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NarumiThe be-spectacled, bookish character seen in Elena's Street Fighter III endings is called Narumi. Her first meeting with Elena and the friendship that follows is given further attention in Udon's Ibuki Legends series (where she introduces herself as 'Naru'). She is certainly drawn to Elena's spirit of adventure and her 'otherness' and the two characters share a love of animals (evidenced in Elena's New Generation and 2nd Impact endings). Incidentally, Elena's New Generation and 2nd Impact endings depict Elena and Narumi cycling downhill past a sakura blossom tree. Considering that both girls are dressed in traditional Japanese school uniforms this is almost certainly a spiritual nod to Sakura Kasugano.

Card Fighters ClashAt the turn of the millennium SNK released a brace of card/puzzle games featuring a whole host of Capcom characters alongside characters from their own games. SNK Vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash (1999) was released in two flavours; Capcom Edition and SNK Edition, each giving a greater emphasis to one of the respective companies over the other. Its sequel, Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition was released exclusively in Japan two years later. The success of these titles ensured a third game in the series for the Nintendo DS in 2006. In addition to numerous cards depicting the more well-known and popular Street Fighter characters, all of the games in the Card Fighters series have a marked affection for the obscure. Hence one finds cards depicting Lee, Retsu, Shadow-Lady, Mech-Zangief, Sunburnt Sakura and Zero Akuma alongside Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka....

Dr. KureThe man with the conical head first seen at the end of Twelve's Third Strike ending is named Dr. Woo (previously translated as Dr. Kure). The doctor is the head scientist behind the 'G-Project' responsible for the creation of the Twelve mutant and the army of Twelve clones seen in pods in the background. Twelve is the realisation of Urien's theory of 'body reconstruction' and its ability to heal and restore itself prompts Dr. Woo to refer to the mutant as the 'never dying warrior'. Dr. Woo is seen again in Urien's Capcom Fighting Evolution ending in which the Twelve clones morph chillingly into Urien clones. Interestingly, in the Online Edition ports of Third Strike Twelve refers to Urien as 'dad' in his binary winquote implying at the very least an awareness of his creator. The theory that Seth and the other S.I.N clones in Street Fighter IV represent a continuation of the G-Project research is flawed on chronological grounds; events in III take place before events in IV. The Shadaloo Combat Research Initiative suggests that Dr. Woo's I.Q. is over 1300 points!

'Sarah'A really intriguing detail discovered in the object test in Super Street Fighter II (and indeed Super Turbo) gives us strong reason to believe that an alternative name for Cammy was under consideration well into the game's development. Located alongside the names of the 'New Challengers' (and embedded in the Street Fighter II logo) the letters Sa, r, a, h are unmistakable, styled in the same manner as that used on the game's splash screens. When pieced together this, of course, forms the name 'Sarah'. This might be dismissed as an in-joke or a tag on the part of one of the game's developers except that the letters appear again, further down in the object test and this time in lowercase, mirroring the style used beneath the vitality bar during matches. This combination of the name in both styles is compelling evidence that Cammy may very well have been named Sarah if decisions had gone differently. There is also the possibility, perhaps more likely, that Cammy was always going to be Cammy in Japan but that an alternative name was being considered internationally (as with Nash/Charlie, Gouki/Akuma).

Bison's unseen defeated portraitAs none of the four boss characters can be selected in World Warrior (either in versus or arcade) and as you do not see a win-quote splash screen after defeating M. Bison it comes as a bit of a surprise to find that a defeated portrait of the dictator exists in the game's ROM. The image closely resembles that used in Champion Edition (etc.) albeit with an extra cut below his right eye and a slightly more bloodied left eye. The existence of this portrait suggests that Capcom were keeping their options open over whether or not to include the splash screen before each characters' ending.

Puzzle Fighter cameo in Sakura LegendsA humorously incongruous sequence in Udon's Sakura Legends comic has Dan (ever the fall guy) about to be crushed by an enormous red gemstone in a field on a stormy night (recalling the setting for Ryu vs. Sagat in The Animated Movie)! Just as he is about to be squished he wakes up in a hospital bed having been the victim of Zangief's 'final atomic buster' in the previous chapter. It transpires that this nightmare has been brought about by the patient next to him playing Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo! A quick glance of the game screen reveals that, appropriately, Dan is about to be defeated by Sakura. The platform that the boy is playing on is most similar to the Nintendo DS console but this is an anachronism as Puzzle Fighter has only ever been released for the Gameboy Advance and PlayStation Portable handhelds.

Gill's alternate coloursDespite being unplayable in arcade versions of Street Fighter III Capcom nevertheless created a full set of colour swaps for Gill in New Generation and 2nd Impact that can only ever be seeing via a hack. The colours fade from his default blue and red through to black and white depending on which button is pressed on character select. The black and white scheme reappears in home ports but swapped left-to-right and with blue hair rather than yellow. Street Fighter III Third Strike: Online Edition added a sequence of dialogue that precedes the fight between Gill and (CPU) Alex giving Gill's perspective on the battle as opposed to Alex's:

Gill: I've been waiting for you, Alex. Since the first time we met, I knew that our destinies were intertwined... I knew that you would seek me out to learn the truth...

Alex: What do you mean you knew I would come here...? Your visions don't impress me. I just want to beat you down!! I know that I'll find what I've been looking for, once I destroy you.

Gill: I knew you would say that... Ha ha ha! Let us embrace our destiny!!

congratulations! why don't you try the harder difficulty level?

"i held back, and still you cower on the ground like a peon. what a waste of human life!"

NAME: Gill

NATION: ---

HEIGHT: --- cm

WEIGHT: --- kg

B/W/H: --- --- ---

BLOOD_TYPE: ---

"yes sir."

NAME: Kolin

NATION: ---

HEIGHT: 168 cm

WEIGHT: 65 kg

B/W/H: --- --- ---

BLOOD_TYPE: AB