Showing posts with label birdie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birdie. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Bookmark This Page; where did the Capcom giants come from?
Sometimes my biggest series are very short, if you love fighting game giants then Bookmark This Page.
Monday, April 6, 2026
Bookmark This Page; Capcom fumbles the designs in Street Fighter V.
I’m probably best known for my deep dives on fighting character designs. There was something about the work that went into Street Fighter IV, and V that seemed out of place. If you want to see how Capcom missed the mark with some character designs then Bookmark This Page.
Did you like or loathe the character designs in Street Fighter V. Let me know about it in the comments section. 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!
Friday, June 8, 2018
30 years of Street Fighter, 30 Days of Characters; #23
Today we celebrate Birdie, one of the original Street Fighter characters. He is one of the select few that appeared in 1987 and was brought back a few times as a playable character. Those old enough to remember the original game also recall that there were only two playable characters, Ken and Ryu. The duo traveled the globe and fought masters of various martial arts. Birdie was significant for a number of reasons. His size was one of them but aside from that he had a strong look. His mohawk haircut, leather vest, pants, and spiked bracelets let people know that he was a punk and not afraid of a fight. Also Birdie didn't represent any style of fighting, he was a legitimate street fighter. He swung his massive arms wildly and headbutted his opponents. There was nothing graceful about the character but he was very good at what he did.
Birdie wouldn't return again until 1995 with the debut of Street Fighter Zero / Alpha. When audiences saw him again he had a radical new look. Actually his look didn't change as much as the aesthetic. The legendary Bengus redrew all the characters and greatly exaggerated their proportions. Birdie was always a physically strong character, only now he appeared absolutely massive. His arms were now as thick as his legs. His mohawk, leather vest, and brown boots all returned. He had a few new accessories; jewelry, a tattoo, handcuffs and a chain all solidified his makeover. Of course the other thing that audiences noticed was his skin color. Birdie went from a white guy to a black guy in the span of eight years. The moves that he had in the original Street Fighter were preserved. He still relied on his club-like punches and headbutt. He could even use the chain on his arm as a makeshift lasso. The style wasn't pretty but it was very effective.
Despite his odd appearance Birdie was a sympathetic character. His friendship with Ryu was explored in the Street Fighter Zero manga. He also happens to be a character that bridges together the various continuities. Birdie helped connect the Street Fighter and Street Fighter II timelines in Street Fighter Zero. He also helped bring wrestlers into the fold as well. Mike "Macho" Haggar, the mayor of Metro City, was one of the stars of Final Fight (1989). Most people know that he also appeared as a pro wrestler in the Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slammasters series. In the game they mentioned that the giant Titanic Tim aka Titan the Great was the tag team partner of Birdie. This became canon when the official team art was released for Street Fighter Zero. Birdie was always a fun character to play as. Up close he could mangle opponents with his "Murderer Chain" and he could even leap across the screen for a surprise beating. I'm not fond of what the designers at Capcom did to him in Street Fighter V but I will nonetheless remember him for how unique he made the Street Fighter universe. 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!
Thursday, August 3, 2017
A look at the big man, where did the Capcom giants come from? Final Part
Hugo was a true giant, and a template for many of the great design elements that used to be a part of the Street Fighter series. He was the second largest ever Street Fighter. At 7' 10" he was just a hair shorter than Abigail. The developers used a number of tricks to make him appear larger-than-life but still relatable. Even when they weren't playable characters in a game the giants were hard to ignore. Andore along with a few Mad Gear members appeared in the ending for Sodom in Street Fighter Zero. Both Andore and Abigail appeared in the Metro City background in Street Fighter Zero 2. To make them appear more imposing they were set apart from each other and framed by their surroundings. Andore stood by himself on top of a stack of I-beams, adding a few extra feet to his presence. Abigail was headbanging at the end of a dark alley, his fellow gang members squatting down next to him so he appeared taller. Even though they were in the distance they remained menacing.
These stages also served to tell a story. The events of Final Fight happened during the timeline in between Street Fighter Zero (SFZ) 2 and 3. Jessica had not been kidnapped during SFZ1 and 2. Cody was in jail for throwing Belger out of his skyscraper during SFZ3. Fans of the Final Fight games remember the bad blood that the Mad Gear gang had with Cody, Haggar and Guy. The subtext of having everyone on the level gave audiences a strong sense of nostalgia. At the same time Andore was getting tired of being a mid-level Mad Gear member. He wanted to be recognized. Poison Kiss, a fellow Mad Gear member, decided he should be a pro wrestler and became his manager. The stage backgrounds evolved from Andore sulking in the background to eventually show Hugo as a star on a billboard. The groundwork was set for his debut as a full blown pro wrestler in Street Fighter III. A US development team even took a crack at making a Final Fight fighting game with a similar narrative. Final Fight Revenge was released in 1999.
Kinu Nishimura and Daigo Ikeno worked on a number of the Street Fighter III designs. They wanted Hugo to be the new powerhouse, the new Zangief, since only Ken and Ryu were originally meant to return from Street Fighter II. This giant was supposed to use a different play mechanic than Zangief. He was going to play different, move different and thanks to Kinu and Ikeno he was going to look different as well. The basic appearance of Hugo would be the same as it was in the original Final Fight. His look had actually changed a little over the sequels. In Final Fight 2 he sported overalls and in Final Fight 3 he had a white tank-top and dread-locked hair. The pink leopard print tank top and pants returned from the first Final Fight. The large mane of hair, a nod to the early hairstyle of Andre the Giant, had also returned. His inclusion was supposed to rekindle a sense of nostalgia for the legacy characters. Most people didn't notice the number of changes the studio actually made to his design.
The new details that Capcom placed on the character were actually enhancing a few elements of his original look. Most Street Fighter characters wore gloves or taped up hands. Hugo was given a studded wrist guard to make his arms look less bare. The chain on his belt became much thicker and more industrial. It now looked more like a heavy duty towing chain, or anchor chain. The most overlooked details were his pants and boots. Hugo was not only tall but he was very heavy. His pants and shoes were actually two large pairs that were sewn together so they could fit him. The cuffs on his pants had belt loops and a belt to highlight that his ankles were as thick as most people's waists. His boots were split down the middle because they were a left and right pair combined to fit each foot. As with all of the great character designs, Hugo's costume told a story.
Although Hugo was supposed to be in the original Street Fighter III: New Generation (1997) his sprite wasn't ready until Street Fighter III: Giant Attack later that year. After the events of Street Fighter Zero/Alpha he had accomplished his goals of being a top draw on the wrestling circuit and leaving behind the Mad Gear persona. He achieved a number of championships as a pro wrestler during the events of Street Fighter III: Third Strike in 1999 and Final Fight Revenge. The character had greatly evolved since his debut in 1989 but when a new development team took over at Capcom things changed. When Hugo reappeared in Street Fighter X Tekken (2012) and Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014) he had mentally regressed. The new developers made a conscious decision to dumb him down considerably. Poison had done most of the talking for Hugo but at the same time he could still form his own ideas and opinions in the series. Almost overnight he was turned into a bumbling idiot, like Abigail, and that was a shame. Being a dumb brute was never part of their original designs.
The people working on Street Fighter IV and V did not always preserve the character's original designs while updating their look. In some cases they haphazardly slapped together elements that had nothing to do with the fighter. Just look at the changes they made to the character Birdie. Compare the newer costume details placed on Hugo with those placed on Abigail. To let audiences know he was a punk rather than a wrestler they gave him a spiked collar (he originally had a chain around his neck). To show off his size they put truck tires around his biceps. Then hung car tires from his belt and gave him rings made out of small tires. They even printed tire marks on his pants, as if someone tried to run him over. Stealing a page out of Hugo's design they put a belt around his ankles. None of these things were part of Abigail's original design, none of these things were functional in battle and none of these things had the same subtlety of the other Street Fighter costume designs. Remember that Abigail wasn't always a moron. He was a fighter, and he had a temper, but he wasn't an idiot. He was very high up in the chain of command, only Rolento outranked him in Metro City's Mad Gear organization. But you know... tires!
Another major difference between Hugo and Abigail in Street Fighter was seen with their inclusion. Abigail was a huge 3D model that was put in Street Fighter V as a spectacle. He took up so much space on the screen he was hard to ignore. His mass offset the scale of the rest of the cast, including Zangief. But Hugo was presented with more forethought in Street Fighter III, he didn't detract from the rest of the lineup. In Final Fight he battled while standing perfectly straight. This made him appear much larger than his opponents, which he clearly was, but it wasn't practical in a fight. He didn't have the flexibility or range of motion of his opponents. Guy was way more agile and even Mike Haggar could run circles around him. In SF III he was only shown a few times standing straight up, these were in some introduction poses and in the ending screen.
When the match started in Street Fighter III he actually squatted down and got into a sort of grappling pose. He lacked the techniques of veteran wrestlers but it showed that he had gotten much better at fighting since his Final Fight days. Hugo was still a little bit clumsy in Street Fighter III. Audiences could tell this in his animations. He shifted his weight awkwardly as he advanced. His steps were heavy and flat-footed. He didn’t move on the balls of his feet like a pro fighter would. He relied on power rather than technique. If he had the experience of somebody like Zangief or Darun Mister then he would have dominated the Street Fighter tournament. But since he didn’t there were ways for smaller and faster opponents to get the best of him. When he wasn’t fighting the developers liked to remind audiences of how awe-inspiring the giant was.
When Hugo stood straight up the top of his head almost touched the top of the screen, none of the other characters were even remotely this tall. Audiences could tell the character was big but they didn’t realize how big until they saw his game ending. In SFIII Giant Attack he had four alternate endings. In each one he was partnered up with a different opponent; Ryu, Elena, Necro and even the boss character Gill. Each tag team even had a unique nickname. For example Hugo and Elena made up Beauty and the Beast, whereas Hugo and Ryu made up the Soul Brothers. When the characters stood side-by-side it appeared as if Hugo were twice as tall and four times as heavy as his partners. His back was as broad as a double door and quite muscular. The stylized art helped sell the incredible scale of the figures while still keeping them consistent with the universe. This was the benefit of two-dimensional art. The designers could play with the proportions of the characters without losing the sense of realism. It was a trick that they picked up from manga and animé.
