The latest installment in the "Street Fighter" franchise has only been out officially for a few months. However, that is more than enough time for players across the globe to figure out and come out with their own tier list.
Unfortunately for Zangief, one the original eight world warriors from "Street Fighter II," the tier list has not been so kind. Currently, the Red Cyclone finds himself near the bottom of the tier list as several of his staple moves from other installments have been removed in "Street Fighter V."
But, is Zangief really that bad? Here is a short overview at what the character has lost from his "Ultra Street Fighter IV" version and what he has gained.
Gone for Zangief is probably his most useful tool for maneuverability and projectile defense, the "green hand" also known as banishing flat. Green hand was used by many Zangief players as way to keep pressure on distance characters like Dhaslim and Ryu, but now the character has to rely on his v-skill to defend against projectiles and long range attacks.
Zangief also has the longest start up in his normal attacks in the game. His fastest attack comes out at a whopping four frames. For those who do not what that means is that it if an opponent's attack is faster say at two frames, Zangief's attack will get crushed or countered leaving the character vulnerable to high damage combos.
Long time pro players such as Darryl "Snake Eyes" Lewis has even complained that Zangief is remarkably weaker in this version of "Street Fighter" and that he gets worse with each new character added.
Lewis has stated in an interview that he has actually started to learn other characters such as Alex in case a matchup is impossible with Zangief. Which, according to Lewis, there are more than one and that the matchup against Nash and Guile are basically unwinnable.
It has gotten so bad that fans of Zangief have begun a petition in hopes that the team in Capcom will fix the character in hopes that these moves will be placed back in the game in a later patch.
Currently, the petition has not picked up a lot momentum but there have been petitions in the past that Capcom has listen to. One such petition is to return popular characters such as Rainbow Mika and Karin to the game, so fans of Zangief do not give up hope yet.