Game-Art-HQ

Joe is one of the ten unplayable characters from the classic Street Fighter and never became playable.

He was joining the World Warrior Tournament after he was in financial troubles due to violent outbursts during or after his reign as unbeaten kickboxing champion in the United States. When he faced a young Japanese martial artist named Ryu, the tournament was over for him.

According to his updated Street Fighter V Website Bio, he is currently doing the Pro Wrestling Indies under the name “Super Star”

Now this is a rather deep background story.

by Ed Moffatt

by Luke the Ripper

I love fighting games, and I particularly love Street Fighter for the characters and stories. Playing through watching every character’s ending used to keep me and my brother going for ages, swapping the controller and hoping not to be the one left having to do it as Zangief at the end! SFII was one of the first games I got really into, and there have been others along the way: SF Ex Plus Alpha, and SF Alpha 3 are, I think, my favourites of all time!

Regarding Joe… Bigging up how awesome Joe is as a character has sorta become an in-joke among me and my friends. I love how he’s got NO CHARACTER, and yet online plot guides still love to theorise about why he’s in the SFII intro, and whether that’s him making a cameo in Final Fight: Streetwise… So much hype for a really dull looking guy with no memorable moves!

by Ed Moffatt

“What is Street Fighter?
That’s a good question with not single good answer.

It’s a hell of a great series, sometimes amazing, sometimes flawed, but always something we’re gonna play and enjoy despite the controversies because it’s THAT enjoyable to play.
It’s a legacy, it came as the first traditional fighting game we know it (cause fighting simulators like International Karate are hardly alike to the fighting games of now), the playstyle, the character designs and types, the special moves, super moves, combos and a ton of other mechanics.

Street Fighter was a precursor looked up to by many developers as shown by either countless attempts to blantly copy it as well as even the tiniest inspirations found in every single fighting game we know today.
It’s a marvellous display of creativity. Despite what you might think at first glance, SF is far more creative than you might think. Even some of the early, simple designs, which are staple and omnipresent by now, we’re completely original back when they first appeared, and whether it’s adding a small original detail for the character (like a silly hairdo for an US pilot or kabuki makeup for a sumo wrestler) or the use of a lesser known martial art (like Yagli Gures, Savate or Systema).

Sometimes the designs are simple and pretty stereotypical, sometimes they’re so out-of-place it begs to question what were they thinking, but they all somehow fit each other so well we don’t mind and just play along. And that’s just the characters, but same goes with visual deign (as each part with its subsequent expansions have a completely different graphic style from other parts) and gameplay system (sometimes even in-between expansions, like the Alpha games).
And lastly, it is a part of our gaming experience. Love it or hate it, Street Fighter has been a part of our childhood and gaming experience, young or old, we always had Street Fighter game around. It’s omnipresence throughout the 3 decades of its life only proves how important it is for us and for the whole gaming industry.”

by Luke the Ripper

About the Artists:

Ed Moffatt from the UK is one of Game-Art-HQ’s longest and most active members. He participated with his take on Blair Dame from Street Fighter EX in our Street Fighter Art Tribute in 2012 already and joined many of our other game art collaborations as well.

After his first submission for our big SF Anniversary Project in 2016-2017 he already reserved one of Cammy White’s Street Fighter II spots for himself! 

Have a good look at his big portfolio on dA here!

~ 

Luke the Ripper from Poland is on board since we started in 2011 and drew Geese Howard from Fatal Fury as his first contribution to one of our art collaborations. In the time between November 2011 and February 2017 he created over ten artworks in his special style ranging from Legend of Zelda bosses up to pretty unknown older fighting game characters. He already claimed a second spot in this project as well with Necro from Street Fighter III!

Have a look at his whole gallery on deviantART here!

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