Remembering Street Fighter II… Part 2

Continuing from yesterday, a brief rundown on the characters of the legendary [tag]Street Fighter II[/tag]… These 8 are the original fighters, the first two are holdovers from the original prequel. Of the 8, I would say that I prefer Guile above the rest. But my all time favourite is not here, he’s one of the bosses in Champion Edition… you’ll know who in the next installment…

SFII is basically is button pad and joystick game, it was never meant to be played with a direction pad on the consoles. That’s prolly why the arcade version is still the favourite version.
(All pics taken from Love To Know Videogames. Fabulous site, go see it…)

Ryu – by far the most popular character, maybe because his moves were simple to execute and quite powerful. This Japanese guy seem to always have a thing against Ken. Hado-ken! This dude throws a mean fireball (but so does Ken). These days Ryu is a middle-aged stuntman trying to land small parts in B-grade Hong Kong action flicks. Without much success. At the moment, he’s negotiating to appear in a martial arts reality show in Latvia.

Which brings us to Ken – also quite popular, but I always thought he was almost too similar to Ryu. They’re both basically the same characters, but with different looks and clothes. Most beginners use these two guys, mostly because the moves are pretty easy to execute. Since the mid 90’s, Ken has hit some bad times, divorced twice, paying alimony, his weight balloon to 250lbs, and hit rock bottom with booze and depression. Sometimes, in his rare bouts of sobriety, he can almost remember the days he could whoop Ryu’s ass…

Guile – I remember reading this magazine back in the mid 90’s that the world champion used this character instead of the more popular Ryu or Ken. I like this guy too, since his moon kick was too easy to execute. He’s supposed to be some American GI soldier. In Hong Kong, he’s more popularly known as ‘Sou Par Tau’ (Broom Head) due to his hairstyle. Last we heard, Guile left the army and made big bucks as a private security consultant cum private eye. Now lives with his model wife somewhere in California. Contemplating running against Schwarzenegger for governor next term.

Chun Li – the obligatory sexy Chinese chick. Does this gravitationally impossible upside down helicopter spin with her legs. No, really. And also that lightning quick ‘mo ying kiok’ (no shadow kick).Not really popular among gamers, but you can use her speed to your advantage (insert your own innuendo here). Not much is known to what happened to her since then, but a Hong Kong daily once reported she married a shipping tycoon and spends her days playing mahjong and getting facials (insert your own…)

Blanka – Heheh, arguably the weakest guy, he’s supposed to be a green freak from the Amazon. His electrocution move is too easy to perform, button mashers love to pull this one off. I bet you remember his rolling thunderball move and that weird backflip. Blanka has been last seen traveling with a two bit circus, performing 3 shows per night for pennies. On weekends, generates power for small rural towns (by holding the down key and pressing punch repeatedly…haw, haw, haw)

Dhalsim – Prolly the most interesting dude on the roster, not popular to be played, but a pain to challenge in the higher levels. All his moves are legendary, his telescopic limbs, Yoga Fire!, Yoga teleport and lots more I can’t recall. But he has these really cool victory poses – either levitating in lotus position, or doing this freakish dance with his bobbing head. Some kids get nightmare about this weirdo. Dhalsim has brought his Eastern mysticism and yoga to Hollywood, packaged himself as a uber-cool New Age Guru to the movie stars like Tom Cruise and Paula Abdul, and has even started to dabble in Kaballah (See Madonna).

E. Honda – A Sumo reject, fights in a Japanese bath house, right next to the pools (No, really!). Never really liked this guy, always very easy to beat. You’ve to see his flying move and super fast hands. Especially when facing Chun Li (that pervert). According to some gaming forums, a few years ago E. Honda featured in a Japanese TV ad for Honda (!) Odyssey (“So big and spacious, I can even fly inside…”)

Zangief – big brute character with little finesse that most people don’t play. Has a decent piledriver and a spinning move. Can’t remember much else. Not much is known of his whereabouts these day, probably still stuck in some Eastern Europe gulag doing hard labour.

Next – the bosses (Vega, Sagat, Akuma, M.Bison, Balrog) and the new challengers (Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay and Thunder Hawk)…