The official Capcom artwork team Twitter account shared some of the early character designs for Street Fighter III. Some of the characters have little blurbs that explain how they would have played. Apparently, the team had even considered putting in a velociraptor (like the actual dinosaur), though evidently this idea did not make it past the drawing board.
You can see the initial Street Fighter III character designs here:
The second character after the velociraptor is an “American Ryu” who can use aikido. He would have been a passionate New York cop. Next to him is “Pankration Guy,” and after him is “Jiu-Jitsu Practitioner.” The Jiu-Jitsu Practitioner would have only used throws and holds, though they are blockable. When he uses his kiai, he can cause his enemies to stumble and become unable to get up. Also, the Jiu-Jitsu Practitioner would have had a pretty wife.
Other characters we can see in the early character designs include a street dancer, an assassin, a marionette master, and a businessman. It is unclear how the businessman would have fought against martial arts practitioners on the level of Ryu or Chun-Li. The street dancer, on the other hand, would have used capoeira. The majority of his moves would have utilized his feet and legs.
Street Fighter 6, the most recent entry to the Street Fighter series, will come out in 2023 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC. You can read our preview of the game here.
