The World Warriors – Part 1
Street Fighter is one of my favorite things in the entire universe. It isn’t just my favorite video game series of all time, it’s a part of my very consciousness. It’s right up there with X-Men, Cowboy Bebop, Aeon Flux, Indiana Jones, and a handful of other pop culture phenomenon that help define my fandom.
It isn’t just the gameplay that’s made me a fan of the series, it’s the characters. The characters of Street Fighter might not be as flashy as the ones in BlazeBlu and Guilty Gear, and they might not be as hip and diverse as those in King of Fighters, but none of those series have as many characters that “stick” with my mind the way in which Street Fighter’s cast does. Not all of the characters click with the same snap as others, but I’d argue that the Street Fighter cast is the best video game cast of all time, fighting game or otherwise.
So I’m going to get my Street Fighter fanboy game on and do a top ten list of my favorite characters. Hint: Only one Shotokan appears on this list, and it ain’t Ken, Ryu, or Akuma.
10: Makoto
Makoto covers a lot of ground that was desperately needed in the Street Fighter series. She’s a traditional martial artist style-wise, sort of like Ken and Ryu, but she’s a little less flashy. She doesn’t toss around fireballs, doesn’t have flaming fists, and the most elaborate thing she does is dash across the screen and hit you. Given how ridiculous Street Fighter 3 got at times (Necro and Oro, for starters.), someone as toned-down as Makoto was downright revolutionary. It’s also pretty awesome to see someone with such a toned-down, comparatively realistic style fighting alongside dudes with stretchy arms and green-furred beastmen. She fills that niche well.
She’s also one of the few female characters in the series that isn’t a super-agile speedster type. It’s an obvious archetype that’s needed in fighting games, but at the same time it starts to suck when every female character jumps around kicking really fast and not being able to take a hit without losing half of her energy bar. Rose and Rainbow Mika beat her to that in the Street Fighter Alpha series, but Makoto finally pulled it off right. Rose was cool and all, but her mystic angle was already done with far more style by Dhalsim. Mika was a neat concept, but she never really felt right while playing her. She came off a little awkward in the end. Makoto’s simple but sophisticated fighting style finally led to a female character who was a bruiser.
9: Skullomania
I’m sort of cheating by having someone from Street Fighter EX on this list, since EX was made by a non-Capcom company and isn’t officially cannon (To my knowledge, at least.). Regardless, EX was my favorite game in the series to come out between the original Street Fighter 2 and the latest iteration, Street Fighter 4, so I feel the need to shoehorn someone from that series.
A first glance, Skullo might seem like a bad fit for the series. He’s modeled after tokukatsu super heroes, and that sort of campy style might not seem like something that’d fit into the Street Fighter universe. But I’d argue that this makes him perfect when you compare him to other “freaks” like Blanka and Rufus. He’s a joke character, that much is obvious, but he’s he sort of joke that I think works well within the context of the series. Dan is a parody of the King of Fighter/Art of Fighting lineup, so it makes perfect sense for Street Fighter to do a send-up of other kinds of fighting storylines. Given the fact that Skullo is a “normal” guy that one day decided to put on a toku uniform and start kicking ass on the street, he also fits into the same bracket as Sakura. They’re both people who jumped out of obscurity to start beating up people due to wanting to mirror the actions of their heroes. If a little teenaged girl can be a Ryu fangirl and become a World Warrior, so can a salaryman fanboy out over Kamen Rider and become a World Warrior.
As far as Street Fighter logic goes, it makes perfect sense.
8: Kyosuke