Tetsuo Hara introduced a number of unique manga rules in the Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star series. Something he showed artists was that the scale of a character did not have to be consistent as long as it served the story. In the post-apocalyptic series Kenshiro often ran into roving gangs filled with giants. The scale of these villains was flexible. In some panels the bad guys looked like they were 10-feet tall, then a page later they appeared as if they were 30-feet tall. Mr. Hara would jump back and fourth between the different sizes depending on what he was trying to convey. In many instances he would highlight just one physical feature. There would be a close-up of a giant head behind Kenshiro so that it looked like he could bite the hero in half. Then in another panel it might be the hands of the giant engulfing the main character.
Often times when Kenshiro beat the giant the scene would be drawn from a distance showing that the bad guy wasn’t really the size of King Kong. These visual tricks made the odds seem greater for the hero of the story. Masahiko Nakahira wrote and drew a number of Capcom’s greatest Street Fighter stories in Japan. He was clearly aware of how influential Tetsuo Hara was to the development of Street Fighter II and III. In the Ryu Final manga he used many of the same techniques when featuring Hugo. In some panels he appeared to be several stories tall, capable of stepping over buildings. Then in other panels he seemed closer to his in-game size. Mr. Nakahira wanted to show how easily a giant could manhandle Ryu by messing around with the scale of the character. The thing that saved Ryu was his superior techniques. His relentless training could overpower any opponent, especially since Hugo lacked discipline.
The Street Fighter games could never take the same artistic liberties that Mr. Hara and Mr. Nakahira used. Audiences would be furious if characters changed size in between rounds. The distorted scale of hands and feet during special attacks made Street Fighter EX and Final Fight Revenge seem awkward. But that did not stop the designers at Capcom from pushing the envelope with massive characters. The company created a library of giants through the ‘90s. The studio learned that they could create bosses with different body shapes. Yes the majority were hyper-muscular but take a closer look at them. Some had a broad torso, they were as wide as they were tall. Others stood up straight or were hunched over masking their true size. The majority of these people appeared in the Final Fight series. If you look at the size of the heroes and villains you’ll notice that they didn’t always match up. Mike Haggar for example was the tallest and strongest of the good guys in the Final Fight trilogy. He stood 6’ 6” and weighed about 233 lbs. In Final Fight 2 just about every boss was larger than him even though they were listed as being smaller in the official material.
Freddie for example possibly had the broadest chest and thickest torso of any Mad Gear boss. This mercenary stood 6’ 4” and weighed 408 lbs. but his sprite was almost a head taller than Mike. Then there was Bratken, the Mad Gear boss that looked like Frankenstein’s monster. He was one of the largest sprites in the game but according to cannon he was 6’ 7” and 434 lbs. One inch of difference between he and Haggar meant a lot to Capcom of Japan. Then there was Won Won. Another of Mad Gear’s tallest bosses was 7’ 4” and an astonishing 450 lbs. Yet he was so muscular he couldn’t stand up straight, similar to Abubo in Rage of the Dragons. So his sprite was actually a little shorter than Bratken. Audiences could tell that the curve in his spine robbed him of his true size. Freddie was a tactical fighter whereas Bratken was a reckless brawler, locked away until he was needed. Won Won ran the streets of Hong Kong and chopped those who opposed Mad Gear in half with his cleaver. None of the bosses were ever presented as being stupid. There was too much at stake for betraying the gang. You couldn’t be stupid and be a boss at the same time.
From a design standpoint making someone gigantic worked best when used on the bad guys. From a storytelling perspective it also made sense. Audiences rooted for the underdog. It was hard to make someone like Abigail the main hero in Final Fight because he could steamroll his opponents. This rule worked especially well in the Street Fighter series. Just look at how intimidating Sagat was by design. A seven-foot, dark-skinned, bald, eyepatch-wearing, Muay Thai monster. People couldn’t help but cheer for the tiny Ryu. It took a change in designers to turn things around. Tetsuo Hara worked with Capcom on a couple of projects. He showed the studio that a good guy could also be gigantic. Hara designed the cast for the Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters series. Mr. Hara was a huge wrestling fan, he knew the history of the sport and major players in the USA as well as Japan. He also knew that the Street Fighter characters were more than average fighters, they needed special moves and abilities. So he created a large group inspired by real world wrestlers but each with a unique back story and collection of special attacks. These people would become the backbone of Capcom’s wrestling universe.
The tallest wrestler in the series turned out to be a good guy. Titan the Great aka Titanic Tim stood 7’ 9” and weighed 432 lbs. He was the third tallest character in the Street Fighter universe. But of those three he was the one with the most wrestling experience. The real world inspiration for the character were the 6' 6" Rick Bogner aka the Big Titan and 6' 5" Mike Awesome aka the Gladiator. The duo ran roughshod over the wrestlers in Japan during the early '90s. Titan the Great was an amalgamation of these two monsters. He did not have solely power moves in his arsenal but was a well rounded striker and grappler as well. He was agile despite his size. This was necessary when facing opponents that were blindingly quick. Titan was a British native and would sometimes team up with UK underground fighting legend Birdie. The two seven-footers were known as the 500 Million Trillion Powers.
Whether good or bad the giants deserved to be in the Street Fighter universe. With that said I was not a fan of the direction of the current Street Fighter series. I have said it before and will continue to say it. The silly mannerisms of certain characters, the constant breaking of the 4th wall during super attacks did not really make sense and detracted from the cast. Think about how absurd each of Hakan’s super attacks appeared on screen in Street Fighter IV. The opponent would be squished between his thighs and then shoot off into an invisible barrier. These invisible barriers also showed up in Abigail’s special as well. He could suspend his opponent in the air and then use them like a punching bag. Honestly, an opponent just floated at the top of the screen, defying gravity like some sort of Warner Bros. cartoon character. Then there was the absurd notion that Abigail couldn’t talk but instead made car noises like an infant that had lost his toy. All of these silly elements betrayed the designs of the earlier Street Fighter and Final Fight games. They simply weren’t a part of the legacy. Capcom used to know how to create fantastic giants, the template was there but they seemed to ignore it after 1999.
The goofy antics were all relatively new to the franchise. When Yoshinori Ono took on production duties they seemed to be part of his idea of what Street Fighter should be about. While nostalgia for the older characters is still in my heart I’m also afraid of what would happen if the studio decided to add any more legacy characters. I’d be embarrassed to see what they would do with the Muscle Bomber cast or any other fighter they had previously done. Giants in the Street Fighter universe should be feared and respected, as the majority were boss characters. Maybe someday the studio will remember that but I’m not holding my breath. I hope you have enjoyed this series, please leave a question or comment and I'll try to get back to you. 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!
These stages also served to tell a story. The events of Final Fight happened during the timeline in between Street Fighter Zero (SFZ) 2 and 3. Jessica had not been kidnapped during SFZ1 and 2. Cody was in jail for throwing Belger out of his skyscraper during SFZ3. Fans of the Final Fight games remember the bad blood that the Mad Gear gang had with Cody, Haggar and Guy. The subtext of having everyone on the level gave audiences a strong sense of nostalgia. At the same time Andore was getting tired of being a mid-level Mad Gear member. He wanted to be recognized. Poison Kiss, a fellow Mad Gear member, decided he should be a pro wrestler and became his manager. The stage backgrounds evolved from Andore sulking in the background to eventually show Hugo as a star on a billboard. The groundwork was set for his debut as a full blown pro wrestler in Street Fighter III. A US development team even took a crack at making a Final Fight fighting game with a similar narrative. Final Fight Revenge was released in 1999.
Kinu Nishimura and Daigo Ikeno worked on a number of the Street Fighter III designs. They wanted Hugo to be the new powerhouse, the new Zangief, since only Ken and Ryu were originally meant to return from Street Fighter II. This giant was supposed to use a different play mechanic than Zangief. He was going to play different, move different and thanks to Kinu and Ikeno he was going to look different as well. The basic appearance of Hugo would be the same as it was in the original Final Fight. His look had actually changed a little over the sequels. In Final Fight 2 he sported overalls and in Final Fight 3 he had a white tank-top and dread-locked hair. The pink leopard print tank top and pants returned from the first Final Fight. The large mane of hair, a nod to the early hairstyle of Andre the Giant, had also returned. His inclusion was supposed to rekindle a sense of nostalgia for the legacy characters. Most people didn't notice the number of changes the studio actually made to his design.
The new details that Capcom placed on the character were actually enhancing a few elements of his original look. Most Street Fighter characters wore gloves or taped up hands. Hugo was given a studded wrist guard to make his arms look less bare. The chain on his belt became much thicker and more industrial. It now looked more like a heavy duty towing chain, or anchor chain. The most overlooked details were his pants and boots. Hugo was not only tall but he was very heavy. His pants and shoes were actually two large pairs that were sewn together so they could fit him. The cuffs on his pants had belt loops and a belt to highlight that his ankles were as thick as most people's waists. His boots were split down the middle because they were a left and right pair combined to fit each foot. As with all of the great character designs, Hugo's costume told a story.
Although Hugo was supposed to be in the original Street Fighter III: New Generation (1997) his sprite wasn't ready until Street Fighter III: Giant Attack later that year. After the events of Street Fighter Zero/Alpha he had accomplished his goals of being a top draw on the wrestling circuit and leaving behind the Mad Gear persona. He achieved a number of championships as a pro wrestler during the events of Street Fighter III: Third Strike in 1999 and Final Fight Revenge. The character had greatly evolved since his debut in 1989 but when a new development team took over at Capcom things changed. When Hugo reappeared in Street Fighter X Tekken (2012) and Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014) he had mentally regressed. The new developers made a conscious decision to dumb him down considerably. Poison had done most of the talking for Hugo but at the same time he could still form his own ideas and opinions in the series. Almost overnight he was turned into a bumbling idiot, like Abigail, and that was a shame. Being a dumb brute was never part of their original designs.
