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Didn't know Abel was a main character

Abel was the "main character" but I felt like Viper was supposed to be the star. Then both got overshadowed by Juri. I think there's a pattern where they try and copy Ryu's dryness in making a new main but don't get what makes Ryu special regardless of that.

Abel was really cool to play. His MMA style was really unique.

I honestly liked Abel as a character. But i felt in terms of story telling, he didnt seem to do much other then the fact he was a rogue Seth unit.

He may not have been "Main Protag" material, but I didn't think his design was bad. Very traditional looking martial artist, much like the original line up when compares to some of these newer characters. I like the way he played as well, which I would think was more important, but that's just me.. Abel immediately came to mind when they announced SF6 and showed off Manon, I'm surprised they didn't make any connections...

Abe was so fun to play in SF4. I used to main him and he felt so fluid.

I frequently forget Abel even exists. He’s the human incarnation of white bread.

Abel wasn't a main, he was never on box art or promotional materials. He is a good fighter though, and if they lean into the animal thing more he could become an interesting Beastmaster sort of character.

I think Abel could easily be work back into the roster if Capcom changed three small thing about him to help him stand out: 1. Give him a new and better outfit. 2. Give him a better motif, maybe something to do with bears. 3. As for his personality, maybe have something that shows his love of animals

Abel is my favorite of the new characters in SF4. His fighting style hooked me right away.

I think a good pro wrestling comparison is Dean Malenko. Highly technical mechanics and talent, but not really enough flair or force of character to carry a card/franchise alone. Really loved watching his matches though.

I even recall videos and quotes from high level players of Abel, saying even THEY didn't really like him as a character, but liked his moves. I found him just beige in every way. He was the human embodiment of low-volume elevator music.

abel is a main character? really? I've always tought he's just some random new character

For me, I don't consider both Abel and Rashid as Main Protagonists. The following are the only Street Fighter Main Protagonists that I am considering: Ryu for the Shadaloo Saga Alex for the Illuminati Saga Luke Sullivan for the Nayshall Saga

WHAT!? I loved Abel, he was my favorite. He had a great rushdown grappler play style that was really fun, and I loved his simple himbo personality! And the way he got all shy and awestruck over meeting Zangeif was adorable.

Alex was the main character of Street Fighter 3, Abel was the main character of Street Fighter 4, and Rashid was the main character of Street Fighter 5. Capcom is AWFUL at advertising these things and that's on Capcom. We literally didn't even know these things.

I really enjoyed playing as Abel, his normal medium kick won me so many matches in a pinch

I liked playing abel, but i always thought that i was missing something with his story. I didn't know that sf4 was his first appearance

I don't think Abel is that bad, he's just too tricky to fight against.

When I think of Abel, I kinda feel like he never really lead anywhere- he was supposed to be Seth's rival, but he became more involved with hating Juri. He was supposed to have this connection to Guile and Charlie, but nothing happened there. Him being a clone, his rivalries, they all just kinda... fizzled out. An idea I had, is to combine Ed and Abel's characters and concepts into one. We know that Ed kinda super-grows, or ages really fast. I had an idea where "Abel" is him using Psycho Power to grow an adult body to fight with, but he still has a very child-like mentality. He fights Seth but when S.I.N collapses, he's found by Balrog who takes in the child-sized (because the battle exhausted him) Abel / Ed, and in his company and influence Abel gets a bit more edge that turns him into a kind of fusion of Abel and Ed. Balrog teaches him to look out for number one and Abel absorbs like the little baby sponge he is, but he never quite lets go of the naive, kind boy he is (as a call-back to Abel's little boy-design). I say this mostly because Ed becoming the leader of a group of ex-Shadaloo and fighting to subvert their plans, feels like it is a story that could belong to Abel as well. Hell, maybe Neo Shadaloo (a name I still dislike) could take in the new Seth, and provide an actually supportive pseudo-family for them. Granted, the problem here is the gameplay. Abel's Judo/MMA-centric gameplay is pretty different from Ed's Paycho Power / Boxing style. I'd like a way to reconcile these diffefences, but that is definitely the part I'm the least confident can be merged in a satisfying way.

Don't you make fun of Abel.😡

Boring!? Abel was an such a cool character and is so much fun to play as! He has an interesting backstory and he definitely deserves to return in a future Street Fighter game or even as a future DLC character in SF6. Also, am I the only one who is furious at the fact that Abel never became a playable character in SF5!? Heck, we hardly ever even got to see him interact with Charlie Nash aka the man whom he was searching for in SF4!!!

