User:Cukie Gherkin/Characters in Street Fighter III

Concept and creation
The characters are presented in two dimensions, both due to 3D at the time not being considered suited for "head-to-head fighting" and Capcom lacking the requisite technology to do it well. Each character consists of 700-1200 individually drawn frames of animation.

Alex


Alex is a wrestler from New York who first appears in Street Fighter III: New Generation, and his design and character are based on an extremely young Hulk Hogan. He serves as a protagonist of Street Fighter III. His parents died at a young age, so he was raised by his father's friend, Tom, who trained him in fighting. In New Generation, Tom loses a fight with Gill, the president of the Illuminati and gets injured as a result. This angered Alex and prompted him to enter the third World Warrior tournament hosted by Gill in order kill him. Alex beats Gill and wins the tournament, but spares Gill, who is impressed about Alex's skills after their encounter. Alex eventually returns to Tom as a changed person after fighting various people around the world. Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact retcons New Generation, but Alex's story stays the same, but he now has a rivalry with Hugo, a German pro wrestler of extreme height. Alex returns in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike with a slightly different personality. He meets Ryu and fought him, only to lose, in which Ryu told Alex to explore the world and find worthy fighters.

Alex makes an appearance in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars as a playable character, alongside other Street Fighter characters, Ryu and Chun-Li. He also appears in Capcom Fighting All-Stars and Capcom Fighting Evolution. Alex reappears as a playable character in Street Fighter V as the first of 6 characters to be released after the game's launch in 2016. In the story mode of Street Fighter V, "A Shadow Falls", Alex is first shown winning a pro-wrestling tournament. He then competes in a tag-team exhibition match with Laura against Zangief and R. Mika, which is broadcast live on television. However the signal cuts out due to a Black Moon detonating over New York City, causing a blackout. Dhalsim comes to his trailer, wanting the chess piece, but Alex believes Dhalsim is a mugger and fights him. Dhalsim successfully convinces Alex otherwise and receives the chess piece from Alex. Dhalsim then tells Alex that big things will happen to him in the future, foreshadowing his role as the main character of the Street Fighter III series, and teleports away.

In December 1997, Alex ranked 44th on Gamest's "Top 50" video game characters, tying with Goro Daimon, and in January 1998 was named the 22nd-best character of the preceding year, tying with Ryuji Yamazaki. IGN voted Alex one of their top 25 fighters. He was ranked as the sixth-best Street Fighter character by UGO.com. Alex was named by Heavy.com as the character they wanted to see the most in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Alex was also named as 10th-best character in the series by Complex. In the official poll by Bandai Namco, Alex was the second most requested Street Fighter side character to be added to the roster of Tekken X Street Fighter, as of August 2012 racking up 17.97% of votes.

Dudley


Dudley is an upper class heavyweight boxer from Britain with powerful techniques and speed. He seeks perfection both in and out of the ring, always behaving as an impeccable gentleman. He is also the son of an athlete who later became a successful businessman. When his father's business began to fail when he was in college, Dudley was able to recover his losses thanks to his boxing career. In Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, he fights outside a London pub called the Sherlock Holmes, while Knightsbridge tube station and the Harrods department store can be seen in his 3rd Strike background. When his father's prized Jaguar is purchased from a debtor's auction, Dudley goes after the buyer, a man named Gill. In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Dudley has received the honorary title of "Sir" after making a comeback and winning the championship title, and is invited into a contest that will be held in the presence of the royal family. Now known as Sir Dudlington, he decides to travel the world and improve himself before the day of the match. He is also shown to have a great interest in the gardens of his illustrious country estate, occasionally losing track of time, or getting lost, as shown in his Third Strike ending.

In Super Street Fighter IV, Dudley returns as a playable character and joins the tournament in search of new roses for his garden. He also claims he needs something to get his mind off of his missing car and encounters Balrog who challenges him to a fight. In his ending, he is shown lamenting the fact that he was unable to procure the new roses for his garden. As he does so, Dudley notices a flower bloom and comments on its beauty to his butler, Mr Gotch. He also appears via DLC in Street Fighter X Tekken with his official tag partner, Elena. In a small cameo, Dudley can be seen in the background of the England stage in Capcom vs. SNK 2, reading a newspaper while wearing boxing gloves, and he has another small cameo in Pyron's ending in Capcom Fighting Jam.