The people working on Street Fighter IV and V did not always preserve the character's original designs while updating their look. In some cases they haphazardly slapped together elements that had nothing to do with the fighter. Just look at the changes they made to the character Birdie. Compare the newer costume details placed on Hugo with those placed on Abigail. To let audiences know he was a punk rather than a wrestler they gave him a spiked collar (he originally had a chain around his neck). To show off his size they put truck tires around his biceps. Then hung car tires from his belt and gave him rings made out of small tires. They even printed tire marks on his pants, as if someone tried to run him over. Stealing a page out of Hugo's design they put a belt around his ankles. None of these things were part of Abigail's original design, none of these things were functional in battle and none of these things had the same subtlety of the other Street Fighter costume designs. Remember that Abigail wasn't always a moron. He was a fighter, and he had a temper, but he wasn't an idiot. He was very high up in the chain of command, only Rolento outranked him in Metro City's Mad Gear organization. But you know... tires!
Another major difference between Hugo and Abigail in Street Fighter was seen with their inclusion. Abigail was a huge 3D model that was put in Street Fighter V as a spectacle. He took up so much space on the screen he was hard to ignore. His mass offset the scale of the rest of the cast, including Zangief. But Hugo was presented with more forethought in Street Fighter III, he didn't detract from the rest of the lineup. In Final Fight he battled while standing perfectly straight. This made him appear much larger than his opponents, which he clearly was, but it wasn't practical in a fight. He didn't have the flexibility or range of motion of his opponents. Guy was way more agile and even Mike Haggar could run circles around him. In SF III he was only shown a few times standing straight up, these were in some introduction poses and in the ending screen.
When the match started in Street Fighter III he actually squatted down and got into a sort of grappling pose. He lacked the techniques of veteran wrestlers but it showed that he had gotten much better at fighting since his Final Fight days. Hugo was still a little bit clumsy in Street Fighter III. Audiences could tell this in his animations. He shifted his weight awkwardly as he advanced. His steps were heavy and flat-footed. He didn’t move on the balls of his feet like a pro fighter would. He relied on power rather than technique. If he had the experience of somebody like Zangief or Darun Mister then he would have dominated the Street Fighter tournament. But since he didn’t there were ways for smaller and faster opponents to get the best of him. When he wasn’t fighting the developers liked to remind audiences of how awe-inspiring the giant was.
When Hugo stood straight up the top of his head almost touched the top of the screen, none of the other characters were even remotely this tall. Audiences could tell the character was big but they didn’t realize how big until they saw his game ending. In SFIII Giant Attack he had four alternate endings. In each one he was partnered up with a different opponent; Ryu, Elena, Necro and even the boss character Gill. Each tag team even had a unique nickname. For example Hugo and Elena made up Beauty and the Beast, whereas Hugo and Ryu made up the Soul Brothers. When the characters stood side-by-side it appeared as if Hugo were twice as tall and four times as heavy as his partners. His back was as broad as a double door and quite muscular. The stylized art helped sell the incredible scale of the figures while still keeping them consistent with the universe. This was the benefit of two-dimensional art. The designers could play with the proportions of the characters without losing the sense of realism. It was a trick that they picked up from manga and animé.
Tetsuo Hara introduced a number of unique manga rules in the Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star series. Something he showed artists was that the scale of a character did not have to be consistent as long as it served the story. In the post-apocalyptic series Kenshiro often ran into roving gangs filled with giants. The scale of these villains was flexible. In some panels the bad guys looked like they were 10-feet tall, then a page later they appeared as if they were 30-feet tall. Mr. Hara would jump back and fourth between the different sizes depending on what he was trying to convey. In many instances he would highlight just one physical feature. There would be a close-up of a giant head behind Kenshiro so that it looked like he could bite the hero in half. Then in another panel it might be the hands of the giant engulfing the main character.
Often times when Kenshiro beat the giant the scene would be drawn from a distance showing that the bad guy wasn’t really the size of King Kong. These visual tricks made the odds seem greater for the hero of the story. Masahiko Nakahira wrote and drew a number of Capcom’s greatest Street Fighter stories in Japan. He was clearly aware of how influential Tetsuo Hara was to the development of Street Fighter II and III. In the Ryu Final manga he used many of the same techniques when featuring Hugo. In some panels he appeared to be several stories tall, capable of stepping over buildings. Then in other panels he seemed closer to his in-game size. Mr. Nakahira wanted to show how easily a giant could manhandle Ryu by messing around with the scale of the character. The thing that saved Ryu was his superior techniques. His relentless training could overpower any opponent, especially since Hugo lacked discipline.
The Street Fighter games could never take the same artistic liberties that Mr. Hara and Mr. Nakahira used. Audiences would be furious if characters changed size in between rounds. The distorted scale of hands and feet during special attacks made Street Fighter EX and Final Fight Revenge seem awkward. But that did not stop the designers at Capcom from pushing the envelope with massive characters. The company created a library of giants through the ‘90s. The studio learned that they could create bosses with different body shapes. Yes the majority were hyper-muscular but take a closer look at them. Some had a broad torso, they were as wide as they were tall. Others stood up straight or were hunched over masking their true size. The majority of these people appeared in the Final Fight series. If you look at the size of the heroes and villains you’ll notice that they didn’t always match up. Mike Haggar for example was the tallest and strongest of the good guys in the Final Fight trilogy. He stood 6’ 6” and weighed about 233 lbs. In Final Fight 2 just about every boss was larger than him even though they were listed as being smaller in the official material.
Freddie for example possibly had the broadest chest and thickest torso of any Mad Gear boss. This mercenary stood 6’ 4” and weighed 408 lbs. but his sprite was almost a head taller than Mike. Then there was Bratken, the Mad Gear boss that looked like Frankenstein’s monster. He was one of the largest sprites in the game but according to cannon he was 6’ 7” and 434 lbs. One inch of difference between he and Haggar meant a lot to Capcom of Japan. Then there was Won Won. Another of Mad Gear’s tallest bosses was 7’ 4” and an astonishing 450 lbs. Yet he was so muscular he couldn’t stand up straight, similar to Abubo in Rage of the Dragons. So his sprite was actually a little shorter than Bratken. Audiences could tell that the curve in his spine robbed him of his true size. Freddie was a tactical fighter whereas Bratken was a reckless brawler, locked away until he was needed. Won Won ran the streets of Hong Kong and chopped those who opposed Mad Gear in half with his cleaver. None of the bosses were ever presented as being stupid. There was too much at stake for betraying the gang. You couldn’t be stupid and be a boss at the same time.
From a design standpoint making someone gigantic worked best when used on the bad guys. From a storytelling perspective it also made sense. Audiences rooted for the underdog. It was hard to make someone like Abigail the main hero in Final Fight because he could steamroll his opponents. This rule worked especially well in the Street Fighter series. Just look at how intimidating Sagat was by design. A seven-foot, dark-skinned, bald, eyepatch-wearing, Muay Thai monster. People couldn’t help but cheer for the tiny Ryu. It took a change in designers to turn things around. Tetsuo Hara worked with Capcom on a couple of projects. He showed the studio that a good guy could also be gigantic. Hara designed the cast for the Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters series. Mr. Hara was a huge wrestling fan, he knew the history of the sport and major players in the USA as well as Japan. He also knew that the Street Fighter characters were more than average fighters, they needed special moves and abilities. So he created a large group inspired by real world wrestlers but each with a unique back story and collection of special attacks. These people would become the backbone of Capcom’s wrestling universe.
The tallest wrestler in the series turned out to be a good guy. Titan the Great aka Titanic Tim stood 7’ 9” and weighed 432 lbs. He was the third tallest character in the Street Fighter universe. But of those three he was the one with the most wrestling experience. The real world inspiration for the character were the 6' 6" Rick Bogner aka the Big Titan and 6' 5" Mike Awesome aka the Gladiator. The duo ran roughshod over the wrestlers in Japan during the early '90s. Titan the Great was an amalgamation of these two monsters. He did not have solely power moves in his arsenal but was a well rounded striker and grappler as well. He was agile despite his size. This was necessary when facing opponents that were blindingly quick. Titan was a British native and would sometimes team up with UK underground fighting legend Birdie. The two seven-footers were known as the 500 Million Trillion Powers.
Whether good or bad the giants deserved to be in the Street Fighter universe. With that said I was not a fan of the direction of the current Street Fighter series. I have said it before and will continue to say it. The silly mannerisms of certain characters, the constant breaking of the 4th wall during super attacks did not really make sense and detracted from the cast. Think about how absurd each of Hakan’s super attacks appeared on screen in Street Fighter IV. The opponent would be squished between his thighs and then shoot off into an invisible barrier. These invisible barriers also showed up in Abigail’s special as well. He could suspend his opponent in the air and then use them like a punching bag. Honestly, an opponent just floated at the top of the screen, defying gravity like some sort of Warner Bros. cartoon character. Then there was the absurd notion that Abigail couldn’t talk but instead made car noises like an infant that had lost his toy. All of these silly elements betrayed the designs of the earlier Street Fighter and Final Fight games. They simply weren’t a part of the legacy. Capcom used to know how to create fantastic giants, the template was there but they seemed to ignore it after 1999.
The goofy antics were all relatively new to the franchise. When Yoshinori Ono took on production duties they seemed to be part of his idea of what Street Fighter should be about. While nostalgia for the older characters is still in my heart I’m also afraid of what would happen if the studio decided to add any more legacy characters. I’d be embarrassed to see what they would do with the Muscle Bomber cast or any other fighter they had previously done. Giants in the Street Fighter universe should be feared and respected, as the majority were boss characters. Maybe someday the studio will remember that but I’m not holding my breath. I hope you have enjoyed this series, please leave a question or comment and I'll try to get back to you. 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!
