SPRING MAN



Age : 20

: 20 Affiliation : The Spring Gym

: The Spring Gym Weight : 167.6 lbs (76 kg)

: 167.6 lbs (76 kg) Hobbies : Weight lifting, pizza

: Weight lifting, pizza Primary Colors Light Blue Light Red White



Ribbon Girl

Twintelle



​

RYU



Age : ??? Capcom likely uses the same time scaling story-telling method for Street Fighter as Marvel does for their comics, so it's hard to nail down Ryu's specific age.

: ??? Affiliation : None

: None Weight : 187 lbs (85 kg) This weight is as of Street Fighter V.

: 187 lbs (85 kg) Likes : Martial arts, Mizu yokan (Japanese dessert) This is as of Street Fighter V.

: Martial arts, Mizu yokan (Japanese dessert) Primary Colors White/Tan (depending on how dirty his gi is in each SF game) Red Black



Chun-Li

Rashid



​

boy

LIU KANG



Age : ??? While MKX in-game shows him as middle-aged, he's technically dead in MKX's story since he's a Revenant in the game's Cinematic Story Mode.

: ??? Affiliation : White Lotus Society (usually), One of Quan Chi's Revenants (as of MKX)

: White Lotus Society (usually), One of Quan Chi's Revenants (as of MKX) Weight : ???

: ??? Likes : ???

