7 Street Fighters: Street Fighter (1)

We’ve got seven nights of streams for Street Fighter 6, and we’ve got seven “main entries” in the Street Fighter franchise. This means something! Logically, we must take a look at each of the seven Street Fighter titles, and determine who was the canon protagonist of each story.

We will start with Street Fighter 1. And that’s the easy one! Ryu is the undisputed victor of Street Fighter. Ryu ventures from Japan to America to England to China to Thailand, smashes some rocks, breaks some boards, and then fights his way to Sagat, the cyclopean champion of street fighting. Sagat is defeated, Ryu gets to see a flashback of all the teeth he’s shattered while punchin’ ‘round the world, and then the day is saved. Or… something.

Not really much to it.

Can we ream any story out of the original Street Fighter game? Well, apparently literally everybody warns Ryu with their losing quote that there are other fighters out there. While this statement would likely be true in any reality, this may be proof that the Street Fighter/Final Fight Universe is one exclusively based on the concept of fighting, and whether you are in front of Mount Rushmore or the Great Wall of China, all that is important is that someone out there can beat you. This is also one of the few “world fighter” games where your protagonist spends more than 90 seconds in the same country. Perhaps this “early” Ryu did not have the war chest for travel he would one day obtain and had to bum around England fighting not one but two guys before it was worthwhile to fly off to another continent. And, considering the two minigames featured in Street Fighter were repurposed for income-earning “part time jobs” in Street Fighter 6, maybe the only way Ryu can afford to take wing from Gen to Eagle is through earning a higher score.

But the basis of Street Fighter is here, and the storyline is clear from not only the game, but everything that came afterwards. Ryu fights all comers, and eventually tackles Sagat. Sagat is an unstoppable monster (seriously, play Street Fighter through to the end. Sagat will munch your quarters so fast, you won’t know if the Tiger Knee is a real special move or some kind of wonky jumping animation), but Ryu pulls out a win through a practiced dragon punch. This shoryuken leaves Sagat scarred in multiple ways, and Ryu walks away, triumphant.

On to more fights…

Even Worse Streams Presents Street Fighter 6
Night 1

June 6, 2023

Random Notes:

• Welcome to Street Fighter 6! Our first night playing SF6, a mere four days after release, happened before we decided to make this an ongoing stream, so plan accordingly. BEAT, Jeanie, and fanboymaster are all here for commentary, and I’m in the pilot’s seat.
• We are starting with World Tour character creation, and we are “getting some creatures”.
• Jeanie initially says “Be Not Afraid” in respect to our glowing character, but it is fanboymaster that initially coins the moniker “Beef Not Afraid”. And a legend is born.
• fanboymaster explains how 2-D fighting works in SF6’s World Tour as Beef Not Afraid takes her first steps towards kicking ass.
• Is Alice a waifu character creation? Is that a good thing for a training character?
• Caliscrub joins to note that Beef Not Afraid is the logical limit of horror technology.
• Having completed Chapter 1 and the tutorial, we pop over to some versus fighting. That’s it for story mode this week! Caliscrub and fanboymaster will now be actively fighting yours truly.
• AJVark arrives as we get the fights going (and discuss Street Fighter launch rosters).
• Ample Vigour then joins to note that Marisa is definitely not a “tank racist”.
• “Sagat fucks, but he never fucks twice.”
• Granblue Versus either failed because of a lack of rollback netcode, or being associated with the “release” of COVID…
• Caliscrub asks if all the characters are more aggressive in SF6 with their taunts. Maybe? Ken seems less chill.
• Dee Jay, when piloted by fanboymaster, looks cool… as he’s kicking my ass…
• Lily winds up being one of my favorite newcomers as “a mini T. Hawk”
• Zangief does not drink. Tekken’s Dragunov does not drink in canon, but really feels like someone that has big drinking energy.
• And we close as I confuse Necalli’s name in a game where he doesn’t even appear. Poor, dumb guy.

Next time on The Ballad of Beef Not Afraid: Lions, Tigers, and Dee Jay.