Assemble! - Fighting Game Archetype Roster - The Diversity Pick

 

This is Assemble, where we look at several different characters across multiple series to form a perfect team-up. Whatever the case may be, whether it’s a fighting game roster or an RPG adventuring party, we’ll find the best team for the job. In a change of style from the more long-form articles featured here, these articles will be shorter entries, focusing on one or two characters each, and spread out over time until the complete roster is formed. 

What would a fighting game be without a roster of several different, powerful, and engaging characters? In this batch of articles for Assemble, we will be assembling a fighting game roster using characters from several different fighting games based on different character archetypes.

The picks will be based on where the characters fit in terms of game mechanics and their place in the story and world of the game. Only characters that originated in fighting games will be observed here. That means no guest characters, no licensed fighting games (unless their roster includes original characters), and no crossover titles. Finally, I’ll only be discussing games or characters that I am at least somewhat familiar with. While this means I won’t discuss all the fighting games out there, there should be at least some variety from just the major titles.

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THE DIVERSITY PICK

As they say, variety is the spice of life.

Common in fighting games with large casts, the Diversity Pick is a character meant to represent a cultural, regional, or ethnic group not well represented by the rest of the cast. Their appearance, personality, or moves may contain references to their culture, with the best examples shown as a good homage to the culture in question and the worst examples seen as stereotypical or borderline racist. The character fitting in this role for our roster would be one representing a culture not seen yet within our roster who manages to represent and portray their culture in a positive light.

Our choice for the Diversity Pick is…

Rashid from Street Fighter.

Several of the characters in Street Fighter contain references to their countries of origin and, as pointed out in a video by Youtuber Gaijin Goombah, Rashid is one of the best in representing his culture, especially with Middle Eastern characters being a bit rare in fighting game casts. While his exact place of origin isn’t listed as anything more specific than “Middle East”, Gaijin Goombah states that there are clues in Rashid’s character that imply that he is from Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates.

I recommend watching Gaijin Goombah’s video on the subject, but I will summarize a few of his talking points. Link here!

Rashid’s outfit is a Kandura, a type of traditional Middle Eastern clothing commonly worn around the Arabian Peninsula, and his high-tech eyepiece and love of modern technology hint at hailing from an area that is on the cutting edge of technological development, which Dubai is. For more subtle hints, his special moves have bird-inspired names and some of them involve wind and tornadoes, with the Arabian Peninsula sporting both high winds as a common occurrence and falconry as a popular activity.

You can even see a city that kind of looks like Dubai in his official artwork.

For appearing as an accurate and positive representation of his culture, we now add Rashid to the roster.

ADDED!

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What did you think about this article? Want to see what other characters get picked for our roster? Do you think someone would fit this role better besides whoever got picked? Make your voice heard in the comments below. Thanks for coming.