The 10th Hour 02.06.09: Top 10 Favorite Street Fighter Characters

Posted by Derek Robbins on 02.06.2009

With the release date for Street Fighter IV inching closer, 411's Derek Robbins starts a two week series dedicated to the franchise. First up? His Top-10 favorite Street Fighter characters. Did yours make the list? There's only one way to find out!

Hello and welcome to the 10th hour. As always, there are a couple of tangents that I would like to go off on before I get things rollin'

-Lately I've had the urge to replay Final Fantasy IX. So, I've been doing just that. Last night I beat disk 1 and…yeah, it's still pretty short for a Final Fantasy. I don't really mind that though, as far as Final Fantasies are concerned, it is easily one of my favorites. After I finish IX I actually have plans to replay VIII. Odd that I'd want to replay Playstation era Final Fantasies, but I can't help it. I guess that's what the wait for SF IV does to a man.

-I recently got an e-mail from Atlus stating that Super Robot Taisen is hitting the DS in April. I've played a couple of installments of this series in the past, un-translated of course, and I can say that it's pretty enjoyable. From what I read, this one isn't the sort that includes like Gundam and Evangelion units, but the gameplay is strong enough that you can deal with their original creations quite easily.

-Sports Mogul inc, the people who bring us Baseball Mogul, recently sent me a beta copy of Baseball Mogul 2010. I haven't got to spend as much time with it as I would like (damn you college!) but from what I've tinkered with, if you're a baseball stats nut like me, you'll love it. Usually I don't recommend picking up sports games with numbers at the end because they are largely the same, but if you're a hardcore baseball fan tired of the mediocre console baseball games, Baseball Mogul 2010 is going to be an absolute must buy.

Reader Feedback

Last week I listed ten characters who I felt were annoying. How did you feel about that? Who did you think was annoying – well, outside of myself? Let's check it out, eh?

rEnNiS may have come up with a Zelda character more annoying than Navi:

I found that damn Owl from Ocarina of Time more annoying than Navi. I always tryed my damndest to shoot him with my slingshot, bow and arrow, hookshot, boomerang, anything! Just so I wouldn't have to hear his annoying hoot.

That owl IS a pain in the ass. I hate how he'll go on long, long tangents – most of which you don't even need to read – and then when he's done he'll ask you if you want to hear again. Of course, because Nintendo hates us, usually the option that is the cursor is defaulted on is "yes". So, you get to hear his story again. Perhaps the worst example of this in gaming history. Buzz Buzz from my beloved Earthbound does something similar, but he dies. He gets lifetime exemption. Wait, maybe that's poor wording…

A guest hates Candice about as much as I do:

Would Randy Orton count as an annoying video game character? He's in the SmackDown games.

Joke aside, how about the annoyance that was Candice with magic in the really bizarre SmackDown vs RAW 2007 storyline?

No, we all love Randy here. He's been in the 10th hour banner since I un-veiled the 10th hour banner and said: "This is a temporary banner." I'm way, way too lazy to make another half-assed banner so it just kind of stayed. Orton is the best, and even though you were joking, the glorious age of Orton must be talked about at any opportunity.

As far as Candice is concerned, fair enough. I actually thought the magic wand storyline was delightfully goofy so I can't complain about that. Her music though, that's what gets me. RAISE YO HANDS UP, RAISE YO HANDS UP, RAISE YO HANDS UP, RAISE YO HANDS UP. Agh, it's pretty much literal ear rape.

Jeremy has it all wrong:

Needs more Brucie.

Seriously, that guy was friggin annoying.

Wait, what? Brucie is the best character in that game. Just don't take him too seriously. Just think: "Douchebag satire" and you may appreciate him more. Seriously, are there more people out there who don't like Brucie? That would make me so sad, but not as sad as this…

aussiegamer gets to finish my sentence.

no tingle?

What? No! How could you possibly hate Tingle? He's hilariously flamboyant. Play Tingle's DS game and maybe your opinion will change. Right now, to be quite honest, he's one of my favorite Zelda characters. It speaks ill of my taste but it is just how I feel.

Josh talks some Sagat with me:

Don't just take just Robbins word for it regarding Sagat. Type in "John Choi" or any Super Turbo match on You Tube and see an example of how overpowered and horribly cheap Sagat could be. Hell even his Capcom vs SNK 2 version while not as cheap, was still a monster. I remember every CvS 2 tournament from 02-05 becoming a Sagat whore fest before people just stopped playing.