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
How fight culture became fighting game history, part 28
Buriki One was released by SNK in 1999. The game tried to capture the spirit of the early MMA competitions. To help ground the game in reality none of the characters could throw fireball-like projectiles. It also featured character designs that were inspired by actual fighters. Royce Gracie had influenced the development of Jacques Ducalis and Kazushi Sakuraba had influenced Tendo Gai. Those weren't the only high-profile athletes whose fingerprints were in the game. Multi Olympic and World Gold Medalist Alexander Karelin influenced the inclusion of Ivan Sokalov. At his peak Alexander was considered the most dangerous man on the planet. More than a decade had gone without a defeat in international competition, and not only that but during that time an opponent could not manage to score a point off of him. He had a list of incredible statistics that would make him a shoe-in for the pantheon of wrestling Gods. Possibly his most outstanding accomplishment was that he would routinely pick opponents off of the mat and flip them upside down in the air. These were men weighing almost 300 lbs and most of that solid muscle, they would kick, squirm and flail and still they would be tossed like rag dolls. it was something not seen before or since Karelin. Yet since he was not a striker then most people did not know about his legacy or his contribution to the fighting arts.
Rival studio Capcom had actually incorporated an MMA fighter years before Gai. Instead of basing a character on real world fighters Capcom invented their own legend. This was one thing that Capcom did better than any other studio. They took cues from various fighting arts and real legends and adapted them into new and refreshing designs. In 1997 they introduced the world to the star of Street Fighter III. The first of the "New Generation" fighters was named Alex.
In keeping with tradition the studio had to tell a story through the design of the character. They made Alex tall and incredibly muscular. His costume had to show off enough skin to highlight his massive frame, as well as two massive scars that ran under his eyes and down his shoulders. His clothing consisted of fingerless gloves, a pair of green overalls and green combat boots. Street Fighter characters had typically been assigned a primary color to help them stand out in a lineup. Chun-Li wore blue, Ken wore red and Ryu wore white for example. A large red bandanna kept Alex's long hair out of his face. Designer Kinu Nishimura had considered placing him in the more traditional MMA uniform. However it was not believable that a half naked person wearing only shorts and sparring gloves would have been able to wander from town to town without drawing the attention of local authorities.
Alex was in essence a new fighter that was following in the traditions of Ryu. The red bandana was partially an homage to Ryu as well as his mentor Tom. Instead of traveling from place to place fighting the masters of the martial arts he was learning from them. Alex wanted to be the best fighter the world had ever known so that he could get revenge on a powerful Illuminati leader named Gill.
The fighting style given to Alex was unique for SF characters yet also eerily familiar. Capcom wanted to make it very obvious who his fighting influences had been. Unlike Ken and Ryu who shared a similar form of karate or any of the Kung-Fu fighters, Alex had strikes and special attacks that crossed the spectrum of schools. The attacks were meant to remind players of older characters.
Long time fans of the series could pick out the moves that Alex had learned and who he had learned them from. He had the scrappy street brawling style of Birdie from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha. From Birdie he also picked up a dangerous headbutt strike. Alex had a flurry of vicious elbow strikes that could only come from a master of muay thai. However he did not have the knees or kicks of Sagat so the flashy elbows were undoubtedly from Adon, the understudy. Adon was also from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha. The grappling moves, throws and rolling German suplex attacks could have only come from the Russian Zangief.
Capcom managed to create a character that was textbook MMA, as in he had bits and pieces of very effective systems, and combined them into his own form. By not making him look like any fighter living or dead they would not date themselves to a particular era. Overalls and combat boots could be found in any time of the modern world yet could have also worked a century ago. Some of the fighters featured in Buriki One were based on real people and thus marked a particular era. By 2013 most of the original fighters from Pride and K1 had retired from competition and some of the promotions that hosted early MMA tournaments had closed as well.
To be fair Capcom had also inserted a character that looked eerily similar to a certain BJJ master. The character of Oro was an ancient fighter that was looking for a worthy understudy. He was so powerful that he would only use one arm in combat. That was all he needed too! He could choke out opponents and even throw them effortlessly with his single arm. Oro had been influenced in part by the One Armed Boxer, a character created by Jimmy Wang Yu, but his physical appearance was very much based on Helio Gracie. That was if Helio were 140-years-old and had lived in a cave for the past half century. The arm tucked into his gi was also a nod to the toughness of Helio and his refusal to ever tap out.
Capcom had actually featured a different MMA fighter earlier. A year before Street Fighter III was released the character Blair Dame appeared in Street Fighter EX. The game was rendered in 3D rather than 2D as Street Fighter had traditionally been done. Blair had a number of strikes, takedowns and bone-breaking locks that she could use in rapid succession. Yet despite this few people acknowledged the contribution of the EX designs even though they were done by current and former Capcom employees.
Additionally ARIKA held the rights to the EX characters so most did not recognize the first lady of MMA in a Street Fighter game. A decade after Street Fighter III was released Capcom returned for a sequel. One of the bruisers they introduced in Street Fighter IV was modeled after the God of heavyweight MMA fighters.
Unfortunately audiences in the west had made up their minds as to the authenticity of wrestling and wrestlers. To them only boxing or karate were real fighting arts and any wrestler trying to convince the public otherwise was looking for a big payday. This perception only grew through the 80's and 90's as gimmick gave way to attitude and wrestling shows began to be scripted by Hollywood writers. This shift began to polarize the audience and those that grew up on a steady diet of wrestling were looking for something more genuine. By this time Japan was going through a mixed martial arts renaissance.
The MMA concept has actually been around for thousands of years in one format or another. Not content with being one of the first cultures to establish both wrestling and boxing the Greeks also developed pankration which was a hybrid of the two. It was the closest thing to no-holds-barred fighting. The modern world would rediscover this type of combat and package it with all the spectacle of pro wrestling, with pyrotechnics, ring girls and hyped match-ups. The K-1 Grand Prix and Pride Tournaments were becoming very popular.
The US was slow on adopting the format as the UFC and King of the Cage tournaments followed at a slower pace. Young grapplers, eager to show their skills and become television superstars were more than willing to try out for reality shows like WWE's "Tough Enough." One of the challenges had hopefuls taking on Olympic gold medalist and WWE superstar Kurt Angle in a wrestling match. To ensure that Angle looked unbeatable the challengers were forced to do wind sprints and other exercises for an hour before accepting Angle's test. The organizers assumed that the activity would tire them out and they wouldn't be able to put up a decent fight. The opposite turned out to be true.
Daniel Puder was trained in various martial arts and had already competed in UFC matches before auditioning for Tough Enough. He was eager to fight Angle and give the audience a taste of some real fighting. In the video you can clearly hear the fans cheering on Puder with chants of "UFC." Angle did not dominate the match as management had hoped and was angered at being shown-up on national television. A rift between the entertainment product, the audience and the wrestlers had grown tremendously on that night. Rather than embrace the MMA community and audience WWE instead went out of their way to downplay and humiliate Puder for his efforts. Fans of the sport argued that WWE management had no idea what the audience was looking for and should have capitalized on the rivalry between Angle and Puder, between wrestling and MMA.
Angle was furious for several reasons. Had the hold Puder put on Angle lasted a few more seconds he would have separated Angle's arm from his shoulder. Severely injuring the star wrestler of a company you are trying to get a contract with is not only bad for business but it also made Puder look selfish and reckless with his skills. This was also a severe blow to Angle's ego. Angle had won a gold medal competing in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, as he likes to remind people, "with a broken frickin' neck." So Angle had genuine wrestling skills and in a competition under greco-roman wrestling or freestyle wrestling he would have outclassed Puder. Unfortunately he was not well versed in the trappings of jujitsu and could not have foreseen that Puder would try to get him in a submission move. It was probably Angle's pride that took the biggest hit.
Over the next few years many pro wrestlers would begin adopting submission moves into their repertoire. The "Dead Man" character the Undertaker even adopted the gogoplata jujitsu submission move to make him more fearful. Even without formally saying anything about the contribution of mixed martial arts, the wrestlers were slowly taking on more of their cues in an attempt to broaden their appeal. None more so than Angle. After leaving the WWE Angle maintained his wrestler gimmick a while longer before slowly changing his look to more of a MMA fighter. He ditched the stars and stripes wrestling suit and boots in favor of shorts and taped up hands and feet. Without saying he had renounced wrestling it was easy to see that Angle had taken on the guise of MMA fighter to appeal more to the fans.
This part of the draw of modern mixed martial arts. The reason why it, above all of the combat sports, has been growing in popularity around the world. Many fighters hungry for fame and fortune began seeing the sport as a way to reach the top. To achieve what we call the "American Dream." Beating the snot out of people is appealing in and of itself for the majority of the fighters. However the challenge is more than being able to dish out the hits but to be able to take them as well. You would think that burly guys would reign supreme in the culture. Several strongmen have tried their hand at the sport. Bouncers, professional football players and yes indeed, champion wrestlers like Brock Lesnar have all stepped into the cage. The results have been varied. It seems that it takes more than brute force to be a successful MMA fighter.
The best, or at least longest-lived MMA fighters were more than gifted athletes or strongmen. They proved their dominance by learning to adapt and build on the legacy of several martial arts. The angles exploited by boxers, the punishing strikes of karate, the close work of muay thai, the grappling of judo and jujitsu and even the mat skills of wrestling. As the name implies, these fighters practice under a mixed bag of martial arts. Some of them were better on the mat and some were better strikers on their feet, very rarely would we find fighters that could do both well. It would make sense that the brutal art would find favor in the most recent fighting game sequels.
Even with the rise in popularity of MMA tournaments Pro wrestling would remain as popular as ever. The pioneers of the sport were some of the most colorful performers ever to step into the ring. In North America they reflected a culture steeped in centuries of tradition. The next blog will highlight these people. 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!
Rival studio Capcom had actually incorporated an MMA fighter years before Gai. Instead of basing a character on real world fighters Capcom invented their own legend. This was one thing that Capcom did better than any other studio. They took cues from various fighting arts and real legends and adapted them into new and refreshing designs. In 1997 they introduced the world to the star of Street Fighter III. The first of the "New Generation" fighters was named Alex.
In keeping with tradition the studio had to tell a story through the design of the character. They made Alex tall and incredibly muscular. His costume had to show off enough skin to highlight his massive frame, as well as two massive scars that ran under his eyes and down his shoulders. His clothing consisted of fingerless gloves, a pair of green overalls and green combat boots. Street Fighter characters had typically been assigned a primary color to help them stand out in a lineup. Chun-Li wore blue, Ken wore red and Ryu wore white for example. A large red bandanna kept Alex's long hair out of his face. Designer Kinu Nishimura had considered placing him in the more traditional MMA uniform. However it was not believable that a half naked person wearing only shorts and sparring gloves would have been able to wander from town to town without drawing the attention of local authorities.
