Russian wrestler Zangief has been part of the Street Fighter universe since he made his debut in Street Fighter II, the game which truly turned the franchise into a global phenomenon. He's traditionally been seen as one of the game's expert-level characters, primarily because of his slow speed, lack of projectile attacks and the fact that his most deadly moves require complex button and directional inputs. To get the best out of him, you really need to know your stuff.
However, back in the early days of Street Fighter II's development, Zangief was actually a much easier combatant to use because he was even stronger, and it has been revealed by designer Yoshiki Okamoto that the team at Capcom nerfed the character because one expert player was so good with him.
Back then, when arcade games were in development companies would often place them in local arcades for location tests to see if they would find an audience, but also to highlight any faults or balancing issues.
In order to properly balance the power of each character, Capcom placed a Street Fighter II cabinet in an arcade called Chateau EX in Kyobashi, Okamoto explains. This arcade was frequented by a player who would always pick Zangief and therefore became an expert with him – so much so that when Capcom employees were sent to the arcade to report on the findings in a secret stakeout, it was claimed that this player had won a staggering 85 bouts in a row with the character and that other players were afraid of challenging him; Zangief was simply too strong. "Regardless of how much we balanced Zangief in-house, this one Zangief expert would win all the time," Okamoto says.
To properly test the player's talents, Capcom deployed three of its own strongest players to the arcade to take on this seemingly unbeatable Zangief expert. Okamoto reveals that they reported back to him, claiming that "we're getting our butts kicked." Enough was enough, and under Okamoto's instruction, Zangief was immediately toned-down to make him less powerful. This process of slowly reducing his potency continued for several days until the arcade's Zangief expert began to lose more regularly.
The end result? When the game actually launched, Zangief was considered to be weak compared to the other fighters. "We had actually adjusted him fairly," says Okamoto. "But players felt it was an unfair balance."
Even so, it's clear that it was a single person who caused this proud, bear-grappling Russian to be so comprehensively nerfed, as Okamoto definitively states:
Assuming that player is watching this now... It's your fault Zangief became weaker. But thanks to you, he has become a specialist character throughout the series.
Okamoto adds that the same thing happened with series favourite Chun-Li, who was made weaker because she was so popular.
Street Fighter II would go on to become one of the most successful arcade games of all time, and spawned several sequels on consoles, as well as an ill-fated Hollywood movie. The first SNES port, released soon afterwards, would become one of the key titles in Nintendo's battle with Sega for the living room.
[source eventhubs.com]
Comments 29
That explains so much. I love playing Zangief and they just won't stop needing him imo.
SFV refuses to give him his banishing flat!
I have so many bad memories involving Zangief flattening me in 4. Specifically with his stupid spinning slam attack.
So it turns out "Hi Score Girl" was a documentary.
I find it funny that the poor player probably had no idea and thought he lost all his skill over a matter of days.
This takes me back to the time I would play street fighter 2 in the arcade would pick Zangief and was a master with him, I must have won 85 bouts in a row or something, but then suddenly I started to lose more often . . . . . . . Nah can’t be! Xxx
There's always one person who spoils it for the rest of us 😜
He’s pretty weak in V, with only a small handful of noteworthy players using him. A shame, really, because his move set is hilarious.
Just imagine how many more skulls he could smash between his thighs. Just because he's a bad guy doesn't make him a bad...guy.
Odd cause when I pit every CPU characters in Super Street Fighter IV against CPU Zangief at their highest difficulty level, every one of them lose with only Bison and Hakan being close to beating the GOAT. I also had a brother who play Street Fighter Alpha 3 with only Zangief and manage to beat every one who challenge him at the arcade. Also in the original Street Fighter II, if Zangief was not your first opponent but your last, better hope you had an extra quarter or another player to help you skip him cause he's harder as the last opponent than the first.
@retro_player_77 well, it's a well known fact that the AI in fighting games obeys a different set of rules and actually has cheats programmed into them at times. But as far as human players go, the difficulty of winning with Zangief relies on so many factors, like the game in question. In SFII, he was probably too limited, but when Alpha (II? IIII? Memory's fuzzy) came around, he seemed to become god-like. At least that's been my experience.
@Abeedo pro players realise nerfs very fast! I bet he got it after 1-2 losses
@retro_player_77 I always found zangief rock hard to beat as last opponent before balrog. Jumping constantly backwards into the corner hitting him with heavey kick always worked for me lol. Man i remember the crowds gathering around street fighter 2 in the arcades in the mid 90's. Great memories.
It was me... and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those pesky kids.
They also nerfed Guile quite a bit. I'm sure nothing like this, but I remember when the original SFII came out in the arcade at my bowling alley, he was SAVAGE! I miss being good at fighting games. haha
So, how was Zangief able to crush man’s skull like sparrow egg between slaps thighs?
That's how Guile took the world by storm.
@damo I love nostalic stories like this. Keep them coming!
@Kalmaro I miss that move
I think he is a low tier in Street Fighter V. I didn’t see too many Zangief players in online mode when I last played.
@Dualmask I remember that article, where Guile and others could skip the 2second hold and trigger moves immediately. Even old Mortal Kombat would read your joystick and respond accordingly. One part of modern hand-holding I actually PREFER.
well if you can pull off his really hard to do moves than you deserve it!.
Two ill-fated Hollywood movies, to be more precise.
I've recently made myself to watch through "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li" and oh boy... I didn't think they could do worse than the 90's movie, alas I was mistaken, they did.
Zangief must have been personally trained by Putin.
@tuffy I was just about to mention that show! Such an underrated anime imo.
Interesting that they nerfed the slow character and the fast character.
Akira Oono was just way to good with that Zangief
Anime: High Score Girl
The Spinning pile driver is just as iconic as the Hadouken imo.
Is Cammy in some way related to him btw? Because of similar tattoos?
Always wondered this since I was a kid.
Zangief was so popular in the Alpha games he even made it to the cover of every Street Fighter Alpha 3 releases here in North America (with the PSP version pushing him to the back a bit in favor of Ryu).
Tap here to load 29 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...