The numbering system and pseudo-sequels have kept the core number of Street Fighter games down to just five (released in 2016), but the number is severely misleading. In the 30+ years since the original came out, a mind-melting 22 games have come out.

This is, of course, not counting the roughly dozen crossover games, the tie-in games, the vaguely related games, and the bizarre one-offs that pepper the Street Fighter universe. That’s not even getting into the fighter cameos in everything from Nintendo’s Wreck-It Ralph.

In the dozens of games comprising what we know of Street Fighter, it is impossible to know everything. The game’s influences are rich and far-reaching, and the lore of the series is deep. Simply favoring playing as one character over another could keep a Street Fighter player from learning very basic info about the other fighters.

With all this in mind, we will begin to just scratch the surface of interesting trivia and odd facts from the venerable gaming institution.

Now it's time to sit back, tape your fists, pad your knees, and enjoy the 15 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About Street Fighter.

Blanka... or Jimmy?!

In the beginning early days of the franchise, only one fighter appeared to not be human: Blanka, the green beastie from Brazil. His monstrous howl, giant clawed hands, and ability to electrify his opponents added to the idea with most gamers that Blanka wasn’t the same species as the rest of the roster.

If you beat the game as Blanka, however, you’d have learned the shocking truth. Blanka is in fact a human. Separated from his mother in a plane crash, Blanka grew up feral in the jungles of Brazil.

The reason for his bizarre green-colored skin was changed by Capcom between iterations, but has finally settled on being exposed to electric eels following his crash (and somehow that also explains his electrical abilities, too).

The ending in SFII reunites him with his mother, who tells him his name is actually Jimmy.

Heavyweight Champion of the World: Mike Bison

Perhaps one of the most heavily traded trivia tidbits in gaming circles is the great name switcheroo that happened between the Japanese version and the American version of Street Fighter II. Most of the bosses have their names bandied about between the two releases.

The Japanese and American versions of the game both kept Sagat the same (he was also one of the few characters to come from the original Street Fighter). However, in Japan, the sadistic Spanish dandy with claws is known as Balrog, the evil leader of the Shadaloo organization is known as Vega, and the American boxing champ is known as… M. Bison.

To avoid litigation from professional boxer Mike Tyson (who is clearly the visual reference for the character), Capcom renamed him Balrog, shifted Bison to the general, and stuck the Spaniard with Vega.

The Real O.G.s

The original Street Fighter only had two playable characters: Ken and Ryu. The final boss of the game was Sagat. The three of them would go on to become staples of the fighting series. The rest of the fighters were, mostly… generic.

It was widely assumed when they didn’t show up in Street Fighter II that Capcom had moved on to greener pastures.

However, Capcom has long been in the business of fan service, and part of that meant resurrecting and revamping many of the fighters from the original. Adon, the Muay Thai student of Sagat, re-appeared in the series beginning with Street Fighter Alpha.

Birdie’s race was changed, but he popped up again in Alpha. Eagle and his Eskrima sticks came back in Capcom vs. SNK 2 (then Alpha 3). Finally, elderly assassin Gen became playable in Alpha. Others have had cameos, but haven’t been playable fighters.

Dhalsim vs. The One-Armed Boxer

Dhalsim, the fire-breathing yogi of the Street Fighter franchise, has a moveset vastly different than other fighters. Much of this has to do with the fact that he is able to dramatically stretch his arms and legs to absurd lengths, not unlike Marvel’s Mister Fantastic.

While it may appear to be a wildly creative and unique idea on Capcom’s part, the truth is that it’s a nice homage to an old martial arts film often cited as a favorite of director Quentin Tarantino’s.

In 1976, a sequel to the also-awesome One Armed Boxer was released. Master of the Flying Guillotine was set amidst a fighting tournament featuring fighters from around the world practicing their local martial arts (sound familiar?).

In it, one of the fighters is an Indian yogi who, you guessed it, can fight by stretching his arms comically long.

Analog, Pressure-Sensitive

In 1987 the tried and true formulas behind the fighting game genre were still being developed. In fact, in 1987 it could hardly be said that there was a fighting game genre at all.

