<p>As I mentioned in the previous blog. Japan doesn't share the same world view as the USA. The ideas of cultural sensitivity and political correctness did not apply to global pop culture. When a country lacks a visual and vocal group of colored minorities then their image, sometimes in a negative light, is propagated through TV, online and in theaters. "Regular" minorities did not end up on the news, sports or in entertainment. These were only the most flamboyant, athletic or criminal aspects of an ethnic group. There was no litmus test for Capcom of Japan to see what was and what was not appropriate when depicting an ethnic group. Unless the designers at Capcom of Japan frequented the USA and visited cities with a large ethnic constituency then most of the cues they knew were the ways minorities were depicted by pop culture. The ways in which manga, anime and film depicted blacks seemed circular, artists were simply copying from the same template. These characters lacked personality when designers didn't know how real ethnic characters spoke or acted, or in the worst case were made from cues of racist origins. Dee Jay was not far removed from the grinning, happy-go-lucky dancing stereotype of the black sambo. In fighting games the most popular black protagonist had been borrowed from archetypes featured in films from over 30 years ago. The two most visible black protagonists were best remembered in their roles opposite Bruce Lee. Kareem Abdul Jabar was a basketball player and student of Bruce Lee. He was one of the villains in Lee's final film Game of Death. Known to many as the movie in which Lee wore his iconic yellow jumpsuit. The height difference between the two men made for a very memorable match up. In a few of the concept sketches for Rufus he was going to be a very tall black man for which his karate gi would have appeared very short on him. How Capcom went from one look to the polar opposite defied description. But I digress... The other, and more popular black fighting archetype from the Lee films was Jim Kelly. The afro-sporting athlete was an actual karate champ. Playing the supporting character Williams in Enter the Dragon Kelly went on to play the main protagonist in a black exploitation film titled Black Belt Jones. The character Williams wore a yellow gi in Enter the Dragon and might have been the reason why Sean was given a yellow gi in Street Fighter III. This actor, his look and style was possibly the icon most used by Japanese designers for black fighting character archetypes. Unfortunately the look was frozen in time. The bell bottom pants, patent leather boots, sideburns, afro and wide-collar look haven't been seen since the 70's. Thus causing subsequent black characters to look dated and absurd rather than cool. Such was the case for the characters Mr. Jones from Rage of the Dragons and Tiger from Tekken. Capcom was not immune to the dated look either. The original concept art for Urien saw some familiar stylings. The thing holding back many of these designs were prevalent not only in Street Fighter but in games from other developers. It seemed that they did not know how to present some of their black fighters to the gamer without attaching a recognizable gimmick to them. If it weren't the smiling, afro wearing, retro look then it was a different stereotype attached to them. In some instances it was playing basketball or dancing or sometimes both. The look and purpose of these gimmicks showed how little insight these studios had into actual minority culture. Black culture was different all over the USA and had different mixed ancestry or in different regions. Abroad these cultural and identification issues were different as well. However the popular image of blacks that Japanese pop culture referenced were either athletes or entertainers from the USA. Many designers did not bother to present a black character as a regular person in their games. In the fighting game world it seemed that Japanese designers were unsure as to what style to pin on black characters. Would the average Japanese gamer have accepted a black character that wasn't a familiar caricature based on popular media? Would the elements that I have been highlighting with regards to Archetype have made sense to a different group of gamers? Or would the Japanese gamer be more willing to accept a fighter that was a black man as long as he looked and behaved the way he was "supposed to." There were the certain shared elements placed on Lucky Glauber, Sean. Magic Dunker and Bobby "Brown Bullet" Nelson. All four fighting game characters could not escape the black basketball playing stereotype. Could these gimmicks be the result of poor planning on the part of designers? The character that Rufus was in concept had an inspired look. Back in the early stages he was a young, athletic black man named King Cobra. King Cobra was a character with an exceptional design. The Color of his uniform was a solid black. It balanced the iconic white gi of Ryu. The color of the gi was contrasted by the gold belt and gold punching gloves of the character. These elements were repeated with the gold necklace. His Costume looked classic but actually had a non-traditional cut. He was one of the rare SF characters that had a mid-sleeve gi. Ken, Ryu and Sean all wore sleeveless tops. Makoto had a traditional long sleeve gi, but King Cobra had a mid sleeve. The sneakers were a perfect modern touch. They were very subtle, and yet, could not be ignored. Cobra represented just a hint of Hip Hop culture, truly an artistic global culture and not limited by USA ideals. It was just enough to remind audiences that he was the modern urban youth, not a jet-set playboy like Ken, nor a wandering solemn Ryu. The gold chain on his neck was not too bold or thick, nor did he sport any sort of earrings, medallion or emblem that would have dated his appearance. His jewelry was very clean and simple. The ruffled edge of his gi gave him personality. The sneakers were classic, something that would have worked in any decade of the modern era. They were appropriate for the look that this character represented, a cue from the traditional and modern, not unlike the wrestling boots that contrasted the dress of Chun-Li. The sneakers were something that could be worn while traveling down city blocks walking into dojos and beating people up. The legend of the barefoot master did not make much sense in the city. He was young and bold and not scared to bring just a little bit of his world into the Street Fighter universe. His design was not so bold as to try to change the universe and our attitudes towards the established characters. His belt and uniform reminded us that he was mindful and respectful of the martial arts. Yellow was usually the first belt awarded to students learning karate. However Cobra's belt had more of a golden hue to it, allowing us to ponder if he was a master and of what form. The characters on his belt spelled out an additional layer of detail. Most SF fans know that Ryu had writing on his belt. Thanks to my friends for coming through with the translations. Ryu's belt, the one on the right reads Fūrinkazan, literally "Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain" It was paraphrased from Sun Tzu's The Art of War: "Move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain." An epic sentiment that shaped the character and personality of Ryu. King Cobra had a different statement on his belt, Jyakuniku kyoushoku wich roughly translated to "survival of the fittest; law of the jungle." These things combined with the gold and black and cobra logo on the back of his gi made him a subtle homage to the Karate Kid villain Johnny Lawrance. This was much more refreshing that using the tired Williams character. This was a design for a strong black fighter that would have been very appealing to Americans. It was much better presented and respectful than Dee Jay. King Cobra followed the traditions of the classic characters yet visually did not have to bring up racial prejudices or gimmicks to make him stand out. When combined all of these elements made for a character that had Timeless Design. Unfortunately Capcom would have made a misstep with the character, they would have fallen back on stereotype rather than have had the confidence to trust in the natural cues of the design. The original idea called for a dance gimmick on the character. King Cobra's fictional Technique would have been dubbed "breakung-fu," a breakdancing form of kung-fu. Japanese designers thought that breakdancing was a popular fad in the USA and would have gone over well with gamers as a form of fighting. The idea of a breakdance form of fighting was also placed on Bobby Nelson. Players from all over the world would have understood that the character was a cool black guy because he did something that was typical of cool Americans. The assumption was that the only way for the gamer to identify a Nationality was to apply a Stereotype to them. Gamers, artists, designers, students and professionals need to learn how to separate assumption from great design. Assuming that a character becomes