Over the past year at Destructoid, I’ve become known for one certain thing in particular:
my supposedly undying fandom for Street Fighter’s Cammy White, the former Shadowloo
assassin of M. Bison and the true strongest woman in the world (sorry, Chun-Li, but your
man-like thighs kinda scare me). Sure, some of it I exaggerate just for the hell of it, but
she is my favorite character from the Street Fighter series and one of my favorite
characters in gaming. My love of Cammy also helped keep my childhood joy of collecting
figures alive, and is currently the reason I’ve taken up another interest. But you probably
are wondering more about how this whole thing got started, right?

Well, wait no longer. I will finally tell you the story of how this madness came to be.

The story begins way back when I was young boy and relatively new to gaming. Mind you,
I’m only 22, but I’ve been playing from a very young age, so when I say I’ve been a
Cammy fan since the way beginning of it all, don’t think I’m exaggerating.

The first time Cammy and I crossed paths was the first time she was introduced to
everyone in North America: Nintendo Power issue #62, whose cover story was Super
Street Fighter II and if I recall correctly had T. Hawk on the cover. At the time, there were
four new characters being introduced: the stupidly dumb Dee Jay, the native Mexican T.
Hawk, the Bruce Lee clone Fei Long (who was wicked cool, too) and of course, the rather
tiny British commando in the skin-tight green leotard, Cammy. I read through her included
backstory about not having any memories of her previous life before she had joined up
with Delta Red, and my 8-year old mind immediately found her to be the coolest and cutest
of all the Street Fighter characters. It turns out that my first thoughts were right: Cammy’s
backstory is one of the most unique in the entire franchise, but considering that half the
stories are “I am fighting for my country!” or “I am fighting for revenge!”, it’s not too hard
to be one of the best.

Some time after my introduction to Cammy, I actually happened upon a friend with a copy
of Super Street Fighter II. I played against him, but since he had a copy and I didn’t, I
ended up getting my ass whipped repeatedly. It wasn’t much of a fun experience, but I had
found out that character I saw in the issue of Nintendo Power made for a pretty good
fighter, and one that matched my fast and hard-hitting type of game play. That was the
beginning of the Cammy fan turning into the Cammy player, a sad and lonely type of Street
Fighter gamer because few people actually try playing as Cammy. Most just stare at her
ass.

I ended up sticking with Cammy, eventually adding Sagat to my repertoire for moments
when I’d need his pure power over Cammy’s swiftness. Things only got better with Capcom
vs. SNK, since I could actually start paring the two together and swapping them out as
necessary. If you guessed that’s what I did whenever I got the chance to play, you’d be
right. As the arcades around me shuttered their doors, my chances to play as the Killer Bee
dwindled. I still didn’t have a copy of Super Street Fighter II or any other game with
Cammy in it, and due to being a middle schooler at the time, I didn’t have a lot of money to
throw around. But when I played, I showed my friends just how good of a character
Cammy was, even though she was the smaller than the hulking Honda or Zangief, a bit
slower than the creepy Vega and not nearly as popular as the likes of Ryu and Ken.

It was about this time I also picked up the oldest figure in my collection, a Cammy figure
made by the now-defunct Resaurus. After a while, I determined the figure was a little
lonely, so when I went to anime conventions and on to eBay, I always was on the lookout
for a few more Cammy figures to possibly get. Thus, the more Cammy crap I began to
collect, the more the idea of collecting figures and displaying them became a part of my
mentality. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that kind of thought eventually landed me on
Tomopop, and perhaps it’s no coincidence that Cammy figures make up the biggest part of
my collection, with 8 different ones on my display shelf and that number ever growing.

Cammy also sparked a newer interest of mine: figure customization. That first Cammy I
bought is currently being repainted by yours truly. Part of that stems from the original paint
job bring so shitty that I can see the original plastic cast colors underneath in some places
and thinking I could do better. Part of it also comes from being bitter that I got sniped on a
custom Cammy repaint eBay auction two months ago. So far, the whole process has been a
royal pain in the ass, because the figure is constructed with two entirely different types of
plastics that require different methods of painting, but I’m hoping to have the entire project
done by the time PAX rolls around. After that, who knows? I have plans if I can afford all
the materials and have the free time to actually pull them off, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say
a few weren’t Cammy-related.

In regards to actually playing as Cammy, the story takes a break for about 4 or 5 years
until I ended up in college, where the town of Bowling Green, Ohio played host to three
different arcades: one downtown, one at the mall, and one on-campus in the Student Union.
It was the store downtown that had the Capcom vs. SNK machine in it, and it was at that
machine I got my chance to catch up on old times and turn back into the Cammy fan of old.
I also happened to become interested in fighting games and found a new series and
character I was even better as, but we’ll save that for my next story.

So there you have it. The long and winding story of my Cammy fandom and all the effects
it has had on me has finally been told. I admit I’m a bit rusty and haven’t gotten the
practice I need with Super Street Fighter II, so I’m not as good as I was back in the day,
but with HD Remix coming to Xbox Live and a slew of new challengers to face off against,
now’s as good a time as any to get back in the saddle. And if that doesn’t work, I’ve
certainly got enough pictures of Cammy’s ass to keep you distracted.