It’s a big year for Street Fighter, what with the sixth entry on the way and Street Fighter: Duel available worldwide. Considering how large the cast is after so many years, not everyone people love may be in the game at launch. However, if it follows in the footsteps of past entries, we’ll likely see a lot of those who were left out appear over the next few months and maybe even years. While we do wait, however, let’s talk about our favorite Street Fighter characters and which ones we think are the best.
While there are a ton of great characters in Street Fighter, I keep going back to the guy who helped me beat Street Fighter II for the first time: Dhalsim. His stretchy limbs and long-range attacks meant even Bison had to put in a lot of work just to be able to reach me. And if he got too close, I hope he enjoyed a little yoga flame to the face.
It was wild when I first tried Dhalsim. I had been getting completely stomped by Bison with all of the other characters. I was beyond clumsy at the game, so I walked straight into just about every attack Bison was doing. With Dhalsim, I just had to hang back and throw something that would catch Bison on his way to me. he had to do all the work. I didn’t realize this at the time, but this was the start of a lifelong love of long-ranged fighting game characters.
I continue to enjoy how Dhalsim controls space in the various Street Fighter games. Yeah, you probably have some sort of game plan to beat the hell out of me, but can you make it work when I can kick you from most of the way across the screen? When I can toss fireballs in the air to deter jumps? When I can trip you from almost full screen if you start firing your own fireballs?
Dhalsim was the first fighting game character that ever clicked with me, and I’ve loved him ever since. — Joel
It’s probably rather cliche to say Chun-Li is my favorite Street Fighter character, but I’ve been playing so long that I’m basically at my best when I choose her. There’s something comforting in knowing your main will always be in an installment and you don’t need to worry about completely learning a new moveset and playstyle. Plus when I was just getting started with the series as a kid with Street Fighter II, she was honestly one of the best characters for somebody new to the series. She has a lot of range as a character and the inputs are easy to pick up. — Jenni
