Franchise: Street Fighter

Captain Commando is commonly believed to be set in the future of the Street Fighter universe due to its numerous references to another series set in the same universe, Final Fight. Specific examples of this include Captain Commando taking place in Metro City (a recurring location from both Final Fight and Street Fighter) and Ginzu being trained in the fictional Bushinryu Ninjutsu style of fighting used by Guy. The latter connection would be elaborated on by Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama, who revealed that Ginzu's father Gou (a character who had previously only appeared in concept art) would eventually succeed Guy as the 40th Bushinryu Grandmaster, with Ginzu eventually becoming the 41st Grandmaster.

Gou would later make his official debut in Street Fighter 6's World Tour mode during Kimberly's second memory dialogue, where she mentions how she was easily beaten by him. His appearance here depicts him wearing a purple version of Guy's Bushinryu outfit (similar to Ginzu's uniform) and holding a katana similar to Ginzu's signature weapon Lightning Light. Another reference in World Tour mode comes in the form of Carol, one of the minor enemies from Captain Commando appearing as an opponent during the "Fighty Mighty" mission quest. Her appearance is loosely based on her in-game sprite, wearing a blue tank top and pants as well as having pink hair (though here it's depicted as being straight rather than a ponytail), and her dialogue upon being beaten alludes to her role as a criminal in the original game: "Reminds me of old times, back when I was involved in some...slightly unscrupulous business."

However, there is one detail that brings this theory into question. In the Character Reference section of the Street Fighter V Shadaloo Combat Research Institute website, the profile for Yuta Homura mentions that he can clear Captain Commando using Mack the Knife (under his Japanese name Jenetty, "ジェネティー") with a single credit. The game is not mentioned by name though, and is instead referred to as an unspecified "beat'em up action game".

In the 1993 movie "City Hunter", there's a scene where Kim, who is Colonel MacDonald's main henchman, throws Ryo Saeba into a Street Fighter World Warrior arcade machine, where he suffers an electric shock and hallucinates Kim into Ken from the game. Ryo turns into E.Honda (renamed as E.Honde due to Jackie Chan's contract with Mitsubishi preventing any legal issues with the Honda brand) and Chun-Li, while his friends turn into both Guile and Dhalsim, who successfully defeat Kim/Ken. The music and sound effects are used exactly from the SNES version of World Warrior, and the artwork on the walls were drawn by Shoei Okano.

When Rashid was unveiled as a playable character in Street Fighter V, his specific nationality was unknown, with players only knowing that he was Middle Eastern. However, in 2022 when the entire playable base game roster and first wave of DLC of Street Fighter 6 was leaked, it revealed a more specific country he was from, with Rashid confirmed as being Saudi Arabian.

At one point around November 2004, Capcom Japan sold the rights of the Street Fighter IP to its American subsidiary Capcom USA. The rights were reacquired by Capcom Japan in April 2021.

According to Capcom Japan translator Tom Shirawa, the reason why Nash's name was changed to Charlie for the international release is because the people at Capcom U.S.A did not like it. Nash wasn't an English name and he's supposed to be a U.S. soldier, so they felt that players could not connect with the character and suggested the name Charlie instead.

Capcom eventually decided to merge the two names into 'Charlie Nash' for Street Fighter IV.

According to Capcom USA's Product Manager Scott Smith, the reason why Gouki's name was changed to Akuma for the international release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo is because Capcom USA felt there were too many characters whose name had the letter G. Scott Smith, who was tasked with coming up with a new name, chose the name 'Akuma' based on a news story from Japan where people were trying to name their child after the devil but the government wouldn't let them. Mr. Smith looked up devil in Japanese and found the name Akuma.

According to Street Fighter V director Takayuki Nakayama, Ed's name was the result of a mix up from the development staff at the time.


The ending in question is Balrog's ending in Street Fighter IV.

The Four Heavenly Kings of Shadaloo are named after the Buddhist gods of the same name who rule over each cardinal direction: north, south, east, and west.

In a 2019 "ESPN Esports" video/interview between ESPN commentator Arda Ocal & professional boxer Mike Tyson, Ocal asked him about Balrog (who made his first appearance in Street Fighter II under the name M. Bison, but had his name changed to Balrog in the English localization due to the close similarities to "M. Tyson") and if he knew about the game and his influence on Balrog's character design. Tyson responded that he knew nothing about either Street Fighter or Balrog, but that he was honored by Capcom's impersonation of him upon seeing it for the first time.

The game's developers wanted Makoto's moves to be based on 'Ikken Hissatsu': simple, direct, and powerful. They wanted her karate moves to have a more Japanese style, rather than Ryu & Ken's American style of Karate.

