Ryu (SSBU)

Ryu (, Ryū) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He is the second fighter from Capcom after. He was officially confirmed alongside and the rest of the returning roster on June 12th, 2018 during E3 2018. Ryu is classified as Fighter #60.

Ryu is once again voiced by in English and  in Japanese, with their portrayals from Super Smash Bros. 4 being repurposed for the English and Japanese releases of Ultimate, respectively. In the Chinese and Korean versions, Ryu uses his English voice clips.

Ryu is ranked 36th out of 82 on the current tier list, placing him in the A- tier and two places below his Echo Fighter,. This is a noticeable drop from his 11th/12th out of 54 placement in SSB4 where he was tied with. Ryu has a strong combo game due to his auto turn around mechanic and ability to special cancel out of several of his moves. His multitude of combos gives him a strong advantage state and high damage output. His Hadouken (the Shakunetsu, in particular) is well-known for playing his neutral and suits his defensive playstyle. The rest of his specials all serve use as they are single hit moves that are good for KOs and combo finishers.

Despite these strengths, Ryu has some weaknesses. His mobility is subpar so his approach options are limited and it forces him to play more defensively. His recovery is also exploitable and linear with Tatsumaki Senpukyaku and Shoryuken traveling predictable distances for the opponent to edgeguard. Despite having a combo breaker in the form of Focus Attack, it can be broken through multi-hit moves making his disadvantage state below average. Ryu is also a difficult character to master due to his different playstyle with the special cancel and auto turnaround mechanic.

Ryu has seen some representation and strong results from players, such as and, doing well with him at majors and supermajors.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: With the exception of the third method, Ryu must then be defeated on. In World of Light, he is fought on the Ω form of Suzaku Castle.
 * Play VS. matches, with Ryu being the 13th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the 3rd character unlocked after.
 * Have Ryu join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
As the "all-rounder" of his home series, Ryu's overall attributes are mostly average. As a heavyweight with average mobility, Ryu has decent frame data and damage output, as well as a dependable ground game due to his decent traction and average dashing speed. However, his other attributes are polarized in an attempt to replicate the physics of Street Fighter. Ryu's walking speed is extremely slow, and while his air speed is slightly above-average, this is counteracted by his moderately high falling speed and extremely short jumps. Additionally, he has the 2nd-slowest air acceleration and his air friction is uniquely locked at 0 while jumping or double jumping, causing his jumps to follow a fixed "arc" unless the player steers them manually. Finally, Ryu's fast fall increases his falling speed by 40% instead of the usual 60%. Overall, this grants Ryu effective burst movement through dashing and jumping, but forces him to commit when approaching through the air and makes it difficult to land or move short distances.

Despite his average attributes, Ryu is one of the most unique fighters in Ultimate, as he has access to many variations of both his standard and special attacks. His jab and tilts can either be held or tapped; tapped attacks are faster and usually combo well into themselves, while held attacks have greater KO potential and can serve as combo finishers. This also applies to his special moves (other than Focus Attack), which gain different effects like increased power or altered hitboxes when the button is held; they also see an increase in power when used with the original Street Fighter inputs. This effectively gives Ryu two movesets, one for starting combos and racking up damage, and the other for scoring KOs. This versatility gives him access to potent true combos and mix-ups, leading to a strong punish game overall. His Collarbone Breaker (held forward tilt) deals immense shield damage, further complementing his ability to pressure and deplete shields.

Ryu's grounded moveset boasts considerable utility. His tapped jab and down tilt both hit on frame 3, making the former useful for relieving pressure, and the latter excellent for extending combos due to its launch trajectory being useful for followups, such as grabs. Tapped up tilt's low knockback, high speed and active frames make it effective for combos, either into itself, Shoryuken, or even down aerial at high percents near the ledge. Held down tilt can be canceled on a hit into a special move, making it effective for shield pressure and damage-racking even at high percents. Down smash is quite powerful for its speed, and up smash lowers Ryu's hurtbox while charging. Both tapped forward tilt and held jab are altered at close range, both becoming very potent at starting combos into his special moves. Additionally, Ryu will automatically face his opponent in 1-on-1 matches while standing on the ground, making it considerably easier to land his effective ground attacks.

