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"I'll go change... into my gi!!!"
Perhaps the most basic form of Fighting Game character. Usually The Mario, this fighter's two most notable Special Attacks are a fireball or other projectile attack, and a rising physical attack, usually an uppercut. (The standard versions of these are the Hadoken and Shoryuken.) Wearing a gi or headband is optional. As you may have guessed, this character is essentially "inspired by" Ryu, the protagonist of the Street Fighter series.
Note that having a projectile and something vaguely resembling an uppercut will get this label slapped on a character regardless of which moves are actually their most notable.
The term Shotoclone comes from the English localization of Street Fighter II for the Super NES, which identified the fighting style used by Ryu and Ken as Shotokan Karate in the instruction manual. The martial art of Ryu and Ken has never been given a proper name in the Japanese versions (or in the games themselves), although the back-story in later games reveals that Gouken (Ryu and Ken's master) developed the fighting style from the original assassination art he learned with his brother Akuma from their master Goutetsu. For the record, Ryu and Ken's original moveset is largely based on Shotokan karate (no, not the special moves!), while in later games Ken's technique - notably his kicks - moved towards Kyokushin, in a textbook example of Divergent Character Evolution.
The Japanese term "Ansatsuken" (literally "assassination fist", a martial art made for killing) has been misinterpreted by English-speaking fans as the name of Ryu and Ken's fighting style. This is not the name of any specific fighting style but a Japanese neologism commonly used in many martial art-related fiction to describe any hand-to-hand style with the capability of causing the death of an opponent. Gen's distinctively non-"Shoto" style has also been labeled as an "Ansatsuken" as well. The term actually predates even the first Street Fighter game, being used in Fist of the North Star to describe Hokuto Shinken, the martial art used by Kenshiro to cause his opponent's heads to explode.
The equivalent term of "Shotoclone" used by Japanese fandom is "Ryu/Ken type" or simply "Ryu type".
For characters that are clones of each other but not clones of Ryu, try Send In The Clones. Not to be confused with Shota Con.
Examples:
- The Trope Maker, of course, is the Street Fighter series itself. Ryu and Ken began purely as headswaps, and although rather more lethal, Akuma's style is not far from their own (due to Akuma training under Goutetsu with Gouken, Ryu and Ken's sensei). Dan and Sean, considered joke characters, tend to at least share Ryu and Ken's standard punches and kicks; although their specials are different, they tend to fit the fireball/uppercut/special-kick roles. Sakura may or may not be a Shotoclone; her unusual permutations of the basic Shoto special moves (and some different normal moves) shift her away from the model, but how different she is varies from game to game.
- In the gaiden series Street Fighter EX, there are Allen Snider and Kairi, though the former mixes in some kickboxing moves with the usual fireball and uppercut.
- Sagat shares Ryu's projectile/uppercut profile, and like him, it's frequently the bread-and-butter of his strategy. He only had the Tiger Shot in the first Street Fighter and didn't gain his Tiger Uppercut (his answer to Ryu's Dragon Punch) until Street Fighter II.
- Gouken from Street Fighter IV, despite being the one who trained Ryu and Ken, is a subversion from the usual Ryu-type character: his version of the Dragon Punch is a "forbidden" technique which he only uses as a Super Combo and his Hurricane Kick travels diagonally instead of horizontally.
- The King Of Fighters has several of these. Terry and Andy Bogard are perhaps the original, a carry-over from their Fatal Fury fighting styles. Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia from The Art of Fighting also qualify. Capcom created Dan Hibiki as a parody of these copies (with a bit of Yuri Sakazaki mixed in). Iori Yagami and Kyo Kusanagi started as Shotoclones, but have since changed wildly. There are likely others; the only team never to possess Shotoclones on it would be Team Ikari Warriors, which is largely based around charge attacks.
- Lucky Glauber lacks a Dragon Punch, but otherwise fits. Especially in '98.
- Alba Meira of the Maximum Impact spinoff series has the classic Shotoclone stance, but completely different moves.
- Demitri Maximoff and Morrigan Aensland of Capcom's Darkstalkers series pull it off as well, but also remain distinctive. The fact that one is a Vampire and the other a Succubus helps a lot. Lilith (from the third game) also counts as one, but being born out of a part of Morrigan's life force, her projectile attacks aren't as powerful.
- Hanzou and Fuuma from World Heroes were complete and total Shotoclone ripoffs of Ryu And Ken, with the only noticable difference being that they were Ninja and were (loosely) on historical Japanese ninjas Hanzo Hattori and Fuma Kotaro.
- Fulgore and Jago from Killer Instinct. Black Orchid could also arguably count.
- Max from Power Quest.
- Mario, Luigi, and Dr. Mario in Super Smash Bros.
