Ryu (SF2) vs Axel (SOR2)

In the first part for our regular feature, Mark Woods from Bogota/Orpington asks, “Who would win in a fight, Axel (from Streets of Rage 2) or Ryu (SF2)? There’s only one way to find out, FIGHT! Or, er, carefully considered “analysis”…

 

STRENGTH

The physique of these characters can never be in any doubt, especially if you’ve seen Ryu in SF4 where his biceps are larger than his head.  This incarnation of Axel can throw anything and anyone with ease whereas Axel from the original SOR constantly had “Fat Joe” fall on top of him.  Ryu can also hurl Zangief and E. Honda across the room with consummate ease although Axel’s stronger jabs dispatch enemies quicker.

Ryu – 8, Axel – 9

SPEED

Axel is undoubtedly the quickest character in SOR but is bested by Skate (oh dear) in SOR2.  Ryu too is considered slower than his main rival Ken.  For sheer glidability (that’s right) across the deck, Axel steals this one.

Ryu- 7, Axel – 8

 

STAMINA

As Mark pointed out in his initial communication to me, “Axel is a street brawler with the incredible stamina to vanquish dozens of enemies one after the other, often several at a time. Ryu is used to the confines of 99 second three-round combat and may tire easily.”  Whilst this is true, it can also be said that Ryu is sometimes pushed to three rounds by some opponents and manages to fly around the world in an hour which can only mean horrific jet lag.  He also doesn’t get tens of apples and roast chickens on the way.

Ryu – 8, Axel – 8

 

AGILITY

There’s only one winner here.  Whilst Axel can cut through swathes of foe, he hits them dead-on (pun intended) and rarely avoids a blow.  In fact, when faced with someone like Jet he will resort to his (admittedly impressive) flaming punch as a get-out clause.  This is further demonstrated by the fact that Blaze and Adam (from SOR) can both jump higher than him.  Ryu’s jump alone – standing at a good two storeys high, demonstrates agility beyond any normal human being,  Whilst also being able to helicopter kick mid air and get serious distance with a dragon punch means that Ryu can cover more metres per second (I estimate 3m/sec) than Axel (at best guess, 1.5m/sec).

Ryu – 9, Axel – 6

 

CUNNING

In my opinion this is purely down to the fighting arena.  For this series we’ll assume a boxing ring whereby we can all spectate.  On the face of it, Ryu looks the more likely victor given his increased agility and hadoken to keep Axel at bay.  The boxing ring however is a confined space where perhaps Axel’s “Grand Upper” and the aforementioned dragon punch combo come into play.  Here it appears, the boxing ring is the great leveller.

Ryu- 8, Axel – 8

 

OVERALL: Ryu – 40, Axel – 39

 

So Ryu gets it, but it’s far from a PERFECT.  You get the sense that if you gave Axel a few steel pipes and some roast chickens (as he is accustomed to) he’d probably pip it.  But this is a face-off where no peripherals are allowed, and so…

 

 

Ryu…YOU WIN.