Alex was in essence a new fighter that was following in the traditions of Ryu. The red bandana was partially an homage to Ryu as well as his mentor Tom. Instead of traveling from place to place fighting the masters of the martial arts he was learning from them. Alex wanted to be the best fighter the world had ever known so that he could get revenge on a powerful Illuminati leader named Gill.
The fighting style given to Alex was unique for SF characters yet also eerily familiar. Capcom wanted to make it very obvious who his fighting influences had been. Unlike Ken and Ryu who shared a similar form of karate or any of the Kung-Fu fighters, Alex had strikes and special attacks that crossed the spectrum of schools. The attacks were meant to remind players of older characters.
Long time fans of the series could pick out the moves that Alex had learned and who he had learned them from. He had the scrappy street brawling style of Birdie from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha. From Birdie he also picked up a dangerous headbutt strike. Alex had a flurry of vicious elbow strikes that could only come from a master of muay thai. However he did not have the knees or kicks of Sagat so the flashy elbows were undoubtedly from Adon, the understudy. Adon was also from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha. The grappling moves, throws and rolling German suplex attacks could have only come from the Russian Zangief.
Capcom managed to create a character that was textbook MMA, as in he had bits and pieces of very effective systems, and combined them into his own form. By not making him look like any fighter living or dead they would not date themselves to a particular era. Overalls and combat boots could be found in any time of the modern world yet could have also worked a century ago. Some of the fighters featured in Buriki One were based on real people and thus marked a particular era. By 2013 most of the original fighters from Pride and K1 had retired from competition and some of the promotions that hosted early MMA tournaments had closed as well.
To be fair Capcom had also inserted a character that looked eerily similar to a certain BJJ master. The character of Oro was an ancient fighter that was looking for a worthy understudy. He was so powerful that he would only use one arm in combat. That was all he needed too! He could choke out opponents and even throw them effortlessly with his single arm. Oro had been influenced in part by the One Armed Boxer, a character created by Jimmy Wang Yu, but his physical appearance was very much based on Helio Gracie. That was if Helio were 140-years-old and had lived in a cave for the past half century. The arm tucked into his gi was also a nod to the toughness of Helio and his refusal to ever tap out.
Capcom had actually featured a different MMA fighter earlier. A year before Street Fighter III was released the character Blair Dame appeared in Street Fighter EX. The game was rendered in 3D rather than 2D as Street Fighter had traditionally been done. Blair had a number of strikes, takedowns and bone-breaking locks that she could use in rapid succession. Yet despite this few people acknowledged the contribution of the EX designs even though they were done by current and former Capcom employees.
Additionally ARIKA held the rights to the EX characters so most did not recognize the first lady of MMA in a Street Fighter game. A decade after Street Fighter III was released Capcom returned for a sequel. One of the bruisers they introduced in Street Fighter IV was modeled after the God of heavyweight MMA fighters.
Unfortunately audiences in the west had made up their minds as to the authenticity of wrestling and wrestlers. To them only boxing or karate were real fighting arts and any wrestler trying to convince the public otherwise was looking for a big payday. This perception only grew through the 80's and 90's as gimmick gave way to attitude and wrestling shows began to be scripted by Hollywood writers. This shift began to polarize the audience and those that grew up on a steady diet of wrestling were looking for something more genuine. By this time Japan was going through a mixed martial arts renaissance.
The US was slow on adopting the format as the UFC and King of the Cage tournaments followed at a slower pace. Young grapplers, eager to show their skills and become television superstars were more than willing to try out for reality shows like WWE's "Tough Enough." One of the challenges had hopefuls taking on Olympic gold medalist and WWE superstar Kurt Angle in a wrestling match. To ensure that Angle looked unbeatable the challengers were forced to do wind sprints and other exercises for an hour before accepting Angle's test. The organizers assumed that the activity would tire them out and they wouldn't be able to put up a decent fight. The opposite turned out to be true.
Angle was furious for several reasons. Had the hold Puder put on Angle lasted a few more seconds he would have separated Angle's arm from his shoulder. Severely injuring the star wrestler of a company you are trying to get a contract with is not only bad for business but it also made Puder look selfish and reckless with his skills. This was also a severe blow to Angle's ego. Angle had won a gold medal competing in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, as he likes to remind people, "with a broken frickin' neck." So Angle had genuine wrestling skills and in a competition under greco-roman wrestling or freestyle wrestling he would have outclassed Puder. Unfortunately he was not well versed in the trappings of jujitsu and could not have foreseen that Puder would try to get him in a submission move. It was probably Angle's pride that took the biggest hit.
Over the next few years many pro wrestlers would begin adopting submission moves into their repertoire. The "Dead Man" character the Undertaker even adopted the gogoplata jujitsu submission move to make him more fearful. Even without formally saying anything about the contribution of mixed martial arts, the wrestlers were slowly taking on more of their cues in an attempt to broaden their appeal. None more so than Angle. After leaving the WWE Angle maintained his wrestler gimmick a while longer before slowly changing his look to more of a MMA fighter. He ditched the stars and stripes wrestling suit and boots in favor of shorts and taped up hands and feet. Without saying he had renounced wrestling it was easy to see that Angle had taken on the guise of MMA fighter to appeal more to the fans.
Even with the rise in popularity of MMA tournaments Pro wrestling would remain as popular as ever. The pioneers of the sport were some of the most colorful performers ever to step into the ring. In North America they reflected a culture steeped in centuries of tradition. The next blog will highlight these people. 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!
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Representation Matters! Or, what happened to Birdie, final part...
This whole series was sparked after seeing what the Street Fighter V team had done to Birdie. Obviously I did not like it. Nowhere in the legacy of Birdie's previous appearances was he ever presented as a fat slob. Why would the studio start doing this to him now? In an interview with EventHubs Matt Dahlgren the Director of Brand Marketing & eSports at Capcom said of the updated designs "A good example for our tone is Birdie… I don't think anyone really saw him coming, but we had this really cool character design — he's practically a new character in himself — but he doesn't take up one of the slots we have for brand new fighters." If Birdie is "practically a new character", with mostly new moves then why not introduce a new character in that spot? Why would they force Birdie into a template that was not his original? My friend challenged me to redesign Birdie so that he would make sense in Street Fighter V. I said that was not why I was upset with the design. Capcom did not redesign Ken, Ryu, Chun-Li, Cammy or the Dictator for the game. Granted they discolored the skin of Charlie Nash and left him with scars and staples but that was part of his return. If the studio did not need to change any of the other returning characters why would it be acceptable to do that to Birdie? I saw two reasons why, because he was black or because he was a punk. If there was a third reason I'd like to hear it, especially from the producer.
Representation was one of the most important things that defined society yet was also something rarely spoken of. We lived in a post-racial world where every member of society had an equal opportunity to advance. Or so that was what we were taught. It was something that the majority, the people at the top of the social ladder, did not necessarily see or understand. Minorities by comparison could feel the effects of representation on a daily basis. They did not always see themselves in television, movies or games. If they did the people were often portrayed with negative stereotypes. These images added up. They effected the psyche of consumers, they became subconscious biases. Years of seeing minorities in only one light, of hearing about minorities spoken about in only one way, especially in the news, had a detrimental effect on society. Just see how divided the USA was when the words "illegal immigrants" or "thugs" were spoken on television. They were trigger words. Those words caused a reaction far greater than their original meaning. This post-racial society was not as inclusive and welcoming as we would like it to be. The images that audiences were bombarded with on a daily basis could be toxic. Pictures and videos could be laced with layers and layers of subversive messages. The way minorities were visualized was more powerful than any derogatory term.
Fans had supported Street Fighter for almost 30 years because it introduced us to a library of fighters of every color and from every nation. These characters were not all heavy-handed stereotypes and that was part of the reason why they were so popular. During the early days of Street Fighter II's development Anabebe, Great Tiger, Zhi Li and Vodka Gobalsy were a sampling of stereotypes that the studio designers had identify and break. In doing so they were freed from preconceptions, they were able to create a title with more diversity and inclusiveness than any other fighting game ever made. Only in later revisions was it decided that the fighters should come from different walks of life. The musician from Jamaica and the chef from Mexico were two of the weakest reasons to introduce a new character. The fighter became secondary to the profession. Which was an odd choice considering what the name of the game was.
If you were not a member of a minority group it could be hard to explain what the images in media meant to us. For example it was hard for me to find positive Mexican-American role models on US television when I was growing up. I think officer Poncherello from the show CHIPs was the only person I could remember. Everyone else that remotely looked like a member of my family was usually a bad guy that spoke broken English and had no redeeming qualities. There weren't any Latino game characters that I could think of while growing up, let alone in a popular game. Many years ago when I heard that a Mexican would be added to the roster of Super Street Fighter II I was elated. It was as if the people at the top of the ladder were validating our culture. T. Hawk had some unique moves and a distinct style that worked well compared to the other fighters. More than 15 years later when a masked Mexican wrestler was announced for Street Fighter IV I was over the moon with excitement. Pro wrestling was something that Mexico was known for, now would be our chance to shine. Or so I thought. Then I saw El Fuerte, then I listened to him, then I played as him. This was not what Mexican wrestling was about. This was not the best masked wrestler that Capcom could have come up with. At least he was not the best masked wrestler that the previous designs teams could have come up with. El Fuerte was a joke and when T. Hawk returned he was a joke too. Then a Turk was introduced and he was a joke. Then a fat character was introduced and he was a joke. I wondered what had happened in Street Fighter IV. The diversity in the cast was an excuse to point and laugh at those that did not have traditional Asian fighting roots.
