Correct Order to Play Street Fighter Games Story | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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Capcom's enormously popular Street Fighter franchise is continuing to grow and chart new directions, as Street Fighter V has unveiled its final DLC character, Luke. More intriguingly, Capcom has described Luke as someone representing the future of the fighting game series, hinting at where a long-rumored Street Fighter VI could go next. And as Street Fighter's future looms, from new main series titles to crossovers with Fortnite, the core canon's timeline remains as chronologically confused as ever.

For players who want to dive into Street Fighter's story, it's not as simple as going from 1 to 5. In fact, the series is notoriously jumbled, with no game really taking place directly after predecessor. Here is the correct chronological order of the canonical Street Fighter video games' overarching narrative, with the iconic world warriors taking on criminal masterminds and would-be demigods as protagonists Ryu and Ken continue their friendly martial arts rivalry.

Street Fighter & Street Fighter Alpha

The original 1987 Street Fighter was a revolutionary game in its own right, featuring a six-button layout that increased gameplay variance, even with only Ryu and Ken available as playable characters. The story behind this inaugural title is relatively light, with Ryu and Ken simply out to prove themselves as the best martial artist in the world, culminating in a showdown between Ryu and the Muay Thai champion Sagat. Canonically, Ryu defeats the Thai warrior with a dragon punch, leaving a prominent chest scar.

Though released after all five of the initial versions of Street Fighter II, 1995's Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, takes place in between the original game and Street Fighter II as an interquel. As Sagat seeks revenge for Ryu scarring him in the previous game, Guile's best friend Charlie Nash is introduced investigating the terrorist M. Bison and his crime syndicate Shadaloo. Similarly, the origins of Chun-Li's law enforcement career and grudge against Bison are revealed while characters from Capcom's Final Fight franchise are woven into Street Fighter's narrative. Alpha's two sequels would continue to develop the backstory as it brought in even more characters from Street Fighter II.

Street Fighter II

The first version of Street Fighter II, subtitled The World Warrior, was released in 1991, with only Ryu, Ken and Sagat returning from the original Street Fighter. There would be five versions of Street Fighter II released during its initial life cycle, concluding with 1994's Super Street Fighter II Turbo. All five versions centered on a world martial arts tournament overseen by Bison as he quietly sought a new body to transfer his consciousness into.

The story mode revealed that many of the various fighters had their own personal motivations to topple Bison and dismantle Shadaloo, which were later explored further across the Alpha trilogy. While new characters, including the fearsome Akuma, were introduced in later versions, the core narrative still takes place during Street Fighter II's main tournament.

Street Fighter IV & V

Though Street Fighter IV was released in 2008, eleven years after the first version of Street Fighter III, both it and 2016's Street Fighter V's respective stories took place before the events of Street Fighter III. Street Fighter IV introduced a new crime syndicate known as S.I.N., headed by the synthetic villain Seth, setting out to conquer the world against the backdrop of another world tournament.

Street Fighter V takes place several years after IV, evidenced by Ken's son now a young boy while his wife Eliza -- whom he married during his character ending in Street Fighter II -- is pregnant throughout the events of Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter V featured Bison's last attempt to lead Shadaloo to conquer the world while the demigod Gill quietly rose to power in the background, setting the stage for Street Fighter III.

Street Fighter III

1997's Street Fighter III, with the first installment subtitled The New Generation, truly represented a fresh rebirth for the franchise, with only Ryu and Ken returning from previous games for the initial title. With Bison and Shadaloo destroyed for good, the world warriors now contended with Gill and his cult of zealots attempting to reshape the world in his image.

The New Generation would receive two subsequent versions in 1997's 2nd Impact and 1999's 3rd Strike, each expanding the roster and story. 2nd Impact included a post-credits scene of Gill recovering from his apparent defeat to continue his agenda while 3rd Strike featured all-new character endings as Gill and his cult were seemingly defeated once and for all.

Street Fighter EX

As development on Street Fighter III ran into delays, Capcom licensed a trilogy of games to third-party developer Arika, with Capcom as co-producer and co-publisher. Starting in 1996, the resulting Street Fighter EX trilogy was the franchise's first foray into 3D animation, blending familiar characters with new roster additions.

Generally considered non-canonical to the main story, the EX trilogy takes place in an alternate timeline set after the events of the original Street Fighter, largely ignoring the events of the Alpha trilogy as Ryu contends with his inner darkness that was awoken during his fight against Sagat. M. Bison and Shadaloo resurface in this alternate continuity but under the auspices of the titular EX Tournament, with familiar and new faces competing as Ryu and his associates dismantle the villain's plans.

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