caused a bit of varied mileages in the fandom. The various ''Street Fighter'' anime from the '90s (and to a lesser extent the manga) have helped Ryu, Ken, and Guile in this regard. Though while they are only good friends in the series one of the reasons why Ryu is fairly popular in this regard is that unlike the other three men mentioned here Ryu is the only one who's still alive and not HappilyMarried. This is justified in the case of Charlie since the official storyline states that [[UndercoverAsLovers they posed as husband and wife]] while traveling in search of Bison during ''Alpha''.
* MainstreamObscurity: Even those who haven't played this know it as the grandfather of the modern fighting game.

** Dhalsim. And it's not ''all'' memetic:

** Bison, due to his final boss difficulty and TheMovie:
---> ''"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday But for me... it was Tuesday.]]"''
** Guile isn't too far behind either thanks to [[MemeticMutation his theme going with everything]]. And then [[MemeticMutation his going home to be a family man]].

** Bison. Why ''else'' would a super-powerful man get twelve beautiful teenage girls brainwashed into becoming his BodyguardBabes, huh?

* {{Narm}}: M. Bison's ending in ''Super Street Fighter II''. He manages to TakeOverTheWorld, with creepy music and graphics... and then the narration asks "'''WILL ANYONE EVER DEFEAT THIS EVIL SCUM BAG???'''", making it pretty hard to take seriously.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5wzpD_iZ6U M. Bison's ending]] in ''Super''.
** While most are tame, some of the post-match [[BeautyIsNeverTarnished defeated]] portraits, particularly the better-drawn ones in ''Super'' and ''Super Turbo'', can qualify.
** Akuma's status as a BonusBoss, appearing out of nowhere without context and outright killing Bison if you played well enough to get this far. Not only was it shocking for the time, but having what looks like a twisted, demonic Shoto fighter suddenly give you the fight of your life is like something out of modern Creepypasta, and the endings don't acknowledge him whatsoever, making it seem like the game was out to get you.
* ParanoiaFuel: In ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'', Akuma suddenly sneaks up on Bison and kills him before challenging you to a fight. It's well known for being a completely unexpected "Holy shit!" moment. But when you think about it, knowing Akuma's motives in hindsight, he may have been keeping tabs on you the entire time, hiding in the dark unnoticed until the boss battle, where he decides to judge you worthy of a duel to the death. And if you fail to defeat him... well, you might as well sign your own will.

** The Japanese only Dreamcast version of ''Super Turbo'' featured online play and has an unlockable DIP switch menu.
** ''Hyper Street Fighter II'' is probably the most beloved version of the game from the pre-HD era, with the game itself being an updated rerelease of ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' with not only all of its features and balanced design, but also the ability to pick any prior release version of the characters, complete with their older art, mechanics, balance and sounds for basically every prior version of ''Street Fighter II'', letting you do things like throw vanilla Ryu in a MirrorMatch with his "Turbo" self, or "Champ" Sagat versus playable Akuma, and so forth. It even restores certain destructible background elements that were removed past the original game. The [=PS2=] version goes above and beyond, and also includes the option to switch between the original [=CPS1=] music tracks (and similarly edited Sharp X68000 tracks for Akuma and the new challengers, which would later be reused in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'') and music tracks from Super Turbo's 3DO port. The only major downside is that like in Super Turbo, [[FakeDifficulty the AI in the US version is through the roof on difficulty]], but for those playing Versus, this isn't an issue. Lacking a port since then, it's this version of the game that was revived for both ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' and ''Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium'' in 2022.

** ''Turbo Revival'' for the GBA, surprisingly. Despite having to cram a 6-button fighter on a system with only 4, the gameplay is still surprisingly fluid (helped by a optional "Easy Control" mode that simplifies special moves). Not to mention that it sports exclusives stages for many fighters (even Akuma, who also now has a Super--the Shun Goku Satsu) plus you can even unlock [[VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha Shin Akuma]]. The music, though, pales in comparison to the arcade and even the SNES port.

** While the simplified moves and character lineup (only nine characters) of the UsefulNotes/GameBoy port can be forgiven due to the systems obvious limitations, the unresponsive controls, single digit framerate and slow as molasses physics utterly destroy the gameplay, leaving it a barely playable mess.
** Not the whole game, but the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis port of ''Super Street Fighter II'' had ''horrible'' music. Quite pathetic considering the earlier ''Special Champion Edition'' had music that was very faithful to the [=CPS1=] original music, even with the Genesis' limited sound hardware.

