With Street Fighter 6 on the way, people are excited about how it will develop. The leak revealed the roster, but not their moves nor the roles they’ll play in the game. Will there be another Cinematic Story mode like ‘A Shadow Falls’ to explain who does what? Or will the game stick to the traditional Arcade Mode? Will the characters face off against rivals like in the Alpha series, or will there be a final boss? Then, if there’s a final boss, who will it be? Will it be a new character or a returning one? Were they included in the leak, or did Capcom manage to keep them under wraps?
There’s still plenty for players to learn. So, let's look back at the past Street Fighter bosses and see how well they stack up against each other. Balrog, Vega, Juni & Juli may have been special encounters back in the day, but they were neither final bosses nor secret ones. This list only counts characters who appeared at the end of the arcade ladder, either by default or through special conditions. Also, this only includes mainline Street Fighter games.
8 Seth
Poor Seth didn’t have much going for him. A rogue robo-clone of M.Bison who wanted to beat him at his own game. They were a pale version of his forebear, with a set of moves taken from other characters in Street Fighter 4. Sure, they had a few tweaks or different commands. They just weren’t different enough to give Seth their own style or personality. The few moves that were original, like the Ultra Combos, were less intimidating and more silly-looking.
It wasn’t until Street Fighter 5radically redesigned the character that they got some buzz. Seth went from being a buff Bison clone to a buff Juri-ish clone with moves from Darkstalkers and the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fighting game. They also got more deranged as a result of their new look. But by then they had been demoted to a regular character, which is probably for the best.
7 Evil Ryu/Kage
The problem with Ryu as a character is that his duffel bag tended to have more personality than him. He’s the original martial artist that similarly dull protagonists like Mortal Kombat’s Liu Kang and Virtua Fighter’s Akira Yuki followed. So, in the Alpha series, Capcom gave Ryu an evil side to fight against in the Satsui no Hadou or Dark Hadou for short. Evil Ryu is what the karate man would become if he gave in to it.
Evil Ryu couldn’t control the Dark Hadou as well as his rival Akuma. He’d growl, seethe and glow wildly, while Akuma could hold himself together more effectively. Gameplay-wise, it didn’t change Ryu much. He just gained some of Akuma’s moves. Street Fighter 5 tried to redesign him into Kage and made him look silly as a result. The spindly headband used as a scarf and the tusks were supposed to make him look more demonic. It didn’t work.
6 Oni
Super Street Fighter 4 introduced Oni, a hypothetical version of Akuma that managed to let go of his ties to humanity and become pure Dark Hadou in physical form. A Truer Akuma, so to speak. On the one hand, Oni has some rather impressive moves. His Ultra Combos were some of the flashiest ones in the entire game. He even became an extra boss battle in the Asura’s Wrath DLC.
On the other, he felt superfluous. He was difficult in SSF4, though still less trouble compared to Shin/True Akuma’s outings before and since. The character even ended up lower tier than plain old Akuma when put into human hands. Maybe those vestiges of humanity are worth holding onto after all.
5 Gouken
Despite being presumed dead for most of the franchise’s run, Capcom decided to bring Ryu & Ken’s master back for Street Fighter 4 as a secret boss. Design-wise, he’s a typical old man martial arts master, albeit a bigger and buffer take on the trope. However, he does have a unique move set. He throws Hadoukens with one hand, has a rising Hurricane Kick, and a command throw that sets up for his Shoryuken super and Ultra Combos.
He was different enough from the other shotos in the series. Though as a result, it meant his students fought less like him and more like his would-be murderer Akuma. Still, it was nice to see a secret boss that wasn’t a monster. Plus, he has a sense of humor! (“You must defeat me to stand a chance!”)
4 Gill
After a long wait, Street Fighter 3: New Generation finally came out in 1997 to widespread apathy. The combination of oversaturation and 3D gaming put Capcom’s 2D powerhouse on the back burner. Especially when they junked all the classic characters (bar Ryu and Ken) in favor of “a bunch of freaks”. This included Gill, a blue & red titan with a God complex. He was annoying enough to fight, with his Third Strike iteration being the hardest version to beat.
The real cherry on top was that, if his Super Art gauge was full when he was beaten, he would instantly resurrect. If the player was good, they could hit him out of it. If they weren’t, he’d regain all his health. This Resurrection super has become Gill’s lasting legacy in the series, and a big reason why many people hope he doesn’t become a boss character again.
3 Sagat
Before he was the penultimate boss in Street Fighter 2, Sagat was the final boss in the original Street Fighter. Most people don’t remember the first game, and with good reason. It’s a slog to play one bout in, let alone multiple ones to face the original Sagat at the end. Nonetheless, Sagat is one of the more popular characters in the series.
His gradual shift from a villain to an anti-hero came off quite well for a fighting game story. He abandoned hatred and rage in favor of seeking strength like his rival Ryu, and all without losing his intimidation factor. Compared to kickboxers from other fighters, Sagat’s giant frame and pressure game keep him on his throne as the Emperor of Muay Thai.
2 M.Bison
With the most games under his belt, it was inevitable Bison would get a high spot on this list. He was the original final boss in Street Fighter 2, the series’ most iconic outing. Then he got significantly beefed up in the Alpha series, with Alpha 3 showing him at his most powerful. The boss version of his Psycho Crusher in that game is a sight to behold.
As classic of a character as he is, there isn’t really anywhere else for him to go in the series. He’s largely been a regular character since Alpha 3, and Street Fighter 5 seemed to finish him off for good. Not that fighting games put much weight into their stories. But after so many advances, Bison becoming a boss again in Street Fighter 6 would feel like a step backward.
1 Akuma
Never let it be said that a prank can’t make any constructive changes. If EGM hadn’t made their April Fools prank about ‘Sheng Long’ back in the day, Capcom wouldn’t have had the idea to put a Super Shoto as a secret boss in Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Since then, Akuma’s been the go-to guy to show players “how weak they truly are”.
While he has now spanned into other fighting games, he runs the risk of getting as stale as Bison. Yet Capcom’s attempts to one-up him with Oni and Kage haven’t been successful. There’s something about this power-goblin that fills players with dread and excitement. The leaks revealed he’ll be back for Street Fighter 6. All that remains to be seen is whether he’ll be a bane to online players, or if he’ll haunt the arcade ladder once more as well.