The List: Ten Coolest Street Fighter Characters of All Time

10. T. Hawk (first appearance: Super Street Fighter II)
Next to the ansatsuken fighters, I've a special affinity for the grapplers. (Or should I say, pre-Super Street Fighter II, grappler [singular].) I never did like Zangief because he was so cheap and freaky-looking. When SSFII was introduced, we got T. Hawk, leader of the Thunderfoot tribe in Mexico. He only has one signature throw, but it's one that's equally as memorable as the Russian's Spinning Piledriver: the Storm Hammer. It's way cooler in terms of animation, too. Whereas Zangief needs two hands to spin his opponent around and slam hard on the ground, T. Hawk requires only one hand.

9. Juni (first appearance: Street Fighter Alpha 3)
Not to be Americanized in pronunciation: Her name is pronounced “Yuni.”

She's not as popular as Cammy, nor as buxom as her partner, Juli, but Juni has one thing that sets her apart from the other two: a 360-degree directional throw that deals major damage and establishes Juni as a hybrid melee fighter and grappler. (She has Cammy's Hooligan combination as well.) She also appears to have a stronger control of the psycho power—the same machine that doubles M. Bison's power—being able to use the Mach Slide (a forward teleport) at will.

8. Vega (first appearance: Street Fighter II)
How can you not like a player with a dual personality? By day, Vega is a noble matador, by night, a sadistic, blood thirsty (sometimes, literally—he's been shown to lick his claw clean of the blood of his enemy) murderer.

Perhaps Vega is best known to be the only Street Fighter character to ever wield a weapon, and he's not one shy of slicing and dicing using it. That, and the fact that he wears an iron mask, not because he's working at lengths to conceal his identity, but because he takes great care not to damage his beautiful face.

With his speed and agility matched by no one but Chun-Li, Vega is the character to choose for keepaway games that rely on quick, damaging pokes as opposed to multi-string combos. Whenever he jumps to the upper corners of the screen ready to attack, get ready!

Or he may just be faking, and that's completely part of his game.

Images: T. Hawk from tokenminorities.files.wordpress.com, Juni from Street Fighter Gallery, Vega from Wikimedia.org