For many years, there has been a question, whether the popularity of a game is directly related to the characters in it?
The answer is yes, the success of the game's character design is often the icing on the cake, making the game more popular. But the key factor in the success or failure of a game is always the quality of the game, which includes innovative systems and gameplay.
If the controls and systems aren't so popular, it's hard to turn the tide even if the game has so many classic characters. This was the case with Caijing's "Fallen Angel" back then, with a ceiling and a difficult system to use, resulting in loneliness. On the contrary, K' and Maxima's character design won "The King of Fighters 99", but it was extremely popular, adding a lot of points to the game.
Therefore, the success of the game characters does not necessarily mean the success of the game. So back then, what about those games where we were exposed to games with beautifully portrayed characters, but games that didn't have a big hit?
"Samurai Shodown" Iroha, Makagami's name Mina, and Se
These three should be the most familiar characters to everyone!
But if you tell you what game they come from, it is estimated that many players will be confused!
The three are from "Samurai Shodown 6", "Samurai Shodown Zero", and "Samurai Shodown 64", because the game was released at the end of the arcade era, so the game hall is not common, and only those console players have access to it.
Why is this happening?
The three of them are typical popular games, which are not popular, and will not drive the popularity of the game to become a well-known game. To be honest, in the fandom area, Irohami, Makagami, Mina, and Sei's popularity are not even below Shiranui Mai and Chunli, but there are too few games in which they appear, and the number of works is limited.
Fortunately, the appearance of "Samurai Shodown Dawn" many years later made these sisters return again, and they all have relatively exquisite 3D modeling. This gives players more room to imagine and create.
Nowadays, the video about Samurai Shodown cannot be reviewed on many platforms, because Se, Iroha and Mina are dressed too coolly, resulting in many actions that are illegal. In addition, there are a lot of hints in the special moves, which are gradually rejected by some platforms.
If you look closely, you'll see that SNK knows a lot about the psychology of players and knows what you want to see.
Samurai Shodown has introduced a more eye-catching character in each version
"Samurai Samurai Dawn" Dali Daoga
"Samurai Shodown Flash" Angelica
"Samurai New Chapter" Saya and fate
Even Charlotte in the later period began to take the sexy route. What else would SNK not dare to do!
"Young Street Fighter" Maki Minyanagisai (Genyanagisai Maki)
Maki Minyanagisai and Ingrid are from "Kombat Whirlwind 2" and "CAPCOM Fighting Evolution" respectively, but they can meet everyone in "Boy Street Fighter 3MAX", which can be regarded as sympathy. Originally, they could all be used as super popular characters, but the game was not competitive, resulting in them having to face today's dilemma.
It is said that characters like Genyanagi Maki should be on fire! Why is it so popular that it is not even as good as villain poison? Compared to Lucia, it is even more different, and it was even hidden by CAPCOM, intentionally or unintentionally, and only appeared in some gaiden games?
I guess the main reason is that her image is too similar to Shiranui Dance. The dispute between Chun-Li and Shiranui lasted for many years. "Fist of the Dragon and Tiger" has explosive clothes, and "Legend of the Hungry Wolf" has Shiranui Dance, which has begun to crush the aging "Street Fighter 2" and related derivative works in popularity
So, CAPCOM deliberately created a character who looks similar to Shiranui Dance to become the protagonist of "Kombat Whirlwind 2", but due to the platform relationship, as well as the quality of the game and word of mouth, the series was almost cut in half, and Genyanagisai Maki also became the biggest victim, almost disappearing with another male protagonist, Carlos.
Fortunately, Genyanagi Maki performed well in the game, and many of the actions were more eye-catching, and the defeat picture made people reverie, so the fanworks about her were circulating.
CAPCOM also didn't want to lose the character who already had a certain popularity, so they arranged for her to make a return appearance in "Capcom vs. SNK 2: Million Fight 2001" and "Junior Street Fighter 3MAX", but she never made it to the official work of "Street Fighter". Ingrid is even more sad, because her strength is too strong to participate in a fighting tournament dominated by human strength.
Mark of the Wolf B Janet
In the later stage of "The Legend of the Hungry Wolf", due to the relatively large timeline span, the age of Shiranui Dance is obviously older when she plays again, so a new female character is arranged to replace her. And this character is Janet B.
Although the game has been released for more than 20 years, it is estimated that players know this character in the "King of Fighters" series! After all, "Mark of the Wolf" was released at a time when fighting games were in decline, and there were no game halls, where would players go? Only a small number of console players have touched it.
B Janet dresses in a special style, although she wears a skirt, she can show her figure and movements to the greatest extent, and her sexiness is not even below that of Shiranui Mai. It is precisely because of this that even if the game was not a big hit at the time, this character was remembered by players. In "The King of Fighters 11" was short-lived, and after that, it was "The King of Fighters: Extreme Impact", and it feels like the name was chosen for her, which really made players feel the visual impact of the limit!
Of course, her most perfect image comes from "The King of Fighters 15"
In "The King of Fighters 15", Janet B's scale is even above that of Shiranui Mai, which also leads to many game videos that cannot be recommended normally. Now it's more difficult to find a picture of "The King of Fighters 15" Brignette that doesn't violate the rules.
Yao Ziling in the TV series "Alliance" set off a search craze at the time because she dressed like Janet B
So, in addition to the above, which other characters have been buried by the game?
"NEOGEO Arena" Athena
The princess of Tomahawk Fighting Edition
"Betta 2" Janet
"Supreme Showdown" claw girl
《幕府快打》和女GEISYA
"Perfect Warrior" peach-colored moon-faced girl
《血腥风暴》女刺客TEMPEST
"World Martial Arts Fighting Competition" YUKI
Galaxy Kombat JURI
"Luo Meidou" Magnolia
After years of wandering, players have finally been smoothed out by the years, and they no longer have the "ambition" of the year.
The arcade stick I bought at home has been in the corner for I don't know how many years I have eaten ashes.
I haven't played a game for a long time, but I realized that it is also a pleasure to reminisce about the game "between the lines", after all, it is our best youth!
After calming down, everyone discovered a lot of details that they didn't know before through the article
Those games that seem to have a thousand laws still contain a certain culture and a certain inheritance.
When we were younger, we only cared about playing games, and it seems that we missed a lot of beautiful scenery!
Note: Some of the pictures in the article are from the Internet, such as invasion and deletion