Ryu ((隆, Ryū) is one of the most important recurring characters of the Street Fighter franchise, appearing in every installment and usually taking a lead role, as well as appearing in countless spinoffs and crossovers. He debuted in the original Street Fighter game in 1987, as the sole playable character for player 1. Ryu is also considered the mascot of Capcom alongside Mega Man.
Ryu is a traveling martial artist, whose only focus in life is to have a good fight and to improve his own skills. His best friend and rival is Ken Masters, who trained with him under Gouken.
TMNT vs. Street Fighter[]
Ryu features as one of the four opponents of the Ninja Turtles in a fighting tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey, alongside Ken, Guile, and Chun-Li. Like Street Fighter II's story, he and Ken are a constant presence and feature in some key moments, but take a backseat to Guile and Chun-Li in terms of agency. Initially, he is just an observer of the fights between Raphael and Guile and Michelangelo and Chun-Li. After those matches, he and Ken accompany Guile and Chun-Li on a walk in the city just as Raph attacks Guile, demanding a rematch TMNT vs. SF #1 Before the fight can proceed too far, though, a drone controlled by Baxter Stockman electrocutes and knocks out all nine fighters present. After waking up and returning to their locker room, Ryu and the rest of the crew assume that the Turtles had something to do with it.
Ryu and Leonardo are scheduled to fight in the tournament next. The two are essentially evenly matched, until Ryu uncharacteristically threatens "revenge" on Raphael for jumping Guile earlier. This gives Leo the drive he needs to end the fight immediately. Then, during Ken and Donatello's match, Mikey tries to talk to Chun-Li to help her and the others get to the source of the missing fighters in the area (and attempt to score a date with her), but Guile and Raph begin arguing some more, both convinced the other is behind the disappearances and just overall flaring their tempers at each other. Jennika tries to direct a controlled attack by throwing Ryu, but she knocks him into Don and then the two sides start an all-out brawl that flows into the nearby casino. M. Bison uses this as an opportunity to kidnap Raph for his and Stockman's experimentation, and sends in his Bison Troopers. The two warring sides agree to put aside their differences long enough to fight off the Troopers, but they abscond with Raphael and Chun-Li. TMNT vs. SF #2
The remaining Turtles and "Street Fighters" head to the casino's security room to go over the closed-circuit footage. Guile spots a lone Bison Trooper, who had just come to after being knocked out during the earlier fight, and he and Michelangelo decide to give him chase. Meanwhile, Leo, Don, Ryu, Ken, Jenny, and the security foreman descend into the delivery tunnels underneath Atlantic City. Ryu spots the shipments for Halo Soda and works out that it's an anagram for Shadaloo, Bison's global criminal empire. As they head toward the bottling plant, Ryu notices that Leo seems troubled, and the latter says he's just worried about Raph, how the entire trip was his idea to mix it up with the world's best fighters to prove he's still worthy of a scrap, and now he'd been captured. The three Turtles, Ken, and Ryu continue down the tunnels, fighting off Bison Troopers along the way. TMNT vs. SF #3
The group clears out the tunnels of Bison Troopers, while Chun-Li escaped and ran into Guile and Mikey. All of them regroup at the bottling plant and head inside to finding several piles of Bison Troopers at the feet of Shredder. Ryu, Leo, and Jenny all attack Shredder and are beaten, before getting a second wind and getting beaten down again. TMNT vs. SF #4
Shredder prepares to kill Ryu first, wanting him, a stranger, out of the way so he can savor killing the Turtles. Ken interrupts him and Shredder just flings Ryu at the incoming group. Mikey attempts to plead with Shredder to help them stop Bison's attempt to level Manhattan. Shredder hits him away and then after Chun-Li kicks his chin, throws her off and stomps off to fight Bison for his own ends. Ryu, Ken, Guile, Mikey, Leo, and Jennika swarm both Bison and Shredder, not wanting to let either of them to get an upper hand on the other. A psycho powered Raphael suddenly attacks them both and throws them into the bay, saving the day.
Notes and trivia[]
- Written on Ryu's belt is "風林火山" (fūrinkazan). This phrase was written on the Turtles' nobori in the 2012 TV series episode Vision Quest.
- Ryu also appears in Fortnite, in which the Turtles would also later appear as well.