Ryu's aerial moveset is effective as well. Neutral aerial is a sex kick with low knockback and has only five frames of landing lag, making it useful for combos and kill confirms even at high percents. Forward aerial is quick, highly damaging and has good range; it can be chained into itself through repeated jumps, and its sour spot deals high shield damage. Up aerial has fast startup and decently high reach, making it useful for juggling, and both it and down aerial can auto-cancel from a full hop.

Complementing Ryu's moveset and combo potential is his wide array of powerful finishers; some of his held tilts, smash attacks, and aerials are very capable KO moves due to their high speed. Held up tilt grants upper body intangibility on frames 4-10 while hitting on frame 7, making it deceptively safe for KOs when combined with its speed and tapped up tilt setups. Up smash makes an effective substitute for held up tilt as a finisher, and its wide hitbox can catch aerial approaches. While slow, Ryu's forward smash has long range and is his strongest standard ground attack, making it useful for hard punishes. Back aerial is Ryu's strongest aerial, and is fast and with good range. Forward and up aerial also serve as decent KO moves, enhancing their already impressive utility. Finally, down aerial is a powerful meteor smash with a fast start-up and long duration, making it a deadly edgeguarding tool. Combined with his excellent combo ability, Ryu's punish game is incredibly effective and versatile, being able to rack up damage or KO very easily after connecting with almost any attack.

Ryu's signature special moves are also effective in their own ways. Hadoken is a large ki projectile, with three distinct variations, each with a different travel speed, based on input method; the standard version is capable of locking, while the input and Shakunetsu Hadoken deal more damage (with the latter being a multi-hit flame projectile). Tatsumaki Senpukyaku propels Ryu forward and deals more damage after an initial travel distance, while the 7.0.0 update allows the move to have Ryu travel through certain projectiles and low hits. Ryu's signature Shoryuken serves as his main vertical recovery move, it is most well-known for its offensive utility, due to its sweet spot's high knockback and brief intangibility (frame 5). The input version of Shoryuken has increased KO power, even longer intangibility (frames 4-6, with arm intangibility, frames 1-14), and lower landing lag, and can easily be chained into from Ryu's other moves. Finally, Focus Attack grants Ryu heavy armor against a single hit, and incapacitates opponents when at least half-charged, allowing for followups. It can also be canceled on hit, after tanking a blow, or even while charging, allowing Ryu to fake out with a shuffle that also provides horizontal recovery distance. His close held neutral attack, first two hits of tapped neutral attack, close tapped forward tilt, held down tilt, and all aerials can be canceled into special moves, allowing Ryu to combo into Shoryuken or Tatsumaki for KOs, Hadoken for safety and damage racking, and Focus Attack for mixups and safety.

Lastly, Ryu has a long-distanced recovery and is surprisingly difficult to combo, traits not shared with most heavyweights. Tatsumaki Senpukyaku has large hitboxes and doesn't cause helplessness; this combined with canceled Focus Attack's armor and momentum boost grants surprisingly effective horizontal distance and protection. Shoryuken travels a good vertical distance, reaches above edges, and can stage spike reckless edge guarders. Focus Attack also serves as an effective combo breaker, and neutral aerial and input Shoryuken both grant high speed and intangibility and can even lead into combo or KO opportunities respectively. These traits allow Ryu to survive to very high percents when used effectively, which also allows him to take full advantage of rage.

Despite his abundance of strengths, Ryu has his weaknesses, some of which are exploitable. Despite his aforementioned recovery being very long-distanced overall, it is very short if many extendable elements, such as Tatsumaki Senpukyaku, are not utilized. Focus Attack still requires a brief charge before it can be canceled. Tatsumaki Senpukyaku's long duration makes it susceptible to being interrupted by long-ranged attacks during use, and he can only use it once if airborne without landing back on stage or taking hitstun. Ryu's falling speed, low jumps and very poor air acceleration causes his vertical recovery to suffer if he is constantly forced offstage at lower trajectories, which is exacerbated by Shoryuken's recovery being almost strictly vertical while also having very high aerial lag. As such, while Ryu has a manageable horizontal recovery, his vertical recovery is easy to predict and interrupt. Additionally, while Ryu excels at shield pressure, his grab game is otherwise poor. Although his throws have decent damage output, none of them have effective follow-up or KO potential due to them having too much knockback to combo, and too little to secure stocks. Down throw is his only combo throw, but only at very low percents, while the unique mechanics of his other throws only work in doubles and free-for-alls (down throw instantly breaking shields, and up throw being capable of KOing bystanders).

