Street Fighter V simply refuses to die. Having shown up in early 2016, the game has undergone several waves of DLC and even got a full-on upgrade as Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition in 2018. After getting 22 downloadable characters tacked onto a base cast of 16, it looked like things were starting to fade for the game. I mean, they gave us Kage and he was just a lame version of Evil Ryu. He seemed like the beginning of the end.
Instead, viewers were hit with a two-punch combo of major news at the latest Capcom Cup tournament. First off, the next DLC character was announced and it’s a big one. For the first time since 1999’s Street Fighter III: Third Strike, we’ll be able to play as Gill, the two-toned god of fire and ice!
Gill was introduced in the Street Fighter III series as the new big bad, replacing M. Bison’s Shadaloo with his more pious Illuminati (or Secret Society). While Bison was all about ruling the world to feed into his pure evil, Gill’s goals are intended to be more positive. In his eyes, he was chosen to rule the world in order to save it. He’s armed with the ability to control ice on one side of his body, fire on the other side, as well as fully heal himself.
Unsurprisingly, he’s a pain in the ass to fight.
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Street Fighter V’s story has been building to the coming of Gill ever since the “Shadow Falls” story mode hit and brought in Kolin (Gill’s assistant/lover) and Urien (Gill’s scheming brother). Gill even made a cameo in the epilogue, revealing himself to be the next big threat. After all, Street Fighter III is, weirdly enough, the last set of games in Street Fighter’s canon.
read more: Street Fighter: Timeline and Story Explained
Here he is in all his half-red, half-blue, and half-naked glory.
While Gill will show up sometime in the next month or so, there’s something even bigger coming on Feb. 14. Capcom is releasing Street Fighter V: Champion Edition! This upgrade will not only include all the characters released so far and nearly every costume (over 200!) and stage, but there will be additional V-Skills for each character, giving them more abilities and strategic options. For instance, Rashid has the option to bounce off walls. More importantly, Zeku has a ninja cat helping him out!
New modes and features will be added gradually.
They are burying the lede in this one a bit because the trailer notes that there will be 40 characters available in Champion Edition. Gill is only number 39. That means we’re guaranteed one more World Warrior by the time Valentine’s Day hits.
Will it be Seth? Gouken? Mike Haggar? Someone brand new? Guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and just wants to have Adon around again. Read more of his articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L