Abel was great. Super fun to play. I hope he returns in SF6

I loved Abel. His fighting style was awesome and his mysterious backstory kept me interested. I was genuinely annoyed he was barely in sf5 but then again sf5 story was a joke. Also, all Street Fighter games basically star Ryu and Ken as far as anyone is concerned.

The closes character we get on SF6 is Manon. A fuse of Judo and Ballet dancing technique. Abel have a brief cameo on SFV and still it's a lackluster

He was really fun to play as. Him and Rufus were my favorite SF4 characters.

Abel was the first character I gravitated towards in 4! He has so much potential hope they bring him back for 6!

I don’t know if Abel was meant to be the protagonist of SF4.

Sure hes not the most compelling character in sf but hes cool, he deserves another appearance. Interesting gameplay and sick supers

I'm terrible at street fighter (and basically all fighters like it), but I love Tekken and for whatever reason I clicked with Abel immediately. He's the only character I like playing as. Can't say much about his character, honestly I don't ever really pay attention to that in fighting games. I am quite literally that person who just views the characters as a set of mechanics and am completely indifferent to everything else.

I liked Abel with his Sambo style plus he knew Charlie his finishing combo was cool😅

They always had Ryu and Ken there, to take the heat off of newer protags.

A shoto girl would be the easiest thing in the world and they won’t do it, Sakura isn’t even in 1st year DLC sf6, but I mean a whole new character. Maybe even trained by Akuma then Ryu and Ken have to get her out of the “dark side”

Funny that Luke and Manon both got things from Abel. Luke: blond hair, blue eyes, MMA. Manon: French nationality, a grappler-based fighting style, wears a gi top, tights, and foot pads as their default outfit.

I always saw Abel as the Macho Man that became the Disco Inferno. Hard working till the end. I love Abel.

I actually really enjoyed Abel in IV. Loved his theme and his fighting style a ton. I hope they bring him back.

Abel may have had a bland personality, he was ao much fun to use. But SSFIV just had to give us Juri and none of the other new characters had a chance

Things went so bad for Able they transitioned him into Manon.

Also, I didn't know about any of the SF X Tekken Kuma/space bears stuff until now. Abel is now my favorite video game character, or would be if Cammy didn't like cats.

SF can never have a replacement for Ryu while Ryu is in the game. Capcom has to be bold enough to leave Ryu out of a game so another character can shine.

Watching 801strider playing his Abel in ultra showed how awesome the bar acted can be.

Bruh…Abel was my favorite character in that game. Won more ranked matches with him than any other fighter from the entire roster. His fighting style was perfect for me and I can only hope we’ll see him return someday.

what are the songs used in your video called?

Well if you’ve ever played against a good Able, you’ve never forgotten what it’s like to be in the vortex. I don’t think they will ever being able back, because they reworked his moves and overall character design into Manon, the French model, and as far as I can tell she is very popular.

I think the biggest issue with Abel (he's a favorite of mine btw) is that he had no rival to play off of and develop himself further a great example of this is the current Protagonist Luke and his rivalry with Jamie, they build off of each other and have so many similarities and just enough differences to create a slight clash between the two of them, if they gave Abel a true rival to grow around and flesh him out more he'd be way more popular and they had so many great characters to pick from in SF4, even Alex has his rivalry with Hugo it wasn't too deep but it helped flesh him out more as a wrestler aiming for the top just like Hugo. I know he'll be back one day and I can't wait to see what they do for my boy Abel, but I know they dropped to ball on his time as protagonist

I swear ryu only has popularity solely because he was the first. Seriously most of the criticisms about able and Alex apply to him as well…

Great video! I used to love abel's design and character in general, i played sfIV when i was really young and by "played" i mean clicking random buttons on my xbox 360 controller and asking my dad to do hadoukens and ultras in general. There was something about him that i cannot truly remember, but i always feared him, whenever it was his battle on the story mode, i would be actually scared of losing (and lose a lot of times, in fact), or maybe simply i couldn't understand his command grabs. Also, he seems so serious, idk, he just seems like such a cool fighter

Able was one of my favorites in SF4. His slams were strong and damaging

Where can I watch the anime that has all this story? Ive never seen the anime .

Abel was the main character of Udon’s Street Fighter 4 comic.

Able was my guy, when SF4 came out I had to beat the game for all of my friends. I was the only one who could and Able was my main.

I completely forgot about Abel until this video.

I think putting "worst" and Abel together is a crime of a video.

