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Chun-Li's name is Mandarin; chun 春 "spring", lì 麗 "beautiful", which means she is a young girl filled with the beauty of spring. She is the first female playable character to appear in a fighting game. Introduced in Street Fighter II, Chun-Li was the only female character in the game, and while not as physically powerful as the other characters, she was by far the quickest. Her most famous attack is the Hyakuretsukyaku (Hundred Rending Leg, commonly known as the Lightning Kick), where she repeatedly kicks her opponent from a tilted standing position with incredible speed.
Chun-Li is one of the earliest female video game protagonists to achieve widespread popularity. Prior to Street Fighter II being released in 1991, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration; as such, there were very few heroines in action-based video games. After the success of Street Fighter II and Chun-Li's popularity, female protagonists became increasingly common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least one of them will almost always be female; and a number of games released since that have placed a female character in the lead role.
Background[edit | edit source]
Chun-Li was an Interpol investigator who had been searching for clues to the recent death of her father. During a friendly spar with an old teacher of hers and friend of her father, Gen, she received a clue as to who may have been behind her father's death—the mysterious crime syndicate Shadoloo. Chun-Li tracked down the syndicate's leader, M. Bison, and demanded that he tell her what happened to her father. Bison attacked and defeated her, then flew away laughing, telling her that if she attacked him again he would kill her just like he did her father. With tears in her eyes, Chun-Li swore vengeance.
After the events depicted in the Street Fighter Alpha series, Chun-Li received an invitation to the second World Warrior tournament, and discovered that Bison had apparently survived his Thailand base's destruction. With this, she had the clear motive of destroying Shadoloo and avenging her father once again. The outcome of this tournament is not clear, but there are strong hints that Chun-Li earned the right to face Bison and possibly won the tournament, though Guile has also been suspected to have been the victor. There has been no definitive answer as of yet, although regardless of the outcome, Bison himself finally falls at the hands of Ryu's nemesis, Akuma.
HD Remix Alterations[edit | edit source]
Control Motion Changes
- Super input window is larger and is a fixed size, rather than random size.
- Aerial spinning bird kick can be done with +, so that you can do it after a Yousou Kyaku, like in Hyper Fighting.
Buffs
- Removed + Kouhou Kaiten Kyaku move (it only ever got in the way, so removing it helps her).
- Ground Spinning Bird Kick has a new parabolic arc. It can also air-juggle and deals a fair amount of dizzy.
- Aerial Spinning Bird Kick travels more straight now, then falls in an arc at the end
- Hyakuretsu Kyaku easier to execute (now requires 3 presses of a given kick button rather than 5 presses)
Nerfs
- + Kaku Kyaku Raku no longer crosses up, removing the loop of repeated knockdowns against some characters.
- Hyakuretsu Kyaku does less damage and have barely worse priority in Chun Li's stomach area.
- Chun-Li's super Senretsukayku can still be stored, but deals much less damage, and follow up with upkicks can get only one extra hit on some characters and usually misses against others.
Techniques[edit | edit source]
Name | Translation | Description | Image |
---|---|---|---|
Sankaku Tobi (三角飛び?) | Triangle Hop | Chun-Li's grace and agility give her the ability to jump back into a wall, and quickly push herself off of it, reaching higher distances from the floor, giving her a certain aerial advantage over many opponents. | |
Yousou Kyaku (鷹爪脚?) | Hawk's Talon Kick | In conjunction with the aerial superiority that the Sankaku Tobi ability gives her, Chun-Li can execute this attack by jumping into the air and pushing one leg down to the ground, literally stomping on her opponents as she lands. If she connects with this attack, she will bounce back up into the air where she can perform another attack, including an additional Yousou Kyaku. | |
Kouhou Kaiten Kyaku (後方回転脚?) | Backward-Spinning Kick | With this move, Chun-Li raises her leg to kick her opponent, and then literally performs a backflip off of the opponents body. Once an automatic reaction to the proximity of her opponents, players gain the ability to perform this action on command in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. | |
Kaku Kyaku Raku (鶴脚落?) | Crane Leg Drop | To perform this move, Chun-Li jumps high into the air with a forward flip, intended to come down and land on top of an opponent with her falling heel. As with the Kouhou Kaiten Kyaku, players gain better control over the use of this move in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. | |
Hyakuretsu Kyaku (百裂脚?) | Hundred Rending Kicks | After years of training, Chun-Li has the ability to keep her balance on one foot while rapidly kicking into the air with the other. Chun-Li can kick so quickly, that the kicks appear as a giant blur of motion. While it can be used to keep ground opponents at bay, it is not very practical against airborne opponents. | |
回転的鶴脚蹴 (スピニングバードキック) (Kaiten-teki Kaku Kyakushuu?) | Spinning Bird Kick | Chun-Li will jump into a handstand before pushing off the ground with her hands, twisting them as she leaves the ground. This gives her body enough rotational momentum to spin over the ground with both legs extended outwards for a short distance like a helicopter. Opponents who are caught within the range of her feet are frequently hit multiple times before being knocked down. | |
Kikouken (気功拳?) | Qigong Fist | Beginning in Street Fighter II Turbo, Chun-Li gains access to a much-demanded projectile attack. Chun-Li summons all of her ki into her palms and pushes it outward with both hands, fingers lined up straight (as opposed to Ken and Ryu's curled fingers). Unlike the Hadouken, the Kikouken dissipates as it travels. The slower it travels, the longer it lasts. The motion needed to execute this move (as well as the animation associated with it) is changed in Super Street Fighter II. | |
Tenshou Kyaku (天昇脚?) | Ascension Kick | Chun-Li gains an additional powerful attack in Super Street Fighter II Turbo. Intended as an anti-air attack, Chun-Li squats down before pushing herself off the ground and rising with a series of alternating kicks, each one taking her higher into the air. | |
Senretsu Kyaku (千裂脚?) | Thousand Rending Kicks | Chun-Li's super move is an advanced version of her signature move. After storing up a lot of energy, she can release it by propelling herself forward with one kick, followed by another kick, before launching into a high-powered version of the Hyakuretsu Kyaku. If an opponent is hit by any part of this attack, they are almost always sucked in by the rest of it. |
Moves[edit | edit source]
Street Fighter II[edit | edit source]
Name | Input | |
---|---|---|
Sankaku Tobi | Jump against a wall, | press in opposite direction |
Koshuu Tou | close, or + | or |
Ryuusei Raku | close, or + | or |
Yousou Kyaku | + | |
Spinning Bird Kick | + | |
Hyakuretsu Kyaku |