Poison’s Final Fight for an Identity

One video game character’s long, arduous journey across various titles

Final Fight, with its unique video game setting of Metro City, did a lot to popularize the Beat ’Em Up genre in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The game’s cast of characters was distinct and memorable, from protagonists like the wrestling mayor Mike Haggar to NPCs like the maniacal Rolento. One character, making their debut in 1989 with the release of Final Fight, would be one of gaming’s first transgender characters — Poison.

Art based on a picture of Poison in Street Fighter X Tekken. Edited by the author. By Joshua Livingston from Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Background by Yuri_B from Pixabay.

Discussions surrounding identity

For years, one of the most widely circulated stories about Poison’s origin is that Capcom made the character (and palette-swapped Roxy) transgender because they feared the American audience would react badly to players fighting cisgender woman. Akira Nishitani, one designer who had worked on Final Fight, is the main source for this account. Early information tells a different story, though.