** ''Champion Edition'' Vega[=/=]Dictator remains the strongest version of the character to this day. When he first debuted as playable, Bison's modifications from his original CPU boss incarnation resulted in him being very overtuned. His Psycho Crusher forced the opponent into blockstun for a whopping '''SIX HITS''' and had a random chance of being a crossup, meaning the opponent would have to block in the opposite direction to avoid getting hit. But because they are already in blockstun and are naturally inclined to keep blocking, it was outright impossible to tell which hit would result in a crossup, forcing the helpless opponent to take full damage from it. In adition, he had ridiculous combo potential with his Scissor Kick which led to touch of death setups and even blockstun infinites due to Bison's ridiculous frame advantage. That's right: you could literally chip the opponent to death with them having zero chance to retaliate without getting hit.
** In ''Super Turbo'' and its successor ''HD Remix'', Akuma is banned for having ridiculously overpowered combos and juggles. He was eventually balanced out in later games, with his most balanced form so far being in ''IV''.
** Also in ''Super Turbo'', Old Sagat. Sure, he doesn't have a super, but it doesn't matter when he can throw out Tiger Shots about as fast as he can say them, making him a hilariously easy and braindead zoner that can't be outclassed in his field. His banning and softbanning is one of the more famous ones in the community, because the consensus is that if he were legal, then several characters in the roster would suddenly become nonviable.
** ''Ultra'' brings Evil Ryu and Violent Ken into the mix, two characters so powerful they can stun with a 3 hit combo strong enough to take off 75% of the opponent's health. It also adds [[PurposelyOverpowered Shin Akuma]] as a playable character through a code, who understandably falls into this category.

** Chun-Li's stage can be as this for many reasons: When the game was released in 1991, China wasn't a very developed country, and one of the most famous stereotypes associated with the Chinese was almost all Chinese people ride bicycles, since they couldn't afford, or were not allowed to have, a car. Not only is this stereotype mostly a DeadHorseTrope outside rural towns, but China is suffering a serious case of environmental pollution because almost everyone is abandoning their traditional bicycles and using cars instead. This is one of the reasons many of Chun-Li's scenarios in later sequels stop showing them in order to show the more modern face of China.
** In Zangief's ending, Gorbachev claims that Zangief's victory has proved that "the Soviet spirit can overcome all obstacles." Just months after the game came out, the Soviet Union, still under Gorbachev, was dissolved.

** One Japanese commercial for ''Turbo'' featured a live-action Guile duking out against a live-action Bison. [[Film/StreetFighter One year later...]]
** As mentioned above, the 3D simulation ride has Bison trying to escape into our world. In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', it's Bison who asks the titular protagonist if he's "going Turbo" (i.e. breaking the rule of leaving one's own game).

* CommonKnowledge: Many Western fans believe that Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu [[DraggedOffToHell drags the victim to Hell]] where their soul is attacked by demons; the more sinful they are, the more they're hurt (therefore, a pure-hearted person would be unaffected). However, this is just a vestige of both Capcom USA's {{Bowdlerization}} that Akuma was [[DemonicPossession possessed by a demon]] rather than being an extreme BloodKnight, as well as assumptions caused by the literal translation of the attack's name: "Instant Hell Murder" or "Blinking Prison Killer". The Shun Goku Satsu is simply a barrage of incredibly fast physical attacks, as seen with the ''Street Fighter V'' iteration.

** Zangief is ''always'' a fan favorite, even though he's never been in a leading role. Fans clamor for him whenever he's missing from a game, to the point that neither Ken nor Akuma made it to the ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomClashOfSuperHeroes Marvel vs. Capcom]]'' roster, but the Red Cyclone did!
** Vega is very popular. He even placed 10th on IGN's Top 25 Street Fighter Characters list.
** Cammy was the first of the "New Challengers" to be present in most later games, and the only one other than Akuma to be involved in early crossovers. She even made a cameo in ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', albeit wearing something more modest,[[note]]to wit: her camo pantyhose is entirely green now[[/note]] along with M. Bison, Chun-Li and Zangief.

* EvenBetterSequel: ''II'' was so good that ''I'' is barely ever acknowledged nowadays.

** Bison. Must be the uniform.
** While not as evil as Bison, the three bosses (Vega, Balrog, and Sagat) get this as well, Vega in particular.

