There are a lot of iconic fighting game characters. There's Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, Jin and Heihachi from Tekken, Sub-Zero and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and Kyo and Iori from The King Of Fighters (KOF).
Of course, female characters are particularly popular. There are plenty of empowered fighters that not only have cool movesets but help promote their respective games with cosplayers looking to bring them to life and inter-promotional campaigns: Chun-Li and Morrigan represent Capcom, Asuka and Lili represent Bandai Namco, and Sonya for Mortal Kombat, to name a few.
Interestingly, among all female characters in the mentioned games and companies, one character in recent memory crossed over in many games as much as Chun-Li. Her name is Mai Shiranui.
Mai Shiranui, Everywhere
Mai Shiranui first appeared in SNK's Fatal Fury series as a love interest of Andy Bogard. Her trademark red kunoichi (female ninja) attire attracted new players to the series.
Her first appearance outside Fatal Fury was in The King Of Fighters '94 where she joined a team of women participants to prove her worth to Andy. Terry's brother rejected her desire to join the Fatal Fury team for KOF. Since then, Mai has appeared in every KOF game (except KOF XII) and every Fatal Fury game except for the first.
Outside the SNK universe, Mai has appeared in Capcom's "versus" series in collaboration with SNK. These two franchises have a separate universe different from their respective companies and thus have their own canon. A few of these games are returning with the Capcom Fighting Collection 2.
Mai's cameo in other games snowballed from there. Some of her notable cameos are the following:
Honor Of Kings (HOK)
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+ 3I've played MOBA games before, and some titles include a collaboration with SNK. However, most of them only have cosmetic changes to the available characters.
Level Infinite's MOBA title, Honor of Kings, consists of four characters from SNK's fighting game: Charlotte, Ukyo, Nakoruru from Samurai Shodown, and Mai Shiranui. What's great about this game is that the four characters are standalone, playable with their own moves and skins.
Returning to Mai, her appearance in HOK also impacted higher levels of play. Among the available SNK characters, Mai is the only character banned in professional play's "Global Ban/Pick" system. This is due to her high damage output and strong crowd control that can turn the tides of the match.
Street Fighter 6
click to enlarge + 3Mai's appearance in Street Fighter 6, together with Terry Bogard, marks the first time a non-Capcom character appeared in a mainline Street Fighter title.
As expected, players picked her up even at the highest level, showing how "broken" she currently is. Despite this, her historic appearance in Street Fighter 6 is one for the books.
Dead Or Alive 6
click to enlarge + 3It is fitting that Mai would appear in Koei Tecmo's fighting game title, Dead or Alive (DOA). The game features ninjas and alluring female characters, including Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden. I wonder why it took five mainline games for Mai to be a guest character.
Her first cameo appearance was in DOA 5, but for the sixth installment, her moves were updated to match the ones in KOF XIV. The gameplay trailer for Mai for DOA 6 featured her fighting against Kasumi, one of the female protagonists, in a dream battle of two beautiful kunoichi. That said, it is clear that Koei Tecmo took notes from SNK, especially from Mai.
Mai Shiranui blends traditional Japanese aesthetics, modern sensibility, and the contrast between feminine allure and masculine strength. As I mentioned, in some games Mai appeared in, she's one of the strongest characters to pick, contributing to her legendary status in video game history.
Mai Shiranui is seemingly everywhere, especially now that a new Fatal Fury installment is nearing release. Will she be top-tier again? Only time will tell.
For more articles like this, take a look at our King of Fighters page.