Really? I liked Abel a lot. But never thought of him as the protagonist of SF IV. I felt quite frustrated for never being able to play well with him But entering an underground world fighting tournament just to get inspiration to name a puppy is quite silly.

If the copyright for Popeye had expired just a little bit sooner they wouldn't have named the main character Luke. Look at the cover for 6, he just needs a pipe and a can of spinach.

I don’t really mind Abel. I played him a lot in SF4 because i love Grapplers and his playstyle clicked with me. Admittedly, yes, Abel can be pretty boring, but let’s be honest here, so is Ryu whenever he isn’t fighting Akuma or his Dark side. I feel like, on himself, Abel really couldn’t carry any story, but he is a great supportive character to others. As mentioned by the previous super best friends: „Abel is to Guile what Guile was to Nash“ and they do have a pretty good chemistry going on between the two. Not to mention that Abel is actually pretty hilarious once you read his victory lines against other fighters in SFxT. Now, in my own thoughts, i actually believed Abel would somehow get closer to Cammy because, as you mentioned, he was a Vessel created for Bison to take over, just like Cammy. So i thought they would create a group together as survivors of Shadaloo

How dare you. Abel is awesome. Also, you should watch some 801 Strider matches that really show what he's about.

Only cool thing about Abel: loves animals

Bears coming down from UFOs is the great thing I've seen in a fighting game yet.

The problems with Abel as a protagonist are many, and most of them arent things specifically tied to him. 1: Street Fighter's method of story telling. In "story mode" you get like, maybe 3 actual story cutscenes, half a dozen character vinettes. This is an abysmal way to introduce to *NEW* characters, little own new *MAIN* characters. His thing with being an android intended for use by Bison has a lot of promise, but, I can not tell you a single person who got that -- doubly so when the translation of Street Fighter games leaves much to be desire. The "you look like me" moments between Seth and Abel don't work as well in english because the two's in game graphical representation look *nothing* alike besides them being large and muscular. It doesnt help that the scene *WITH* Seth in the game is the *SAME* scene no matter your character, he has no personalized intro depending on the character so you don't get anything like "Ah! Abel! So good to see you... BROTHER!" that might have helped actually *TELL* Abel's story. All that shit is relegated to the anime movie, which, nobody fucking watched. 2: His lack of presentation in the marketing for SF4 really hurt him. It's mentioned in this video, but Alex and Luke get plastered all over their games covers and marketing. SF4 barely features Abel, and most of the promotional material leading up to SF4's release focused on *ALL* of the new entries -- El Fuerte, Hakan, and *MOST* notably, Juri. Which brings me to... 3: Juri. Juri stole the show in SF4 with her explosive personality, strong motivations, moral degeneracy, aggressive and versatile fighting style, and of course, her design. The SF girls have a tendency to shine, Juri is no different, and unfortunately for Abel capcom didn't make the two of them a pair despite both of their journeys being so similar -- Juri was *ALSO* a shadaloo experiement who managed to liberate herself, she is *ALSO* a vessel for Bison. She and Abel have a *lot* in common. In a world where Juri finds Abel and manipulates him into being the "muscle" for her, we could see both of these characters develop more. You wouldn't even need to change Juri's story at all, but Capcom *knew* what they were doing when they made Juri, it's *NO* surprise she's returned in every game since her introduction. Most people would view *her* as the "protagonist" of SF4 and they'd have good reason to do so. It wouldn't have hurt either of them to make them a villainous pair, with Juri doing the lion's share of the villainy, while Abel tags along on his own quest for answers. 4: The first of Abel's own faults is that Abel isn't a shojo, his imputs in game are weirder than most protags. He has a good kit with a solid skill ceiling, but he has a barrier for entry that's unlikely to be broken by a totally new player on their immediate introduction. I would also blame SF for hiding the tutorials away in a seperate menu from Story mode, and poorly presenting the tutorials in forms of "challenges". The purpose of a tutorial is to teach you mechanics. If each character had a more deeply customized tutorial that taught a player the fundamentals of the character (Abel can 'roll' through projectiles for example), you'd have a lot more ability to engage with characters who can do the things you want to do. 5: The *BIGGEST* problem with Abel is his design is weird, but not weird enough to be *WEIRD.* He's *HUGE* for a SF character, he's a gentle giant type of guy and that's great, but he just wears a gi, some shorts, and gloves and boots. All in flat colors. That was fine for Ryu and Ken, they lived and breathed martial arts, they were martial artists at their core so their costumes reflect those identities. But Abel isn't a martial artists. I'd even go so far as to say he's a guy who doesn't *WANT* to fight. It's very strange for him to be wearing a martial artist's uniform around casually when he's *NOT* that kind of guy. You could easily have put him in a sleeveless hoodie, shorts, ditch the gloves and go for some hand wraps -- ironically, making him look a bit like *Luka,* back then, would have helped him stand out. Alternatively, we *see* Abel with Bison-like armor in some of the comic art, that would have been a good addition. As it is, his costume is *very* plain, and while his fighting style is functional it lacks flair. If he looked more like a guy who had something going on, he might have been more memorable.

