Fighter III women characters, probably because of her appearance contrasting a young girl "of the current times" with "this old-time ninja look". Nevertheless, MTV's Brad Nicholson blamed Ibuki's "bland, tan, and masked getup that hasn’t changed much since her days in Street Fighter III," for her not appearing on the cover of Super Street Fighter IV despite all her "ravenous fans." Giovanni Simotti, designer of Akane the Kunoichi, intended look of the titular character on the game's cover as "a small tribute to two of the most famous kunoichi from the history of the videogames – a mix of Mai Shiranui with a bit of Ibuki." In 2012, Gelo Gonzales of FHM included Ibuki among the nine "sexiest ninja babes in games" and compared her to Sam Pinto. GamesRadars Sullivan compared the Killer Instinct 3 character Sadira to Ibuki, as similarly being "an agile fighter who can orchestrate a lot of very tricky setups from the air." In 2004, Nich Maragos and David Smith of 1UP.com ranked Ibuki as the sixth overall best ninja character in video games, calling her "one of the coolest-looking characters" in Street Fighter III but "also one of the least capable in competition." That same year, Aubrey Sitterson of UGO featured her on a list of the 25 "foxiest fighting females to ever be pixelated" and commented that Ibuki is "not only super-hot, but she's also a ninja, which is like a 'chocolate in my peanut butter' situation." UGOs Paul Furfari further stated that she "set the new standard in female fighters," adding, "forget Chun-Li". GameZone included the "amazing" Ibuki in their 2011 list of "best video game ninjas" and stated: "We’re glad she’s still a staple in this series to this very day – but when is she going to come over to Marvel vs. Capcom territory?" Márcio Pacheco Alexsandro of Brazil's Game Hall placed her at tenth spot of his 2014 list of top kunoichi characters in games, opining that she is "far from having such status as Chun-Li, but has her charm, especially if you like Japanese schoolgirls." In 2016, Steven Hanson from Destructoid described her as "everybody's favorite schoolgirl ninja." A poll for the most erotic girl in the history of fighting games conducted by Japanese web portal Goo had Ibuki and Ayane, a school-aged ninja from Dead or Alive'', share the 11th/12th place (out of 50 contesters) in 2016; she