QuixoticNeutral
Member
Street Fighter's cover boy Ryu has fought upwards of 600 characters depending on how you count, and the discussion led me to a thought that might be better investigated in a thread of its own. (I may not know my fighting game rosters that well, but NeoGAF collectively does.)
Like the Erdős number in mathematics and academic publishing, or the Bacon number for co-star credits in screen acting, let's assign Ryu himself a Ryu number of 0. Everyone that Ryu has fought (i.e. directly shared a roster with in a fighting game) receives a number of 1; everyone who has fought those characters in turn are assigned a number of 2, and so on down the chain.
Not every video game character has a Ryu number, but a staggering proportion of them do, and some of their network distances may be lower than you might expect.
Examples:
- Via Pikachu/Lucario/Charizard in SSB4, the entire cast of Pokkén has a Ryu number of at most 2.
- Via Viewtiful Joe in MvC3, the entire cast of Red Hot Rumble (including many of VJ's bosses) also has Ryu number of at most 2.
- Spawn's Ryu number is 3. While Heihachi (1, Street Fighter X Tekken) and Link (1, SSB4) both appeared in Soulcalibur II, they were exclusive to different versions and therefore never directly shared a roster with Spawn, necessitating an additional connection via the Soulcalibur cast.
- Batman's Ryu number is at most 4: Ryu (MvC3) – Dante (PSASBR) – Kratos (MK 2011, PS3) – Scorpion (Injustice) – Batman.
- Luke Skywalker's Ryu number is at most 4: Ryu (SSB4) – Link (Soulcalibur II, GCN) – Nightmare (Soulcalibur IV) – Darth Vader (Masters of Teräs Käsi) – Luke.
Here I am only counting playable roster characters in fighting games: obviously, the collaboration network expands dramatically if you include assists or other all-star extravaganzas like kart racers, Musou spin-offs, or tactics crossovers. (If you do expand your reach to other kinds of guest appearances, however, you get a path to Killer Instinct via Kratos, Shovel Knight, and Battletoads.) I don't find it quite as interesting to count everything, but you wind up with coverage of nearly the whole industry if you do.
Just as interesting to ponder: the range of major franchises, IPs, and characters not connected to Ryu, whether or not you only count roster appearances in fighting games. With that restriction, I don't know if there is an alternate path to Killer Instinct; without that restriction, and opening the door to all kinds of crossover appearances, there still doesn't seem to be a way to get to anyone from Blizzard, for one. But the selection of fighting games wholly disconnected from Ryu is probably small. If a character has appeared in a fighting game, chances are they have a Ryu number, and I'd love to see what obscure or surprising finds we can uncover.
*
For bonus points, search for the lowest Ryu–Bacon number, a property of film portrayals of characters with Ryu numbers by actors with a finite collaboration distance from Kevin Bacon. Examples:
- Guile (Ryu number of 1, of course) was portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bacon number of 2, via appearing in Timecop with Bruce McGill, who appeared in Animal House with Kevin Bacon). Guile and Van Damme therefore have a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 3.
- Wesker (Ryu number of 1, MvC3) was portrayed by Jason O'Mara in Resident Evil: Extinction. If you count direct-to-video, O'Mara's Bacon number is 2, via starring in Son of Batman with Xander Berkeley, who appears with Kevin Bacon in A Few Good Men. Wesker and O'Mara therefore have a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 3. (Interestingly, even if you don't count the direct-to-video Son of Batman, the character Wesker has a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 3: he was portrayed in Resident Evil: Afterlife by Shawn Roberts, who also has a Bacon number of 2 via appearing in Skinwalkers with Rhona Mitra, who appeared in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.)
- Mark Hamill has portrayed two characters in feature films with Ryu numbers of at most 4 (Luke Skywalker, via the path to Teräs Käsi described above, and Joker, via the path to Injustice shown above with Batman). Hamill has a Bacon number of 2, via appearing in Slipstream with Bill Paxton, who appeared in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon. Luke, Joker, and Hamill therefore have a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 6.
