The Jeff Of All Games Blog!: Character Spotlight: Charlie Nash (Street Fighter)

This feature will show off some of my favorite characters in video gaming. I will dive into their highlights, lowlights, origins, games they were featured in, and what makes them stand out as my favorite characters.

As we approach the release of Street Fighter V, I have been going back to older games in the series and getting myself ready to take on the competition once V hits PCs and PS4s in a few weeks. This has, inevitably, led me back to the fantastic Street Fighter Alpha series and to one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise who will be making his glorious (and a bit grotesque) return in Street Fighter V: Charlie Nash.

Bio:

First Appearance: Street Fighter Alpha (1995)

Most Recent Voice Actor: Jack Calabrisi (Street Fighter V, 2016)

Occupation: First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force

Claim to Fame: Guile's friend who ends up dying...a lot.

Fun Fact: Character was known as "Nash" in Japan, and "Charlie" in the U.S. It wasn't until much later, in the comics, that the moniker of "Charlie Nash" was used, and didn't make it into the games until Street Fighter IV.

While we didn't get to play as Nash until the Alpha series, he is mentioned in the first iteration of Street Fighter II (1991) as Guile's close friend who was killed by M. Bison before the Street Fighter Tournament. This leads to Guile entering the tournament to avenge Charlie's death. This, of course, led a lot of us to wonder just who this Charlie guy was. Why was he so important to Guile? What kind of man was he? Did he also have ridiculous hair like Guile?

We found out in Street Fighter Alpha, when we could finally play as Charlie, since the Alpha series takes place before the events of Street Fighter II. We also got to find out just how ridiculous his hair was. It's pretty awesomely ridiculous.

Since Charlie was such close friends with Guile, it was a no-brainer to give him Guile's special moves, especially since Guile himself didn't appear in the Alpha series until Alpha 3. Charlie has the Sonic Boom and the Flash Kick, albeit with a little change in animation. Personally, I love the character design, the vest / short pants / combat boots is a striking look, but it's all about the glasses and the hair. He always acted like someone I would want to get a beer with and listen to him tell war stories, or at least show me how to throw a Sonic Boom.

Problem was, Nash always found trouble in his relentless pursuit of M. Bison. Charlie was assigned to track Bison down and uncover corruption in the U.S. Military, which led to him, in both Alpha and Alpha 2, ending up dead. Hell, he got gunned down by a helicopter and thrown off a cliff in one ending, pretty damn brutal all things considered. In Alpha 3, however, Charlie survived in his arcade ending, and it wasn't until Guile was added into the home console versions, where Nash was killed in Guile's ending. Charlie Nash is the Street Fighter equivalent to South Park's Kenny is what I'm getting at here.

Nash would appear outside of the core Street Fighter series as well, seeing time as a playable fighter in both X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. He would also appear, alongside Cammy, in the action game Cannon Spike for the Dreamcast.

An alternate version of Charlie, named Shadow, would appear in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter as a hidden character, and in Marvel vs Capcom as an assist character. It was basically just Charlie's character design but all blacked out, and when he lands a move, it hits with blue flames.

While Charlie Nash has been treated relatively well in the games (minus the whole death thing), he has NOT been treated well when it comes to the silver screen. Remember Street Fighter: The Movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá in his final role? Well, Charlie appears in that movie, played by Robert Mammone, as Carlos "Charlie" Blanka. HA! Yeah, Dhalsim takes Charlie and transforms him into the beast known as Blanka. You know, I would love for Hollywood to take another pass at Street Fighter with today's technologies. I bet a new Street Fighter movie would be amazing. This franchise deserves better.

Though there was a Street Fighter based movie in 2009, and it featured Charlie Nash. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Man, if there is a character in the SF world that did NOT need a stand alone movie, it would be Chun-Li. Though, the actors/actresses they got should have made this really good. The late Michael Clarke Duncan as Balrog, Robin Shou (yeah, as in Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat) as Gen, Neal McDonough (Damien Darhk from Arrow and Dum-Dum Dugan from Captain America) as M. (MFin) Bison! Charlie Nash was played by Chris Klein (of American Pie fame) and was portrayed as a member of interpol. The movie is terrible, just don't bother. No attention paid to the source material and no ridiculous hair equals "NO THANK YOU!".

There may be a ray of hope though, as an upcoming miniseries, entitled Street Fighter: Resurrection, is focusing on Charlie Nash. Consider me cautiously optimistic.

All this brings us to the here and now that is Street Fighter V. Charlie has been revived and looks a little bit different. While we won't know specifics of what happened until V's release, the character model has appeared and you will see skin stapled on Charlie's face, chest, and arm, and his clothing is a little darker too. Something tells me he is a little pissed that he was gunned down and left for dead, and it will be very interesting to see just WHO he takes that anger out on. This clearly isn't the same Charlie from Alpha and it seems a dark turn is coming our way. Perhaps he will just have it out for everyone and go rogue. Either way, I am looking forward to finding out the answers when Street Fighter V gets released on PC and PS4 February 16th.

Pictures!

Street Fighter Alpha (1995)