Franchise: Street Fighter

Dan Hibiki is a parody of SNK's Art of Fighting character Ryo Sakazaki, whose design had already been based on Ryu. His pink clothing is a spoof of Ryo's orange attire, while his head is a spoof of Robert Garcia.

The character Hugo Andore is a homage to the late wrestler, Andre The Giant. Hugo's intro is based on Andre's entrance at Wrestlemania III, and both share the same birthday of May 19th.

In a similar vein to Dan being a parody of Art of Fighting's Ryo Sakazaki, the appearance of Dan's father, Go Hibiki, is also a parody of Mr. Karate.

In Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix, Dan can call upon his father's ghost, whose tengu-like face bears a striking resemblance to the mask worn by Mr. Karate, who is also known as Takuma Sakazaki, the father of Ryo Sakazaki.

The game's designer, Yoshiki Okamoto, originally wanted Chun-Li's health bar to be shorter than the other fighters'.

He said "You know how each character has a life bar? At one point, I wanted to make the power gauge for Chun-Li shorter than for the other characters because women are not as strong. But [another designer] didn't want to do that. We both had legitimate reasons, but then we came to an agreement to not make it shorter."

The character design for Q from Street Fighter III: Third Strike is heavily based off of the 1970s Japanese superhero Robot Detective K.

Rose from the Alpha series was inspired by Lisa Lisa, a character from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Rose's outfit is almost identical to Lisa Lisa's and both share a similar fighting style that consists of channeling energy into a scarf. Both characters are also known for enjoying baths. In addition, Rose's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 is Venice, which is the same city where Joseph Joestar meets Lisa Lisa in the story, and Rose's Soul Drain move is inspired by a scene in the manga where Lisa Lisa puts a breathing mask on Joseph Joestar.

Juri Han from Street Fighter IV was inspired by Jolyne Kujo/Cujoh from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, aspects of Juri's design, such as her hair and chestwear, are resmincent of Jolyne. Along with this, Juri has a spider motif and cleaves a butterfly in her official artwork, while Jolyne has a butterfly motif and spiderweb-patterned clothes, her Stand also turns her body into threads and webs. Both characters also use the same "ora ora ora" battle cry.

Producer Noritaka Funamizu confirmed in a 1998 Famitsu interview that Guile's overall appearance was modeled after Jean Pierre Polnareff, a character from the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Guile's page in Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks goes into detail, explaining that they started with Polnareff as an inspiration, then stretched his hair out to give him "the always distinctive Stroheim look" instead. Noritaka also explained that Guile's name was derived from Polnareff's archenemy, J.Geil, though this was a mix up from the development staff at the time.

Additionally, during the early development stages of Street Fighter II, Guile's Sonic Boom attack was originally known as "Divine Sandstorm", in reference to the character Wamuu.

Akira Nishitani, lead designer of Street Fighter II, stated in a interview with Polygon that the concept of Dhalsim's ability to stretch his limbs comes from the the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, particulary, the Ripple Zoom Punch technique.

On Balrog's stage in Street Fighter II, the nickname of the game's lead designer, Akira Nishitani (Nin Nin), can be seen; it appears as a casino in the stage's background called "Golden Nugget: Nin Nin Hall". In Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, however, the casino's name was changed to "The Crazy Buffalo".

The original name later reappeared in the remastered version of the stage for Street Fighter V, but was altered to "Golden Bullion: Shadaloo Hall"; the word "Nugget" was likely changed to "Bullion" as not to step on the toes of a real life casino of the same name, and Akira's nickname was likely changed because he had long since left Capcom to form Arika.

In character profiles in the Street Fighter series, blood types are listed along with statistics such as height and weight.

Ketsueki-gata, or ABO blood types, are supposedly predictive of personality traits, temperament, and compatibility with others, made popular in the 1970s by author Masahiro Nomi.

Because of the success of the Street Fighter II animated movie, Capcom included several details from the film in the storyline of the series and other future games.

• The grass field in Australia where Ryu fights Sagat at the beginning of the movie is the stage for Sagat's final battle against Ryu in the Arcade mode of Street Fighter Alpha 2, complete with lightning in the background.
• While the Monitor Cyborgs have yet to be seen in the main games, their biographies are included in the Japanese Street Fighter V website along with their character artwork.
• Senoh, Bison's mad scientist servant, makes a cameo appearance in Bison's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
• In his battle intros, Zangief appears wearing the red cape he wears when he is first seen in the movie.
• Ken's longer hair, seen in flashbacks in the movie, is the same style in which it appears in the games.
• The idea of Ken giving Ryu a noogie during their special intro also comes from the movie.
• Ryu's red headband is a gift from Ken, shown in Ken's ending in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
• The VTOL jet that Bison used in the movie is seen in many endings in the Alpha series. It is also seen in Bison's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2.
• In X-Men vs. Street Fighter and later games, Cammy will remove a red cloak at the beginning of each match similar to the one in the movie.

After the release of Street Fighter 3, Capcom had the idea of introducing Akuma's new super moves for future games in his endings:

• Akuma uses "Kongou Kokuretsuzan" in his Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact ending, becoming one of his Super Arts in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

• The technique "Tenshou Kaireki Jin" was first seen in Akuma's ending in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. It was used to destroy the remains of a sunken liner ship that sat on the ocean floor. It would later became Akuma's second Ultra Combo in Super Street Fighter IV.

• Akuma was first seen using the "Sekia Kuretsuha" move in his Super Street Fighter IV ending. There, he destroyed a forest with it. That same technique became Akuma's first Critical Art in Street Fighter V.

According to the "Street Fighter 2 Complete Guide" book, Guile's all-American image was specifically intended to appeal to American fans. Guile was also designed to be akin to an American version of Ryu & Ken, so a third special similar to the Tatsumaki was considered early in development, but the idea was scrapped.

Contrary to popular belief, Urien's name is not a mistranslation of the name 'Julien', but rather it's a very obscure Welsh name taken from legends and Arthurian romances. The name means "privileged birth", which correlates directly with his parents being high-ranking members of the Illuminati, as well as his entitled attitude and wish to rule with utter supremacy.

In a interview with 1up, lead director of the original Street Fighter Takashi Nishiyama confirmed that the concept behind the Hadoken technique comes from 1970s anime Space Battleship Yamato, in which the titular battleship has a weapon called the "Hadōhō" (波動砲, "Wave Motion Gun/Surge Cannon"). He also confimed that Ryu's name comes from the first Kanji used for Takashi's name (隆), which can also be read a "Ryu".

On Vega's stage for Street Fighter II, the logo Mesón de la Taberna (Tavern's Inn) appears in the background of the stage. In the remastered version of the stage for Street Fighter V, however, the tavern's name was changed to Mesón de las flores" (Flowers' Inn).

The game's developers wanted Makoto's moves to be based on 'Ikken Hissatsu': simple, direct, and powerful. They wanted her karate moves to have a more Japanese style, rather than Ryu & Ken's American style of Karate.

In a 2019 "ESPN Esports" video/interview between ESPN commentator Arda Ocal & professional boxer Mike Tyson, Ocal asked him about Balrog (who made his first appearance in Street Fighter II under the name M. Bison, but had his name changed to Balrog in the English localization due to the close similarities to "M. Tyson") and if he knew about the game and his influence on Balrog's character design. Tyson responded that he knew nothing about either Street Fighter or Balrog, but that he was honored by Capcom's impersonation of him upon seeing it for the first time.

The Four Heavenly Kings of Shadaloo are named after the Buddhist gods of the same name who rule over each cardinal direction: north, south, east, and west.