I kinda wished they went with the young kid design because it would've been extremely interesting to a more speedy smaller grappler but much weaker defensively and being fleshed out a bit more could've made him a fan favorite potentially

I actually really liked Abel when I was younger lol thought his design was cool! And his story interesting! Really liked his play style too it was fun and easy to get your head around!

3 had the best new characters and 4 had the worst. Even the returning characters from 3 blew 4's out of the water and they completely forgot about all of them. Viper is the only one that worked outside of the main series. When they made Abel they basically watered down Alex and gave him amnesia. Then they looked at how serious he was and threw some Looney Tunes characters in like Fat Kung Pow, Chicken Wrestler, Red Oil Man, Cyberpunk Laura Croft, and Purple Akuma.

My sense from the beginning was the Abel was designed to a "middle of the road" character that would be helpful for balancing both rushdown, keepaway, and grappler characters. He also relied heavily on Focus, FADC, and Ultra more than most. I think that's why he was made the star. Ostensibly, Abel was intended to be a scarred up amnesiac Charlie/Nash but Capcom abandoned that plot point due to the lukewarm reception from fans. There are many hints to this in his design, he shares some normals with Charlie, he has a distinct "forelock" his somersault kicks produce a little "flash" effect, he shares a couple win quotes with Charlie, and the fact that he's French as both Charlie and his abandoned son Remy have in common. Obviously, the fact that Nash returned in SFV retconned this, but it's still an interesting cul-de-sac of lore.

are u ganna do a video for rashid? cant wait for him his sf6 costume dripppy

I forgot his name during the first part of this video until you said it

I feel the SF main characters suffer from SF's awful storytelling, SF storylines are extremely generic & main characters are generally 1 dimensional tropes that have no development, not to mention their stories are told via quickly narrated slide shows which are vague & leaves out many details & typically arrives at no conclusion, confusing the player even further. The only game franchise with consistent, conclusive narratives deapite the reboots is Mortal Kombat, MK has very deep story modes in comparison to all other fighting game franchises, whenever I finished a MK story mode from MK, MKX or MK11 I felt invested in many of the characters in the roster. Tekken had a great thing going in Tekken 4's narrative. Tekken 4 though it utilized slides to tell character stories the slides contained very detailed illustrations & alot of details about the characters life, obstacles & motivations, this made the Tekken cast feel tangible, relatable like real people with real struggles. Tekken 4 also added cutscenes when u encountered a rival in each characters storymode to add further detail to a characters narrative. Tekken would eventually abandon the deep storytelling in favor of empty tropes & mindless action.

The animator Nuts vs Guts is the reason why anyone remembers this chatacter with the hilarious music parody.

I'm not sure "main protagonist" means much in a fighting game where you can play as pretty much any character you want to anyway.

Abel was truly Wasted Potiental of a Character, from the General Consensus that not many People know about it, but I already knew on the Mark that he was the Protagonist in SF4, the Clues are pretty simple, the obvious Example is the Vanilla Version of SF4 on the Character Selection Roster the Cursor is always pointed at Abel's Slot, he has also been in more Rival Cutscenes and even got more Screen Time in most of the Character Prolouges and Endings in Vanilla SF4, The Fact that Abel is a Forgotten SF Protagonist is completely Understandable, by the Time when Super/Ultra SF4 came out with more new Characters, Retconned Rival Cutscenes, Prolouges and Endings, kinda shows that Capcom has pretty much given up and abandoned Abel as a Protagonist in SF4.

I wanted to like Abel, but he was one-dimension. He was easily overshadowed by other SFIV characters, like Juri and Viper. Although I kinda have a softspot for him, I understand why people thought he was boring.

Hey, Top Hat Gaming Man. Can you please do a Street Fighter character documentary video on Rainbow Mika?

I forgot about him when my dad asked me for help to paint the living room and I noticed that the paint was drying.

I didn't even realize Rashid was the main character in SF5 till I saw this, but when I think back to it, I see it.

Wasn't Seth originally gonna be named Cain but it would've been too obvious to the reference?

