Huitzil (Phobos in Japan) is a playable character from the Darkstalkers series of 2D fighting games. Huitzil refers not to an individual, but an entire group of robots whose sole goal is to end all life on Earth.
Story
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
Prologue text: Long ago, Earth was visited by extraterrestrial beings, and these visitors created "them." Their purpose? To end all life on the planet's surface. 65,000,000 years ago, it was "they" who brought a sudden end to the age of the dinosaurs. Eventually, when most of the lifeforms on the planet's surface had been eradicated, the entire planet was shaken to the core by a largescale earthquake. Everything, living or otherwise, was trapped deep between the earth's layers.
Present day, at the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico... A single unidentified form emerges from the ruins. The source of their commands had long ceased to exist, but the last command that had been inputted into the system had survived tens of millions of years and had reactivated "them" again.
"...Terminate All Lifeforms..."
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge
Prologue text: Huitzil had gone into stasis upon being buried by a large earthquake soon after he was created. As if reacting to the presence of extraterrestrial invaders bent on taking over the world, Huitzil was reactivated. Huitzil was programmed by ancient Mayans to defend Central America from the forces of evil, as a kind of supreme protector.
Cecil
Cecil is the little Mayan orphan boy that follows the Huitzil unit around that protects him, and doesn't appear to have any kind of special powers or abilities; however, in Huitzil's ending in Vampire Savior, he reactivates all the other Huitzil units with the command to "protect the boy". At the very end, they dominate the humans' technologies and are next to impervious of their weapons, which would suggest that Cecil is now the most powerful person in the world, since he controls the Huitzil. However, this contradicts Anita's supposed "ruler of man" future.
Gameplay
Powers and abilities
The Huitzil have the uncanny ability to morph their metal into various shapes without external heat, and can form a variety of weapons in this manner. They can also fly. Popular forms of attack include but are not limited to, plasma beams, machine gun turrets, energy shields, grenades, metal claws and buzzsaws.
Other appearances
Huitzil appeared in Namco x Capcom. Huitzil appeared as a card in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash games.
Cameos
Huitzil also made a cameo appearance in Roll's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, where she reprograms it, along with Vector, as maid robots, as well as in Dee Jay's Bar stage in Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix, where he is used as a jukebox.
Trivia
- Huitzil's appearance is likely based on the dozū, shakōkidogū.
- Huitzil's name in the English versions comes from Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of the sun, war and human sacrifice in Aztec religion. Additionally, Huitzil's prolouge text in the original Darkstalkers game mentions the ruins of Teotihuacan (near the present day the capital of Mexico, Mexico City), which was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli.
- Huitzil was originally an unplayable character in the first Darkstalkers game and served as the pre-boss fight before Pyron. It can be playable in the first game if hacked like Pyron. The strangest thing is that it has an ending in the first game (by hack), but no ending music and the ending text is seen as pure "A"s, which is a game glitch. It is unknown if Capcom were planning to make it playable or not in the first place, It is worth nothing the Japanese version of the game has Huitzil's ending with perfect Japanese text and no glitches, however the music remains absent from that as well.
- In Vampire Hunter 2, Cecil was removed because he wasn't involved in the Night Warriors series and due to the fact that the game is a special remake of Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge. Since Cecil was removed for Vampire Hunter 2 only, certain sprites of Huitzil were a bit strange without him.
- Huitzil is one of few characters to have two different transformations triggered by Demitri's Midnight Bliss. The first is triggered by simply performing Midnight Bliss. In this form, Huitzil is seen as a Mayan girl with two birds in its hair. The second transformation is achieved by holding the weakest and strongest punches together while performing Midnight Bliss. In this form, Huitzil will appear as a Japanese school girl in a gym uniform. This second transformation can not be achieved in Darkstalkers 3 (arcade).
- When Huitzil is attacked by Anakaris' Pharaoh's Curse, Huitzil resembles a Dogū. Dogū are clay dolls created in Japan during the Jōmon period. Even in its normal form, Huitzil carries over bits of the Dogū design.
- Besides small children, Huitzil seems to be fond of animals, birds in particular, seeing as how there are several pieces of art depicting it with its feathery friends.
- Huitzil became playable in Darkstalkers 3 (only on home consoles) with its own story as a "what if".
- Nivana/Ada Clover (from Arc System Works' BlazBlue series) may be a reminiscent to Huitzil. Both are large mechanical beings who protect a younger child. For Huitzil, it's Cecil, and for Nirvana, it's her brother Carl. However, the one difference is Nirvana is a supporting character who is only controlled when Carl performs a Drive attack.
Gallery
