A story of robots, monsters, and rad rides

As the year winds down I get a bit nostalgic. I know a lot of my friends, and family members look back on the year, and think about how much has happened. Our family has recently had its share of losses. Not long ago our pet cat died, and a few days later a loving aunt passed. The winter season has not been kind to us in this regard. There have been good things to happen throughout the year. Projects completed, returning to orchestra playing, new business leads, building new friendships, these were just a sampling of the good things that have happened. Thankfully I’ve stayed employed, the family has stayed healthy. Things could have always been worse for us, or our loved ones, and I’m grateful for what we have. With Christmas I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite toys, especially those I received for the holiday. I hope that you have fond memories of the toys you grew up with, and I wonder if there was something that you always wanted when you were a kid. I’m going to share a little bit about one of the toys I longed for. This story begins with Irma, our favorite aunt, and Tomy.

Aunt Irma (RIP) was my mom’s younger sister, and easily the fun aunt. She had a great sense of humor, was highly creative (her Halloween decorations were legendary), and a good singer. My brothers and I always looked forward to her visits. Irma used to work at Human Resources at Tomy Toys. Tomy was a Japanese company that was known for their games, puzzles, and toys. They didn’t necessarily have a lot of big name licensed products like the US companies Hasbro, and Mattel, but what Tomy did create was undeniably fun. They used to have a factory, and office building in Wilmington California. A small port town nestled in between some oil refineries. It was not far from where our family grew up. Irma got a big discount in the company store, and when she visited she would bring us various wind-up, and battery operated games. We still have many of the “Pocket Arcade” games that they created in the ‘70s, and early ’80s. These handheld games predated Mattel’s Electronic Football by years. I think the Tomy games were far more interesting than the early LED games of the era. They were tangible, had their own gameplay, rules, and control. The mechanized ones were usually wind up. Most didn’t need batteries. So we could take them anywhere to help pass the time.

Almost as awesome as the toys we were gifted from our aunt, were the catalogs from the company. We got a glimpse of what was coming out later that year, if not the following year. Many Gen-Xers had fond memories of the Toys R Us Christmas Catalog, or Sears catalog. Kids got to see every toy, video game, and bike that was available, or coming soon. My brothers, and I would take turns putting together our wish lists. We assumed it was just a matter of time before we won the lottery. As nice as those catalogs were, they were nothing compared to the trade magazine than Irma brought us each month. Playthings Magazine was our bible. Each issue was some 200+ pages in size. It was a way for the industry to share what they were working on with vendors. It took us behind the scenes, gave us in depth interviews, concept art, and reviews. Each magazine gave us a glimpse of what was coming out in the future, sometimes years in advance. These included entirely new toys, cartoons, and comic characters. Imagine being in elementary school, and knowing more about toys, and cartoons than your classmates. Our friends were skeptical at first when we told them what was coming up. The thing was that since the industry was talking about things happening in the far future, there were lots of prototype details. Lines, and characters had name, and design changes before they came out. Classmates thought that we were just lucky with the predictions, until we brought the magazines to school, and gave them a glimpse at the future as well. They no longer doubted us when it came to news about toys, and cartoons. Many thought that with my love of toys, animation, and art, I would eventually get into toy design. I think about that timeline a lot. I hope that universe’s version of me is as happy as I’d hoped.

Tomy was on the cutting edge of electronic LED games, they made some of the first licensed arcade games, including Pac Man. Their Tomytronic 3D games were brilliant. Although quaint by today’s standards, imagine playing a game through a viewfinder, whose bright colors made it look like Tron graphics come to life. More important Tomy had a reputation in Japan, and the US for their toy robots. Going back to the ‘60s the company made very cute wind-up, battery-operated, and remote control robots. As tin gave way to plastic, and transistors found their way into manufacturing so too did the Tomy robots evolve over the decades. Mom and dad bought us many of the smaller battery operated robots that they made. I have now passed a few to my kid. Aunt Irma would bring us the two most expensive robots that they made to play test on weekends. These being the Omnibot, and Omnibot 2000. The larger of the two remote control robots debuted in 1985, at the price of $600. Adjusted for inflation that robot would retail for over $1,500 in 2021. You can imagine that mom, and dad were stressed that three young boys would be taking turns playing with a robot that cost more than the monthly rent in our apartment. We promised our aunt to be extra careful, and you can bet that we were!

Of all the toys that came out in the ‘80s, I was the biggest fan of vehicles. Tomy made a few great cars, and trains, but they didn’t really capitalize on them. This was something that I don’t think toy designers often looked at when creating new properties. Yes, I enjoyed He-Man, the Transformers, and G.I. Joe. Those were character-driven franchises. When kids played with those figures they indeed took on the roles of those characters. I was happier imagining myself as the pilot, or driver of the various jets, tanks, and race cars. I was most excited when a company made a vehicle that had some sort of neat gimmick, and wasn’t tied to an existing license. This meant I could imagine it in any scenario. I wasn't forced to play within the confines of their universe. Some of the designers working behind the scenes were becoming aware that there was a market for pushing vehicles to the forefront. A car could be the star, and not the driver. This was obvious going back to Speed Racer in 1966 (Mach GoGoGo in Japan). As cool as it was watching Speed / Go beat up bad guys, and race around the world, he would be nothing without the Mach 5. The state of the art race car could handle any course, and do all sorts of impossible things, including cut down trees, jump, and drive upside down with the aid of spiked tires.