I note with profound regret that Padmé Amidala has not appeared in a Star Wars fighting game, or Natalie Portman would lay claim to the ultimate rarity, the nontrivial Ryu–Bacon–Erdős number.
Like the Erdős number in mathematics and academic publishing, or the Bacon number for co-star credits in screen acting, let's assign Ryu himself a Ryu number of 0. Everyone that Ryu has fought (i.e. directly shared a roster with in a fighting game) receives a number of 1; everyone who has fought those characters in turn are assigned a number of 2, and so on down the chain.
Not every video game character has a Ryu number, but a staggering proportion of them do, and some of their network distances may be lower than you might expect.
Examples:
- Via Pikachu/Lucario/Charizard in SSB4, the entire cast of Pokkén has a Ryu number of at most 2.
- Via Viewtiful Joe in MvC3, the entire cast of Red Hot Rumble (including many of VJ's bosses) also has Ryu number of at most 2.
- Spawn's Ryu number is 3. While Heihachi (1, Street Fighter X Tekken) and Link (1, SSB4) both appeared in Soulcalibur II, they were exclusive to different versions and therefore never directly shared a roster with Spawn, necessitating an additional connection via the Soulcalibur cast.
- Batman's Ryu number is at most 4: Ryu (MvC3) – Dante (PSASBR) – Kratos (MK 2011, PS3) – Scorpion (Injustice) – Batman.
- Luke Skywalker's Ryu number is at most 4: Ryu (SSB4) – Link (Soulcalibur II, GCN) – Nightmare (Soulcalibur IV) – Darth Vader (Masters of Teräs Käsi) – Luke.
Here I am only counting playable roster characters in fighting games: obviously, the collaboration network expands dramatically if you include assists or other all-star extravaganzas like kart racers, Musou spin-offs, or tactics crossovers. (If you do expand your reach to other kinds of guest appearances, however, you get a path to Killer Instinct via Kratos, Shovel Knight, and Battletoads.) I don't find it quite as interesting to count everything, but you wind up with coverage of nearly the whole industry if you do.
Just as interesting to ponder: the range of major franchises, IPs, and characters not connected to Ryu, whether or not you only count roster appearances in fighting games. With that restriction, I don't know if there is an alternate path to Killer Instinct; without that restriction, and opening the door to all kinds of crossover appearances, there still doesn't seem to be a way to get to anyone from Blizzard, for one. But the selection of fighting games wholly disconnected from Ryu is probably small. If a character has appeared in a fighting game, chances are they have a Ryu number, and I'd love to see what obscure or surprising finds we can uncover.
*
For bonus points, search for the lowest Ryu–Bacon number, a property of film portrayals of characters with Ryu numbers by actors with a finite collaboration distance from Kevin Bacon. Examples:
- Guile (Ryu number of 1, of course) was portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bacon number of 2, via appearing in Timecop with Bruce McGill, who appeared in Animal House with Kevin Bacon). Guile and Van Damme therefore have a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 3.
- Wesker (Ryu number of 1, MvC3) was portrayed by Jason O'Mara in Resident Evil: Extinction. If you count direct-to-video, O'Mara's Bacon number is 2, via starring in Son of Batman with Xander Berkeley, who appears with Kevin Bacon in A Few Good Men. Wesker and O'Mara therefore have a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 3. (Interestingly, even if you don't count the direct-to-video Son of Batman, the character Wesker has a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 3: he was portrayed in Resident Evil: Afterlife by Shawn Roberts, who also has a Bacon number of 2 via appearing in Skinwalkers with Rhona Mitra, who appeared in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.)
- Mark Hamill has portrayed two characters in feature films with Ryu numbers of at most 4 (Luke Skywalker, via the path to Teräs Käsi described above, and Joker, via the path to Injustice shown above with Batman). Hamill has a Bacon number of 2, via appearing in Slipstream with Bill Paxton, who appeared in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon. Luke, Joker, and Hamill therefore have a Ryu–Bacon number of at most 6.
I note with profound regret that Padmé Amidala has not appeared in a Star Wars fighting game, or Natalie Portman would lay claim to the ultimate rarity, the nontrivial Ryu–Bacon–Erdős number.
