While Yoshinori Ono’s direction came to revive the franchise, I’d be pretty sure to say he’s also gotten a lot of negative feedback for his aesthethics decisions:
[list][] Remember how the first models from SFIV looked like cavemen? Overall, the character models he decided on were not all well-received. Like Chun-Li’s “fat” thighs, for example…
[] The addition of cinematic supers was a good way to take the aesthethics to another level, but some of them were criticized, mostly because a lot of them included an assortement of wacky facial reactions from the characters, way too much spinning (remember “Tazmanian Devil Akuma”) or ridiculous ideas like the characters being slammed into the screen itself.
[] And I think Street Fighter V has gotten some of that too, I mean, the noodle bowl was kind of fun, but this “upside down” spinning from characters and attacks like Karin’s is frankly too ridiculous, or Dhalsim’s “big belly” supermove…
[] Street Fighter IV newcomers. Should I say something else? El Fuerte was a stereotypical luchador with a ridiculous personality, Rufus probably the most grotesque comic relief for the series yet (and later that influenced Birdie’s redesign), Hakan well, it’s Hakan, and while the character has been praised, Juri’s “colorful” design wasn’t well loved by everyone.
[] Some really stupid alternate costumes. Last ones include a “bulldog-headed” Dudley for example… I mean WTF.
[] Character endings and storylines, some of them are a complete goof-fest. This includes games like Street Fighter x Tekken.
[] Speaking of Street Fighter x Tekken, it has one of the worst and most blatant cases of Ono’s ridiculous aesthetics: Giving Kuma a “cartoony” look instead of Tekken’s photo-realystic one. The concept of the character is stupid on itself but it was mostly treated half-seriously by Tekken along its history. Now, if Ono believes “that’s what Kuma would look like if he had been originated in the Street Fighter franchise” I think that’s pretty idiotique. I don’t think a “fighting bear” created in any previous Street Fighter game would have ever looked like that… Take for example Khushnood Butt stage in Garou: Mark of the Wolves (whose aesthetics, in my opinion, are closer to the spirit of SF than Ono’s “cartoonish” games: It includes a fighting bear wearing a complete karate gi, but he doesn’t look like a fucking Dreamworks cartoon (fart joke included).
[] Street Fighter V newcomers. Rashid wearing a scouter was weird to say the least and his supermove with the “Djinn”-like pose were received with skepticism. And well, F.A.N.G, mostly, one of the most flamboyant SF characters ever, if we want to be kind, and a completely stupid supermove that in my opinion.
[*] Other SFV minor sins: Banana hair Ken, Birdie attacking with a soda can and a banana or eating a “fiery” chilli pepper, Bison’s over the top screams and poses…[/list]
I’m not saying Ono’s stile is bad per se, but his games in comparison with the more “serious” games like:
[list][] Street Fighter II, which had a lot of “cool” goofiness, including Guile’s hair, the Cossack dancing of Zangief in his ending.
[] Street Fighter III, where character’s personalities were the most realistic of their games, I dare to say… there were some “laughs” but mostly moderate, or characters with quirky personalities -like Oro falling asleep, Necro’s opera singing, Elena failing on a tumble on her winpose.
[*] Street Fighter Alpha poked at some fun with classic anime cliche (like Mika’s dramatic wrestler persona; Dan is over the top but the fun comes from the references to other fighting games and the fact other characters from the game don’t take him seriously) or sort of witty humor (Sodom’s “Wapanese” talking).
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Street Fighter II and III, for example, don’t have any clearly “comic relief” character, and even when in some games there can be one or two, all the rest of the cast is almost completely serious.
The problem’s in Ono’s games, any character has moments of goofiness or things you can point to at being stupid.
What are your opinions of this? In mine, Street Fighter has been sort of contaminated, and it could have been something better without his aesthetic view for the games. They’re clearly the most “anti-Street Fighter” games of the series… ¬¬