Ryu's strong combo potential is also held back by his neutral game, with several factors making it difficult for him to find openings. His very slow walking speed hinders the otherwise great utility of his tilt attacks, and his overall range is very short despite his good frame data (especially in regard to his tapped tilts and neutral aerial), giving him trouble with characters who possess disjointed hitboxes, especially when including his tall stature. His only projectile, Hadoken, is very easily telegraphed and punishable due to its sluggishness and lag. Overall, these two issues force him to play patiently and take advantage of any openings, due to his difficulty with contending against opposing camping and inability to force approaches. Despite the advantages granted by Focus Attack, Ryu's aerial approach is comparatively poor due to his fixed arc jumps and poor air acceleration, which forces him to commit with air attacks. Furthermore, the advantages offered by Focus Attack are match-up dependent; it is relatively ineffective against characters with several multiple hitting moves, with some characters being able to exploit it for a free hit. As Focus Attack is also one of Ryu's main methods of escaping combos against such characters, Ryu's high weight and rather quick falling speed leave him susceptible to some combos and juggles, and his slow fast-falling speed gives him occasional difficulty landing.

Notably, Ryu suffers from the inability to "force" KOs, as his KO potential relies heavily on stringing his aforementioned combo moves. While Ryu does possess some powerful moves, such as his sweetspotted forward smash and back aerial, those moves mostly require hard reads to land, while most of his other moves have low knockback scaling due to being tailored for combo use. Ryu's great combo ability compensates for this and often makes it less of a necessity for him to KO early; regardless, without the proper use of reads, setups, a heavy knowledge of Ryu's moveset, or a lack of compensating for an opponent's smash directional influence, Ryu can have a difficult time taking stocks from opponents due to his significant lack of moves that can KO without prior combos. Finally, the emphasis of using Ryu's unique button inputs cause his normal specials to have lower power without traditionally inputting them, and it is possible for a simple slip of the hand to use the wrong move at an essential time, most notoriously with him accidentally self-destructing while recovering.

Overall, Ryu is a combo-oriented fighter with a fearsome offensive ability, due to his unique mechanics deliberately giving him the true combos necessary for many characters' competitive success; his ability to overwhelm opponents by trapping them in hitstun/shield pressure, multiple options to negate and escape combos, along with his dependable recovery all tie in to him being very rewarding and unpredictable, with his strengths somewhat outweighing his weaknesses. However, unlike his Echo Fighter, Ken, Ryu is also capable of playing a more zoning-based playstyle, thanks in part to his more damaging Hadoken projectile and his command-input Shakunetsu Hadoken, which is in line with his playstyle in his home series. However, his polarized movement, mediocre vertical recovery, and lack of approach make him difficult to use optimally without mastering his options. Possibly his biggest issue is his notably high learning curve; much practice is generally required for his command specials in order to use them reliably and consistently rather than accidentally inputting the wrong move.

Due to his weaknesses and high learning curve, Ryu's results and representation have overall been very low so far, being one of the least used characters in competitive play. Much of his player base has either dropped him or instead use either his Echo Fighter,, or DLC newcomer , both of whom are somewhat similar to him overall. However, Ryu's copious buffs over the course of the game's lifespan have patched up many of his prior weaknesses at launch, though his current placing is still to be determined.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
During the advent of the game, Ryu was significantly nerfed overall in the transition from Smash 4 to Ultimate, but also received significant buffs from game updates.

Ryu has received some useful buffs; he greatly benefits from the dash-cancel mechanic as he can now dash cancel into his tilts which somewhat helps his overall poor and committal approach. Ryu can also attack cancel his standard attacks and aerial attacks into his specials which further enhances his varied combo game. He also benefits from his unique trait that makes him always face his opponent in a 1v1, as he can now create ledge-traps and lessen the chance of misinputting his special attacks. Hadoken has been strengthened to be notably stronger, having variable speeds and overall higher damage, which helps its utility as both a zoning option and an approaching tool. His new proximity normals allow for much more varied combo options, and with the ability to special cancel his attacks, makes his ground game much more varied and overall easier to confirm into.

