Sheng Long

Sheng Long is a character hoax related to the "Street Fighter" series, created by "Electronic Gaming Monthly" as an April Fool's gag and one of their most notable jokes. While the character does not actually exist within "Street Fighter" canon, the joke has had an influence on later releases of "Street Fighter II" and the arcade game based upon "".

Sheng Long's appearance was defined in "EGM"'s second usage of the joke in relation to "Street Fighter III". The artwork is not original, and is actually a modified illustration of Ryu from "Street Fighter Alpha 2" with Gen's face.

Origin

Official mentions

The name Sheng Long comes from a mistranslation of the "shō ryū" ( "rising dragon") of Ryu's "Shōryūken" (昇龍拳) into Chinese pinyin-- "shēng lóng." One of Ryu's win quotes in the English localization of the arcade version of "Street Fighter II" was "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance." The original win quote in the Japanese version actually translates to nihongo|"If you cannot break through the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!"|昇龍拳を破らぬ限り、おまえに勝ち目はない！|Shōryūken o yaburanu kagiri, omae ni kachime wa nai! However, the English translation gives the impression that Ryu is referring to a person (his supposed master), instead of simply being the name of one of his techniques.

The SNES port of "Street Fighter II" released shortly after the April Fool prank changed the translation to "You must defeat my Dragon Punch to stand a chance." However, the English instruction manual for the SNES "Street Fighter II", which embellished most of the character's backstories from the Japanese manual, refers to "Master Sheng Long" as Ryu and Ken's sensei. ["A student of Master Sheng Long, Ryu has developed into a pure warrior.", [http://www.replacementdocs.com/e107_files/downloads/Street_Fighter_II_-_Manual_-_SNS.pdf Street Fighter II SNES instruction manual, pg. 16] ] ["The only other disciple of Master Sheng Long, Ken is a natural athlete." [http://www.replacementdocs.com/e107_files/downloads/Street_Fighter_II_-_Manual_-_SNS.pdf Street Fighter II SNES instruction manual, pg. 24] ] The instruction manuals for the SNES and Genesis ports of "Street Fighter II Turbo", "Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition" and "Super Street Fighter II" replaced all references to Sheng Long by referring to Ryu and Ken as "disciples of Shotokan Karate". ["A student of the Shotokan school of Karate, Ryu has developed into a pure warrior.", "Street Fighter II Turbo SNES instruction manual, pg. 14] ["A disciple of the Shotokan school of karate, Ken is a natural athlete.", "Street Fighter II Turbo SNES instruction manual, pg. 22] A character named Gouken was later introduced in Masaomi Kanzaki's 1993 "Street Fighter II" manga as Ryu and Ken's sensei. The character was adapted into the series' backstory in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo".

Original EGM April Fools 1992

Because of Ryu's quote, rumors about Sheng Long actually being in the game spawned and players sent letters to video game publications attempting to confirm the character did indeed exist (see image, left). He would eventually appear as an April Fool's joke in the April 1992 issue of the video game magazine "Electronic Gaming Monthly". The fake reporter, named W.A. Stokins (Waste Tokens) of Fuldigan, HA (Fooled Again, HA) claimed that he could be found if the player (only as Ryu) did not suffer any damage during the entire game; then, once he reached the final match against M. Bison, he had to neither hit him nor let him inflict any damage until the time limit expired, thus ending the fight in a draw. This had to be repeated for ten consecutive rounds with Bison. If these conditions were met Sheng Long would then come out of nowhere and throw Bison off of the screen and out of the way, and the clock would lock at 99 seconds, resulting in a "fight to the death."

Sheng Long was stated to feature the special moves of all the fighters (including Chun-Li's "Spinning Bird Kick"), but did much more damage and was also faster, and his "Dragon Punch" was "revealed" to consume his fist in flames to show his greater power (much like would happen to Ken in "Super Street Fighter II").

According to GameSpot, the joke became an international sensation when publications from Europe and Hong Kong reprinted the trick without verifying it or asking "EGM"'s permission, and a Hong Kong based comic based around "Street Fighter II" by Jademan Comics altered their story just to include the character. [http://www.gamespot.com/features/vgs/universal/sfhistory/char_sheng_long.html Sheng Long article on GameSpot] ] "EGM" revealed in the following issue that Sheng Long was a hoax.

EGM April Fools 1997

This was not the end of Sheng Long, though. "EGM" perpetuated the hoax again by claiming that he was in "Street Fighter III" in 1997. They did not finish their explanation of how to reach him; "To reach him, you will need at least six perfects and..." were the last words of the article. Additionally, the words "April Fools" were spelled out in the first letter of the first ten sentences of the article. ["EGM #93", April 1997]

The character itself was expanded on greatly, however; Sheng Long was now specifically stated to be the American name for the character Gouken, much like Akuma is the American name for Gouki. His profile listed in the article paralleled Gouken's almost exactly, but instead of Akuma killing him he was knocked into a raging river. The result gave him a scar over his eye, and a desire to get revenge on his brother. To this end he revived several "killing techniques" of his fighting style, which were to include an air version of Akuma's red fireball that knocks his opponent down, a double ground high-low "Hadouken", an unblockable "Denjin-Shinryuu-Ken" Super Art that would shock the opponent, an air rapid "Hadouken" Super Art akin to one of Ibuki's, and a Super Art intended to be a stronger version of the "Shun Goku Satsu".

