Elena (Street Fighter)

Elena (エレナ) is a fictional character in the Street Fighter series. She first appeared in the arcade game Street Fighter III: New Generation, and appeared in several revisions of it, including Street Fighter III, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. She is a member of a small tribe from the African Savannah and is an expert in the fighting style of capoeira which entails only the use of one's legs to fight. She aspires to study abroad. While she was rumoured to appear in Super Street Fighter IV, it turned out to be false; it was later confirmed that she "barely missed the cut" for inclusion.

Her appearance in Street Fighter III was met with generally positive reception, and was also a popular choice for inclusion in Super Street Fighter IV from sources such as GamesRadar and Gamasutra.

Concept and characteristics
Elena is the young daughter of a small tribe from the African Savannah. Her father, the patriarch of the tribe, has a doctorate from a French university. Elena was raised in the vast nature of Africa and she aspires to study abroad like her father did before her. Her fighting style is capoeira and she fights using only her legs. In her ending, Elena ends up being transferred to a high school in Japan as an exchange student, where she has befriended a young Japanese girl named Narumi (ナルミ) and writes home to her parents about her experiences. Her story does not change much in 2nd Impact, although Elena has an additional role as one of Hugo's potential partners in one of his multiple endings as "Elena the Wilderness Warrior", becoming the tag team of "Beauty and the Beast". In 3rd Strike, a year has passed since Elena has left Japan to study abroad in France during the new year. Before beginning her studies again, Elena decides to street fight once again to seek new friends. In her ending, Elena writes back to her Japanese friend Narumi after returning to France from spending her summer vacation in Japan again. She invites Narumi to visit her in Africa during her winter vacation. She was considered for inclusion in Super Street Fighter IV, but "barely missed the cut"; Capcom employee Christian Svensson wrote that she was the "next tier down".

Appearances
To date, Elena has only appeared in Street Fighter III and its subsequent expansions, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Her fighting style is capoeira. She is noted for her unique gameplay style; she only uses kicks in her fighting style and is the only character who can heal, which she uses her Super Arts to do. She was rumoured to be included in Super Street Fighter IV.

She also appears in a cameo in the beach stage in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix and also in the London stage in Capcom vs SNK 2. She is also one of the playable Capcom character cards appearing in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series.

Promotion and reception
In her article on black characters in video games, game designer Brenda Brathwaite cited Elena as a character who has a stereotypical design, though fellow game designer Seth Smith noted that black players tended to gravitate to such characters. Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield expressed a desire to see her in Super Street Fighter IV, calling her his favourite character. Reparaz chose Elena as one of the 12 most-wanted Street Fighter characters for Super Street Fighter IV due to "wearing almost nothing and acrobatically showing off her crotch at every opportunity" and fluid animation in Street Fighter III. He added that she was "much more than just a bikini-clad tease with impossibly fluid and graceful movements" and called her a "lot of fun to play [...] the exact polar opposite of Balrog". UGO Networks included her on their "Top 50 Street Fighter Characters" list, ranking her at #25 and noting her uniqueness of not only having the ability to heal in-game, but also only using kick-based attacks. PlanetXbox360 shared the sentiment, listing her as one of the characters they most wanted to see in Street Fighter IV while further adding that "...Elena would bring a lot of depth to character roster that truly needs more women representation [..] if guys drool over Cammy’s legs, then Elena should make them blush in the company of other women."