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The Top 50 Fighting Game Characters - The Newest Exhibit at the Valdez Museum of Video Game Box Art
OK but what about your liability insurance?
Or do visitors have to sign a waiver in order to physically enter the museum?
Or do visitors have to sign a waiver in order to physically enter the museum?
Appearances: Soul Calibur IV, Soul Calibur V, Soul Calibur VI / Votes: 46 (Highest: spines #10)
Hildegard von Krone is a warrior princess of the fictional country of Wolfkrone. Her father, King George, was corrupted by the Evil Seed and transformed into a ravenous animal that was locked away in the Wolfkrone castle tower. Hilde was thrust upon the throne and managed to quickly stage a counterattack to the machinations of Nightmare and Soul Edge. However, the war has taken its toll on the country, and Hilde worked tirelessly over two decades to find new lands for her people to live following the poisonous infiltration of Soul Edge in Wolfkrone. When a malfested army attempted to attack Hilde's people, she teamed up with Siegfried to prevent a second wave of terror upon them. In Soul Calibur VI's rebooted continuity, Hilde again witnesses the corruption of her father via the Evil Seed, and she must fight against Nightmare and Soul Edge to save the realm from its plight.
Moveset Highlights: Große Erbschaft (switching between spear and short sword depending on the button pressed), Warrior's Honor, Storm and Urge, Silver Wolf
This is So Random! #47 - "Hilde's full name [Hildegard] is derived from Old Germanic words 'hild' and 'gard', meaning 'battle' and 'enclosure' respectively, therefore her name means 'enclosed area for battle' or even 'battlefield'." Thanks Soul Calibur Wiki!
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so aside from having the coolest design from one of the first fighting game series i played, and having a kind of battle standard as her weapon, which i love, she's also memorable because she's one of the most inexplicably unbanned characters of the modern era of FGs. with her introduction in 4 featuring her as a beastly tyrant of the game, capable of winning rounds in one hit from almost anywhere on most stages by juggling forward a long distance and then flipping people over the edges. every tournament player hated fighting her, and i don't think it would've been unjustified to have just not allowed her in tournaments considering her power level, but it was a funny few years of watching her do the thing at evo and other events before 5 came out and i think people just wanted to forget about her forever...i've almost never seen her played in later games, i dunno if she got overnerfed or if the bad memories just run that deep
namco characters got cut pretty hard from my list as i got closer to the end, but i wanted to keep at least a couple, and she won out as my favorite from SC over viola (who was...5's brand new mistake), and the only* from the series to make it through the last pass
namco characters got cut pretty hard from my list as i got closer to the end, but i wanted to keep at least a couple, and she won out as my favorite from SC over viola (who was...5's brand new mistake), and the only* from the series to make it through the last pass
My list is extremely Namco-heavy (my ex liked fighting games, but didn't like Capcom-style inputs, so there was a lot of Tekken and SC in the house), and Hilde is great, so she was on there. The sword/spear combo is just a fun setup, and I like characters with both some range and some options. I don't tend to follow pro-level gameplay though and had no idea she was that hilariously broken, though yeah, now that you mention it, there were probably times when she was pretty handy for getting ring-outs vs CPU characters...
Appearances: Street Fighter II (all), Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter IV (all), Street Fighter V (all), Street Fighter 6, Capcom Vs. SNK, Capcom Vs. SNK 2, SNK Vs. Capcom Chaos, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter x Tekken, Street Fighter ex Plus a, Street Fighter EX2, Street Fighter EX3/ Votes: 46 (Highest: Torzelbaum #12)
Dhalsim is an ardent and dedicated yogi and pacifist who only enters the Street Fighter arenas to raise money for his village or to put an end to the evil of M. Bison or S.I.N. Constantly concerned about pushing himself over the edge into darkness, Dhalsim has to balance his principles versus his combat abilities. His mastery of yoga allows him to stretch, teleport and spit illusionary fire courtesy of the god Agni, and he spends the entire match in an enhanced state of meditation. He is married to Sally and they have a son, Datta. Dhalsim has been one of the more popular Street Fighter characters in crossovers, facing opponents from the King of Fighters, Tekken, Fighting Layer, and Marvel Comics universes.