I love Sagat. He is one of the coolest characters that Street Fighter has. I just hate facing him or watching anybody use him who isn't myself. That's…actually similar to my qualms with Sonic. I love using Sonic, but dear lord do I hate facing him. As an avid SNK 2 player, I know damn well that you're telling the truth. Andy mentioned how he was pretty much top tier in Street Fighter IV which doesn't surprise me. I heard Guile was up there too, is there any truth to that?

Also, CvSNK 2 is still my favorite fighter of all time.

Tim gives a list, so of course he gets featured:

Haha, great list.

Here's mine;

10. The Fortune Telling Frog from Gregory Horror Show

9. Robofish from Timesplitters

He's just too small to shoot!

8. Your Team Mates in Socom

I like to play this with the head set, but they just don't listen to my commands! I swear they are deaf.

7. Vaan from Final Fantasy XII

This used to be Tidus, but Vaan is even worse. Just a hateful character in every way possible.

6. Larry from Leisure Suit Larry

Awful, awful series. Larry has the most punchable face this side of Randy Orton.

5. Raiden from MGS2

You're right he ALMOST redeemed himself in MGS4, but then we get the horrible, HORRIBLE, scene where him and Rose reunite at the end. They should have killed him on Shadow Moses, I liked him then.

4. Jinpachi Mishima from Tekken 5

He's just the cheapest boss ever.

3. Iwazaru from Killer 7

This guy honestly ruined the game for me. I gave up on it just for him. He speaks like the evil spawn of R2D2 and Lost's Walt when he was in his speaking backwards phase. Why do I want to take advice from a dead gimp anyway? Clearly he made a few wrong turns during his life, so I think I'll pass.

2. Colonel Irving Lambert from Splinter Cell

"Damnit Fisher! No Fisher you're making too much noise! You've ruined the mission by using that machine gun Fisher! Yes I know I gave it to you in the first place, but you must never use it!" Ugh. I don't know how anybody can like this series. Who pays £40 to be shouted at non stop for 16 hours.

1. Rose from Metal Gear Solid 2

There are many, many bad characters in MGS2, Raiden, Emma and Fatman was just idiotic. However Rose outdoes them all by being the useless person ever and a waste of perfectly good polygons. Here's the worst offending scene: You are fighting Fortune in the Big Shell while you hide behind some crates. You try to shoot but every bullet deflects away from Fortune. So you then hide back behind the crates only for her to blast a hole through them. It's tense stuff and for the first time since Raiden took off his mask you are very excited then Rose calls… "Jack do you know what day it is today? No? Oh…don't worry it's an important day in out relationship, but never mind…" "Look I'm busy you dumb clingy bitch!" Then it's revealed that she might not actually be Rose and might be AI, or an alien, or a hologram, or a giant cockroach inside a human body or it could have been Rose all along. It doesn't matter what she is, by the end of the game it becomes clear that above all else she is- very, very annoying. Her and Raiden- what a couple. I feel sorry for their neighbours.

I can't say anything about number 10 as I have yet to play that game. Or even hear of it. Am I behind the times?

9-) Agreed, but you could also throw in the monkey couldn't you? My lord, Time Splitters had some SMALL characters.

8-) SOCOM tried some innovative things, but you're totally right. Nothing is more annoying than yelling commands at guys and having them just stare at you and go: "Huh?"

7-) What? You didn't like Tidus? Makin' me sad, man! Anyhow, I didn't exactly like Vaan much, but he wasn't terribly annoying. The main character of FF XII wasn't even really him anyhow! It's all about Basch. Interesting how he was billed as the lead but didn't get lead character development. Peculiar.

6-) Wait, punchable…You're against Orton too!? For shame. Be careful or you will end up like the Gardevoir in my banner. Regarding Larry, I dislike the series too and yeah, pretty much, dude deserves a shot in the face.

5-) The only thing I didn't like about MGS 4 Raiden was how they would act like he was totally dead a couple of times but WAIT! HE LIVES! That was annoying. I liked the Rose scene, it almost made me tear up. I'm a pretty big wuss though, so take that for what it's worth.

4-) God damn second. I HATED this guy. I may have only beat the game with Asuka a trillion times, but every other time I fought him I lost at least once. Not acceptable.

3-) I didn't hate him, but to be fair, I'm a huge Killer 7 guy. I might be amazingly biased though.

2-) One of the main reasons I hated this series. I'm right with you, I never saw what the big deal was.

1-) Hey! Fatman was awesome! Whatever though, your choice of Rose is solid. Also valid. Many other people felt Raiden should be replaced by Rose, but in my eyes both were fairly annoying throughout the course of the game. Of course, Rose shouting: "JACK!? JACK!?" all the time was pretty damn irritating.

I like the list, good show.

