Rufus (Street Fighter)
is a character in Capcom's Street Fighter series of fighting games. Designed by Daigo Ikeno for Capcom's development team, he first appeared in the arcade version of Street Fighter IV and later in related promotions and media for the title. A very large, overweight martial artist, Rufus seeks to defeat Ken Masters, angered by his claim of being the "number one fighter in America". Along the way he instead fights many people he confuses for Ken due to similar attire or hair color, regardless of gender. The character is voiced by Wataru Hatano in Japanese, and Christopher Corey Smith in English. Since Rufus's introduction, the character has received a mostly positive reception. Though some criticism has been made over the character's design and aesthetic, the majority have praised the character as exceeding expectations based solely on his appearance. Character design While previous Street Fighter titles relied almost solely on Capcom's Research and Development branch, the development team instead allowed other branches of the company to give input on the design of new characters, due to the influx of fan requests from outside Japan. Rufus was designed based upon marketing research on what sorts of characters an American audience would enjoy