Best cast of Street Fighters

are you people on crack?!?! SFII is by far the best cast of characters. sure the sprites and graphics of SFIII are better but thats not the debate. the old SF cast actually had a story. why do you think theres a street fighter comic based off this cast and not the SFIII cast? plus the fact the the SFIII cast is just rehashes of the older crew further illustrates this point.

Picking apart bits and pieces of SF3 cast doesn’t make much sense from a design stand point when it should be already known everyone does it, inlcuding SF2. Hell wrestling bears has been talked about since colonial times, Gief doing it is just meant to show how strong he is, like lifting X amount of weights or for a better analogy being able to race a cheetah. Hell with Zangief the only thing that might be considered original is the fact that they say he is gay. Everything else is cliche.

A true character rehash would be Forest Law from Tekken 3 or Christie from Tekken 4 and 5. Those are characters that basically take over another character’s move set and replace them. In SF3 most characters weren’t meant to replace anyone out right except maybe Sean and Remy. But even with those two they actually took chances and tried to change the formula rather than just changing the sprites and calling it a day.

While Necro no doubt shares similarities with Dhalsim, he is meant to be a different character. It is like trying to play Joe (from Fatal Fury for those that don’t know, and you should be ashamed if you don’t)like Sagat you won’t get far in using him to his full potential. Gameplay wise of course they are going to borrow from SF2, that is the base for all fighting games. Would it be better to make up stuff like Jab, up, down, and foward to make a special come out?

Capcom best story for SF was Alpha, and even that basically ruined the actual story for SF2. Which had to have revisions made in remakes down the line to correct it. But like it has been said before everyone is allowed to have their own opinion, no matter how illogical it may seem to someone else.

Although Capcom, technically speaking, makes the best fighters out there, I think their character design is sorely lacking, and always has been. SNK, for example, makes far more memorably and interesting characters IMO.

I think the entire SF2 cast is pretty much nothing but stereotypes and trite personalities.

In SF3, Capcom’s character quality stepped up significantly. Dudley is an excellent, interesting character. So are Hugo, Makoto, Necro, even Q. But still, not quite up to snuff as say SNK’s best.

KoF characters are nothing more than super models duking it out for whatever reason. The character designers for the KoF series should consider an occupation in fashion. Consequently, KoF characters look nice, but as far as fighters go, the majority are rediculously dressed for fighting. But that’s off topic.

I voted for SFIII.

Snk has some great charecter designs, and the thing about them being “rediculously dressed” is a rediculous statement since just about every fighting game have charecters like that. I still enjoy Capcom’s designs more, since they are still more original, stereotypes and all. And runaway, it’s all cool. Good to know you took the time to ask, I hope I answered because you sure as hell left no questions as to why you prefer II designs. And wellman, way to own the thread :tup: .

SFII.

For one thing, I think Vega/Balrog is the coolest character in the history of video games. I think Gief is much cooler and better designed than Hugo, same for Guile over Remy. SFII was totally original. People nowadays are like, oh, Ryu is such a boring character, he’s just a karate dude… and that’s true, but when SFII came out, he was the first of his kind. So booya. And I’m considering Ryu, Ken, Chun, and Akuma all SFII characters here, not SFIII. Akuma is an interesting character, I think.

SFIII has some sweet characters, though. I really like Q, despite what you guys say. I think he’s a kickass enigma, and I enjoy playing with him. I like Yang’s style a lot, Oro is cool, Twelve is cool, Ibuki is cool. I also really like Dudley; I think Capcom got his playing style just right, he really plays like a boxer.

I like both, but my favorite characters are SFII characters (Vega and Gief), so I’m going with that.

SF characters are ridiculously dress if you think about it. even when they’re not fighting they wear the same thing. ryu has had on that gi for 15 years now. yet terry has a whole new look now.

Ryu was not the first of his kind. Both Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu had the “karate dude” before Street Fighter had him. As for Zangief being a better designed charecter then Hugo, I agree. I actually find Hugo one of the weak points of SF3. As for Guile over Remy…well, I like Remy more, but that’s just me.

Point taken. I know there were fighting games before SFII, but I guess since I consider the beginning of what we know as fighting games today to be SFII, I don’t really think about any of them. Also, I like Hugo, I think he’s well-designed (better than like Makoto or Urien, I think they’re horribly boring and I don’t like how they play at all), just that Zangief did it better. More complete, I would say.

