It’s A Three Speech Poll… Characters In Fighting Games

Right people, we love a good debate at Three Speech and thought we should open it out, so we’re going to start a number of irregular polls to find out what you think. To kick things off, we’re talking ‘Top Five Characters In Fighting Games’ and to start the debate we have ‘veteran’ (ha - sorry Steve) games writer Steve Boxer picking his favourites.

Would be great if you could post and discuss your Top Fives in the thread, of course, but to have your vote added to the final count, please email us at [email protected] and we can then post the full Three SPeech community results in the next week or so. If you could Put ‘Top Five Fighting Characters’ in the subject box that would be appreciated. If you have any ideas for further polls hit us on the email.

Over to Steve….

‘Purists look away – I wouldn’t class myself as a beat-em-up expert, and my selection is highly subjective. It also rather shows my age…

1. Nariko from Heavenly Sword. It’s sad, I know – she’s a game character -but she has firmly supplanted Lara Croft as an object of my lust. Quite possibly the most gorgeous female game character ever, and she kicks ass big-time. I recently met the actress who portrayed her (also lovely), and I think I may have scared her by explaining what a sex symbol she is about to become among teenage boys.

2. Shun Di from Virtua Fighter. The classic Drunken Master, he’s basically a stinky old soak who is often wont to lie down in the middle of a bout, and who actually improves the more he drinks. You always feel he’s taking the pee out of his opponents. What a fine premise around which to base a character in a beat-em-up.

3. The bear from Altered Beast. Sadly, Sega remade this arcade classic, which starts of with more than a whiff of homoeroticism, as you control a heavily muscled Adonis in a faux-ancient Greek setting. Luckily, you soon develop the ability to morph into giant animals, each with its special attack. The bear is way the best – he looks like an eight-foot-tall teddy-bear, but has a devastating breath attack. Think about it: bears live in woods,eating all manner of flesh, honey and so on. And they have no idea how to nip to the corner-shop for a bottle of Listerine.

4. Cammy from Street Fighter. OK, she may not be the best fighter, but she was supposedly trained as a commando in the UK, and she was played in the film by Kylie Minogue. ‘Nuff said.

5. Billy and Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon. OK, they may have looked more than a little ridiculous, with their huge heads, bouffant mullets and outfits that straddle the common ground between Justin Hawkins and Borat, but they provided me with vast amounts of satisfaction in the days when arcades ruled. Double Dragon was one of the first co-op games, and was the first I came across which would let you pick up and wield baseball bats, knives and whips.’