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OUT WITH THE OLD...
Well, not totally out. I've
taken the liberty of moving the updates from the last
decade to their own legacy section, because it
really was time for some fresh blood on this page. If
you want to see David Graham's drawing of Dan as Snake from
Metal Gear Solid, the Q&A session with Aaron Thacker, and
of course, that ridiculous Dan Hibiki rap, you can find them
all here.
 So, what's new on
Saikyo Crusher? Well, this update is all about Street
Fighter IV. The surprise sequel to the long-running but
nearly-as-long-dormant Street Fighter series was released last
year, with an even more impressive upgrade hitting store
shelves in May. If you're a fan of Dan Hibiki at all,
you either already own one of these games or should feel
deeply ashamed that you don't. (Don't worry, there's
always time to fix that mistake! Head over to Amazon and get yourself
a copy of Super Street Fighter IV right away... you
deserve it!)
Dan Hibiki doesn't steal the show in
either game, but the designers did perfectly
capture his essence. Especially memorable is his
Sisshou Burai-Ken, a thoroughly humiliating beatdown of his
opponent, and the way he runs away from his
rival during a backward dash. As a fighter, he's...
well, Dan, but he's no less powerful than he was in Street
Fighter Alpha 2, and Capcom tipped the scales slightly in his
favor in the recent update. It is possible to
beat opponents in online matches using Dan, and believe me,
victory has never been sweeter.
I've included references to Street
Fighter IV in the move list, including the EX
enhancements for all his special moves and the two Ultra moves
exclusive to those games. Also, I've changed the
evolutionary chart (because the black and green grid in
the last one was really getting to my eyes),
popped in the best quotes from Super Street Fighter IV, and
fixed any typos I could find. There weren't any
monumental changes made to the page... just necessary
ones.
 Before I go, I
probably should mention Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Dan hasn't
been confirmed as a playable character in the game (although
it would be a damn shame if he weren't in there), but there
has been footage of Deadpool floating
around the internet. For those of
you unfamiliar with him, Deadpool is a Marvel Comics
character with a sizable cult following, who's essentially a
parody of the DC Comics villain Deathstroke (who you may
remember as "Slade" from the Teen Titans animated
series). Instead of being pathetic like Dan, he's just
plain nuts, lusting after the late Bea Arthur and taking his
job as a murderous mercenary almost as seriously as Jon
Stewart does his late night news anchor gig.
Deadpool is no less wacky in Marvel vs.
Capcom 3, proudly crowing "I loves me some pineapples!"
whenever he drops grenades and scolding the player for
pressing the wrong button after he's beaten. Rumor
has it that his best super move involves him ripping the life
bar from his side of the screen and clobbering his opponent
with it! Early footage of the game suggests that the
"merc with a mouth" may be a little exhausting to play after a
few rounds thanks to his habit of repeating lines, but it's
nevertheless comforting to know that Capcom hasn't lost its
sense of humor after all these years. Now let's get Dan
in there for a truly epic comedic crossover!
WHO WAS THAT
BUSHY-EYEBROWED MAN?
 That was, and is, Dan Hibiki. Dan
was created by Capcom as a release for their frustration with
rival SNK, which has been the Royal Crown to Capcom's Coke for
nearly a decade... ever since it released the games Fatal Fury
and The Art of Fighting for its Neo-Geo. The Neo-Geo was
originally designed as an affordable arcade system with
replaceable cartridges. These cartridges usually
contained games similar to popular titles that pool halls,
convenience stores, and arcade operators on a tight budget
just couldn't afford... for instance, Burning Fight and Ninja
Combat were a lot like Capcom's Final Fight, and Magician Lord
was a hybrid of Sega's Shinobi series and Shadow of the Beast
for the Amiga line of computers (while this never was an
arcade game, Beast was hugely popular in the late 1980's, and
SNK felt that its stunning graphics and fast, simple gameplay
would work even better in arcades). Fatal Fury was
created as a cheap alternative to Street Fighter II, and it
probably would have been the Neo-Geo's last one-on-one
fighting game... if it hadn't been for SFII's surprising
success. It wasn't long before SNK changed its business
strategy and transformed the Neo-Geo from a system with
something for everyone to a weapon whose chambers were loaded
with dozens of Street Fighter II killers. At least,
that's what SNK hoped they'd be. Unfortunately for them,
most of the fighting games on the Neo-Geo just bounced off
Capcom's chest like so many contrived BBs.
 Capcom put up with
this at first... Fatal Fury wasn't exactly like Street
Fighter II, and its tiny selection of characters insured that
people would always play their game first if given the
chance. But then SNK released The Art of Fighting, and
Capcom got a little testy. I can't really blame them for
that... the star of SNK's game, Ryo Sakazaki, bore a
disturbing resemblence to their own wandering warrior, Ryu
Hoshino (or Hoshi, if you're going by the names in the Street
Fighter film... but who'd want to do that?). Their
signature attacks were similar, their outfits were pretty much
the same, and even their names were almost exactly
alike. Oddly, Capcom didn't break out the lawyers over
this or World Heroes (a game that could just as easily have
been called I Can't Believe It's Not Street Fighter), waiting
instead for Data East's Fighter's History... but they
did do something about it. They taunted SNK,
first with a comic in a short-lived Capcom newsletter.
In it, Ryu stumbles across a mysterious, yet achingly familiar
fighter and manages to defeat him only AFTER coming up with a
new move he hadn't ripped off yet. Then came the picture
of Sagat with his monstrous hand wrapped around the head of...
wait, that isn't Ryo, is it? SNK still wasn't getting
the point, so Capcom took its frustration and anger, pounded
it into a soupy pink mess, and sculpted it into a crude parody
of the character that had leeched from them for years.
They took this statue, put it on the world's highest pedestal,
threw a dozen blinding spotlights on it, and SCREAMED at the
top of their lungs, "THIS IS DAN HIBIKI!!!"
To put it simply, Dan Hibiki is Ryo
Sakazaki on a bad day... actually, his absolute worst
day. In the first two Art of Fighting games, Ryo had a
spirit gauge which emptied as he performed special
moves. Once that meter was bone-dry, his best attacks
became hilariously weak, and he was forced to taunt his
opponent to leave them in the same position so he could
channel his energy and bring himself back up to speed.
Dan, however, is pathetic right out of the starting gate, and
his taunt is the best move he's got. His projectile has
all the distance of a thrown snowball on Mercury, his jumping
uppercut has plenty of lift but no horizontal reach, and
instead of a powerful hurricane kick, Dan's stuck with a
jumping kick flail that delivers about as many hits as Vanilla
Ice. This, of course, leads us to the
question...
