I love fighting games. Since the original STREET FIGHTER II on Super Nintendo I have been a fan of fighting games. And what draws me to these fighting games are the characters. I love well done characters. I love seeing them return and further enriched. It's what brings me back to films and video games I've seen and played many many times before.
Strong females are a staple of the fighting game genre. Badass women who can kick as much ass as any of the guys in the game (sometimes even more). There are plenty of bad female fighters and exploitative designs. I'm not denying that. But here I want to celebrate my favorite fighting game heroines, the characters I love to play as and the characters I look forward to seeing return in future games.
I also happen to love ranking my favorites, as I'm sure all my friends could tell you. I'm actually surprised it's taken me this long to finally do a Top Ten. So without further adieu...
#1: Cammy (first appeared in SUPER STREET FIGHTER II on SNES/SEGA GENESIS)
Cammy is my favorite character to play as in Street Fighter. I can kick the most ass with her and I can take down the computer with her like nobody's business. Of all the characters in Street Fighter I find her story the most interesting too. She has been on the side of the badguys as well as the side of the angels. She has a fairly simple character design but it's the simplicity that works here. I like her original design the best which in the most part Capcom has retained throughout the series. My favorite rendition of her to play as would be in STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3 for the PSOne. That particular game is my favorite fighting game of all time. I have logged more hours in that game than perhaps any other. She's got a cool personality and a strong presence. I feel she's a much stronger character than the typical SF lead Chun Li.
#2: Ivy (first appeared in SOUL CALIBUR for the SEGA DREAMCAST)
I couldn't play with Ivy very well in the first Soul Calibur. She played a badguy who didn't know she was a badguy. Again, a very interesting complicated story and a completely unique fighting style. I had never seen a fighting game character like her or since. When she came back in Soul Calibur II she became my favorite character in the series. They changed up the button combinations of how to execute her moves for the better... and it is just beautiful to watch. Sadly they created a trend of changing up the button combos for her moves for every game. After part II she returned to being harder to play as and not nearly as fluid or user friendly. SOUL CALIBUR II is by far her best for game play. Her character design is of course quite exploitative. She's damn sexy and wicked badass. Slowly as the sequels progress she wises up to her badguy partners and becomes a staunch good guy by the end of the series. Her design is tweaked every game, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. My favorite design of hers has to be her SOUL CALIBUR II look.
#3: Morrigan Aensland (first appeared in DARKSTALKERS for PSOne)
Morrigan is another Capcom creation and the lead hero of the Capcom fighting game series DARKSTALKERS. The series has 3 direct sequels, a few compilations, and several characters make appearances in other games. With Morrigan Capcom's design team nailed it! They haven't changed her design is twenty years. She looks the same now as she did in her very first appearance. Undeniably sexy and deadly all at once. Her sex appeal is actually a part of her character's story too being that she's a succubus. She's a huge fan favorite the world over with yours truly included. I love the Darkstalkers games because it's nothing but horror characters fighting each other. It's like a dream come true! And Morrigan maybe the first female character to be the lead character in a fighting game. She has a unique and badass fighting style using her wings in combat. My favorite game with her is DARKSTALKERS 3. Most recently you can find her in MARVEL VERSUS CAPCOM 3.
#4: Mai Shiranui (first appeared in FATAL FURY 2 for the Super Nintendo)
My my Mai... The original hot chick of fighting games. Mai Shiranui is a Kunoichi (female ninja) who fights alongside the good guys in the Fatal Fury series and later became a regular character in the KING OF FIGHTERS series. As with many other characters, her design hasn't changed much and as such has become apart of what makes her the character she is. Who'd have thought barely any clothing would be such a compelling design? She's extremely exploitative, perhaps the most exploitative female character design outside of the Dead Or Alive series. She has a fun carefree personality making her all the more likable. In my opinion she looked the best in King of Fighters 2003 but easily played the best in King of Fighters XIII on PS3. Everything about her is appealing from her looks and personality down to the way she fights in KOF XIII. She has become as critical to the SNK fighters as Chun Li is to Capcom.
#5: Ayane (first appeared in DEAD OR ALIVE on PSOne)
I'm not the biggest fan of the Dead or Alive video games. To me they've never played as fluidly as Namco's games and they were more or less games simply for TnA. I have no problem with TnA but as far as fighters go there are plenty more desirable games to play. I first played as Ayane in DOA2 Hardcore and then in DOA3. Again she had the most interesting story being the half sister of the lead heroine and half sister of the lead hero. Yet she walked very closely along the edge of becoming a villain. She was the anti-heroine. Ayane is awesome by virtue of being a ninja (always a good thing) but also for the parts she has played in the second Ninja Gaiden series. She actually became a favorite of mine in those games as opposed to her fighting game appearances. Design wise she has seen a ton of changes. Her Ninja Gaiden 3 design along with her DOA5 design are probably the best she's ever looked. Not much has changed in her fighting style though. Still she's the most interesting character out of the large cast of female fighters in the DOA series.