identifiable to a gamer, any gamer from around the world, by placing a stereotype on them only serves to weaken the overall design. King Cobra did not need to have the same moves of Ken, Ryu or Sean to be interesting to gamers. He did not need the style of Makoto either. However he was dressed in a variation of the karate uniform. An offshoot of karate without being tied to a stereotype would have made him a strong Archetype. We do not have to look at a concept character that almost was in order to understand how to create a memorable black character. Capcom had actually been creating very memorable boxing Archetypes for almost 15 years. Beginning with Mike in the original Street Fighter and ending with Dudley from Street Fighter III. They were three of the earliest and with the release of Street Fighter IV which features both M. Bison (I use the Japanese names) and Dudley, are now the most recognizable black boxers in videogames. Nintendo fans would say the Sandman was older and more recognizable, but I digress... Each version of the boxing Archetype featured in Street Fighter was better than the last. They all had the design elements that I had been discussing with this series. Clean designs, solid Color choices, limited elements that would make them appear dated all contributed to their Timeless Design. Although they were boxers, no two looked or fought with the same style or Technique, thus making them each a unique Archetype. M. Bison was a good character and a very powerful fighter in canon, he was an enforcer for Vega and a general in the Shadowlaw army. His look evolved from a Mike Tyson clone to something more brutish and muscular, eventually becoming his own character rather than a caricature of an actual fighter (the same thing could not be said of Fei Long). As great a design as Bison was it was the third character that elevated the boxer to new heights in the universe. In order to truly understand and appreciate the design of Dudley we have to compare the best boxing game characters to have appeared in contemporary titles. TJ Combo from Killer Instinct, Rob Python from Buriki One and Joe Fendi from Fighting Layer. Each of these characters represented a different aesthetic and ideology. The TJ Combo character was meant to bring up cues of the boxer Apollo Creed from the Rocky films with flashy moves and a contemporary haircut instead. Rob Python was the dangerous boxer, a professional that was not concerned with anyone but himself. Joe Fendi was the talented thug, a boxer that was only a hair away from criminal. While fun characters in their respective fighting games, none of them could be considered a "Street Fighter design." The Python and Fendi characters came close based on the list of design elements I had presented. But none of them were as cohesive, timeliness or as strong an archetype as the boxers featured in SF continuity. The other boxers did not share the same qualities were because the designers did not have the confidence to create simple, clean designs devoid of outlandish elements that would have made them "cool." A pop and stylish design is actually based on current trends and tastes. It is a great idea for a character meant to hold onto the gamers attention for a season, but unless the character is in an exceptional game then they will be throw-away designs while the next "cool" design is put together. An actual Timeless Design is boring for many observers. The character ends up looking plain and uninteresting when compared to more colorful character designs. Compare the three Capcom boxers to those done by rival studios. The other three characters look very unique when compared to the SF cast. It was the look combined with the other elements, like Moves, Stance, Technique, etc. that made the characters memorable. Boxing character designs, at least from Japan, had a tendency to highlight the more thuggish atmosphere of professional fighters. Joe Fendi was an exceptionally dirty boxer in Fighting Layer. He would stomp an opponents foot so they would not be able to dodge his punches, he could also put metal spikes over his hands and do great damage to opponents. These things were interested, worked well in the game and showed an extreme style of boxing. In canon and official character art some of these boxers were presented as shallow and materialistic. While they were not untrue of many popular fighters, they were also a gross generalization of the athletes. Dudley was a boxer presented in a completely different light. It was a refreshing change of pace that was clearly the antithesis of everything gamers had come to expect about boxers in a videogame. My friend Cesar said that Dudley was everything that the Japanese were not supposed to know about black people. He was not a thug, he did not come from "the hood," he did not speak in slang. The character was a bold change in presentation, and as many hoped, would also be a change in attitude when it came to designing blacks in fighting games. Dudley observed all of the elements of great design. His Color choices were basic and not contrasting, green and white. His Costume was a very classy tuxedo. While not traditional fighting attire it did observe the cues to suggest to the gamer that he was a serious fighter. His sleeves were rolled up to demonstrate a range of movement and show off his large forearms, and he wore boxing gloves at all times. He was a gentleman that observed the rules of boxing and not a thug that would battle with his bare knuckles. He was well spoken and the epitome of class, albeit a little eccentric but never stereotypical of a fighter. In canon he was the new undisputed, unified heavyweight champ. Capcom could have very well presented him in the game with his traditional fighting trunks and even his belts. However they decided to instead incorporate the fighter outside of the typical boxing uniform. Even in his suit Dudley had a Stance very much like a real boxer. Shuffling and dancing on the balls of his feet. His Moves were an exaggerated and fantastic form of boxing, complete with soaring uppercuts and dash punches that worked well against the other caricatured fighting arts in the game. The quick-step stance allowed for the lightning fast moves to be pulled off in rapid succession. This amazing boxing Technique rounded out the character. Even though his look was unorthodox for a boxer, and seemed bland compared to the other boxing characters, it turned out to work very well because of all the elements that went into the character were very well planned. These details include the forethought that went into his concept, as well as his canon. For the first time in a long while the boxer would not be a thug and would not have the same stereotypical elements that previous minority SF characters had. The designers at Capcom, most notably Kinu Nishimura, had the confidence to create a character devoid of many of the elements that Japanese designers had placed on black characters. The only way gamers can expect to see change is if the rest of the people working at Capcom learn to have the same confidence in a minority character. They can be strong and memorable contributors to the series, if only they are willing to see that blacks, or any other ethnic group, can succeed on their own merit. Visual gimmicks need to be left behind, the player does not need to be told that a character is hip, trendy or cool. If the character design works without a gimmick then the player will determine what their final reaction will be. Gamers around the world are willing to accept clean and consistent minorities in games. Sean succeeded despite the basketball gimmick. he even succeeded despite his joke character underpinnings. Sean was, after all, a loser in each of his SF III endings. For a character that was supposed to be the understudy of Ken, he sure did spend a lot of time getting beat up in canon. Despite these things his youth and vigor were infectious, gamers could not wait to see how he developed in the series. The best contemporary black character from an SNK game, Marco Rodriguez, succeeded despite his reto-stylings and passionate fervor in Garou: Mark of the Wolves. These things worked because his passion and ability were inspired by a real-ife karateka named Willie Williams. Just as Ryu was a fantastic variation of the Mas Oyama template, one in which gamers would not and could not confuse the character from the real man, so too was Marco inspired by a real man but restyled into something that did not have even a passing resemblance to Williams. A solid character design does not need to rely on Stereotype or Nationality to have Universality. It was the Ability that allowed gamers to use their Suspension of Disbelief. The most memorable fighters from the real world possessed genuine fighting Ability and seemingly impossible strength and endurance that made them legends. These fighters were perfect models to inspire great character designs. The proper use of this Ability in game form would shape the world they inhabited. Tomorrow we shall look at how the element of Ability convinced gamers that the impossible was possible. </p>