Iron Knee gets to wrap us up this week:

While Madden has slipped as an announcer, he revolutionized color commentary.He was the first color man to poitn out the contributions of the offensive and defensive lines. He also pioneered the use of the Tele strator. Finally, he explained the strategy behind the tactics of the game. If you had ever payed football at any level above high school, then you would undersatnd why Madden matters. As a former college football player,I know that I do.

The problem is, I have not played much football in my life. I was more of a baseball person. I am just a guy who watches it a lot on TV, and while I think he can be the most damn redundant person of all time, I can see where a player might dig him because of personal experiences. I understand that John Madden matters, but lately he has slipped. That's all.

Also, to the Guest who talked about Michael Vick: Yeah, he's annoying. Runs all over the place, god dang. I wasn't a big fan of his before Madden 04, but after it, my lord, I just hated his guts. He pretty much went to worst person ever status after the whole dog fighting thing.

I received a lot of great comments this week, sorry that I couldn't get to them all. I really appreciate everything you say, even if it isn't always positive. It helps me improve as a writer, which is a nice thing.



My top-10 favorite Street Fighter characters

This starts my two-week Street Fighter extravaganza! You may remember that last year I did something similar to Brawl, so it's only fair that my most anticipated game of 2009 gets the same treatment. Basically, I'm just going to list my favorite Street Fighters. These can range from characters that I love the design for to characters that I just like using. This is not to be confused with BEST characters, because that would involve taking a dip into the tier list pool, and I'm just not prepared to do that. Next week the top-10 will be based on the best Street Fighter games. Who are your favorite fighters?

Also, this may be interesting for those of you who don't know much about the actual story of Street Fighter. I explain the basics for most of these characters. It was interesting to me at least, but I'm a dork so…OF COURSE.

10-) Cammy - For a while, Street Fighter II was a total sausage fest. Sure, you had Chun-Li there to offer a case of the other gender, but for the most part it was just guys fighting guys. Well, to offer more variation, Capcom gave us Cammy. Cammy was one of the four new challengers that came with Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers.

It's interesting that she was one of the four that came in that game, because I absolutely loathe the other three. I dislike DJ for a couple of reasons. One, my Dad used to use him and he'd actually beat me with him in my child hood. Getting beat by my father at a fighter is certainly a scarring experience. Also, I don't know, the maraca thing always bothered me. Maracas? Seriously? Okay. I dislike T-Hawk because I prefer my muscle men to be Russian and I dislike Fei Long because I really didn't want a Bruce Lee in my Street Fighter.

So that just leaves Cammy, the former puppet of one M. Bison. What makes her interesting to me for starters would be the accent. I enjoy those British accents, and hers just sounds lovely. Watch the Street Fighter IV voices trailer and tell me that doesn't sound appealing to you? In a game full of colorful accents from across the globe, hers has always been my favorite. Even more so than Zangief's. Now that's saying something.

Her storyline is pretty basic. She was created by M. Bison to be a puppet. She gained self-awareness and this made her disposable. Bison only wanted mindless people on his side. You see this acted out again in the anime Gurren Lagann. I would love to say that Cammy has played a significant role in the series post Alpha, but to be honest…she's just kind of there. She does lead a doll rebellion against Bison in Alpha 3, but everyone dies. That's not as cool. She also catches amnesia somewhere in there (I forget how though), and Rose ends up telling her the truth. Again.

I also find her quite fun to use. I'm not terribly good as her, so if there's a Cammy tournament fighter around please forgive me, but it seems to me that she uses her feet primarily in attacking people. This may be a drag to someone like me who likes to use the strong kick button, but it's pretty cool. I like the way the Thrust Kick and Cannon Drill looks. It's a nice change of pace from fireballs and glowing hands, at the very least.

Cammy may not be a fighter that I'm particularly proficient with, but I am very happy to see her make a return in Street Fighter IV. It just wouldn't be the same without her.



9-) Akuma - I am perhaps one of the biggest losers on this planet. For Christmas, I specifically asked for an Akuma key-chain and I got it. For whatever reason, I wanted to carry a miniature Akuma around in my pocket and have him guard my keys with his demonic presence. Good job, man. I probably would have shelved out the cash for a Dan Hibiki, but I assume that he probably would have just lost them and that would have been a mess.

So, yes, I obviously like Akuma enough to carry him around in my pocket, but what makes him so cool? Well, generally speaking, if you're proficient with Ryu or Ken, you'll find that Akuma will be quick to master. This isn't to say that he is a clone – he has a distinct fighting style – but if you can figure out how to work either of those two, it should just take a small alteration of strategy to take command with him. Since Ryu and Ken strategies are pretty renown and easy to pick up, this makes Akuma an easy to pick up character (in my highly un-professional opinion) and I appreciate him for that.

