9 Best Heated Character Rivalries In Gaming History

5. Ryu Vs. Ken

Sometimes the most fun rivalries are ones where fighters can shake hands at the end.

Where other combatants on this list have done everything from tossing each other into volcanoes to obliterating one another with magic spells, Ken and Ryu's history comes from being the only two playable characters in the original Street Fighter. From there, they became the poster boys for Street Fighter II with similar movesets, and in lore, as training buddies.

Starting as students of Shotokan karate under Ryu's father Gouken, the Alpha series revealed Ryu's headband actually comes from Ken's longer hair, as it was given when Ken defeated Ryu in Alpha 2.

While the pair have gone back and forward over the years, it's largely accepted that they share a healthy - but still heated - rivalry, both suppressing their respective "evil" doppelgängers to emerge victorious each time.