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Street Fighter Art and Design: Part 1
Videogame journalist Chris Kholer was one of the first writers to share most of the original Street Fighter II game design documents to Western audiences. His biting commentary really put the myth of Street Fighter II into perspective when it was learned that the original character designs and even the names themselves went from inspired to downright racist. His words should be taken with a grain of salt, as early prototypes eventually became refined and the creators substituted overly-racial character designs with classic fighting archetypes in the game. However Chris’ words should also serve to demonstrate that some people in the industry and fans worldwide placed Street Fighter on a pedestal when it not originally destined for greatness. Perhaps another team with the right amount of design experience, imagination and luck could have created the smash hit instead of Capcom. Given the global culture designers live in now it could be possible that a Western team is even capable of reinventing the franchise.  What made Street Fighter character design special? In the early stages of Street Fighter II concept art for the characters were no better designed than any other fighting game. In fact, some of the character designs were either overtly Japanese (Tiger Mask is mostly recognized by Japanese wrestling fans) or downright racist. Some of the characters like Guile were added specifically to appeal to American audiences. However through careful editing and revisions the styles of the characters and what they represented began to cross cultural ideals. Eventually all of the characters in Street Fighter II became globally recognized and respected. How Capcom was able to get the characters “just right” in SF II remains a mystery. It could have been part of a grand understanding of art and classic hero studies or it could have just been dumb luck. Having an understanding of the subtle differences between the SF characters and other fighting game characters takes a keen eye, a solid sense of design and understanding of martial arts history. The easiest way to recognize the difference from the timeless design behind SF II and the other games is by visualizing the fighting game character in any other era. Or even by showing the character to a person from another era. Study at the images below. Ryu, Guile and Chun-Li on the right. All of the final SF II character designs became internationally recognized figures. Vodka Gobalsky (the original Zangief name) and the Ugandan character below were not exactly great concepts and names. But they too either evolved or were cut from the series.
If you were to take the characters and art associated with Ryu, Guile and Chun-Li and place them in any other era both Eastern and Western audiences would most likely perceive the characters the same way. Ryu appears to be some sort of Japanese martial artist, his gi makes his a dead ringer for a karate or judo expert. Chun-Li is wearing some sort of traditional garb yet judging by the gauntlets on her wrists and her wrestling boots we can tell that the Chinese woman is not a waitress but rather a fighter as well. Guile might be the only one that gets a double take thanks to his hair. However judging from his USA flag tattoo, camouflaged cargo pants, combat boots and green tank top we can tell that this soldier might also be a fighter. You can place most of the SF II cast at just about any era in the modern world and international audiences would instantly be able to tell who they are and what they are about. |
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