Vega (Street Fighter)

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Vega
Vega in Super Street Fighter II, drawn by Bengus.
Game series	Street Fighter series
First game	Street Fighter II
Voiced by (English)	Richard Cansino (Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and Street Fighter II V) Vic Mignogna (UK version of Street Fighter II V) Doug Erholtz (Street Fighter IV)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Shō Hayami (Drama CD) Kaneto Shiozawa (Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Street Fighter II V, Street Fighter EX series) Yūji Ueda (Street Fighter Alpha 3, Capcom vs. SNK series) Kiyotomi Goshima (Gunspike, SVC Chaos: Capcom vs. SNK) Junichi Suwabe (Street Fighter IV) Kazuyuki Ishikawa (Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation) Chihara Junior (Japanese dub of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li)
Live action actor(s)	Jay Tavare (Street Fighter film) Taboo (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li)
Information
Nationality	Spain
Fighting style	Ninjutsu Bullfighting Combat
Weapon	Tiger Claw

Vega, known as Balrog (バルログ, Barurogu^?) in Japan, is a fictional character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. Vega is a masked talon-wielding warrior from Spain who uses a personal fighting style combining Japanese Ninjutsu and Spanish Bullfighting, earning him the nickname the "Spanish Ninja".

Vega first appears in the original Street Fighter II as the second of four computer-controlled opponents, the player will face at the end of the single-player mode, a group known as the Four Devas or Grand Masters. From Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition (the second version of the game) and onward, Vega along with the other three boss characters became playable characters. He reappears as a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha 3, the Street Fighter EX series (from Street Fighter EX2 and onward), the Capcom vs. SNK series and Street Fighter IV.

Contents 1 Conception and creation 2 Backstory 3 Character design 4 Techniques 5 Cultural impact 5.1 In other media 5.2 Critical reception 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Conception and creation

When the original Street Fighter II was being localized for the English language market, the developers rotated the name of three of the Four Devas (the final four CPU-controlled opponents in the game), fearing that the character who originally bore the name M. Bison, an American boxer conceived as a pastiche of real-life boxer Mike Tyson, was a legal liability for Capcom. Thus, the American boxer known as Balrog in the west is actually M. Bison in Japan, while the Spanish Ninjutsu master Vega is named Balrog, and the military commander M. Bison is named Vega. The fact that Capcom's US marketing staff felt that "Vega" was a non-threatening name for the final opponent also contributed to the name change.^[1]

Early sketches suggest that Vega was going to resemble a medieval knight wearing a full suit of armor^{[citation needed]}. This idea was scrapped because Street Fighter was about fighters from all over the world, not time^{[original research?]}. Remnants of this concept are apparent in Vega's final design^{[original research?]} including a mask and a sharp metal claw^{[original research?]}.

[edit] Backstory

Vega was born the son of a wealthy, but physically unattractive father, and a beautiful mother from a lower-class family. As he matured, Vega studied bullfighting, a cultural tradition. Afterward, he went to Japan and learned ninjutsu, a style he believed meshed well with his natural grace and agility. Combining bullfighting with ninjutsu, Vega went into an underground cage fighting circuit, and quickly became one of the best. One day, Vega witnessed his mother's murder at the hands of his own stepfather, who felt that she did not respect him, and Vega killed him out of vengeance. The incident traumatized him, and he developed a dual personality: honorable nobleman by day, sadistic murderer by night.

[edit] Character design

Vega is one of the few Street Fighter characters to constantly carry a weapon, and the only character to do so in Street Fighter II. This claw is useful for both stabbing and slashing attacks, and gives him a very long range compared to most characters. It is the same type of weapon worn by Geki in the original Street Fighter.

Vega does not wear his expressionless mask to conceal his identity; he removes it after fights, during his win poses, as well as in certain character-select images in various games he appears in. The mask is purely to protect his face from scarring or bruising during battle, since he believes himself to be impossibly beautiful and is obsessively narcissistic. This mask is not particularly sturdy; he may have it knocked off of him during fights before or after his talon comes off, it is smashed in during Vega's lose portrait in Street Fighter II, and Vega himself will crush it to dust with one hand if he loses due to a time over in Street Fighter Alpha 3.

Vega wears purple and yellow ceremonial trousers, a red sash, loafers, and white leggings of a matador, suggesting his involvement with bullfighting. This decorative garb also offers matadors ease of movement, and is ideal for Vega's acrobatic maneuvers.

Vega has brown or blonde hair depending on the game and context. In the various games in the Street Fighter II series, Vega's game sprite and character select profile shot depicts him with brown hair, while his ending in Street Fighter II′: Champion Edition and Super Street Fighter II depicts him with blond hair. In Street Fighter EX2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3, Vega is depicted with blond hair.

Vega has a purple snake tattoo on his chest, which also circles his arm. In Capcom vs. SNK 2, as a victory pose, Vega will hold his arm out, with the tattoo coming to life and hissing at the opponent.

[edit] Techniques

Vega is one of the fastest characters in the Street Fighter series, but also one of the most delicate; his defensive rating is unusually low compared to other characters, to balance his incredible speed. Vega's swiftness and flying special techniques make him well-suited for multi-hitting combination attacks, confusing cross-ups, or long range poking attacks with the reach-advantage provided by his claw.

