 Ash Crimson 's character had a mixed reception in video @-@ game publications . When he was introduced , GameSpy 's Christian Nutt called him a " clone " of Guile from the Street Fighter series because of their similar movesets but Ash 's team was praised as new characters with new elements in the series . Lucas M. Thomas of IGN wrote that a major fan complaint was the character 's strength in the games , which made him one of the strongest opponents despite an apparent lack of effort . According to Thomas , Ash is " nothing if not strange " and the writer lamented his many appearances in the KOF 2003 manhua compared with more @-@ popular characters . When playable characters for the arcade version of The King of Fighters XIII were introduced , Anime News Network 's Todd Ciolek speculated about Ash 's lack of teammates and wondered if he was alone because " no one likes Ash now . " Marissa Meli of UGO Networks ranked Ash sixteenth on a list of " The Most Androgynous Video Game Characters " , with Meli jokingly attributing his androgynous appearance to a desire by Japanese designers to confuse Western gamers about their sexuality . Although he called Ash 's voice one of " Gaming 's Top 10 Deepest Voices " , Dan Howdle of Now Gamer referred to him as a female character and writers for Game Informer joked about their surprise at the discovery that Ash is a male character . After UTV Ignition Entertainment polled fans to choose an artbox for console versions of The King of Fighters XII , the company announced that Ash 's unpopularity reduced the number of potential covers to two ( featuring Kyo and Iori ) . 