I also hear he's broken in SF II Turbo HD Remix, but there's a pretty good reason for that. The dude kills Bison. Bison, the guy who holds mastery over psycho power and pretty much causes hell for everyone throughout Street Fighter II and the Alpha series –except for Alpha 1 which totally didn't happen. Bison, the guy that the fucking military couldn't take down, but one raging demon comes in and knocks the guy out. That's impressive.

It was also believed that Akuma took out Ryu and Ken's master Sheng Long Gouken, but it turns out that wasn't true. Actually, it probably was, but if you've played a Resident Evil before, you know damn well how much Capcom loves to retcon their stuff. For goodness sakes, Alpha 1 was axed out of existence the very second Alpha 2 came out. You may think that Akuma just kills things for sport, but it turns out that isn't the case. He may be a demon, but he's not terribly evil. He will only kill those who are strong, he does not prey on the weak. That's refreshing.

I suppose I also like Akuma's look. He may be wearing the generic karate gi, but I love the dude's hair. As far as Street Fighter is concerned, Akuma and Guile easily have the most recognizable hair styles. The interesting thing about Akuma's? It's red! In a game full of blonde and black hair, a red head is very refreshing to see. Sure, Blanka has sort of orange hair but he's green so he's already unique enough.

Okay, that's pretty weak. Whatever though, I like Akuma. He looks cool, is fun to use, and has an interesting story behind. The Street Fighter story may not be horribly well written, but at least it can be interesting.



8-) Sagat - Probably the only character that will ever appear on both a "most annoying" and best of list. On the one hand, his spamming of tiger – despite the fact that we all know lions are superior – is pretty annoying, on the other hand…he's actually a pretty cool guy. He gets the distinction of being one of the four masters from Street Fighter II which nets him instant credibility, but he also gets to wear an eye-patch. Leave tigering to him. That's not the only cool thing about him, though.

You see, his fighting style is muay thai, one of the coolest out there. So that means his move set and animations echo it. He also gets the distinction of being the most awesome character in the game to use muay thai. Given that his only competition is Adon, I don't imagine that it was too hard to pull off. I mean, that guy just looks goofy. How did he become the Muay Thai grand champion? Also, why does he spend the ENTIRETY of the Alpha series just looking for Sagat. Seriously? Come on man.

It seems that he's not only wanted by Adon, but also wanted by Dan Hibiki. In the past, Sagat was a very powerful warlord and one of his many killings was of Dan's father. So, naturally, Dan goes on a quest to get revenge on his father. For anyone who has ever played as Dan, you know about how capable he is of taking revenge on Sagat. You see, Sagat is a badass guy built of muscles and capable of fighting on par with Ryu. Dan is…well…he's Dan. Sagat, obviously feeling bad for Dan, takes the fall! How many people would do that? Man's game, bitch.

Now, as for his fighting style, you've probably seen it a billion times before, but I guess it couldn't hurt to outline for you. Alright, step one: go to the left (or right, if you're player two. Fucking loser). Step two, start spamming tiger shot. Tiger shot can be shot high or low, so you can't just simply duck out of the way of his first shot due to his high. Step three, if someone gets close to you, break out the Tiger Knee. It will send them back and allow you to continue using your tiger shot. Step four, if someone jumps at you, go tiger uppercut. This will send them back and hit them for nice damage allowing you to spam tiger again. Step 5, if you're playing CvSNK 2, you'll have ridiculous priority. You can kick anything's ass. That's how you play Sagat.

He may be annoying to fight against, but he also happens to be a badass. When you've got an eye-patch and a giant scar across your chest and you only live to challenge the guy who gave you that scar, it's hard not to leak cool. Just, you know, turn the mute on when you're fighting him, otherwise your senses will be over-whelmed with TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER UPPERCUT (In SF II, it sounds like he's saying UP, UP, UP to me. How odd)



7-) Rose- She would be one of two Alpha characters that I absolutely adore. There was nobody more surprised than me when she was revealed to be in Street Fighter IV roster. It felt like a fairly random choice, especially considering no Street Fighter III character had been unveiled in the game (and seriously, how hard would it be to retcon that? For God's sake, Gouken is alive). I'm not complaining though. It signifies that maybe, just maybe, I'm not the only guy out there who likes Rose.

