2021 marks the 30th anniversary of one of gaming's seminal titles, Street Fighter II. As it officially reaches that milestone next month, it's hard to think of a fighting game whose influence is not only pervasive within its own genre, but is also universally recognized. One would be hard-pressed to find even a casual gamer who couldn't name most, or all, of the original eight characters. Every fighting game's respective set of special moves owes some measure of tribute to the Hadouken and the Shoryuken.
Naturally, with gameplay and characters as universally recognizable as those, Street Fighter has been ripe for references across wider culture during the past three decades. From Nicki Minaj to numerous movies and shows to the NBA's Utah Jazz, it feels like everyone has tipped their cap in some form or another.
As gamers appreciate the legacy Capcom's franchise has spun the past 30 years, it's an appropriate time to enjoy the cleverest instances where other forms of media saluted Ryu, Chun-Li, and company. Whether in other video games, animated movies, cartoons, or even a Jackie Chan fight sequence, these are the funniest love letters to Street Fighter ever done.
#4 Street Fighter Reference - Ribby & Croaks from Cuphead
Cuphead is a game that wears its retro cartoon and retro fighting gaming influences on its sleeve in equal proportion, so it's not surprising one of the bosses is basically just a marathon of Street Fighter Easter eggs. Early on, the titular Cuphead squares off with the brawling frogs Ribby and Croaks in "Clip t Calamity." The two boxing frogs are dressed up exactly like Ryu and Ken, which is ample enough tribute. But the entire fight finds sneaky ways to salute other characters, including Dhalsim's yoga fire and E. Honda's 100-hand slap.
#3 Street Fighter Reference - Rigby Imitates Blanka In Regular Show
From 2010 to 2017, Regular Show defined a new high-water era for Cartoon Network. The slacker counterpart to its oft-serious kindred spirit Adventure Time, most episodes were freewheeling, lighthearted adventures prompted by Mordecai and Rigby's laziness. As the two love to play video games, many of those escapades are either based around fictional in-universe games, or incorporate references to real-life ones. In the 2014 episode "Bad Portrait," Street Fighter gets a couple of quick, but loving, shoutouts. Mordecai replicates the Hadouken and Shoryuken, while Rigby shakes paint off himself in a manner similar to Blanka's shock attack.
#2 Street Fighter Reference - Jackie Chan as Chun Li in City Hunter
Jackie Chan's movies are known just as much for zany humor as they are for (literally) bone-breaking martial arts stunts. In 1993, just two years after Street Fighter II first took the world by storm, he naturally used a age in City Hunter to fuse his prowess with the game's imagery. Chan could have gone the obvious route and dolled himself up as Ken or Ryu, but thankfully went for a good laugh by faithfully dres as Chun-Li, hair buns and all.
#1 Street Fighter Reference - Zangief & M. Bison In Wreck-It Ralph
It's only fitting that the best Street Fighter tribute comes in a movie that's the ultimate love letter to the glory days of arcades. In the world of Disney's 2012 hit Wreck-It Ralph, when the arcade cabinets power down, the characters that toil for players all day can finally unwind and congregate in their own world. The title character (voiced by John C. Reilly) spends a lot of time discussing his struggles as a villain at Bad-Anon meetings, where he gets reassurance from fellow conflicted baddies Zangief and M. Bison.