<p>In the previous blog I had mentioned that Guile had USA flag tattoos on his shoulders to make him more appealing to Americans. The idea of having each character represent a country was one of the goals for the SF II cast. There was some overlap with countries, but overall the cast was diverse. It was the elements placed on some of them that might be construed as a Stereotype. The tattoos on Guile for example represented an attempt at creating a national identity. However the use of Nationality and Universality should not be confused. Placing a Purpose on a character did not make up for poor design cues like nonsensical Moves or obtuse Technique. In a similar way pandering to a national ideal, or making light of a traditional fighting art made for weaker character design. The worst examples of these things were Stereotype which skirted ignorance and racism. Street Fighter character design was not without its faults. Elephant-headed Dhalsim, Vodka-named Zangief were two such examples. Even toned-down in the final build of the game they were still questionable. T. Hawk with his Native American cues, cross-legged squat and "how" hand gesture, or Dee Jay with his silly grin and maracas. These were other poorly incorporated cues meant to make the characters more colorful. The most recent additions to Street Fighter had been the worst. Crimson Viper was meant for the USA but fell flat as her sexualization didn't convince gamers that she was a fighter. Capcom pushed the El Fuerte cooking gimmick on players at every turn even though they had nothing to do with the fighting tradition. However the biggest offenders to SF IV would turn out to be Rufus and Hakan. Never before have designs so obviously ethnically biased been used in Street Fighter. How do the concepts of Archetype, Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Suspension of Disbelief, Technique and Timeless Design apply to these two characters? The Color associated to Rufus was a bright yellow with a black stripe for contrast. A decent combination of light and dark elements. The Costume was a jumpsuit that held some of the elements of Bruce Lee's iconic wardrobe from Game of Death. Lee's costume had shown up as an homage in other games and movies over the years. The version that Rufus wore had padding along the side stripe and buckles meant to keep his uniform closed. His sleeves were open to allow freedom of movement and he wore oversized gloves stretching up to his forearm. He also wore biker boots underneath his jumpsuit. The look was a clash of different elements, based on pop culture and modern influences. The look was lacking because it was very contemporary. It would appear dated before long and thus betray the elements of Timeless Design. Rufus had a wide Stance and held his hands up in a pseudo kung-fu pose. He was written as being a self-proclaimed master of his own fighting art, which was why his Technique was unique when compared to the other fighters. His Moves were not based on a particular fighting art but rather a collection of attacks with range and recovery meant to be functional in the game. The range, speed of activation and damage for his moves were well thought-out. It was their application on the character that betrayed the willing Suspension of Disbelief. As C. Viper missed the mark due to marketing cues from Capcom USA, so too was the look of Rufus ill advised. The character went from a young, athletic black man to a morbidly obese white man. The change was gradual but nonsensical. In order to try to make the character appealing to gamers they have him a Purpose, that he would be the #1 rival to Ken. The art director of SF IV, Takashi Kamei, suggested the character be overweight to which Producer Yoshinori Ono agreed. The motive being that adding a "fatty" to the game would be funny, and that he would "freak people out." Citing Blanka as the oddball character and Dan as comedic relief that the SF series welcomed. The plan was for Rufus to be considered an "American Dan" according to Ono. If you recall the previous blogs, the design of Blanka was actually well conceived and executed even better. Dan in form and function was a direct parody of SNK fighters, he was underpowered compared to the rest of the cast and meant to be a bottom tier character in game as well as canon. Capcom gave each their own convincing Technique and visually gave them the cues of Timeless Design. Neither character was really the result of simply wishing an oddball into the series. Capcom did not manage to convince gamers that the Technique was appropriate for the design of Rufus, or that the look was nothing more than a gimmick that had been used by the obese fighter Bob in the Tekken series. Which was an interesting coincidence because Ono had been trying hard to make the SF IV characters memorable by making them appear unlike anything in either Virtua Fighter or Tekken. Yet the comparisons between El Fuerte and El Blaze and Bob and Rufus are the first thing many gamers associate with their appearance. A silly Purpose was applied to those two to make them stand out even more as characters, and stand out even less as fighters. It was the speed of which the character moved, the abilities he had which seemed a perfect list of moves for a fighting game rather than a fighter, These were the elements that SNK put on their characters, a series of unrealistic moves that were meant to balance out other characters with unrealistic moves, rather than make them solid fighting designs. The larger characters in previous SF titles tended to move slower than the average-sized characters; Zangief, T. Hawk and Hugo each moved slower than the last, Rufus, a morbidly obese character with an ugly appearance and terrible personality moved and fought as fast as the fastest characters in the universe. The joke character with no redeeming or realistic visual cues was now a top-tier character. The joke was on the gamers, this was not a new Dan at all. For 18 years the series had done very well in the character design department and suddenly there was a new fighter which broke all of the traditions that Capcom had established and broke the gamer's Suspension of Disbelief by failing to fill an Archetype. An additional level of social commentary could be derived from Rufus. As arrogant and silly as Rufus was, he was painted as a proud American. It did not take long for many gamers to see that his Nationality was being pinned with a strong Stereotype that most nations have about Americans. In short that Americans are obese and relish in it. A real master from the USA would be a loud, arrogant, self righteous, fat bully. This world view, which might have been coincidence, should have alarmed more gamers. Why did Capcom of Japan feel it was appropriate to make Rufus a brash fat man when his original design saw him as a slender athlete? Fat characters were nothing new in Capcom titles. Not in the Final Fight series or in the wrestling series Muscle Bomber, both of those games had memorable and important fat characters. Heavy-set fighter E. Honda set the standard. However Rufus would have required a lot of changes in order to fit within the universe. A fact that in hindsight both producer Ono and designer Daigo Ikeno now admit to. Ono apologized for the reaction to the character at the GDC "sorry about that" and Ikeno said the character was rushed. This was something that could have been avoided if only they had taken a hard look at the elements that made their classic characters successful. These were things that I had mentioned about the character two years ago and am now formalizing as a list of other key elements with this series. The weaker designs of Rufus and C. Viper could have been attributed to the influence of co-devloper DIMPS. They had a fatty fighter and a woman in a suit, Boyd and Beatrice, years before Capcom had decided to pursue those aesthetics as well. The characters made sense in the Rumble Fish, because the design of the characters were based heavily on pop culture and pop anime design. As I had discussed in earlier blogs, the SF look was grounded more in martial arts tradition than the ever shifting pop landscape. In this way the great designs from SF II would be able to withstand the test of time. When did the fatty fighter become en vogue? Was this a trend that made sense in Japan? A cultural joke that gaijin would never understand? Or were these simply silly characters meant to make a fighting game funny? Did these elements really belong in SF? What about Hakan? How did his designs hold up to the concepts of Suspension of Disbelief and Archetype? Did Capcom manage to make another jab at Stereotype while going after a characters Nationality and traditional form of fighting? Apparently they did not learn anything after their treatment of Mexico's beloved lucha libre. Blanka was a yellow skinned wild man with orange hair that delivered electric shocks to opponents that he bit. How was he more believable than a red skinned, blue haired Turk that squeezed people until they popped? If we based the argument on those elements then Capcom would seem to be on the right track for maintaining the extreme elements of SF character history. However there was more to a great character design than a surface understanding of them and the fantastic moves they had. As every detail this series has highlighted, none of the best designs were the result of dumb luck. It took a large staff of designers and artists countless revisions to get each character in SF II perfect. Anything less than a large collaborative effort with an understanding of martial arts, character design, animation, history, cultural tastes and style would cause for a poor showing. The over reliance on a handful of artists and marketing data would reduce new characters to a gimmick. In an attempt to make the character more appealing a Purpose was placed on him, Hakan was written as a rival to E. Honda. Just as Rufus was presented as a rival to Ken. In the long run these characters would not have the appeal or staying power of the classic fighters. Capcom had gone over video of fighting arts from around the world and determined that oil wrestling would be the next cultural fighting art featured in SF. It was a sad admission that they would be basing a character from watching videos. I would be sorely disappointed and at the same time not be surprised if YouTube or Nico Nico Douga was the only resource that Capcom of Japan or Capcom USA referenced when drawing inspiration for a new fighting art. It would explain why they continued designing characters that lacked the elements of the classic lineup. Rather than treat the fighting art with a modicum of dignity, it was ridiculed quite brazenly. The staff at Capcom took the elements of the fighters covering themselves with oil and then grabbing each other, in some instances reaching where other cultures would find inappropriate or homoerotic and made it a joke. Hakan, squeezing people between his thighs before yelling "here I come" and then having them shoot out of his backside? Do I have to ask what the subtext behind that super move was? The idea of grown men covering themselves with oil and then grappling did not sound much like a fighting art meant for SF. It had to be made fantastic and incredibly silly according to current design ideals. It had to feature an over-the-top character whom was obsessed with creating the perfect oil recipe for wrestling. As El Fuerte was given a cooking gimmick to make him more appealing to players, so too did Hakan have a nonsensical reason to prove himself. This was not a caricature of Turkish oil wrestling as much as it was a pardoy of it. The result of watching video from another culture meant that it would be distilled by Japanese sensibilities. It would contain a similar world view that took hard jabs at anything not Japanese. The Japanese culture had a tendency to promote ethnic stereotype in media because they did not see these things as being offensive. They nation did not have a favorable history with regards to discrimination against ethnic minorities including those with shared ancestry, like minorities from islands annexed by Japan (the Ryukyuan of Osaka) or those from a caste system (Burakumin). The 1960's did not see a civil rights movement in Japan, not in the ways that caused national policy to change in the USA with regards to minorities and immigrants. There was and remains a certain amount of animosity between the people and cultures from Korea and China thanks to past conflicts, ideology, oppressions and regimes. To assume that Capcom of Japan would treat a non-Japanese cultural tradition with any respect would be a stretch. The early cues in SF II character design were insensitive but most of the worst elements were left out. Cultural attitudes did not seem to evolve some 18 years later. In the case of the current Street Fighter team Hakan would have the same sense of humor that brought gamers El Fuerte and Rufus. Hakan broke the elements of Archetype as well as Suspension of Disbelief. The Color associated to him was a bright red, his skin an unbelievable hue. It was contrasted by another bright color for his hair. The shape of his hair was nonsensical as a series of nubs stuck out in perfect symmetry all over his scalp. The closest Capcom character design that had similar hair was Yurika from Rival Schools 2. However that game used a great deal of artistic license in creating the various cliques and groups that ran high school. Yurika was an exaggerated version of a dainty musician. Her hair was done in curls so tight that they held onto her scalp like rolled armor. But I digress... Hakan's Costume was probably the best thing in his design. The colors were darker than the skin and the chain brought an element that showed movement and also demonstrated great strength. The look of his Costume had elements of the most powerful wrestlers in SF canon. There was the single shoulder strap and shorts, reminiscent of Mike Haggar, the first wrestler in the SF universe. The gestures and menacing presence from Zangief. The ornamental belt with an animal head was probably based on Darun Mister's elephant belt. The enormous chains were probably inspired by Hugo. Hakan's costume deserved a character that was less parody and more straight-laced like the aforementioned wrestlers. Unfortunately the good costume did not not save the overall appearance of the character. The elements of Timeless Design were undone by poor choices with the choice of color. Hakan's Stance was believable as he kept his feet apart and hands outstretched, ready to grapple with opponents. It was his Moves which completely wasted a good stance. He would slip and slide when trying to run, waving his arms frantically while attempting a grab. His special and super attacks were comedically absurd, even when compared to the other moves from crazy characters. He would slide on the ground to cover distance, grab and roll with a opponents on the ground, bouncing off of invisible walls. Grab opponents in a bear hug and squeeze them until the shot out of his grasp. Have opponents orbit around his torso, magically, and then have them slide off of his shoulders and hit the invisible wall. The worst of which had him spinning on the backs of opponents and squeezing them between his thighs. Again, hitting the invisible wall. I should not have to mention that these moves completely destroyed the willing Suspension of Disbelief. What was worse was that Hakan was not an absurd character that was given a fictional fighting art, like Blanka or Dhalsim. He was instead a character using a real form of wrestling. This was a first for Street Fighter. With El Fuerte the comic elements were understandable as lucha libre can be a bit absurd at times. The impossible set-ups, the pageantry and masks of ritualized combat. However Turkish oil wrestling dated back centuries. It was a legitimate sport and was a respected tradition around the world. It certainly did not deserve the treatment that Capcom gave the art. By pouring oil on himself Hakan gained an advantage over his regular moves. This was the first time that SF introduced a mechanic that extended the range of the fighter and their special moves. All of these gimmicks weakened the Technique and broke the wrestling Archetype. Where did the character come from and why was he proportioned as big and grotesque as he was? I believe some of the influence came from the Red Hulk. A Marvel Ent. character that had become popular over the past few years. If marketing data were deciding what types of character Archetypes Capcom should pursue then it was most likely from the Red Hulk. The interesting thing was that a hue shift from Hakan's regular color revealed a color scheme that matched the classic coloring of the Incredible Hulk, green and purple. Of course these things are most likely coincidental... I hope. The color schemes of Hakan, the weird hairstyle and obsession with oil. The chance to introduce a fighting art from the Near-East, to pander to a Nationality was instead insulted. The Stereotype and world view from the developers were coming into focus. These were cultural missteps that should have been avoided based on the reactions to Rufus and C. Viper. Instead there was a tremendous repetition of trying to solicit a strong reaction to gamers by presenting characters that were bold and silly instead of classic and serious. Have minority characters ever been painted well in a Street Fighter title? Absolutely! How did one of the best minority designs ever avoid Stereotype? We shall discuss this tomorrow. </p>