WHY WOULD ANYONE WASTE
QUARTERS ON THAT LOSER?
 That's my
friend Pat's reaction whenever I choose Dan. Actually,
since there are no worthwhile arcades in the mid-Michigan
area, he usually just walks in the living room when I'm
playing as Mr. Hibiki in Street Fighter Alpha 3 or Marvel vs.
Capcom 2, mutters "Oh, brother..." under his breath, and walks
right back out. I'm sure other Saikyo-ites have had to
put up with similar putdowns from their own friends, and
that's a shame, because Dan is actually a lot of fun to
play. The reason I like him is that he's not as
thunderously powerful as Ryu or Ken, yet because his fighting
style is similar to theirs, I don't have to spend endless
hours mastering entirely different (but just as wimpy)
characters like Rolento or Cody.
Even if that doesn't appeal to you, Dan's
amusing personality just has to win your over. Now
here's a guy who just doesn't get it... he's a rotten fighter,
probably not worthy of the black belt he wears, yet he's
absolutely convinced that his self-taught fighting style will
revolutionize the world of martial arts, and thinks so highly
of himself that he gives out autographs in the middle of
matches! This apparently rubbed off on Midway, who had
its vengeance on actor Danny Pesina (who left its popular
Mortal Kombat series to create his own guild for actors
appearing in video games. Wow, talk about your major
league mistakes!) by reintroducing his character Johnny Cage
in the fourth Mortal Kombat game... and turning him into a
self-absorbed moron that nobody likes. Unlike Dan,
Johnny Cage's attacks weren't redesigned to make this obvious
(why would Midway need to? His moves already sucked!),
but if you beat the Playstation version of MK4 with him, you
get an ending that's quite different from those of the other
fighters. Johnny takes center stage at an awards
ceremony and makes the unfortunate mistake of taking shots at
the studio audience, who fire back with boos, hisses, and the
occasional beer bottle.
 Wait, wait, I was going
somewhere with this. Oh yeah... the reason why people
like Dan (although many of them won't admit it!) is because
they admire losers. There was this great episode of
Coach that perfectly illustrates my point. Jerry Van
Dyke stands up in a fancy restaurant and gives his friend this
sage bit of advice... "You know, being a loser isn't so
bad. I mean, if you're a winner all your life, you start
to expect victories, and when you finally lose you don't
understand what happened... it just eats you up inside.
Losing doesn't bother a loser, though- they're used to
it! Besides, winners have their goals set way too
high. When a loser sets his goals, he just puts the bar
down as far as possible so he can step right over it.
Hey, check this out! I'm setting my bar! And I'm
clearing it, too!" As Jerry also mentioned, losers don't
have things like dignity to drag them down. They can
completely embarass themselves and they'll just get right back
up and try again, whereas someone with more pride would be
crushed by a single failure. And that's why Dan keeps
coming back for more fights- and more punishment. No
matter how many times he falls, he'll never be discouraged...
and when he finally drops an opponent, that victory is far
more special than any of Ryu's, who's wandered around the
world for years, searching in vain for a battle that will
truly satisfy him.
THE HIBIKI
FAMILY TREE
As you can see from this chart, the Hibiki
heritage is a puzzle with a lot of pieces missing, and the few
that are left sometimes fit together a little strangely.
At the top of the tree is Donovan, the vampire hunter (D?)
from the Darkstalkers series. He's rumored to be the
great ancestor of Dan, and I can believe it... the family
resemblence is obvious. Not only is Donovan a parody of
a video game character, in this case Simon Belmont from
Castlevania, he's also got the same determined sneer and
hairstyle as his great great grandson, complete with a lock of
hair leaping from his forehead.
Hundreds of years later, Dan's father Go
was born... and unwisely decided to compete against Sagat in a
Street Fighter tournament. It's said that Sagat killed
Go in a blind rage after one of his eyes were, um, forcefully
removed in that battle, but Marvel vs. Street Fighter
suggested that Go- or should I say GouKI- is alive and more
powerful than ever. Once Dan manages to beat Cyber Akuma
(Mech Gouki) in that game, he stands over his bruised body and
announces, "You've made a fool out of me for long
enough! Now we'll see who the REAL champion is!"
Before he's able to beat the 10W30 out of the cybernetic
fiend, a girl in a Japanese school uniform (who looks
disturbingly like Dan in drag) comes out of nowhere and
shouts, "Don't do it, Dan! That man is our...
our..." Although it's clear that this is a parody of the
ending in the first Art of Fighting, you've still got to
wonder if there's some truth to it.
At the end of NightWarriors, Donovan
eventually surrenders to his vampire urges and goes on a
killing rampage, much like Akuma, who hunts down worthy
opponents and fights them to the death. Don't worry,
though... if Dan does have vampire in him, it's been diluted
to the point where instead of sucking blood, he just sucks.
^_^ Last on the tree is Dan, his still unnamed sister
(Danielle? Daniko?), and... wait a minute, how the hell
did Balrog get in there? The clue's in the 'do... both
Dan and Balrog have that crazy starburst on their foreheads
that's a Hibiki trademark. Could they be distant
cousins?
There's also buzz on the Internets that
Ran Hibiki, the trigger-happy photographer from
Project Justice, is related to Dan Hibiki in some way.
However, it's probably a safe bet that she's not the
gender-swapped sister from Dan's ending in Marvel Super
Heroes vs. Street Fighter.
THE EVOLUTION OF
DAN
SUPER STREET FIGHTER
II: While Dan wasn't in this game, he first appeared
in some press artwork promoting it. The picture in
question showed Sagat clutching an unworthy challenger's head
like a basketball. Surprisingly, Capcom built on the
character and presented a playable version of him in...
STREET FIGHTER
ALPHA: The first Street Fighter game with
taunts was also the first starring Dan. In fact, you had
to taunt uninterrupted in every round of the first five
matches to get a crack at him. Past this trademark
association with taunts, Dan hadn't developed much of a
personality, and it seemed as though he was shoehorned into
the game... he shares voice samples with Ryu, his Gadoken
animation doesn't look quite right (just look at the way he
holds out his fist! Weird...), and his ending is just
terrible... all he does is roll back and forth, irritating the
hell out of a nearby M. Bison and probably the player as
well. Lucky for us, he was reintroduced to the series
in...