I think Abel would’ve been more memorable if he had a better design, just..with each street fighter character they has one asset that *strikes* Ryu, his headband (other stuff like his hair too but his headband is one that comes to mind) Guile’s weird flattop hairstyle. Chun Li’s thighs Abel doesn’t have anything that strikes His concept art where he was that little boy was a way better design and cooler looking in my opinion, I wish they went with that one because holy shit it’s a massive upgrade

See shit like this is why I'm not exactly chomping at the bit at Street Fighter 6 like everyone else. Capcom has no respect for their characters post Street Fighter 2. Hell it was only after Third Strike that people even gave a shit for anyone in SF3. Imagine the sheer amount of disrespect that Kotal Kahn got in MKX and 11, multiply that by the number of new characters between SF4 and SF5 who didn't make the cut for SF6, who are most assuredly never coming back for SF6. Hard to care about any of these new characters when Capcom doesn't, isn't that right Necali?

I think main character does not necessarily needs to mean "main driver of the plot", or even the central arch of a story. I think Ryu, Alex, Able and Rashid all are one thing: Outsiders entering a new tournament. Ryu enters the world warrior tournament and get to know all the other fighters. Alex enters the tournament of third strike, facing off against literal gods, old champions, demons and the like. Able is thrown into the Sin web, meeting new and old heroes on the way Rashid...idk, I didn't play Street fighter 5, but I guess he also fits the bill. I think main character means more "pov character" for someone new to the series. And I think that they all do pretty well.

Why did my friends and I pause the video at the 45 sec mark. An with the picture of Abel it still took us 20 mins to remember his name.

Can you imagine if they stuck with the original design? Abel's big Achille's heel is that he's so bland in look and concept it's hard to get invested, but if we were instead introduced to a pintsized tyke rolling and chucking everyone about...

Bring Abel back. He was my favorite character from 4. Super fun.

Did you know if you watch yu yu hakusho when during the genkai tournament arc you can see most of the street fighter characters and able is in it. I didnt even know he was that old

Hi @TopHatGamingManChannel about Allen Snider from Street Fighter ex plus Alpha, coz that was a short lived character. Abel and Allen look very alike almost like Abel is the new version of Allen. what do you think?

I played a lot Abel in SF4. He's a great character!

He's no me, that's for sure.

Abel always looked like a jacked up adult Butters from South Park lol

Back when Arcade Edition was the latest edition of the game on PS3, and back when I was a kid, I used to play Abel because I just enjoyed the way he rolled around all the time. 😂

Abel is my all time favorite character. But I'm a chill guy so it makes since.

Abel was turned into a female (Manon)

Abel's movement in Sf6 would be stellar. hope he makes the cast this time around.

I didn't care much about Abel in SF4 but he grew on me STxT. He and Guile were great duo, and the part where he wants to take Kuma from Heihachi still brings a smile to my face.

I liked able. His play style and subtle but layered personality is refreshing in a world where every character is cartoonishly exaggerated.

Should've given him the Abel Express and a count out win over E. Honda with confetti

I love him so much but i didnt know he was a main character. They just needed to pair him Viper and juri up and all would be right

Abel is a cool character. I liked playing as him in base SF IV. But Capcom needs to take a hint and listen to the fans. Keep Ryu as the lead, and stop trying to replace him with all these blonde dudes!! (Alex, Abel, Luke) Edit: So, I forgot to mention that even America tried to replace Ryu as the main lead in both the live action film (where Guile is the lead because AMERICA!!), and the cartoon where he's practically Ken's sidekick (also Ken is stronger than him and is Akuma's actual target.... because AMERICA!!!) Lastly, if you want to replace him as the lead, try it with someone who is the polar opposite of Ryu (Sakura or Batsu).

some people loved him. his Somba style was popular at the time.

Abels character design was lacking, but i loved his move set the most out of all the characters in SF4.

As someone who only babbled in 4 a little after playing a lot of 2 and 3, I was under the impression Crimson Viper was the main character of 4 as she seemed to be the one getting the most hype, including an appearance in MvC3. I feel a lot of the mains suffer from a bit of genericness in terms of general vibe. This worked for Ryu when folks were just getting used to the franchise and its colourful characters, but became more of a problem once players got more involved with the games.

His gameplay was probably my absolute favourite though. I'm an MMA/Judo guy and he was the best representative for that so far. I should like Manon but I don't quite like how fantastical and theatric her moves are. Luke doesn't really cover the MMA that much I mean guy has a double leg shot that only goes into a tackle and a flip kick it should have had a grab too imo.