The story behind Rose is fucking weird. Resident Evil writers probably look at it and go: "whoa, that's messed up." So here it goes. Bison is a really powerful guy who has mastered psycho power. He decides to discard parts of him that he feels make him weaker. This "part" of him is the good part, rendering Bison totally evil. So, his energy disperses and somehow creates a baby girl named Rose. Rose, of course, rapidly ages.

Throughout the Alpha series, Rose hunts down Bison in an attempt to rid the world of his evil power. She can sense what he is doing since, technically, they are one in the same person. In Alpha 3, Rose apparently kills Bison shortly after he reveals to her that they share a soul. Rose is totally exhausted after all of this is over, and here's why: after Bison's body disintegrates he fucking TAKES OVER ROSE! Somehow, remnants of his psycho power posses her and he lives on.

This is where it gets really fucking messed up. Alright, so, Rose Bison is kind of hanging around before Street Fighter II, waiting for Bison's scientists to build him a new body. The new body will be weaker, but apparently it's a new body. I guess Bison forgot about the whole "taking over Ryu" thing, eh? He then somehow manages to leave Rose's body, get into his new body, and Rose totally forgets about it. Rose is not seen again until SF IV where, she, SURPRISE, hunts down Bison.

Seriously, that's weird. Vintage Capcom. Rose is also fun to play as, but as far as backstories go, she definitely has one of my favorites. It's just so damn wacky. You throw in the fact that she is a fortune teller and also has a pretty cute Spanish accent and you have a winner. I'm glad that they threw her into Street Fighter IV. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but hey, I'm for it.



6-) Guile - Guile is easily one of the most recognizable characters in gaming history. Not only is he the Japanese stereotype for an American (a soldier), but he also has one of the most crazy hair styles in gaming history. If your hair can double as a coffee table, you know you're doing something crazy. Guile also comes with one of the most recognizable moves of all time, the sonic boom, making him a shoo-in for this list.

As for his back-story, it's nothing especially interesting, especially when compared with Rose. Honestly, the choice to place Guile here was a split second one. It was either Guile or Charlie. I ended up choosing Guile because of the fact that he is recognizable. Charlie actually has the more interesting back-story, and you'll understand why in a moment. Really, Guile is…kind of boring when you get down to it.

You see, Guile enters the Street Fighter tournament to avenge and his war-buddy Charlie who was allegedly killed by Bison. This would normally be fine, but he kind of abandoned his friends and family to do this. Like, just kind of bailed on them. Maybe I shouldn't ask what that's about…Anyhow, the canon winner for the second Street Fighter tournament is speculated to be Guile. He gets his shot at Bison but, due to the spurring on of his family, he decides not to perform the coup de grace. He instead takes his own advice and goes home to become a family man.

It's interesting though, because every single plot Guile is involved with in Street Fighter has to do with Charlie. In Alpha 3, Guile's first and only appearance in the Alpha franchise is due to the fact that he must track down Charlie because he went missing. You see, Charlie apparently survived falling off a cliff at the end of Alpha 2, and instead of report back to headquarters, he just kinds of dicks around. So Guile has to find him. He does, the two fight, then they fight Bison, and…Bison kills Charlie. This leads into Street Fighter 2's story.

Now, how does Guile find his way into Street Fighter IV? Well, get this, despite seeing his fucking comrade EXPLODE IN FRONT OF HIS EYES, (Seriously, Charlie dies in a big explosion caused by Bison) Guile still hasn't given up hope that maybe he will one day find his partner. I'm not sure how in denial one guy can be, but okay. He may not be totally batshit insane though, because his "destined" fight in that game is against Abel, a guy with amnesia. Abel somehow recognizes Guile's moveset. No way that could be Charlie!

Guile may essentially just be chasing after Charlie for the duration of Street Fighter, but still…he's one of the most known characters in gaming history, so he gets a spot on this list.



5-) Ibuki - Ibuki is without a doubt my favorite character from Street Fighter III. I may have a soft-spot for Hugo thanks to his crazy Andre the Giant v Hulk Hogan intro he has with Alex, but Ibuki is the best. Given the fact that she is in Street Fighter III, she really doesn't receive a lot of characterization. Really, the only character that does is Alex, and he wins the tournament so you should expect as much. (If you were wondering, Ryu loses in the tournament to Oro. I figure he was the favorite to win)

That said, here's her story. She's been trained in ninjutsu since she was a child but she absolutely can't stand it. So, she's not the typical ninja in games. You know the one I'm talking about. Their father does something special, they have to protect honor, they have some sort of crazy sword that they want to get. That gets her immediate bonus points right there. Glad someone is flat out rejecting their heritage.

