Alex failed because he s a grappler, grapplers are considered difficult to master, not for begginers. ryu is a balanced, basic style character, easy to learn how to play

It's too bad, Alex is a nice hybrid character in 3 that does a little bit of everything and his buttons are strong too. I feel like both Alex and SF3 was an attempt by capcom to really try to get out of the box, with many of the game mechanics and characters feeling more experimental and nuanced than we'd seen up until that point.

Capcom to Ryu "So we need you to pass the torch to Alex" Ryu "That doesn't work for me brother"

The embarrassing history of Top Hat Gaming saying "Rye-You."

I've always loved Alexs visual design. I feel confident that his look was somewhat inspired by Axl Rose too.

If a company really tries to push a character as the face of a franchise, there is an 80-90% chance everyone except that character will go on to be fan favorites.

Alex may never be as big of a Street Fighter character as ryu, but he will always be remembered as great unique take on wrestlers to Street Fighter fans everywhere.

I think the main reason why Alex never caught on was because he didn't have any projectile attacks. A common strategy for new players is to just spam fireballs. The fact that he couldn't do that meant players had to charge into the danger zone, which intimidates many new comers.

Lots of people have said it, but I'll say it too; Alex is fun to play as, but hard to win with. If you manage to get in your opponent's head and they fall into the Alex whirlwind, you'll have a blast. And then other times you can't get near an opponent and you feel utterly helpless with him.

I honestly get the wrestling angle. Mike Haggar was hugely popular and that's his style. But a grappler is way easier to play in a beat em up than a 1v1 fighter.

One thing I loved about Alex was how you could spin your opponent around with his flash chop and that would actually affect what throw was executed, like if the opponent had their back to him they'd get the German Suplex instead of the powerbomb, that was immensely cool. Even Hyper Bomb tuned into four suplexes.

Embarrassing? I love the dude, fun to play. Lex Luger of the street fighter series is an awesome comparison! Lol

I'm in the minority but Alex is actually my favorite Street Fighter. His move sets can be absolutely brutal if you learn to use him correctly. Also thought his design looked freaking awesome. But that's my opinion. Edit: Was not a huge fan of his redesign in SF5. In my opinion he was too thick and looked like he could barely move. Hope they slender him down a bit if he's in 6.

Alex is my boy He's always my go to character whenever I can play him

I noticed a lot of character in this game had a bunch of weird combinations of old fighters. Necro was dhalsim and blanka,Remy was Guile and Sagat,and Alex was zanfief and Dee jay. Weird

Everything about SF3 and its production is so peculiar. 20 years later SF3 chronological is the latest game in the franchise and I think Capcom been afraid to make a true sequel following because of all the mess behind it.

I think the problem with Alex being the main is his moveset wasn't really for the casual player.

I mained him and makoto in 3rd strike. He really isnt a beginner friendly character but boy oh boy when u manage a comeback combo ended with his command grab super. Pure ecstasy

I don't think Alex was that much of a failure.....now Necali on the other hand, I think really was a real failure.

I can't stand hearing people mispronounce Ryu like that. It should be punishable by law.

Alex is an awesome character to use for veteran fighters. I truly enjoy using him.

They figured; "all we have to do is make him blonde, and the Westerners will automatically love him"😂😂😂😂😂😂

Be interesting to see if Capcom learns from their mistakes with Luke who seems to be getting a bit of a push in Street Fighter.. That said I really like Alex, he has a cool design imho and even if he isn't the outright main character is still a great edition.

Dude is my main since New Generation. His move set alone signifies that Capcom was definitely attempting to make Alex the main character. He has the most versatile move set in SF history. It is a compilation of various SF characters: Birdie (Elbow Slash, DDT), T-Hawk (Flying Cross Chop), Guile (Stomp), Ryu/Shotos (Flying Knee). You can win a match with Alex without having to throw a single power bomb. He’s more than just a grappler, but rather more as the first attempt to create a “mma” style character by Capcom combining different styles of movesets.

Over 30 years of Street Fighter and people still dont know how to pronounce "Ryu"

I'm not the biggest fan of grapplers, but I love Alex! I think he's one of the coolest characters in SF! Have you done an episode on Juri? Please do that! Also Terry Bogard! Please!

Capcom doesn't care about most characters. They have Ryu and Chun Li so they won't try to push new ones. Snk does a better job with new characters.