The best example on the importance of positive representation came from actress Whoopi Goldberg. “Well, when I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, ‘Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!’ I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.” The television show Star Trek was a very progressive show, especially for 1963 sensibilities. There was more diversity in that series than in just about any other show on television. Nichelle Nichols played Lt. Uhura, the communications officer that Whoopi spoke of. She carried herself with great dignity and was never written as a second-class citizen. It was a very promising look at the future, one in which all minorities were represented and they all had equally important jobs. Whoopi would find herself playing a character called Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was role that influenced a whole new generation of fans. The thing was that Whoopi's performance did not only effect black audiences but also white ones as well. Whoopi was joined by black actors Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf and Levar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (who was also playing a blind character) in one of the most inclusive casts on television. But that level of representation had fallen by the wayside in recent years.
Today young minorities were not watching television, they were playing video games. They were learning what society thought of them based on the games they played. Since the majority of game heroes were white males then it was pretty obvious who they should look up to. When they saw a minority in a game then they were usually bad guys. However on that rare occasion when they saw a powerful minority in a game it went a long way towards how the audiences saw themselves. Now imagine if each time a minority turned on a fighting game the black character only knew how to box or that the Mexican character only knew professional wrestling. What did they think of when White and Japanese characters could do everything? There were some truths and some untruths to the character designs in all fighting games, not just Street Fighter. The most idolized karate champions in history were Japanese and the pro wrestlers that wanted to learn the art of high flying were trained in Mexico. That was basic understanding of fight culture but the thing was that the culture was not set in stone. Like all cultures it was constantly changing. It turned out that there were many black kung-fu and karate champions. Some of the greatest masked wrestlers were Japanese and Brazilians shaped the history of ju-jitsu. But that was rarely, if ever, shown in games.
Blacks had been a major force in professional boxing for more than a century, this was true. But there had also been boxing champs from Latin American countries, from Eastern European countries, from Asia and Oceana. Those fighters were not often represented in games. Instead audiences were shown the extremes of one color. This decision was often made at the design stage because it was just easier to present one ethnicity with one fighting art. This pattern was repeated by every other studio. The rude and aggressive black fighter as well as the calm and gentlemanly black fighter had both been seen in Street Fighter. The comparisons between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson to Dudley and M. Bison were valid. But then there were the details that the developers and even audiences didn't completely catch. Dudley was patterned on people like Holyfield but also Joe Lewis, Jack Dempsy and UK boxing champ Lennox Lewis. Like many fighters in the series Dudley was painted as a heavy-handed stereotype of a nation. Lewis was always polite and cordial in his interviews but Dudley was on a completely different level. His butler would bring him tea in between rounds, he tended to a rose garden on his country estate and he drove vintage Jaguars in the game. Of course he did all of this while wearing boxing gloves which was absurd but made sense in the Street Fighter universe. After all, Ryu wore the same uniform everywhere he went, even when he was not fighting. This could certainly be argued as being a stereotype and it was. But like a cancer a stereotype could be benign or malignant. Dudley was benign.
When Capcom gave Dudley an alternate costume in Street Fighter IV it was modeled after the jacket, shirt and striped pants worn by Freddie Mercury during his famous Wembly Stadium concert. The legendary singer / songwriter from Queen was considered to be one of the greatest pop music voices ever. Freddie was synonymous with British culture. His fair skin and broad mustache made him appear like a true Cockney. The thing was that Freddie wasn't from England. Freddie was born Faroukh Bulsara in Zanzibar (Tanzania) and followed the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. His heritage was a world away from Queen Elizabeth and the Church of England, yet his talents were embraced by an entire nation.
The Japanese admired the aristocracy, they admired refined culture and idealized the Victorian era. This was part of the reason why characters like Elena from Street Fighter III had to be educated in Paris and why the not-too-delicate Emilie "Lili" De Rochefort from Tekken was from France as well. Being a member of the rich elite were some of the reasons why Dudley was painted in such a positive light. The idealized images of England and Europe were sometimes met with heartbreak when Japanese visitors traveled abroad. For example when they discovered that France was nowhere near as soft and pastel as the Studio Ghibli films had them believe it caused a nervous breakdown for some known as Paris Syndrome. Japanese audiences had been fed a fable about Paris and England being the peak of refined society, it was too much to bear that they were as dirty and unkempt as any other major metropolis. If the Japanese could be wrong about European nobility then they could be wrong about punk culture.
Punks were not supposed to be upper class like Dudley and therefore punks were not supposed to be admired, this message was loud and clear from the designers at Capcom. But it also showed how little they knew about the culture. Punks were not fat and lazy slobs, those would be politicians. The reason punks looked and dressed a certain way was because they were counter-culture, they were trying to be seen and heard. They represented the masses that were disenfranchised with society, especially with politics and classicism. They were keenly aware of what was going on in society and despite the shocking haircuts and attire they could be well spoken and intelligent. Dudley was a member of the elite and while he did fight for and earn his championship he had the luxury of never having to fight in the first place. He was born into money and power and could have done anything he wanted. A punk did not have that freedom, they were often born into poverty and had to fight for everything they had. There was an interesting dynamic at work between British punk culture and the aristocracy. The majority identified with the Royal Family in England however kids, especially minorities, could identify more with the punks because nothing came easy for them. Everywhere a punk went they were stared at and judged. In media they were vilified and demonized. It was something that minorities had become used to.
Imagine a young minority playing Street Fighter and seeing Dudley presented in such a positive light. Someone that not only outfought but also outclassed the bully boxer. Imagine how important it was for a young Iranian to learn what a profound influence Freddie had on the world. They too could become anything that they wanted if they worked hard enough at it. It would help make them fans on a completely different level. Now imagine that a minority punk was turned into a fat slob. The message was clear, the aristocrat should be emulated, not the guy from the streets. Punks had no redeeming qualities, they were not cool at all according to Street Fighter V. Kids that identified with Birdie were pretty much fat shamed at that point. Sure Freddie Mercury could represent British culture but he was not the only musician to do so. Punks and "shock rockers" like Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols and the enigmatic David Bowie could have also fit the bill. Also unlike Mercury, the three aforementioned musicians were actually from England. Just imagine how different the series could be if the team treated Birdie with the same level of respect they had for Dudley.
Representation had been a part of the greatness of the designs in Street Fighter. Any fighting game could have men, women and minority characters. In fact many fighting games did have a tremendous amount of diversity. It was how that diversity was represented that was more important than the inclusion. The Tekken series for example had dozens of female characters from around the world. Yet these women were either young or played up sexually. They were poured from the same mold with only the costume and color of their skin making them different. It was a superficial change that was seen in many 2D and 3D fighting games. Juri and C. Viper from Street Fighter IV were very sexualized as well but they were also the two newest faces. They didn't necessarily represent the legacy designs. Look at how women had been portrayed in Street Fighter prior to 2008. Women could represent the major fighting arts. A karate master could be a man but could also be a girl. A kung-fu master could be a man but also a young woman.
The developers working on the newer Street Fighter games needed to re-evaluate the role of their characters before the first 3D model was even built. They needed to work harder on their designs and consider the ways that they were representing different cultures and different arts. I do not think that making a minority character the star of the next game would automatically make the series better. The game had always revolved around Ken and Ryu and that should never change. The way that the game presented minorities could be done with more consideration though. Consideration was something that stopped the team from putting Anabebe, the Great Tiger and Vodka Gobalsky in SF II. In their place were three iconic fighters that were not necessarily a slap in the face to the nationalities represented. When Turkish oil wrestling or yagli gures was put in Street Fighter IV the Turk was presented beet red with a blue dome haircut. Players had to constantly oil themselves up so they could slide across the floor and perform silly attacks. How was this representation of the culture and fighting art different than the Great Tiger? The designers were not able to make a Dhalsim-like change to Hakan before he debuted. When I saw T. Hawk sitting on opponents and going "How" when I saw El Fuerte making Quesadilla Bombs, when I saw Birdie stuffing his face with donuts and bananas I got a distinct feeling of disrespect. I saw the ugliness of stereotypes become malignant with those representations.
Did the developers in Japan simply have no confidence in creating a serious minority character? We saw how a powerful black fighter was turned into a fat white guy during the development of SF IV. It was as if the team could not wrap their collective heads around a black not being a boxer or a silly karateka. So they erased him from the lineup, took his costume away and gave it to Ken as an alternate uniform. Instead of creating Blanka out of Anabebe they went backwards. As a life-long fan of the series that decision would never settle with me. When I thought about what the team did to Birdie in SF V I could see shades of that same misrepresentation. The consideration that the team missed was seen on how different body types could be represented. The cancer had returned.
I had mentioned where fat body types had been done well as fighters and adventurers in other games. Fat characters used to represent strength, power and success in ancient stories. In modern fighting tournaments there were boxers, mixed martial artists and wrestlers that were both fat and successful. It was up to Capcom to think about their own legacy and where they wanted to go with it. At one point many years ago they were able to create fat characters that were powerful instead of goofy. At one point long ago they were able to present wrestlers and punks that were unique instead of jokes as well. Why did the team move away from those designs? Were they unaware of what they had done previously or did they choose to ignore it? When did sticking with classic designs become taboo at Capcom? Or did ignoring the rules only apply to minority characters? When popular fighting game YouTube commentator Maximillian Dood made a personal list of five people that should not return in Street Fighter V it consisted of Street Fighter IV characters Rufus (in the number 1 spot), Hakan, Seth, El Fuerte and Abel. Maximilian had his finger on the pulse of gamers and said what they were thinking. He knew that the designs, their control and place in the series were not as well done as the earlier fighters. Hopefully Capcom would listen to him if they wouldn't to me.
I "get" that Street Fighter was a series filled with fantastic characters that had impossible abilities. There were martial arts masters could kick with the force of a tornado or split boulders in half with a punch. They lived in a world where science fiction and fantasy were real. Yoga masters could float in the air, mad scientists could bring the dead back to life and beast men were real. This mix of different genres was refreshing. It was another reason why audiences kept coming back. On one side of the spectrum there were fighters that had realistic punches and kicks, they could have existed in this world. But on the extreme end there were fighters that could breathe fire and even "teleport" these things were improbable if not outright impossible.