Anyhow, she's trying to get a file from Gil (the game's boss) and at the end, he just kind of gives it to her. So…you didn't need to fight the guy? That makes a lot of sense. You know, for the end boss, Gil wasn't the worst guy in the world. I wonder if SF IV's Seth will be like that? This file contains information on Necro and Twelve, both un-natural beings. Her reward for this? She falls in love with this guy at school and tries to join a club with him but it turns out it's for MORE NINJA TRAINING! She can't escape it. Tsk, tsk.

Anyhow, what I like most about Ibuki is that, on top of looking cool and not like a generic female fighting character (See: Dead or Alive), she plays pretty fun. She's one of the few characters that I've started out as pretty putrid with and gotten significantly better, mostly because I just flat-out enjoyed her style of play. Then again, it's really hard to respect Ibuki when she was in a tier below Sean's in the second iteration of SF III, but I think EVERY character was below him. That's…probably why no SF III original characters are in SF IV. Being lower tiered than Sean is pretty much a death sentence. Luckily for everyone involved, order was restored in Third Strike and Sean returned to being a black version of Dan.

Really not much else to say about her. I like Ibuki and you should too! Have mercy Capcom and put her in SF IV in some super secret way, eh?



4-) Zangief - Zangief is essentially the toughest man alive. He pretty much wrestles grizzly bears on a daily basis and enjoys it. He speaks with a thick Russian accent and has without a doubt the single greatest ending in video game history. You throw into this a complicated style of play that beginners absolutely can't grapple because they haven't grown enough facial hair and you have a true winner.

Regarding back story, Zangief is very light on it, so I won't be able to inform you a whole lot about him. His role in Street Fighter II is that he entered the tournament to represent the Soviet Union. Nothing else really, he just wants to do Gorbachev proud and win one for the good ‘ol USSR. Zangief, of course, falls flat. Unfortunately, I can't say who against because canonically, most of the match-ups for Street Fighter II are pretty ambiguous.

Of course, why did the USSR select Zangief to send out into the tournament? It's quite simple! Throughout the Alpha series, he was a national hero in Russia and even met future dancing partner Mikhail Gorbachev after the events of Alpha 2. The two would become close friends and the rest, as they say, is history. To be honest, I'm not even sure why he's in Alpha 3. From what I've read, as far as canon goes, he's pretty irrelevant and doesn't do anything except "fight Shadaloo". Everyone does that though, and a lot of the time they didn't REALLY do it. (Really, Street Fighter canon is fucked up).

Assumedly, Zangief makes his appearance in SF IV for the exact same reason. He wants to represent Mother Russia. From what I've read though, I don't believe Street Fighter IV is actually another tournament but a bunch of encounters out in the wild. So…maybe Zangief just loves to fucking fight? He doesn't really have a grudge against anyone and he looks like a guy who loves it, so that makes sense to me.

My absolute favorite thing about Zangief though would have to be his accent. He sounds like such a Russian stereotype, it's flat out awesome. You can literally smell the vodka on his breath as he battles. His 360-move variety has kind of thrown me off kilter making him a hard character for me to use, but a good Zangief player is pretty hard to trump. Plus, when he gets those wrestling moves going it's a thing of beauty.

Zangief is probably the manliest character in Street Fighter history. Despite some confusion due to the Street Fighter movie, Zangief does not work for Shadaloo.



3-) Chun-Li - Chun-Li is not only the most popular female Street Fighter, but also the first. She was one of the original eight characters and if you ran through arcades in the ‘90's, you most definitely are familiar with her hurricane kick. You know, one of the easiest moves to pull off in the game! Just press kick over and over again and you're golden. If that wasn't hint enough, generally speaking, Chun-Li uses her legs to fight which, as was mentioned with Cammy, is something I enjoy. Hands are over-rated. (Then again, she has some man hands for IV, so maybe I should not say that)

In SF II, Chun-Li isn't really dressed appropriately for fighting. She's wearing a fairly traditional Chinese outfit and looks fairly stereotypical. In later games, she would be given an alternate outfit that would certainly be easier to fight in, but in SF IV she returns to her classic duds. She also gets a night-gown like costume which would be even WORSE to fight in. Whatever though.

Her role throughout the majority of the alpha franchise is to hunt down Bison and shut down his drug cartel. You see, Bison has his priorties all over the place. This also baffles me a little bit because, you know, Bison ALSO wants to rule the world. So, let me get this straight. Chun-Li's policing organization, the ICPO, wants to bust Bison for drug-related offense when he's mounting an army of evil, psychotic dolls up and preparing to take over the world? Yeah, okay, that makes a lot of sense.