Oozing Americana… So, they wanted their own Terry Bogard?

Since Capcom has so many wrestlers now. When are we getting Muscle Bomber Duo remix? Yes Zangief, Honda, Mika, Birdie, & Hakan should join Alex & Haggar in the Muscle Bomber world!

He's a lot of fun to play, but I don't choose him if I am trying to win

You know there was a problem when Alex was supposed to be a main character but no one even remembered him being one

SF3 was and still is my favorite series of the franchise; Alex is also my second favorite character from SF3. He was the third debut character I learned to use and the first person of the SF3 original cast that I beat Gill with. I really think Capcom should continue with him as the new main but I guess I'm in the minority.

Alex in his development stage and on paper but never mentioned in the games was a ex cop who quit the force. This is kinda like how in the planning stages Mokoto was Ryu's sister.

Oh I'm sure that the mixed reception to Street Fighter III as a whole had nothing to do with Alex's failure to become iconic

Has less to do with the quality of the character, more with people hating change, and having their favorites missing from the roster. Not having them in the game at all was the big mistake. Really hate how they backpedaled on Alex's story in third strike and went back to making it all about Ryu. Back to the same old same old. Really hope when they eventually do make a game that takes places after Third Strike, they go somewhere interesting with it for once.

Alex could always start his own NwO faction. That would set him apart from what's his face.

Street Fighter fans complaining about absolutely every new character and feature and then collectively wondering why Capcom keeps going back to Street Fighter 2

Is there any chance you could look at ken's "deciple" Sean next?

I never thought I'd feel the need for Richard to say, "jabroni". 🤣🤣🤣

Looks like Luke taking over Alex role in the next Street Fighter game.

Apropos of Street Fighter movies, they've never quite hit the mark with audiences, fans and general audiences alike. Some thoughts occurred to me recently on what would make for a Street Fighter movie that'd fit the core experience we all have. See what you think: It would need: -A very heightened world where honed fighters can high-jump kick and shoot energy projectiles cuz it's just a regular thing there. Nobody bats an eye about that kind of thing. None of this "toned-down" moves we've seen in SF movies thus far. -The core experiential 1v1, "be the best" quality that we all know and love about Street Fighter as the main focus, not the shadaloo stuff with 1v1 fights just shoehorned in. The shadaloo stuff is in there somewhere of course since it's key lore that must be addressed, but it's the tournament of "being the best" that takes center stage. -Fights actually take place at various home spots of different characters as a worldwide phenomenon, the spectacle of Street Fighters doing those street fights. Fighters travel to various spots to challenge a high profile fighter of the region so as to gain notoriety for themselves too, and climb the overall tournament ladder. Sometimes more than one fighter travels to somewhere, resulting in new challengers. Fights are usually taking place somewhere, and it's of some advantage that newbies and seasoned fighters alike travel to fight. -There always has to be witnesses to verify wins/losses, be it eager crowds (as seen in various stage backgrounds) and/or livestreamed cuz of course someone will always be livestreaming this stuff. (As far as streaming goes, fights can be streamed and watched at different venues and switched between not unlike an NFL Sunday package.) Or at the very least, a panel of judges that have always been there to verify the results that we simply never saw whenever we played Street Fighter cuz they were simply off camera. -Some fights of course can take place apart from tournament purposes, be it friendly sparring matches, shadaloo crime related stuff, personal scores, etc. The last thing that is worth a thought: should it be some kind of super stylized animation, like cgi or hand drawn? It'd have its advantages, such as getting to make idealized versions of every character that you couldn't find in real life, like Zangief or Bison. Or perhaps live-action is the best way to go with the trade-off that some characters won't be fully idealized.

OOF - that SFV model does him soooooo bad! Enjoyed him in my limited Dreamcast play of 3rd Strike but that wasn't too much as we had to chose between that and Soul Calibur to play...

Alex sounds like he was created by Vince McMahon, trying to force *insert large untalented giant from Ruthless Agression - Today* down the audience's throat

I think Alex should appear in SF6, but in the story, he should team up with Ryu in order to defeat the game’s big bad villain.

