10 Iconic Video Game Characters Created By Fans
5. Akuma - Street Fighter
Akuma made his Street Fighter debut in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, showing up as an unannounced, unnamed CPU fighter who could replace M. Bison as the game's final boss.
But Akuma wasn't merely thrown in by Capcom willy-nilly: he ended up in the game following a 1992 prank by, you guessed it, Electronic Gaming Monthly, who ran an April Fools joke proclaiming that Street Fighter II had a bonus boss which could be unlocked by following a comically convoluted series of steps.
Now in total fairness, EGM claimed the character in question was actually Ryu and Ken's supposed master, an apocryphal character named "Sheng Long," who if successfully unlocked would similarly take Bison's place as the final boss.
Fans excitedly wrote to video game magazines in droves to try and get confirmation on Sheng Long's appearance in the game, which of course turned out to be a joke.
However, the hoax caught the attention of Super Street Fighter II Turbo's designer Noritaka Funamizu, who enlisted his team to introduce a proximate character into the game to appease fans disappointed by the hoax. And so, Akuma was born.
As for Sheng Long, Capcom has consciously chosen to keep him a legend, though did eventually introduce an adjacent master character for Ryu and Ken in Street Fighter IV, Gouken.