She ends up teaming with Charlie in Alpha 3. Those two are pretty much the main characters of that game, which is kind of weird in my opinion because, really, Rose is the one who technically kills Bison. Chun-Li and Charlie just work together and somehow fail. I don't know, it doesn't really make sense to me either.

Her entry into the Street Fighter II tournament was not based on revenge for Charlie (since I guess their relationship wasn't established at the time of released), but instead centered around revenge for her father. She doesn't get it canonically, but if you want to believe what her ending will tell you, she beats Bison and quits Street Fighting forever!

…Until Street Fighter III Third Strike. She really isn't supposed to be in that game and I really only think she was included because the fans wouldn't shut up about her. From a canon standpoint, her being in the game has very little to do with the actual plot. She teaches martial arts to children, but Urien kidnaps one of them, so she goes to bust him and get the child back. Okay then. She really should have stayed retired.

Her appearance in SF IV makes a bit more sense though. At this point, she's sort of at an impasse and trying to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. Does she want to street fight? Does she want to go into law enforcement? Who knows! It should be noted that since SF IV isn't actually a tournament, that perhaps Chun-Li just got suckered into this somehow.

Chun-Li is easily one of the most recognizable characters in gaming history and is definitely one of my favorite female characters ever. From her signature hair style to her insane kicks, she's someone that most people have probably heard of at some point. I'd be wrong to not have her on here somewhere.



2-) Dan Hibiki - This guy started out as something of a joke character but has really endeared himself to fans in a special way. He started out as a jab at SNK's Art of Fighting. You see, they created a character by the name of Ryo who had a similar fighting style to Ryu and looked a bit like Ken (but with an orange gi as opposed to a red one). This would not fly, so Capcom made a piece of art work for Super Street Fighter II where Sagat was holding a fighter wearing an orange gi up by the head. He looked similar to Ryo, and in the end, this became the basis for Dan.

So, since Dan was made to mock SNK, he was also horrendously weak. His fireball, the gadouken, goes about an inch. You will notice that the gadouken is only used with one hand while the hadouken is used with two. This is, again, a shot at Ryo who also does it one handed. His super special move goes about the same distance and doesn't cause the damage that one would think. Also, like the art of fighting, Dan can taunt infinitely and even has one of his super special moves translate into a super taunt. It's…pretty entertaining, actually.

As you can guess, Dan's story is pretty wacky. You see, his father, Go Hibiki, was rivals with Sagat. He tore out his eye so Sagat killed him. An eye for an eye, right? So, Dan decides he ought to train himself up so he can avenge his father and beat Sagat. In Alpha 1, oh wait, it doesn't count 2, Dan manages to defeat Sagat, but only because he throws the fight. Dan doesn't know this and proceeds to go fucking bananas.

Throughout Alpha 3 he's trying to open a fighting school. He really doesn't have any place in the main storyline, but apparently he takes Sakura under his wing and trains her up and also becomes good friends with Blanka. You know, this may sound crazy, but Dan rolls a lot. Do you think…? Nah, that's just too coincidental. Dan's first appearance outside the Alpha series will be SF IV, where he…I don't know, is probably just there for fan service. Damn good thing, too. I'm also not counting SF III where he turns black and changes his name to Sean.

My favorite thing about Dan is that he is an effective parody. Most of his moves mimic Ryo's or other Art of Fighting character's moves and even after that, he gets to copy moves of characters in his own game. He gets a version of Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu (you may know this as the raging demon) where he pretty much sacrifices himself to cause damage to the opponent. You perform this by doing Akuma's move in reverse. This move is very un-reliable and in some games it causes about no damage while leaving at 1% life. In the SNK developed SvC chaos, this move is totally broken and in turn breaks Dan. Go figure, the parody shines when SNK takes helm.

It's not only in fighting where he effectively parodies SNK, it's also in the storyline. For instance, after a battle in Alpha 3 he can say: "I hate the art of fighting, but I wanna be king of fighters!" I probably don't need to explain that one to you. There's also his ending in Marvel vs. Street Fighter. It parodies the ending of the original Art of Fighting. Once you get these jokes, Dan becomes a very, very enjoyable character.

Long story short, I love Dan. He may be totally useless and only good to use when you're fighting someone way worse than you are, but he's a part of the franchise now and I'd hate to see another main-series game without him.

- It should be mentioned, I absolutely love Dan's English voice. He sounds like such a nerd. Just like I pictured.

1-) Ken Masters - This pretty much came down to a judgment call. I know Ryu is probably the more renown world wide, but I've come to discover that people who like Ken tend to diss Ryu and people who like Ryu tend to diss Ken. You can't have it both ways. So, for the sake of this, Ryu was bumped off my list entirely (he is slotted at the not-listed number 11 if you really care. That's still a good place!) and Ken was given the spot he deserves. Right at the top!

