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Zangief is a video game character created by Capcom. He is part of the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Zangief is revolutionary in the fact that his appearance in Street Fighter II marks the first time a player could control a predominant grappler in a fighting game. He also was the first "360o" fighter, whose main special move, a grappling move named the Spinning Piledriver, required spinning the joystick in nearly 360 degrees and pressing a punch button. The timing of this move is tricky, as Zangief will simply jump if the stick is tilted upwards for too long and often it has to be chained with another attack to get it to work properly. Mastering this maneuver would eventually pay off since, in the first few versions of Street Fighter II, the Spinning Piledriver is the most powerful move in the game for any character.

History

Zangief makes his first appearance in the original Street Fighter II as one of the original eight playable characters, appearing in all subsequent revisions of the game as well. In the Street Fighter II games, Zangief was characterized as a former professional wrestler who participated in the tournament to represent his country under the request of the Soviet President, an unnamed character resembling Mikhail Gorbachev (the actual or real life Soviet President at the time). The subsequent home versions takes into account Gorbachev's resignation from office by having Zangief address the character as "Mr. Ex-President", although Zangief still represented the Soviet Union in the games.

Zangief would return in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and its follow-up Street Fighter Alpha 3. In the Alpha series, Zangief is a national Russian hero nicknamed the "Red Cyclone" who becomes acquainted with Gorbachev at the end of Alpha 2 (the Alpha sub-series being set before Street Fighter II) and ends up fighting Shadaloo in Alpha 3.

Zangief has also appeared in all of Capcom's fighting game crossovers with Marvel, which includes X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. In the two Marvel vs. Capcom games, an alternate version Zangief named "Mecha Zangief" appears. Zangief also appears in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2, as well as in the Street Fighter EX games and, most recently, Street Fighter IV.

Gameplay

Zangief is a close range character as he is a wrestling type. Many of his moves are more complicated to pull off due to the 360o motions input required to perform the moves, making him a character for advanced players. Zangief is one of the slowest of all characters in the Street Fighter games and presents a large target, yet compensates for this with his evasive techniques (Spinning Lariat and Banishing Flat) can control large amounts of space whilst negating the ability of other characters to do so with their projectile moves, and his Spinning Piledriver can grab opponents out of most ground-based moves.

His "Spinning Piledriver" was the single most damaging special move in the original Street Fighter II series, until the introduction of T. Hawk, and is capable of 'sucking in' opponents from a surprising distance. Zangief's Flying Stomach block attack (U, D + FP) is the only standard move capable of dizzying a character in one hit in the Street Fighter II series. In most incarnations, Zangief is extremely dangerous against floored opponents as he is able to force them to block regular attacks so that he can pin them in place to deliver a powerful throw or hold. From Super Street Fighter II Turbo onwards, Zangief became capable of performing a dynamic rushdown with the addition of his Banishing Flat.

Film Portrayal

Zangief appears in almost every Street Fighter movie adaptation to date, although whether or not he will feature in the upcoming Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li has yet to be revealed.

In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Zangief appears very briefly during a brutal battle against Blanka to entertain an audience of crime bosses. He proves to hardly be a match for Blanka's abilities, and is last seen being electrocuted by him in a somewhat comical fashion due to his reaction of the process.

In Street Fighter II V, he is a henchman for Shadaloo, and sent by Bison to capture Ryu, whom he had seen displaying talents of Hadou on a beach earlier. Ryu resists, and they fight for a while until Zangief manages to knock him out (although he had kindly asked Ryu to come quietly). As they are leaving, Zangief spots Guile watching them from afar, an later on, while Guile and Nash are infiltrating Bison's base, Zangief corners Guile with the intention of killing him (under Bison's orders). Guile and Zangief fight a long, violent battle which takes its toll on both fighters, until Guile manages to knock Zangief out with a severe blow to the head. He is not seen again after this, and it is implied that he most likely escaped the explosion of Bison's base.

He makes another small appearance in Street Fighter Alpha: The Movie as a competitor in a fighting tournament. He does battle with Shun and begins to ruthlessly beat the boy to within an inch of his life until Ryu intervenes and battles Zangief. Zangief appears to have the upper hand, and Ryu, enraged, almost gives in to the Dark Hadou and fires a lethal dark Hadouken which narrowly misses Zangief but causes the building to collapse. Zangief, stunned by Ryu's power, subsequently falls through the crumbling floor.

He is portrayed by Andrew Bryniarski in the live-action Street Fighter movie, and is once again a lackey of Bison's, only this time, he truly has a good heart and believes that the A.N., and not Bison, are the enemies of world peace and freedom. During the climactic battle, Zangief battles E. Honda, who appears to have the upper hand. After the battle ends, he is told by Dee Jay that Bison, was in fact, the evil one, and had been fooling Zangief the whole time. To redeem himself, he helps Ryu and Ken hold the emergency exit door open for the hostages to escape. He is last seen complementing Guile's bravery, and gives him the thumbs-up when he emerges from the explosion alive.

In the CollegeHumor comedy web-series Street Fighter: the Later Years he was portrayed by Mike Fass who was also the producer for the series. Fass will reprise his role as Zangief in the upcoming Street Fighter Reunion TV series.

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zangief/