: ??? Primary Colors Red Black



Scorpion

Sub-Zero



​

TL;DR

Ryu for Street Fighter, Jin Kazama, Heihachi Mishima, & Kazuya Mishima for Tekken, Kyo Kusanagi for King of Fighters, Liu Kang for Mortal Kombat, Terry Bogard for Fatal Fury, & many more are the poster boys of their respective franchises (or in the case of Liu Kang, theposter boy of his franchise before Scorpion & Sub-Zero took his spot). The newest frontman on the block is Spring Man of ARMS. Though while he's pushed as the main character through both the game & the upcoming graphic novel, not many seem to be fond of Spring Man for one reason for another & are even against his possible inclusion in the Smash game after Ultimate (since Spring Man is already an Assist Trophy in Ultimate). What this thread aims to accomplish is to analyze Spring Man's design, personality, & fighting style and compare him to his fellow fighting game frontmen to see how he fares with the competition. For the sake of this argument, I'll be focusing on Ryu, Jin, Kazuya, & Kyo as the points of comparison for Spring Man. But first, let's take a look at the design of The Bouncer himself, the third person to hold the title in question, & the point of discussion for this thread...Spring Man is more focused on light primary colors when it comes to his design, which makes his appearance a bit more easy on the eyes. On top of that, the shade of blue used for his arms are a bit darker than the shade of blue used for his hair, with a shade darker than that used for the trim of his jersey. Everything from Spring Man's shorts to his jersey to even his sneakers make it clear that Spring Man is an athlete through & through, not unlike fellow fighting game frontman Ryu being more-or-less focused on fighting. As far as Spring Man's personality is concerned, ARMS shows us that he's upbeat & ready to take on the world, which doesn't betray the way that Spring Man is designed. The preview of the graphic novel does show us that he's a little more on the humble side (which isn't too surprising considering that the title of Spring Man is a legacy that was passed down to 2 people prior to our current Spring Man), but we'll have to wait until early next year to get more context of Spring Man within the world of the graphic novel (which I assume is canon to the games). From what can be seen in both the game & the preview of the graphic novel, Spring Man has a design that does its job & does it well in that it communicates everything you need to know about Spring Man on a surface level. He's quick on his feet & ready to spring into action (no pun intended). What's also good about Spring Man's design is that by looking at him & his gameplay alone, you can understand everything you need to know about ARMS as a series. It's not an easy balancing act to have a character be the base line for all of the other characters in the game, but Spring Man manages to check all of the boxes necessary to pull that off. With that said, as I already mentioned, Spring Man hasn't been that well-received compared to his ARMS peers. Is this due to a problem on Spring Man's part, or is it due to his peers having more striking designs? And to continue the question asked initially, how does Spring Man fare against his other fellow fighting game protagonists? Before we get to the other games, we should look at some of the more popular peers of Spring Man within the world of ARMS, namely the leading lady& the fan-favorite (at least in the West)ARMS has the benefit of having great designs for their female fighters, and these two are prime examples of that point. In the case of Ribbon Girl, if Spring Man is ARMS's Ryu, then Ribbon Girl is definitely the series' Chun-Li. She represents everything that the franchise is about almost as well as Spring Man does while doing so with a completely different theme & gimmick. And like Spring Man, Ribbon Girl has a focus on three primary colors to make her design easy on the eyes (magenta, yellow, & white). Though as for how her design portrays her personality, that's a bit of a different discussion. The lore tells us that Ribbon Girl is a 17-year-old pop star, yet her costume looks more like a cheerleader. While I guess those two styles aren'tfar off, I feel like they could have done a better job in terms of telling us everything we need to know about Ribbon Girl as a person through her design. Though I will give some credit where it's due on this front, her shoes being a mix of Spring Man & Karin Kanzuki's does kinda help indicate her celebrity status (the showy-ness of Karin's shoes mixed with the flexibility of Spring Man's), but I may be reading too much into her design. With that said, Ribbon Girl's design is still a great one, it just has room for improvement. And the problem that Ribbon Girl does have with her design somewhat holds her back from being a solid candidate for the face of ARMS as Spring Man currently is.As for Twintelle, she's the fan-favorite of the two....& probably of the entire ARMS cast from what I can tell (with her only competition being Min Min, especially in Japan). As far as her design is concerned, it's a great one. Being a person a color, Twintelle skin complexion jells perfectly with her white sleeveless shirt, which is styled extravagantly in a way that shows that she takes her fashion very seriously. And even then, she stands by her three primary colors (magenta, black, & white) even better than Spring Man or Ribbon Girl, which may be contributing to how great Twintelle's design is. And said design communicates pretty damn well that she's a movie star, which would justify why Twintelle takes her appearance so seriously. However, Twintelle's fatal flaw as a potential face of the franchise is in how she represents the ARMS franchise. Unlike the rest of the cast, Twintelle fights with her hair rather than her arms. And while that helps Twintelle stand out from the other characters in the roster, it ultimately holds her back from being a proper face of the franchise (who's supposed to represent everything you need to know about the game) like Spring Man is. But like Ribbon Girl, Twintelle is a great design in spite of that flaw, & that was ultimately enough for Twintelle to become a fan-favorite (to the point where people are actively asking for Twintelle instead of Spring Man to be playable in Smash Ultimate).For our next point of comparison, we'll be looking at Street Fighter's poster boy...Ryu, the man who has fought more characters in crossovers than even he could possibly manage to keep count of (including characters from Marvel, Capcom, Nintendo, Sega, Bandai Namco, Konami, & even the Power Rangers, the list goes on). Ryu is basically Mr. Fighting Game & shares the title of Mascot of Capcom alongside Mega Man, & for good reason. It's because he not only hails from the fighting game franchise that laid the foundation for pretty much every fighting game out today while continue to push forward in its own right, but it's also due to the fact that he perfectly represents everything about both his own franchise & fighting games as a whole at a quick glance. His gi can vary in how