Not all of the fighters in Street Fighter II The World Warrior could be chosen. In fact, in that arcade that unleashed the phenomenon it was not even possible for two players to play the same character. To start with, the four Kings of Shadaloo (Bison, Balrog, Sagat and Vega) didn’t even have sequences for their special moves. But there were two that were always in sight and were never part of the players’ worldwide “fight tour”: Scott y Max.
If you have played hundreds or thousands of hours of Street Fighter and their names don’t tell you anything, it is perfectly normal since Capcom itself, developer of the saga, will not talk about them. until 2016. However, it is practically impossible not to have seen them: they are the two guys exchanging punches at the entrance of the game, among a busy crowd and in the shadow of the enormous building from which the iconic logo of the game sprouts. And if, Scott and Max are street fighters como Ryu o Chun Li.
Who are Scott and Max in the Street Fighter universe
For years, and more than justifiably, there was speculation that one of those two fighters (Scott in particular) was Cody from Final Fight. The reasons were obvious: not only was he a blonde guy, dressed in a plain shirt and capable of sending his opponent to the ground with a single shot, but the universes of both games have always been interconnected. What’s more, Cody himself will end up being a regular at Street Fighter
So who is this guy and why is he giving the guy in front of him a brace? Well, since we are making the presentations at iGamesNews, we have added a touch of nostalgia and we have created the Street Fighter II It seems that Capcom was left in a drawer in 1991, following a little bit of the style of classic games.
None of this information is invented, mind you. On the occasion of the launch of Street Fighter V and until the development of the game was completed in its subsequent Arcade Edition revisions, the Champion Edition and beyond, Capcom itself took advantage of the website of the Shadaloo Combat Research Institute (the official database of the evil Shadaloo) to expand the lore of the saga and introduce characters that in one way or another have orbited the game universe, including the protagonist of Street Fighter 2010. And not only that, but that in addition to Scott, we also met the beneficiary of the punch: Max himself.
You’ve probably noticed that while Scott looks the same as in Street Fighter II, his opponent Max decided to completely renew his appearance and looks little or nothing like the guy we saw in that game. A capricious decision? Well, technically it is a less radical change than the one we saw him make no less than thirty years ago.
When censorship hit poor Max harder than Scott himself
The success of Street Fighter II It caught Capcom completely by surprise. He knew that the sequel to the original, 1987’s Street Fighter, had the makings of becoming an instant classic, but that transcended the phenomenon itself and escalated almost immediately.
Logically, as a result of that it was necessary to start putting limits on that madness: the Osaka company took the trouble to exchange the names of the bosses to avoid problems with Mike Tyson (although later the Zangief case did not matter more or less to them). ) and decided to release new revisions in which the fans’ expectations were met, such as fighting with the same character or fighting against the no longer so secret fighters at the end.
Between one thing and another, poor Max went through a transformation worthy of Michael Jackson himself, gradually going from being the black American of Street Fighter II The World Warriors…
To a guy with a much more neutral skin tone in Street Fighter II’: Hyper Fighting (the SFII’ Turbo revision that we saw in arcades in 1993) through a comprehensive recoloring of the original sprite that, for that matter, was also applied to a more varied distribution of tans among those attending the fight.
And that will finally lead to a complete alteration of the original drawing, with a Caucasian skin tone, blonde and wavy hair and the same destiny in Street Fighter II’: Special Champion Edition. Something that you can see for yourself both in our screenshot and in the Mega Drive version available on Nintendo Switch Online. Of course, once at Capcom they put the Mark Lenders-style sleeves on Scott.
Needless to say that Capcom has not officially given the reasons and he is not interested in getting into them at this point in the film, so we can only speculate that this change (not to call it censorship directly) served to put the patch on before any possible wound in order to awaken susceptibilities. All in all, it is also good to remember that Birdie himself debuted with a very different look in the original Street Fighter and his skin gained more color in later installments.
In any case, a year later, already from Super Street Fighter IIwill decide to give both street fighters a wide vacation and remake the opening of the game.
What have they been up to? Scott y Max?
Believe it or not, Street Fighter 6 allows Max to take revenge and makes it clear that he is much more than a punching bag waiting to receive his next blow: once we advance along the World Tour, and along with other cameos from Capcom and the saga, we will find him near the dog stand in front of the Haggar Stadium fair with the same looks from the Shadaloo files. And not only that, but Max recognizes our game character as a rising star in the field of street fighting. Another thing is that it lasts little more than a breath.
The funny thing is that this is not the first time we see Max looking like that in the games: he already made a cameo on the Las Vegas stage in Street Fighter V and, together with Scott, he was in the front line among all the cameos of the Blue Bomber company on the Ring of Arcade stage of the same game. And yes Scott, unlike other street fighters, changed his shirt over the years.
What are these two currently doing? We understand that Scott has retired from the world of professional boxing and is now fully dedicated to running his own bar. We very possibly have passed by him in Street Fighter 6’s Metro City without realizing it or perhaps he has it located in San Francisco or any other location in the universe of Street Fighter. All in all, we are almost convinced that at least one round served Guile when he gets off the aircraft carrier.
As for Max, his name is still known in the world of martial arts and he is too vain and too fond of jewelry to be content with a simple and modest life. And although his character is very different from that of E. Honda, Kimberly or Chun Li, you will also find him in the city of Metro City. Possibly picking a fight or getting into trouble. In all probability, doing both things at the same time.
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