It has happened to all of us. Who has not launched a joke -like that, on the fly- and it has hit him back like a boomerang? What is not so frequent is that the same joke returns, appears in your favorite video game 16 years later, almost out of the blue, and punches you in the face until you are knocked out. In the game, of course. Those who know the very peculiar background of the Street Fighter saga surely they are already smiling.
If we organize all the curiosities and side notes of Capcom’s acclaimed fighting saga, the new coming from Ryu and Ken’s teacher It is among the most unusual. It is not that it was something impossible, it would be missing, but because to talk about his origins -or the closest thing to them- it is necessary to go back to a trick that never worked on a character that never existed but was on the lips of all the fans . Because, to be really fair, the cause of the mistake was caused by the Osaka company🇧🇷 For a change.
In iGamesNews We are going to tell you the story behind the what (with permission from Q) may have been the most mysterious fighter of Street Fighterand how he ended up being a central piece in the twisted and intentionally ambiguous plot puzzle of the saga: the master Gouken. Or as half the planet called it decades: Sheng Long.
Who is Shen Long and why do you have to beat him?
You could like more to play with Blanka, Honda or Chun Libut Ryu y Ken they were deservedly considered the foundation from which all fighting game characters were born. His balanced style ended up setting a chair and, in the first version, it also allowed you to play on a relatively equal footing when facing them. The reason was that they shared the same combat style and Capcom took care to explain that both shared a teacher in their youth. However, only if you won with Ryu would a name appear that didn’t fit anywhere in the game except in that respect.
“You Must Defeat Sheng Long To Stand A Chance“, which in Spanish would mean “You must defeat Sheng Long to have a chance [de vencer]”.
The first thing one thinks of when reading that sentence is that there is a certain Sheng Long in the game itself
So when translating Ryu’s (and Ken’s) battle cry when executing his smashing dragon fist, the Chinese equivalent of “shēng lóng” was used in the in-game victory texts.
Namely: Japanese was never referring to any person, and much less to his teacher, but rather gave advice to his defeated rival. It is quite another matter for the term to end up transcending the game and end up being one of the most recognizable phrases in the game. along with that of ¡Here Comes a New Challenger!. It was a matter of time someone get sliced out of the matter.
And suddenly, Shen Long appears. Well more or less
What began as an unfortunate translation in Street Fighter II -by Capcom USA- ended up becoming a rumor among fans deservedly obsessed with Ryu, Chun Li and company. That took on new nuances as it was a worldwide phenomenon and it was a matter of time before someone put down on paper what we all thought: who is that enigmatic Shen Long? Is he a secret fighter?
The Osaka company left clues. Threads to pull through the sleeves, the endings of the video games (especially the series Street Fighter Alpha) and the occasional intentionally ambiguous mention in the instruction manuals that derive from a more than reasonable question: if Ryu and Ken are disciples of the same teacher, there must be a master out there in the game. No? Someone had to know and from Capcom they did not release pledge.
The urban legend surrounding Shen Long gained new momentum as the fighting game phenomenon boomed. At that time, the internet that we all know did not exist and the tricks and secrets of video games sprang from printed paper. However the from the April issue of EGM magazine it was quite unique: not only did they echo Shen Ling’s existence but they displayed it in pictures.
As a character, and according to the text, he was a brown beast capable of throwing projectiles faster than Sagat’s and more deadly roundhouse kicks than Chun-Li’s. But things did not end there. On the same page it was offered the trick to finally be able to face the legendary Sheng Longand it was a really wicked challenge:
- First you had to choose Ryu and get to Mr. Bison (the Final Boss of the game) without receiving a single hit.
- Once in the final fight, last ten rounds (ten!) without giving or receiving a single hit.
Once these two requirements are met, the mysterious Sheng Long entered the scene who sent M. Bison himself through the air and offered us the ultimate challenge. Or, at least, that would have happened… If it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day prank. However, it must be admitted that the architects of the prank left a lot of clues scattered throughout the text, letting it fall that that led to nothing.
The other reality is that that false trick ended up spreading like wildfire. Enough so that Capcom gave him the replica not long after: in 1994 he arrived Super Street Fighter II Turbo, and if our fighter achieved a series of perfect victories and a good score, Akuma (Gouki) entered the scene, destroyed M. Bison and offered us the ultimate challenge. That was quite a surprise, of course. But it was still not Sheng Long.
