Baby Bonnie Hood

Baby Bonnie Hood (B.B. Hood for short), named Bulleta (バレッタ Baretta?) in Japan, is a fictional character from Capcom's Darkstalkers fighting game franchise. She was introduced in Darkstalkers 3 in 1997 as the only non-supernatural human playable in the series.

Contents

1 Appearances 2 Reception 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Appearances

In Darkstalkers 3, B.B. Hood is a psychopathic child bounty hunter of monsters hailing from Northern Europe[2] who employs various modern weapons such as an Uzi submachine gun (sometimes substituted by a MAC-10),[3] land mines, knives, and (apple-shaped) grenades—an arsenal she carries inside her picnic basket that itself doubles as a rocket launcher—all in her missions of hunting down Darkstalkers during the encroachment of Makaian creatures onto Earth. Though she fights evil as a Darkhunter like Donovan and Hsien-Ko, she is motivated primarily by profit and her own heart was dark enough that Jedah considered her a Darkstalker and therefore transported her into Majigen.

B.B. Hood is the only fully human playable character in the Darkstalkers series.[4] She has a little dog for a pet called Harry (ハリー), who is two years old during the events of Darkstalkers 3. The two mercenaries who appear in B.B. Hood's "Beautiful Hunting" move are named John and Arthur (ジョンとアーサー); the man who appears in one of her winning poses is known only as Mr. K.[5]

She is also playable in the crossover fighting games SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium[6] and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes,[7] is a hidden character along with Mega Man[8] in the Capcom shooter Cannon Spike[9] (for which she joined the game's cast on the October 2000 cover of GameFan),[10] and also appears as cards in SVC: Card Fighters 2 Expand Edition and SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS, as well as in Onimusha Soul in redesigned versions.[11][12] She makes cameo appearances in Capcom Fighting Evolution (in the Underworld stage and in Pyron's ending), Pocket Fighter (in Dhalsim's Toy Shop stage),[13] and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (on a wanted poster in the "Days of Future Past" stage). Frank West "cosplays" as B.B. Hood in the "Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX plus α" downloadable content for the survival horror beat 'em up game Dead Rising 3.[14] She is also going to appear as a Rival Unit in the upcoming tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2.[15]

B.B. Hood also appears in other Darkstalkers media, such as in Mayumi Azuma's manga Vampire Savior: Tamashii no Mayoig (and is depicted on the cover of volume 2). In Darkstalkers comics by UDON, B.B. Hood appears in the side-story "The Silver Necklace" in issue 6 (whe she is depicted on an alternate cover).[16] Toys featuring the character include a Capcom figure released in the West in the Video Game Super Star series,[17] as well as several other figures released only in Japan (mostly licensed to Yujin).[18]

Her character design and name are a blatant play on Little Red Riding Hood, with her violent personality serving as a severe contrast to the innocent naïvete of her namesake. Akiman stated in his design notes that every other Darkstalkers character has been inspired by an archetype from mythology, folklore and popular culture, but B.B. Hood was inspired by the sinister qualities of the human race itself, as no monster can compare to how terrifying humans can be when motivated by greed or ambition and fueled by malice. B.B. Hood thus personifies humanity's dark side.[19] During development of Darkstalkers 3, after the design of B.B. Hood was finalized, the team could not figure out how this character should move in-game. Akiman then drew B.B. Hood's moves and poses on several sheets of paper, and pitched them to the graphic department. B.B. Hood is the only character to have a double jump in Darkstalkers 3. Enormous character stands of her and Lilith promoted Darkstalkers 3 at the Japanese arcade trade show AOU '97.[20] Reception

B.B. Hood was named the best arcade game character of 1997 by Japanese magazine Gamest.[21] Matt Yeo of Sega Saturn Magazine described her as "a really cool original character" while citing the viability of her attacks.[22] She finished fourth behind series mainstays Morrigan, Felicia and Demitri in a fan-voted Darkstalkers favorite-character poll hosted by GameFAQs,[23] while Complex ranked her 22nd in their 2012 list of the fifty most dominant fighting game characters.[24] WatchMojo.com placed this "embodiment of a dark twist to the Charles Perrault story" eighth in their 2014 ranking of top female fighting game characters.[25] Michał R. Wiśniewski from WP.pl noted B.B. Hood as a visually unique player character in Darkstalkers, as all the others can be divied as either horrific or sexy,[26] while Patrick Roesle of Hardcore Gaming 101 declared her "hands down the best idea for a fighting game character in the history of ever."[27] Cisqua from the manga series Elemental Gelade by Mayumi Azuma was partially modeled after B.B. Hood as stated in the author notes.[28]