Poison (Final Fight)
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| Poison | |
|---|---|
 Poison from Final Fight. Artwork by Kitasenri. |
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| Game series | Street Fighter series, Final Fight series |
| First game | Final Fight |
| Designed by | Akiman |
| Voiced by | Atsuko Tanaka (SF3) |
| Information | |
| Birthplace |  Los Angeles, USA[1] |
| Fighting style | Self-taught martial arts |
| Likes | French fries, Cody, Hugo |
| Dislikes | Jailtime |
| Affiliation | Formerly Mad Gear, Capcom Wrestling Association (last confirmed) |
Poison is a video game character from the Final Fight series, created by Akiman for Capcom. Introduced in the first Final Fight (along with the similar character Roxy), she is popular enough with the Capcom staff to appear in many other artworks as cameos, and is one of the few characters from the series to move on to lesser but present story involvements in the main Street Fighter series.
Beyond the Final Fight series, Poison has appeared as a cameo character alongside Street Fighter III character Hugo in his subsequent appearances. She was planned to appear in Capcom Fighting All Stars, but the game was canceled. She was also slated to appear in Final Fight Streetwise, but, much like Sodom, was cut from the final game.
Poison has some notoriety as one of the few LGBT characters in the Street Fighter canon, the other confirmed character being Eagle, though Eagle is a tribute to Freddie Mercury, who was himself bisexual. In-game, Poison regards herself as totally female, flirting with opposing characters[2], wearing a highly revealing outfit, and engaging in near-erotic behavior as seen in Final Fight Revenge when fighting.
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[edit] Conception and History
Poison's first appearance in Final Fight featured her and a similar character, Roxy, as minor enemies, and were both developed by Akiman. They were both originally designed as females, but after receiving complaints from Capcom USA regarding violence towards women, they were changed into "newhalves", pre-op transsexuals and their names reflect this as a musical nod to the band Poison. Despite the change, the in-game artwork was not modified; American playtesters failed to realize they were actually male until a representative of Capcom Japan informed them of such. [1][3] Regardless of the change, Nintendo objected, and as a result both characters have been replaced in every port to their consoles.[4]
For some time Capcom has been vague about their gender, with confusion caused by All About Capcom stating that she may have had the sex change, though it was later retracted.[1] An appearance by Poison in the game Final Fight Revenge later portrayed her in a highly feminine manner. But according to the Capcom Classics Collection character bios, Poison is a male transvestite, though now Roxy is completely female. With no certain word for some time on Poison's gender, fans have debated whether it was one or the other.[5]
The subject was finally answered in 2007, in an Electronic Gaming Monthly interview regarding Street Fighter IV. Capcom's Yoshinori Ono when asked in the interview regarding Poison's gender stated "Let's set the record straight: In North America, Poison is officially a post-op transsexual. But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away to look female."[6]
[edit] Characteristics
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| The arcade sprites vs the Sega CD sprites, showing censoring | |
Her biography in All About Capcom states she enjoys actual fighting (using it as a means to stay in shape),. Later appearances expanded on her personality, featuring her flirting with her opponents or outright trying to seduce them, as shown in her Poison Kiss attack. However Poison is shown to have a softer side when she feels sorry for Cody after his incarceration, visiting him in jail.[7]. By the time of Street Fighter 3 and SvC: Chaos, she has Hugo do the fighting for both of them, taking position as manager instead of combatant and directing him who to fight.[8] All About Capcom states that when not traveling, she lives with her cat in an apartment facing the back streets of Metro City.[1]
As one of the fighters in Final Fight Revenge, her moves mainly revolve around rising uppercuts with her whip or immobilizing the opponent. Her whip is used primarily in her Cat Claw and Thunder Whip attacks (which are akin to shoryuken/shinryūken styled attacks, respectively), but is also able to be used in a solo attack to steal a weapon from the opponent, a trait none of the other characters share. Along with her whip, her handcuffs can be thrown as a horizontal projectile move to immobilize the opponent. A few of her basic attacks will be altered if the player is armed with a knife, stick, sword or chainsaw. From what little is known through screenshots and gameplay videos of Capcom Fighting All-Stars, her gameplay in the game would have been extremely similar, sans weapons.[9][10]
One particular attack, Poison Kiss, has her blow a large heart-shaped kiss at the opponent that travels in a sine wave path. If it connects, a quick 'peep show' of Poison in several erotic poses is displayed, and afterwards the opponent is shown stunned with hearts dancing over their head. Defeating an opponent with this attack in Revenge results in Poison doing a pole dance for her winpose, with her whip serving as the pole.[11] Prototype screenshots released from Capcom show that this move would have been retained for her CFAS appearance.[12]
[edit] Designs
Poison is shown to be a Caucasian female with long pink, somewhat rugged, hair. She wears a black cap, blue cutoff shorts, red high heels and a tanktop cut just below her breasts. In Final Fight Revenge and some artworks, her hair is shown to be purple instead.[13] She wears several armbands around her right arm and neck, and has chains and a pair of handcuffs suspended off her shorts. Final Fight Revenge shows her also possessing a whip, though no version of the character's artwork has been shown with such an accessory. This design has rarely been altered since the character's initial appearances.