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA
2: Dan was given full character status in this
game... you didn't have to memorize a ridiculously long code
to gain access to him, and he was given his very own voice,
including such classic exclamations as "Oyajiii!" and
"Yahooie!". His relationship to Sagat was finally
explained in detail, and Dan was even given the ability to
build up his super energy by taunting... and the opportunity
to waste it with a very showy (yet very risky) extended
taunt.
SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER II
TURBO: Dan's unremarkable abilities were made
fifteen times worse in this already tough puzzle game,
starring characters from two popular Capcom series (and that
dumb mech game they released in Japan... but let's not go
there). I mean, sure, Dan's Gadoken may not do much
damage, but at least it doesn't circle around and hit him in
the back of the head. Unfortunately, that's exactly what
happens in Puzzle Fighter... in the game, you fight your
opponent by dropping unusable gems into his playfield.
However, these gems don't stay useless forever, and will
eventually change into a color after a certain number of turns
(displayed on the counter gem's face). Each character
has their own pattern of colors for their counter gems, and
Dan's is all red, all the time. This leaves you three
options if you insist on using Dan... the first is to fill the
opponent's playfield with gems so quickly that he never has a
chance to play the red orb necessary to destroy them
all. The second is to create layers of counter gems, so
that when one batch of counter gems become red, you've got
another line of unusable gems covering them. The third
is to, well, bend over and take it right in the couch
cushion. I have a friend who claims he can beat half his
opponents with Dan... if this is in fact true, I hope he shows
me mercy when he uses that 10,000 point IQ to conquer the
world.
MARVEL SUPER HEROES VS. STREET
FIGHTER: Dan truly came of age here... if he
were Jewish, this sequel to the popular tag-team fighting game
X-Men vs. Street Fighter would have been his bar
mitzvah. And oy oh boy, what a celebration it was!
Some of Dan's best win quotes are in this game, including the
classic "I'm sorry... no, you are!". Dan also invented
two great new moves to combat Marvel's powerful
supervillians... the Premium Sign (which so far has only
appeared in the Marvel vs. games) and the Otoko Michi, the
energy hungry super attack that really puts the "blow" in
death blow. Dan even makes an appearance in two of the
game's endings, and both of them are pretty funny, especially
the one where he claims to be a cyborg and Akuma responds by
both stripping him of his costume and knocking him into orbit
with a single punch.
POCKET FIGHTER: I
consider this more of a walking billboard for Capcom than a
legitimate extension of the Street Fighter series, but what
the heck... it was fun for a little while, and it took
licenses with the Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters
that wouldn't have been possible in Capcom's more serious
games. The cartoony environment benefitted the already
amusing Dan the most... now, instead of just fighting and
throwing the occasional autograph, he could break out the
rhinestone jumpsuit and belt out a few lines from Kentucky
Rain as well! Dan could even rely on his dead father as
both a heavy blunt object (Dan grabs his dad's corpse by the
nose and swings him at opponents!) and a panic button when
things looked bleak.
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3:
Mandi Paugh suggested that I include this game for
the sake of completeness... I suppose it's only fair that I
do, since the Dreamcast version IS subtitled "Saikyo
Dojo". So here it is. To be honest, I tried to
avoid listing it here before this because Dan didn't really
evolve at all in Alpha 3... his new win quotes are so-so
(pretty dull in comparison to his comments in Marvel vs.
Street Fighter, actually), and he only has two new
abilities. One, the aerial kick flail, is pretty handy,
but the other, a super move that locks him into taunt mode for
a half minute, is both worthless and not really all that
funny... the Premium Sign was a lot more entertaining.
Worst of all, the Dan Factor has been reduced to almost
nothing in the Game Boy Advance version, where he's forced to
borrow his voice from Ken and lets out only slightly self
confident grunts while performing taunts. The latest
translation of Alpha 3 may have been wonderful for the
rest of us, but not for Dan... he just doesn't have game
here.
MATCH OF THE
MILLENNIUM: Dan's growth had hit a brick wall
in Street Fighter Alpha 3... they hadn't given him any new
moves except for a rather lame super that prevented him from
doing anything but taunting for thirty seconds, and he didn't
even get to keep the Premium Sign that made him so much fun to
use in Marvel vs. Street Fighter. Fortunately, when SNK
made Match of the Millennium for the Neo-Geo Pocket, they paid
special attention to Dan, giving him a hilarious super taunt
(where he imitates everyone from Mai Shiranui- minus the
boobs, thankfully- to Kyo Kusanagi from The King of Fighters)
and some of the best win quotes he's ever had.
Unfortunately, SNK hints throughout the game that Dan is a
clone of their own character Ryo... I guess they conveniently
forgot that he was a PARODY of a character that was quite
obviously a store brand imitation of Ryu, the star of the
Street Fighter series. Still, I'd have to say that this
is Dan's best appearance in a video game so far, and it
doesn't look like it'll be topped until Capcom releases a
sequel to Pocket Fighter.
MARVEL VS. CAPCOM
2: Dan wasn't improved in Street Fighter Alpha
3, and he wasn't getting any closer to the right end of the
evolutionary chart here either. There are three strikes
against Hibiki in this game, and here they are... Strike
1: Dan's moves weren't enhanced or improved.
Strike 2: He's got nothing to say (there are no win
quotes for anyone in the game, but this especially
hurts Dan). Strike 3: You've got to earn Dan with
versus points, and he's more expensive than a pardon from Bill
Clinton in 2000 (or a gallon of gas in 2006, or cleaning
up millions of gallons of gas in 2010!). I would be
upset about this, but since the game's got fifty-six playable
characters, awesome polygonal backgrounds, three player teams,
and split-second load times, let's just say that I've learned
to live with it.
CAPCOM VS. SNK PRO:
Talk about an evolutionary backslide. Dan is supposed to
be a wimpy character, but Capcom took things too far when they
introduced him to Capcom vs. SNK. He's been (badly)
redrawn, so not only is he uglier than he was in the Street
Fighter Alpha series, his kicks and punches- especially the
most powerful ones- have lost a lot of reach. Similarly,
his fireball (despite whoop-de-doo transparency effects) looks
like crap and is even less effective than before. You
don't even have to block it... if you're close enough to Dan,
it'll fly right past you, cheating him out of any damage at
all AND making him vulnerable to your next attack. Worst
of all, the ratio system has definitely not worked to Dan's
advantage... now his attacks are practically useless even if
they DO connect because they do so little damage.