Alex Donaldson of VG247 described Dudley as "the reverse of [Street Fighter]’s most famous Boxer", adding "He’s some of Street Fighter's design at its best – simple, understandable, and with a fighting style that is a perfect match for the style and personality of the fighter."

Gill


Gill (ギル) is the main antagonist and final boss of the Street Fighter III series. At the start of the series he is the President of the Illuminati, a secret society that has controlled the underworld for thousands of years and seeks to turn the whole world into a utopia by causing an armageddon. His ultimate goal is to test the skills of several warriors and coerce them into his cause. Gill appears in his default costume as a tall, muscular man with flowing blond hair, the right side of his body colored red, and the left side colored blue, wearing nothing but a loincloth. 2nd Impact introduces Gill's younger brother Urien as a player character of similar build and attire but with short hair; in addition, Urien's body is the same color on both sides. In Urien's ending, Gill is revealed to have been promoted to "Emperor" (天帝) after Urien takes over Gill's former presidency, which he still holds by the time of 3rd Strike The blond woman who assists Gill before battle in 3rd Strike is his secretary Kolin (コーリン), who also appears in Dudley's ending in the first two games, handing him the keys to Dudley's car. Gill is not playable in any of the arcade versions of the Street Fighter III games. However, he is selectable once he is unlocked from within the console versions of 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike. He appears in the ending of Street Fighter V revealing that Helen is in fact his secretary Kolin. Gill makes his playable debut in Street Fighter V as a playable character in the Champion Edition update.

Ibuki
Designed by Akira "Akiman" Yasuda for Street Fighter III: New Generation, the team had implemented legacy character Ryu into the game, and wanted to include female character but found them difficult to come up with. Akiman then suggested "Let the girl be a ninja. Ninjas are absolutely cool!" Her initial design was drastically different, consisting of a short haired muscular girl with glasses, wearing an outfit similar to Guy from Final Fight, another character he had developed. However they felt this design looked "more like a martial artist than a high-flying ninja". Another pass was done with a focus on a more traditional ninja, the next drawing giving her a full bodysuit and armor over her hands, ankles and crotch. Her appearance and outfit were refined further, giving her a look he described as cute "even though she looks shabby". Series artist and fellow character designer Kinu Nishimura took that statement to heart and emphasized that cute aspect of her art of Ibuki, as well as designing a school outfit for the character. Producer Tomoshi Sadamoto recalled that because they were located in Japan Ibuki was much easier to find reference materials than other characters. Her unique pontail proved a bit of a problem for the animation team, as to do it properly she had "1.2 to 1.3x the character data" of other fighters, requiring several months to complete with Sadamoto himself helping at the end.

In the plots of the original Street Fighter III and 2nd Impact, Ibuki is sent by her clan to retrieve a mysterious "G file" from Gill's organization, the Illuminati. In Ibuki's game end sequence, Gill hands her the file after their battle. In 3rd Strike, She is shown preparing to graduate from high school and is studying for her college application exams, hoping to move away from home to enjoy a normal campus life and find a boyfriend. As part of her final exam, Ibuki is sent to find and defeat the elderly martial arts legend named Oro. In her 3rd Strike ending she is accepted into the fictional Sarusuberi University (私立百日紅大学), at first without knowledge of its cover for an elite ninja training camp.

A kunai resembling her is seen in Fei Long's ending in Street Fighter IV (2008). She was later revealed to be playable in Super Street Fighter IV (2010), where her introductory sequence shows her interacting with a fellow Capcom ninja Guy for the first time. Her story for the game depicts her looking for fun and boys to date. Ibuki also meets Sakura Kasugano, as she tries to get Sakura to introduce her to a boy.

