One thing that has made Street Fighter such an enduring, legendary game series is its iconic characters. Players still vividly remember the first time they hit an opponent with Ryu’s Shoryuken, created a Sonic Boom with Guile, or unleashed Chun-Li’s thunderous kicks. Many of the series’ beloved characters return in Street Fighter 6, but with new designs that still convey the cast’s age-old personalities and skills. We sat down with Capcom to talk about giving Street Fighters a new look.
Takayuki Nakayama is the game director of Street Fighter 6. He has been with Capcom since 2012, starting his Street Fighter journey with work on Ultra Street Fighter IV. “Since we are working on a new numbered series title, this is an opportunity to redesign all the characters,” he said. “We wanted to give all of the legacy characters new designs that stood out as a challenge and made them look significantly different from previous character designs that we had seen before. This.”
Some characters, like Chun Li, were especially difficult: “It took years to get her final design. Chun Li has been around for a long time as one of the key standouts. And everyone’s ideal look for her is a little different. Because she’s such a beloved character, people really have a strong impression of what Chun Li would look like in a modern Street Fighter game.”
The RE engine makes every character model appear on the screen. But dig deeper into them and you’ll notice that each of the 18 strong starting lineups has distinct muscles. This is the result of testing, which includes 3D scans of people, by a small team at the studio that specializes in more accurately depicting muscle definitions including age, gender and fighting style. For example, a sumo wrestler like E. Honda would have a completely different definition of muscle than a professional wrestler like Zangief.
But the fighter from the Street Fighter II era whose redesign has resonated on social media is Cammy White, the blonde British bomber who was first introduced in Super Street Fighter II and whose A fan favorite for decades.
When Cammy first hit the streets, she donned a bright red beret and matching gloves, highlighting a distinctive green leotard that showed off her legs – matching a female boxer who can crush an opponent with her powerful thighs. This has become her classic look, called Delta Red, named after the elite special forces unit Cammy once joined in Street Fighter lore.
When the X-Men vs. Street Fighter debuted in 1996, she wore a long-sleeve blue cap and cap, thicker but still holding big red gloves and most prominently her thick spiky bangs, ponytail long yellow and scar on face. This “Killer Bee” outfit represents her period under supervillain M. Bison’s rule as one of his “dolls” – and, as has been revealed then a female clone carries most of his DNA.
A lot has changed in the world of Street Fighter 6. Shadaloo is no more, and Cammy’s quest for revenge against Bison seems to have come to an end – but she’s still out there fighting and doing it with a new outfit. No longer a glossy leotard, instead a bright sky blue jacket and mid-cut crop top. Her legs are covered by stretchy fabric gym pants: an affordable option for a woman who loves sports.
“Cammy feels that the end of Shadaloo is a new milestone that allows her to chart her own path and live a more normal life. This new outfit is her civilian outfit, while her old outfit is more of a combat outfit,” explained Nakayama-san. “When you first met her on the World Tour, she was in London. We realize that seeing her in a vintage outfit might look odd in that context. So we tried to keep such things in mind when designing new outfits.”
The most striking change is Cammy’s hairstyle. The long braids that came with her other standard outfits are gone, replaced by a new, energetic short braid. However, she still wears sharp bangs, and they look surprisingly intimidating when accenting her short hair.
Nakayama-san described the thought process behind her drastic new ‘job’. “We thought it would be a fun challenge to give her a short hairstyle—she doesn’t wear the classic braid, which seems to be the highlight of her design. During the development of Street Fighter V, we had the opportunity to change it – we thought fans might react negatively, but the idea seemed to be well received, so we decided to applied it in Street Fighter 6. Her hair may be short, but the straps from her jacket aim to be reminiscent of her classic braids – that’s our creative callback. .”
So how do you change something so big as an iconic hairstyle and keep a character recognizable?
“The silhouette of the character is very important,” said Nakayama-san. “As you may know, Cammy is quite petite compared to some of the other large scale characters in the game. So we wanted to keep that essence of the character.”
The design team also retained some recognizable features, such as her gloves and boots, to stay true to previous designs and aid in gameplay. “It should be clear when certain attacks are on the opponent. That’s why we maintain her gloves. When an attack connects, it’s easy to see what will happen. The rings on her boots are like an indicator of hit detection points. So it makes it easier to notice when playing games.”
But if you’re too attached to the old look, don’t despair: many of the legacy characters have classic in-game outfits available, including Cammy. Get a first look at the outfit below:
The team also took the opportunity to add more clever small touches. “Whenever a character uses up their Drive Gauge, they go into Exhaustion mode. And then, while in that mode, their stance changed slightly. For Cammy, her pose changes to a pose reminiscent of a developing sketch of her normal pose from Super Street Fighter II.”
There’s also a lot more in-depth fan service. “If you see her victory pose after a match or in her Character Picker, you’ll notice a little cat walking past her. That refers to the ending illustration of her arcade mode in Super Street Fighter II Turbo.”
Since Cammy has a new look, it makes sense for her to change up her playstyle a bit. “Cammy has historically been a difficult character to develop. It’s hard to give her new steps because she lacks supernatural powers. Giving Cammy a bullet will kill the essence of her character. One idea we tested was to use the animated Street Fighter II movie as a reference.” While keen players will notice a particular move that pays homage to her appearance in that movie, the studio considered giving her a projectile attack. suitable for her context.
“We considered, ‘What if we gave her a grenade she could throw?’ But that’s not really Cammy’s style, plus it would overlap with another character in the SF series, Rolento. In the end, we were able to improve on her existing move in Street Fighter V. We continued that with Street Fighter 6, helping her “keep” her special move to apply other moves. different attributes for those moves.”
The love for the characters in Street Fighter 6 is evident, not only from Nakayama’s words but also from what you see on screen. Look forward to seeing all of your old favorites–and creating your own legendary Street Fighter–when Street Fighter 6 enters the ring on June 2, 2023.