Ken, in my opinion, is another Japanese stereotype for Americans. Rich, glamorous, and full of himself. Ken enjoys a life of fame and fortune throughout the Street Fighter series and often times, it can get in his way. While Guile is the stereotypical soldier, Ken is the stereotypical California guy. Interestingly, I believe the third American stereotype is also represented in Street Fighter IV. I bet you can't guess who I'm talking about!

As far as storyline is concerned, Ken has been in every main Street Fighter game released, but hasn't really been one of the "main" characters. That is to say, from a storyline standpoint, the game could probably function without him. I mean, I guess he's really only technically needed for his showdowns with Ryu, and those are just usually friendly sparring matches.

Anyhow, in the original Street Fighter, Ken is clone of Ryu. There's really nothing else that needs to be said. Ryu was the canonical winner of the original tournament and Ken was just kind of there. Nothing too special happens other than Ken wanting to fight Ryu, but that's not expounded upon until much later.

The Alpha series sees him go on a search for Ryu. Canonically speaking, Ken and Ryu do actually have a battle, and Ken actually does beat him. I think Ryu was supposedly distracted about the possibility of his "dark" side emerging, but a win is a win. This, I think, was supposed to validate Ken for not winning the original Street Fighter tournament. He then meets his future wife Eliza. They're too busy "getting down to business" for him to play too big of a role in SF A III. I think he fights Ryu again in there, but I can't quite remember. Whatever the case, his Alpha 2 role is bigger than his 3 role.

SF II is pretty much nothing for Ken. He was invited to join the tournament by Ryu. The only thing he really does of note is lose, I believe to Ryu but I guess I can't confirm it, and gets married to Eliza. This would set up his Street Fighter III role of not really being a fighter, but a tutor. He trains Black Dan to fight and in the second iteration of SF III he's really good, then they remembered he was Black Dan and took him down a peg.

I have no idea what Ken will do in SF IV. I know Eliza gets knocked up, but outside of that it's pretty much a mystery to me. This is known simply because Ken's child, Mel, is already birthed by the time SF III came out.

Ken's fighting style is a little similar to Ryu's and Akuma's, but takes a bit of a departure. I find him to be far more kick dependant and his shoryuken is his main calling card. Ken can do the hadouken as well, but generally speaking, it doesn't really have the punch to it that Ryu's does. So they both excel in different ways. In SF III, the pair really play nothing alike. They just happen to share a couple of special moves. Think Ness/Lucas from Brawl and you'll probably be on the right track.

Also, if you didn't know their reason for sharing moves is due to them having the same teacher, Gouken, well…now you do.

Perhaps the reason I like him so much is rooted in the fact that I have been maining Ken since the first time I played the original Alpha game. He just kind of clicked with me. He helped me win a lot of CvSNK 2 battles as well, so that certainly doesn't hurt. I hear he's usually in the top tier, so maybe I'm not THAT good with him, but whatever. I like him and that's all that matters.

As far as the 10th hour is concerned, Ken Masters is finally the best Street Fighter out there.



Honorable Mention: Ryu would have been slotted at 11. Bison probably at 12. Dudley maybe at 13. Black Dan Sean is probably listed shortly thereafter. Honestly, other than Ryu at 11 I didn't have it planned out far beyond that.

Well, that's it for this week. As always, feel free to comment on anything you wish to, good or bad. I read everything you say and I truly feel it helps me progress. You can comment below or send an e-mail directly to me at [e-mail]. Your choice.

Before we go, let's check around the gaming section, shall we?

Vincent Chiucchi inducts the N-Gage into the Hall of Shame

Theo Fraser writes the Nintendophiles

I write B3yond the Report

Chris Vicari writes the PC Spotlight

Drew comes back to the column writing as he introduces three-player co-op. A discussion between three people. This week it's between Rod Oracheski, Ramon Aranda and himself. Here it is

Greg Bruno hosts What If? This week it's between Jonny Richardson, John Curry, and himself.

Tommy Coloma writes the Release List

Ramon Aranda hosts a fact or fiction between Joe Roche and Mark Salmela

Trace Aber writes Living LIVE

Rod Oracheski writes Achievement Unlocked

Jordan Williams wrote this Working Title last week, but I wanted to link to it anyhow.

Joe Roche writes the Full-Circle 360 News Report

Vincent Chiucchi also writes The Select and Start News Report

AJ and Mike Minotti are the men behind the Exploding Barrel Podcast

Well, that's it. I'm out.

'til the crossroads

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