*** M. Bison to Balrog (Boxer)
*** Balrog to Vega (Claw)
*** Vega to M. Bison (Dictator)

** Mexican fans calls E. Honda as "Porky" or "Super Porky" (after a famous Mexican wrestler) since Honda is fat and his ramming headbutt attack (the famous "Dosukoi") sounds like he's saying "oink oink" instead in Spanish.
** Guile, "The Family Man".
** "The First Lady of Gaming" for Chun-Li, which became canon as of ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV''. Also "Thunder Thighs" and Chunbuns.
** More like ''fan abbreviation'', but many fans just call Zangief "Gief". Also "Blue/Green hand" for his Banishing Flat.
** Balrog has "Rog" and "Barlog", the latter coming from a misspelling on some of the game's own cabinets.
** Vega has "Matador", "Bull Fighter", "Cage Fighter", and "Assassin".

* {{Fanon}}: Some fans wonder if Ken's Theme was originally supposed to play on Guile's stage but was swapped at the last minute because it was too on-the-nose as a ''Film/TopGun'' song parody.

** Bison qualifies in a roundabout manner, thanks to his hamminess in the [[Film/StreetFighter movie]] and [[WebAnimation/YouTubePoop the]] [[WesternAnimation/StreetFighter American]] AnimatedAdaptation. See MemeticBadass below and the [[Memes/StreetFighter Memes page]].

** ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIII'' was criticized for bringing back very few characters from this game and mostly replacing the cast with newcomers. Thing is, this game did it first, with very few returning characters from the original ''VideoGame/{{Street Fighter|I}}''. The main difference was that very few had played the first game, while ''Street Fighter II'' made the series famous.
** In another effort to make itself a notable update from the previous two entries, ''Hyper Fighting'' introduced alternate colors for each new character, but made them the default colors instead of their canonical colors, with the CPU opponents stuck with these colors and the endings not even bothering to make them more consistent. Capcom had a nasty habit of toying with this further in later games such as Super Turbo (which not only locks the original colors behind cheat codes, but also downgrades them into not being able to use super combos), ''Alpha 2 Gold'', ''Alpha 3'', and the first two ''Street Fighter III'' games. It wasn't just exclusive to the Street Fighter games, three of the five Darkstalkers games were also guilty of this.

** ''World Warrior'' Guile is considered in a league all his own, and is THE single most broken version of the character to ever exist. In a game where the concept of the MirrorMatch did not exist yet, Guile stood out as having the best capabilities of any of the original 8 world warriors. His Sonic Boom controlled ridiculous amounts of space, and Guile himself had an arsenal of counters for people trying to avoid it. His Flash Kick was not only a strong anti-air, but as damage was randomized it could potentially rip the opponent's lifebar apart. He had normals with ridiculous range and even hitboxes. He was one of the first characters to have a true overhead with his Upside Down Kick. And those aren't even what makes Guile god tier in ''World Warrior''. No, what truly sets him apart is the amount of broken things he can do, including [[GameBreakingBug glitches]]. His Four Fierce Combo (jumping HP, close HP, HP Sonic Boom, far standing HP) could instantly dizzy an opponent and resulted in a touch of death. If you wanted to really style on the opponent, he could also touch of death with just ''six jabs''. And to top it all off, through the use of input manipulation, he could perform what is now known as the Magic Throw, which let him throw an opponent from ''anywhere on the screen, '''even right out of their own movements or attacks.''''' The Magic Throw, as well as other input manipulations, could result in other things like the infamous Handcuffs glitch, making Guile himself invincible, and potentially soft-locking or even outright resetting the entire game.
** ''Champion Edition'' M. Bison[=/=]Dictator remains the strongest version of the character to this day. When he first debuted as playable, Bison's modifications from his original CPU boss incarnation resulted in him being very overtuned. His Psycho Crusher forced the opponent into blockstun for a whopping '''SIX HITS''' and had a random chance of being a crossup, meaning the opponent would have to block in the opposite direction to avoid getting hit. But because they are already in blockstun and are naturally inclined to keep blocking, it was outright impossible to tell which hit would result in a crossup, forcing the helpless opponent to take full damage from it. In adition, he had ridiculous combo potential with his Scissor Kick which led to touch of death setups and even blockstun infinites due to Bison's ridiculous frame advantage. That's right: you could literally chip the opponent to death with them having zero chance to retaliate without getting hit.