What started as an inside Twitch.TV joke, eventually became an April Fool’s Day prank that was so popular, that fans insisted that it became a permanent feature. That said, the April Fool’s Day character “Fukua” will become a permanent addition to the Skullgirls roster.

During a past Twitch.TV stream, an accidental slip of the right hand renamed Skullgirls poster-girl character “Filia” to “Fukua”. The slip-up became a running gag of the evening, but that was only just beginning. On April 1, Lab Zero Games released a new trailer as a satirical poke at Capcom’s recent “Decapre” reveal for Ultra Street Fighter IV. “Fukua”, a palette-swap clone of Filia, was announced as a new character for Skullgirls Encore. Anyone who played Skullgirls Encore on PS3 and PC, and the Endless Beta on PC, could play matches as the Filia-doppelganger, in both offline and online modes.

Originally, Lab Zero’s Peter Bartholow stated that Fukua’s fate, as far as being a permanent character was concerned, would be at the mercy of Skullgirls fans. A poll was held within the official Skullgirls forum, with the majority of participants voting to keep Fukua in the game.

Yesterday evening, the official Skullgirls Twitter account confirmed that Fukua will now be a permanent member of the roster. For now, she has been removed from the console versions of the game, and is only available in the Endless Beta. Once Lab Zero is comfortable with her character-balance and technical features, Fukua will be added back into the full roster:

Skullgirls Encore is currently available on PS3 (PSN) and PC (Steam); Lab Zero is still awaiting confirmation from Microsoft before Encore is released on XBLA.

Source: Twitter