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Beta KarinAn incredible discovery by Rage Quitter 87 revealed that Karin Kanzuki, who officially debuted in Street Fighter Alpha 3 was originally intended for Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter in 1997, a year prior. Deconstruction of the game's ROM revealed a series of sprites that don’t belong to any character in the game. The sprites show a female dressed identically to Sakura and, after applying the correct colour palette, it is astonishingly clear that the character is a beta version of Karin. By borrowing the missing portions of the sprite from Sakura it is been possible to create a fully complete version of this character and Ragey has even been able to animate her by putting all the separate sprites together. This version of Karin is identical to that created by Nakahiro in his Sakura Ganbura manga; it is unmistakably her. The most likely explanation is that Capcom abandoned Karin for Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter due to time constraints, but at some point a decision was also made to refine the character’s appearance. Alpha Karin is differentiated from beta Karin (and, importantly, her rival Sakura) by way of a vastly different costume.

Illia and EffieIllia became Necro after being confronted by the Illuminati under Gill's leadership and experimented on as part of the 'G-Project'. Drawing obvious comparisons with Dhalsim and Blanka, Necro gained the ability to stretch his limbs and generate electricity from his body. But his super-human abilities came not only at the expensive of his appearance but also his freedom; Necro was a prisoner of the Illuminati and ultimately tricked, tied up and left to die by Gill in the destruction of the island facility (New Generation ending). At the last moment he is saved by his girlfriend Effie, another mutated victim of the G-Project. In Third Strike the couple are fugitives on the run from the Illuminati and specifically from Twelve, the G-Project's ultimate result, who is sent to pursue them relentlessly. In his Third Strike ending Necro saves Effie's life with the aid of his stretchable arms. Effie can also be seen as one of the 'judgement gals' in 2nd Impact and Third Strike and despite her loyalty to Necro in canon she does not automatically vote for him in-game!

Mall stage in Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street FighterA number of non-playable Street Fighter characters make cameo appearances in Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter (1997). In the Mall stage Jessica and Cody are prominent amongst the ground floor spectators. Birdie can be spotted (by his unusual haircut!) on the first floor. In the Death Valley stage you can see Blanka sitting on a rock (also seen in X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, which shares this stage, albeit in the position occupied by Beast from X-Men here). In the park stage Charlie is sat reading on the left and Rose standing on the right (with Gambit and Rogue from X-Men in the middle).

FF Streetwise reference sketchesReference sketches for Final Fight: Streetwise (2006) printed (for example) in SF20: The Art of Street Fighter has led to speculation that the characters Guile, Chun-Li, Maki, Sodom and Rolento were all originally pencilled-in for the title. Concept art by Trent Kaniuga from later in the game's development also exists for Sodom and Poison/Roxy but both are also missing from the final version, allegedly dropped due to time constraints. Returning characters that did make it into Streetwise are Cody, Guy, Haggar and Cammy.

Tournament BattleIn addition to the standard single and two-player game modes, Super Street Fighter II also featured an exclusive eight-player single-elimination tournament mode dubbed Tournament Battle. This mode is only available when four Super cabinets are connected together and all of them configured to 'Tournament' mode. The tournament consists of three sets of four simultaneous matches: the initial eliminations, the semi-finals and the finals. Interestingly, it is due to this game mode that Super contains so many different colours for each character; it is theoretically possible for every player to select the same character and there needed to be a way to differentiate between players. This feature was more-or-less replicated in home ports of Super with the crucial difference being that matches do not happen simultaneously. As a footnote, when playing arcade Tournament Battle the intro sequence is slightly different from regular Super in that the flashes of sheet lighting are accompanied by screens showing a lighting bolt. Also, there is a versus fanfare and a champion's theme that are exclusive to this game mode (3F and C1 in the arcade's sound test, respectively). Curiously, the tournament champion theme reappeared in Hyper as the music that plays during the game's (normal) credit roll.

Red vinylIn anticipation of Street Fighter IV and to mark the release of the HD Remix of Super Turbo in 2008 a red vinyl soundtrack for Super Street Fighter II Turbo, subtitled Battle Vinyl, was given a limited release. Side A contains 'Vocals & FX' and side B contains the game's music. The catalog number for this highly collectable record is RYU001! The artwork on the flipside depicting Zangief, Cammy, Ryu and Blanka is a collage of sprites, taken from HD Remix, drawn by the staff at Udon. Good luck tracking down a copy of it!

Chun-Li Ni Makase China!Chun-Li Ni Makase China! is another pachislo game based on the Street Fighter franchise, this one released in 2008 and notable for being the first game produced by Capcom that puts Chun-Li in the starring role. Rather than use pre-existing elements Capcom created brand new cel-shaded art for this pachislo in which the player pulls handles to control Chun-Li as she does battle with other characters from the Street Fighter universe. Despite its excellent graphics and presentation the pachislo 'severely underperformed' according to a Capcom press release from November 2008.

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"am i still the strongest women in the world? tell me!"

NAME: Chun-Li

NATION: China

HEIGHT: 169 cm

WEIGHT: --- kg

B/W/H: 88 58 90

BLOOD_TYPE: A