Style on the Streets: Street Fighter Alpha vs King of Fighters Part II

Last Updated on March 7, 2024

Street Fighter Alpha’s versus King of Fighters. We’ve all been through them and made our judgements, but never like this before. Last time out I detailed an exercise in roping my wife Anna and her best friend Margaret into judging the style of ten combatants from each franchise. This they did with detailed note-taking of the Capcom posse; five guys and five gals.

This time out it’s SNK’s turn and a winners announcement. This is going to get scrappy so let’s get going with the guys first.

First down the backstreet runway is Robert Garcia and there is immediately some confusion over his gloves. Are they fingerless gloves like the many previous Capcom fighters have worn, or as Margaret suspects, driving gloves? Normally this sort of detail would have to be sorted by the girls, but with so much else going on their attention to detail struggles.

‘Look at those creases,’ notes Anna. ‘Wow! Just, wow.’

‘It does look like he has raided his Grandad’s wardrobe,’ adds Margaret and there is a general agreement between the girls that Robert is trying to hide his face within his mighty collar.

Style? Almost. Certainly a free bus pass.

Next up and off to a flying start is King of Fighters centrepiece, Kyo.

‘Just so fresh out of theatre school,’ starts Margaret to Anna’s agreement and attention. Then they spy the parted hair and appear to get lost down a pop-hole of favourite 90s boy bands. The fingerless gloves continue and the black’n’white attire is deemed as fine and possibly straight off a photo shoot.

‘Tap shoes…’ are noted by both girls, but further details on these are not noted. A good thing or a bad thing? I simply do not know.

Style? I want you back for good.

Chief Kyo rival Iori takes the stage next and continues the 90s boys’ own fashion parade.

‘Clothes with straps!’ says Anna emphatically to the reminiscence of their own fashion choices of the time. His winged lapels cause some confusion and Margaret begins to suspect that most of this outfit has been stolen.

‘Some sort of pirate renaissance going on here,’ she says and from there the attention goes to his hair.

‘Someone has been at Howls hair dye,’ suggests Margaret, which I as the receiver of these notes take as some sleight against one of my favourite animated characters, although I might be being sensitive there. Careful with the insults, Margaret.

Style? Shiver me timbers.

Lanky kick maestro, Bennimaru steps up next and the notes go wild.

‘Where has half of his t-shirt gone?’ asks Anna and Margaret suggests that he is using his hands to hide his embarrassment at this. Less embarrassing, and perhaps even quite sweet to them is that he has clearly gone out with his old school shoes on. His trousers are also described as ‘blinging white,’ whatever that might mean.

Fingerless gloves are noted as a go, and the girls wonder if his hair could be trying to leave his head.

‘All round, lots of bleach,’ says Margaret of his appearance.

Style? Extrovert in hiding.

Denim-packing Terry strides in last for the men and causes confusion right from the off.

‘Oh my goodness!’ comes in Margaret, checking out his hair. ‘Is that a ponytail or an actual tail he is sporting?’ Anna cannot seem to answer this, but I can. It is a ponytail. End of.

‘His sleeves have been eaten by moths,’ notes Anna and Margaret agrees, but suggests this is a young man clearly living the American dream.

‘But he’s remembered to iron his jeans,’ spies Anna and they spend the rest of their time listing the things he probably gets up to; gym, fast food worker, helping old ladies cross the street.

And of course they spot the gloves. Fingerless, no less.

Style? Born in the USA.

And so on to those fighting females. Kicking off with the First Lady of SNK, Mai…

‘Huh?’ asks Margaret of what looks like a weight tied to the lower part of her outfit.

‘That’s just going to bash her legs,’ adds Anna although neither can work out if it is tied at the back or front. Further up and the appearance of Mai’s legendary fan is also throwing them a curve ball.

‘Is that for checking temperatures?’ wonders Margaret and Anna scribbles lots of question marks around it. There is further confusion around exactly what type of gloves she is sporting and an overall impression that she might be off to a local rave, which the notes suggest they might almost approve of.

Style? All night long.

Second up is pop gal, Yuri, and this time the girls know what they are seeing.

‘Sensible, functional,’ kicks off Anna and Margaret agrees that it is a high-function, fighty outfit. The gloves are not entirely on show, but the girls take them as fingerless (correct). Tied-back hair is another tick for functional, as are her trainers. The Headband goes unnoticed in the notes, but surely a thumbs up for function, too.

‘Airy not hairy,’ concludes Anna, which is bordering on not taking it seriously, something which Yuri herself obviously does.

Style? Function over fashion.

Arriving next by the cover of darkness is Mature.

‘Funky lady Dracula,’ says Margaret at first sight which meets Anna’s keen approval and then it is straight on with the hair and some confused notes about how long it takes to style. I think they like it, but I file it under Don’t Know.

‘Tights for fights!?’ frowns Anna, before suggesting that they might be subtle, secret leggings. It is not resolved by either of them.

‘Black and white outfit is good,’ Margaret admits before inevitably; ‘How difficult is that going to be to wash!?’

Style? Bite me.

Tip-tapping her way in next is another round of confusion courtesy of King.

‘This is a girl?’ asks Anna.

‘Late nineties androgyne. Never mind that. Tap shoes.’

The shoes are then taken as practical and having a sense of style about them.

‘More fingerless,’ adds Anna, keeping that check high. The girls keep checking with King generally and settle that the best they can guess about her is that she is a tap dancing waitress. Not a bad guess at all.

Otherwise practical and with well-parted hair.

Style? Yes, but. Complicated.

Rounding out the girls is Vice and incoming is a word we haven’t heard used on either side of this smackdown.

‘Beautiful,’ says Anna of the outfit and there is agreement from Margaret.

‘Beautiful, but not practical,’ she adds and there is a sense that they want to count Vice’s long cuffs as fingerless gloves, but I won’t let them.

‘Not so keen on the hair,’ Anna notes, but there are points from them both that it wouldn’t get in the way of the fighting. It certainly seems to be the most practical thing about her from their probing.

Style? Style!

Street Fighter Alpha vs King of Fighters: the final judgement

Lots of notes in summation of all of this. We’ll start with the Street Fighter Alpha series first, where the girls suggest there is in some way a nod towards edgy realism. Margaret draws attention to the muted, moody colours of those on display and Anna counts up a total of six fingerless gloves between them, which sounds about right.

King of Fighters comes in stronger with the actual style by their eyes though. More capes and more coordination they agree. Also, that the SNK guys and girls are much better at posing, with legs at every hour of the clock according to Margaret. Quite the description. Better contrasting colours too. Anna totals another six fingerless and we are heading for a solid win for these guys.

So there you have it. Very well done King of Fighters artist and style maestro, Toshiaki Mori! Thank you, Anna and Margaret, too; you may retreat back to your own conversation again now.