Zangief

Zangief(ザンギエフ) is a video game character created by Capcom. He is part of the Street Fighter series of fighting games.

Biography
As the greatest professional wrestler in the Soviet Union, Zangief was contacted by a man referred to as Erai Hito (Great Man) to represent his country in the second World Warrior tournament; this individual clearly resembles former Soviet leader and President, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Zangief agreed and began training in the extreme climates of Siberia. He built his strength by wrestling polar bears, gaining many fearsome scars in the process, concocting his trademark Spinning Piledriver after being picked up by a cyclone while performing a piledriver on a bear. With the assistance of his government, Zangief emerged from his training as "The Red Cyclone", determined to demonstrate Russia's magnificent power to all of the world.

A patriot through and through, Zangief opposed the activities of Shadaloo. During the course of his battles, Zangief would come to meet one of his biggest fans, the Japanese pro wrestler R. Mika, co-operate with the Sumo wrestler E. Honda to destroy M. Bison's Psycho Drive, co-operate with X-Man Colossus against Omega Red, and dance with his Gorbachev - like benefactor after winning the World Warrior tournament; in later editions in the Street Fighter II series, Zangief calls him "Mr. Ex-President", yet Zangief is listed as being from the USSR, making it unclear as to whether these events take place before or after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Most of the above events are considered non-canon, as they contradict the versions of events pertaining to central characters such as Ryu and Charlie Nash.

Gameplay
Zangief is a close range character as he is a wrestling type. Many of his moves are more complicated to pull off due to the 360 motions input required to perform the moves, making him a character for advanced players. Zangief is one of the slowest of all characters in the Street Fighter games, and presents a large target, yet is widely considered bottom-tier as he cannot control large amounts of space nor effectively negate the ability of other characters to do so with their projectile moves, with evasive techniques such as Spinning Lariat and Banishing Flat and the ability of his Spinning Piledriver to grab opponents out of most ground-based moves.

His "Spinning Piledriver" was the single most damaging special move in the original Street Fighter II series, until the introduction of T. Hawk, and is capable of 'sucking in' opponents from a surprising distance. Zangief's Flying Stomach block attack (U, D + FP) is the only standard move capable of dizzying a character in one hit in the Street Fighter II series. In most incarnations, Zangief is extremely dangerous against floored opponents as he is able to force them to block regular attacks so that he can pin them in place to deliver a powerful throw or hold. From Super Street Fighter II Turbo onwards, Zangief became capable of performing a dynamic rushdown with the addition of his Banishing Flat.

Actors
In many games, Zangief is voiced by Wataru Takagi. In the Capcom vs SNK series, Tesshō Genda voices Zangief. In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, he is voiced by Tetsuo Kanao (Japanese) and William Johnson (English).

He was played by Andrew Bryniarski in the Street Fighter movie. Here he was a lackey of Bison's and served as comic relief in the movie, uttering silly lines at inappropriate times (for example, after seeing televised feed of a truck loaded with explosives about to crash into the villains' camp, he yells out, "Quick! Change the channel!"). He also had a long fight with E. Honda and one "hero moment" near the end of the movie. Zangief was also a loyalist to Bison until Dee Jay explained Bison was the "bad guy." Zangief then learned that Bison promised Dee Jay that he would be paid, while he himself was not.

Character Development
Zangief's name is possibly based on real-life pro wrestler Victor Zangiev, a former Soviet amateur who trained as a professional in NJPW, and who also competed in WCW and UWF International. Zangief's prototypical name was Vodka Gobalsky. Zangief's biography apparently plays upon the association between Stalinist regimes and state-funded athletics programs utilising body-building drugs following the domination of the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships by the Soviet Union.