CAPCOM VS. SNK 2:
That's more like it, Capcom. Dan's still drawn a little
strangely but he doesn't seem quite as toned down (to nothing)
as he was in Pro. In fact, I fought a friend who created
two custom characters, a Ratio 4 Ryu he named after himself
and a Ratio 4 Dan recolored to look like my picture from
Karate class, and I almost beat him. My friend's a tough
opponent, too, so Capcom must have put at least a little spike
back into Dan's punch.
[Speaking of improvements, Capcom vs. SNK
2 is a lot better as well... it's got more characters and much
more freedom of customization, although the backgrounds, 3D or
not, didn't get my yayas up (the rooftop location is great,
but the others... I dunno. I never knew Woody from Toy
Story was this fond of beer...). That's fine, though,
because like I said, there are many more fighters in this
game, and unlike Capcom vs. SNK only a couple were bad
choices. I'm really impressed with Eagle... he was the
best character in the first Street Fighter and he's definitely
pulling his weight in this game.]
SNK VS. CAPCOM: SVC
CHAOS: Hey, look who's back! Playmore
managed to piece SNK back together from the scraps its
previous owner, Aruze, had left behind. To celebrate its
return, Playmore has pitted its most popular characters
against Capcom's in a Neo-Geo exclusive. Among the
fighters included is Dan Hibiki, a hidden character
who challenges you in the third round of the game.
SNK's done a great job with their interpretation of the master
of Saikyo, giving him additional moves, a slick new look, and
some of the best lines of dialogue in the game. You
haven't had this much fun with Dan since the golden days of
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter!
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA
ANTHOLOGY: This isn't so much a new release as
a collection of old ones. Submitted for your approval
are translations of Street Fighter Alphas 1, 2, Gold, and 3,
along with the hilarious Pocket Fighter and an exclusive
versus mode that lets you mix and match characters from all
the Alpha games. Dan appears in every one of the titles
in this package, including the bonus game. There's even
the option to use the Saikyo
superstar's fireball from Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street
Fighter... although I'm not sure you'd want it, since it's
even wimpier than it was in the Alpha games!
(SUPER) STREET FIGHTER
IV: I couldn't say this singlehandedly brought
back 2D fighting games, since BlazBlue contributed to the
resurrection of the genre... and King of Fighters
XII tried desperately to put it back in its
grave. However, what I can say is
that this is one of the best titles in the Street
Fighter series, thanks to... are you ready for this?
Dimps. The creators of the sublime handheld title
Match of the Millennium are just as brilliant on the powerful
Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, making a game that plays every bit
as well as the last three Street
Fighter releases and looks that much better thanks
to slick cel-shaded graphics. Dan Hibiki is also
well represented... he doesn't outshine the rest of the
cast like he did in Matchmo, but he's still great comic
relief, flexing his muscles for the camera during victories
and fleeing from opponents in his backward
dash. Surprisingly, he may not even be the silliest
fighter this time, being given a run for his money by chatty,
chubby Tai Chi expert Rufus and greasy Turkish
wrestler Hakan (available only in the upgrade, Super
Street Fighter IV).
DAN'S GOT THE WAYS TO MOVE
YOU, YEAH...
Here are the building blocks of Dan's
Saikyo fighting style, including fireballs, jumping flail
kicks, and most importantly, a wide variety of taunts.
Also listed are the joystick motions for each move, for both
Capcom's Street Fighter games and SNK's Match of the
Millennium if the motions differ. Moves marked with "EX"
can be doubled in strength in the Street Fighter IV games by
tapping two buttons after entering the joystick motion shown.
SPECIAL MOVES
GADOKEN
   (all games)
 Dan takes a handful of his inner strength
and tosses it at his opponent in the form of a powerful ball
of light. Unfortunately, he can't put any distance on
it, so the attack won't do him much good unless he gets in
close to his opponent or uses it to counter other
projectiles. The Gadoken varies in effectiveness from
game to game. In Match of the Millennium, it's a pretty
nifty move since the Neo-Geo Pocket's small screen keeps the
fighters fairly close together, but in, say, Marvel vs. Capcom
2, you're not going to get too much mileage out of it since
that game's super jump allows your sparring partner to keep a
safe horizontal and vertical distance from you. The best
use for the Gadoken is to first jump at your opponent, throw a
kick or punch, then perform the Gadoken just after you land to
drive him back. It won't knock him down, but it should
give you just enough distance to escape before he tries a
jumping uppercut or another similar move. In Street
Fighter IV, the Gadoken can be boosted to EX strength by
pressing two punch buttons at the end of the joystick
motion. This extends the fireball's reach and doubles
its power, but you'll have to sacrifice a segment of your
Super meter to do it.
KORYUKEN
 (all games)
 Dan leaps upward with
his fist raised to the sky. It's your ordinary, average
jumping uppercut with both a flaw and the occasional
benefit... on one hand, Dan's Koryuken doesn't have much
horizontal range, but on the other hand, Dan will sometimes
flash before taking to the air... if he does this, he can't be
countered until he lands. The frequency of this flash
varies from game to game... it seems to happen most often in
Match of the Millennium. On the flip side of the coin, Dan
can't flash at all in the original Street Fighter Alpha, and
was given the special point draining "What Gives?!" in Card
Fighters' Clash instead of a small chance to avoid damage
while attacking (in my opinion, this would have been a much
better ability).
Aaanyway, the Koryuken is basically a
toned-down dragon punch, and can be used just like one,
although you'd be wise to get in close to your opponent before
letting one fly. Like most of Dan's moves, it has
limited range, and overestimating its reach could land you
right into the open (and unloving) arms of your
opponent. Also, when performing the Koryuken in SVC
Chaos, be sure the joystick is held in the down-forward
position before pressing the punch button... otherwise, the
game won't recognize the motion and Dan won't perform the
move. While playing Street Fighter IV, you can juice up
this attack by pressing two punch buttons instead of
one. An EX Koryuken has greater reach, more airtime, and
strikes twice, but it drains a portion of your Super
meter. Think carefully about doing this if you've got
the meter nearly topped up.