Ironically he was the only character I was able to get the closest to defeating Gill on the arcade machine. Never had ANY problem with Alex. I guess his move set worked for my style

The huge muscle-bound American is such a stereotype in Asia. In the movie FEARLESS, Jet Li's character has to fight s huge muscular American fighter to prove the superiority of Chinese martial arts (that muscly American fighter was really Australian pro wrestler Nathan Jones who failed miserably in WWE). The stereotype is based on the success of big Americans in Japan. Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody, Hulk Hogan etc. Hogan became the archetype due to worldwide popularity and his more muscular build.

I still remember being a little bothered by Street Fighter III being a bomb back in the day. I used to play at least a few matches every time I was at the local laser tag place. Of course it didn't help it was up against stuff like Tekken 3, which was on of the most fun and easy to approach fighting games of the period.

Hey, Top Hat Gaming Man. You should definitely do a Street Fighter character documentary video on Ryu's rival, Ken Masters.

SF has a little something I’d like to call the “New Hero Curse” where if Capcom introduces a new character as the face of the game they’re inevitably going to be overshadowed by Ryu and left out of the next game. It happened with Alex in IV, happened with Abel in V, and while Rashid has kinda managed to avoid this fate he’s still relegated to DLC in 6, it seems. Same will probably happen to Luke in 7, but we’ll see

I'll never understand why they didn't just give us Gunloc. He was already in universe, almost identical to what they wanted from Alex, and would have gotten us another Saturday Night Slam Masters.

I'm getting the impression that you're not too keen on Alex.

tbh even though Alex is one of my favorite Street Fighter characters, I really don't think he is good enough as mascot material even during Street Fighter 3's run

Alex was one of those characters that certainly grew on me with time. I think hes pretty cool. Hope hes in SF6. As for future character documentaries I would love ones on: Feilong, Deejay and Guy. Also Top hat if possible can you do vids on the status of the Capcom VS series. Is there a way for Capcom to continue it with other companies or to just fight themselves

Love the nod to Owen. One of his best and most memorable heel characters. "That last little nugget!"👍👍😍🤩

I think what hurt him in SfV was the 3d model they used. With a weird looking face and strange build fans of Alex all exclaimed that he didn’t look right. Modders actually came up with a better 3d model for him inspired by his look in 3rd strike.

Lol I laughed so hard when he said "this ladies and gentlemen is the embarrassing failure of Alex! Yeaaaahh!" 🤣 can't be any worse than Dan.😁 nice video.

You didn't think it was worthwhile telling his name in Muscle Bomber is Aleksey Zalazof?

I think Alex would've caught on if he were a more traditional grappler with a 360 and some vacuum shenanigans. I'm a career Gief main and never liked using Alex because he was so awkward. As a main character, Capcom pretty much kneecapped him by adding Ryu and Ken into the game. People forget that Charlie was basically the main character of Street Fighter Alpha and literally beat Bison with his bare hands.

Alex is one of my favs!!

I only ever saw him as a zangief fill in. Hes not even mid tier. Maybe capcom should have finally made Slam Masters 2 and tried him there

I thought Alex defeated Ryu in the SF3 canon...but with Capcoms ugly retcons/ changes in story, it's no surprise on the outcome. Still, great coverage my man!

I swear, the Alex character seems like he was based off the skinny teenager from the arcade raid in Robocop 2. >_

If he wasn’t a grappler and something else he might have had more appeal.

His mispronunciation of Ryu's name almost makes me want to stop watching, lol. Great video though

He couldn't be the main character but still a great character non the less

It hurt *my* feelings that you called Alex the Lex Luger of Street Fighter. I mean we're talking WWF run Lex. That's a deep cut man.

Alex is literally one of my fav sf characters ever

I really like Alex as a character but have always thought the positioning as a main character was a bit questionable. Honestly a character that was on my list of ones I'd hope that you'd cover. Never open the KoF bag of worms! Like the distinction between what you'd LD are doing with your focussing on genres and characters while her channel touches on lesser known hardware or prototypes. (Outside of the most recent video)

He's still my favorite street fighter character

I still think Alex is a cool character. 💪🏽

The character had fans asking for he's return in SF5 how is that a failure? also Ryu has been beaten it street fighter lore on numerous occasions and he uses that has motivation.

