Within a few seconds of hearing Ryu’s theme music, you know that some shit’s gonna go down.  Hell, hearing any one of the Street Fighters’ theme music will get you pumped.

The music for all the original Street Fighter II characters came from Yoko Shimomura, who was then a fresh graduate from Osaka College Music when Street Fighter II was being made.  Since then, she’s provided the scores for numerous other titles within Capcom and later, Squaresoft/Square Enix.  Like Kingdom Hearts.

Her music gave the Street Fighter franchise something awesome besides the game itself.  To me, it’s one of the most memorable gifts that Street Fighter has given us.

So thank you, Yoko Shimomura.

As for my personal favorite theme….?  It’d have to be Balrog’s.  Ryu’s is in a class of its own, but Balrog’s theme music just gets me hyped.