Since there's so many retcons and certain things clash with each other and all I'm only going to sum up the story for Street Fighter starting from the first one through Street Fighter 3 not including 4 because it hasn't come out yet and I don't want to put anything up that can be completely wrong. Going to do this game by game and going by the story chronologically rather than when the games were released.
Street Fighter 1:
The plot is fairly simple for this (especially since a lot of things are retconned anyway. (What does retcon mean? Definition of Retcon Anyway back to business. The first Street Fighter is about an international Street Fighting tournament hosted by The Emperor Of Muay Thai Sagat, who was also the final character you had to fight in the game. Ryu participates in the tournament and fights the likes of Birdie, Eagle, Gen, Mike, Adon and others to get to Sagat. Ryu and Sagat face off. How Sagat got his scar is during this fight. Ryu gives him one heck of a shoryuken. Some people claim that the shoryuken that scarred Sagat was one by Ryu overtaken by the satsui no hadou. This is an example of what I mentioned before a retcon. As satsui no hadou wasn't even a thought yet at the time. Also want to point out that while Ken was usable in the game he wasn't in this tournament. He was actually in other tournaments. If you played Alpha I'm sure you must remember the mention of Ken being the US martial arts champion.
Final Fight:
Yes Final Fight and Street Fighter are in the same universe and the events of the first Final Fight game coincide with the first Street Fighter. trivia: Final Fight was going to actually be Street Fighter 2 even going so far as being name Street Fighter '89 at one point. but seeing as it was so different from Street Fighter became it's own game.
The story for Final Fight is that a gang calling themselves Mad Gear has kidnapped the mayor Mike Haggar's daughter Jessica to blackmail him into letting them do what they want. Haggar takes it upon himself to fight the gang and get his daughter back along with Jessica's boyfriend Cody and his friend Guy. After beating up countless Mad Gear thugs they finally reach Belger the boss of Mad Gear and Cody punches him out of a window, killing him. When Cody sees Jessica in the ending to the game he tells her that he must continue fighting evil in the streets. Presumably this is how he was thrown in jail as you see in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
Ok here's something about the next game. Since in this series of games the next one overrides the previous one I'm only going to be talking about the 3rd one.
Street Fighter Alpha 3:
Oy, and this one is the most convoluted one. >< Ok here's the important stuff then. M. Bison (Vega) tracks Ryu down interested in his satsui no hadou power and captures and brainwashes him to fight for him with psycho power. Sagat who is now not concerned with hate or revenge solely finds Ryu like this and is disgusted with what Bison did with him. Ken and Sakura also find Ryu and M. Bison (Vega) and begin to fight him while Sagat fights brainwashed Ryu. In the fight with Sagat, Ryu snaps out of his brainwashing and knocks Bison away as well, forcing him to retreat. After this Cammy who was Bison's assassin "doll" was beginning to come to her senses and started to rebel against him. She found the other "dolls" like Juni and Juli and convinced them that to Bison they're all just expendable. So Cammy and all the dolls rebel against Bison and Bison nearly kills them all. They somehow forced him to retreat again anyway and Cammy was able to use the Psycho Drive to save the rest of the dolls. Then comes the last main part which is with Charlie, Guile and Chun Li. Guile catches up with Charlie and Chun Li who were already trying to destroy Shadaloo and helps them to do so. They nearly destroy Shadaloo (as you know they're still around in SF2) and destroy their main base while Charlie holds off Bison in the base while it explodes.
Street Fighter 2:
Hey! Finally the one everybody played.
Ok here goes Bison is made a new body by scientists and his soul is transferred from Rose (who was his good half) into this body. Bison then hosts the World Warrior tournament as a way of getting revenge and by removing anyone who would stand in his way of world domination. This one is kind of muddy with regards to what actually happened. What is confirmed is that Akuma (Gouki) who wasn't even part of the tournament did indeed step in and kill Bison with the Shun Goku Satsu. If you played Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo with a high enough score you can actually see this happen and fight Akuma instead of Bison. I've never done it though. >< Another thing that definitely happened Ken married Eliza. Something you may have not known is that Eliza is Guile's wife Julia's sister. So in fact Ken and Guile are brothers in law. Hmm, if you want to help in developing this one go right ahead.
Skipping 4 for now.
Street Fighter 3:
A mysterious new organization shows up led by a man named Gill called the Illuminati. He hosts a new tournament in hopes of finding the "chosen one" who will be a part of his utopia. Like part two not a lot is known about this tournament but a little more is known than in part two. Ken beats Sean (pretty obvious) Ryu lost to Oro and Oro didn't show up for his fight with Alex so Alex won the tournament. Then there is Street Fighter 3 Third Strike which happens after the tournament. (So Street Fighter 3 New Generation and Second Impact was the tournament and Third Strike was after) Alex the "champion" tries to fight Ryu and gets whupped. The Ryu fights Ken for the fun of it and wins. Yun fights with Gill who is still alive after the end of the tournament. Basically the game was more about Alex. Alex seeks revenge against Gill for beating up his friend Tom and gets to fight Gill but not kill him, then in Third Strike, like Ryu Alex is determined to find stronger opponents and looks for Ryu. As stated before you know what happens when he finds him. After the fight Alex writes a letter to Tom stating that he must continue to wander and fight and doesn't come back home.
Well that's it. I hope you find it helpful and if you have any questions or improvements tell me in a comment or a pm.