#6: Shiki (first appeared in SAMURAI SHODOWN 64 for Hyper Neo Geo 64)
One of the best fighting game series out there and completely underrated is the Samurai Shodown series. The series has a ton of unique designs and interesting characters. Of all the women in the series I've got to hand it to Shiki as being the most interesting character and coolest female design. She's a kunoichi raised from the dead to do the bidding of an evil lord. Eventually she is freed to live her life as she pleases. To be totally honest I haven't played too many games with her in it. NEO GEO BATTLE COLISEUM and SNK VS CAPCOM: CHAOS would be the best representations of her. Sadly her 2D sprite is in desperate need of an upgrade and that goes for the whole Samurai Shodown series. I want to see a new SS game looking as amazing and playing as smooth as King of Fighters XIII. And it better have Shiki in it! Again, she's got the whole ninja thing going for her and by virtue of being in a game loaded with samurai and ninja! Seriously, if you love samurai, ninja, and 2D fighting games as much as I do it doesn't get much better than Samurai Shodown!
#7: Baiken (first appeared in GUILTY GEAR for the PSOne)
A one armed, one eyed future samurai. Baiken may be the toughest lady in all of fighting gamedom. She reminds me of Rurouni Kenshin but that's because Kenshin is rather feminine in appearance. Baiken is a truly unique design in both gameplay and character design. She is a force to be reckoned with. My favorite female character to play as in the Guilty Gear series. She's underrated and extremely cool, just the Guilty Gear series itself. There a lot of great characters in the GG games. Again, her design hasn't changed much over the half dozen games she's been in but it hasn't needed to change. One of the aspects of a strong character is their stability in design and fighting style throughout the course of a series. Baiken embodies all of that. It also helps that I can tear it up with her too. For my money she plays the best in GUILTY GEAR XX for the PS2.
#8: Ibuki (first appeared in STREET FIGHTER III for SEGA DREAMCAST)
If you hadn't guessed it yet, I am a very big Street Fighter fan. For a lot of people, Street Fighter III is the exception. I admit, SFIII was a huge departure from SFII, so much so that some consider it its own entity. I love the Street Fighter III entries and Ibuki is part of the reason why. Once again, ninja, love it. She has more of a traditional ninja look with a few unique traits that make the look uniquely hers. She's a high spirited high school girl who wants to live a fun carefree life all the while balancing school life with life as a ninja. Her personality is kinda generic but her look and fighting style is where is it's at. I think she looked and played the best in STREET FIGHTER III: THIRD STRIKE for the Sega Dreamcast and PS2. Her rendition in Super Street Fighter IV is pretty damn sweet too. She'd be my second favorite female fighter in the whole Street Fighter series. She's also one of the few fighting game females that's not overtly sexualized.
#9: Taki (first appeared in SOUL EDGE a.k.a. SOUL BLADES for the PSOne)
"Enough with the ninjas already!" is something you'd never hear me say. Taki is the original ninja heroine from the first game in the SOUL series (Soul Edge and Soul Calibur). She is a 15th century demon slaying ninja on the hunt to destroy the demonic sword Soul Edge. She's a strong silent heroine who attacks fast and hits hard. Again I am a fan of the Soul series and Taki is one fun and cool character to play as. Her story is really cool too. Her signature unitard became a virtual second skin in later games as it didn't hide anything (seriously). This was good but also bad. Guys liked looking at her but every girl rolled their eyes upon seeing her jiggle. Still, she's a cool character. Her design was probably the best in Soul Calibur III but she definitely played the best in Soul Calibur I. They replaced her with a lame carbon copy in Soul Calibur V but I'd welcome her back in a second. Go ninja go ninja go!
#10: Mitsuru Kirijo (first appeared as a fighting game character in PERSONA 4 ARENA for PS3)
I'm still learning this game but already I've seen it has some great characters. Mitsuru is awesome and a great character to play with in P4A. One of the great things about the game is that you should already know who everybody is. This game features the cast of the PS2 rpg PERSONA 4. You could have also gotten to know her from the Persona anime which follows the game's storyline to a T. Mitsuru has a cool collected personality and a wicked cool look. Couple that with a fun fighting style and you've got one helluva character. She's one of the best characters in the game if not the best. There has already been a sequel to P4A and hopefully there will be more. In the meantime you should give either P4A or Ultimax P4A a try.
Honorable Mentions: I'd be remiss if I didn't point out these other great characters:
Chun Li: Street Fighter Alpha 3
Rose: Street Fighter Alpha 3
Sakura: Street Fighter Alpha 3
Vanessa: King Of Fighters XI
King: King of Fighters XIII
Dizzy: Guilty Gear XX
Felicia: Darkstalkers
Seong-Mina: Soul Calibur
Kitana: MORTAL KOMBAT
You're probably wondering where's Mortal Kombat? Not gonna lie, but I'm not much of a Mortal Kombat fan. I used to own
MK2 and MK3 but neither were as endearing to me as Street Fighter or
even Killer Instinct. But I gotta give credit where it's due to Kitana.
She's the female ninja hero of the MK series (again, exploiting my soft
spot for ninjas, kunoichi and shinobi alike). I always thought she had a
boring design but her MK9 update revitalized her in a whole new way.
Her look and playability have never been better than in Mortal Kombat 9
for the PS3. I'm still not a big fan of the MKs but they do have some
nice aspects to them.
For the final word on everything fighting game related you must visit
The Fighters Generation
FIGHT ON!
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