Awesome video. I don't see this video as a rip but rather an objective look at the character. It's interesting just how applicable wrestling terms and the sort are to both the character and fighting games on the whole. I don't think that SF3 being on the ill-fasted Dreamcast really helped Alex case either. Between that, poor sales numbers, the struggling arcade scene at that point, one could say that Alex is also like Diesel in that he was a low-drawing champion and just Diesel it was through no fault of his own.

I grew up in the heyday of Street Fighter II & Street Fighter alpha series but Street Fighter III completely flew under the radar for all but the most dedicated Street Fighter fans. My older brother even had a Dreamcast & had third strike at one point but none of us played it much. I literally didn't even know that this Alex character existed until a decade & half later & learned about 90% of what I knew about the character from this video.

It's about time someone did a video on this

Alex didn't fail. The plebes failed to recognize his awesomeness. At ease losah!

The mediocre live action movie with Guile as the main character and the superb anime movie with Ryu as the main character cemented Ryu's position as Street Fighter's favorite character worldwide. The Alpha series also gave a cliffhanger with Ryu's struggle with his evil part, something that was not adressed in the Street Fighter III trilogy.

I'll eat my hat the day a heavy grappler character is flagship character of any franchise.

8:12 just noticed spikey haired punk in the bg doing the moonwalk lol

When SFIII launched I gave it a chance in the arcade paying $0.50 per game since it was considered a premium game, selected Alex thinking he was a Guile knockoff and was ultimately disappointed 🤷🏾‍♂️

I like Alex well enough. His entire game came out when interest in fighting games was waning. He's considered very hard to win with in street fighter 5 but if you look at his usage stats he is almost always middle of the pack. There have been times where there are more Alex players than Juri and Chunli players. Imagine if he was actually good in the game.

This video actually got me to want to get familiar with Alex on SF3 and SFV! It also has me curious on how Luke will be accepted as the face of the franchise.

The slip up at 8:39 is killing me

Dont forget!! Before Lex Luger was the unspoken disaster by the name Tom Magee!

Cool stuff

Another story of a Japanese company trying to cater to westerners and not doing so well when what we want is for a Japanese company to be, well Japanese. But even outside of that, being on the same roster as Ryu made this uphill battle even steeper

Watching this today gives me hope that Alex might be present on sf6. Even as dlc, it would be rlly cool getting the answer to the winner of his bout with Ryu

Third Strike Alex is really fun to play despite being bottom tier. Other bottom tier characters are not only bad, but also just unfun to play. Alex always had satisfying gameplay.

When I played Street Fighter 3 the first time, I didn't pay much attention to Alex.

Great video. I wonder if they would have brought over a character from Slammasters instead of creating Alex, they could have passed on the torch successfully? For me, Ryu will always be the face of Street Fighter and Chun-Li as a close second. Can you do a video on Rolento?

I do enjoy playing him on sf3. Bit challenging but yeah, he can't be the new hero. He didnt click like k' perse of kof

Capcom made the same mistake that plagues Hollywood - trying to create a new prototype to appeal "to this demographic", when their classic characters or formula had already been embraced by the fanbase. Ryu is the face of the franchise and America was not going let a new kid on the block dethrone him just because he's white and military. Alex is actually a well thought out character and the SF3 series is among the best in the fighting game genre. Fans didn't quite warm up to the new direction. Hollywood continues to churn out projects and character based mostly on racial and gender identity.

It would be cool to see a video that talks about how many wrestling characters that Capcom has made over the years

Nobody expected that actually TvC was to be Alex's game more than SFIII

Wow i never knew Alex was supposed to be a Hulk Hogan character which is great but the character was missing something so i can see why he didn't really have a certain appeal for most players.

Street Fighter III had mostly boring characters for me. Many of them just didn't seem to fit in with the series.

I agree. They should have pattered him after The Undertaker, Sting, or even Rick Flair.

Great video Top Hat but Alex is still boring. Could we get a video on Guy ? Anti fire ball characters

In spite of not having my desire for a Dhalsim video sated, this makes me very excited for the welcome arrival of the SF3 cast in a "new generation" of these videos. I at least hope that Oro will make an appearance so that my second favorite saffron-rags-wearing character gets some love!

Alex is literally Male Cammy. If you know the story behind Cammy them you'll understand what I meant.

8:38 Top Hat Gaming Man: *"Ryu would canonically encounter and have a match with Ryu!"* Me: *...Wait what?* 😂