Ibuki reappears as a playable character in Street Fighter V as one of the DLC characters released after the game's launch. She was supposed to arrive in May 2016 but was delayed to July. In her prologue story, Ibuki finally finishes her ninja assignment and is informed by her friend Sakura about the party invitation sent from her rival Karin Kanzuki. Arriving at the Kanzuki Estate, Ibuki fights and defeat Birdie and Karin. After the fight, Karin lets her stay at the party with handsome boys and gives her the contract which has been approved by the Shinobi village to work with her. Ibuki also appears in the end of R. Mika's prologue story, rejecting her offer in muscle training which angers R. Mika who beats her in a fight. Ibuki and R. Mika continue to argue and bicker through the course of the game's main story, "A Shadow Falls", which begins when they and Karin travel to the New York City to find out who is behind the activation of the seven Black Moons, eventually finding out it is a Shadaloo plot. During the first infiltration of the Shadaloo base, Ibuki fights Balrog but fails to beat him. She then uses her smoke bomb to distract the enemies and the two successfully escape with it until they reunited with Karin. They witness Zangief beat Abel, Ibuki watching in disgust while R. Mika idolizes him. In the final assault against Shadaloo, Ibuki and R. Mika fight off Shadaloo soldiers. Ibuki is last seen watching Shadaloo's destruction with the other fighters.

A super deformed version of Ibuki is a playable character in the fighting game Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix / Pocket Fighter (1997), in which she sneaks off from her ninja training for an ice cream in Tokyo. Ibuki is playable in the mobile puzzle game Street Fighter: Puzzle Spirits (2014), and appears as a card in the browser-based social game Onimusha Soul (2012) and in person in Street Fighter Battle Combination (2015). Her cards also appear in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash (1999) and SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS (2007). She has a cameo in Capcom Fighting Evolution / Capcom Fighting Jam (2004).

Ibuki is one of the characters representing the Street Fighter series in the crossover fighting game, Street Fighter X Tekken (2012), with Rolento as her tag team partner. In it, she is persuaded by her village leaders to accept Rolento's request for a joint mission to the South Pole, serving as his advisor on infiltration. In the story mode, Rolento initially addresses the very annoyed Ibuki as private but "promotes" her to the rank of sergeant by the end of the game. According to a backstory for the Street Fighter X Tekken DLC ninja costume-swap for the Tekken series' Asuka Kazama, Asuka was sent Ibuki's village to learn the ninja arts from her. Ibuki's own Tekken swap costume is in the style of Yoshimitsu, with her latest assignment having her join his Manji Clan.

Producer/director Ryota Niitsuma originally considered her for inclusion as a playable character in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars (2008), but she was ultimately cut due to time constraints. The "head student at Ibuki's ninja village" was supposed to be a new player character in the rejected concept of Street Fighter IV Flashback by Backbone Entertainment, which would also have feature a cameo of a much younger version of Ibuki.

IGN's Jesse Schedeen stated "Ibuki is an apple that falls a bit far from the ninja tree. She's not a musclebound brute, but a young, quirky girl still finding her way in the world," adding that her eccentric nature was "part of what makes her so fun." Martin Robinson of AskMen stated "ninjas might be ten-a-penny in videogames, but none are as effortlessly cool as Ibuki" and added that she "is one of a handful of characters worth salvaging from Street Fighter III." Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek praised her as "too fun not to like", noting her complex life specifically and giving additional praise to her role as the straight man to Rolento's eccentric behavior in Street Fighter X Tekken. Paste stated "her design, both aesthetically and as a fighter, is actually pretty strong", further calling her the best ninja of the series "by far". Amanda LaPergola and Becky Chambers of The Mary Sue praised her status as a ninja, but criticized the emphasis of her story on her story on meeting boys, a trait they felt was too common amongst female characters in the Street Fighter universe.

