Ryu (Street Fighter) the development team, was meant to let viewers know he was "a karate master at first sight". In an interview with "Game On!", Capcom Research and Development head Noritaka Funamizu stated that of the series' characters, Ryu was one of the most popular characters with American audiences, alongside Zangief and Guile. For "Street Fighter IV", Kyle Hebert was cast as Ryu in preparation of the return of his "Evil Ryu" persona. In an interview with Gamereactor, Ansah talked about Ryu and Ken's story from "Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist" and said "a good analogy with Ryu is that he's not actually
Ryu Hayabusa kick a whole lot of ass in fantastically gruesome ways over the span of his 20-year career." "PLAY" featured Ryu from "Ninja Gaiden Sigma" in their 2011 selection of the top ten PlayStation ninjas, for his ability, they wrote, to "decapitate fourteen enemies in the space of twelve seconds." "Complex" ranked Ryu as the second-"swiftest" ninja in 2012. Lisa Foiles of "The Escapist" named Ryu ("one sexy ninja") first in her 2014 list of the top five katana wielders. In 2009, GameDaily listed the "badass ninja" in their top 25 video game archetypes, using Ryu as an example, and featured