I meant Chun-Li being *the* GOAT (greatest of all time), not an actual goat….

As I’ve previously mentioned here on Active Time Event, as much as I enjoy keeping apprised of the relevant news items of the day in staying on top of what matters in the realm of gaming, I also enjoy using the site through the lens of deconstructionism, and maintaining archivist sensibilities when discussing elements of our collective virtual pasts. This post acts as a representation of that desire, and one that came about through a random persual of a series of articles involving some preemo 90’s gaming nostalgia. I was delighted in stumbling upon some old design docs involved with the development of Street Fighter II, and some of the intentions behind the devs when deciding how each fighter would function within the ruleset of how the game operates. The docs, alongside some wikinotes, opened my eyes to some interesting facts I had somehow forgotten about in my many years of travels, or just remained completely in the dark about, till this very day.


Pictured: The shoulders of giants…
…(not pictured: the rest of their bodies)

Some of the choices seem standard by today’s methodology, but it’s worth noting the SF II development team honestly didn’t have much to go by in terms of across the board industry standard for fighting games to draw upon. Meaning, SF II itself would go on to create the industry standard for fighting games, so a lot of the “executive decisions” they made, were brand new, refreshing takes that would come to represent the tropes of game design for fighting games moving forward. One easy example of this is seeing that Ryu’s stats are across the board, even stevens (those stats being attack, defense, stamina, and speed) which makes him the safest, all round character to go with….


If I had a nickel for every time a Japanese based fighting character would go on to influence an entire generation of kids to pantomime putting their hands together and shout while pretending to shoot energy from their hands, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice

…aside from Ken, of course, who represents Ryu’s “palette” swap double equivalent. The developers made note they included Ken as a way for fighters to be on a completely even playing field when facing each other in the arcade. A worthwhile and virtuous sentiment, to be sure, but the devs notion that most players would want “a fairly balanced lineup” assumes too optimistically on behalf of the cheesier side of player habits, with most wanting a crushingly brutal advantage.


Aka, “Spicy Ryu”

It is worth noting, that while Ken’s stats, all four being totally neck and neck with Ryu, and representing the “median” rating of all four statistically speaking, suggesting they should be a completely even match, they in fact, are not, as Ken has inherent advantages over Ryu in terms of Super Combo reach, making him, on a technical level, a more advantaged opponent, and one that players regularly rate as one of the best to use in the metagame of Street Fighter II. Goes to show you that even when boiled down to a mathematical distillation, stats and star ratings don’t always give you the full picture.


The combatant who is rated the highest number of stars (50) for being the most American of the bunch

Which does bring us to Guile, who triples down on being the middle of the road guy, right in line with Ken and Ryu, statistically speaking. The devs have gone on record as saying Guile was a deliberate attempt at demographic appeal, as they wanted a fighter who Americans would gravitate towards, which is further cemented in a deeply funny irony, as Ken is in fact initially from the US, but I guess isn’t “American Enough” when compared to Mr.Star-Fucking-Spangly’s ass over here that is Lt.Guile. Once again, stats don’t tell the full story, as Guile is considered a “charge” character, which means he takes (arguably) more patience and planning to execute strategies with, as one has to kind of pace themselves when landing combos. This tends to place charge characters in the “anti-noob” category, as he is not necessarily the best pick for first time players.


These boots were made for walking,
and that’s just what they’ll do…

Finally brings us to THE GOAT, Chun-Li, and her awesomely fast kicks that help her dominate the playing field. She represents what is now considered standard fare in fighter game tropes, as many adopted the ubiquitous notion that female fighting game characters may not always hit the hardest, but the trade-off is they tend to bethe fastest, and Chun-Li was the one who helped set the stage for the precedent. It’s worth refocusing and highlighting on the fact that while Chun-Li is not the first female video game character to ever take the virtual stage, she was the first female fighting game combatant, making her something of a trailblazer for all that would come after her. In kind of a weird but enlightening moment of admission, one of the SF II devs admitted that Chun-Li’s inclusion, due to the lack of women present in martial arts tournaments, she represented a shifting point for the title, in that they were starting to make the game “more fun” as a result, her inclusion, representing pushing the game to “the fun side of things”. Which, if one wants to be ridiculously absurdist, while simultaneously taking one of the original designers at face value, Chun-Li’s very existence is a huge reason SF II transformed into something “more fun”, the very essence of a video game itself. Talk about a GOAT.