To be fair, in 1997, with the release of Street Fighter III, EGM magazine repeated the play again, ensuring that in this new installment it was possible to face Sheng Long and again showing fake images. But, of course, it was the April number and by then the joke had stopped. What none of them saw coming is that Capcom took note and would take advantage of it to tell their own version. from the tale of Peter and the Wolf.
“Shen Long” does exist, although it is not how they had painted it to us
Street Fighter it has always had its own background, although giving it a concrete form was not a priority for Capcom. What’s more, beyond the motivations of each fighter, letting the players themselves connect the dots or imagine the stories of each character ended up playing in favor of the game and its popularity, and allowed original stories to be created that did not clash with each other. Mangas, licensed comics, animation productions and even Hollywood movies.
In this regard, the first time we saw Ryu and Ken’s teacher was in the manga. Street Fighter II – Ryu by Masaomi Kanzaki. We were shown a huge and imposing guy, with a beard and long hair that did not hide a forehead that reached almost to the nape of his neck.
A design that we later saw in other productions such as the UDON comics or the television series. In all fairness, we could also hear him speak in Street Fighter II: The Movie, although in that animated wonder he was never shown more than a silhouette. Did it make sense to break the mystery?
That character was the closest thing to Sheng Long that fans knew, and the best thing is that it didn’t take long for him to appear very subtly in the video games, redesigned as part of the context of characters like Akuma and Ryu. However, for all intents and purposes Gouken’s name was little more than a footnote within the saga. Until the year 2008 arrived.
After a series of subtle advances by Capcom on their social networks, which were deservedly taken as innocent, the fighter originally known as Sheng Long came true: the master gouken
And its styling and design, by the way, weren’t too dissimilar to the faked images in EGM magazine 16 years earlier.
As said, Gouken threw energy projectiles very fast and with the palm of one hand, He had a spectacular spinning kick technique and was capable of executing Shoryu Ken capable of knocking down the most careless. The best? One of his win quotes in English was “You must defeat me to stand a chance“. It can be said that the circle was complete.
Gouken in the Street Fighter universe and his legacy in the future of the saga
Gouken’s arrival put on the table one of the lost pieces of a plot puzzle for fans of the saga Street Fighter. Technically, both Ryu and Ken thought that he had been murdered and until his return in the fourth numbered installment, the matter was not given much more attention. And now that?
Needless to say, Gouken’s mere presence was enriching for the fighting saga in many ways. From the outset, the comics gained depth and in the games the very path of Ryu’s warrior a direction. In fact, in Street Fighter V you can see how both continue their training together, although in this installment the fighter “formerly known” as Shen Long will not be a playable character.
Where Gouken did have a much bigger role was in the feature film Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, being one of the protagonists of the film that explored the complex relationship between Gouken, his teacher, his students and his greatest rival, his own brother Akuma (Gouki). Not to mention the appearance of him in the novelization of Street Fighter written by Takashi Yano and illustrated by Yusuke Murata (yes, the one from One Punch Man!) in which we are given a rich context of the relationship between master, apprentice and the philosophy of the fighter.
Then, ¿ Sheng Long es Gouken? As it is? Well, technically he does exist as a standalone character. About. If we go to Capcom’s Street Fighter character registry (via the Shadaloo archives website) we will see that really there is a fighter in the game universe named Sheng Long with the features offered by the original magazine. It is actually a tribute to the innocent, of course. But between one thing and another, and for practical purposes, the Osaka company assimilates that peculiar translation and assumes in games that are the same character.
And not only that, since Gouken’s arrival on the scene has had a very special impact both when it comes to setting up the context of the Street Fighter saga retroactively and when it comes to making Ryu evolve, unquestionably. the cast of all fighting game characters.
What’s more, in Street Fighter 6 we will not only see that he wears similar clothes to his teacher, but also channels his energy and releases some overwhelming Shin Shoryu Kens imitating his technique, which is, at least curious if we look at it with perspective.
It’s amazing how a translation error has ended up being a playable character. But it is no less meritorious that what ended up being the trigger for his creation was something as simple as an April’s Fools from a magazine. as they saySometimes reality surpasses fiction.
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