Zangief
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Zangief (Зангиев) is a video game character created by Capcom. He is part of the Street Fighter series of fighting games.
Zangief is a close-combat character. Because the spinning piledriver requires a 360 motion on a joystick, controller, or keyboard, he and other characters with similar movesets are known as 360°-grapplers.
Background
As the Soviet Union's greatest professional wrestler, Zangief was contacted by a man named Erai Hito (Great Man) to demonstrate the Soviet Union's strength to the rest of the world in the second World Warrior tournament. Zangief patriotically agrees and receives fantastic training in the extreme climate of Siberia, that lets him, with this government sponsorship, become "The Red Cyclone." He opposes the activities of Shadoloo and meets one of his fans, the Japanese pro wrestler R. Mika.Techniques
- Double Lariat - Zangief spins around with his arms outstretched, clotheslining his opponent. This is the move he copied from Haggar.
- Quick Double Lariat - A fast version of the Double Lariat which was originally intended to avoid low attacks, but only did so in Street Fighter II Turbo.
- Banishing Flat - An energy-charged spinning backhand strike that allows Zangief to nullify fireballs.
- Spinning Piledriver - His signature move; Zangief grabs his opponent, spins several times in mid-air, and then piledrives the opponent with powerful force for a load of damage.
- Atomic Suplex - Zangief grabs his opponent, does a German Suplex, and then does a flying German suplex.
- Flying Powerbomb - Zangief runs towards his opponent, jumps up in the air, and powerbombs the victim.
- Final Atomic Buster - Zangief does an Atomic Suplex, piledrives his opponent, then throws him/her into the air to do a spinning piledriver for a ton of damage. Zangief's Super Move.
- Aerial Russian Slam - Zangief jumps forward with his hand in the air and, if he is able to grab the opponent, does a different kind of grapple move depending on the strength of the super. In the Vs. series, this is a special move.
Actors
In many games Zangief is voiced by Wataru Takagi. In the SNK vs. series Tesshō Genda voices Zangief.He was played by Andrew Bryniarski in the Street Fighter movie. Here he was a lackey of Bison's and one of the movie's comic relief, uttering silly-lines at inappropriate places (for example, after seeing televised feed of a truck loaded with explosives about to crash into a building, he yells out the now-infamous line, "Quick! Change the channel!"). He also had a long fight with E. Honda and one "hero moment" near the end of the movie.
Trivia
- Zangief's name is possibly based on real-life pro wrestler Victor Zangiev, a former Soviet amateur who trained as a professional in NJPW, and who also competed in WCW and UWF International.
- One early name for Zangief, rejected during development, was "Vodka Gobalsky" [link]
- Zangief wrestles polar bears in Siberia, on which he practiced his trademark Spinning Piledriver after being picked up by a cyclone while performing a piledriver on a bear. The scars covering his body are said to have been the results of wrestling with bears.
- His chief rival in the wrestling world is American Mike Haggar. They purposefully copy each other's moves. Zangief copied Haggar's Spinning Clothesline. In return, Haggar copied his Spinning Piledriver. Although they are rivals, they have yet to meet in person.
- Zangief probably trained with Aleksay Zalazoff (Biff Slamkovich from Saturday Night Slam Masters). He also appears in the background of Biff's stage in the sequel to Slam Masters.
- Although beautiful young women is listed as one of his dislikes, in Zangief's ending in Capcom Fighting Evolution he is shown dreaming of being with his girlfriend in California and sitting in a jacuzzi with three almost naked girls. While the game is non-canon, his ending has led to debate over his sexuality, which remains dubious.
- Following his ending in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, he is shown flexing in front of a broken mirror with Vega's (Balrog in Japan) picture on it. On the picture, the word "baka" (fool or idiot in Japanese) is written on it.
- In Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom, Zangief can be transformed (or selected) in his iron body form. In this form, Zangief has an iron body, and does not feel pain when he is attacked. In this condition, he also can spit a Vodka Blow like Dhalsim's Yoga Flame. However, this form of Zangief cannot defend himself from attacks, and moves more slowly.
- In his ending in the Street Fighter II series, Zangief is congratulated by someone who greatly resembles former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and dances with him. He is only referred to erai hito (or "great man").
- In Zangief's ending in , he turns into Mecha Zangief and challenges Jin Saotome's mech, Blodia, to a fight. The resulting clash causes a nuclear explosion.
- Zangief's Flying Stomach block attack (U, U + FP) in the Street Fighter II series is the only standard move capable of dizzying a character in one hit.
Related Characters
Wikibooks has a manual, textbook or guide to this subject:
| Adon – Akuma – Alex – Balrog – Birdie – Blanka – Cammy – Charlie – Chun-Li – Cody – Dan – Dee Jay – Dhalsim – Dudley – Eagle – E. Honda – Elena – Fei Long – Gen – Gill – Guile – Guy – Hugo – Ibuki – Ingrid - Karin – Ken – M. Bison – Maki – Makoto – Necro – Oro – Q – R. Mika – Remy – Rolento – Rose – Ryu – Sagat – Sakura – Sean – Sodom – The Dolls - T. Hawk – Twelve – Urien – Vega – Yang – Yun – Zangief |
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