DANKUKYAKU
  (all games)
 Dan's jumping flail
kick is one of his better moves, although it's still nowhere
near as cool as the attack that inspired it, Ryo Sakazaki's
Hien-Shippu-Kyaku. Ryo would leap into his opponent like
a bullet, plant a flaming foot into his stomach, then knock
him away with a roundhouse kick to the head. The
Dankukyaku is a bit more humble, dishing out up to three jump
kicks with just enough pause between them to allow the
opponent to sneak in a quick dragon punch. Still, it
puts pressure on your foe, and a strong Dankukyaku can really
leave a mark if all three of the kicks connect. In
Street Fighter Alpha 3, Dan gained the ability to perform the
Dankukyaku in mid-air... this is a superb escape tactic
because if you perform the flail kick at the top of a jump, it
sends Dan safely over his opponent and to the opposite edge of
the screen. Hit two kick buttons in Street Fighter IV
and, for the cost of a portion of your Super energy, Dan
performs a Hien-Shippu-Kyaku instead.
SHIN GADOUKEN
  (SVC Chaos only)
 Oddly, Dan doesn't have a super
fireball in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos. The good news is
that he can break out a really large Gadouken anytime he feels
like it, even if his super meter is bone dry. After the
move is performed, Dan leans backward slightly, charges a ball
of energy in his hands, then unleashes a projectile that's
more firewall than fireball. On the downside, it takes a
couple of seconds for Dan to fully charge the attack, making
him vulnerable during the entire time. Worse yet, the
Shin Gadouken has little to no reach, just like Dan's smaller
projectiles. Don't expect to get a lot of mileage out of
this attack... it was included as a tongue-in-cheek reference
to Dan's similarities to both Robert Garcia and his friend Ryo
Sakazaki.
COUNTERSTRIKE
  + (SVC Chaos only)
 This is Dan's
first ever counter attack, a parody of a similar move used by
Takuma Sakazaki in the King of Fighters games. Dan
summons all his power (what power he has, anyway...),
intercepts his enemy's attack, then strikes back with a
devastating punch that knocks the assailant away.
Unfortunately, since Dan hasn't quite mastered his newest move
yet, he sprains his hand on the opponent's chest!
Dan then crouches down, clutching his injured hand with his
back turned away, probably to hide the tears streaming down
his face. He continues to nurse his wound for about a
second before he turns around, gives a reassuring thumbs up to
the player, and stands to fight once again. Once again,
this is more of a novelty than a useful attack. It's
surprisingly tough to perform, and the player is left
vulnerable while Dan recovers from his
self-inflicted injuries. Luckily, the opponent is
knocked so far away that they're rarely given a chance to
retaliate.
PREMIUM SIGN
(Marvel vs. games only,
NOT the M-ism mode in Street Fighter
Alpha Anthology)
 Trust me, I'm not keeping anything from
you... the Premium Sign was only recently introduced (in
1997's Marvel vs. Street Fighter) and isn't available in most
of Dan's games, including Match of the Millennium. Consider
this retouched graphic a visual aid.
Anyways, the Premium Sign is and probably
will remain Dan's only long-distance projectile. Dan
whips out an 8"x10" glossy, signs it, then flings it at his
opponent, who he assumes will be ecstatic to get an autograph
from such an incredible martial artist. Instead, the
photo, in true Dan style, hits the other player in the
forehead and gives them a paper cut. To add insult to
(minimal) injury, you'll be rewarded with a screen flash if
you can finish off your last opponent with the Premium
Sign. OK, so that's not likely to happen, since it takes
Dan a while to scribble his name onto the picture, and even
after he tosses it, it doesn't exactly rip through the air at
lightning speed.
Still, you could always use it if you're
out of super energy and still want to make it clear to your
opponent (and everyone in the room) that you've kicked his
keister. Also, you can use the light Premium Sign to
snuff out fireballs, or mix the occasional snapshot in with
your more substantial moves to annoy your rival and amuse your
friends.
Sadly, you're not going to find this
signature move in the recently released Street Fighter Alpha
Anthology... Dan has an M-ism mode there that's
supposed to give him all his moves from the Marvel
vs. series, but the Premium Sign is conspicuously
absent. For shame, Capcom!
CHOHATSU
(TAUNT)
TAUNT, duck and
TAUNT, jump then TAUNT
(in Match of the Millennium, +)
(in Street Fighter IV, + )
 Dan wasn't much more than a palatte swap of
Ryu and Ken in the original Street Fighter Alpha, but he did
have one ability that they, and the rest of the game's cast,
didn't... while they could only taunt once per round, he could
do it as often as he wanted. In Street Fighter Alpha 2,
Dan could taunt on land, in the air, and even in the sea (if
that puddle in Gen's round counts...), and taunting gave him a
slight boost in super energy, a feature that would become even
more useful when he was paired up with partners in Marvel vs.
Street Fighter.
There is a downside to this, of course...
when you taunt, you can't fight or defend yourself, and unless
you've put a good distance between yourself and your opponent,
they can drop a combo on you while you're nailed to the
floor. And if you're playing one of the Marvel vs.
games, it doesn't matter how far you are from the other
player... they can quite literally fire a screen-engulfing
laser at you faster than you can say "Oh-shabu-sha!"
Your best bet is to use taunts
defensively, and pass the super energy gained from them onto
your partner unless you're confident that Dan's own supers
will do the job. And whenever you jump away from your
enemy, especially in the Marvel vs. games, let out a
"Yahooie!" so the leap will serve two purposes... to preserve
the life you've got left and to charge up your super
meter.
Oh yes, one more thing... in Street
Fighter IV, the taunt serves no purpose except to annoy your
opponent. Don't waste a lot of time with it unless
you're extremely confident you can win, because it won't
charge Dan's Super or Revenge meters.
ROLLING
TAUNT
TAUNT
to roll forward (in Match of the Millennium, press +)
TAUNT to roll backward
(in Match of the Millennium, press  +)
(not available in Street
Fighter IV)
 Rolling taunt! Roooollling
taaaaunt! This is Dan's answer to the defensive roll Ken
earned in Street Fighter Alpha 2, only Dan ends his with an
insult. I don't recommend using this because it gives
your adversary two chances to tag you- the first is while
you're rolling away (rather slowly, I might add), and the
second is when Dan gets up and shakes his fist. And the
forward roll? Oy... You might as well forget that
exists. Only use the rolling taunt if you're really
desperate for super energy, because it'll charge you up faster
than the stationary or jumping taunts. The Rolling Taunt
is conspicuously absent from Street Fighter IV and its recent
update, so in the unlikely event that it's a cornerstone of
your strategy, you'd better come up with a new one fast.