Poison was given an alternate outfit for Capcom Fighting All Stars alongside her primary classic attire. Made of shiny, silvery material it consisted of boots that extended halfway up her thighs and a combined sleeveless shirt/short skirt with plunging cleavage. Gloves and a small hairband were also added, as well as a belt, with the handcuffs hanging off of it. Her arm straps were removed, though the strap around her neck remained.[14]
In the official concept art section of the promotional comic for Final Fight Streetwise, a character labeled as Poison is shown, but with a color scheme akin to Roxy's. The design features red hair, a red micro skirt showing a hint of underwear, jacket, button-up white shirt showing some of her abdomen, black high-heeled boots, gold belt, and a wool cap.[15] Further concept art later released by artist Trent Kaniuga show three alternative designs: one being the classic look, another being a white button-up shirt with red pants, high heels and short hair, and the third keeping the high heels and pants, but adding shades, returning her hair to full length and swapping the shirt for a jacket with deep cleavage. All four designs for Streetwise keep the color scheme and belt/handcuffs.[16]
[edit] Appearances
[edit] Final Fight
As stated her first appearance was as a common enemy opposing the protagonists in their search for Jessica in the beat 'em up Final Fight, and are in every version of the game save for those on Nintendo consoles, and only censored themselves once in the Sega CD version of the game. Nintendo themselves disproved of violence on even female looking characters, and as a result on ports to their products they were replaced with two males characters, Billy and Sid,[4] and the process was repeated for the females in the later title Final Fight 2. However remnants of Poison are present in Final Fight One.[17]
Her backstory for the game states she grew up an orphan in Los Angeles, and later in life became a street thug for the original Mad Gear gang. Her look-alike character Roxy grew up in the same orphanage as her, and looked up to Poison. Despite Poison's gender, given her female body she dresses as a transvestite. While Roxy does not approve of Poison's lifestyle, she dresses exactly like her.[18] In game, Poison and Roxy are fast characters, and attack in an acrobatic fashion using flip kicks.
[edit] Final Fight Revenge
While excluded from later chapters in the series, she appeared as one of the selectable fighters in Final Fight Revenge, which occurs chronologically after the end of the first game and as a result of the fallout from Belger's demise. Her background story in the game revolved around her her worried about her past crimes (namely, beating other people up) getting her arrested and thrown in jail.[19] Former Mad Gear member, Edi. E was arresting many of her former cohorts from the gang so he could get promoted.[20] To escape it, she framed Cody for her crimes, causing him to be sent to prison and setting up his storyline for his Street Fighter Alpha 3 appearance. Poison's own ending shows she had feelings for Cody and visits him, but she states he'd always love Jessica, Haggar's daughter.[7]
[edit] Street Fighter III series/SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom
The character disappeared from the SF storylines until showing up in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, going fully legitimate and managing fellow Final Fight veteran Hugo Andore. In this appearance, she is merely a cameo character for Hugo's intros, taunt and winposes, though played a key role in his storyline and helping Hugo make a name for himself in professional wrestling. Hugo's character bio states the two of them are pretty good friends despite their constant quarrels.
Many subsequent storylines in SF3 and their appearance in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom revolve around either finding a tag team partner for Hugo or planning to start their own wrestling organization (the Huge Wrestling Association[21]) due to Hugo being unable to find decent competition because of his immense strength.[1] The canonical successes of these ventures has never been confirmed, though Hugo is stated to be considered "legendary" by Kyle Travers in Final Fight Streetwise.[22]
[edit] Other games
Poison was set to appear in Capcom Fighting All-Stars, though little is known about this game at all, and even less about Poison's intended role as she was not playable at the time of the location test.[23] The trailer video for the game shows her retaining her flip kick from the original Final Fight amongst her moves and attacks similar to her Final Fight Revenge gameplay.[9][10] In a similar event, while she doesn't appear in Final Fight Streetwise, concept artwork in the promotional comic book shows a character dubbed as Poison, though she uses Roxy's colors.[16][15] While cut from the final game, her voice samples were left intact in the game's files.