Necro


Necro (ネクロ), whose real name is Illia (イリヤ), was born in a poor Russian village near a lake. He is the third of four children, with two older brothers and a younger sister. He also has massive data. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he wanders off from his home village and into the vicinity of Moscow, where he comes into contact with Gill's organization, which remodels his DNA to turn him into a living weapon, granting him superhuman flexibility. His fighting style is simulated by a computer, then programmed into his brain with cyber implants. Necro has a long reach and can use throws and electrocution. In his ending, he is tricked by Gill and left for dead in a facility, until he is rescued by a young girl named Effie (エフィー), and the pair go on a journey together. Necro's story is the same in 2nd Impact, in which he gains the nickname "super electromagnetic alien". In this game, however, he also has a role as one of Hugo's potential final bosses and tag partners, forming the tag team "Thunderbolt". In 3rd Strike, Necro and Effie are pursued by agents of the organization, but still live in hope of "truth and liberty". In his ending, Necro saves Effie from falling and thwarts agents of the Illuminati at the Siberian railroad.

Oro


Oro (オロ) is an ancient martial arts master who lives a secluded life of an immortal hermit. His lack of attachments has allowed him to exceed his legendary fighting skills beyond those of an ordinary person, though he does seem to have a weakness for cute girls. He attained such extraordinary abilities through the mastery of an extreme fighting style known as senjutsu (仙術). He sets out on a journey to find a worthy successor of his secrets in order to kill time. Through the use of magic, he sealed one of his arms in order to even the odds in favor of his opponents as he could accidentally seriously injure or kill his opponent if he did not. Oro decides that the only martial artist he met worthy of inheriting his secrets was Ryu.

Oro later reappears in Street Fighter V during Dhalsim's character story as Dhalsim encounters him while teaching a police officer named Mahesh how to breathe fire. Oro engages a discussion with the yoga master about mastering one skill before he leaves sensing another interesting person in the area. He was later mentioned in Karin's character story as Karin travels to India to find Oro, but is told by Dhalsim that he had already left a few days prior. He is also seen in Menat's character story when Menat, sent by her master Rose, warns him of an evil power in their world, which Oro is already aware of. He was made a playable character in the game's fifth season, in which he confers with Rose and Dhalsim about this lingering Psycho Power left behind after M. Bison's defeat. He once again fights using only one arm, carrying a tortoise named Yamasen in the other. Outside of the video game series, Oro also appears in the Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki comic book miniseries where Ibuki's final ninja exam is to challenge him. Together with her friends Elena and Makoto, she goes to the shrine on Mount Atago, where Oro has travelled to meditate. After the fight, Oro says that she actually made him think about using both hands and commends her on an entertaining challenge.

Despite appearing only in SFIII at the time, Oro was voted 35th-most popular out of 85 Street Fighter characters in Capcom's own poll for the 15th anniversary of Street Fighter. Oro also ranked 21st in a worldwide Street Fighter character poll held between 2017 and 2018. UGO Networks listed Oro as one of the top 50 Street Fighter characters due to his "unorthodox, powerful, and unique" design. He also ranked in Den of Geek, Complex, and Paste Magazine's favorite Street Fighter characters lists. Meanwhile, GamesRadar named Oro one of the worst Street Fighter characters.

Sean


Sean Matsuda (ショーン・マツダ) is a young boy from an average home in Brazil and the younger brother of Laura. Impressed by Ken's performance at a martial arts rally, Sean seeks to become his disciple, calling him "Master Ken". An intense but courteous young man, Sean is determined to win no matter what. He was once trained by his grandfather, who was of Japanese descent. Sean's greatest weakness is receiving attacks while attacking. He dreams of creating his original special moves. It is Sean who leads the basketball parry bonus round in 3rd Strike. In his ending, he becomes Ken's disciple, only to be told that he needs to defeat Ryu to become worthy. In 3rd Strike, Sean is allowed to participate in a martial arts tournament, but Ken tells him that his current skills will not even get him through the preliminaries and that he needs to develop his own style. In his 3rd Strike ending, Sean dreams that he has won the championship title, but in fact he loses in the qualifying rounds as a result of his lack of training. Sean makes a cameo appearance in Ryu's ending and intro in Marvel vs. Capcom, and as a supporting character in Street Fighter V.

Yun and Yang

 * (Yun)
 * (Yang)

In their backstory, Yun and Yang were separated from their birth parents when they were young. They were raised by an adoptive grandfather who runs a restaurant in Hong Kong and have eight underground bosses as godfathers. By the time of Street Fighter III, the two brothers are the leaders of their local town. Yun, the elder of the two, is described as being more responsible, while his younger brother Yang is calmer and more analytical.

In Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Yun and Yang set off to fight a mysterious organization (Gill's group, the Illuminati) threatening to take over their village. In their respective endings, Yun and Yang end up driving away Gill from their home town and the two return home to be greeted by their female friend Houmei and her younger sister Shaomei, who both harbor a respective crush on Yun and Yang.

After the Street Fighter III series, Yun appeared as a playable character Capcom vs. SNK 2, in the portable versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable and in Capcom Fighting Jam. They both later appeared as playable characters in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.

The twins later made a cameo in Chun-Li's introductory cutscene in the console versions of Street Fighter IV and in again in her ending in Super Street Fighter IV. They also made a cameo in the Half Pipe stage in Street Fighter X Tekken.

Hugo


Hugo (ヒューゴー) is a massive professional wrestler from Germany who first appears in Final Fight under the name Andore (アンドレ). He made his first Street Fighter appearance in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, in which he wears a similar pink leopard-print shirt and pants with chains around his waist. Because of his physical appearance and strength, Hugo is often compared to André the Giant, a real-life wrestler who worked for the WWF in the mid-80's and inspired the Andore character, extending as far as Hugo's rivalry with Alex, mirroring that between André and Hulk Hogan. Hugo is the son of a farmer from the German countryside and was raised alongside his two younger sisters. After leaving his hometown at the age of 20, he becomes a popular wrestler in the US, with former street warrior Poison, another enemy character from Final Fight, as his manager. In 2nd Impact, Hugo seeks a partner for an upcoming tag team wrestling tournament due to take place in a few months. Hugo's final opponent in the single-player mode varies, the four possibilities being Gill, Ryu, Elena and Necro. Afterwards, Hugo and his rival go on to form a tag team to compete in the CWA tag tournament. In 3rd Strike, Hugo achieves such an overwhelming victory in the tag tournament that no other wrestler dares to challenge him anymore. Worried about the lack of matches for Hugo, Poison forms a new wrestling organization with him, recruiting only the best fighters. In Hugo's ending, he and Poison form the Huge Wrestling Army (H.W.A.), which includes other 3rd Strike characters. Outside the Street Fighter III series, Hugo appears as a playable character in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos and Capcom USA's Final Fight Revenge. He also appears as a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken with his official tag partner, Poison. He is an optional pit-fight opponent in Final Fight Streetwise. He also appears as a playable character in Ultra Street Fighter IV.

Urien
Within series lore, Gill and Urien are the children of gifted parents who excelled physically and intellectually. The Illuminati separated the brothers from their birth parents at the age of six and gave them a specialized education to become candidates for the organization's presidency. Gill was ultimately chosen, leaving Urien bitter with resentment. In 2nd Impact, Urien challenges Gill for the presidency. He eventually gains the title, only to learn that Gill has been promoted to Emperor, the true leader of the Illuminati, whose existence is known only to its presidents and chairmen. In 3rd Strike, in spite of his new position, Urien still resents the supremacy of his brother. He decides to eliminate Gill permanently and destroys the preservation facility where Gill is still recovering. During the character introduction that precedes every match in Street Fighter III, he is presented as wearing business attire prior to the beginning of his fight, where shortly afterwards his skin darkens and his clothes disappear, leaving him wearing only a white loincloth like Gill.

Gavin Jasper from Den of Geek placed Urien 34th place in a ranking list of Street Fighter characters, noted that his role as a disgruntled underling plotting to usurp his brother calls into question who is the true main villain of the Street Fighter III series. As Urien is essentially a head and palette swap of Gill's in-game model and gameplay mechanics, Jasper praised the developers of 2nd Impact for successfully differentiating both characters by applying select variations to Gill's moveset and visual design to create Urien. Ian Walker from Kotaku noted that Urien was popular with players in both casual and competitive spheres of Street Fighter III due to his distinct look and abilities.

Introduced in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
In addition to the following, 3rd Strike also saw the return of Chun-Li to the franchise.