Not everyone who plays Street Fighter wants to sling fireballs and Dragon Punches all day. There are plenty of players out there who prefer to get a bit more up close and personal with their matches — and, ever since Street Fighter II hit the scene, there's been one man grapplers everywhere can rely on.
Zangief has been a part of Street Fighter since the very beginning, and let's be honest — it just doesn't feel like a proper Street Fighter title if the Red Cyclone isn't piledriving someone from two stories up. And, while it was starting to seem like Street Fighter V already had its fair share of grapplers, Capcom wasn't done quite yet.
Announced earlier Thursday as part of the Russian IgroMir gaming event, Capcom confirmed that Zangief (and all his piledriving glory) would be returning for Street Fighter V! And if you were worried that big changes made to other characters would end up changing how Zangief played... well, just take a look for yourself:
There's no arguing that there is a lot of classic Zangief in that trailer. Massive hits, tons of command throws and absolutely ridiculous facial expressions are exactly what has made Zangief so fun to play over the years... but that doesn't mean that nothing has changed.
Zangief has always had a problem with projectiles, what with being one of the biggest and slowest characters on the roster. While players may still have a hard time closing the gap in Street Fighter V, it looks like Capcom is finally giving Zangief options for dealing with Hadoken spammers.
Surprisingly, it looks like Street Fighter IV's Focus Attacks are returning — for Zangief, at least. His "Iron Muscle" V-Skill works nearly identically to Focus Attacks: by activating the skill, Zangief can take a single hit before flinching. This should help set up combos, but the risk of losing extra health by a second hit adds some risk-versus-reward strategy to the mix.
Zangief's V-Trigger, on the other hand, is all about offense: the "Cyclone Lariat" turns Zangief into a literal Red Cyclone — and if the attack buttons are held, the V-Trigger hits even harder.
Oh, and it just wouldn't be Zangief without that glorious shin hair.
Capcom has confirmed that there are just three characters left to reveal — will Street Fighter V see more characters from the Alpha series return, or will players get to meet a few new faces?
Only time will tell — until then, Street Fighter V is set for release early next year.
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