10 Most Popular Street Fighter Characters
8. Sagat
First Appearance: Street Fighter
Thailand’s Muay Thai master, Sagat, appeared as the final boss of the original 1987 Street Fighter. He reappeared in 1991’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior as the penultimate boss before finally making his playable debut in 1992’s Street Fighter II: Champion Edition.
Sagat has an iconic design, sporting an eye patch and a large chest scar. The eye patch covers his damaged right eye. His eye was injured as a child while fighting on the streets and was made worse during a fight with Go Hibiki, father of Dan Hibiki. Sagat killed Go during this battle with his ‘Tiger Shot’ technique.
The scar was given to him by Ryu during their fight at the first World Fighting Championship. Ryu tapped into the ‘Satsui no Hado’ and struck him with a powerful ‘Shoryuken’. This event led Sagat to develop one of his signature techniques: the ‘Tiger Uppercut’. Many of his moves use this ‘Tiger’ theming, and Sagat actually owns a pet tiger named ‘Willa Maiu’.
While Sagat is sometimes criticised for having very similar gameplay to ‘Shoto’ characters like Ryu and Ken, he is still very popular among the fans. Prior to his release as part of the third season of DLC for Street Fighter V, he was one of the most request characters to make a return.