9 Fighting Video Game Characters With The Craziest Backstories

3. Vega (Street Fighter)

When Vega was first introduced in Street Fighter II (though he technically showed up in the first Street Fighter under the name Geki), we knew very little about him other than the fact that he was a bullfighter who wore a mask and totally cheated by using what looked like a homemade version of Wolverine's claws.

As more and more of his backstory is supplied in the series, however, we learn that there's a good, disturbing reason he looks the way he does. Born into a family of Spanish nobles, Vega grew up studying the tradition of bullfighting before venturing off to Japan to learn ninjutsu. When he returns from his trip abroad, he witnesses his stepfather brutally murdering his mother. As one is inclined to do in this situation, he immediately kills his stepfather.

But he can't get the image of his mother's death - and the energized feeling he got after killing his stepfather - out of his head. It consumes him, to the point where he basically Batman's out, pursuing a double life as a nobleman by day and a cold-blooded masked murderer by night.

For some reason, he's particularly fiendish in that he grows to love nothing more than ripping less attractive people to shreds with his newly-crafted hand claws. Yeah, that mask he wears all the time? It's not even to hide his identity. It's to protect his face from any potential disfigurement while he gets his jollies off stabbing ugly people to death.