Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior RYU PlayThrough (Arcade)
5Ryu is considered by many to be the main character of Street Fighter II. He has a well-rounded moveset, average walk and jump speed, and three unique special moves for various situations.
In this first installment of the classic arcade fighting game, Ryu is actually quite flawed. First of all, he has some weird hurtboxes that extend farther than you'd expect. Secondly, he has a weak spot during the leaning forward frames of his dizzy animation that, if hit, makes him take 2X damage. Finally, the worst part is that Ken is exactly the same as Ryu in this game, but without those issues I just described and with a better kick button throw (Ken's version tosses the opponent farther back which can help him corner an enemy). The only reason I would ever recommend picking Ryu instead of Ken in WW is if the other player already chose Ken and you still want to play a shoto (mirror matches are not possible in World Warrior).
Both Ryu and Ken suffer from problems regarding their special moves, most notably the shoryuken not knocking down grounded opponents and the tatsu (hurricane kick) also not knocking down. The multiple hits from the tatsu don't link into a combo, allowing the opponent to simply block or crouch after the first hit and then counter before you land. At least the hadoken is still a useful fireball.
Ryu is a low-tier character in WW. Ryu has no advantage, not even a very minor one, over Ken in this game. For this reason, if you want to play Ryu in WW, I strongly suggest sticking with Ken and only using Ryu if the other player selects Ken first. Both characters still stand a chance against the entire cast, but there are two matchups in particular that you'll have a very hard time winning consistently
Other Videos By Street Fighter Showdown
Other Statistics
Street Fighter II Statistics For Street Fighter Showdown
Street Fighter Showdown presently has 257,550 views for Street Fighter II across 893 videos, with the game making up over 4 days of published video on his channel. This makes up 95.49% of Street Fighter II content that Street Fighter Showdown has uploaded to YouTube.