In Street Fighter for sure the Alpha 3 cast. :karate:

Yes, I think just about everyone will think Alpha 3 cast is the best, but this is about SFII & III. Heck, even I think A3 had the best cast…

If you want to be that correct, SFII all the way for me then.

Most the new SF3 characters look like crap. dudley was probably the only cool one. wtf is up with shit like oro, necro, twelve and remy (the gay guile wanabee) SF2 cast > SF3 cast

I don’t think any fighting game cast can out-do the one from SF2. The cast was very diverse and unique. It had a character for everyone and they were all great designs. There were karate guys Ryu and Ken, sumo wrestler Honda, army guy Guile, weird fighters Dhalsim and Blanka, etc. The reason I don’t like the SF3 cast is simply because it has too many freak characters and the other ones seem like bland, ok, decent designs. Not good enough. There are some I do like from SF3 such as Elena and Dudley.

Another thing that should be considered, is the events of the time. When SF2 was being developed the Cold War was ending. SF2 was titled “The World Warrior” so the theme of the series was going to be centered mainly on national fighters with unique abilities. When SF3 was released in 1997, the designs seemed to be focused on a futuristic time. There was also technological advancements being made at the time, the internet was becoming more popular, so I think Capcom decided to make the theme of the game the future. Characters like Zangief with the USSR as his country, the dictator M. Bison, and later additions of characters from Jamaica, Mexico, England, and Hong Kong, the end of the Cold War, and other events of the early ‘90s signified a more focus on nationalism at the time when SF2 was released. By the time SF3 was released the characters were still representing their own country, but it was focused much less than before and the designs were more dramatic. The technological advancements of the time set the theme for SF3 as focused on the future and it can be seen in a lot of the characters. Q is the mysterious fighter or cyborg from the future? Necro is an experiment gone wrong. Gill is the super powerful “God” or maybe an anti-Christ? And many of the characters’ stories seem largely uncertain. Chun Li’s return signified a revitalization or resurgence in characters of the past.

But these are just my thoughts, or perhaps they are just expressions of frequent nostalgic memories and longing for the past.

I like 2 more because i actually know what the fuck is goin on with the characters and shit…With 3 i have no damn clue what’s goin on what’s the deal with necro…and q…and 12…and oro. So yea i’m goin with 2

Beto, that was some nice observations there. Makes me think alot about the designs, but I still go with III just because…well, I’ve said why enough.

An important point to consider with this topic is that if it were not for the cast of SF2, you would not have got the cast for SF3. SF2 did have very stereotypical character designs, but come on, the game is 15 years old. In that era, if you were going to produce a game for the entire world to play, you are going to have to make a character for everyone, hence the token female, the mysterious cool dude, the army guy, the sumo dude and the russian muscle bomber.

The SF3 cast is more unique, but I don’t think that SF2 would have done so well if it’s original cast were the SF3 crew. Some of the designs are just too out there (Necro, Q, 12, Oro). Another point worth considering is that SF3:NG was panned by most hardcore players upon it’s arrival. There were many factors for this, but the initial set of characters was a real let-down to most. Ibuki and Dudley were popular, but the rest of the cast seemed poor in comparison. Hugo looked cool, but was essentially Zangief mk2, and although Elena was a cool design, she was so poor in NG that most people left her well alone. I think it was only when 3S was released that SF3 had a decent cast of chararacters, as by this time, we had the introduction of Urien, Makoto, Remy, Yun and Yand were very different, and so on.

For this poll, I’d vote for SF2, even though I prefer the 3S cast. Without SF2, there’d be no SF3. Interestingly though, like many in this thread, given the option, I too would have voted for Alpha 3 for best cast. It had the original SF2 cast AND the pimp Final Fight crew AND cool new designs such as Sakura, Karin and Gen. Could you imagine Guy, Cody, Sakura, Karin and Gen in a 3S style game? Now that WOULD be amazing :nunchuck: .

SFIII
I just love my China brothers. All the new characters are great. Hugo fucking ROCKS! I initially didn’t like them, but it takes a while to warm to them. They’re a much more mature set of characters, in terms of design elements. SFII was very very basic, they could have been worse though. The original designs were shocking.

SFII all the way. Those motherfuckers in 3s are just weird.

Everything about the SFIII sprites own you.