However, Ryu has received many nerfs to counter the buffs. He is the only character whose walking, dashing and air speeds were all completely unchanged. While this technically is not a nerf, this does put him at a greater disadvantage relative to the cast, as almost every other character had their walking, dashing and air speeds increased. This exacerbates his already poor approach (similar to, who has had the lowest dashing speed increase). The new 1v1 mechanic also hinders his air game, as he is unable to perform a back aerial freely; he has to perform the move in a reverse aerial rush in order to do so. Because his back aerial is his strongest and most far-reaching aerial, this does him more harm than good. His most notorious KO move from Smash 4, Shoryuken, suffers from increased landing lag and decreased intangibility, making it easier to punish (although it still remains as an effective KO move). Ryu's original setups into Shoryuken have also been nerfed (such as up tilt having a smaller hitbox and more horizontal), making the move much less of a threat. Focus Attack also has less range and doesn't hit behind Ryu, making it less safe of a move to use.

Overall, Ryu is considered to be noticeably worse than his previous iteration. While he has had very little results in Ultimate's early metagame, the buffs he received in and  has caught the attention of many players, with some even saying they have been moved to a much higher tier. With the likes of and, Ryu has gotten very good placements throughout the post-quarantine meta of Ultimate, enough to be considered a high-tier character, though he is considered slightly worse then his Echo Fighter.

Update history
Ryu has been significantly buffed overall through game updates, albeit not to the exact same extent as. Patch 2.0.0 improved his neutral attack and allowed his forward air to autocancel from a full hop, but at the cost of down tilt no longer allowing Ryu to jump as fast after using it. Patch 3.1.0 gave the most changes, altering many of his core moves: jab 1, jab 2 and light (close) forward tilt have a wider window to followup with a special move, while heavy (close) neutral attack has been completely changed into a low-knockback combo tool, significantly improving its utility as it was previously a heavy up tilt with no followups. Light (far) forward tilt has more range, up aerial and early Tatsumaki Senpukyaku has a larger hitbox, light down tilt has more hitstun, and heavy down tilt has decreased knockback, allowing the latter two to combo more effectively. Finally, all versions of Hadoken travel slower if tapped and faster if held, allowing the player to control the projectile's use.

Patch 4.0.0 gave Ryu the ability to turn to opponents after parrying an attack, allowing for stronger punishes. Patch 7.0.0 further enhanced Ryu's combo game by allowing his down smash to cancel into special moves (though at the expense of lowered shield damage), and significantly improved held down tilt's combo strings into Hadoken and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku by altering its launch angle (allowing the former to lock even at very high percents, and the latter to KO at a higher percent range). Hadoken's variants were all improved: Hadoken's spacing ability was buffed by increasing its shieldstun multiplier, while Shakunetsu Hadoken's looping hits now uses the autolink angle, allowing its hits to connect more reliably. Tatsumaki Senpukyaku also deals more damage, and gained more safety due to both of Ryu's legs now being intangible during use.

Another buff to his down smash (that went undocumented) is that Ryu can now Kara Cancel during the move's charging animation. Ryu could already Kara Cancel his down smash, but it was only during the first four frames of the move. Thanks to this change, Kara Cancel is now much easier to pull off and greatly improves Ryu's combo game.

Patch 13.0.1 made his heavy forward tilt faster, gave all versions of Hadoken even more damage, and made all versions of Tatsumaki Senpukyaku safer to used on the ground. These changes significantly improve Ryu's shield pressure, as all attacks mentioned are typical frame trap combo enders that more often then not lead to either significant damage or a broken shield.

Overall, Ryu's renowned combo strings and patient playstyle have been improved through game updates, making him fare far better than at release. He is now considered by most players to be more on par with his Echo Fighter, Ken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset

 * Ryu always faces his opponent during a one-on-one match or when only two players are remaining in a match.
 * A small flash will appear whenever Ryu does the input command version of one of his Special Moves instead of the standard B input.
 * Sound effects from the Street Fighter II series, albeit heavily modified, are used when Ryu hits an opponent instead of the standard knockback sound effects. The intensity of the sound depends on the power of the move. Ryu also uses a unique sound effect when he performs a parry, which is based on the parry sound effect from the Street Fighter III series. Ryu shares these traits with.

