Today Capcom announced the latest character to join the Street Fighter V roster, the “Phantasm of Snow and Ice”, Kolin.
But who the heck is this Kolin anyway? Why can she control ice? And what’s up with that sweet hat? Well then fighting game fans, allow me to educate you.
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While anybody who played Street Fighter V’s cinematic story mode will recognise Kolin as “Helen” in the story, Kolin’s first Street Fighter appearance was actually in Street Fighter III as an assistant to the Illuminati leader Gill.
While her appearances in Street Fighter III and Udon’s Street Fighter comic series show her to be a skilled fighter and a snappy dresser, she brings something new to the table in Street Fighter V with the ability to control ice. Part of the induction package for Gill’s Illuminati it seems, after six weeks with the organisation you get a company car and ice powers, welcome aboard.
Details on Kolin’s full move set are sketchy for the time being, but Capcom Unity offered a few tidbits on her abilities to tide us over:
V-Skill: Inside Slash
“Kolin’s unique counter allows her to deflect and automatically punish incoming moves with ease.”
A counter-hit attack that advances Kolin forward, this may be a good tool for pushing poke-heavy opponents towards the corner.
V-Trigger: Diamond Dust
“With a full V-meter, Kolin can slam the ground twice with her foot, each time shooting out a path of sharp icicles across the floor.”
What’s fascinating about this ability is that much like F.A.N.G.’s poison, Diamond Dust causes the unique status effect, in this case freezing the opponent’s stun meter. The stun bar being frozen means that it will not decrease over time, making it even harder for the opponent to deal with pressure, and if the stun meter gets full when frozen, the opponent is frozen in place.
Critical Art: Frost Tower
“Kolin dashes forward with a slice of her hand. If the attack connects, she’ll continue summoning large icicles from the ground, throwing the opponent into the air and shattering the ice to drop them to the ground.”
While it’s a fancy looking super, it looks like it may cause the same freezing status effect as Kolin’s V-Trigger, we’ll have to wait until more gameplay is shown before we’ll know for sure though.
While Capcom Unity only offered some solid details on Kolin’s abilities, the trailer offers a few more hints as to what we can expect. Here are a few of the more interesting things we picked up from scouring the trailer and what we think they could mean for Kolin.
First of all we have her V-Reversal, which looks like a throw reversal similar to R-Mika’s V-Reversal, leaving the opponent grounded and ready for a new setup.
Next up is Kolin’s repeated ice-hand stab move, while the standard version looks straightforward, the EX version appears to have the opportunity to follow up with a launcher and then a grab or a projectile.
Here Kolin is shown using some kind of counter-stance move, much like Gouken’s counter from Street Fighter IV, seeing it stop Urien’s EX Shoulder Tackle dead in it’s tracks illustrates how useful it could be against rushdown attempts.
Kolin is also seen summoning an ice projectile that is reminiscent of Glacius’ ice projectiles from the Killer Instinct remake. The delayed release of the projectile could make for some dirty mix-ups.
And lastly, we see here Kolin using her ice abilities to perform a double jump. This is the first character in Street Fighter V to use a proper double-jump, that extra mobility could get Kolin past all sorts of obstacles to get right in your face in no time.
With these new abilities it looks like Kolin is bringing some wild gameplay twists to Street Fighter V’s season 2. If this is a sign of what players can expect from the season 2’s characters, then casual fans and professional fighters alike are going to find themselves in for one hell of a ride this year.
Kolin will be available to play on the 28th of February and will include three extra costumes. Whether these costumes are premium costumes or can be bought with fight money we are yet to determine.
You can find out more at CapcomUnity.com
