I love Street Fighter 4, and if you have been a follower of 3GK for a time you know this to be true with my rants about rage-quitters, plug-pulling netplay kiddies and domination via bread and butter lightning kicks. Street Fighter 4 showed us that Capcom is really the king of fighting games with 4 completely unique installments within the series and the ability to keep fans happy up until now. It broke my heart with what happened to my beloved SNK with the disappointing King of Fighters 12 and a host of others leading up to it. Still I wish Capcom would take a page from SNK’s book of character backgrounds and design in order to move Street Fighter to the next level. Take Blanka for example, shouldn’t the beast be evolved a bit more after being re-introduced to society? Well before I go on, let me breakdown each of the original characters in detail, that is in terms of what I think is wrong, and how I wished they would be done.

Ryu – Die-hards still love the mainstay mascot of Street Fighter, he is the consummate champion. He’s stoic, humble and confident to a fault, above all else Ryu talks with his fists and not much else. You have something to prove, the man won’t trade promos with you, he will drop his dirty duffle bag, dust off his gloves then figure out a way to dragon punch you. I think Ryu is perfect, but his alt outfit in 4 (the ripped up dirty Gi) really should be his main Gi by now. I mean dude travels on foot all over the world to fight… where does he find time to wash a gi and have it as perfect as it looks in 3? I say dirty the boy up like Miaymoto Musashi and bring him a step closer to Akuma in design.

Ken – Sigh. I am a big Ken fan, mostly because of the triple Dragon punch that he alone held in SF2 Champion edition and beyond. That being said, the palette swap gi is played, so is the pimp gi that he has as an alt in 4. Conceptual art showed that said pimp gi was meant for a mysterious black Shotokan (heh pimp gi on black shoto… are you serious Capcom?) who got canned and poor Ken inherited it. In the alpha series Ken sported a ponytail which I think he should revert to given the stereotype of American karateka having ponytails or bald heads… and Street Fighter is all about stereotypes, so no harm no foul. How about a stylized black belt’s gi for the man, or a business suit since he runs his daddy’s business? Red gi top, black bottoms and some red kicks to break it up. I think we are way beyond palette swaps now that we are in 3D.

Guile – The man never felt like an airforce man to me, from his prancing around with Chun-Li playing cop (on the animes) to his retarded haircut that would never be allowed in the armed forces. I get that the haircut is his trademark next to the flash kick but there’s something off about him. In SNK games, Ralph, Clark, Heidern and Leona feel military but Guile doesn’t. If anyone can figure out why, please let me know. How about giving him a jumpsuit from Top Gun with shades as an outfit, maybe that would do it.

Blanka – I wish the beast was dressed a tad more civil as an illusion. The bad posture, the massive arms and the bare feet should be maintained but I think it would be cool to do a Dr. Jekyll thing with him and rip his clothes up ONLY when he goes nuts and does an Ultra or Super. Standard Blanka should be a beast man trying unconvincingly to fit into civilization. It would make for cool character design outside of the green weird monstrousity that he is now.

So why am I griping? Well I am a big fan of characters evolving over time in a game series, I loved playing young Snake in Metal Gear and seeing him as an old man in the recent Metal Gear Solid 4. I remember knocking Geese Howard off the roof in Real Bout Fatal Fury, killing him and seeing Terry Bogard raise his bastard son as his own in the credits. Then playing the later SNK games with an older grizzled Terry and teenage Rock Howard now owning half of his dad’s moves and half of Terry’s moves. Seeing Marco Rodriquez, head pupil to Art of Fighting’s Ryo Sakazaki, doing the moves from Ryo’s style but having his own flavor with them. That type of evolving isn’t game-breaking, it’s awesome. In Tekken I used to main Forest Law, now I play with his son Marshall, who has the same moves with a wee bit more. It’s essentially the same characters but the moves, looks, and story has evolved. I have yet to see Capcom do this.

Whatever happened to Ken’s son who punched him in the groin in X-Men vs Street Fighter’s ending? Kim Kaphwan had 2 sons in the Fatal Fury series and you can use them both in Garou Mark of The Wolves. Why are we restricted to an eternally young Ken? Didn’t he have an apprentice in young Sean? You know the blackish boy who threw basketballs along with half hadokens and double fisted shoryukens? Where’s that kid now? Come on Capcom, is it too much to ask that 5 be the next generation? How about an older cougar Chun-Li, or an older, grizzled, Clint Eastwood type of Guile (who barely can land the flash kick due to arthritis lol). Retire Ken to his father’s business and make Ryu the new, slightly overpowered Akuma. Give us a grown up Sakura and a bit of new blood for the roster.

As I said I love Street Fighter 4, but I am also big on story and evolution, I think this would keep fans happy and tie things up nicely for the series. What do you all think?