Hugo

"You are so small! Aren't you scared? (オマエ小さいな. 怖くねぇのか？)"

- Hugo (Street Fighter IV series)

Hugo (ヒューゴー), referred to as Andore in the Final Fight series, is a video game character who debuted as a common enemy in the beat-em-up game Final Fight, before appearing as a playable fighter in the Street Fighter series starting with Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. He is a professional wrestler managed by long-time friend Poison, both of whom were former members of the Mad Gear Gang.

Appearance
Hugo is a muscular hulk that stands at just under 8 feet. Prior to Abigail's playable debut in Street Fighter V, Hugo held the mantle of being the tallest Street Fighter character in the series. He is also one of the heaviest. Hugo usually 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.

In his Street Fighter V profile art, Hugo wears a pink leopard wrestling jumpsuit with a strap over one shoulder, a large, black belt and brown boots. He also wears a chain as a necklace and studded bracelets.

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.

Hugo is often depicted (especially in recent portrayals) as somewhat typical "dumb muscle", being quite unintelligent and dim-witted; this is somewhat accentuated by his odd facial expressions, and he even occasionally acknowledges this. However, he is very short-tempered and will make any excuse to get into a fight, especially if he or his best friend Poison is insulted in any form. Hugo also takes a lot of pride in his size, strength and extremely muscular build, to the point that he often claims to barely feel most attacks as a taunt of sorts.

In Ultra Street Fighter IV, Hugo is revealed to have a fixation on potatoes, as he can be seen talking about them frequently in his win quotes against other characters. To Hugo, potatoes are a symbol of strength and manhood, as his mother had inspired him to "grow like a potato" in childhood.

Concept
Hugo's design is a homage to famed real-life wrestler André the Giant, as is those of the entire Andore family of enemies (likely intended to be named Andre). His updated design for Street Fighter V also features a costume similar to Andre's well-known jump suit.

One of Hugo's profiles 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.

Minor inspirations also appear to be taken from professional veteran weightlifter and actor Lou Ferrigno, who portrayed the Incredible Hulk in the 1970s and was the central character of the deathmatch martial art film series Cage.

Poison
Poison is Hugo's wrestling manager and former Mad Gear cohort. The two are on good terms with each other.

Ryu
Ryu is impressed by Hugo's ability to withstand his Shin Shoryuken and became his tag team partner for a while.

Mike Haggar
Hugo holds a grudge against Haggar, after the wrestler humiliated him in a match.

Belger
In Final Fight, Hugo (Andore) works for Mad Gear led by Belger.

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.

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. She was briefly seen in in Hugo's prologue opening in Ultra Street Fighter IV.

Final Fight series
Hugo (known as Andore at the time) 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. When a mob of former Mad Gear members came to him looking for a fight, he was uninterested. Instead, they found him feeling homesick, 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. Performing certain attacks on him may cause him to become invisible or freeze the game.

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.

Street Fighter cartoon
Hugo, or one of his family members (which is the more likely case, as the cartoon predates the creation of Hugo as an individual character), appeared in the animated 1995 Street Fighter TV series.

Ryu Final
Poison overhears Oro's predicament on his and Ryu's limited income and suggests a way to earn some extra cash by participating in a three-minute match against Hugo.

During the fight, Hugo is adamant about fighting because of his desire to make his mother proud, but after some goading from Poison, Hugo violently emerges from Poison's trailer truck and the two begin their fight. Ryu is stymied by Hugo's monstrous size, but fights on despite having his energy drained due to Oro's boulder training. The fight is evenly matched, Hugo wanting to end the match with his Moonsault Press attack, but is forbidden by Poison from using it. Hugo becomes frustrated by Ryu's persistence and eventually convinces Poison to let him to use the Moonsault Press to end the match. As Hugo prepares to complete the attack, Ryu counters with a Shoryuken. The simultaneous attacks ends the exciting three-minute match with a double K.O. With both fighters content with the end result, they collect their earnings and go about their separate ways.

Later in Thailand, Hugo is shown attacking Sagat, with Poison shocked at Sagat's resistance as Hugo's knuckles begin to bleed. They exchange insults (Sagat with stating Hugo's inadequacies and Hugo declaring his superiority over Sagat by the result of his fight with Ryu). Sagat mocks Hugo's lack of advancement after facing Ryu and ends the fight with his killing strike, the Tiger Knee.

UDON comics
In the comics, he took part in the 2nd world warrior tournament, where he fought against Ken and was defeated.

He was supposed to fight R. Mika in a match but withdrew and was substituted by Poison, who lost.

Fighting style
Hugo fights using Pro wrestling. He is the epitome of a prodigy heavyweight wrestler, enormous in size and with sheer brute strength to match.

Moveset
Though many of his basic attacks and specials come out somewhat sluggish and rigid, they can utterly decimate opponents when used correctly as many of them have immensely far range, do large damage and even have armor; his EX Monster Lariat in particular, can absorb an infinite number of hits during the running as long as they do not possess armor break properties, a notable example of this is Hugo's ability to use this move to run through, and punish Ryu's Metsu Hadoken. These moves can end matches effortlessly and quickly. Especially if Hugo has the opponent in a corner. However, his sheer size can also be his downfall as Hugo is incredibly slow and has very short jumping range. This can leave many opponents to take advantage of Hugo's speed and agility by keeping him at bay with frequent projectiles.

Trivia

 * Hugo is the only common enemy to appear in every Final Fight game.


 * In Super Street Fighter IV, Hugo makes a cameo appearance in the Metro City stage, "Skyscraper Under Construction". He is seen in the background with a bunch of other construction workers. In Ultra Street Fighter IV, in which Hugo is a playable character, the background character is a generic character of similar stature to Hugo if he is selected while playing in this stage.


 * In Street Fighter EX3, "Zako B" has a similar build to Hugo.


 * Hugo and Q are both voiced by Len Carlson in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.


 * Bartholomew Kuma of the One Piece series closely resembles Hugo's current appearance, particularly his hairstyle and face.


 * His nervousness around steel pipes swung as a weapon likely stems from how they were used in Final Fight as a good ranged weapon, especially against the bigger enemies; ironically, the original arcade poster for the game depicts him failing to attack Cody with a steel pipe and lying on the floor bleeding and in pain, having been dealt a hard punch to the face.

Quotes
See: Hugo/Quotes

Gallery
Hugo/Gallery

Sprites
Hugo/Sprites