Hugo

"You are so small! Aren't you scared?"

- Hugo, USFIV

Hugo (ヒューゴー), full name Hugo Andore, is a character first introduced in the Final Fight series, and later added to the Street Fighter series.

Appearance
Hugo is unbelievably tall. Standing at just under 8 feet, he is the tallest playable Street Fighter character in history. Hugo traditionally wears a pink leopard skin tank-top with darker pink jeans, brown boots, and black studded wristbands. He wears a thick chain from the back of his waist, to 3/4 of the way around his waist, ending at his hip. He has long, messy black hair, that bounces and moves around as he moves and attacks.

In the Street Fighter III series, his eyes are normally obscured by shadow during battle, giving him more of a sad look. During certain animations, they become visible, revealing that he has no pupils; later portrayals would make his pupils more visible.

Personality
Ever since his defeat and humiliation at the hands of Mike Haggar during the events of Final Fight, Hugo has been determined to assert himself as the number one wrestler in the world. Teaming up with Poison after the fall of Mad Gear in order to prove himself in the art of international fighting, he enters the third world warrior tournament. As well as showing determination, Hugo also takes a lot of pride in his size and extremely muscular build, to the point that he is sometimes very arrogant towards others.

Hugo is often depicted as being quite unintelligent and dim-witted (this is somewhat accentuated by his recurringly odd facial expressions) and he acknowledges this, befitting him to the "brainless muscle mountain" stereotype. However, he is very short-tempered and will make any excuse to get into a fight, specially if he or his best friend Poison is insulted in any form.

Concept
Hugo's design is an homage to famed real-life wrestler André the Giant, as well as those of the entire Andore family of enemies. His name is also the basis for the Andore surname.

One of Hugo's profile list his birthday on the same day and year (1946) as André The Giant. In addition, Hugo's unique intro animation with Alex is based on the famous match between Hulk Hogan and André, which took place at WrestleMania III.

Background
Hugo is a giant man raised on a farm in Germany, where he was fed mainly on potatoes. His mother encouraged him to grow big like a potato, which can thrive in meagre soil. He crossed over to North America when he was 20 years old, and was able to use his sheer size and strength to start a career in professional wrestling. Hugo was undefeated in both the wrestling world as well as the ultimate fighting world.

Final Fight series
Hugo Andore and several members of his family were prominent members of the Mad Gear Gang, although Cody outfought the elder members in a cage match in the West Side and Mike Haggar humiliated him in the original Final Fight, which infuriated the wrestler to no end; it made him so mad that in Final Fight Revenge, Andore attempted to give a televised broadcast to Haggar challenging him for the mayor-ship through a wrestling match, but unfortunately the broadcast was never aired. Andore and his family would continue to join Metro City's most prominent gangs for years to come, including a revived, worldwide Mad Gear in Final Fight 2 and Mad Gear's successor the Skull Cross gang in Final Fight 3. Even so, Haggar and his friends crushed each of these syndicates and Andore's hopes of glory.

Street Fighter series
In the Street Fighter Alpha series, Hugo can be seen in Street Fighter Alpha 2, where he makes a cameo in Guy's stage. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, a billboard advertising a wrestling match between Hugo and an unknown opponent can be seen in Cody's stage, and he can also be seen standing in front of a billboard promoting Mega Man in Guy's stage, alongside fellow Mad Gear members Poison and El Gado.

Ultra Street Fighter IV
After the breakup of the Mad Gear, Hugo eked out an existence as a construction worker living in a trailer. When a mob of former Mad Gear members came to his trailer looking for a fight, he was a broken man crying for his mother's potatoes. When one of the thugs says that he's like a potato himself and strikes him, Hugo becomes enraged and thrashes them all, deciding to go to S.I.N.'s new tournament to show his strength.

After defeating one of Bison's artificial beings in a wrestling ring, his former colleague Poison approaches him, offering to be his manager. Hugo declines, saying that he won't take orders anymore. Poison says that she won't be his boss, but that he could use her help because he has the brains of a potato. At this, Hugo becomes pensive. Poison interprets this as disinterest and announces that she'll leave him alone, as if she stays any longer she'll become a potato too. Hugo, excited, tells her that he will take her up on her offer and that she can be a potato too.