SUPER MOVES
SHINKUU GADOKEN
(all
games but SVC Chaos)
HAOH GADOKEN
  (Super Street Fighter IV)
An enhanced version of Dan's fireball, this
drains one level of his super meter but has a lot more juice
than the regular Gadoken, doing a great deal more damange and
travelling a lot further. The Shinkuu Gadoken was practically
a wrecking ball in Marvel vs. Street Fighter, doing immense
damage at point blank range. The move lost a lot of that
pepper in the Alpha games, although you could get some
distance from it if you put a full meter of super energy
behind it. Match of the Millennium balances out the
Shinkuu Gadoken a bit... however, if you have a full super
meter when you perform it, Dan charges up for about two
seconds and lets go of Ryo's fireball, the Haoh-Oh-Ken,
instead! Super Street Fighter IV makes the Art of
Fighting reference even more obvious and unflattering, calling
the attack the "Haoh Gadoken" and knocking Dan flat on his
keister after he performs it.
 Generally, your best
bet is to treat the Shinkuu Gadoken like its less powerful
cousin, softening up your opponent with a jump kick or punch
then letting them have it with the attack when you land.
That way, you'll be nice and close to the enemy and the
Shinkuu Gadoken can do the most possible damage. It's
worth pointing out that Dan has been robbed of this attack in
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos. However, he has a similar
move, the Shin Gadouken, which can be performed at any time,
with or without energy stored in your super meter.
KORYUREKKA
(all games but Street Fighter IV)
 Yeech! With a move like this it's
no wonder most gamers don't give Dan the respect he
deserves. Dan leaps into the air with a Koryuken, then
does another, higher one. Neither of them have any reach, and
the odds of them doing any useful damage are about as high as
finding a parent who would leave their child in an empty room
with Michael Jackson. The worst part about this mistake is
that it's very easy to perform by mistake, so practice
a bit and try to disassociate the kick button with double
fireball motions. In the games without the Premium Sign,
don't use fireball motions with the kick button at all... that
way, you'll never have to worry about performing the dreaded
Koryurekka by accident.
HISHOU BURAI-KEN
(all games except Street Fighter IV)
(Street Fighter IV)
 Way back in the
original Art of Fighting, Ryo Sakazaki was given a secret
attack that could only be performed when his life was low and
his inner strength was high. Once performed, Ryo would
pounce toward his enemy and invest his ki in a kicking,
punching, clawing, maiming, stop with the hurting dance of
death that was without a doubt the most powerful attack in any
fighting game available at the time.
Dan's Hishou Burai-Ken is a more
conservative version of this attack... instead of rushing
toward his opponent and hoping to connect with an opening
blow, Dan wisely stays put and strikes repeatedly even if his
first attack is unsuccessful. This is different from
most of the autocombos in Capcom's fighting games, which are
an all or nothing bet... in an attack like Wolverine's Weapon
X, if the first hit doesn't meet its target, you'll be left
vulnerable, and your opponent will get the chance to make you
regret your mistake. However, if the Burai-Ken isn't
successful, Dan's rapid-fire punches and kicks offer him some
protection against counterattacks.
Like the Shinkuu Gadoken, the strongest
version of this attack was enhanced in Match of the
Millennium... after he's done wailing on him, Dan pops his
opponent into the air with an uppercut, then cocks back and
waits to intercept the sap on his way down with an especially
powerful punch. Naturally, the punch misses and Dan's
jaw hits the floor as the enemy drops safely to the
ground.
SISSHOU BURAI-KEN
(Street Fighter IV
only)
It's just like the Hishou Burai-Ken,
except different! Much of the difference comes from the
cinematic quality of the attack... Dan first prepares himself
with a dramatic kata, then unleashes hell on his opponent with
a series of devastating strikes. He finishes with
a water-powered uppercut that washes over his rival's
jaw, then turns to the camera for a quick thumbs up.
There's more to the Sisshou Burai-Ken than
good looks, however! As you'd expect from one of
Street Fighter IV's Ultra Moves, it's more powerful than
the standard Hishou Burai-Ken, but also more risky.
Rather than staying put, Dan races toward the opponent to land
the first blow. You'll know right away if it was a
success if the camera zooms in to the face of the poor sap
who's about to take a beating. If the enemy blocks or
dodges the opening strike, the camera will stay panned
out as Dan trips and lands face-first on the floor, giving the
opponent a chance to retaliate. It goes without saying
that you never want to start a Sisshou Burai-Ken unless you're
confident you can finish it.
Also, you truly dedicated fighting game
nuts who ran out and bought Super Street Fighter
IV should know that the upgrade will force you to
choose between the Sisshou Burai-Ken or Dan's new move,
the Gaoh Hadoken. Once you've chosen one of his
Ultra moves, you're stuck with it for the remainder of the
game or until you switch characters. Personally
speaking, the Sisshou Burai-Ken is the best move for my money,
and certainly the most entertaining. However, if
you're the kind of guy who absolutely insists on striking from
a distance... uh, why the heck are you choosing Dan in the
first place?!
CHOHATSU DENSETSU (LEGENDARY
TAUNT)
TAUNT, Marvel vs. series
(includes the M-ism mode in Street Fighter Alpha
Anthology)
, Match of the
Millennium
, Street Fighter IV
 People
call this move "worthless", but worthless is such an
ugly word. OK, well, in this case, it's also an accurate
one. But what the heck... even though a small child
could knock you out of this extended taunt, it's still fun to
try. Dan's actions in the Chohatsu Densetsu vary from
game to game... it's a rather plain series of rolling taunts
in Street Fighter Alpha 2, but in Match of the Millennium, Dan
will leave you rolling on the floor with his wacky
imitations of Kyo, Sakura, Chun-Li, Mai, and Akuma.
These wacky hijinx weren't included in Capcom vs. SNK 2,
sadly, but it does have the benefit of fully charging your
super meter if you can finish the taunt. It can be done,
at least against a computer opponent... one of my adversaries
just stood there watching the show while Dan spent several
seconds rolling around squealing insults.
OTOKO MICHI
(aka THE PATH OF MAN,
REVERSE SHUN GOKU SATSU, AND SUPER SUICIDE
SMASHER)
(in Match of the
Millennium,  )
(not available in the Alpha series or
Street Fighter IV)
 Dan glides toward his
opponent on wings of fury, clutches him in a death grip,
summons up all his inner strength, and creates an explosion
that rips him to shreds. Dan, that is. Don't
worry, though... his opponent is injured, too. Well, a
little. Now you know what your parents meant when they
said "this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you!" So
what the heck use is an attack that bruises your opponent and
puts you in a body cast? Well, it's a great finisher in
the Marvel vs. games if your enemy has lost one fighter and
his other one is barely standing... the Otoko Michi is just
the finger flick to the forehead you'll need to take him down
for good.
