Steve

Story

During the second King of Iron Fist Tournament, Heihachi Mishima personally experienced Devil Gene's power. Wanting to harness that power for his own goals, Heihachi funded research of the Devil Gene. This research program would seek to recreate its effects through generic modification, creating superhuman soldiers. For these purposes, Mishima Zaibatsu extracted egg cells from Nina Williams, who at the time was cryogenically frozen. The program proved unsuccessful, with most test subjects dead or unable to reach wanted results.

However, there was one survivor, Steve Fox. When he was just six years old, one of the researchers, Emma Kliesen, helped him escape the laboratory and get into an orphanage, where he was later adopted by a British family. While it's not clear if the experiments gave him superior abilities, Steve went on to become the middleweight world champion.

Around the time he won the world champion belt, Steve was approached by the mafia to fix one of his upcoming matches. Refusing to do so, he went on to win the match, angering the mafia in the process. Knowing that they would be after him, Steve escaped to the United States and lived out his day with a threat of retaliation hanging over his head. Feeling like his days would be over sooner or later, Steve decided to go out with a bang, joining the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament to go out in a blaze of glory.

Things don't go as expected, and at some point, Steve was ambushed by mafia's assassins who pretended to be his chauffeurs. Before they could kill him, both are shot by Nina Williams, who was also hired to eliminate Steve. Running towards his unknown savior, Steve eventually turned into an alley where Nina ambushed him but suddenly regains her memory. Before they could talk, Lei ran in and tried to apprehend Nina, but Steve jumped him while she ran away.

Despite this, Lei still assisted Steve in learning about his past and what had happened to him, revealing to Steve that he was the result of Mishima Zaibatsu's human experiments. Angered by this news, Steve swore revenge. He participated in the fifth King of Iron Fist Tournament to infiltrate Mishima Zaibatsu laboratories and ensure that a tragedy similar to his never happens again.

With his plans accomplished, Steve went back to the world of boxing. Despite the global conflict effectively shutting down the boxing tournaments, a new opportunity presented itself with the sixth King of Iron Fist tournament. Now he could show off his skill and evaluate other martial artists and their styles. 

However, one question remained. Steve still didn't know who he really was or what his life was like before the amnesia. Seeking these answers, he joined the tournament once again, leading to a fateful encounter with Nina Williams, who explained his origins. Unfortunately, their conversation was cut short by the attack from Tekken Force.

Personality

Steve can be somewhat cocky and provoking during his fights, but most of the time, he's a friendly and likable guy who has an easy time getting along with other people. He can even show his heroic side in some cases, as seen when he protects Nina Williams from Tekken Force soldiers or saves her from being arrested by Lei Wulong.

Appearance

Steve has blue eyes, slicked-back blonde hair, and a large scar running over his left arm. He has two significant outfits that slightly change in different games. The first one is a simple, classic boxing outfit consisting of shoes and trousers done in the color scheme of the UK flag. The second one is slightly more involved, composed of white shoes, red leather pants with a belt hanging off the side, and a white silk shirt decorated with several British crests.

Playstyle

Being one of the best characters, Steve has a solid and versatile toolkit for any situation. However, his unique strengths and weaknesses set his playstyle apart from other well-rounded characters. With his variety of movement options, stances, and pokes, Steve can efficiently get in on his opponents and stick to them with a series of punches and relentlessly pressure them until they open up. On defense, Steve remains an intimidating opponent with several strong keep-out attacks and evasive moves that make pinning him down a real challenge. Perhaps Steve's main strength is a bevy of very threatening counter-hit moves that augment both his defense and offense. Anyone would be scared to go in or press buttons when in danger of being launched by a quick counter-hit punch that leads into massive combos.

For such prowess, he has several drawbacks. While his counter-hit launches are amazing, Steve doesn't have many viable or strong normal hit launchers, forcing him to fish for a counter hit if he wants to deal real damage. Despite his intense close-range pressure, Steve has little in the way of powerful lows, which significantly limits his mixup potential.