Street Fighter III series
Hugo made his debut as a playable character in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. He was originally intended to be playable in New Generation, and a prototype version of Hugo can be found in the game's data via the use of special codes or hacking, with only his basic moves finished and his sprite unshaded.

Deciding that the criminal lifestyle was not for him, Hugo entered the third World Warrior tournament, accompanied by his friend and fellow former Mad Gear member, Poison. His goal was to find a suitable tag team partner, due to his former one being mysteriously killed off by a rival.

During the tournament, Hugo battled with Ryu, a traveler constantly perfecting his fighting skills. In that battle, Hugo was hit by the Shin Shoryuken, Ryu's most powerful move, but he was not knocked out by it and continued to fight. Ryu was impressed enough by this to temporarily become Hugo's tag team partner in Hugo's ending in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Hugo and Poison also decided to start their own wrestling promotion, the Huge/Hyu Wrestling Army (HWA). Their main objective is to take over all of pro wrestling.

SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos
Hugo appeared as a playable character in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.

Street Fighter X Tekken
Hugo appears as a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken, with his manager Poison as his tag partner. In the story mode, Poison has been following the news and media of Pandora's Box, which has fallen in the Antarctic. At the same time, she's been managing Hugo as he aims to be the top professional wrestler in the world. She then realizes that travelling to find the box would be the perfect way for the both of them to make their mark.

Using whatever purse money Poison has left, Poison and Hugo journey to the Antarctic. During their journey, Poison and Hugo confront Steve Fox and Hwoarang. After Poison flirts with them and Hugo declares to them that they're (Poison and Hugo) "Number One", Steve and Hwoarang challenge them.

In their ending, after they defeat Ogre, Poison becomes more than disappointed that they found Pandora's Box and that there's no one there to see them with it. Hugo then suggests that there may have cameramen in the Antarctic and that they must have already evacuated. Poison, however, is still upset, and then tells Hugo about still wanting to be world famous, to which he happily agrees. Hugo then asks her what to do about the box, but Poison just calls it a piece of junk and leaves it. After they both leave, the box begins to glow and then disappears in an aura of blue.

Despite obtaining Pandora and having nobody to see their accomplishment, Poison returns to her original plan of having her and Hugo gain fame through sheer brute strength. Since they're both best skilled at professional wrestling, they both form their own wrestling association called the H.W.A. (as with their Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike ending). Hugo and Poison push their way into other wrestling competitions and force whoever they defeat to join their association. Whether or not they succeed in becoming the strongest wrestling association in the world all depends on Poison.

Family
The Andore family (pronounced Ond-Ray as in André) is a clan of pro wrestlers, and are also the strongest underlings in the Final Fight series.

Though Hugo is intended to be the first-born "main" Andore from the Final Fight series, Capcom's official info gives differing stats for Hugo and Final Fight Andore (though the same book lists different profiles for characters like Akuma and Shin Akuma).

An Andore appeared in the pit fights for Final Fight Streetwise; he was simply called "Andore", and according to several in-game characters, he is "legendary", hinting at the possibility of him being Hugo. Also, in Street Fighter X Tekken, if a Hugo vs. Hugo match occurs, the Hugo that wins will comment: "...Andore Jr.?".

Hugo's father, grandfather, and uncle all were last seen in Metro City with him, though only his grandfather has been seen since the fall of the first Mad Gear gang. All three dress in a fashion similar to Hugo with color variation: Grandpa Andore (G. Andore) wears a blue outfit in the original Final Fight and a gray outfit in Final Fight 2, also being slightly more tanned than his grandsons, Uncle Andore (U. Andore) wears dark-gray, and Father (Papa) Andore (F. Andore) wears yellow. Hugo's father is shown in a montage of the Final Fight cast to be significantly taller than his sons, and to wear glasses.

In addition, Hugo has two sisters, whose whereabouts are never disclosed. Hugo's mother still lives in Germany.

Trivia

 * Hugo is currently the largest character in the entire Street Fighter series, in both height and weight.
 * In Super Street Fighter IV, Hugo makes a cameo appearance in the Metro City stage. He is seen in the background with a bunch of other construction workers.
 * In Street Fighter EX3, "Zako B" has a similar build to Hugo.
 * Hugo and Q are both voiced by Len Carlson.
 * Bartholomew Kuma of the One Piece series closely resembles Hugo's current appearance, particularly his hairstyle and face.

Quotes
See: Hugo/Quotes