Moveset Highlights: Yoga Fire, Yoga Flame, Yoga Teleport, Yoga Inferno
This is So Random! #47 - "In earlier releases, Capcom USA claimed that Dhalsim's ability to breathe fire stemmed from his consumption of curry, but Capcom of Japan changed this to a blessing from Agni, Hindu god of fire, and a later English manual of Super Street Fighter II for the Super Nintendo states that the flames stem from his mastery over fully unleashing his latent kundalini energies in his training." Thanks Street Fighter Wiki!
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Purple
(She/Her)
What's weird about Dhalsim is it's ABUNDANTLY CLEAR they just wanted to put Mola Ram from Temple of Doom in the game, and then at some point presumably realized that even by the standards of a spiritual successor to Punch Out that was maybe a bit too racist and have been trying to course correct, but like... he's still a fire-breathing Stretch Armstrong in a skull necklace.
He was also named after an Indian restaurant that was near Capcom HQ during Street Fighter II's development. 🙃
He's all right when he's depicted with some respect, though.
(By Kinu Nishimura. He's grey because this is from a series depicting characters in their alternate palettes, which were novel in 1992. That only Dhalsim and Blanka significantly change their skin colour is worth interrogating, but Shivam once compared the former to Hindu sādhus covering their bodies in vibhuti, which is a nice thought.)
His redesign in Street Fighter V was nice, too.
He's all right when he's depicted with some respect, though.
(By Kinu Nishimura. He's grey because this is from a series depicting characters in their alternate palettes, which were novel in 1992. That only Dhalsim and Blanka significantly change their skin colour is worth interrogating, but Shivam once compared the former to Hindu sādhus covering their bodies in vibhuti, which is a nice thought.)
His redesign in Street Fighter V was nice, too.
It *is* weird that a character who’s pretty consistently portrayed as a protagonist (or at least having noble motivations) in the plot-lines wears a necklace made of skulls everywhere, but I can’t say I ever stopped to think about it back in the day. Stretchy fire-man with one of the wildest move-sets of the old school characters was always fun to play with, getting him a nostalgia vote.
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Some aspects of Shiva and Devi are at times depicted as wearing necklaces of skulls, but yeah, I’ve never heard of a human sadhu wearing anything like that. I think Purple hit the nail on the head on that one. If you’re looking for use of human bones in religious practice, you’re a lot more likely to find it among Tibetan Buddhists.
Per the Street Fighter wikia, "the skulls he wears around his neck are those of village children that died during a plague." It goes on to say that "Dhalsim's minimal clothing and necklace of skulls are reminiscent of the Hindu ascetics known as Kapalikas ('skull-bearers')." Now I don't know where they are pulling that information from, mind, but they do source a lot of official Capcom media.
Well, there was a plague on, they could easily have been orphans. I guess maybe he feels responsible for not being able to prevent their deaths and... maybe they’ll enjoy watching him beat up bad guys to raise funds to prevent that sort of thing from happening again.
Clearly Dhalsim got tired of the Borrowers taking his shit.
Dhalsim is an interesting but messily complicated character. But he is also a dedicated family man (and he'll go home when he's good and ready to).
Extendable attacks / tools had appeared in video games before Dhalsim debuted but I do think he was the first fighting game character to have such an ability. It does give him a really unique play style (when combined with his other techniques) which requires some skill to be able to use well.
But I also like to use him to dish out nasty close range headbutts and repeated skull cracks with the yoga smash / noogie.
Extendable attacks / tools had appeared in video games before Dhalsim debuted but I do think he was the first fighting game character to have such an ability. It does give him a really unique play style (when combined with his other techniques) which requires some skill to be able to use well.