In the extended Capcom universe there were characters every bit as fantastic and as well done as those in Street Fighter. Take the Indian wrestler Wraith from Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters. The game actually took place in Street Fighter continuity. The character from New Dheli was 7' 2", a certifiable giant. He was equally mysterious with pasty green skin and covered in a hood and rags. He moved erratically and seemed to be some sort of ghoul. He had long red nails that he would use to slash the throats of opponents. He also had sharp jagged teeth which he used to maul opponents like a rabid dog. Similar to Dhalsim he could even breath fire and had some sort of connection to the supernatural. One of his special attacks was absolutely bizarre. Snakes would burst from underneath his hood to bite opponents. It was a perfectly impossible attack that also made him memorable.
Here was the thing that made the Capcom fighting games unique when compared to every other studio. There was often a hidden truth, some basis in reality in the most memorable fighters and in their arts. It gave the character designs a bit more staying power in the genre. Ryu was inspired by the life and times of Mas Oyama and Yoshiji Soeno. Chun-Li was most likely inspired by Wing Chun and Bruce Lee. Ken Masters was most likely inspired by Joe Lewis and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. We saw where Zangief came from, where even Dhalsim and Blanka originated from earlier in this blog. The special attacks also known as the "Fireball" moves had been written about in Chinese myth for years. Those attacks were called fa-jin and some kung fu masters claimed to be able to perform such moves to this day (granted they were invisible to the naked eye). Even the ShunGokuSatsu, or "Instant Hell Murder" of Gouki was based on the dim mak or death touch from Chinese legend.
A character as macabre as Wraith could never have existed in real life, or could he? Stop and think about it. A giant of a man, somebody with an undead gimmick that was impervious to harm and both frightened and delighted audiences. Yeah, I wonder where Tetsuo Hara could have based his design on…
We knew that Wraith was an absurd character but he did not have to be presented silly in order for us to get that. Part of the charm of professional wrestling is how gimmick performers try not to break character so that the audience can stay entertained. We all know that pro wrestling matches are pre-determined and the stories shown on television are scripted, yet the fans choose to believe that this is real combat and these are real characters. Masked wrestling is an even more absurd concept, I think we all get this, but it is also a great form of entertainment. But to take the masked wrestler out of context and turn him into a silly chef then you dismiss the entire culture. These changes were done because it was the quick fix to make the character "different." By the same token we know that beast men were not real. If they were then they would look like the Amazon or Blanka. As it stood Blanka was a ferocious monster in his original incarnation, he did not have to become dumber as the series progressed. Birdie already had a shocking appearance, the studio did not have to go out of their way to make him fat and gross. When I saw what the studio did to him in Street Fighter V I knew that they took the shortcut, they took the low road. They went for the quick laugh and used a minority to reach the punchline. When it comes to representation these things are important, young audiences can see a powerful minority in their game and be inspired, or they can see a silly character and be disheartened. If you do not think there is an ethnic bias at play ask yourself this question, would Capcom make the main characters fat, gross or silly?
Capcom would probably not address any of the issues that I had brought up over the course of this series. After all they never responded to my other blogs. But I hope that my readers think about the importance of representation and challenge Capcom when something does not seem right for Street Fighter. I will always challenge the studio to try harder. To be better ambassadors to the world and stop thinking so insular about their designs. It would not hurt to revise, review and represent cultures with a modicum of dignity. If they could not introduce a minority character without giving them silly attacks or of stereotypical appearances then maybe they should not be in the game. My hope is that they get rid of the nonsense and bring back the real Birdie and look at how they are representing minority characters. Thank you for reading and I hope you share your thoughts with Capcom! 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!
Representation was one of the most important things that defined society yet was also something rarely spoken of. We lived in a post-racial world where every member of society had an equal opportunity to advance. Or so that was what we were taught. It was something that the majority, the people at the top of the social ladder, did not necessarily see or understand. Minorities by comparison could feel the effects of representation on a daily basis. They did not always see themselves in television, movies or games. If they did the people were often portrayed with negative stereotypes. These images added up. They effected the psyche of consumers, they became subconscious biases. Years of seeing minorities in only one light, of hearing about minorities spoken about in only one way, especially in the news, had a detrimental effect on society. Just see how divided the USA was when the words "illegal immigrants" or "thugs" were spoken on television. They were trigger words. Those words caused a reaction far greater than their original meaning. This post-racial society was not as inclusive and welcoming as we would like it to be. The images that audiences were bombarded with on a daily basis could be toxic. Pictures and videos could be laced with layers and layers of subversive messages. The way minorities were visualized was more powerful than any derogatory term.
Fans had supported Street Fighter for almost 30 years because it introduced us to a library of fighters of every color and from every nation. These characters were not all heavy-handed stereotypes and that was part of the reason why they were so popular. During the early days of Street Fighter II's development Anabebe, Great Tiger, Zhi Li and Vodka Gobalsy were a sampling of stereotypes that the studio designers had identify and break. In doing so they were freed from preconceptions, they were able to create a title with more diversity and inclusiveness than any other fighting game ever made. Only in later revisions was it decided that the fighters should come from different walks of life. The musician from Jamaica and the chef from Mexico were two of the weakest reasons to introduce a new character. The fighter became secondary to the profession. Which was an odd choice considering what the name of the game was.
If you were not a member of a minority group it could be hard to explain what the images in media meant to us. For example it was hard for me to find positive Mexican-American role models on US television when I was growing up. I think officer Poncherello from the show CHIPs was the only person I could remember. Everyone else that remotely looked like a member of my family was usually a bad guy that spoke broken English and had no redeeming qualities. There weren't any Latino game characters that I could think of while growing up, let alone in a popular game. Many years ago when I heard that a Mexican would be added to the roster of Super Street Fighter II I was elated. It was as if the people at the top of the ladder were validating our culture. T. Hawk had some unique moves and a distinct style that worked well compared to the other fighters. More than 15 years later when a masked Mexican wrestler was announced for Street Fighter IV I was over the moon with excitement. Pro wrestling was something that Mexico was known for, now would be our chance to shine. Or so I thought. Then I saw El Fuerte, then I listened to him, then I played as him. This was not what Mexican wrestling was about. This was not the best masked wrestler that Capcom could have come up with. At least he was not the best masked wrestler that the previous designs teams could have come up with. El Fuerte was a joke and when T. Hawk returned he was a joke too. Then a Turk was introduced and he was a joke. Then a fat character was introduced and he was a joke. I wondered what had happened in Street Fighter IV. The diversity in the cast was an excuse to point and laugh at those that did not have traditional Asian fighting roots.
The best example on the importance of positive representation came from actress Whoopi Goldberg. “Well, when I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, ‘Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!’ I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.” The television show Star Trek was a very progressive show, especially for 1963 sensibilities. There was more diversity in that series than in just about any other show on television. Nichelle Nichols played Lt. Uhura, the communications officer that Whoopi spoke of. She carried herself with great dignity and was never written as a second-class citizen. It was a very promising look at the future, one in which all minorities were represented and they all had equally important jobs. Whoopi would find herself playing a character called Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was role that influenced a whole new generation of fans. The thing was that Whoopi's performance did not only effect black audiences but also white ones as well. Whoopi was joined by black actors Michael Dorn as Lt. Worf and Levar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (who was also playing a blind character) in one of the most inclusive casts on television. But that level of representation had fallen by the wayside in recent years.
Today young minorities were not watching television, they were playing video games. They were learning what society thought of them based on the games they played. Since the majority of game heroes were white males then it was pretty obvious who they should look up to. When they saw a minority in a game then they were usually bad guys. However on that rare occasion when they saw a powerful minority in a game it went a long way towards how the audiences saw themselves. Now imagine if each time a minority turned on a fighting game the black character only knew how to box or that the Mexican character only knew professional wrestling. What did they think of when White and Japanese characters could do everything? There were some truths and some untruths to the character designs in all fighting games, not just Street Fighter. The most idolized karate champions in history were Japanese and the pro wrestlers that wanted to learn the art of high flying were trained in Mexico. That was basic understanding of fight culture but the thing was that the culture was not set in stone. Like all cultures it was constantly changing. It turned out that there were many black kung-fu and karate champions. Some of the greatest masked wrestlers were Japanese and Brazilians shaped the history of ju-jitsu. But that was rarely, if ever, shown in games.
Blacks had been a major force in professional boxing for more than a century, this was true. But there had also been boxing champs from Latin American countries, from Eastern European countries, from Asia and Oceana. Those fighters were not often represented in games. Instead audiences were shown the extremes of one color. This decision was often made at the design stage because it was just easier to present one ethnicity with one fighting art. This pattern was repeated by every other studio. The rude and aggressive black fighter as well as the calm and gentlemanly black fighter had both been seen in Street Fighter. The comparisons between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson to Dudley and M. Bison were valid. But then there were the details that the developers and even audiences didn't completely catch. Dudley was patterned on people like Holyfield but also Joe Lewis, Jack Dempsy and UK boxing champ Lennox Lewis. Like many fighters in the series Dudley was painted as a heavy-handed stereotype of a nation. Lewis was always polite and cordial in his interviews but Dudley was on a completely different level. His butler would bring him tea in between rounds, he tended to a rose garden on his country estate and he drove vintage Jaguars in the game. Of course he did all of this while wearing boxing gloves which was absurd but made sense in the Street Fighter universe. After all, Ryu wore the same uniform everywhere he went, even when he was not fighting. This could certainly be argued as being a stereotype and it was. But like a cancer a stereotype could be benign or malignant. Dudley was benign.
When Capcom gave Dudley an alternate costume in Street Fighter IV it was modeled after the jacket, shirt and striped pants worn by Freddie Mercury during his famous Wembly Stadium concert. The legendary singer / songwriter from Queen was considered to be one of the greatest pop music voices ever. Freddie was synonymous with British culture. His fair skin and broad mustache made him appear like a true Cockney. The thing was that Freddie wasn't from England. Freddie was born Faroukh Bulsara in Zanzibar (Tanzania) and followed the ancient Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism. His heritage was a world away from Queen Elizabeth and the Church of England, yet his talents were embraced by an entire nation.