Legacy

Akuma

The Sheng Long rumor is often credited with inspiring the creation of Akuma, a character who debuted as a hidden final boss in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", due to their similarities, [ [http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3147775 EGM RETRO: 200 Issues of Us from 1up.com] . 1Up.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-01] although Capcom has never officially confirmed nor denied this. As in the hoax, the process of fighting Akuma would require certain achievements met during the game, and then Akuma would interrupt the final match of the game between the player and M. Bison.

"Street Fighter: The Movie"

Sheng Long is mentioned twice in "Street Fighter: The Movie", in the endings for Ryu, [ [http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/d/sfm.htm Ending For Street Fighter: The Movie - Ryu] . VGMuseum. Retrieved on 2008-06-01] Ken, [ [http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/d/sfmken.htm Ending For Street Fighter: The Movie - Ken] . VGMuseum. Retrieved on 2008-06-01] and Akuma. [ [http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/d/sfmaku.htm Ending For Street Fighter: The Movie - Akuma] . VGMuseum. Retrieved on 2008-06-01] In each, he's stated as the master of Ryu and Ken and Akuma's brother, but never stated as dead. Despite the repeated mention, Sheng Long himself makes no appearance in the game.

On January 30, 2007, the game's designer, Alan Noon, appeared on [http://shoryuken.com Shoryuken.com] 's forum and discussed many aspects of the game, some of which were not included in the final product, [Michael McWhertor. [http://kotaku.com/gaming/street-fighter/inside-look-at-street-fighter-the-movie-the-game-232658.php Inside Look At Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game] . Kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-03] . He later compiled these statements into a PDF hosted on his blog. According to Noon, while shooting and digitizing the character images for the "" arcade game, talk had been circulating about adding extra characters that weren't in the film. As the Sheng Long hoax was still fairly recent at the time, and Akuma having just debuted in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", the designers asked for Capcom's permission to add both Akuma and Sheng Long. Capcom approved the addition of Akuma, but denied the inclusion of Sheng Long. A stunt actor from the film posed as Akuma and was included in the game. Unexpectedly, during the digitization sessions, Capcom came back and approved the addition of Sheng Long. Noon points out in his postings that Capcom had ambitions that the game would crush "Mortal Kombat II", and be one of the greatest of the series, which no doubt lead to the decision to add Sheng Long. Noon was given the chance to design the character, giving him a mandarin style gi, and one hand taking the form of a dragon's claw, citing that Sheng Long's power was so great, that he began to physically transform into a dragon. Capcom approved the design, and another stunt actor posed as Sheng Long. However, Capcom changed their minds before the digitizing process could be completed and the concept was abandoned. [McWhertor, Michael (2007-01-30). [http://kotaku.com/gaming/street-fighter/inside-look-at-street-fighter-the-movie-the-game-232658.php Inside Look At Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game] . Kotaku. Retrieved on 2008-09-22]

Capcom April Fools 2008

In the January 2008 Issue of EGM, "Street Fighter IV" producer Yoshinori Ono stated "Let's just say that [jokes] that your magazine have reported in the past might find their way into the game as fan service." Executive editor Shane Bettenhausen took this to mean the appearance of Sheng Long in "Street Fighter IV", though added that if the character did appear in the game, it would be Gouken. [Electronic Gaming Monthly, Dec 2007, pg. 72] When asked in a later interview by 1UP.com regarding Sheng Long in the game, Ono replied "Are you coming to the Tokyo Game Show? How about you ask me that question again then." [Kennedy, Sam (2008-08-20). [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169458 Street Fighter 4 Producer Talks Wii, Dimps, and Sheng Long] . 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-20]

In April 2008, Capcom announced Sheng Long as a "secret, unlock-able character" in their Japanese development blog for "Street Fighter IV" [ [http://www.capcom-fc.com/sf4/2008/04/post_19.html 「特殊条件キャラクター！」　プロジェクトマネージャー：塩沢夏希] Retrieved on 2008-04-01] and later posted in their official US blog [ [http://blog.capcom.com/archives/1089 New Street Fighter IV Unlockables!] Retrieved on 2008-04-01] at the same time showing a silhouette of the character. The post took the tone of a Capcom PR representative trying to announce a character without giving away too many details, hinting that "Sheng Long is Ryu's..." then holding back and saying to wait for an official character announcement. Similar and possibly in homage to the original "EGM" joke, the post lists the method to unlock him as requiring the player to win every round as Ryu without taking any damage whatsoever and then perform a "Shoryuken" during the final boss fight. Reception to the joke the third time was negative, [Michael McWhertor. [http://kotaku.com/374800/sheng-long-we-wont-get-fooled-again Sheng Long: We Won't Get Fooled Again] . Kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-01] including a jab from 1Up.com. [ [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3167209 April Fools' Day Round Up news from 1UP.com] 1Up.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-01] The following day, the Japanese website confirmed that it was indeed a joke, and explained the origin of Sheng Long. [http://www.capcom-fc.com/sf4/2008/04/41.html 「昨日は4/1」　プロジェクトマネージャー：塩沢夏希] Retrieved on 2008-04-02]

References

External links

* [http://www.fightingstreet.com/folders/variousinfofolder/shenglong/shenglong.html FightingStreet.com article on Sheng Long]