Hidden references in video games have been a thing since the Atari days, though they’ve only gotten more important with each generation. As each generation brings bigger games with bigger worlds, placing eye-catching references, secret features, or other knowing winks to the player becomes the spice that completes the dish.
Some games, or even whole genres, thrive on them more than others. Yet fighting games aren’t without their treats, with Street Fighter 6 offering some particularly interesting ones. The casual fan may recognize some background details, location names and the like. But it would take a die-hard fan to notice these Street Fighter 6 Easter Eggs.
Updated 19th June 2023 by David Heath: There are plenty of sights on offer for the die-hard Street Fighter fans in Street Fighter 6. Many of them can give the characters more depth than they've received in years, like Zangief's love of reading. Others are more for fun, like how bonding well enough with Blanka produces his idea for a very familiar-looking show about Blanka in an orange gi fighting a scouter-wearing Zangief.
Others take a little more scouring to find, as this list has been updated with 3 more treats fans can find in World Tour Mode. Some are cosmetic, others are neat treats for fans of other Capcom series, and another is the answer to a mystery 30 years in the making. Chances are this is just the tip of the iceberg as SF6 awaits its first round of DLC, updates, and other tweaks.
10 Putting The "Art" In Martial Art
SF6 is a game full of style from its atmospheric stages to its graffiti-inspired Drive skill effects. The developers pulled inspiration from all sorts of sources, with some standing out more than others. Cammy’s Killer Bee Spin super resembles her lethal technique in Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie. Ken’s Shippu Jinrai Kyaku has the same super flash as in Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, while his win pose resembles his pose from Second Impact.
Juri’s motorbike skid in World Tour Mode is the same as Kaneda’s in Akira. Marisa has the most curious ones, as her winpose resembles Michelangelo’s Pietà statue, while her Scutum throw follow-up has her re-enact “The Wrestlers” sculpture, an Ancient Greek statue that's since been recreated by the Romans and other sculptors across the past few millennia. It's fitting as the only thing Marisa loves as much as pankration is fine art.
9 Offensive Gestures
Taunts have been a thing in fighting games since Art of Fighting, though the Street Fighter series have tried to switch them up. They could only be done once in Street Fighter Alpha 3, while they had different effects in Third Strike. SF6's taunts aren't quite as combat-effective as Third Strike, but they have some interesting properties that can provide some top-level teasing.
Blanka’s juggling taunt will refill his Blanka-chan attacks by 1 doll each time it’s done. Lili’s camera flash can nullify regular projectiles. Dhalsim’s floating gestures make him immune to low attacks, while Deejay and Jamie’s taunts dodge high & mid-attacks. Marisa & Honda invite their opponent to hit them, which they'll tank with armor. Then Chun-Li's classic "Sorry!" taunt does as much damage as a jab, which could KO a foe on the brink if they leave an opening.
8 The World Warriors
Street Fighter 2 pretty much invented the modern fighting game genre, though after multiple releases, tweaks, updates, and references, it's left some fans tired of the references. But Capcom isn't ready to stop the callbacks with SF6. Particularly as it has all the original SF2 cast in the same select screen positions as they were in the 1991 classic.
That said, they have been toned down compared to older releases. There’s a billboard tucked away in Metro City’s Beat Square that goes through SF2’s different releases, and Ryu’s Arcade mode ending has a cute reference to his SF2 ending. Fighting game stories aren’t exactly intricate, but it wouldn’t be fair to spoil it here. Just that it shows that, after all these years, old habits die hard for the old Shoto.
7 Old Faces In New Places
What can be revealed is that a bunch of classic characters crop up across SF6’s Arcade and World Tour modes. Kimberly has images of her Bushin masters Guy and Zeku in her room. Jamie reflects on his cousins Yun & Yang from Street Fighter 3. Bison is purely in the past tense, yet he’s still on Ryu and Juri’s minds. Cammy even keeps in touch with former Bison doll Juni. Blanka's mother from his SF2 ending appears in his stage too.
World Tour Mode takes things a step further with some deeper dives. Li-Fen is more familiar as the girl from Street Fighter 5's story mode, though she actually made her debut in Chun-Li's Third Strike ending. The real blast from the past comes when players can find and fight Retsu, one of the original opponents from Street Fighter. Increasing the avatar’s bond with the Masters will also give the player more lore, such as what happened to SF4’s Crimson Viper and Seth.
6 Not So Final Fight
Capcom’s side-scrolling brawler Final Fight has been tied to SF since before its release when it was initially promoted as Street Fighter ’89. The two franchises have gradually intertwined closer and close since then, from FF1’s Guy & Sodom appearing in Street Fighter Alpha, to FF3’s Lucia popping up in SF5. SF6 doubles down on it by making Metro City the first location players can explore in World Tour mode.
