Hugo is a character from the Final Fight series and Street Fighter III. He also appeared in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
Story
Brutal and sadistic...two of the adjectives most frequently used to describe the Mad Gear Gang. Yet somehow, neither of those words seem to measure up to the monstrous 7'2 Hugo and his gigantic relatives.
For over four generations, the Andore family made its living as circus strongmen in their native Germany, often astounding the crowds with their awe-inspiring strength. But while the elder members of the clan seemed content with carnival life, the youngest Andore saw great opportunities for the clan elsewhere, and with a fistful of dreams, eventually persuaded his family to come with him to America.
Filled with ambition, Hugo wanted nothing more in life than to be a professional wrestler. Though he and his kin had wrestled many times before in the carnival, the spectacle of American wrestling was so much more alluring. The fame, the fortune, the excitement...Hugo wanted to experience it all, and at any price.
For years, Hugo competed on the independent circuit. But while the promoters were greatly impressed with his size, his in-ring skills were incredibly slow to evolve. And in the words of one promoter, Hugo apparently 'did not know his own strength', and several wrestlers suffered career-ending injuries as a result. In the end, the promoters decided Hugo was simply too much of a liability, and released him from his contract.
While it seemed as if Hugo's dreams of wrestling stardom had been permanently dashed, a promoter of a different kind had been watching him very closely throughout his career, waiting for an opportunity to mold this giant to his cause.
As it turned out, manipulating Hugo Andore was much easier than Horace Belger expected. Promising to finance his wrestling career if the big man would come to work for him, Belger acquired the services of Hugo Andore and his massive kin. Though the Andore family was initially reluctant to aid a criminal like Belger, for the sake of Hugo's future, they decided to go along with the deal.
It was a deal, however, that would never come to fruition. Shortly after the Andore clan became part of Mad Gear, the trio of Mike Haggar, Cody and Guy swept through Metro City with a vengeance. In the chaos that followed, Hugo Andore and Haggar eventually crossed paths. While the fight itself was little more than a skirmish, Haggar's blind rage gave him a distinct advantage over the enormous Hugo, and in the end, he emerged victorious.
Though the Andore clan eventually returned to Germany after Mad Gear's demise, it was a loss that Hugo Andore never managed to live down. As a young man, he had followed Mike Haggar's wrestling career, marveling at the man's uncanny ability in the squared circle. He had even dreamed of meeting Haggar at one point, though under much more amiable circumstances.
Now as a wrestler, Hugo saw his loss to Haggar on the streets of Metro City as grounds for a challenge. With Poison, another ex-member of Mad Gear as his manager, he made his return to pro wrestling with the single-minded purpose of destroying Mike Haggar. He even went as far as to issue a public challenge to Haggar, but it was never aired in the States.
In training for his match with Haggar, Hugo recently competed in an underground street fighting tournament, where he was said to have felt the awesome might of Ryu's Shin Shoryuken without being knocked out.
To this day, Hugo's challenge has never been answered. But the man-giant has never given up hope that he will one day meet Haggar in the ring to settle their old score once and for all.
Notes
- In Street Fighter Alpha 3 , in Cody's stage, there is a billboard in the background with Hugo's face and name.
- In a gameplay video for Super Street Fighter IV, Hugo is seen dancing with some construction workers in the Construction Site stage, as seen here.
- After much speculation, a Capcom employee has confirmed that Andore and Hugo are the same person (Question: "Are Andore and Hugo different persons?" Read more here). After starting out with the Andore clan in the first two Final Fight games, it is possible he broke away, joined up with Poison (who he knew from Mad Gear), and changed his professional name to Hugo to disassociate himself from his family. Also, Hugo in Street Fighter III has the same pink-leopard-print-outfit-with-a-chain-belt look as Andore, despite the game taking place years later.
Gallery
