“additional variety” was the key of what i said
female char
black char
big muscle char
All were at only 1 in SF2, and from there SSF2 added an alternative/new flavor for each
T.Hawk added that native american sterotype that helped build the all around the world vibe SF2 aimed for.
Also while the sprite did kinda weak job at that, on paper he was supposed to be “the giant” of SF2 cast being much bigger than Gief… if in SF2 they portrayed him accurately, ingame he will have looked like some sort of SF2 Hugo/Abigail predecessor
Last but not least they made him show unexpected agility to use his own mass as a striking object (got 2 striking special vs 1 grappling one), in contrast with Zangief being about slow close him and deal damage with a variety of powerful throws
They applied more or less same reasoning to create Abigail(T.Hawk) to contrast next to Hugo’s (Zangief)… except in SSf2 you got both of them
Eh, i guess yes (ironically was supposed to be dutch back to FF days), on national variety it was actually some kind of improvement… Hugo gone, but Falke someway still rep Germany, while Abi bring a new nation
As general rule i approve much national variety as possible, but in the specific case we loss a very good char and got a trashy one. Bad trade
But as said the difference with T.Hawk (a comparision that you made), is that when T.Hawk appeared did’nt replaced Zangief, just took a seat next to him giving us more cast options
Of course Zangief and T.Hawk were so different that have them in same cast was possible (and good imho), while obvious similarities between Abi and Hugo would have made it super redundant.
Also have 2 “super giants” kinda kill the visual vibe of get one, as the gimmick is having one looking like a freak and an anomaly next to everybody else
Feels really a “This town ain’t big enough for both of us” scenario (example i will not want Hugo in the season we are about to discover), problem is we got the far worse one