<p>Fei Long was never a great character in Street Fighter. He was the result of pure and unadulterated fanservice. You might know the argument, gamers sitting around the TV wondering if Bruce Lee could have kicked Ryu's ass. In design and execution Fei Long was meant to settle the debate once and for all. Unfortunately he had none of the classic SF II design cues applied to him, with the exception of the flaming dragon kick. Fei was nothing more than a caricature of Bruce with no redeeming factors. Once the debate was settled he was quickly put aside by the majority of gamers.

Gamers and designers alike missed the point of the comparison.
The correct argument should have been could Bruce Lee have been able to kick (an in his prime) Mas Oyama's ass? After all Mas Oyama was the biggest influence on the development of Ryu and the narrative of Street Fighter. He trained in isolation and forged a mental and physical toughness yet to be matched. Mas travelled the world seeking out the best fighters. He often defeated men with a single punch, earning the nickname God Hand. When he ran out of martial arts masters he began fighting bulls. It would have been fantastic to see both Oyama and Lee fight in their prime.

The challenge for Capcom should have been "Can you design a character that had a foundation in traditional kung-fu and then broke from tradition and invented his very own fighting art? Can you then make a visual representation of this archetype with respect to the design cues of Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Technique and Timeless Design and not make it look like you stole the look / voice / mannerisms / gestures / stance / moves and costumes of Bruce Lee?" If Capcom were able to do that and only years later reveal the inspiration behind the character without anybody catching on then they would have done their job. But they did not. Bruce Lee is Fei Long. Fei Long is Bruce Lee. There were no two ways about it. Lee was a huge presence while alive and became an even bigger icon upon his death. He was such a character in reality that very little had to be done to turn him into a cartoon. The ability to perform one-finger push ups. To kick faster than most people could punch and punch so fast that film cameras had difficulty capturing his strikes. To break boards a mere inch away from his fist? These were all things he accomplished, check YouTube if you do not believe me. Lee versus Oyama would have been an epic encounter. However Lee versus Ryu was a lackluster matchup.
Ryu worked because he was not a caricature of Oyama. The only thing the two men had in common were having obscene muscles for a karateka. Everything else was made up. The torn sleeves of the gi, the red headband and gloves were more owed to manga influence than reality. The moves of Ryu, while retaining some of the elements of actual karate were also not meant to be sim versions of actual strikes. They were fantastic versions of punches and kicks that could only exist in an anime-influenced world.

If Ryu were closer to Oyama in look and moves then he would have been a forgettable character. To watch Oyama fight was not anything spectacular. He was so good at punching, blocking and kicking that very few encounters lasted more than a few strikes. Again, most rivals went down with a single punch. Ryu would have been a bland character if he delivered a stiff arm to the solar plexus of his opponent and then shove them over with a backhand. Oyama could do this with relative ease even against experienced fighters. Gamers would be in an uproar. They would call a character that could beat an opponent with one or two hits cheap and unbalanced. However the real Oyama had reduced his style to the absolute strongest techniques that worked (for him) and did not use any colorful movements, as they were a waste of energy and effort. Making a character that was exactly like him would have been poor character design and would have broken the game.

