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Street Fighter is one of the most iconic names in gaming, and yet, its influence reaches far deeper than you may first imagine. While the series is most well-known for relaunching the fighting game genre, birthing a multimedia franchise, and popularising the term ‘Hadouken!',Street Fighteralso started a shared universe that spans several popular – and less-remembered – Capcom series.
From iconic beat ‘em up series to obscure fighting games, the Street Fighter shared universe reaches far and wide, revealing itself in both explicit and more subtle ways. It’s a lot of fun piecing together the interconnected web of characters, settings, and lore that Street Fighter shares with these other series. So, grab your sticky notes and ball of string, make some space on your wall, and start mapping out the Street Fighter shared universe.
The Main Series: Street Fighter
The original Street Fighter,launched for arcades in 1987, laidthegroundwork for the series as a whole.
The gameintroduced famous characters such as Ryu and Ken, although the visuals and gameplay were both far drabber and more uninspired than what would come later.
The series reached stratospheric levels of success with 1991’s Street Fighter 2 – better known as the game that almost singlehandedly popularised thefighting game genreandrevitalised the arcade scene of the ’90s.
Like many fighting game series, Street Fighter is more interested in mechanics and competition than story, but a fascinating shared universe has sprung up.
This universe is typicallyexpressed more through Easter eggs and references, with less reliance on core plot points exploring the crossover.
The Beat ‘Em Up Spinoff: Final Fight
Final Fight has long been considered one of the mosticonic beat ‘em up series of all time, but did you know that it wasoriginally intended to be a sequel to the first Street Fighter game?
It was only when Capcom realised that the side-scrolling brawler gameplay wastoo different from the one-vs-one fighting of Street Fighterthat it decided to rebrand the series to Final Fight.
In terms of the connections between Street Fighter and Final Fight, you only have to look at one of the main settings of both cities.Metro City is run under the mayorship of Cody Tavers, one of the main characters of Final Fight, while also beinga core location in the Street Fighter series.
Several Final Fight characters have also crossed over into Street Fighter games, including:
The Pro Wrestling Experiment: Slam Masters
Slam Masters is an arcade wrestling game series that, despite being a spinoff of Street Fighter,focuses on in-the-ring combatrather than the side-view one-vs-one gameplay of Capcom’s iconic fighting game series.
Slam Masters weaves itself into the fabric of the Street Fighter shared universe in a couple of notable ways. For one, the series focuses on thebitter rivalry between two of the major wrestling federationsthat also appear in the Street Fighter series: The Capcom Wrestling Association (CWA) and the Blood Wrestling Association (BWA).
Zangief, who is a popular wrestler from the Street Fighter series, doesn’t appear as a playable character in Slam Masters butdoes make a cameo as a background character in Slam Masters 2.
Beyond that, it’shard to draw much more of a connectionbetween Street Fighter and this short-lived, but fascinating, spin-off series.
The Teenage Rampage: Rival Schools
Rival Schools is one of Capcom’s lesser-known fighting game series, but it stillplays an important role within the Street Fighter shared universe.
Unlike the majority of fighting games in the ’90s, Rival Schools opted for a3D-style more consistent with Tekken or Soulcalibur than Street Fighter.
Street Fighter’s Sakura was a secret playable characterin the original Rival Schools, cementing the connection between the two series.
It would be years before another strong link was formed, butStreet Fighter 5 finally delivered the goods with its Kanzuki Beach stage. Here, Rival Schools characters Tiffancy Lords and Hinata Wakaba can be seen in the background.
This was bettered whenAkira Kazama became the first ever Rival Schools character to be playable in a Street Fighter gamethrough the Street Fighter 5 final season.
Strider, Captain Commando, and Red Earth - Potential Shared Universe Connections
While other Capcom series such as Strider, Captain Commando, and Red Earth have some passing references that could potentially link them to this universe,they lack the more concrete evidence that Final Fight, Slam Masters, and Rival Schoolsall share.
With that said, here is how these series potentially link to the greater Street Fighter shared universe,
Possible Connection to the SFSU
Strider
The Street Fighter characterZeku has many similarities with Strider’s main protagonist, Hiryu, hinting at a possible connection. Zeku mentions that his fighting style is that of a “Strider”, while his backstory implies that he is a “first generation Strider”,potentially setting Street Fighter prior to that of Capcom’s Strider series.
Captain Commando
The Captain Commando series has several links with the Final Fight series - notably beingset in Metro City and Ginzu having trained in Bushinryu. If those two series share a link, then by extension,Captain Commando would also sit within the Street Fighter shared universe.
Red Earth
Admittedly, this one is a deep cut. According to the Street Fighter 5 Arcade Edition - A Visionary Book 2, the game’s director mentionsa crystal that links to the desert kingdom of Alanbird, as featured in Capcom’s Red Earth series. Not a super strong link - but hey, it’s something.
So… What About Street Fighter X Tekken?
The 2012crossover fighting game, Street Fighter X Tekken, brought together two of the genre’s biggest names in a game that raises the obvious question: do these two series share a universe?
The simple answer is no. That is, at least, outside this one particular game. The plot of Street Fighter X Tekken isnon-canonical to both Street Fighter and Tekken.
Additionally, despite being a crossover between two of Capcom’s most iconic series, Street Fighter X Mega Man isalso non-canonical.Therefore,Mega Man cannot be considered a part of the Street Fighter shared universe.
