Unlucky! If you didn't notice (in which case it's time to get new glasses) Potemkin isn't wearing anything on his upper body, even though I don't think I've seen any modern army in which the uniform is a bare torso, much less 200 years from now. That's because of his size. See, at first glance, he may look like a guy riding around inside a mechanical suit, and seeing as how his weight is written in the manual as 146 lbs, you might actually believe that. I think they meant to write 1,146 lbs, because I weight more than he allegedly does and he's easily three times bigger than me. But to the left we can see him holding that red collar thing. Exactly why he hasn't just gotten rid of it is beyond me. In the first game, your collar is supposed to explode if you step out of line, but in his ending, that Sergeant dude tells him that it won't really explode and that he can take it off. Yet he keeps it on. Maybe he wants to keep on playing that illusion that he's a guy in a big guy suit.
Best Moment: The Bog of Blueness
Potemkin's been looking for Dizzy because she apparently is in the care of some pirates and he doesn't like that. He encounters Bridget who says "I'm looking for Dizzy! Leave me alone!". Potemkin chases him to a bog, a bog which makes him keep flashing blue, of all things. I've never seen a bog quite like it.
Rating: 6. Potemkin is powerful and all, but he's slow as hell. He can't run, can't dash in midair, and a lot of his moves can be spotted a mile off. Of course, when they do hit, they hurt, especially the annoying Potemkin Buster, where he grabs his opponent and leaps in the air screaming "POTEMKIN BASTARD!" at the top of his voice. Better fight him at long range! Also, for a "Big Guy" in a fighting game, this guy's incredibly original; big guys are usually wrestlers or monsters; this guy's a soldier.
Theme songs: Much like most of the characters who have been there since the beginning, he's got three: In Slave's Glory, Burly Heart and Megatona Furioso. The former two kick ass, but Megatona Furioso sucks. Maybe if it were not synthesised... right. Burly Heart is easily the best of the three, and it sounds a heck of a lot like "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin, although there are people out there who think it actually directly ripped it off. It's detail time!
That famous riff in Kashmir is basically the same note played three times, with a short pause, then another three times. Then they play the next note up the scale, and repeat until four notes have been used in the process. (Confused yet?) Potemkin's riff on the other hand plays a note three times, pause, three times, pause, another three times, then raises the pitch, then raises the pitch a third time. And then it goes down again.
Or you could click here for samples (opens in a small popup window)
I could definitely picture Potemkin moshing to Burly Heart; his battle stance just gives me that impression for some reason.