But I also like to use him to dish out nasty close range headbutts and repeated skull cracks with the yoga smash / noogie.
A character so infamous she has been referred to as "not for good boys and girls" by Super Smash Bros. director Masuhiro Sakurai, Mai Shiranui is SNK's first woman fighter from their many fighting franchises, debuting in Fatal Fury 2 and shot to superstardom in SNK circles, becoming one of (if not THE most) popular character in the Fatal Fury series. A kunoichi with the gift of fire, shadow magic, and a seemingly infinite number of fans stuffed inside her clothes, Mai's fast and furious playstyle combined with her hyper animated spritework (Shinkiro said Mai was the hardest character to illustrate due to his belief "she was going to burst out of her costume...") makes her memorable to say the least. Mai is dating Andy Bogard in later games (although he has been her motivation to enter the various tournaments over the years), and is often on the Women's Team in The King of Fighters, although she has joined other teams on occasion.
Moveset Highlights: Kacho Sen, Ryu Enbu, Musasabi no Mai, Kagerou no Mai
This is So Random! #46 - Mai was born on January 1st on New Year's Day. This is highlighted in her favorite foods and hobbies, rice cake soup and sweet-red-bean-covered rice balls and cooking (making boxed lunches and traditional Japanese New Years' dishes), respectively. Thanks SNK Wiki!
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Mai is a great or terrible character depending on who's writing her. You either get a strong woman who knows exactly who she is., gives no F#$%s about flaunting it, and asserts herself in her relationships; Mai being the one who landed Andy, not the other way around.
Other times, you get "Mai bouncy!"🙄
Other times, you get "Mai bouncy!"🙄
Purple
(She/Her)
i like mai, although i'd certainly agree her portrayals have had ups and downs over time in various ways. played her a lot in kof13, where she had a lot of unique shenanigans that made her really fun and sort of underrated in terms of character strength. she wasn't great at doing the thing that most characters did to win, but she had lots of air tricks to mix people up and some good buttons to stop them from jumping out of danger easily.
i really like the sakurai quote more and more over time, though. his youtube videos have a really dry sense of sarcasm that makes it really funny to think about where exactly that came from
dhalsim is...he's definitely a street fighter character. i feel like he embodies the weird double-edged nature of the series; the caricatured nature of most of the characters is very often pretty racist. but they still want people to think all the characters are cool, and for some people to find each one as a new favorite. the more recent redesigns feel like slow steps in trying to improve on those points, at least...at any rate, he's always been a character i wish i found easier to get along with. he basically always feels slow and weird, and it takes a lot to get used to his unique buttons and options
in a lot of older games, he's a top tier king. but after 2000 or powerful system mechanics have become more prominent, and a lot of things like that tend to help normal characters against his range advantages more than the reverse, even when some of those don't seem intentional. "how come i never see dhalsim in cvs2?" i once thought, before realizing two seconds later that everyone would give up by the hundredth time they used heavy punch at full screen only to get hit by blanka roll cancel electricity
in sf4, he had some pretty solid matchups against fireball characters at least, and there were some iconic exhibitions as a result. and late in 5's lifespan he's really bloomed as a strong character in that game again, for the first time in a long time, thanks to some tricky movement and the ability to trap opponents in a little fire pit as a result. it'll be interesting to see how 6 shakes out
i really like the sakurai quote more and more over time, though. his youtube videos have a really dry sense of sarcasm that makes it really funny to think about where exactly that came from
dhalsim is...he's definitely a street fighter character. i feel like he embodies the weird double-edged nature of the series; the caricatured nature of most of the characters is very often pretty racist. but they still want people to think all the characters are cool, and for some people to find each one as a new favorite. the more recent redesigns feel like slow steps in trying to improve on those points, at least...at any rate, he's always been a character i wish i found easier to get along with. he basically always feels slow and weird, and it takes a lot to get used to his unique buttons and options
in a lot of older games, he's a top tier king. but after 2000 or powerful system mechanics have become more prominent, and a lot of things like that tend to help normal characters against his range advantages more than the reverse, even when some of those don't seem intentional. "how come i never see dhalsim in cvs2?" i once thought, before realizing two seconds later that everyone would give up by the hundredth time they used heavy punch at full screen only to get hit by blanka roll cancel electricity
in sf4, he had some pretty solid matchups against fireball characters at least, and there were some iconic exhibitions as a result. and late in 5's lifespan he's really bloomed as a strong character in that game again, for the first time in a long time, thanks to some tricky movement and the ability to trap opponents in a little fire pit as a result. it'll be interesting to see how 6 shakes out
Duck King is a dancer and professional DJ who brings those skills into his fighting style on the streets. He considers Terry Bogard to be his martial arts rival, despises Geese Howard's control over Southtown, and brings his pet chicken with him everywhere. He spends much of his time in the Pao Pao Cafe, is super friendly, and loves to crack jokes. He is a Fatal Fury staple, and was in consideration to join the roster of King of Fighters '97 but lost out to Blue Mary; he got a second chance in XI, joining Terry and Kim as the Fatal Fury team.