It takes exactly fourteen blocked hits for Vega to lose his claw. This reduces his attack range significantly, and prevents him from doing certain super attacks. Since Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Vega can pick up the claw. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, he can lose his mask as well, which causes him to take more damage. In SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, Vega cannot lose his claw. In Street Fighter EX series, Vega may reinforce or recover his claw with a super move. In Street Fighter IV Vega can take his claw and mask off manually in order to insult or taunt the opponent, also, if the claw is taken off, his attacks will be made weaker, and if the mask is taken off, the damage of his attacks will be increased. Taking either off also resets the amount of blocked hits that Vega has taken, making removing either the claw or the mask right before Vega loses it highly beneficial.

Vega possesses a unique technique in the back flip, making him leap away from an attacker, instead of countering them with an anti-air attack, as well as avoiding fireballs and a few other moves. In Super Turbo, Vega does have the anti-air attack known as Scarlet Terror, making his playing style even more based on offense than before. Vega's Rolling Crystal Flash/Tumbling Claw has him roll forward on the ground and end with a fierce claw strike, a move integral to Vega's offensive posturing, as the move allows him to move forward after he has pushed himself away from the opponent with other attacks. His Ultra Combo in Street Fighter IV is the Bloody High Claw.

Vega's Flying Barcelona Attack and Izuna Drop were originally performed by the computer-controlled Vega by climbing on the chain fence that only exists in Vega's stage. For other stages, Vega must leap off the side of the screen. Later games removed Vega's ability to climb the wall altogether, thus making the character react the same way in every stage (except in SFA3 where players had to input a different special move to climb the cage in his stage).

[edit] Cultural impact

[edit] In other media

• In the Japanese animated film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Vega was voiced by the late Kaneto Shiozawa in Japanese and Richard Cansino in the English dub. In the film, he works for Shadowlaw under Bison, and is sent to New York to kill Chun-Li, but is ultimately defeated and knocked out of Chun-Li's several-stories-high apartment to his apparent death.

• In the 1994 live-action film version of Street Fighter, Vega was played by Jay Tavare. He is depicted as a member of the Shadaloo Tong working for Sagat. Along with his trademark mask and claw, he has only three lines during the whole movie and utters them while his face is obscured or when he is off-camera. He forms a rivalry with Ryu, and in the film's final battle, he is defeated by Ryu and abandoned and left for dead by Sagat. He also appears in the arcade game based on the film titled Street Fighter: The Movie, as well as in the home video game also based on the film. In the arcade version of the game, Vega has the ability to take his mask off and throw it to his opponent. In the home version, this ability was removed and Vega fights unmasked.

• In the 1995 Japanese animated series Street Fighter II V, Vega appears as a bullfighter who tries to seduce Chun-Li. Envious over Ryu and Ken's friendship with Chun-Li, Vega invites the three to a party in his castle, which is actually a trap to lure Ryu and Ken to a caged death match with him. Since Ryu does not attend the party, he subsequently fights Ken, and is finally defeated after delivering several injuries to him. He is given the surname of Fabio La Cerda in the series. Kaneto Shiozawa and Richard Cansino reprised their roles in their respective dubs.

• Vega appears in two episodes of the 1995 American Street Fighter animated series, "Eye of the Beholder" and "Face of Fury", where he is a former henchman of Bison who develops a rivalry against Blanka. He was voiced by Mark Hildreth in the series.

• Vega makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in 1999 Japanese OVA Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, where he ends up pulverising, though not outright killing, his opponent Dan Hibiki during an underground fight.

• Vega is played by rapper Taboo (of the group Black Eyed Peas) in the 2009 live-action film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. In addition to changing Vega's race, the film also changes the reason the character wears a mask, from protecting his beauty to hiding his face. Another difference is that Taboo is not Spaniard, but he is Mexican and Native American, again contradicting Vega's race and ethinicity.^{[citation needed]}

• As part of the Blood On The Asphalt remix project by OCRemix, his music from the Spain stage in Street Fighter II was remixed, given lyrics, and titled Spittin' Narcissism. The song was performed by Jose the Bronx Rican.

• Vega reappears in the Shadaloo helicopter near the end of "Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind", where Seth escapes to.

[edit] Critical reception

IGN ranked Vega at number ten in their "Top 25 Street Fighter Characters" article, stating "he deserves all the credit in the world for originality. There's never been a Street Fighter character quite like him since."^[2] Additionally, he ranked 46th in GamePro's "47 Most Diabolical Video-Game Villains of All Time" article.^[3] GameDaily ranked him at number twelve on their "Top 20 Street Fighter Characters of All Time" article, noting the strength of his aerial attacks.^[4] News.com.au named Vega one of the sexiest characters in video games, placing him tenth in their "Top 10" article and stating "part ninja, part bullfighter, Vega's fighting style is definitely one of the most unusual we've seen."^[5] GamesRadar noted that while his attire and obsession with beauty was a departure from traditional depictions of ninjas, the features made him "one of the more iconic scrappers in the Street Fighter games".^[6] He also ranked at No. 16 in the list of Best Characters of 1991 from the February 1992 issue of Gamest magazine in Japan.^[7]

In contrast, UGO.com named him one of "The Most Useless Video Game Items", describing him as "the type of character a artist jots on a napkin during a night of office bonding over Long Island Ice Teas" and calling him as a cross between Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Twiggy.^[8]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Vega's Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter EX, and Street Fighter IV entries at StrategyWiki.org

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