With the official new gameplay footage of Street Fighter V there is no more guessing, Charlie is in! With a new generation playing the Street Fighter titles it’s good to know who Charlie is.

Charlie is first mentioned by name in Street Fighter II, in which he is the military comrade, close friend and mentor of Guile. Guile’s motive for entering the Street Fighter II tournament is to avenge the death of Charlie, who was killed by the tournament’s host M. Bison sometime before the events of the game. Charlie was made into a playable character in Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams.

In the Alpha series, Charlie is a first lieutenant in the United States Air Force (USAF), assigned to track down Bison and uncover corruption within the American military. In his endings in the first two Alpha games, Charlie is killed by Bison and his men. He is first struck by Bison from behind in the first game, and in the second game he is shot in the back by his own men and thrown down a waterfall in Venezuela, however, Guile’s ending in the American version of Street Fighter II adds the location of Charlie’s death as Cambodia.

In Street Fighter Alpha 3, his ending shows him surviving the final battle and destroying Shadaloo’s secret base. In Guile’s SFA3 storyline, he is ordered by his superiors to track Charlie, who has supposedly gone AWOL. In reality, Charlie was undercover to investigate Shadaloo and its connection to the military, whereas Guile was sent to put a stop to him without knowing it. After realizing this, Guile teams up with Charlie and Chun-Li in order to destroy Bison’s Psycho Drive while Bison’s was regenerated after Ryu destroyed his body in the process. Guile escapes, while Charlie stays behind to hold off Bison and sacrifices his own life in order to destroy M. Bison permanently. Charlie is presumed dead after the explosion.

Charlie took the place of Guile in the early SFA series, and he was definitely a cool and unique character at the time of his debut. His majestic, yet ridiculous hairstyle defines him, and the fact that he fights very similarly to Guile instantly made him an intriguing & interesting character in the series, not to mention he taught Guile everything he knows, which makes him superior to Guile and even more interesting.

Previously Charlie had a basic move set very similar to Guile, this time around it looks like Charlie has upgraded, both his appearance and his moveset.
His previous moves: Sonic Boom, Somersault Shell, Dash, Knee Bazooka, Jump Sobat, Step Kick, Spin Back Knuckle, Somersault Justice, Sonic Break, Crossfire Blitz, all look different and it doesn’t seems like Charlie is on the “good” side this time around.