On Vega's stage for Street Fighter II, the logo Mesón de la Taberna (Tavern's Inn) appears in the background of the stage. In the remastered version of the stage for Street Fighter V, however, the tavern's name was changed to Mesón de las flores" (Flowers' Inn).

In a interview with 1up, lead director of the original Street Fighter Takashi Nishiyama confirmed that the concept behind the Hadoken technique comes from 1970s anime Space Battleship Yamato, in which the titular battleship has a weapon called the "Hadōhō" (波動砲, "Wave Motion Gun/Surge Cannon"). He also confimed that Ryu's name comes from the first Kanji used for Takashi's name (隆), which can also be read a "Ryu".

Contrary to popular belief, Urien's name is not a mistranslation of the name 'Julien', but rather it's a very obscure Welsh name taken from legends and Arthurian romances. The name means "privileged birth", which correlates directly with his parents being high-ranking members of the Illuminati, as well as his entitled attitude and wish to rule with utter supremacy.

According to the "Street Fighter 2 Complete Guide" book, Guile's all-American image was specifically intended to appeal to American fans. Guile was also designed to be akin to an American version of Ryu & Ken, so a third special similar to the Tatsumaki was considered early in development, but the idea was scrapped.

After the release of Street Fighter 3, Capcom had the idea of introducing Akuma's new super moves for future games in his endings:

• Akuma uses "Kongou Kokuretsuzan" in his Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact ending, becoming one of his Super Arts in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

• The technique "Tenshou Kaireki Jin" was first seen in Akuma's ending in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. It was used to destroy the remains of a sunken liner ship that sat on the ocean floor. It would later became Akuma's second Ultra Combo in Super Street Fighter IV.

• Akuma was first seen using the "Sekia Kuretsuha" move in his Super Street Fighter IV ending. There, he destroyed a forest with it. That same technique became Akuma's first Critical Art in Street Fighter V.

Because of the success of the Street Fighter II animated movie, Capcom included several details from the film in the storyline of the series and other future games.

• The grass field in Australia where Ryu fights Sagat at the beginning of the movie is the stage for Sagat's final battle against Ryu in the Arcade mode of Street Fighter Alpha 2, complete with lightning in the background.
• While the Monitor Cyborgs have yet to be seen in the main games, their biographies are included in the Japanese Street Fighter V website along with their character artwork.
• Senoh, Bison's mad scientist servant, makes a cameo appearance in Bison's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
• In his battle intros, Zangief appears wearing the red cape he wears when he is first seen in the movie.
• Ken's longer hair, seen in flashbacks in the movie, is the same style in which it appears in the games.
• The idea of Ken giving Ryu a noogie during their special intro also comes from the movie.
• Ryu's red headband is a gift from Ken, shown in Ken's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
• The VTOL jet that Bison used in the movie is seen in many endings in the Alpha series. It is also seen in Bison's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
• In X-Men vs. Street Fighter and later games, Cammy will remove a red cloak at the beginning of each match similar to the one in the movie.

In character profiles in the Street Fighter series, blood types are listed along with statistics such as height and weight.

Ketsueki-gata, or ABO blood types, are supposedly predictive of personality traits, temperament, and compatibility with others, made popular in the 1970s by author Masahiro Nomi.

On Balrog's stage in Street Fighter II, the nickname of the game's lead designer, Akira Nishitani (Nin Nin), can be seen; it appears as a casino in the stage's background called "Golden Nugget: Nin Nin Hall". In Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, however, the casino's name was changed to "The Crazy Buffalo".

The original name later reappeared in the remastered version of the stage for Street Fighter V, but was altered to "Golden Bullion: Shadaloo Hall"; the word "Nugget" was likely changed to "Bullion" as not to step on the toes of a real life casino of the same name, and Akira's nickname was likely changed because he had long since left Capcom to form Arika.

Akira Nishitani, lead designer of Street Fighter II, stated in a interview with Polygon that the concept of Dhalsim's ability to stretch his limbs comes from the the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, particulary, the Ripple Zoom Punch technique.

Producer Noritaka Funamizu confirmed in a 1998 Famitsu interview that Guile's overall appearance was modeled after Jean Pierre Polnareff, a character from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Guile's page in Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks goes into detail, explaining that they started with Polnareff as an inspiration, then stretched his hair out to give him "the always distinctive Stroheim look" instead. Noritaka also explained that Guile's name was derived from Polnareff's archenemy, J.Geil, though this was a mix up from the development staff at the time.

Additionally, during the early development stages of Street Fighter II, Guile's Sonic Boom attack was originally known as "Divine Sandstorm", in reference to the character Wamuu.