Street Fighter shared universe

The Street Fighter shared universe refers to the various series that take place within the same collective continuity of the Street Fighter series, crossing over common plot elements, settings, and characters.

According to Takayuki Nakayama, director of Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6, there are currently six series that officially encompass the universe; Street Fighter, Final Fight, Slam Masters, Rival Schools, Captain Commando and Strider.^[1]

List of series set within the shared universe

Street Fighter

The origin series of the namesake series, centered around the inspiring famous worldwide fighting tournament that draws fighters of many disciplines and backgrounds to compete against all odds for the ultimate title that one can achieve through the might of their own fists: the title of "The World's Strongest".

Final Fight

A spinoff series originally intended as Street Fighter '89 (1989), this series is centered on the wild disparate American metropolis of Metro City. Featuring 2D beat 'em up gameplay, Final Fight focuses on the heroes of Metro City as they personally take it upon themselves to clean the streets of both its violent gangs and criminal activities.

It is the series with the most direct connection to Street Fighter, with its cast members, including its protagonists and enemy characters, regularly being a part of the playable roster ever since Street Fighter Alpha. Playable Final Fight characters sorted by Street Fighter series include:

• Street Fighter Alpha series - Guy, Sodom, Rolento, Cody and Maki
• Street Fighter III series - Hugo
• Street Fighter IV series - Guy, Cody, Rolento, Hugo and Poison
• Street Fighter V series - Abigail, Cody, Poison and Lucia

Slam Masters

A series similar to Street Fighter but with a wrestling twist, Slam Masters focuses on the explosively popular professional wrestling scene within the Street Fighter world, and the inner federation wars between two of its greatest organizations: the Capcom Wrestling Association (CWA) and the Blood Wrestling Association (BWA).

The series has been connected to Final Fight since its first release, with Haggar being a playable character in all its entries, before he became the mayor of Metro City. References to Slam Masters in the Street Fighter games have been scarce, with its characters and the CWA being mentioned primarily in supplemental material.

Rival Schools

Set in the Tokyo area municipality of Aoharu City, Rival Schools is a fighting game series evocative of school setting martial arts shounen manga and anime. A city renowned for its youth education and schooling, Aoharu soon becomes the center of a great battle between high schools regarding mysterious kidnappings and assaults on its students, and the quest of its students in turn aiming to unravel a great mystery to bring the perpetrators responsible to justice.

Sakura was playable in the original Rival Schools game, and Akira would eventually join the cast of Street Fighter V, solidifying their connection.

Captain Commando

Captain Commando is set within a futuristic Metro City^[2] and follows the titular character and his three faithful Commando Companions as they rise up and defend the planet against a horde of Super Criminals led by a maniacal tyrannical alien known as Scumocide.

Asides from sharing the same setting as Final Fight, one of the playable characters, Ginzu the Ninja, is trained in Bushinryu Ninjutsu and will eventually become the 42nd Grandmaster of the discipline. The father of Ginzu, Gou, also makes an appearance in Street Fighter 6.

Strider

Set in a dystopian futuristic setting, Strider follows Hiryu, a high-tech ninja agent who has been tasked with the assassination of a mysterious dictator known as Grandmaster Meio.

The most notable connection between Strider and Street Fighter is the character of Zeku from the latter series. In Street Fighter V, Zeku is revealed to be the founder of the Striders, the same clandestine group of freelance mercenaries that employs Hiryu.^[3]

Crossover Multiverse

Street Fighter 6 introduces the concept of a multiverse that consists of crossover series universes that exist alongside the mainline Street Fighter universe. During World Tour mode, the character of Ingrid is shown to have the ability to move between the multiverse and references visiting her past crossover appearances which include Project X Zone 2 (Ingrid recollects encounters with "ninjas, gangsters, elite police officers, robots and Devil Hunters") and Capcom Fighting Evolution (Ingrid recalls clashing with Hauzer, a dinosaur with "small arms" and a "long tail" as well as visiting the Makai realm where she met Jedah, the "Prince of Darkness", Pyron a "firebrandish alien" and Felicia, a "cat woman with the plushest fur").

Series possibly set in the same shared universe

Darkstalkers

While the Street Fighter and the Darkstalkers comics from UDON are part of the same universe, this is yet to be completely confirmed for the games. Minor connections include:

• Multiple background cameos from Darkstalkers characters in the "San Francisco Bay" stage from Street Fighter Alpha 2 including Lord Raptor, Hsien-Ko, Mei-Ling, Morrigan and Felicia.
• A background cameo from Felicia (using her 2nd player color palette) within the "Onsen Resort, Japan" stage in Street Fighter III: New Generation.
• The backstory of Hsien-Ko having the spiked bracelet from a Chinese fighter and the claw from a Spanish fighter.
• The English version of Felicia's ending in Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors mentioning Blanka by name as someone who could be a leading man in her films.
• Ingrid's win quote over Blanka in Street Fighter 6 asks if he is from the demon realm.