By a similar philosophy Bruce Lee would have not been a fit for SF. While he enjoyed performing fancy moves for the cameras and audience at tournaments, he was very conservative in his moves as well. If he could finish a fight with a single strike he would have. If he could take an opponent to the mat and choke them out then he would have done that as well. A character that fought like Lee did in actual encounters would also not have work well in a game. This is the argument of a design being a parody vs homage; Does Fei Long fail to have any lasting impact with fans because he could be seen as a parody of a well respected legend rather than a homage? Does Caricature even belong in SF character design?
Yes and no.

The look and mannerisms of real world fighters, deceased fighters, and movie characters do not make for good SF design. They always come off as uninspired and cheap. For example, the DLC costumes in Street Fighter IV of Fei Long in costumes that Bruce Lee made famous. Or making Gen look like Gordon Liu's character Pai Mei from the Kill Bill movies. This was a pandering to the masses. A way to get customers interested in the game. These costume and revised character designs further dated themselves via pop culture references. Would they mean as much a year or two down the line? What about when compared to original designs in the series that hold up after 20+ years? Dhalsim had to lose the turban and costume of his Indian inspiration from the Master of the Flying Guillotine before fans would have accepted him as original. Or think about how M. Bison went from a thinly-veiled Mike Tyson to a massive boxer with little resemblance to the former champ in latter versions of SF. The only way to achieve something substantial in Street Fighter was to create a clean design and apply all of the elements that made previous characters work.
Where Caricature can be used in Street Fighter are with the moves and traditional martial arts. The way a character stands, moves and strikes could always be inspired by the real world. The designer only needs to make an uppercut or wrestling throw fantastic in order to make the character they are applied to more memorable. The uniform or costume that a trained fighter wears can also be caricatured. It is the person wearing the costume that should not be caricatured. At least not made recognizable. For the case of Fei Long it was all a bit too much. Fans enjoyed the experience of playing with a familiar personality. After a while he was forgotten as gamers returned to the characters that were more original.
But how far can these fantastic moves go before they break the gamer's willing Suspension of Disbelief. We will discuss this tomorrow with T. Hawk, the third character introduced in Super Street Fighter II and how he was able to break the suspension of disbelief.
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<p>Today brings us to the element of Suspension of Disbelief. I have paraphrased a good potion of a section from my Deconstruction of Abel blog. I apologize to those that were already familiar with the theory... Street Fighter did not always focus on characters that could shoot fireballs. The original SF II cast was balanced in such a way as that those without projectile moves had an almost even chance against those that did. To do this some characters had strikes or grabs that hit before Ken, Ryu or Guile's fireball/sonic booms. Others had ways of dodging attacks entirely. To explain the concept of Suspension of Disbelief I have to mention T. Hawk, the first character to break the illusion of mass and weight in the game. As a character that towered over Sagat and Zangief you'd expect T. Hawk to be all power moves and no finesse. Instead the SF II team invented a fictional native martial art, an original Technique that looked like a combination of the eagle dance with open palm kung-fu. His Stance was poor but the idea of giving him and original set of Moves and fighting art was solid. More so than Fei Long or Dee Jay.
Even though he was massive, T. Hawk had a graceful, almost weightless way about him. Cammy and T. Hawk were furthest along in development for Street Fighter III and it showed. Their appearance had many of the Timeless Design cues and the majority of their moves worked well in the game and in canon. The Mexican Typhoon, a power move assigned to T. Hawk was the element that was unbalanced and appeared far too simple for him to perform. Even though T. Hawk was the largest SF character at the time it was beyond belief that he could leap into the air and effortlessly swing a 400 pound character around with one hand. Many players said the move looked absurd, an attempt to try to create a wrestling move more fantastic than the spinning piledriver.

The willing Suspension of Disbelief is what allows people to enjoy a book, movie or videogame. Is is what allows gamers to believe that the masters of karate can hurl fireballs and kick with hurricane force. At least for a moment. They know that these are forms of entertainment and are willing to put aside preconceptions about what is real in order to enjoy the experience. According to programmers a fighting game is a glorified version of paper, rock and scissors. There were many avenues to approach the game but infinitely more ways to mess it up, or break the illusion. Producers were careful to keep the Suspension of Disbelief going with the music they choose, voice actors they hired, colors, lighting, balance, effects and every other piece that went into making the game. Designers were responsible for ensuring that the elements of great characters; Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Technique and Timeless Design contributed to the illusion. Even if the designer were careful or if the producer wanted to put in something silly then they would slip that into the game . When gamers noticed that inconsistency it broke the illusion, the Suspension of Disbelief. For Street Fighter II it was paramount not to break the illusion because the game was so straightforward. Super Street Fighter II had a couple of instances of that.
In SF II players routinely suspended their disbelief because the ground rules had been set as to what the characters could and couldn't do. Gamers believed an Indian mystic could easily stretch his limbs, breathe fire and teleport or that a Brazilian wild man could be green-skinned and spark with electricity because they represented undiscovered or mystical fighters and fighting arts. They even believed that the masters of traditional martial arts could send waves of punch energy through the air. All of these fighters were the absolute best of their respective style and the elements all expressed that to gamers. Players got taken out of the illusion when they saw a character do something out of place or something that was against the ground rules. In Super Street Fighter II having a new character without establishing themselves as true fighters (Dee Jay) could throw fireballs when others that were patterned after legendary fighters (Fei Long) could not. The Mexican Typhoon was another move that broke the suspension of disbelief. What was it about this move that was inconsistent with things established in previous titles? Why were gamers willing to believe in fireballs and other such elements but not in being able to slam opponents like ragdolls? For this let us compare the physics of SF to the physics featured in animation, specifically cartoons. Cartoons made the impossible seem possible, or at the very least plausible. An object could appear to have it's own weight and volume if animators were careful in how they conveyed movement and shape through artistic cues. The theory of animation was consistent whether in cartoons from the USA, anime from Japan or videogames from abroad. When presented right these "cartoon physics" tricked the mind into believing there was inertia, weight and mass for 2-dimensional objects. Regardless of how big and strong any character design in SF got, the mind of the gamer told them that it was impossible for any character to easily swing an opponent at arms length. These were still humans and not super-powered beings, like the cast of Dragon Ball. The biggest characters in SF that didn't have fireballs needed something equally impressive. Designers had to create a "catch all" or generic power move that looked convincing whether it was being used against someone as small as Sakura or as large as E. Honda.
Zangief's spinning piledriver was a convincing attack. He appeared to carry mass and weight behind his actions. Before, during and after the execution of his grapple there was always a sense of physics behind his move. However it was too easy for T. Hawk to swing an opponent through the air. His animation was very stiff. His torso remained perfectly stable as he jumped in the air while his arm spun around and around. The power slams that worked best in the series did so by keeping the opponents in close contact with the character performing the move. If the character jumped into the air while performing the move then the gamer had to be convinced that this was possible. The animation in the game had to be solid via the lessons of "cartoon physics." To do this Capcom had created the 1st Law of over-the-top grapples: A character strong enough to lift, jump and hold onto their opponent also had to rotate along with them. If the character were animated doing something contrary to this, say remaining still while swinging an opponent around then the move would violate that 1st Law and break the illusion.
Zangief and the later heavyweight characters like Hugo (Moonsault Press) and Darun (Brahma Bomb) all had great slam moves because they rotated or flipped along with their victim. It did not matter if the character were lifting up a schoolgirl or a sumo wrestler, the animation was consistent. The speed, lift and rotation was believable to every member of the cast being slammed. The person delivering the move always had to come along for the ride. The Mexican Typhoon was one move which did not get this element right. It set a precedence of physics-defying throws and slams that were brought up with various super attacks in Street Fighter IV. T. hawk can now for example grab an opponent by the ankle and slam them back and forth over his head. Many of these throws were unrealistic, even by SF standards. When the Moves were inconsistent with the universe they detracted from the design and Purpose of the characters. If any character could now lift, throw and slam an opponent with ease then why have large muscular characters as an Archetype?
When I mention Archetype most gamers understand the concept. It was the the element which tied all of the previously mentioned details (Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, etc.) together. In fighting games there was always a strong character, denoted by his size and muscles. A small quick character, sometimes represented by a woman and a character in-between that had elements of both extremes. These were all physical Archetypes. The concept of Archetype could even apply to a particular martial art like karate, kung-fu or wrestling. In SF the Archetype did not necessarily lock the character into a pre-conceived model of a fighting art. The core characters created the tradition of martial arts Archetype but as I described in an early blog, these were illusions. None of the characters in SF II actually wore a traditional uniform or practiced a specific martial art, they were only hinted as doing so through their design. In this way the universe was open to accept alternate forms of fighting and alternate looks for fighters. For example, a look borrowed from an actual mixed martial artist would have worked in Street Fighter. It was the concept art for Alex and even the look placed on a generic fighter that beat up Sean in a SF III ending.

