10 Most Popular Street Fighter Characters
3. Ken Masters
First Appearance: Street Fighter
Childhood friend and rival of series protagonist Ryu, Ken Masters is the only character other than Ryu to appear in every iteration of the Street Fighter franchise. Originally starting out as a non-canon clone of Ryu used by player two in the original 1987 game, Ken has since been fleshed out in all future appearances.
His story is similar to Ryu’s, with him starting out being trained in the art of ‘Ansatsuken’ by Gouken. However, it diverges here as Ken surrenders his dream of becoming the greatest fighter to become a family man. He meets a young woman named Eliza and the pair eventually get married, having a son named Mel.
His gameplay is very similar to that of Ryu, originally being identical. With each subsequent game, however, Ken got more unique attacks to set himself apart from his rival. Most of his unique attacks utilise flames, for example his variations of the ‘Shoryuken’ and the ‘Tatsumaki Senpukyaku’.
Ken is heavily associated with being the player two character compared to Ryu as player one. Despite this, fans of Ken are incredibly dedicated. Ken has also seen more competitive success than Ryu throughout the franchise, being the character used in the famous ‘Evo Moment #37’ in which Daigo Umehara was able to perfectly parry Chun-Li’s 15 hit Super Art, the ‘Hoyokusen’.