Street Fighter's competitive history is among the most noteworthy and storied in the video game industry. Since Street Fighter 2's release in 1992, the franchise has become the bedrock for fighting games and the wider fighting game community, hailed for its varied and iconic roster.
From Chun-Li to Akuma, some of these characters hold a place of contempt within the competitive community for their uneven balancing. Street Fighter's older entries featured too many over-powered characters. With no way — or simply no incentive — for Capcom to reign in certain characters, they quickly became infamous.
10 M. Bison
Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition
Originally unplayable in the World Warrior edition of Street Fighter 2, M. Bison debuted alongside Vega, Balrog, and Sagat in Champion Edition. Though all the "4 Kings" had their share of balancing issues, Bison and his Psycho Power were undeniably the most volatile additions.
M. Bison's standing medium kick and crouching heavy kick gave him oppressive control over the neutral game. Double Knee Press combined a high and low hit in one move, Somersault Skull Diver gave a cross-up opportunity, and Psycho Crusher actually did more damage on block than it did on hit.
9 Old Sagat
Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo
Sagat is powerful no matter the version of Street Fighter 2, but the ability to select specific versions of characters in Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo catapulted him into a different tier. The version from Super Street Fighter 2, referred to as Old Sagat, earned a reputation for being the strongest legal character in the game.
Old Sagat's Tiger Shot — both the high and low versions — outpace and overwhelm every other projectile the roster can throw out. The quick startup for Sagat's Tiger Shot in Super Street Fighter 2 isn't relative to other fireballs in Super Turbo. Being able to use that older version paved the way to Old Sagat's dominance.
8 Akuma
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Akuma's competitive strength not only permeates Street Fighter, but his crossover appearance in Tekken as well. There are many examples of Akuma's overpowered nature, but Street Fighter Alpha 3 showcases this in full, mostly due to his synergy with the game's mechanics.
V-ism let Alpha 3 players freely string together normal and special moves, turning Akuma into a whirlwind of mix-ups and heavy damage. V-ism is a great benefit to most characters, but in Akuma's, even the most conventional defenders immediately found themselves overwhelmed.
7 Sean
Street Fighter 3: Second Impact
Street Fighter 3's first two installments, New Generation and Second Impact, might not be as fondly remembered as Third Strike. That isn't to say they didn't have overpowered characters. Sean, the spunky protégé of Ken, was an absolute menace during the competitive run of Second Impact.
Sean gets huge damage off of very simple and effective normals. He boasts a Hyper Tornado super with zero frames of startup, and no real weaknesses in his game plan. The extensive nerfs in Third Strike eventually killed Sean's reign, but his version in Second Impact remained one of Street Fighter's most overpowered characters.
6 Yun
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
While Chun-Li, Ken and Akuma are prolific forces in Third Strike's competitive scene, Yun takes the cake with a kit bordering on nonsensical. Great normal attacks, a lighting-fast dive kick, and high-priority special moves solidify his position at the top all by themselves.
However, it's Yun's third Super Art, Genei Jin, that makes him uniquely overpowered. Genei Jin is a super that allows Yun to cancel all of his normals and special into one-another. This lets Yun pull off corner combos and mid-screen conversions the rest of Street Fighter's roster can only dream of.
5 Sagat
Street Fighter 4
In the original version of Street Fighter 4, Sagat delivered a punch in the gut to anyone hoping for a balanced launch. Future versions did their best to mitigate him, but regular Street Fighter 4 Sagat had already taken a place in the overpowered Street Fighter pantheon.
With good normals, super fast Tiger Shot projectiles, and an uppercut that could connect into his Ultra even on a trade, Sagat ruled the competitive circuit. As Street Fighter 4 aged, Sagat's reign slowly diminished, but the damage he did at his peak is still an entertaining topic in the modern FGC.
4 Evil Ryu
Ultra Street Fighter 4
Evil Ryu takes all of Ryu's simple fundamentals and gives him a new arsenal of offensive options. Ultra Street Fighter 4's final years featured Evil Ryu on every level of competition, showcasing just how dangerous he could be in the right hands.
Sporting some of the highest damage in the game, combo extensions with Axe Kick, and all the strong zoning from regular Ryu, it's no wonder Evil Ryu did so well. While a version of Evil Ryu appeared in Street Fighter 5 with Kage, he didn't come close to the dominance that Evil Ryu once held.
3 Elena
Ultra Street Fighter 4
Elena's debut in Street Fighter 3 never gave her the tools to dominate competitively, but her return in Ultra Street Fighter 4 made her infamous. It took some time for Elena to flourish, but when she did, the community couldn't wait to move on to a new version or a different game.
Elena's low-risk, high-reward normal attacks verged on breaking the rules of the game's hit-boxes. Many of her aspects were contentious, though nothing came close to her second Ultra, Healing, which recovered a substantial part of her life-bar. Given Elena already had so many ways to create space, giving her the only healing option in the game was a recipe for disaster.
2 R.Mika
Street Fighter 5
To this day, the Street Fighter community laments R.Mika's obnoxious pressure in Street Fighter 5's early years. Her reign was short-lived, and she rarely populated any top eight brackets in tournaments, but her options were nonetheless rage-inducing.
Mika had multiple command grabs to naturally mix her opponent up and a command move that gave her a wall bounce, even if she wasn't near the corner. Combined with a V-Reversal that was also a command grab, R.Mika effortlessly dominated the close-range game.
1 Luke
Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition
Luke, the final DLC character for Street Fighter 5, boasted practically no weaknesses or losing matchups. Undoubtedly the strongest character in the game at the end of its life, Luke became the new face of competitive Street Fighter due to his overwhelming presence.
Luke's Sand Blast quickly became the best fireball in the game, and his advancing normal attacks gave him unprecedented control of the neutral game. Luke could exert pressure from any part of the screen, boasted high damage, and left the community utterly helpless all the way until the launch of Street Fighter 6.