Just don't overestimate the Otoko Michi...
the other player may have enough energy to survive the blast,
but once Dan explodes, he'll be extremely vulnerable and won't
be able to recover any of the energy he lost. Also, the
other player can wriggle out of Dan's grip by violently
shaking the joystick and pounding the attack buttons... in
this case, Dan doesn't explode but he still loses the three
levels of super energy he needed to perform the attack.
And what else? Oh, yeah, as I'm sure you've heard
(probably either from Kao or Matt), the Otoko Michi is much
more powerful in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, changing Dan from the
game's comic relief to a powerful (but unreliable) smart
bomb. Just use Dan as you normally would, and when he's
lost most of his energy, perform the Otoko Michi on your
opponent's most annoying character (Wolverine comes to
mind). That fighter will lose half of their energy and
all you'll have sacrificed is three levels of super meter and
a team member who was already on the brink of
defeat.
ATTACKS IN CARD FIGHTERS'
CLASH:
 |
 |
DAN, CHARACTER
CARD:
Dan has an instant ability
called "What Gives?!" in both Card Fighter's Clash and
the sequel, Expand Edition... when this card is played,
both players lose six of their special points (used for
creating teams of attacking characters or playing action
cards). This happens because in SNK's earlier
fighting games, taunting would make your opponent lose
super energy. However, when Dan taunts, he GAINS
super energy, so maybe that should have been his ability
instead. |
|
SAGAT, CHARACTER
CARD:
Dan makes a cameo appearance
in this card... begging for mercy while in Sagat's
clutches, naturally. Anyway, this B ranked card
has an ability called True Power... when used, both
players must reveal their cards to one another, then
discard any action cards they may have had. It's a
pretty raw deal for everyone involved, but on the plus
side, Sagat's 1000 battle points makes him every bit as
threatening as he was in the Street Fighter games.
The two special points he gives you are a nice plus as
well, although you obviously won't be able to spend them
on action cards in that turn. |
 |
 |
HEY! HEY!,
ACTION CARD:
Dan and Ryo from The Art of
Fighting team up for a double taunt in this card.
When played, both players lose all of their special
points. This card has a high rating (a B,
specifically) but I never used it much, and eventually
traded it and two other cards for something that packed
more of a punch. It can be useful if your opponent
has an enormous amount of special points and you suspect
they've got a lot of action cards (or a Blodia, which
gulps down ten special points the moment it's
played). Still, in my opinion, it takes up
valuable deck space that could be put to better use with
a Showtime! or a
Grace. |
|
BOPPER, ACTION
CARD:
This D-rated card allows you
to knock out one of your characters and apply the damage
he took to one of your opponent's fighters. As you
can see, both Dan and his father appear in this card...
I assume that it was inspired by the Jun Goku Satsu in
Pocket Fighter. Anyway, the Bopper is kind of
crummy. You can use it to flush worn down
characters out of your ring, or negate an opponent's
character with one of your own equally powerful cards,
but Card Fighters' Clash has a lot of similar action
cards with more beneficial properties (like the ability
to instantly knock out two characters- one in your ring
and another in your opponent's- regardless of their
current hit points).
Dan does make an
appearance in Card Fighter's Clash for the Nintendo DS,
but... let's pretend that awful thing never happened,
shall we? You can't even beat the game without
sending it back to the manufacturer for a playable
replacement. No, they won't send you back either
of the Neo-Geo Pocket games. |
 |
ATTACKS BARELY WORTH
MENTIONING:
LOSER LASER: Dan
calls out his dead father, who fires a beam of light from the
tip of his oversized nose. So far, this is only
available in Pocket Fighter.
JUN GOKU
SATSU: Dan's father somehow reanimates himself
and glides over to the opponent. If Go manages to make
the tag, the screen turns white for a few seconds while hit
marks appear in the milky void. When the blinding light
vanishes, Go is shown with his back to the camera and the
enemy is face down in the dirt. This is very similar to
Akuma and Ryu's Shun Goku Satsu attacks, and again, this
appears only in Pocket Fighter.
MEGA FANTASTIC
SUPER TAUNT OF DOOM: Dan is possessed by his
conceited nature and for thirty seconds, all he can do is
taunt. The player can move him around the screen, but
pressing buttons just makes Dan insult his sparring
partner. This is only available in Street Fighter Alpha
3, and I must say that I would much rather have had the
Premium Sign.
YOU CAN QUOTE ME ON
THAT!
Perhaps it's because of his ego, or maybe
it's just that he's had so little experience with the
situation, but Dan is definitely not a graceful winner.
Just check out these insults he hurls at his rivals after he
knocks them out!
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA
2:
"My father could beat you, and he's
dead!"
(in response to the Asian martial artist
Guy)
"Well, grasshopper, you asked for it."
MARVEL VS. STREET
FIGHTER:
"Ha! You're weak... just like
me!"
"I'm sorry. No, you are!"
(the
best line since Golden Axe: The Duel's "Greetings from the
land of beatings!")
"I'm not tougher than you... just better
than you!"
"It's more fun to mock you than to fight
you!"
MATCH OF THE
MILLENNIUM:
"I'm no match for you,
snot!"
(presenting the world's most ironic grammatical
error!)
"You're lucky I held back,
droolbag!"
"You had guts... mop them up!"
"I am the man, for I am DAN!"
CAPCOM VS. SNK
2
"In the name of pride, I will
survive!"
"Check out my new exercise video series...
Seven Minute Saikyo!"
"Little girls tie bows [Tae Bo]... real
men Saikyo!"
(he's firing blanks today... namely, Billy
Blanks!)
"Dan is still the man! Yeah, baby,
yeah!"
"I need to start the official Dan Hibiki
fan club!"
(Sorry, Dan, but I'm pretty sure one already
exists...)
SNK VS. CAPCOM: SVC
CHAOS
"How about becoming my disciple? And
with that marvelous offer, you receive an outfit like
me!"
"Huff. Puff. Passed out,
eh...? Too bad. J-just when I was getting warmed
up! Gah ha ha!"
"My name is Dan Hibiki? Dan
Hibiki! Dan Hibiki! That's Dan Hibiki! Got
it!"
(I think I understand what the designers
meant to say, but this quote's still a little
confusing...)
(after beating Sagat)
"I did it,
Daddy-O!"
STREET FIGHTER
IV
"Underestimating me is a surefire way to
get hurt!"
"I stubbed my toe! I hope you have
good insurance, bub!"
