To be honest, Shadow feels a bit too cliche when it comes to rival characters, and I actually find him boring and meh.
Not helping matters is how Boom's portrayed him as a stereotypical edgy character and sort of a Vegeta ripoff.
Boom Knuckles is hated for being dumbed down even more due to his muscular design, turning him into the "dumb muscle" character type.
As a fan of Knuckles, I don't like this portrayal at all. He's basically a stupider and unfunny version of Ralph Wiggum.
On the subject. I'll explain why I like these Capcom fighters over the more popular ones.
I'll start with Blanka.
As a kid, I always liked him due to his feral and monstrous design, and I still do thanks to reading more about him.
He has a tragic backstory, similar to Tarzan. Only it's with a Brazilian boy lost in the amazon. His electric ability came from, no joke, being exposed with electric eels, mutating him. His green skin and orange hair are also mutations thanks to living in the jungle for so long.
Blanka's ending with him reuniting with his mother is one of Street Fighter's biggest heartwarming moments. Gets even better for him after the events of SF4 where's he's viewed as a hero to the townspeople. So that's another slice of happiness for him.
He's even best friends with beloved joke character Dan Hibiki, and Ryu fangirl Sakura Kasugano.
Next, we have Felicia from Darkstalkers.
Originally intended to be the token sexy character but got changed into the cute one instead, which is more fitting thanks to the cat theme.
She's also loosely based on the 1967 Edward Field poem,
Curse of the Cat Women, while throwing the youkai Nekomata into the mix.
Being a cute character, she has a fun and dorky personality. Raised by an elderly nun, she grows up to become a singer and actress.
After the events of DS3, she opens up her own orphanage and becomes a nun herself, teaching the orphans who also enjoy her singing.
Design-wise, she has an acrobatic physique which is where most of the her fighting skills come from. The white fur on her is part of her body due to being a half human and animal monster girl, which also means she's 100% naked. She also has blue hair and feline green eyes.
I can't be the only one who notices she shares some similarities with Sonic the Hedgehog. She even rolls into a ball making a skid sound.
That is one of the things I like about her. And yes, I do wish they would officially crossover. I mean, it seems so obvious.
Some official sources say it's established that the cat women in Darkstalkers are a female-only race. That means having children with a human, they will always give birth to a baby girl. And after that, they will slowly mutate into another cat monster as they grow up.
And don't bring up that issue of the Udon comic with the witch and her cat-man sidekick because those comics are not canon.
Another thing to note: Capom's even confirmed Felicia has the largest breast size out of all of the Capcom girls.
They're also about 10 CM bigger than SNK's Mai Shiranui's boobs!
It's just a shame she's overshadowed by the slutty succubus Morrigan Aensland, which I actually do hate and consider overrated.