Gouken Lives! And I’m Not Sure if I’m Happy

Time for some video game blog-entary.

Refresher: Gouken (erroneously named Sheng Long Stateside—there’s no such character!) is the brother of Gouki (Akuma), son of Goutetsu (no U.S. name), and Ryu and Ken’s master. The official canon is that during the events of Street Fighter 1, while Ryu is competing in the tournament, Gouki came in to the dojo and challenged Gouken to a fight. According to Tiamat’s excellent SF plot guide, Ken witnessed part of the match, and saw his master get killed in Gouki’s hands. Gouken’s remains are buried near the Suzaku Castle (Ryu’s stage in a good number of Street Fighter games).

Now Street Fighter 4 comes along, an interquel between SF2 and SF3, and for some reason thought of reviving Gouken. Is Yoshinori Ono (the producer of the game) pulling all the stops to give SF4 the massive success that SF2 received during its time that he’s throwing everything but the kitchen sink in this game? I don’t know. But as it is, this is one—and probably just one of the few—addition to SF4 that I have mixed feelings about.

First, the good: EGM can no longer run an April Fool’s joke involving Gouken!

In terms of gameplay, Gouken moves a little differently compared to Ryu, Ken, even Gouki, preventing him from being just another Shoto-clone. (By the way, they practice Ansatsuken and not Shotokan Karate.) For one, he throws his fireballs with just one hand. His Tatsumaki Senpuu-Kyaku doesn’t go forward, but instead moves vertically. (The EX version of the same move behaves like Gouki’s Messatsu Gourasen Super Art.) His Saving Attack is the Joudan Soukotu Geri (Ryu’s new move in SF3), and his Ultra Combo is the Shin Shoryuken.

He’s actually quite badass from the videos that I’ve seen in YouTube. Sure, he doesn’t suffer from the SNK boss syndrome but he nevertheless appears that he hits hard.

Now, the bad. For what they’re worth, I follow canon of every video game I play. For instance, I know about the Highbornes of Warcraft, and the events that lead to the Night and High Elves living in separate worlds. I also know that M. Bison is actually inhabiting Rose’s body in SF2.

Resurrecting Gouken after the events of two series have transpired (SF Alpha and SF2) seriously messes up with the established canon. Did he rise from the grave? Why the heck would he keep his being alive secret from Ryu and Ken, who saw him as a father figure (especially Ryu—damn it, he’s a freaking orphan) after all these years? Will Gouki attempt to kill his brother once again, this time with a move that isn’t the Shun Goku Satsu? So many questions.

I’ll have to wait until Capcom releases its official retcon to see how they plan to merge the now-alive Gouken to the running canon, and fix the plot holes that this created. For now, I can’t wait to play him in the home version of SF4.