"I just thought of a great new
taunt! Better write it down before I forget!"
ANYBODY GOT A
LAWYER?
The most painful part about being an
innovator is that once you've built that better mouse trap,
half the people who beat a path to your door are there to
"borrow" your idea, and months later, you'll find inferior
versions of your product ranging from the Mouse Clap to the
Rodent Remover on store shelves. When the Pokemon
cartoon series became popular enough to inspire a film, Fox
churned out suspiciously familiar shows and put them in
suspiciously familiar time slots, just to catch the attentions
of kids who'd normally spent the half hours before and after
Pokemon bouncing off the walls. When Brittney Spears
jumped on stage and mesmerized fans with her tit, I mean hit
songs, you could almost see the silhouette of Christina Augie
Doggie (or whatever her name is) backstage with a microphone
in one hand and a pair of soon-to-be-installed saline implants
in the other. And when Kao Megura created his own
tribute page to Dan, you just knew crappy knockoffs like
Saikyo Crusher were hanging on to the bumper of that bandwagon
for dear life. Oh, wait a minute, did I say that out
loud? Eh heh heh... Anyway, Dan's had his share of
admirers, and not all of them put that enthusiasm to good use
by creating tribute pages. Nope, a few of them have had
the nerve to leech from his Saikyo style, including the man
who inspired him in the first place. Apparently, SNK
didn't understand the point Capcom was trying to make with Dan
and turned their own character, Ryo Sakazaki, into a bit of a
wuss in the 1996 edition of The King of Fighters (he didn't
get his more powerful moves, like that totally cool machine
gun fist attack, back for two bloody years!). Even worse
is Hyo Amano, the arrogant goofball in The Last Blade who
wears a robe with a cherry blossom pattern on it and nearly
trips whenever he swings his wooden staff. He's the
closest thing to Dan you're going to find in a Samurai Shodown
clone, but it's just not as fun to use him. They say
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but in this case,
it's just obnoxious. After that, we've got-
Wait a minute, who's wooden sandals just
flew in here?!
"I'll take those, thank you!"
Wow, it's really you! Ladies and
gentlemen, it's award-winning martial artist and Saikyo dojo
founder Dan Hibiki! So hey, what brings you
here?
"Well, Jess, you were talking about
fighters who've taken my techniques and tried to pass them off
as their own. And while Ryo, Amano, and that punching
bag guy from Waku Waku 7 have all ripped pages from the book
of Saikyo without paying me a cent in royalties, nobody's
imitated my style more often or more shamelessly than
this jerk."
 Ouch! Son of a...!
OK, Dan. We're going to have to lay down a ground rule
here... if you want to show me any more pictures, you've got
to put them on this table instead of throwing them at
me.
"Sorry, force of
habit. As I was saying, this Mizoguchi-bag guy has taken
every one of my favorite attacks and turned them into a sick
joke. The worst thing is, this karate klepto actually
starred in his own Super NES game... those are MY moves,
dammit! If anyone should get his own Nintendo game, it
should be me! Just imagine... Street Fighter
Mythologies: Dan Hibiki. I know I'd buy
it."
Well, at least someone would. What's
got you so hot and bothered about Mizoguchi, anyway? He
looks just like every other martial artist in every other
fighting game I've ever played.
 "Looks like you're going to need to see
another picture. Check out the way this guy tosses his
projectile... with one hand. JUST LIKE ME! That's
a neat trick, though, making it look like a tiger like
that. I'll bet he's a real hit at children's
parties. I wonder if he can do a horsie or maybe an
elephant?"
Yeah, you have to wonder why he even
bothers. I mean, a fireball is a fireball. It
doesn't matter if it's shaped like a flaming orb, a predatory
animal, or even Abe Lincoln... it's still going to hurt like
hell when it connects. It seems like he'd be better off
putting that extra effort into making it larger and save the
clever shapes for his cigarette break.
 "Oh, it gets worse,
Jess. Here's Mizodouchie with his, or should I say, MY
second special move. Y'know, a little Tinactin would
clear that right up. It's the foot powder recommended by
nine out of ten overweight sports commentators!"
Do I detect a little jealousy there,
Dan?
"Not really. I
can do that, but the whole Hien-Shippu-Kyaku thing
never worked for me. I threw some flaming kicks at a
punching bag back when I opened my first dojo, but the damned
bag caught on fire! And since I hadn't practiced my fire
extinguisher kick earlier that day, the whole dojo went up in
smoke. It didn't help matters that all the walls were
made out of rice paper. Stupid Japanese
architecture..."
Riiight... anyway, I noticed you've got
one more picture in your hand. Let's see it.
 "Now this
is just sad. People call my Koryuken pathetic, but this
guy doesn't even leave the ground when he does his
uppercut. How the heck can you put any power behind an
uppercut if you don't jump first?"
Well, most boxers seem to
manage.
"Heh, well most boxers are dumb enough to
make Don King their manager."
Good point. I've got one question,
though...
"Fire away!"
Didn't the Fighter's History games come
out before you were introduced to the Street Fighter
series?
"Huh?"
You know, Mizoguchi was doing these moves
a good two years before you were.
"Really?"
Yup.
"Well, color me embarassed! I'd
better tell that helicopter not to dump the half ton of horse
crap on his house before... darn, it's past 4 'o clock
already. Oh well, mistakes will happen! I guess
I'd better head back to my dojo now, but before I go, here's
an autographed snapshot of your favorite martial artist and
mine!"
"Ow. Dan Hibiki, ladies and
gentlemen."
SPECIAL THANKS
 This tribute page just
wouldn't be o-ra-ra-riffic without the assistance of these
people, who provided me with resource material, emulators,
games, and all kinds of other support. Thanks to staffer
Kao Megura for his great FAQs as well as setting the
foundation for Dan fan sites with his own tribute page, the
guys at Saikyo.com for their own fun and informative site,
Matt DelGiudice for catching the Hibiki fever and creating his
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 strategy guide, Aaron Thacker for both his
letters and for naming one of the characters on this site,
Carl Schafer for the Dan, er, fan art, the boys at Sector:
NGP, (now available at Classicgaming.com!), Z-Force for his
awesome guide to Card Fighters' Clash, Judge of the Rather A
Pokemon Emulator, the anonymous creator of NGPocket, Gollum of
NeoPocott fame, and of course Capcom, for creating a great
character, and SNK, for ripping him off, and Capcom again, for
turning that rip-off into another great character, and SNK,
for ripping HIM off, and... well, you see where this is
going...
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