However the "plain clothes" aesthetic would have worked if a fighter had mixed training and their moves demonstrated that. These were the reasons why Alex was presented in a pair of overalls with combat boots and why Blair Dame had long boots and a leotard. The Moves complimented their non-traditional, but functional Costume. As an interesting aside Blair was the first MMA fighter in the SF universe. So the idea that the most diverse fighters could only be male did not start and end with Chun-Li!

One of the final characters of the original 8 World Warriors yet to dissect tied together the elements of the "plan clothes" fighter with special projectile abilities, something that neither Alex nor Blair had. A serviceman did not need to wear a karate gi in order to let gamers know that he or she was a fighter. With some camouflage, combat boots or other traditional details a character like Guile or Cammy had enough Color and Costume cues to show gamers what style of fighter they were. When combined with a solid fighting Stance, and given appropriate Moves their fictional special forces Technique was sold to gamers. The pseudo military costume would hold up to Timeless Design because the armed forces had not changed their look in decades. A pair of pants, boots and tank top were accurate for a serviceman from the Second World War to today. The costume for Cammy was passable because she was a member of an elite force which wore uniforms that were outside of normal military. Thus the military Archetype was a universally understood model for a fighter, especially in Street Fighter II.
Originally designed as a character for American's to use Guile outgrew his status and became a major player in the canon of the universe. His look would have worked without the silly hair, but his exaggerated flat top gave the head the same unique qualities that the other characters had. For example Chun-Li had hair buns, Zangief had a mohawk and Ryu had a red headband.

Guile would have been a good character design without the tall hair but it was also the element that made him special. It was the detail that made him more than just another faceless serviceman in a lineup of memorable fighters. It served to give him more personality than the pandering of USA flag tattoos on his shoulders. These tattoos would bring up the last elements that I want to explore, Nationality and Stereotype. I hope to see you back for that.
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<p>Super Street Fighter II paved the way for less-than-perfect designs to be added to the series. Cammy, T. Hawk, Fei Long, Dee Jay and Gouki were added to the series in one lump sum. Cammy, Gouki and T. Hawk were furthest in development, they had most of the elements of classic SF design with regards to Color, Costume, Moves, Stance and Technique. Fei Long and Dee Jay were lacking certain elements to make them as well rounded. The five characters were meant to be the new starting cast of Street Fighter III, with Gouki acting as boss. The decision to put them in SF II rather than allow the characters, their design and moves to mature was profit driven. SF II was the hottest arcade title since Pac Man almost a decade prior. Street Fighter II was so successful that studios around the world began rushing their own fighting games to market. Capcom had to find a new way to keep Street Fighter II profitable. Upgrade kits, Hyper, Turbo and Championship editions added new elements to the game. The last one, the Super upgrade added new characters and plot. Unfortunately it also set a precedence that weakened the overall character design. The two weakest designs in the game were Dee Jay and Fei Long. When Dee Jay debuted I remarked to my brothers and friends in the arcade, "What is wrong with this character? He looks like a crappy American design." His perpetual grin, awkward stance, long pants with type on them, silly celebration dance and ability to project fireball-like moves made him seem like an attempt to pander to gamers. This was when I was in high school. Even then I knew enough about character design, the differences between the American and Japanese aesthetics to call Capcom on it. Only years later did I find out the full story behind Dee Jay.
You could [url]http://www.capcom-unity.com/kramez/blog/2009/10/02/the_origin_of_dee_jay_straight_from_creator_james_goddard">read about his origins on Capcom-Unity from the man that designed the character[/url]. The concept names were amateurish "Mantis" and "JJ Bam," as were the design tweaks that James Goddard presented to Capcom of Japan (CoJ). He said of his revisions "I was a total noob at this back then, I had no idea why these things seemed important but I was very fortunate to get to present these ideas in-person on a trip to Japan where Akiman (Akira Yasuda) liked the vibe and incorporated that direction into the design." Dee Jay was not the result of having 20+ people working hard on design and performing countless revisions until he was right. Instead he was a character suggested by an employee of Capcom USA because his team responsible for localization and telling CoJ what Americans liked. Was Mr. Goddard qualified as a character artist or designer? Did he know how to work with color, proportion and scale? Did he understand the elements that made the original SF II cast successful, or the martial arts traditions that influenced their development? Or was he a programmer that knew his animation, engine and balance and managed to be at the right place at the right time? Pardon my language but Dee Jay was a piss-poor design. His moves were fun for gamers but they were placed on an insipid character design. Worse yet, he began a tradition of adding nonsensical elements to in-game characters, character design and animations. Apply everything that I have mentioned with regards to Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Technique and Timeless Design to Dee Jay.

The best things used on the character were the color choices. Dark-skinned characters were few and far between in the series. This skin color was balanced with orange, a very solid color choice that would hold up against all the other solid colors applied to the original cast. His gloves matched the color of his pants rather than contrasted them as did the gloves worn by the other characters in the series. His costume was fairly traditional. Long pants were made popular in kickboxing by Benny "the Jet" Urquidez in the mid 1970's. They countered the tradition of shorts in muay thai and influenced the character Joe in the original Street Fighter. From that point on Dee Jay's design began to fall apart. He was the first character to have text on his clothing, in giant letters down the side of his pants was MAXIMUM, originally they were going to say MANTIS, but due to sprite mirroring the letters would have been backwards on his opposite side. Text would be an element to date the figure as would his haricut of a fade with braids. That hair style was en vogue in the late 80's early 90's. It would not have made sense in any other era. His stance was decent but the shape of his legs looked curved and unnatural. His back foot looked deformed and stuck out, like a chicken foot from the wide-legged pants. His moves had elements from other characters, like Chun-Li's rising kicks, Guile's Sonic Boom and Vega's (the Japanese boss name for M. Bison) slide kick. Instead of truly reflecting the kickboxing and capoeira fighting arts he just wore their costume and had a grab bag of other character's moves. As for the silly wide grin and insistence that his passion was for both music and fighting, it simply reinforced stereotypes that Japanese designers had about black protagonists in games.

