Hadouken

This article is about the Street Fighter move. For the English band, see Hadouken!

File:Hadouken - Ryu to Ken.jpg

Ryu (left) performs a Hadouken against Ken in Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting.

Hadouken (波動拳, hadōken, IPA: [hadoːkẽꜜɴ], a Japanese neologism, literally "wave motion fist") also written Hadoken, is a special attack from the Street Fighter videogame series, which is used by the characters Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Akuma (Gouki in Japan), and Gouken. The move is achieved by the character thrusting their palms forward, sending a surge of spirit energy (or ki) flying towards the opponent (see chi blast). It is normally performed by the player moving the joystick or D-pad a quarter circle forward towards the opponent from the down position, then pressing a punch button (so, for example, a character facing to the right would execute the move by pressing ↓, ↘, →, and then "punch" in a smooth motion).

Most fighting games of the sprite-based era used projectile special moves, and while the actual type of projectile launched varies from game to game and character to character, the execution and behavior of these attacks are often rather similar to the Hadouken. These moves are sometimes informally referred to as a "hadouken", or fireball. The Hadouken can usually be performed in three different degrees depending on which type punch is used; these will affect its speed, damage caused on impact, amount of recovery frames, and sometimes its range. The Hadouken itself has many variations depending on the character in question that the move is associated with. For example, both Ryu and Akuma have used a fire-based variant of the move called the Shakunetsu Hadouken or "Blazing Surge Fist", which briefly engulfs its target in flames.

Later titles in the series that use super combo moves ramp up the power of the hadouken, evolving it into the Shinkuu Hadouken (真空波動拳 - Vacuum Surge Fist). This takes one of two forms depending on the game: an outsized fireball, or a blast of constant energy. The latest game in the series, Street Fighter IV ramps it up one more time with Ryu's Ultra Combo, the "Metsu Hadoken".

The Street Fighter characters that use the Hadouken are Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Gouken and Akuma. Others in the Street Fighter series use a similar move, but have their own names for it - Kairi and Allen Snyder both have such a move, the latter calling it Fire Force. Dhalsim spits fire, as befits his character, and Chun-Li eventually gains a projectile move she calls the Kikouken. Dan Hibiki utilizes a single-handed projectile called the Gadouken (Self-Taught Fist), which has barely any range or power.

Appearances in popular culture

• The Haudouken! has been seen several times in the Capcom platformer Mega Man X series. It was a hidden Easter egg ability in the first game (Mega Man X) and its remake (Mega Man Maverick Hunter X). In Mega Man X4, Magma Dragoon uses the move (the copy of Magma Dragoon also uses the move in Mega Man X5). It was also available to the player in the Mega Man Xtreme games. The Tails Clan, a group of secret bosses in Mega Man X: Command Mission, use a move called "Annihilator Hadouken".

• Black Mage of the webcomic 8-Bit Theater also uses the move, although it is spelled Hadoken. There are several parody Hadouken moves in the comic, including "Fighterdoken", "me-doken", "Hadouyastopthis" and "boatdoken". It is eventually revealed that the Hadouken spell in the comic is literally powered by love, in that every time it is cast, the overall divorce rate in the universe increases. Red Mage's term for the technique, Unda Pugneus, is roughly Latin for "Surge Fist".

• In the limited edition PC fighting game Lucky Star Chronicle from PS2 Lucky Star, Konata can use the Hadouken.

• The Leeds, West Yorkshire based grindie/dance-punk band Hadouken! takes its name from the Street Fighter move.

• In Team Fortress 2, the Hadouken is one of the taunts of the Pyro class; in the PC version, the taunt is a guaranteed kill to any foe clumsy enough to be hit by it.

• In All New World of Lemmings, The Shadow Tribe Lemmings can perform the Hadouken. As described in the manual: "this is a fighting device - a weapon from an ancient Lemming Martial Art, Lemdo. Since it is magically empowered, it will throw out a fireball when used. This won't hurt other Lemmings because they are the good guys and kill all the creatures because they are the Bad Guys."

• In Fallout 2, the boxers in New Reno's gym will sometimes shout "Hadouken!" while fighting.

• In Metal Slug series, some prisoners you save during missions will fight alongside with you, using Hadoukens and melee attacks.

• In World of Warcraft, a paladin non-player character named Artemisfei first used and conceptualized the Hadouken in the game. When fighting alongside the player, he creates a large fireball from his palm that deals massive damage, especially on high leveled enemies. There is also a Tauren non-player character named Hadoken Swiftstrider.

• Kenny Omega (Tyson Smith) uses the Hadouken as a wrestling move in JAPW.

• In the Looking for Group comic, Richard is seen performing Hadouken while trying to escape from the plane where he is trapped along with his familiar.

• On David Firth's website fat-pie.com, the character Jerry Jackson's Super Mario Brothers parody features Sonic the Hedgehog using the move.

See also

• Combo (video games)
• Turtle (gaming)