Rolento

Appearances

Rolento made his debut appearance as the fourth stage's boss in the original Final Fight. He is a former member of the fictional Red Beret special forces unit and serves as the supervisor of the Mad Gear gang's weapons plant. When defeated, instead of just fading away while lying on the ground like most enemies in the game, he stands up and blows himself up with his own grenades, fading away completely scorched. Rolento and his "Industrial Area" stage were not included in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System port of Final Fight, nor in its re-release Final Fight Guy, but were included in other ports of the game, such as the Sega CD and Game Boy Advance versions (if the player confronts Rolento as "Alpha Cody" in the GBA version, Cody will joke about Rolento's omission in the SNES version). In the SNES-exclusive sequel Final Fight 2, Rolento serves as the boss of the fifth stage, Italy (his name is transliterated as "Rolent" both in the game and in the instruction booklet).

His debut as a playable fighter was in the fighting game Street Fighter Alpha 2 in 1996, in which he seeks to build a military utopia following the downfall of the Mad Gear gang and wants to recruit his former ally and nemesis, Sodom and Guy respectively, to his cause. Rolento's ending in Alpha 2 depicts him invading the streets of Metro City after forming his own army. In Street Fighter Alpha 3, Rolento tries to persuade Cody, another former nemesis, to join his army. In his ending, Rolento attempts to infiltrate Shadaloo's underground base to gain M. Bison's secret weapon, the Psycho Drive, only to destroy it with Sodom's help. His Alpha series' incarnation also appears as a playable character in the 2002 crossover fighting game Capcom vs. SNK 2, as well as in the 1999 fighting game Final Fight Revenge which follows his backstory from the Alpha series.

Rolento returns as a playable character in the 2012 crossover fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken, where his official tag partner is the ninja girl Ibuki. In 2013, he was announced to appear as a playable character in the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter IV.

Other appearances

Rolento made his first appearance outside the Final Fight series in the original Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, where he makes a cameo in Sodom's ending among other former Mad Gear members gathered by Sodom to help rebuild the gang. Although he does not appear in Street Fighter EX, Rolento also plays a role in Doctrine Dark's backstory in this game, as the one responsible for physically crippling him and causing his psychotic breakdown.

He also makes a cameo appearance in Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, is available in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series, and appears in Capcom World 2. Outside of video games, Rolento appears in the Street Fighter animated series, in the anime OAV miniseries Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation, in the Street Fighter comic book Street Fighter II Turbo, and in the manga Sakura Ganbaru. In 2012, Rolento returned to boss role in the platform game Street Fighter X Mega Man, as an enemy of Mega Man.

Design and gameplay

Rolento was created by Neo_G (Ishizawa Hidetoshi) and his name was supposed to be "Laurence" (arguably "Laurent") in the concept stages, but due to the confusion between "l" and "r" and additions of vowels at the end of words in transliteration, "Laurence" became "Rolento". In Street Fighter, Rolento wears a militant outfit with weapon belts (where he keeps his grenades) going over his shoulders and a red beret on his head. He has a red scarf under his worn yellow military outfit and fights with a stick. This is a change from how he originally appeared in Final Fight, in which he wore a Tiger Stripes colour scheme uniform and wielded a brown club. Tekken character Nina Williams received a Rolento-style alternate costume in an update for Street Fighter X Tekken.

In Final Fight, he fights using a rod and resorts to throwing grenades when he is low on energy. Rolento's fighting style in the Street Fighter games is based broadly on his Final Fight counterpart. He uses his stick and grenades from Final Fight, as well as throwing knives and wires. One of Rolento's super combos in the Alpha series, "Take No Prisoners", involves his opponent being hooked to the ceiling by either El Gado or Holly Wood, enemy characters from Final Fight who appear to be working for Rolento during the Alpha series.

Reception

IGN's review of Street Fighter Alpha 2 praised Capcom's designs for the new characters, amongst them Rolento, but in a preview of Capcom vs. SNK 2, IGN's David Smith wrote that "Rolento is strong...but he's just no fun to watch." Askmen.com nominated Rolento as one of the five characters they wanted to be included in Street Fighter IV. In 2010, Rolento was ranked as 34th best Street Fighter character by UGO Networks, who noted that his finishers (Ultra Combos) are some of the more impressive in the series and that he was rumored to appear in Super Street Fighter IV. That same year, European Street Fighter champion Ryan Hart ranked Rolento as the tenth best Street Fighter character in a list compiled for The Guardian. Rolento is, however, rarely voted for in the official polls for the best Street Fighter characters according to Street Fighter fans. He also featured on UGO's list of most memorable Italians in video games, placing 13th. His "In my ideal nation, there would exist no one as weak as you!" from Alpha 3 was included on the list of the most humiliating video game victory quotes by Complex in 2012.