Some Street Fighter Fans Are Salty Because Abigail Seems Too Simple

"Salt" is a catch-all term used in the fighting game community (FGC), and beyond, to make fun of moaners and sore losers, whose salty tears run down their tiny baby faces like so much delicious seasoning.

Nobody is immune to salt; no matter your temperament, the salt will get you. (Just ask me about the time I fully rage-deleted Street Fighter V.) And since Capcom announced the Final Fight-famous Abigail as the next DLC character to be added to SFV's roster, during this year's EVO, the salt has been flowing generously.

Why do people hate him so much? How will he affect the game's meta? Why am I in love already, and just how much fun will it be to feed off of it?

I was a big fan of Hugo in SFIV, and Abigail will act as his replacement in SFV. Both characters debuted in the Final Fight series and are giant, screen-filling bruisers with little flair or subtlety. And this is where the first complaint arises: lack of complexity.

The FGC, while socially welcoming and diverse, still retains a solid core of players who take the whole thing a little too seriously, and would like nothing more than for every character to require carpal tunnel-inducing digit manipulation to pull off a decent combo.

As such, simpler characters often garner less respect than flippy, nippy ninjas such as SFIV's Guy, bollocking about with his Bushin bullshit. That's not for me—I like a big brawler, clunking and donking his way around the screen, swatting puny opponents out of the air.

Which brings me to the second complaint leveled against Abigail: they say he's "hideous." Often, the FGC tend to prefer the self-serious, introspective mysterious types, or the hyper-animé emo vibes of characters, like Oni from SFIV. (I mean, seriously, look at his Ultra 2.)

Abigail is enormous, he takes up the whole screen, he has tires for armbands and goofy face paint. He arrives to a battle on an imaginary motorcycle, which he also imaginary parks. He has a throw where he straight up steps on you, then kicks you along the floor. His other moves include "throw you very high," "punch you very hard," and "run at you." He's terrifying and silly at the same time.

Abigail makes a mockery of the series' archetype Ryu—the dignified, perma-frowning loner whose interests comprise walking and not enjoying himself—and I love it.

There is a worry that Abigail will lack viability in serious tournament play, as big body characters tend to get the short end of the stick due to their hitboxes. We will have a clearer idea of his viability when we get our hands on him. Let's not forget, however, that EVO's top eight this year featured eight different characters, which shows us that that character viability is pretty widespread in SFV's current incarnation.

Also, on paper, Abigail looks like he will play very much like Hugo, and here is a video of Manchester, England's own Infexious beating EVO 2017 champion Tokido using Hugo.

I rest my case. Challenge me—my CFN name is garydooton—when Abigail drops on July 25th, so I can drive my imaginary motorbike over your head and drink up all of that satisfying salt.

Trash talk Gareth on Twitter.