10 Video Game Characters That Were Created For The Most Shocking Reasons
5. Gouken From Street Fighter Was A Result Of An April Fools Joke
We've already talked about characters being made out of glitches, negative reviews, and as part of honoring a longtime fan. Now, how about a character created due to an April Fool's prank?
Gouken from Street Fighter was created by Capcom because of a hoax article written by Electronic Gaming Monthly. The people behind the magazine thought of using a translation error in the original Street Fighter game to fool the fans into believing a new character was being introduced.
The phrase used by EGM was "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance," said by Ryu upon victory. The article implied that this Shen Long character was the master of Ryu and Ken and that the players could fight him in the game.
When the article was revealed to be an April Fool's prank, many Street Fighter fans were disappointed. Capcom was basically forced to introduce the master in the next game in order to avoid a major controversy. They named him Gouken and turned the mistranslated Shen Long into an alias he taught his students under.