The player’s avatar can get involved with FF1’s first boss Thrasher Damnd and fight classic Mad Gear mooks like the Andore family, who both turn up in the regular game on the Metro City Downtown stage with Poison. Fellow Andore relative Hugo pops up on a billboard, as does FF1 boss turned SF5 character Abigail advertising his scrapyard. Most interestingly, players can find FF2's Carlos Miyamoto and take him on in a fight, where he uses his old special moves too.
5 The New Generation Makes A Second Impact With Their Third Strike
The game may be called Street Fighter 6, but it chronologically followed the Street Fighter 3 games. The games never got a fair shake on release due to being arcade-exclusive until the Dreamcast port, and Capcom surrounded them with other releases that were faster and had all the fans' old school favorites. Yet the SF6 devs must've had a thing for them, as keen players will notice the Metro City Downtown stage is Alex's stage from New Gen at another angle.
Going to the rooftops will reveal his Second Impact stage with the Stars & Stripes street art. Then, if players go to the port, they'll find Ken's big yacht from his own Second Impact stage, complete with his and his wife's big faces painted on them. There are also billboards advertising Disco Meteoro, Remy's nightclub stage from Third Strike, and the basketball court from that game's parry minigame. So, retroactively, the SF3 games largely took place in FF's Metro City.
4 Take A Deep Breath (Of Fire)
It's not particularly surprising that SF6 would reference other Street Fighter games, or even Final Fight given they've done so for years. At least not to those in the know about both series' pasts. What is surprising are the references to Breath of Fire, Capcom's cult classic RPG series that could do with a revival. Or at least one that wasn't a microtransaction-riddled mobile game a la BoF6.
Until then, BoF fans can be glad their World Tour rival is named after Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter's Bosch, who also played a similar frenemy role. If they travel to Nayshall, they can find Njomo, Kahn, Una, Stoll, Rasso, Fou Lu and human versions of Rwolf, A-Tur, Won-qu from BoF IV hanging around. Recurring series character Bunyan also turns up, but leads Ryu and Nina are nowhere to be seen.
3 You Must Defeat Him To Stand A Chance
SF6's NPCs go beyond the big names from SF, FF and BoF IV. In fact, they can get downright obscure, like the two goons Makoto beats up in her Third Strike ending, the boxer Ken defeats in his TS ending, one of the female mooks from Captain Commando, and Max, the black guy who gets punched in the original SF2 intro. The most surprising NPC has to be Sheng Long.
Based on a mistranslation of Ryu's win quote from SF2, players thought Sheng Long was his and Ken's master, which the game manuals at the time went with. Electronic Gaming Monthly immortalized him in their infamous April Fools' prank, which would later inspire the addition of Akuma in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Capcom would later introduce Gouken as the shoto's master, but Sheng Long is now also canon in his own way, and doesn't require 10 rounds of draw games to see.
2 Old School Minigames
World Tour Mode isn’t just running around worlds and fighting against goons, mooks and the rest of the cast. It’ll also offer up minigames where players can earn extra zenny for buying gear, munchies, and other perks. It’s a good way to boost the avatar’s stats and get around trickier obstacles. Some, like Pizzaiolo Serbello, can even help newer players learn the Classic inputs.
Others are more familiar, like Baller Mando being a recreation of SF3’s basketball-parrying game, and Scrap Factory Mouse being a twist on SF2’s car smashing game (as opposed to the truck-smashing one in regular play). Board Breaker Ren brings back SF1’s wood-smashing game. The oddest one is Damage Researcher Brique’s game, as it resembles the bottle-chopping game from Art of Fighting, the game Capcom mocked via its joke character Dan Hibiki.
1 Fighters Past & Present
It’s not just SF and Final Fight that get covered in SF6. The occasional Darkstalkers character pops up for a cameo, like Chun-Li’s foster daughter Li Fen having a sticker of Lilith on her laptop. But the neatest one is Metro City’s Walk of Fame that goes through Capcom’s fighting games and brawlers in chronological order. It features all the SF and Final Fight games, alongside more obscure gems.
Their wrestling fighting game Saturday Night Slam Masters appears on the list, as does Capcom’s first in-house 3D fighter Star Gladiator and its sequel Plasma Sword. The RPG/Fighter hybrid Red Earth gets recognition, as do the mech battlers Cyberbots and Tech Romancer. It’s a nice (and literal) walk down memory lane. Maybe someday they'll turn up on the Battle Hub.