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DeadpoolSpeaking of games, you ever play Street Fighter?' In issue 27 of Marvel's Deadpool (April 1999) the titular character Shoryuken’s the X-Men superhero Kitty Pryde to encourage Wolverine to hit him. This famous moment was referenced in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (2011) where Deadpool can perform the Shoryuken as a set up for air moves. In the same game, Ryu’s win quote against Deadpool also alludes to the plagiarism: 'Huh? You stole my Shoryuken? When did you...!?'

Malibu comicIn 1993 Malibu Comics released the first issue of their Street Fighter comic. The quality of the title was so bad that Capcom intervened almost immediately and the comic was cancelled after just three issues. At the end of the third issue Malibu took the unprecedented step of apologising to its readers and outlining what they had in store for each character, if the project had continued. Here is that epilogue:

As many of you might have heard, due to complications with Capcom and their dislike of our adaptation of the most popular game in the world, concluding with this issue, Street Fighter the comic book has officially been cancelled. We formally apologise for the dissatisfaction and disappointment we know this news can and will generate. We are true fans of Street Fighter, so even though we will no longer be publishing it, we sincerely hope someone else does! For the meantime, however, we hope to ease some of your Street Fighter withdrawals with a little epilogue. As far as we know, no other comic book company has ever offered this kind of epilogue to its readers, but we here at Malibu want you to know just how committed we are to Street Fighter and to you! If you care to read on, we will tell you what kind of tales writer Len Strazewski would have spun. It's a character break-down, so you can look up exactly what would have happened to your favourite Street Fighter ... Thanks for all your cards and letters of support, everybody.

Wreck it Ralph cameosWreck it Ralph (2012) features several characters and cameos from the Street Fighter series. As well as creating their own 3D models of Ryu, Ken, Zangief, M. Bison, Chun-Li and Cammy (who wears green tights, assumedly to tone down her sexuality), Disney also re-worked some material from Street Figher II itself into the film; Ryu and Ken take a break from fighting on a World Warrior cabinet to visit Tapper's bar and Ken's stage background, Blanka's sprites and the car bonus round appear in the game's end credits. Bobby Pontillas's portraits of eight characters are seen, more or less clearly, on the walls of the bar and, finally, the words 'SHENG LONG WAS HERE' are written in graffiti in the portal leading to the Sugar Rush game.

DecapreOn the 13th of July 2013 Capcom announced an update to Arcade Edition set to feature five new characters and six new backgrounds. At the time of the announcement the revision hadn't been officially named but it would, of course, become Ultra Street Fighter IV. Four of the five characters were revealed immediately, (Poison, Hugo, Elena, Rolento) but the fifth was kept secret, leading to intense speculation about who it would be. On the 16th March 2014 Decapre was announced to a lukewarm reception. Nonetheless Decapre joined Cammy, Juni and Juli as playable members of Bison's Dolls.

Wyvern sound codeThe roar heard in Capcom’s The King of Dragons (1991) when you kill the Wyvern (sound code #37 for those interested) was re-used for the phoenix and dragons in the background of Fei Long's stage in Super (slightly pitch-shifted and with added reverb. It is #019D in the sound test). This sound effect is actually appropriated from the Godzilla monster Anguirus. It was also used by Nintendo for the Super Metroid boss character Draygon (and probably loads of other places too!) Fei Long's stage is located at an actual, historical place; The Haw Par Villa amusement park at the Tiger Balm Gardens in Hong Kong. The attraction closed its doors in 1998 but the picture here shows how it used to look and how closely Capcom captured the scene. The Chinese lettering on the carpet of the carpet confirms the location: Hŭ bào biéshù; Haw Paw Villa, literally, 'The Tiger and Leopard Villa'.

Kappa Mikey SF cameosKappa Mikey is an American anime that first aired in 2006. In episode 3 of the first series, 'Ship of Fools', Zangief can be seen in the background in the queue of people waiting to buy the LilyMu videogame. Like everyone else he is dressed up as Mikey. He can be seen quite a few times but his expression never changes! Later on in the same episode Chun-Li has a cameo appearance as one of the people that Mikey is trying to steal a copy of the game off.

MuramasaThe katanas found throughout Final Fight are named 'Muramasa'. This is displayed beneath the player's life bar when the item is picked up. Sodom's katanas, by contrast, are named 'Musamune'. The two names were mixed up by Nin-Nin on his Twitter feed where he shed light on the origins of the blade:

Sodom's sword in Final Fight is the "MURAMASA!". This is an homage (LOL) to the "MURAMASA BLADE!" of Wizardry. I was pretty into that game back then.

(Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord was an RPG first released in 1981 and made by SirTech.) Interestingly, 'Muramasa' reappeared in another Capcom sidescroller, Knights of the Round in 1991 where the samurai boss character at the end of Stage 6 bears the name. Unlike Sodom, however, Muramasa is a genuine samurai (with mastery over fire to boot!) In real life, Muramasa Sengo and Priest Masamune are both highly prominent names in the history of bladesmithing in Japan. Masamune is widely recognised as Japan's greatest swordsmith and legend has it that Muramasa was his pupil.

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"i've got a great body, don't i? ..."

NAME: Rufus

NATION: U.S.A.

HEIGHT: 195 cm

WEIGHT: 185 kg

B/W/H: 180 250 215

BLOOD_TYPE: O