For a gallery of Ryu's hitboxes, see here.

Canceling
Ryu can perform a special move out of certain normal attacks, a mechanic known in his home series as special-cancelling. By pressing the special button or doing the command input after connecting with a normal attack on hit or on shield, Ryu will cancel the endlag of the normal attack and perform the move. The normal attacks that can be canceled include the first two hits of neutral attack, tapped and held down-tilt, tapped up-tilt, held up tilt, proximity forward-tilt, proximity held neutral attack and down smash. He is also capable of doing so with his aerials. Special-cancelling allows Ryu to perform blockstrings and hit confirms into Shoryuken for a kill, Tatsumaki Senpukyaku for a combo, or Hadoken or Shakunetsu Hadoken for safety and pressure. He can also bait the opponent out with a special cancel into a Focus Attack, further increasing mixup potential.

On-screen appearance

 * Walks onto the stage from some mist in the background, then gets into a fighting stance.

Taunts
*Interestingly, the two taunts from Street Fighter IV have their quotes reversed in Ultimate.
 * Up Taunt: Pulls his headband ends taut while stating "Come on!" (, Come on!) Unlike in Smash 4, Ryu does not turn around during the taunt. This is one of his taunts from .
 * Side Taunt: Holds his fist forwards and declares "Talk is cheap!" (, Let your fists talk!) This is one of his taunts from Street Fighter IV. Nearly identical to ’s side taunt.
 * Down Taunt: Stomps on the ground and grunts, causing the screen to briefly shake. This is his taunt from the Street Fighter III series.

Idle poses

 * Adjusts his gloves. Resembles his character select pose from Street Fighter Alpha 2.
 * Wriggles the fingers on both hands, then crosses his arms and pumps them.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Crosses his arms, then winds back and performs a right hook with his fist facing the camera; his victory pose from ', saying "Give it your all!" ("", Gauge the timing of your special moves!), one of his victory quotes from '.
 * Up: Slings his bag over his shoulder while saying "The journey has just begun." ("", Yet the journey... has just begun.). This is one of his victory quotes from .
 * Right: Punches once before raising his fist in the air, referencing one of his more recurring win poses while saying "Your range is one fist short." ("", That range doesn't reach half a fist!). This is another one of his victory quotes from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

Tier placement and history
After Ultimate's launch, Ryu was met with a negative reception. Many players immediately noticed the severe amount of nerfs from Smash 4, and regarded him as a "high risk, low reward" fighter. He was also significantly overshadowed by his own Echo Fighter, who is faster on the ground and has a more extensive combo game with two exclusive command moves, though Ken himself was also poorly regarded at launch. The perception of both fighters began to turn around with updates 3.1.0 and 7.0.0, which significantly buffed both. However, Ryu, though considered to be significantly improved on his own, was still regarded as inferior to Ken (now generally seen as a high tier character) and therefore rarely seen in tournament play.

Ryu's representation began to improve gradually as players took notice of his unique perks over Ken; most notably, his Shakunetsu Hadoken granting him a more reliable neutral game. In update 13.0.1, Ryu got some buffs exclusive to him, including to the aforementioned Shakunetsu Hadoken, which once again boosted his perception. Currently, Ryu has a decent amount of players and results; however, there is a very large overlap with Ken's playerbase, and dedicated Ryu mains remain rare. Many top players, such as, , , and , main both characters in order to leverage their unique advantages in different matchups. Overall, Ryu's reputation has significantly improved since the game's launch, and he is no longer believed to be significantly outclassed by Ken. Most players now rank them very close, with some believing he is in fact slightly better. The latter belief is supported by some of the best "shoto" placements being achieved by solo Ryu players, such as finishing 2nd at  and  finishing 9th at. Regardless, both fighters are considered to be high-tier characters at minimum, with Ryu ranked 36th on the first and current tier list.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Ryu players (SSBU)


