Mai Shiranui

I am so freaking sick of reading “No Mai, No Buy” when I read about The King of Fighters XII on Kotaku. Seriously? Really? Granted, she has a massive popularity amongst otaku and, who along with her Street Fighter counterpart Chun-Li, where the first legitimate sex symbols of videogames – beating Lara Croft to the punch by years(suck on that, bitch). She started off as the love interest of Fatal Fury’s Andy Bogard and pretty much stalked him in every game they were both in, but then moved on to be one of the most jiggly 2D sprites of any commercial fighting game. She’s also a ninja who attacks with fans, fire, and sometimes nudity which is pretty much the depth of her character.

I won’t lie; I do find her very attractive for a fictional character, but not as much as Bonne Jenet, Vanessa, or Blue Mary – none of which along with Mai have been revealed(har, har) for KOF XII. But here’s what pisses me off: nobody is complaining about Mai’s absence from the game because she is a very useful character to have on their team. They want her for the same(and only) reason that the Dead or Alive series is popular: those sweet, voluptuous breasts.

I’m not crying out against hyper-sexualization in games. That’s just absurd. What does enrage me in this matter is that a bunch of people are threatening to not buy the game if a mediocre character does not appear in it, and make the rest of the fanbase look stupid, shallow, and pathetic by having to post publicly that they won’t buy the game for that very reason. There are way more awesome characters in the KOF universe that have yet to be announced for the latest installment. I’d rather have K’, Kula Diamond, Oswald, Yuri and Takuma Sakazaki, Rugal Bernstein, Yamazaki, Bonne Jenet, Heavy D!, and Vanessa before I would want to play as Mai. They are all better characters than Mai and far more interesting. Okay, maybe not Heavy D! but I wouldn’t mind the comeback of the sports team!

If people are going to complain about a lack of Mai, The King of Fighters ‘98: Ultimate Match is out on PS2 and that along with The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match will be out on XBLA in the not too distant future. Or you could just play DOA and stay the fuck out of my fandom.