I used to think that Capcom was above pandering, that their greatest character design was somehow the work of divine inspiration. Cheap jabs at an ethnic group simply because that was how other artists and designers were representing them would not end up in Street Fighter. But they did and my view of Capcom was forever changed. It was Dee Jay that opened the door for poor designs to be allowed in the series. Trying to make him memorable by sharing his interests with gamers did little to make him more interesting. His gimmick, shaking maracas and incorporating music into his dialogue and ending did not endear him to many. It was as if Capcom could not present a solid black fighter in their game because they did not know how to. The things placed on Dee Jay tried to make up for the elements that he lacked. To make Dee Jay more accepted, to increase his "cool" factor, he was written [url]http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/Dee_Jay">as a better fighter than Sagat and Adon according to SF canon[/url]. Few gamers could imagine voting for Dee Jay over Sagat in a popularity contest, or whether they thought he was more powerful than Sagat in canon.
Dee Jay was a moment of weakness for Capcom. They lacked the confidence in the character and tried to cover up that fact by making him whimsical. Which other character in the original SF II cast insisted on sharing his or her hobby with the player? Which other character tried to be amusing and warm to audiences? Chun-Li did not go around flashing a police badge, even though it made her more interesting in canon. Instead she was presented as an ideal fighter and the gimmicks were cut out. If they were really important elements to shape the character then they were the reward at the end of the game via cinema. The winning pose of E. Honda with the kabuki head roll, the pose and dance of Dhalsim, these were cultural cues done in poor taste, their endings were not as silly. What was the cultural ideal that Capcom was trying to place on Dee Jay or was he a simply a dancing and grinning fool? We should acknowledge that Street Fighter has made inappropriate cultural jabs throughout the SF series. In concept and in execution there were some things done in very poor taste. Concept Dhalsim we had already gotten a glimpse of but in what other ways has the series used humor? In which other ways can they be deemed silly?

Zangief danced with the former general secretary of the Soviet Union in the original SF II ending. In the ending for SF Zero / Alpha he met the man and was sent to a frozen outpost to wrestle bears. The original concept for Zangief was a sailor named Vodka Gobalsky. Capcom toned down his name but did not lose the cultural jabs they were going for with the character. He was respected enough in canon to be a feared wrestler but made absurd with the way he manhandled anything he could get his gigantic hands on. A player or designer could look at Zangief's design and ending and say that SF was a world filled with silliness and therefor silly characters belonged. The most recent version of Street Fighter (Super SF IV) was the silliest version yet. The iconic characters were not as silly as some would have us believe. They were brought in from titles where they vomited (or spit up blood) if hit with a fierce strike too many times. They were characters that had murdered innocent people. It was a handful of new characters introduced into the series that were silly. What about the joke character Dan Hibiki? Did he not set the precedence that joke characters could be introduced in the series?

He was actually a character added for the sake of parody rather than for the sake of being silly. Dan was lampooning the characters Robert and Ryo from SNK's Art of Fighting. He was given an overly dramatic purpose of avenging his father's death at the hands of Sagat while never amounting to any real greatness using his father's fighting style. The message was clear, the best SNK characters would never be in the same league as the Street Fighters. So the sake of joke characters being put in the game "just because" also did not apply. They need to be well designed, or parodies of existing designs that explicitly stole the Capcom style. My dissertation could be interpreted as too heavy handed. The game was filled with fantastic characters performing impossible moves. I might be talking too much about nothing important. "Enjoy the game and STFU..." is what the critics would say if they didn't bother to look at the character design from every angle.

The universe was filled with many fantastic characters performing impossible moves. The reason that these characters were so highly regarded and so well remembered was multifold. The use of comedy and silliness was also tempered by great design and dramatic storytelling. There was a fine line between humor and seriousness. Whereas Zangief cried when meeting Mikhail Gorbachev and then went out to wrestle bears for "Mother Russia" in one ending the game was balanced in another ending with Gen coughing up blood. He was looking for a worthy opponent to take his life before he succumbed to leukemia. It was the type of great character design combined with great Purpose that made the SF characters iconic. Characters added to the game without meeting the criteria of the classics would be doing the series a disservice. They would be weakening their cast-members. A poorly designed joke character did not add levity to the game, they did not endear themselves to audiences. Think about that type of design and purpose in other forms of entertainment. There was a huge difference between R2D2 and C3PO as humorous characters and Jar-Jar Binks whom was supposed to serve the same purpose in other films. When did comedy work in Star Wars and when did it not? I could find a parallel between Dan Hibiki and the droids. I could also find a parallel with Jar-Jar and Rufus if the purpose of humor in the SF series were ever in question. In a universe filled with powerful heroes and villains, it only takes one Jar-Jar to invalidate Darth Vader and the Force. It only takes one Hakan smearing himself with oil to discredit Gouki and Ansatsuken.

I could not spend more time on this subject if it the game was not worth discussing, dissecting and debating. People are passionate about it 20+ years after the original title and they will remain so until the day they die. Or until the day Capcom fails the franchise (I know many Star Wars fans walked away after Episode 1). True fans of Street Fighter are amazing people. They fly halfway around the world for a tournament, dress up as their favorite fighter at conventions, line up in the freezing cold to catch a glimpse of a sequel and even tattoo themselves with their favorite characters and even button / joystick combinations. Would you not agree that these gamers deserve the best from Capcom designers in each and every game? They deserve more than a funny costume or a silly gimmick.

In Street Fighter IV we had seen a return to the gimmick. When the designers did not understand lucha libre well enough to make a solid character they insisted on marrying the character to something silly. Something that was not fighting related at all. For El Fuerte the gimmick was cooking. Even in the earliest concept art of the character he had already been pinned with that. His mask, the most important symbol in the sport of lucha libre was parodied by placing a spoon and a fork around the eyes. It was akin to the Dhalsim concept art, complete with elephant mask and multiple arms being placed in the game instead of the yoga mystic. The names of El Fuerte's moves included names of Mexican dishes with guacamole and quesadilla in the title. His alternate costume retained the chef uniform from the concept art. In other concept art he even had a tattoo with a fork and spoon on his back. How these things were meant to supplement really good Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Technique and Timeless Design, were beyond me.

How music and fighting were meant to go together was poorly executed with Dee Jay. Elena in Street Fighter III, who used a rhythmic form of fighting (capoeira) made more sense. But she did not shake maracas or carry on in silly ways like Dee Jay. A careful application of all the elements I had described (Color, Costume, Stance, Technique, etc.) created Universality. That meant a character made sense to, and even appealed to the global gaming culture. A character that lacked Universality in Street Fighter was often supplemented with Purpose. Dee Jay was not a universally balanced character visually and his moves were unoriginal. He was put in the game to appeal directly to Americans and not other nationalities. He was the reason why producers thought they could design a character specifically to appeal to a target audience. In other words pandering and setting the precedence for a character like Crimson Viper. Fei Long was the second weakest design introduced in Super Street Fighter II. He was also pandering to audiences however the other problems with that character were slightly different than those facing Dee Jay. We shall explore these things tomorrow.
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<p>The fundamentals of kinesiology, the way the body moves, still applies with Technique in SF. Mystical powers cannot be slapped onto any character without first convincing the player that these things are possible in that world. Amazing lifts and throws cannot be accomplished unless the player believes these things can be done. Even in a world filled with fantastic abilities the human body is still expected to move with some sense of realism. The range of motion, flexibility and reactions should be believable. Even when characters were animated in 2D, and featured exaggerated Proportions and Moves, they still moved and behaved with a sense of weight and realism. In order to develop a convincing Technique for a SF character designers had to study actual martial arts closely. It would be easier to caricature a fighting art if artists knew how their striking techniques worked.

A punch has more force if it is generated from a proper Stance. For the sake of an uppercut the force of the punch is multiplied if the fighter turns their hips and torso into the strike. If the arm is kept in close to the body it can generate more force because the mass of the torso is behind the punch. In Street Fighter there are variations of the uppercut, none written to be more powerful than the Shin Shoryuken. In appears to be a powerful move because it follows the mechanics of an actual karate uppercut very closely. The fantastic element added by Capcom designers was the leap that carried the punch up into the sky.

