With all of the big news coming out of this year’s E3, video game developer Capcom has sort of an uphill battle getting people to talk all that much about Street Fighter V. Sure, a new numbered installment in the most popular fighting franchise ever is a big deal, but the game itself was announced months ago. With Square Enix unveiling the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII remake, The Last Guardian rising from the dead, and Shenmue seeking funding to do the same, does Capcom really have any chance of producing a response merely by adding two new characters to the Street Fighter V roster?

Sure it does, if gamers in Japan decide that returning challenger Cammy suddenly looks ugly.

Capcom seemed to learn its lesson after the lukewarm initial response to Street Fighter III, which swept away most of the cast from the phenomenally successful Street Fighter II. Street Fighter IV brought back all of Street Fighter II’s World Warriors, supplementing the roster with new characters instead of replacing the old ones.

Since Street Fighter IV won the series the sort of relevance and popularity it hadn’t enjoyed for a decade, Capcom seems to be adopting a similar strategy with the fifth numbered installment, starting off by bringing back old favorites among its pantheon of martial artists. It was a given that the developer would give us protagonist Ryu and archetypical fighting female Chun-Li, and also well within expectations when it was announced that M. Bison/Vega/Dictator and Charlie/Nash/Charlie Nash would once again be gracing Street Fighter with their murky etymologies.

So really, no one was all that surprised when two English regulars of the Street Fighter circuit, punk rocker Birdy and covert operative Cammy, showed up in the latest video preview for the upcoming game.

What some in Japan were surprised by, though, was how unattractive they’re finding Cammy’s Street Fighter V character design, with online comments including:

“Street Fighter V’s Cammy is shockingly ugly.” “I thought everyone was making too big of a deal about Cammy being ugly, so I watched the video and…UGLY.” “When you pause the video and look at her, it’s really bad. Give us back the cute Cammy from before!” “She looks cute in her illustrated art, so I wish they’d make her look like that.”

Honestly, we’re a little surprised anyone is paying attention to Cammy’s face, considering that she fights dressed like this.

And from some angles, she looks plenty cute to us.

But as mentioned above, in certain still frames her facial features do come off looking a little awkward. The game’s use of black outlining to try to preserve a touch of hand-drawn flavor in the art can also make her look a little haggard.

One Twitter user also pointed out that sometimes her expressions and posing look a bit more like what we’re used to seeing from as-yet unaccounted for family man Guile.

▼ “Capcom, you guys screwed up and input Guile’s data for Cammy. I’m sure of it.”

Still, Cammy’s fighting skills don’t seem to have dulled one bit, as the video shows she’s still capable of spinning through projectile attacks and spiral arrowing all day long.

▼ Not to mention elbowing dudes right in the junk.

Aside from her proficiency with literally ball-busting striking techniques, another reason to cut Cammy some slack is that entry to the Street Fighter V tournament doesn’t seem to be determined on the basis of physical attractiveness, if Birdie’s blubbery gut is anything to judge by.

▼ Man, Birdie, what happened to you? You used to take so much better care of yourself in Street Fighter I.

And it’s not like catching Cammy looking a little less than glamorous is an entirely new development, either. Anyone remember the Super Street Fighter II Turbo intro?

Besides, aren’t there more important things for us to nitpick in the video than Cammy’s looks?

▼ Like the fact that this is proof positive that Capcom is planning to milk gamers with yet another semi-sequel, Street Fighter V: Proper Grammar Edition Turbo X?

Source: Hachima Kikou

Top image: YouTube/PlayStation

Insert images: YouTube/PlayStation, Twitter/@moscow17, YouTube/pandaumk3