In an effort to have a hit on their hands in a game with an untested format, Capcom was not above experimenting with novelty in the arcades.

Two versions of the arcade cabinet were available. One had the same 6-button kicking and punching format that we still see today. The other, though, shipped with only two attack buttons-- two really big attack buttons.

The rubber pads were pressure-sensitive, and would use the amount of force they ed to determine the strength of the punch or kick. The concept of pressure-sensitive buttons doesn’t seem odd now, but the idea of a fighting game relying on that technology way back in 1987 is truly mind-blowing.

Final Fight Was… A Street Fighter?!

Released in 1989, Final Fight has become one of the true classics of gaming. Years later, Final Fantasy is still widely played and has a thriving fan community.

The prototypical beat-em-up or brawler game, you control one of three fighters: brawling pretty-boy Cody, Cody’s ninja friend Guy, or pro wrestler turned Mayor of Metro City, Mike Haggar.

When the Mad Gear Gang kidnap Haggar’s daughter (who Cody is dating), the fighters must work their way through the city to rescue her.

Interestingly, the game was originally meant to be a sequel to Street Fighter (meaning it would have displaced SFII). The game was promoted initially in Japan as Street Fighter ‘89, and then as Street Fighter: The Final Fight.

Speaking of other games...

It’s only appropriate that Street Fighter borrow from the roster of Final Fight, given that Final Fight was originally planned as the sequel. A whopping seven playable Street Fighter characters started in the Final Fight franchise.

One of the most prominent to make the jump is cosplay favorite Poison, who began in Japan as a transsexual and was converted to a biological woman for American audiences.

Cody and Guy, two of the three heroes of FF have become SF characters-- while Mike Haggar has been playable in crossover games like Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite but not in any core SF game (except as a skin for Zangief in SFIV).

The character Ingrid, who became playable in Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX, is the only character to become a SF fighter from a non-SF/FF game (Capcom Fighting Evolution). The online character guide for Street Fighter V has listings for many characters from other games, indicating we might soon see them as DLC.

The Game: The Movie: The Game

An odd artifact of how bizarre the ‘90s could be is the polished turd known as Street Fighter: The Movie. With a name like that, you might be surprised to learn that we’re not talking about a movie at all, but rather a fighting game. A fighting game based on the movie, Street Fighter. A movie based on the Street Fighter games.

This is the only instance of a game licensed from a movie which was licensed from a game. Our head hurts, too. The movie (which is bad) starred M. Bison (in his final film role).

The game used digitized versions of real people for combat, likely as a way to diminish the raging wildfire that was Mortal Kombat’s popularity. Now let’s never speak of this atrocity again.

The Future is more dull than bleak

Since we’re talking about bad games trading on the venerable Street Fighter name, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Street Fighter’s foray onto the NES. The game, released in 1990, is Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight.

A side-scrolling platformer, the game’s protagonist is Ken (yes, that Ken). Ken has become a cyborg thanks to becoming a scientist after his fighting days behind him, and giving himself cybernetic implants.

The plot is a mess of sci-fi jargon that causes the eyes to glaze over but amounts to interplanetary invasion, yadda yadda yadda. It’s a dull game that has no business being part of the Street Fighter canon.

In fact, in Japan the game isn’t related whatsoever, and the cyborg police martial arts scientist world protector whatever is named Kevin. It is only the crass commercialism of quick cash-ins in America that ed the game to the franchise.

Mouse Fighter

In what would prove to be a failed experiment, Street Fighter took to the PC for a game called Street Fighter Online: Mouse Generation. Made in 2008, the game was made by a subsidiary of Capcom, rather than the big boys themselves.

The big hook of this game was that all the fighting, moving and attacking, was controlled only by the computer’s mouse. The gameplay looks lazy and floaty and uncomfortable and like something we would not ever want to try.

Mouse Generation featured only Chun-Li, Guile, Ken, Ryu, and Zangief from the SF roster. The rest of the fighters came from Capcom fighter Rival Schools (which itself featured SF’s Sakura), a series of novels, and a manga called Cyborg 009, and a few other sources.

The shocking roster addition was a DLC released for Valentine’s Day that pitted Barack Obama against the fighters.