much dirt it has on it depending on the Street Fighter game, but the fact that it has any dirt at all speaks volumes about Ryu's laser-focus on fighting. This can also be seen in the ripped sleeves, the ripped bottom-end of his pants, his unkept hair, & the wear-&-tear on his gloves. The big red gloves & big feet make it clear that hand-to-hand combat is how Ryu prefers to fight (though big hands & feet are a common design trait for most Street Fighter characters, aside from characters like Menat & Falke who use other objects to fight). And the black belt are a testament to Ryu's mastery of his marital art as well as a good means of breaking up all of the white/tan (depending on the game) of Ryu's gi. Like Spring Man, the focus on just three primary colors help with letting Ryu's design be easier to digest. And most importantly, this design clearly communicates that Ryu is a weathered warrior, a street fighter who has traveled around the world looking for a good fight & constantly trying to better himself. Ryu doesn't just nail every aspect of how to make a good fighting game poster boy, Ryu wrote the damn book on how to do so. With that said, also like Spring Man, Ryu is more of a base line for his franchise. And since Street Fighter has been around for 30 years now (as of when this thread was made), the series has spawned a ton of interesting & fan-favorite characters. The two examples I'll be referring to in this thread are(the First Lady of Fighting Games) &(of the Turbulent Wind......& one of the newer fan-favorites).In the case of Chun-Li, she has the title of "The First Lady of Fighting Games" for a reason. Hell, it could be argued that she's as iconic as Ryu himself (& her shared perfect attendance in the Versus series with Ryu is a testament to this). Even though she isn't the postergirl of the Street Fighter franchise, there's a reason why Chun-Li has endured all this time (to the point where she was one of the few SFII veterans to show up in the SFIII series of games, namely Third Strike). I'd go on a whole spiel about how her design portrays her personality well, but DiGi Valentine beat me to it by 3 years with his "Who Dat?" series, so I'll just let you watch that video here.Long story short, her bright colors (those being blue, yellow, & white.....plus the brown of her leggings) help her stand out, while the clothes themselves portray a sort of elegance & composure found in Chun-Li's mannerisms & personality (with Chun's main outfit & the hair buns) as well has Chun-Li's ability to kick ass (which is signified by the spiky bracelets & her knee-high sneakers). Though I should note that Chun-Li was more on the gung-ho side during her early SF Alpha years, but she became more level-headed as time went on (& this was reflected in her altered design for the Alpha games). As for how well she demonstrates everything you need to know about Street Fighter from Chun-Li's design alone, she does a decent job at doing so. However, there's a reason why she isn't the poster girl of the series, & that's because Ryu does a better job of wearing the idea of Street Fighter on his (non-existent) sleeve. Don't get me wrong, Chun-Li has a great design & it's one of the reasons why she's a popular gaming icon even to this day. But a poster boy/girl is supposed to be a baseline from which all other characters can be built on top of, & it's abundantly clear that Ryu is that foundation. Despite that, Chun-Li created a foundation on her own respects regarding female fighters in fighting games (& probably video games as a whole), so Chun-Li isn't without her own legacy.Onwards to Rashid, the newer favorite of the Street Fighter series (there's also Menat, but I feel like she's a little too new to get into her). Hailing from a rich family, Rashid represents more of the modernized part of the Street Fighter & can be seen as one of the first signs of the next generation, not unlike Alex (the main character of the Street Fighter III games). Though also like Alex, Rashid is pushed as the main character of Street Fighter V's story, which I do believe was generally successful (though you can check out my full thoughts on that front here ). As for his design, it's a pretty solid one. Like pretty much everyone else mentioned in this thread, Rashid has a laser-focus on three primary colors (white, black, & neon light green). The huge emphasis on white give off a lighter vibe, which indicates Rashid's more carefree personality. The neon light green of his scouter & the lights on his (tech-based?) sandals are a testament to the energy that Rashid exudes in everything he does. And the black, which is found in the belts & straps he wears, help break up all of the white in his design & ground him in a sort of way. So while the base outfit make it perfectly clear that Rashid is from the Middle East (most likely the United Arab Emirates), the colors do their job of highlighting the main aspect of who Rashid is as a person, while the technology seen around Rashid (including the backpack that I think is supposed to create the winds he attacks with) demonstrate both Rashid's wealth & his forward-thinking. Unfortunately, on top of suffering the same issues as Chun-Li does in regards to being a good poster boy for Street Fighter, he was introduced relatively recently. As such, to quote TeamFourStar, it's too close to the ball dropping to see how far it'll bounce. But given the reverence I've seen for Rashid throughout the fandom, I don't think he's going anywhere anytime soon. He may not be the leading man for the franchise like Ryu, but Rashid did a solid job of holding down the fort for SFV's story as well as making a name for himself going forward.And last but not least is, or who was supposed to be, the poster boy of Mortal Kombat...Liu Kang is an interesting case. He was clearly the foundation on which the other Mortal Kombat characters were built upon, & Liu Kang did return for future Mortal Kombat games (even while he was canonically dead), so obviously he has some staying power. But whenever someone says "Mortal Kombat", the first characters that usually come to mind are Scorpion &/or Sub-Zero, not Liu Kang. From a design standpoint, you can tell what he's about. His old design was him shirtless with pants not unlike Fei Long, which gave off more of a Bruce Lee vibe. From that standpoint, you could very clearly tell that he's a kung-fu fighter. From Liu Kang's modern design, you can kinda still get that vibe, but it's a bit more modernized. But one of the main things about a fighting game poster boy is that they also have to represent the franchise they hail from. And at least from a glance at his various designs, you don't really get that vibe from Liu Kang. Sure, the same could be said for a good portion of the cast, but most of them aren't the ones representing the franchise as a whole. Credit where it's due, the use of black & red add a sense of danger to Liu Kang, so it's not like his design doesn't have any ties to the Mortal Kombat franchise in terms of what it's about (over-the-top violence & whatnot). And from the standpoint of Mortal Kombat parodying 80's action