Street Fighter 6 DLC Trailer Shows Off Mai, Franchise's Second-Ever Guest Character

Casual fans could be forgiven for being surprised at our headline. After all, some storied fighting game franchises have been featuring guest characters for decades, like Spawn in Mortal Kombat 11, or Darth Vader in Soul Calibur IV. Street Fighter has done many crossovers over the years, with Capcom's iconic characters going fist-to-face with all sorts of fantastical foes, but it's only just recently that the legendary game series has started to allow outsiders to step into the ring.

The first guest character was SNK's Terry Bogard, frontman for the Fatal Fury series from SNK. Oldheads will remember the days when the Street Fighter versus Fatal Fury rivalry was as hot as Bird vs. Magic, Sega vs. Nintendo, or Armalite vs. Avtomat Kalashnikova. SNK has sadly fallen off a bit in recent years, but that makes it all the sweeter that Capcom is honoring its longtime rivals with its first two guest spots.

The second guest character, Mai Shiranui, is indeed from the same property. A skilled kunoichi (female ninja) and master of traditional Japanese dance, she utilizes both her ninja skills and her dancing abilities in combat. Mai didn't actually come around until the second Fatal Fury game in 1992, but she's become like the series' "Chun-Li", "the girl" (even though Fatal Fury has long had many female fighters.) Like Terry, Mai is also a staple in SNK's long-running The King of Fighters crossover series.

It doesn't take a genius to see why Mai is popular. Her buxom figure, salacious design, and teasing personality cemented her as one of gaming's first "fanservice" characters, and her use of literal fans as a primary element in her fighting style makes this quite a tasty pun. You may be surprised to learn that Mai is also popular with female gamers, though, who appreciate her unabashed design and cosplay-friendly outfits.

In Street Fighter 6, Mai will come along with both her original ninja outfit, loosely inspired by Japanese shrine maiden attire, as well as a more modern leather outfit that looks inspired by biker clothing. She arrives as the third fighter (after Terry and M. Bison) to be released as part of the "Year 2" updates for the game, which will finish up with the release of fan favorite Elena in the Spring. Mai officially releases for Street Fighter 6 on February 5th.