Hey People...

My task: Create the perfect lineup for the next Street Fighter. This is Street Fighter Omega.
SF Omega for being the opposite idea of SF Alpha. We jump ahead a few years and look how the characters could evolve, while staying true to the heritage, past and visual essence of each character. There is nothing official about it, of course. You could call it sort of fan fiction or an attempt to make our little fighting game world a better and richer place. Please keep in mind I'm from germany, so try to ignore any poor grammar and such. ;)

First, I AM A BIG FAN of Capcom's designs and games for years and years, especially everything around fighting. But there is something that bothers me since a couple of releases now. By now I'm completely saturated with the original SF2 roster's designs and character features, the  same one liner micro plots again and again and the vaguely explained motivations. It was cool for a 16bit fighter once, didn't hurt in later installments but was a big disappointment in SF4. I mean I really dig that game and enjoy the characters for what they are, but there is a strong feeling of missed opportunities and redundant ideas.

Hey, Capcom! How about making a Street Fighter with new content? Keeping all the stuff that is good about SF and adding new ideas and features to push the franchise to the next level? How about having the characters getting older, stronger, and let blood-feuds between fighters have consequences? How about making the EX moves not just pimped version of old attacks, that we already knew when we where in elementary school? How about having guys like Ryu, who travel the world to become better fighters all their live, actually learn something new? How about doing fan service by bringing us the next chapter and have all the traditional costumes for example be part of achievable goodies? At this point your characters have been published in tons of games, mangas, comics, animes and movies, so how the hell could you even think of entirely repeating yourself again with SF4? Don#T you feel that your BIGBIG fan base can take some new ideas?

Other popular fighting franchises do not shy away from letting their characters evolve, making the time passed obvious and part of the character. To me this narrative approach adds a lot to the tension in fights and makes me curious for the next installment. Also the characters get new tattoos or buy themselves new clothing and such.

Over the course of the Tekken games for example, the characters are aging, getting more scarred by their life as fighters or even completely pass the torch, or in King's case the jaguar mask, to a new young generation of fighters. Also the hard fought Mishima/Kazama family blood-feud really gives depth to what otherwise would be a dull tournament scenario.

In the SNK canon there was Mark of the Wolves, widely praised for its fluid gameplay and character designs, showing a different Terry Bogard. Taking away Terry's, I mean TERRY-effin-SNK-superstar-Bogard's, iconic features and let only his personality and fighting style play out, they created an believably older and somewhat more settled character. This new evolved Terry gave ground for newcomer Rock Howard to flourish.

If we would have the same Terry from Fatal Fury 1, it would be way harder to convince us that Rock (son of arch enemy Geese Howard) grew up as Terry's student and sorta son. Almost as hard as to swallow that Sakura, who was just a few years younger than the young Ryu and Ken in SF Alpha, is actually advertised for SFIV as a twelve year old. Guys, really?

Or lets take Raiden for example. His character always keeps a recognizable look, with his special physique, the color scheme and the hawk motifs and lightning symbols, while going through variations, natural to a pro wrestler. Bearded, shaved, mask, no mask, different body-suits, things wrestlers do to keep their look fresh and appealing without changing their major features. The way Zangief for all his years (even in SFAlpha) always wears his generic Red Cyclone wrestling dress with little to no changes at all, makes him not very believable as a pro wrestler.

Also with the coming KOFXIII, SNK returned to the classic designs and added a new art style to freshen things up. But one could only return to something classic if one first leaves it. So Capcom, how about leaving your silly illogical redundant save-zone for once?


So these are the problems I want to break here: redundant character appearances and frozen in time narratives.
For that, over the next weeks, I will create omega versions of the SF characters, let them evolve with respect to where they come from and where they are now. I will not only evolve their appearance but also enhance their move lists to create, what I would consider the perfect lineup for the next Street Fighter. Every post will contain a character concept sketch by me and a detailed description of the design choices that went into it, a bit of background on the character design and of course quick 2D attack doodles.

For that I follow a simple set of rules:

1. Don't change the past.
Though I think there are some flaws with the original designs (especially regarding racial stereotypes) I treat the original designs with respect and treat them as given fact. I'm not here to reinvent anything. I just look a few years ahead and let them evolve from where they are now.

2. No new characters.
No there is not going to be Dalshim's daughter sporting the yoga flame or anything like that. Only already established fighters will be part of the Omega roster. There is nothing wrong with new fighters, but that is simply not the goal here. Though i will include some Arika designs.

3. Strong narrative.
Not only is it important to show consequences of the already existing narratives in the designs, but also push the narrative further.
Therefore characters will significantly develop new motivations and relationships in the SF universe to open up totally new narratives for future installments and fan fiction.

Feel free to discuss, comment, rant and suggest the hell out of my posts. That's what they are made for. ;)

Also please rate and share.

all images are © their respective owners and are used under fair use for educational purposes.

Some inked doodles I did before starting to work today. I thought I might share.

Please rate and share.

all images © anjin anhut and are not to be used without permission