movie tropes, that's done pretty well with Liu Kang's various designs. But where the main problem comes in is that when most people think of Mortal Kombat, they think of the insane amounts of blood, gore, guts, & violence put on display. And from that standpoint, Liu Kang doesn't make the idea of the MK series from a violence standpoint blatantly obvious. It also doesn't help that Liu Kang didn't even have a Fatality in the first game (though that was rectified in future games). As far as his personality goes (at least before he got zombified by Quan Chi), the design does a pretty good job at portraying him as the disciplined fighter. Basically, the issue with Liu Kang in this case isn't that Liu Kang's design is a bad one in terms of telling you who he is as a character, NetherRealm Studios did a great job on that front. The problem here is that he doesn't do a good job of representing everything that Mortal Kombat is about. This is made more obvious when you have two other characters who do a better job of it, to the point where they quickly became the faces of the franchise. I'm referring to none other thanThere's a reason why these two became the faces of Mortal Kombat instead of Liu Kang. To get to the point, both Scorpion (Hanzo Hasashi) & Sub-Zero (I'll mostly be referring to the Kuai Liang version of Sub-Zero in this case) both exude a sense of danger & violence in a way that Liu Kang doesn't. And while you could say "Of course, they're ninjas, it's easier to make them feel more dangerous", Akuma is a prime example of a martial artist who actually looks like they can & will kill you if given the chance. Though to be fair, neither of the two main ninjas gave of that vibe as strongly as they do now in the past, but that could be chalked up as most of the ninjas in the early days of Mortal Kombat being mostly cut from the same cloth. Now we're seeing pretty much all of the legacy ninjas being set apart in various ways, & that's abundantly clear with these two. The use of higher-grade materials for Sub-Zero's design does indicate that he's at least high-ranking amongst the Lin Kuei (which happens to be the case in MKX since he's trying to bring the clan back to its former glory). And while both have masks that are styled in a way that seem to keep their power in check (adding to the danger factor), Scorpion having a ton of belts on his design (on top of giving me some Guilty Gear vibes) signals that he has even more dark power that he has to keep in check. And while that's no longer the case in Scorpion's situation since he broke free from Quan Chi's control as of Mortal Kombat X, the default design harkens back to how most people know Scorpion as, not unlike how MKX portrays Liu Kang in regular fights. The color choices also go a long way in potraying their personalities, with cool colors for the more disciplined Sub-Zero & warm colors for the rage-fueled Scorpion in his Quan Chi-controlled state (I mean, Hanzo's still a fair bit angry, just at Quan Chi now.....before he killed him). Though in a way, the yellow can also be seen as bit of foreshadowing for how Hanzo Hasashi eventually mellows out after breaking free from Quan Chi's grip & trying to put his demons aside. Obviously that likely wasn't the plan early on, but it does help bring everything together on Hanzo's character arc. So in those respects, their designs pretty much do everything that poster boy designs are supposed to do. They not only have designs that tell you everything you need to know about their personalities & fighting style (they're ninjas who are armed to the teeth, which becomes more clear with their later designs), but they also tell you everything you need to know about Mortal Kombat in basically every respect. In that regard, I can see why NetherRealm Studios shifted gears to these two rather than Liu Kang as the leading guys of the franchise.Ryu & Liu Kang both represent two ends of how the fighting game poster boy can pan out. They can be a shining statement for what your fighting game series is about like Ryu & go on to become an icon for not only the game, but the genre & video games as a whole. The other side is how a character, while having a solid design that gives you the necessary information about the character themselves, doesn't do a great job of representing their franchise & eventually get replaced on the cover like Liu Kang. With that said, fan reception can also play a role in how the characters are remembered going forward. Obviously we know how Ryu panned out, he maintained a large amount of popularity despite being surrounded by more interesting side characters (Chun-Li, Guile, Rashid, Menat, G, Juri, Urien, Karin, Zeku, Cody, etc.). While Liu Kang, while also enjoying some popularity of his own, got upstaged by most of his cast (especially by Scorpion & Sub-Zero). When compared to these two characters, Spring Man has a bit of both sides. On paper, Spring Man is a slam dunk in fighting game frontman design. As mentioned already, Spring Man checks all of the boxes that a poster boy for a fighting game franchise should cover. His design is simple, it communicates his character, & it properly represents his series. But on the flip side, while I personally like Spring Man as a character, it does seem like he isn't that popular compared to his peers (especially compared to the ladies). However, it's too close to the ball dropping to see how high it'll bounce, especially with ARMS being a new IP. As such, we don't know how Spring Man's fan popularity will shake out in the long term. Though assuming that he gets into Smash at some point in the future, that may help cement his spot as the leading man of ARMS, but that likely won't be for a while (at least not for the base roster, but again, that's another discussion for another day). And while you could make an argument that Nintendo using Twintelle as the ARMS rep for their Facebook cover photo is a sign that they're already changing course away from Spring Man, I'm gonna wait until we get more evidence on that front before making that assertion (that plus the graphic novel's focus on Spring Man flies in the face of that theory).: In summary, from a pure logical standpoint in terms of how his design is handled, Spring Man should be the next Ryu. But Spring Man relative lack of popularity compared to the rest of his stretchy-armed (or stretchy-haired in Twintelle's case.......or stretchy mech in Mechanica's case.......you get the idea) could have him go the path of Liu Kang in the long-term, but it'll depend on how Spring Man & his series as a whole shakes out in the long-term. ARMS sold pretty well for a new fighting game IP, so I do fully expect a sequel at some point in the future. Though how that hypothetical sequel handles the characters will likely shape how both Spring Man & ARMS in general will be seen going forward.There are a few other frontmen of fighting games that I didn't mention here, & I'll gladly do my analysis on them at a later date if there's enough demand (though Jin may be a bit difficult since he underwent a number of drastic design changes throughout the Tekken series).