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We don't know about you, but when we picture Street Fighter these days, we don't just think about that time we got beaten up in our very first ranked match - we see vibrant colours and a lot of style. Street Fighter V is perhaps the most stylish entry in the series, but according to Japanese publication Game Spark, it didn't always look the way that it does.

In an interview with producer Koichi Sugiyama, kindly translated by EventHubs, it's revealed that during development, a "photorealistic" art direction was considered, but was never fully implemented. "For Street Fighter V, we were working with Unreal Engine 4, which is known for being particularly good at rendering photorealistic visuals," Sugiyama explains. "In fact, in the very early stages of development, we actually put together a build of Street Fighter V that was rendered in photorealistic graphics."

So, why didn't we end up with a game that sports realistic Zangeif body hair? Sugiyama says that, ultimately, it was just a step too far from what's expected of the franchise: "we realised that it just wouldn't be Street Fighter without the bold, anime-esque look and feel to the game, so we decided to shelve the whole photorealism idea altogether." And so, banana-hair Ken was born.

Can you imagine a super realistic Street Fighter? Would Jean-Claude Van Damme be used as a reference for Guile? Try not to remember the live action move in the comments section below.

[source gamespark.jp, via eventhubs.com, gamespot.com]