The Japanese admired the aristocracy, they admired refined culture and idealized the Victorian era. This was part of the reason why characters like Elena from Street Fighter III had to be educated in Paris and why the not-too-delicate Emilie "Lili" De Rochefort from Tekken was from France as well. Being a member of the rich elite were some of the reasons why Dudley was painted in such a positive light. The idealized images of England and Europe were sometimes met with heartbreak when Japanese visitors traveled abroad. For example when they discovered that France was nowhere near as soft and pastel as the Studio Ghibli films had them believe it caused a nervous breakdown for some known as Paris Syndrome. Japanese audiences had been fed a fable about Paris and England being the peak of refined society, it was too much to bear that they were as dirty and unkempt as any other major metropolis. If the Japanese could be wrong about European nobility then they could be wrong about punk culture.
Punks were not supposed to be upper class like Dudley and therefore punks were not supposed to be admired, this message was loud and clear from the designers at Capcom. But it also showed how little they knew about the culture. Punks were not fat and lazy slobs, those would be politicians. The reason punks looked and dressed a certain way was because they were counter-culture, they were trying to be seen and heard. They represented the masses that were disenfranchised with society, especially with politics and classicism. They were keenly aware of what was going on in society and despite the shocking haircuts and attire they could be well spoken and intelligent. Dudley was a member of the elite and while he did fight for and earn his championship he had the luxury of never having to fight in the first place. He was born into money and power and could have done anything he wanted. A punk did not have that freedom, they were often born into poverty and had to fight for everything they had. There was an interesting dynamic at work between British punk culture and the aristocracy. The majority identified with the Royal Family in England however kids, especially minorities, could identify more with the punks because nothing came easy for them. Everywhere a punk went they were stared at and judged. In media they were vilified and demonized. It was something that minorities had become used to.
Imagine a young minority playing Street Fighter and seeing Dudley presented in such a positive light. Someone that not only outfought but also outclassed the bully boxer. Imagine how important it was for a young Iranian to learn what a profound influence Freddie had on the world. They too could become anything that they wanted if they worked hard enough at it. It would help make them fans on a completely different level. Now imagine that a minority punk was turned into a fat slob. The message was clear, the aristocrat should be emulated, not the guy from the streets. Punks had no redeeming qualities, they were not cool at all according to Street Fighter V. Kids that identified with Birdie were pretty much fat shamed at that point. Sure Freddie Mercury could represent British culture but he was not the only musician to do so. Punks and "shock rockers" like Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols and the enigmatic David Bowie could have also fit the bill. Also unlike Mercury, the three aforementioned musicians were actually from England. Just imagine how different the series could be if the team treated Birdie with the same level of respect they had for Dudley.
Representation had been a part of the greatness of the designs in Street Fighter. Any fighting game could have men, women and minority characters. In fact many fighting games did have a tremendous amount of diversity. It was how that diversity was represented that was more important than the inclusion. The Tekken series for example had dozens of female characters from around the world. Yet these women were either young or played up sexually. They were poured from the same mold with only the costume and color of their skin making them different. It was a superficial change that was seen in many 2D and 3D fighting games. Juri and C. Viper from Street Fighter IV were very sexualized as well but they were also the two newest faces. They didn't necessarily represent the legacy designs. Look at how women had been portrayed in Street Fighter prior to 2008. Women could represent the major fighting arts. A karate master could be a man but could also be a girl. A kung-fu master could be a man but also a young woman.
The developers working on the newer Street Fighter games needed to re-evaluate the role of their characters before the first 3D model was even built. They needed to work harder on their designs and consider the ways that they were representing different cultures and different arts. I do not think that making a minority character the star of the next game would automatically make the series better. The game had always revolved around Ken and Ryu and that should never change. The way that the game presented minorities could be done with more consideration though. Consideration was something that stopped the team from putting Anabebe, the Great Tiger and Vodka Gobalsky in SF II. In their place were three iconic fighters that were not necessarily a slap in the face to the nationalities represented. When Turkish oil wrestling or yagli gures was put in Street Fighter IV the Turk was presented beet red with a blue dome haircut. Players had to constantly oil themselves up so they could slide across the floor and perform silly attacks. How was this representation of the culture and fighting art different than the Great Tiger? The designers were not able to make a Dhalsim-like change to Hakan before he debuted. When I saw T. Hawk sitting on opponents and going "How" when I saw El Fuerte making Quesadilla Bombs, when I saw Birdie stuffing his face with donuts and bananas I got a distinct feeling of disrespect. I saw the ugliness of stereotypes become malignant with those representations.
Did the developers in Japan simply have no confidence in creating a serious minority character? We saw how a powerful black fighter was turned into a fat white guy during the development of SF IV. It was as if the team could not wrap their collective heads around a black not being a boxer or a silly karateka. So they erased him from the lineup, took his costume away and gave it to Ken as an alternate uniform. Instead of creating Blanka out of Anabebe they went backwards. As a life-long fan of the series that decision would never settle with me. When I thought about what the team did to Birdie in SF V I could see shades of that same misrepresentation. The consideration that the team missed was seen on how different body types could be represented. The cancer had returned.
I had mentioned where fat body types had been done well as fighters and adventurers in other games. Fat characters used to represent strength, power and success in ancient stories. In modern fighting tournaments there were boxers, mixed martial artists and wrestlers that were both fat and successful. It was up to Capcom to think about their own legacy and where they wanted to go with it. At one point many years ago they were able to create fat characters that were powerful instead of goofy. At one point long ago they were able to present wrestlers and punks that were unique instead of jokes as well. Why did the team move away from those designs? Were they unaware of what they had done previously or did they choose to ignore it? When did sticking with classic designs become taboo at Capcom? Or did ignoring the rules only apply to minority characters? When popular fighting game YouTube commentator Maximillian Dood made a personal list of five people that should not return in Street Fighter V it consisted of Street Fighter IV characters Rufus (in the number 1 spot), Hakan, Seth, El Fuerte and Abel. Maximilian had his finger on the pulse of gamers and said what they were thinking. He knew that the designs, their control and place in the series were not as well done as the earlier fighters. Hopefully Capcom would listen to him if they wouldn't to me.
I "get" that Street Fighter was a series filled with fantastic characters that had impossible abilities. There were martial arts masters could kick with the force of a tornado or split boulders in half with a punch. They lived in a world where science fiction and fantasy were real. Yoga masters could float in the air, mad scientists could bring the dead back to life and beast men were real. This mix of different genres was refreshing. It was another reason why audiences kept coming back. On one side of the spectrum there were fighters that had realistic punches and kicks, they could have existed in this world. But on the extreme end there were fighters that could breathe fire and even "teleport" these things were improbable if not outright impossible.
In the extended Capcom universe there were characters every bit as fantastic and as well done as those in Street Fighter. Take the Indian wrestler Wraith from Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters. The game actually took place in Street Fighter continuity. The character from New Dheli was 7' 2", a certifiable giant. He was equally mysterious with pasty green skin and covered in a hood and rags. He moved erratically and seemed to be some sort of ghoul. He had long red nails that he would use to slash the throats of opponents. He also had sharp jagged teeth which he used to maul opponents like a rabid dog. Similar to Dhalsim he could even breath fire and had some sort of connection to the supernatural. One of his special attacks was absolutely bizarre. Snakes would burst from underneath his hood to bite opponents. It was a perfectly impossible attack that also made him memorable.
Here was the thing that made the Capcom fighting games unique when compared to every other studio. There was often a hidden truth, some basis in reality in the most memorable fighters and in their arts. It gave the character designs a bit more staying power in the genre. Ryu was inspired by the life and times of Mas Oyama and Yoshiji Soeno. Chun-Li was most likely inspired by Wing Chun and Bruce Lee. Ken Masters was most likely inspired by Joe Lewis and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace. We saw where Zangief came from, where even Dhalsim and Blanka originated from earlier in this blog. The special attacks also known as the "Fireball" moves had been written about in Chinese myth for years. Those attacks were called fa-jin and some kung fu masters claimed to be able to perform such moves to this day (granted they were invisible to the naked eye). Even the ShunGokuSatsu, or "Instant Hell Murder" of Gouki was based on the dim mak or death touch from Chinese legend.
A character as macabre as Wraith could never have existed in real life, or could he? Stop and think about it. A giant of a man, somebody with an undead gimmick that was impervious to harm and both frightened and delighted audiences. Yeah, I wonder where Tetsuo Hara could have based his design on…
We knew that Wraith was an absurd character but he did not have to be presented silly in order for us to get that. Part of the charm of professional wrestling is how gimmick performers try not to break character so that the audience can stay entertained. We all know that pro wrestling matches are pre-determined and the stories shown on television are scripted, yet the fans choose to believe that this is real combat and these are real characters. Masked wrestling is an even more absurd concept, I think we all get this, but it is also a great form of entertainment. But to take the masked wrestler out of context and turn him into a silly chef then you dismiss the entire culture. These changes were done because it was the quick fix to make the character "different." By the same token we know that beast men were not real. If they were then they would look like the Amazon or Blanka. As it stood Blanka was a ferocious monster in his original incarnation, he did not have to become dumber as the series progressed. Birdie already had a shocking appearance, the studio did not have to go out of their way to make him fat and gross. When I saw what the studio did to him in Street Fighter V I knew that they took the shortcut, they took the low road. They went for the quick laugh and used a minority to reach the punchline. When it comes to representation these things are important, young audiences can see a powerful minority in their game and be inspired, or they can see a silly character and be disheartened. If you do not think there is an ethnic bias at play ask yourself this question, would Capcom make the main characters fat, gross or silly?
Capcom would probably not address any of the issues that I had brought up over the course of this series. After all they never responded to my other blogs. But I hope that my readers think about the importance of representation and challenge Capcom when something does not seem right for Street Fighter. I will always challenge the studio to try harder. To be better ambassadors to the world and stop thinking so insular about their designs. It would not hurt to revise, review and represent cultures with a modicum of dignity. If they could not introduce a minority character without giving them silly attacks or of stereotypical appearances then maybe they should not be in the game. My hope is that they get rid of the nonsense and bring back the real Birdie and look at how they are representing minority characters. Thank you for reading and I hope you share your thoughts with Capcom! 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!
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