Zangief

Zangief (; Japanese: ザンギエフ) is a fictional character in Capcom's Street Fighter series. The character was introduced as one of the eight playable characters in the video game Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991). In the game, Zangief primarily fights using grappling moves and is considered to be the first grappler-type fighting game character. The character was initially planned to be a strong but slow fighter placeholder named Vodka Golbalsky before eventually becoming a grappler after their name change, which derives from that of a Soviet wrestler. In the Street Fighter series, Zangief is a professional wrestler, nicknamed the , who hails from Russia and fights to prove the country’s superiority by triumphing over other nations fighters in combat.

==Conception and design== Designed by Akira Yasuda, Zangief was initially planned for Street Fighter II to be a very strong but extremely slow character to play as. Zangief was named "Vodka Gobalsky" as a placeholder; his name was later changed to Zangief after a wrestler from the Soviet Union. Early designs of the character closely resembled the character's finalized appearance, but with the addition of a black tanktop and anchor tattoo on his upper arms. In an interview with Game On!, Capcom Research and Development head Noritaka Funamizu stated that of the series' characters, Zangief was one of the most popular characters with American audiences, alongside Ryu and Guile.