Another character who is in fact, not a goat,
though he would likely thoroughly enjoy eating a goat

Following Chun-Li is no easy task, and very unfortunately for E.Honda, he is in a highly competitive field of excellent fighters to choose from in SF II, but the beef supreme did make the cut for one of the original eight, so even though he may not be the most popular fighter on the roster, it wouldn’t be the same without him. Representing one of the heavy class characters, he ends up representing an antithetical in balancing out Chun-Li’s speedy proclivities, as E.Honda is a strong hitter, but a slow mover. In spite of that, his designer (Akira Yasuda) has mentioned that in his mind, heavy characters “have a duty” to be rush characters, throwing themselves and generally charging at their opponents. Ironically, E.Honda’s traditional Japanese design would be implemented by a Japanese man, but informed by an over the type caricature of a Japanese character played by an American, that of Mickey Rooney’s offensive portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi from the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, that helped to solidify E.Honda as a character. His designer Yasuda stating “perfect things don’t create instigation’s”, lending credence to the notion of why stereotypes and hyper-exaggerated designs tend to be a better route when generating hype around creating a memorable character.


Even when you’ve got a memorable design, it’s not easy being green, as Blanka would shockingly reveal…

Continuing to balance out the roster with something of a more stand-out, wild card fighter, Blanka represents the teams want to have “not just human” fighters thrown into the mix, hence Blanka’s more beastial looks, chaotic nature, and non-traditional fighting gameplay elements, hence being able to generate electricity from his body. Blanka represents a good, core concept that would be carried over to fighting games moving forward with his inclusion as well, in attempting to create a roster with a more diverse cast of characters, including out of left field designs that catch the eye and play in radically different ways than his contemporaries, which many fighting games, like Guilty Gear, would take to utter extremes down the road.


In Soviet Russia, 4th wall breaks you

Rounding out the inclusion of heavy characters, Zangief is another first for the fighting game genre, as he is considered the first grapple character. this helps to upend gameplay strats for the players, as grabs act as a dramatic break in terms of pacing ones strategy differently, as unlike regular attacks, grapple can’t be blocked, further adding to the complication of competitive play, as the players have even more elements in the realm of “zoning” to keep in mind. Maybe even move so than E.Honda, Zangief represents the complete opposite of the spectrum of where Chun-Li lies, Zangief being the heaviest hitter, of the bunch, but a lumbering oaf as a result, making him an excellent choice for players with a little more patience, but who want big payouts when the land their attacks. His working name in development was “Vodka Gobalsky”, no doubt a tongue in cheek reference to his extremely Russian sensibilities.


Dhalsim, helping to streeeeetch the idea
of what makes a reliable stereotype work, right
before it devolves into the offensive (don’t worry,
his countless fighting game imitators who would follow suit would make sure to check that box, let me assure you)

And last but not least for the original 8 playables in SF II, we have Dhalsim, who probably represents the most violent pacifist within the realm of video game fighting games. Just to add an even greater element of differentiation to the mix, Dhalsim’s big schtick he relies on is range, as he has incredibly stretchy limbs that let him reach across the screen. A character who is well known for his cheesy tactics in the arcade, he is a regular pick for competitive players as well, as his zoning tecqniues are absolutely brutal to deal with when mastered. Another iconic personality to round out one of the most classic rosters of all time.


Choose your fighter(!) screen, probably representing one of the earliest examples of an existential question confronting young gamers of the 90’s

There you have it, a brief rundown of the original design machinations involving the cast of the original Street Fighter II roster. While writing this article was suppose to be more of a standard celebratory write up of why Chun-Li is so awesome, it felt wrong not to include the others, when taking the time to enjoy a classic and giving credit where credit is due. Though, and to reiterate, aside from being statically the fastest character in the roster, making Chun-Li, mathetmically speaking, the greatest in terms of speed, she also is credited by one of the original designers as helping to contribute to SF II’s core identity as what made it so much fun, and became the trailblazing standard for women video game characters the industry over.

That’s why Chun-Li is the GOAT, with SF II very much worthy of the same title.


Perfect!

~Pashford