30 Years of Street Fighter, 30 Days of Characters; #26

If there were a contest as to who was the coolest Street Fighter universe character ever the front runner might be Cracker Jack, aka C. Jack or simply Jack. The character made his debut in 1996 in Street Fighter EX. Jack was designed to be mysterious and interesting at the same time. The shirt and tie, and even hat were supposed to be reminiscent of Shadowlaw field agents. It was actually an old trope from comics and cartoons. Tough guys like mobsters and sometimes detectives wore the dark suit and tie. Except that Jack was not a bad guy. He was a bodyguard / double agent working for an organization fighting crime. Jack was like a super cop that played by his own rules. 

Jack fought with mostly punches in the series. He had an occasional grapple and body slam he could execute but he was a pure striker. He didn't have any fireball or other supernatural attacks to give him a ranged advantage but he did have something that none of the other characters had; a baseball bat. Jack could strike quickly and cut the distance between himself and his opponent. He really controlled the screen with the swing of his bat. He could strike away fireballs from a distance and smash the ribs of an opponent that wandered too close. This no-nonsense brawling that he had made him stand out from the traditional Street Fighter characters which were mostly based on martial arts.

The team at ARIKA that designed the character kept him mysterious on purpose. They were vague on his affiliation, vague on his allies and even vague on his origin. They even made sure to make it difficult to see the face of the character. With his shaggy hair, sideburns and hat you could never get a clear look at his face. In canon the fighter went missing for years. He was found hiding out in the American Southwest. Whether is was to protect his former employer, on stakeout for a top secret mission or just to avoid his past was unknown. His transition from city brawler to fighting cowboy was one of the great redesigns in fighting game history. What do you think about non-traditional fighters in the Street Fighter universe? Would you like to see more of them? Please let me know in the comments. 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!