 * - The best Ryu player in the world. Placed 2nd at, , and , 3rd at , and 5th at with wins over players such as , , and.
 * - The best Ryu player in the United States. Placed 2nd at, 5th at , 7th at , 9th at , and 17th at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked top 120 on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023.
 * - Co-mains Ryu with and is considered the best Ryu player in France. Placed 9th at, 25th at , and 33rd at  with wins over ,  and . Currently ranked 45th on the European Smash Rankings.
 * - Co-mains Ryu with and is one of the best Ryu players in Japan. Placed 3rd at, 9th at , 17th at , 25th at , and 33rd at  with wins over , , and . Currently ranked 83rd on the Japan Player Rankings.
 * - Co-mains Ryu with and is one of the best Ryu players in the United States. Placed 1st at, 9th at , 13th at , and 25th at  with wins over , , and . Currently ranked 1st on the Central Pennsylvania Power Rankings.
 * - Tri-mains Ryu with and  and is considered the best Ryu player in Canada. Placed 1st at, 17th at , and 33rd at  with wins over players like , , and . Currently ranked 9th on the Smash Canada Rankings Ultimate.

: Seeking a Challenge
Ryu's opponents are all references to characters that appear in Street Fighter II and are stamina battles with all of the stages being in Ω form. The Bonus Stage also comes earlier, similar to the car mini-game from said title. Items are disabled throughout the route. The final boss fight also includes Ken as a teammate. Both Ryu and his opponent always start with 150 HP, as well as his ally, Ken, in the final round.

Note: All of the matches play music from Street Fighter II regardless of the stage.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Ryu has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Although Ryu does not appear in the World of Light opening cutscene, he was vaporized and later imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters (except for ) when Galeem unleashed his beams of light.

Ryu only appears after the player clears the World Tour sub-area reminiscent of Street Fighter II by beating every spirit.

Spirits
Ryu's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Ryu has been unlocked. Unlocking Ryu in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, Evil Ryu was added as a primary spirit via the spirit board event, "Street Fighter 35th Anniversary".

Trivia

 * Ryu and are the only two characters whose full renders are not on the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website. In this case, the picture stops around his ankles.
 * Ryu's artwork pose resembles a pose from his official artwork for Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, as well as the promotional poster for the original arcade release of Street Fighter IV.
 * Ryu is the only fighter who was introduced in Super Smash Bros. 4 to have an Echo Fighter, that being.
 * This also makes him the only character introduced as a newcomer through downloadable content to have an Echo Fighter.
 * Ryu is one of the five veterans from Smash 4 to have their Boxing Ring alias changed in Ultimate, the others being, , , and.
 * Ryu,, , , and  are the only base game characters to never appear as minions in any Spirit battles.
 * Ryu's Classic Mode has numerous references to Street Fighter II:
 * Each stage represents an opponent from the franchise: Ken (Ken), Zero Suit Samus (Chun-Li), Incineroar (Zangief), Donkey Kong (Blanka), Giant Little Mac (Boxer/Balrog), and Meta Knight (Vega/Claw). Each character's theme plays during these fights on stages that resemble their Street Fighter II home stages.
 * These fights are near identical to their Spirit Battles with only Blanka and Balrog being fought on different stages.
 * Ryu's bonus stage is in the middle, referencing Street Fighter's tendency to have bonus stages as midway points.
 * The final two opponents before the final boss are a reference to the "Four Heavenly Kings" who must be fought as the last fighters before M. Bison, in this case, Balrog and Vega (minus Sagat) with Bison being the fourth king.
 * Ryu's final stage in Classic Mode is a reference to the artwork used for Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, which features a giant M. Bison towering over Ryu (represented in the game as both Master Hand and Crazy Hand) and the finale of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, where Ryu and Ken double team against M. Bison. Additionally, M. Bison's theme plays in the background during the final battle.
 * As a reference to the health bars of not just Street Fighter II but the whole Street Fighter series, Ryu uses stamina battles in his Classic Mode route.
 * Ryu's route has no items, similar to how the Street Fighter series also features no items.
 * Ryu's held forward tilt (Collarbone Breaker) and the sourspot of his forward air (Tobigeri) dealing high shield damage is a reference to how overhead attacks and cross-ups are a common way to open an opponent's defense in traditional fighting games.