[7] Zangief appears as a tall, muscular man clad in red wrestling tights and boots, a studded gold belt, and red/gold wristbands.

[8] Yasuda developed his finalized appearance with Ikuo "Ikusan.Z" Nakayama, a fan of professional wrestling,[1] and aimed to give his muscles a practical purpose where he could reasonably take hits, instead of a focus on a bodybuilder's physique.

[8] Zangief's large size was meant to invoke the mental image of a bear, a symbol commonly associated with Russia, and the designers were worried Street Fighter II producer Akira Nishitani would reject it due to game balance concerns.

However, with the Street Fighter Alpha series, Zangief's personality was expanded upon, portraying him both in a humorous manner at times but moreso as a heroic character.

[9] This interpretation was built upon up through Street Fighter V, with producer Takayuki Nakayama wanting the character to be portrayed as a positive and charismatic influence on his younger colleagues.

When Street Fighter II was being developed, the Capcom team placed a machine in a Kyobashi arcade to assess the balancing issues between the characters.

One of his main motivations was to defeat Guile, who as an American, represented the rival country of Zangief's homeland, but found himself coming up short in their battles.

In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Zangief appears very briefly during a brutal battle against Blanka to entertain an audience of crime bosses, where he is electrocuted by him, though his fate afterwards is unknown.

In Street Fighter II V, he is a henchman for Shadaloo, and sent by M. Bison to capture Ryu, whom he had seen displaying talents of Hadou[clarification needed] on a beach earlier.

He and M. Bison are among the game characters present at a meeting of "Bad-Anon", a villain support group, when Wreck-It Ralph decides to attend.

Strangely, despite appearing at "Bad-Anon", he is not a villain in his own video game series, although Street Fighter archvillain M. Bison is also shown in attendance.

"[14] Maxwell McGee and Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar+ described his design as "a story, one of struggle and triumph in the Russian wilderness", praising the elements that illustrated his character's background and the way it also helped portray him as someone "resolve and dedication" while also having "a sense of humor".

[15] Chris Moyse of Destructoid named his Spinning Piledriver "one of the most famous moves in fighting game history", and described him as "the wrestler with an iron body and a golden heart [...] still considered the de facto grappler of the series".

[16] Paste cited his appearance in Wreck-It Ralph as an example of how memorable Zangief had become since his introduction in Street Fighter II, adding "his intimidating presence and lovable demeanor made him a standout of the original World Warrior line-up.

However the paper praised that while the character often was displayed with a negative/neutral reputation in the games in their eyes, being a member of a community in Wreck It Ralph was seen as a positive image.