Moveset Highlights: Headspin Attack, Dancing Dive, Break Storm, Duck Dance
This is So Random! #45a - His pet chicken is named P-Chan. Thanks SNK Wiki!
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Born as Chiharu, the eldest daughter of a samurai, Hisako is an onryō who seeks revenge against Ultratech, who have disrupted her resting place. After conquering its leader ARIA, Hisako agrees to join forces with Kim Wu to assist her becoming the savior of the world. Hisako is skilled with using a naginaka and katana (which transforms her into Shin Hisako, a separate character on the roster), and her ghostly nature is expressed with space distortion, body transformation, possession, and teleportation. Out of all of the new fighters created for the 2013 reboot, Hisako definitely rose to the top as a creative spin on a woman combatant who challenges convention.
Moveset Highlights: Vengeance, Possession, Influence, Tousoushin
This is So Random! #45b - "The character of Hisako is based on, and a tribute to, the Japanese folklore legend of the Onryō. This concept was popularized during the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the international success of the Japanese horror films Ringu (1998) and Ju-on (2002)". Thanks Killer Instinct Wiki!
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"I will devour you"
The youngest of the three High nobles of Makai, Jedah works to undermine Belial Aensland's rule through a complicated centuries long plan to bring about the cleansing of all souls. With the help of his confidant Ozom (or Ozomu), Jedah gave rise to a new realm, the Majigen, which houses the divine fetus Shintai. Launching his machinations, he lures the Darkstalkers into this new realm to bring together the strongest souls to offer as salvation to Shintai and revive the world as one singular being. Jedah is among the most powerful and dangerous Darkstalkers, with a liquid body he can easily dismember, regenerate and manipulate into sharp weapons to serve as his distinct combat style. He also can absorb the souls of those who cross his path, can influence the darkness within those he meets, is a master telepath and can shift the space-time continuum. His blood is toxic and versatile, able to change color at will and can even influence vampires. One of his key attacks in infusing his blood into a victim, inflating various parts of their body.
Moveset Highlights: Rasare Sega, Nero Fatica, Spregio, Prova di Servo
This is So Random! #45c - "When electrocuted his sprites show that his skeleton takes the form of what looks like a jumble of letters, runes or strings." Thanks Darkstalkers Wiki!
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Purple
(She/Her)
Don't forget the most important thing about Jedah- He's some kind of reverse vampire who pumps blood into other people.
Also they really did kinda go all in with the J-horror ghost vibe with Hisako. Really good one for showing off the dynamic music thing too.
Also they really did kinda go all in with the J-horror ghost vibe with Hisako. Really good one for showing off the dynamic music thing too.
I added a little extra bout that...cause you're right, that's a very important piece of his moveset:
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Which means he needs to supervise the Rand Corporation and the Saucer People