Regardless, versions of Darkstalkers characters exist alongside versions of the Street Fighter cast in the alternate universe set up within Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Red Earth

In the Japanese only Street Fighter V Arcade Edition - A Visionary Book II, Street Fighter V's director Takayuki Nakayama states that the crystal ball Menat owns is called the "Left Eye of the Lion", which was created from a product of a god-beast believed to have once protected the phantom desert kingdom of Alanbird. Alanbird (Sangypt in the English version) is one of the nations in Red Earth. And the name of her crystal ball is a reference to the Egyptian deity Sekhmet, who carries a lioness appearance and the epithet "Eye of Ra". Red Earth features its own version of Sekhmet, the lion chimera-like living statue Secmeto (known as Ravange in English) whose name is just a misromanization of Sekhmet (both are written the exact same in Katakana), and official material for the game has referred to Secmeto specifically as a "god-beast", using the same kanji as in the commentary.^[4]

Despite the above connection, Nakayama has stated that he's not entirely sure if Red Earth actually takes place within the same universe as Street Fighter. He also noted that he thinks Red Earth takes place on a different planet then our "Blue Earth".^[5]

Regardless, versions of Red Earth characters exist alongside versions of the Street Fighter cast in the alternate universe set up within Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Mega Man (Original timeline)

Certain iterations essentially transplant Street Fighter characters and elements into Mega Man and vice-versa, albeit only with the Classic series, the X series and some of their adaptations. Such include:

• Dr. Thomas Light knows about the Hadoken and Shoryuken as seen in certain Mega Man X games, which he was able to pass on to X, and Maverick Hunter X shows him actually using the former for real via the Light Capsule.
  • In a similar vein, Magma Dragoon is able to use both of them alongside the Tenmakujinkyaku. However, it's likely that these (the first at minimum) are just replicas as Maverick Hunter X has Dr. Light state that X's soul is nearly human enough to master the Hadoken, and Reploids are merely derivative of his design, making it unknown if they possess the same closeness to humanity he has.
• Mega Man 9 has Chun-Li (or at least someone resembling her) as a news reporter reporting on the rampage of Light's robots, referencing the live-action movie.
• In the Street Fighter UDON comics, Dr. Albert Wily is shown to be working as one of Shadaloo's scientists, him resembling his usual self, but with hair color reminiscent of his younger self seen in the intro of Mega Man 11 under a blue light.
• Cannon Spike is set in 20XX, the same time frame most of the Classic series is set in, along with Mega Man himself being playable in the console version.

Characters adapted into the shared universe

Street Fighter spin-off characters

Multiple characters from non-canon Street Fighter related media have been adapted to exist within the mainline Street Fighter shared universe. Adapted characters include:

• Street Fighter II (manga) - Gouken and Dorai
• Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie - Cyborg and Dr. Senoh
• Super Street Fighter II: Cammy Gaiden - Hanna Ackerson
• Street Fighter: The Movie (film) - Kenzo Sawada
• Street Fighter: The Movie (arcade game) - Arkane, Blade, F7 and Khyber
• Street Fighter Alpha (manga) - Evil Ryu
• X-Men vs. Street Fighter - Mel Masters
• Street Fighter: Sakura Ganbaru! - Karin Kanzuki and Daigenjuro Kanzuki
• Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter - Yuriko Hibiki and Mech Zangief
• Street Fighter III: Ryu Final - Chit, her brother and the Head Monk
• Cannon Spike - Simone and Shiba
• Capcom Fighting All-Stars - Ingrid, Avel, D.D. and Rook
• Final Fight: Streetwise - Kyle Travers
• Chun-Li ni makase China - Reiko, Mary and the Apprentice Dolls

Additionaly, Sheng Long and Keiko Asano are characters that originated as urban legends that Capcom would later go on to adapt into actual characters.

Dark Ingrid, who appears as a boss in Street Fighter 6'sAvatar Arcade Mode, originated as an unused character concept for Capcom Fighting Evolution.

Interestingly, Bokori Man, an in-universe fictional television superhero who makes his first physical appearance in one of Blanka's arcade endings in Street Fighter V, originates as a reference in Street Fighter × Tekken where Sakura and Blanka mistake Lars for the character in addition to also serving as a swap costume for Ken.

Capcom characters

Characters from other Capcom video games have gone on to serve as heavy inspiration to certain Street Fighter characters though Capcom still considers them distinctly separate entities. This includes Momotaru, Beard and Bows who are inspired by characters from Pirate Ship Higemaru and Ruby who is inspired by Ruby Heart from Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Notably, series such as Mega Man exist within the Street Fighter shared universe as fictional media and vice versa. In Mega Man, Dr. Light is a fan of the Street Fighter games and eventually learned to use Hadoken and Shoryuken. In Street Fighter, Mega Man is one of the games from the CPSP. Other contents like Alternate Costumes could have been based on those games. Dr. Wily, alongside Arthur and Princess, were mentioned in the Slam Masters sports newspaper from Club Capcom that led to Antler's creation.

Arika characters

Although the Street Fighter EX series is set in a separate timeline from the mainline games, and its characters are owned by Arika rather than Capcom, they have equivalents that are confirmed to exist within the main series' canon by the Shadaloo C.R.I., which establishes their connection to existing characters. Examples include Allen losing to Ken in the Pan-American Fighting Championship, and Doctrine Dark's unit being ambushed by Rolento. Most notably, Darun is indirectly mentioned in the Story Mode of Street Fighter V as Zangief's friend from India.

SNK characters

The appearance of Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui in Street Fighter 6, their interactions and the opening of a Pao Pao Café branch in Metro City confirms that the characters from the SNK universe, specifically The King of Fighters worldview have an equivalent that exist within the Street Fighter universe. But their existence doesn't affect the story of the series.

References