Street Fighter Unlimited #1 Review

When people think of “Street Fighter” the first character that almost automatically pops up is Ryu. He is the poster boy for the franchise after all and has been in every game “Street Fighter” game. So it only comes naturally that a “Street Fighter” story should be about him. One of the newest ones is the comic “Street Fighter Unlimited” written by Ken Siu-Chong with art by Joe Ng and Colors by Espen Grundetjern. The first is a joy to read.

Ryu is desperately searching his soul because Akuma has warned him that the Satsui No Hado will take over him. So Ryu goes out to try different tings, including training with Sagat, in order to make sure the Satsui No Hado does not take over his body.

As with any “Street Fighter” story, it keeps to its fighting game roots by having a ton of pages filled with fighting. The fight at the beginning is the best one in terms of how it’s drawn, who’s fighting and the impact of the fight. This first fight perfectly encapsulates what this story is about and sets the tone for the comic.

Plot-wise, it’s a basic story of one powerful person trying to fight against his “dark side.” It’s a plot that’s been done before. So far, this first issue does a fine job of taking this old plot and making it interesting. Yes, the writing isn’t the best there is (some of Sagat’s lines are the pretty cliché “I was bad once” type,) but it’s still entertaining.

Ng’s art is pretty impressive. The characters look exactly like how they look in the newer “Street Fighter” games. Not to mention the combination of Grundetjern’s colors the comic looks, even more, impressive. The best example is, again, the first fight. The fight is drawn to be dark with lots of reds. This, along with what’s going on the fight, looks downright wonderful.

This comic also has two mini comics, “City Hall Slam” by Jim Zub with art by Edwin Huang and “Street Funnies #6” by Matt Moylan and Dax Gordine. The former has Mike Haggar from “Final Fight” fighting against Alex. It’s an OK comic. The later is, as the title suggests, is drawn like a newspaper funny. Here we see Zangief winning fights and traveling from different countries. The joke here is that the traveling from one country to the next in these games is insane (from the USA to Japan to back to the USA and then to China.) It offers a good laugh fro anyone who’s played the games.

“Street Fighter Unlimited” may have a cliché story, but it’s a fun read with excellent art. It’s a joy for all “Street Fighter” and comic fans.