The Hadoken/Hadouken (波動拳, lit. "Surge Fist", a Japanese neologism, also literally "Wave Motion Fist"), also sometimes spelled as "Hadouken" is a special attack that originated in the classic Capcom fighting video game series, Street Fighter. The practitioner thrusts his or her palms forward, sending a surge of spirit energy (or ki/chi) flying towards the opponent.
The Hadoken is considered the series' most famous attack alongside Shoryuken, and has received a large amount of parodies and references in media. The Hadoken itself is often featured in the intros of various Street Fighter games, usually at the end, the trend starting from as early as Super Street Fighter II to the recent Super Street Fighter IV.
Trivia[]
- Oddly enough, in the Street Fighter series, a Shinku Hadoken is depicted as one projectile that deals multiple hits. However, in the Street Fighter Alpha animated movie and the Marvel vs. Capcom series, they are shown as a beam of chi energy.
- The sprites for the Hadoken in the 2D games vary wildly from character to character, with Ryu and Sakura mostly using newer sprites (Until MvC1 where Ryu merely used the sprites for Ken's Hadoken), Akuma using a variant of is Alpha sprites and in Ken's case for X-Men vs Street Fighter only, his Hadoken sprites were taken from Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior-Street Fighter Alpha 3 and coloured light green. In the next game, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Ken's Hadoken sprites were changed to a unique, larger appearance.
- The VS series is currently the only game where Ken can perform Akuma's Zanku Hadoken special. It wouldn't be the last time Ken would imitate another shotoclone's moves as in Namco X Capcom he can perform a Shin Shoryuken.
- If one looks closely at a Hadouken, they can see an image of the user's palms inside the ball of ki. This mainly applies to certain versions of the Hadouken's appearance, however, and is mainly more visible in games that have less lightning effects on energy-based moves (barring games such as Capcom vs. SNK 1 and 2).
- The voice line of Shakunetsu Hadoken, along with Ryu's Denjin Hadoken are found unused in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
- The Tenma Gozanku - Ungyo animation appears in Street Fighter 6, which replaces the reused Zanku Hadoken animation, when Tenma Gozanku and its ground counterpart Messatsu Gohado returns as Level 1 Super Arts.