30 years of Street Fighter, 30 Days of Characters; #18

If you've been playing Street Fighter for some time you know when some characters are fan favorites and others not so much. Cammy entered the Street Fighter universe like a wrecking ball. The tiny blonde secret agent from Great Britain was an immediate success. There were a number of reasons why she took off in popularity. She debuted in 1993 with the release of Super Street Fighter II. She was accompanied by Fei Long, Dee Jay and T. Hawk. As you probably know the four characters were originally going to appear in Street Fighter III. Capcom had a runaway hit when Street Fighter II debuted in 1991. SNK was breathing down their neck with the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting series. The US was making waves with Mortal Kombat. Capcom needed to stay a step ahead of the competition so they released upgrade kits for Street Fighter II, known as the Turbo and Championship versions of the game. These updates balanced the game play, added the ability to play as boss characters and introduced other new features. It was much cheaper for an arcade to get an upgrade than to outright buy a new game. Plans for Street Fighter III were scrubbed and the characters meant for it was rolled into the Super upgrade.

So what was it about Cammy that made her stand out in Super Street Fighter II? She was originally going to be the female lead in Street Fighter III. She was designed to be a replacement for Chun-Li. As such she had to be as powerful and visually memorable. Only Ken and Ryu were scheduled to return in SF III. The rest of the cast would be created entirely from scratch. Much more forethought was given to Cammy than any other new fighter and it showed. The choice of color, the cut of her uniform, the use of metal gauntlets and heavy boots all mirrored the design elements from Chun-Li. When Chun-Li was in the design phase she looked like a generic female character. The studio had to go back and rework her costume and background in order to make her interesting. With a template in place Cammy was much easier to design.

Cammy is a member of Delta Red, an elite special forces unit from overseas. Chances are her teammates would have been more involved in the plot of Street Fighter III, possibly even one or two might have been made playable. Instead they were reworked to fit into the story of Street Fighter II. Cammy's strength and speed is explained as she is a product of Delta Red and also an agent of Shadowlaw as well. She was brainwashed at the time but received additional training from the main villains in the series. As far as I can recall Cammy is the only character in the game series to actually appear on both sides of the Shadowlaw conflict. This unique origin combined with a solid design and some great moves made her stand out in the Super Street Fighter II upgrade. After 25 years she enjoys continuing popularity in the series. Like the most unique characters in the series Cammy is here to stay. I look forward to seeing how she evolves over the next 30 years. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!