- Eiji Shinjo and Kayin Amoh from Battle Arena Toshinden are basically Ryu And Ken with swords. Kayin even incorporates more kicks in his style like Ken does in later Street Fighter games. There's also Sho Shinjo, who is basically the Akuma of the series.
- Batsu (and all versions thereof) and Hideo in Rival Schools. Sakura from Street Fighter also makes an appearance.
- Roy Bromwell uses a lot of Shoryuken moves.
- In Capcom Vs Whatever games, Ryu, Ken, Dan, Akuma, Sakura, Morrigan and Batsu all put in appearances, as do Cyclops, Spider-Man, Captain America, Ippatsuman and the aforementionned Terry and Ryo. Ken the Eagle would have been one if his rising move wasn't a dashing move that can be done horizontally and/or his projectile wasn't a boomerang used with a charge motion.
- Leonardo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles becomes a Shotoclone in the TMNT: Tournament Fighters games. Michaelangelo would be one as well, if his uppercut attack weren't a charge move.
- Kirby's Fighter copy in some of his games.
- And Knuckle Joe, the enemy/helper/character primarily associated with that ability.
- Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske from Guilty Gear. Sol's "fireball" being a wave of flame (similar to Terry's Power Wave from the first FF). They both carry swords too, so maybe they're more "inspired" by Eiji and Kayin...
- In the Humongous Mecha Fighting Game One Must Fall: 2097 the Jaguar mech had a projectile and a leap attack. Though its leap attacked more forward then upward.
- The Katana may be an even better fit. It has a horizontally-spinning attack like the Hurricane Kick, an invincible Dragon Punch equivalent, and, when fully powered up, a Fireball.
- Avdol in the Fighting Game incarnation of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure. Considering how absolutely crazy most of the other characters' fighting styles are, it can actually be refreshing to have someone normal.
- The Dagger fighting style in Soul Calibur 3. The Hadoken is throwing an infinite supply of bombs.
- X, in Mega Man X and X2, alternately can get the Hadoken and Shoryuken as secret moves, with the same joystick input as Ryu. He can't have them both at the same time, though, since they appear in different games.
- The Xtreme Gaiden Game series have a secret capsule allowing X to use both.
- X4 features Magma Dragoon, who is basically an Expy of Akuma and uses many of the latter's moves.
- Samurai Shodown. Haohmaru's Senpuuretsuzan and Kougetsuzan.
- God Hand lets you give the main character jumping spin kicks, ballerina uppercuts and a couple projectiles. It is a Capcom game, after all.
- Little Fighter 2 character Davis uses the Shoryuken and also has energy blasts. His uppercut is easily his most powerful and useful move. The Tatsumakisenpukakyu also makes an appearance in the game, through another character.
- Averted in Blaz Blue; the main character Ragna has no fireballs or flying kicks whatsoever and his moveset is built around ground combo chains. The only character that comes close to being a shotoclone is Jin, and he's just Ky Kiske with ice attacks.
- Arm Joe features a nameless, rank-and-file Policeman as one of the playable characters, and his moves are heavily based on Ryu, Ken, and Akuma, with even a little bit of Ryo Sakazaki thrown in for good measure; he has the fireball, the rising uppercut, super versions of both, and even does Akuma's signature Shun Goku Satsu. This is probably a parody; as noted, the Shotoclone in this game is a nameless policeman and not remotely the main character.
- Super Cosplay War Ultra features Rario, who is basically Ryu and Mario put into the Brundlefly machine.
- The Breakers games seem to cop to the fact that their main hero is a Ryu/Ken ripoff by naming him Sho. It's not entirely clear how self-aware this was.
- Reiji Oyama in the Power Instinct games; Keith Wayne follows the formula somewhat but he's a more obvious riff on Terry Bogard from the Fatal Fury series, even having Terry's long hair from Garou: Mark of the Wolves in Matrimelee.
- In the Neo Geo Fighting Game version of Double Dragon, Billy and Jimmy were turned into analogues of Ryu and Ken. Their special techniques are basically slight variations of Ryu and Ken's three special techniques, which are replaced by slightly different variations of the same techniques when they use their transformation super move. As if that wasn't enough, Billy's other super move is a powered-up version of his "Hadoken" move, while Jimmy's second super move is a powered-up "Shoryuken", just like Ryu's and Ken's respective Super Combos in Super Turbo.
- Billy and Jimmy also became this in Double Dragon V, although their projectile attack uses a tapping motion.
- Parodied in Bleach: Dark Souls with Kon, a 1-foot tall, sentient plush lion whose moves are almost exact copies of "Hadoken", "Shoryuken", and "Tatsumaki Senpyukyaku", even using the same commands.
- Pretty much the joke behind this picture of Lyoto Machida
 ◊, being the only high-profile MMA fighter with a Shotokan karate background, much less actually using any of it in the cage.
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