That move, and most uppercut special attacks require an opponent to be standing very near to the player. If not, like a real uppercut, the force of the punch does only a fraction of the damage. This translates to the game as a mechanic involving high risk and high return. From a design standpoint moves have to be given to other characters to balance that style of gameplay. The Technique of Sagat and Adon is an exaggerated version of muay thai. Like the karate that Ken and Ryu practice, it is complimented with fantastic moves that are impractical in the real world but solid in the game. As a strong counter to Ryu, Sagat needed a comparable special uppercut. Designers at Capcom gave Sagat a punch that started lower than Ryu's and was propelled up by his long powerful legs. If you study the punch animations from Ryu and Sagat you will notice the differences in the Technique.

A leg leads with the same punching arm of the Shoryuken, for the Tiger Uppercut the opposite leg is lifted and the back is turned to the player. These differences in Technique are subtle but they serve the purpose of highlighting the style of fighting that each character represents. What about characters that lack a traditional fighting style? How did the designers and artists at Capcom create a fictional technique for them? We shall begin with the two most abstract characters in SF lore, Dhalsim and Blanka.

The success behind these two characters are difficult to recreate unless the designer does a complete dissection of their form and function. Before we begin to talk about each character's respective Technique, let us see what we can decipher from the concepts of Color, Costume and Timeless Design.

Dhalsim had very dark skin. This was contrasted by bright colors on his shorts and the wraps on his arms and legs. The bright paint on his face broke up the plainness of his shaved head. He wore simple jewelry and a necklace of skulls. His shorts were a simple fabric tied with a rope belt. All of these elements could not really date his appearance, as he could have even come from an archetype that existed before the formation of the schools of karate and kung-fu. He represented a mystical element from developing countries for which a Costume like this was acceptable, or rather that Capcom convinced the gamer that this was some sort of traditional garb for Yoga practitioners. Yoga is not a fighting art, however the illusion that Capcom created by combining Dhalsim's appearance with an abstract Stance and fantastic Moves turned Yoga into a viable Technique in the SF universe. What about Blanka? What was his Technique or was he simply a "silly" character as some believe? What can we deduce from his design and Purpose in the game? Blanka was possibly the most abstract character that managed to work well in the series. His colors were bolder than any to-date. However instead of wearing a bright costume it was his skin and hair that were unusually bright and colorful. This visual cue Daigo Ikeno and Yoshinori Ono exploited with the design of Hakan. However what they failed to understand was the context that made Blanka work. It was simply more than the odd visuals that made Blanka (or Dhalsim) memorable. Blanka was written and presented as a wild man. He was hunched over and breathing ragged in his Stance. He would lumber forward or recoil back like an animal rather than a fighter. His Moves had to be equally savage. He slashed with his long nails, bit and clawed at opponents and even hurled himself like a cannonball. These moves were anything but traditional. He howled and beat his chest, did backflips and performed electrical sparks for a special attack. Capcom maintained the illusion from all angles by giving Blanka his own savage Technique.

His Costume reinforced the elements of his savage nature. He wore torn and weathered shorts and had broken cuffs and chains attached to his ankles, suggesting that he had been captured and subsequently had run away. His wild and unkempt hair added additional layers of detail to the character. Would Blanka have worked if the other elements that were placed on him had been taken away?

Was Blanka inspired design or greater than the sum of his parts? A different artist or designer could have used similar elements and had achieved a completely different look. Look at "Missing IQ" Gomez aka King Rosta Mon from Saturday Night Slam Masters / Muscle Bomber. Large, muscular and hairy with sharp nails and sharp teeth he was a wrestler that existed in the SF universe. A savage and strong brute that fought like a wild man because, frankly, he was. However the subtleties of how his hair was shaped and the more obvious difference between his skin color made both characters distinct, if cut from the same cloth. By reducing Blanka to the core concepts of a savage man, and not including pads or wrestling boots, he had developed Timeless Design. The character could be placed in almost any era and would have still communicated the idea of a wild man. Blanka would not have worked if they placed a traditional fighting art on him. His bizarre look would not have fit into a uniform of a popular art. Imagine how absurd he would have appeared in a karate gi, a taekwondo dobok, a wrestling singlet or boxing shorts. Or if this strange looking character fought like a regular person? This clash of elements, this contrast between Technique and Timeless Design would have broken the consistency of the designs he was meant to balance. Blanka and Dhalsim are two of the strangest characters in the SF universe but not the only oddballs that have worked well within the series. Let us use the elements described so far to see how other fringe characters like Birdie and Sodom worked in the universe. Apply the concepts of Color, Costume, Moves, Stance, Technique and Timeless Design to them.

These two characters had many of the elements of the classic characters even though neither subscribed to a traditional form of fighting. Birdie, whose dark skin and clothes were contrasted with a bright haircut, jewelry and tattoos represented punk culture. Punk was known for it's counter-culture, anti-authority attitude. He was featured in the original SF and was one of the few characters in the game that was an actual street fighter and not a martial arts master. Hence he had punches and kicks that were not constrained by a style and was free to fight dirty by hitting with his head and using a weapon (his chains) against opponents. His hulking frame curved over his hips and his stance was meant to intimidate rivals. The overall design worked in Street Fighter because he was a modern character meant to balance out the martial arts masters.

Sodom was an even stranger character. He was an American obsessed with Japan and Japanese culture (hmm, sounds like me). His colors were bold and contrasting, bringing attention to his over-the-top personality. His design cues were a terrible mish-mash of pseudo Japanese elements. Instead of samurai armor he wore football pads under his shirt. A replica samurai helmet, boot straps, jeans, sandals and split toe tabi socks rounded out his look. His costume, like Birdie's was strange enough so that it would age well and suffer the effect of being a dated look. He spoke in nonsensical phrases that ment nothing in either Japanese or English. These unusual visual and design elements were wrapped around a series of strikes, some solid strikes with his kabuto (samurai weapon) and some as over-the-top as he was. He could set an opponent on fire through the friction of pushing them across the ground! Sodom served a similar purpose to Birdie in that his odd style was meant to balance out the fighting archyetypes in the game.

The four characters from the SF games mentioned, and one from Muscle Bomber, are a sampling of the esoteric characters that could still work in the series. They had all of the elements that I had brought up over the series and more elements that I have yet to talk about. They worked because none of the odd looking or moving characters had an actual fighting art applied to them. The more esoteric the look then the more liberties that Capcom designers could give them with regards to Color, Costume, Moves, Stance and Technique.

On a surface understanding they might be thought of as silly or even comical but their design elements were actually well thought out. They did not mock any fighting art. Nor were they put in the game to insult a culture. There are elements on Sodom and Dhalsim that might be construed as stereotype or culturally insensitive. However in the planning stages the designs were even more intolerant of representing cultures in a fair light. Blanka got a few changes to his character design but Dhalsim was an especially poor concept character.

Capcom saved the look by taking away all of the silly cultural jabs and reducing the character to only the base elements. Of course these elements were influenced by pop culture, specifically the films the One Armed Boxer and the Master of the Flying Guillotine, but Dhalsim was also a revised manga design that could work and be understood globally.

This was the concept of Universality. Ryu was a "pure" karate fighter and Chun-Li represented kung-fu, so too did Dhalsim become a yoga mystic. At least they convinced the audience of that, but as you have read so far the design was much deeper than that. Tomorrow we will take a hard look at how Universality and Purpose are elements at odds with current SF design and how classic SF II design managed to reach a healthy balance between those elements without resorting to pandering.
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