I think the problem is how some games get translated from many languages to another provides some problems. This one being the most famous one.
In street fighter II the game was translated from Japanese > chinese > English. This lead to this quote Ryu says to defeated opponents that was later fixed. It should say "You must defeat my shoryuken to stand a chance" Referencing his move in the game. The move shoryuken translates to "Rising Dragon Punch" but Shen long is also called a dragon in China, sounds familiar? (Dragonball has a dragon called "SHENRON" in english version)
This was confusing to people who thought Shen long was his master or some secret character in the game rather than his move. This is how some games are translated. They get translated from various languages sometimes and can often lead to bad context when not corrected. I mentioned some of this briefly in my Terranigma review.
This bad translation, was the reason for the creation of Akuma and Gouken, since the fans asked so hard for them.
Sheng Long (シェンロン
Shenron?) is a character once thought to appear in the original
Street Fighter II game. He is regarded as the most famous character hoax not only in the history of
Street Fighter, but in all of fighting games.
The name "Sheng Long" was based on a mistranslation of "
Shoryuken", found in one of
Ryu's early victory quotes,
"You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance". The large amount of fans questioning the quote lead to a rumor spread by
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) that Sheng Long was actually a secret boss character fought under extreme conditions. The whole hoax would become one of the most famous hoaxes and video game legends in gaming history, spreading globally.
The hoax influenced the creation of both
Akuma and
Gouken as characters in the
Street Fighter series, with the former appearing in
Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a secret boss. Fan appeal for the character affected later
Capcom titles, with public requests for the inclusion of Sheng Long in an actual video game leading to the consideration of his inclusion in the
The Movie video game and years later resulting in the appearance of Gouken as both a secret boss and playable character in
Street Fighter IV.
The name Sheng Long comes from a mistranslated portion of
Ryu's
Shoryuken;
"shō ryū" (昇 龍, "rising dragon") from
Shōryūken (昇龍拳, "Rising Dragon Fist"), Ryu's flying uppercut, is
"shēng lóng" in Chinese pinyin. This was carried into one of Ryu's quotes to defeated opponents in the English localization of the 1991 arcade game
Street Fighter II, changing the Japanese quote, "
If you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Fist, you cannot win!" (昇龍拳を破らぬ限り、おまえに勝ち目はない
Shōryūken wo yaburanu kagiri, omae ni kachime wa nai!?) to "
You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance." As a result players were given the impression that Ryu was referring to an actual person instead of the physical attack itself.
Source:
http://streetfighter.wikia.com/