Beyond this appearance, Poison has also appeared on cards for SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash and the game's Nintendo DS sequel. Mighty Final Fight, a parody of the original Final Fight, featured super deformed characters, including one called "Poison Kiss". This Poison is actually stated to be the younger sister of the original, and a corrupt cop.[24] She is mentioned later on in Poison's card profile in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, stated here as being her sister as well.[25] However nothing in Poison's original bio mentions siblings, nor is one mentioned in her later appearances besides the card game.
[edit] Appearances in other media
An immovable model is being made for the 2008 Capcom Girls Collection line of figurines by Mitsumasa Yoshizawa. The design is based around her traditional Final Fight attire and 1/6th scale according to material for it (standing nearly 11" tall).[26] A similar model was released by REFLECT later on, identical to the previous figurine except with her giving a thumbs down gesture and darker colors.[27]
Additionally she can be seen in various Street Fighter related artworks, as early as Street Fighter II.[28] She also makes cameos in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and 3 backgrounds next to Hugo, both cases those related to Guy, and in Sodom's Street Fighter Alpha ending and artwork. UDON in June of 2006 announced a Final Fight comic that would also feature the character, though it has yet to be printed.[29]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e ALL ABOUT カプコン対戦格闘ゲーム 1987-2000 (All About Capcom Head-To-Head Fighting Game 1987-2000), ISBN 4-88554-676-1
- ^ Final Fight Revenge fight voices, notably pre-fight and winpose
- ^ Final Fight CD, 1993, Japanese instruction manual[1]
- ^ a b Game Over (1993 book), by David Sheff
- ^ Final Fight's Poison: The Final Word on Gender. Kotaku.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-21
- ^ Electronic Gaming Monthly, Dec 2007, pg. 68
- ^ a b Final Fight Revenge ending for Poison
- ^ SvC Chaos introduction dialogues between Hugo and other charcters
- ^ a b Trailer Part 1 for Capcom Fighting All Stars. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-29
- ^ a b Trailer Part 2 for Capcom Fighting All Stars. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-29
- ^ Hardcore Gaming 101: Final Fight, The Story of Poison subsection Retrieved on 2008-04-12
- ^ Capcom Fighting All-Stars screenshots. Final Fight Online. Retrieved on 2008-04-29
- ^ Hardcore Gaming 101: Final Fight, Final Fight Revenge subsection
- ^ Capcom Fighting All Stars trivia (secondary outfit montage). Final Fight Online. Retrieved on 2008-05-29
- ^ a b Promotional comic book for Final Fight Streetwise Capcom. Retrieved on 2008-04-29
- ^ a b Concept art montage from Final Fight Streetwise by Trent Kaniuga Retrieved on 2008-04-12
- ^ Final Fight One Regional Differences. Final Fight Online. Retrieved on 2008-04-29
- ^ Capcom Classics Collection: Final Fight, Poison bio.
- ^ Final Fight Revenge Instruction Manual, Poison's Bio. Capcom.
- ^ Final Fight Revenge Instruction Manual, Edi. E's Bio. Capcom
- ^ Hugo's SF3:3 ending, courtesy of VGMuseum
- ^ In-game dialogue before fighting Andore in Final Fight Streetwise
- ^ Capcom Fighting All-Stars Pictures, showing playable character roster in location test build IGN.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-29
- ^ ストリートファイターファンサイト『レッドサイクロン』
- ^ In-game card bio
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (10-09-2007). Short Shorts Watch: Final Fight's Poison Brings Daisy Dukes To Collector Shelves. Kotaku. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
- ^ Prepainted 1/7 Final Fight Poison - Reflect (Colored) Anime PVC, Figures, and Models Hobbyfan.com - Bring Anime To Your Doorsteps - 1-510-655-0888
- ^ Artwork from Complete File Street Fighter II, courtesy of FightingStreet.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-20
- ^ Udon Announces Final Fight Comic! ForeverGeek. Retrieved on 2008-05-21
[edit] External links
- WikiKnowledge.net's entry for Poison
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