Is Terry Bogard in Street Fighter I?

At some point, I had to draw the line for what should be included in the big Street Fighter II round-up. The more I researched, the more this tidbit or that tidbit ended up getting folded into a post that was — and I swear to god — originally supposed to be about Blanka specifically. These things tend to snowball.

I decided this bit could be its own small post, more along the lines of what I imagined this project to be in the first place — a post per trivia item. And no, to answer the question in the title, Terry Bogard doesn’t technically appear in the original Street Fighter, but there is nonetheless an interesting connection to Fatal Fury and the larger SNK-verse of interconnected fighting games.

At the back of the Art of Street Fighter book is an interview with Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto, director and designer of the 1987 Street Fighter, who subsequently went on to work at SNK, where Nishiyama directed Fatal Fury in 1991 and Matsumoto directed Art of Fighting in 1992. One of their goals in making these new fighting games, per the interview, was to create more comprehensive, immersive storylines. They truly did this, as both games offer stories about family and organized crime that truly put to shame the barebones plot of Street Fighter I. The scope of the SNK titles is broadened all the more when you consider that Art of Fighting is, in fact, a prequel to Fatal Fury and one of many chapters in the story of crime lord Geese Howard. Released in 1993, Fatal Fury Special features Art of Fighting protagonist Ryo Sakazaki as a hidden character, further tying the two series together, and setting up the King of Fighters crossover game, which debuted in 1994.

In the interview, Nishitani and Matsumoto are asked if they styled Fatal Fury’s protagonist, Terry Bogard, in jeans and a cap specifically to differentiate him from Ryu, who wears a gi and headband. Mastumoto indirectly says yes and explains how a prototype version of Terry shows up in Street Fighter I.

Do you remember the opening sequence for Street Fighter I? A caucasian male wearing a leather jacket appears, but he’s nowhere to be found in the actual game. We had already decided that the main character for Street Fighter I would be a dougi-clad karate fighter, but we definitely wanted to include this caucasian male in the next game if we got the chance. This mysterious caucasian ended up being the model for Terry.

The interview replies with “That’s the kind of trivia fighting games get excited about!” and I have to say: they’re correct. I was stoked to make this connection. Obviously, Mr. Caucasian Fighting Man grew out his hair, but there is at least the same vibe of “Hey, lookit the back of my jacket.”