In 1982 Knight Rider introduced the world to Michael Knight, and his amazing car K.I.T.T. The self-driving car was fire-proof, bullet proof, and could also jump via “turbo boost,” The car was brilliant, and often helped Michael solve crimes. Between Mach 5, and K.I.T.T. the toy designers were beginning to realize that super cars could be a franchise all to themselves. Mattel had already cornered the market on toy cars thanks to their Hot Wheels line, but super cars was another story. So how do you sell kids on a vehicle as a star? It’s not like they could convince retailers that a vehicle-centric toy would sell, unless it was based on already popular car. The thing was famous cars were already attached to shows. The Batmobile, the Munsters Coach, and the Dragula were associated the campy 1960’s TV shows. Toys, and model kits on those had already come, and gone in popularity. So where would the next big thing come from? In the early ‘80s no vehicle was more amazing than Bigfoot. This was a real truck, it could conquer any mud bog, pull a competition sled, and roll over cars. I had already talked about the mainstream success of Bigfoot in the early ‘80s.

Playskool got the license to create the Bigfoot monster truck toy in 1983. It was easily one of my  favorite birthday presents of all time. The toy was great at climbing, it had a forward, reverse, 2-wheel, and 4-wheel drive mode. When I played with it I imagined myself as the driver. I don’t think that anyone playing with the toy imagined that they were Bob Chandler, or Jim Kramer, the respective builder, and driver of Bigfoot. The same thing could be said of those that played with, as as K.I.T.T. Nobody missed having a Michael Knight figure because the car was the star. Playskool looked to build a “Muscle Machines” franchise around Bigfoot. They reached out to the wildest cars in the mud bog, and tractor pull circuits where Bigfoot was often featured. They signed licenses for the Orange Blossom Special II, and War Lord. These two stood out because they looked like street legal monsters, and not competition tractors. They fit right in with Bigfoot as plausible, albeit impossible rides. A cartoon show soon followed to help get Bigfoot on the minds of kids all over the country.

Many toy companies were also picking up on the 4x4, and monster truck trends. In 1980 Schaper toys (later Tyco) released the Stomper, a small battery powered 4x4. They also offered amazing play sets, and sleds for off road pulling action. To me these truck toys were as fun, if not more so, than the playlets for G.I. Joe, or He-Man. Galoob was known for their licensed toys such as the A-Team, Ghostbusters, and Aliens. They were keenly aware of vehicle toys, and developed the highly successful Micro Machines series. The toy that set my imagination on fire was a 1984 off roader was called The Animal. It was four wheel drive like other toys, however if the tires couldn’t get any grip while climbing then claws would automatically pop out from inside the tread to give it more traction. It was a radical concept in toy design. I never owned one, but knew some kids that had. I was envious, but it wouldn’t be the only Galoob toy I lusted after.

The Animal was the first in a series of beast-like rides from Galoob. The company added a combination tow wench, and spotlight called the Clench that could be pulled by the trucks. They also added smaller buoyant trucks called Swampers. A year later they added a bigger, and badder Animal called the Xtendor. This truck was modeled after a cabover diesel truck, like Optimus Prime. It also had a rocket launched on the tail, I’m not sure why it was weaponized considering that the vehicles didn’t have a story or military alignment assigned to them, but it was cool nonetheless. It offered the extending claws of the previous model, but if it needed extra help climbing the tail would stretch out, and lengthen the wheelbase. These automatic transforming mechanics elevated the toy above the competition.

The Animal was a hit, and showed the industry that kids loved these types of toys. The company released an off road buggy called the Flex. The tires seemed small, and extremely wide. When it needed climbing power the tires would shorten, and their treads would pop out, leaving gaps between the treads. The tires were shaped like rubber windmills, allowing even more grip than the set of claws that popped out of the Animal. These wheels seemed more adept for all-terrain play, making short work of grass, sand, shallow puddles, mud, or anything else that kids could throw at it. It made me wonder if this technology could be used on full sized cars. With Flex, and the Animal Galoob found themselves in a war with other companies building climbing rigs. Tyco, and Tomy liked touting that their vehicles could climb a steep grade, or wouldn’t slip under any condition. It was as if toy designers saw that nothing could stop real monster trucks, and they wondered if they could build monsters that could scale walls. Climbing further, and higher was the goal for their best toys.

Bigger wheels, expanding wheels, and low gear settings were revolutionary for the industry. The lessons they taught designers would be incorporated in toys, models, and remote control cars over the next few decades. The other way that manufacturers found that toy cars could climb was by putting multiple sets of wheels on them. Wheel counts jumped from four, to ten, to 16, and ultimately 32. Galoob set the bar impossibly high when they released the GIANT series. The Leader 16 featured 16 wheels, and could climb vertically with the aid of a rolling arm that was suspended in front. The rig wasn’t based on any real truck, although it had a cabover front. There was an even larger version called the Command 32 which featured the Leader 16 that connected to an eight wheel “GripIron” crane, and an eight wheel “TurboJet” Power Cab. The additional wheels, and engines meant that it could climb even greater obstacles. I was obsessed with the toy as a kid. Drawing it in my free time, hinting to my parents that it would make a great birthday, or Christmas present. I spent many days imagining how cool it would be to own one in real life. I never got one, and that was fine considering all the other wonderful toys that my parents got for my brothers, and I.

The idea of a multi-wheeled, all terrain vehicle stuck with me. I filled countless pages in my sketchbook of multi-wheeled giants. I remembered how Bigfoot 5, and 7 had 10-foot wheels that Bob Chandler had gotten from the Letourneau Land Train. Land trains were used by the military, and fossil fuel industry to cover expanses of land that were inaccessible to most vehicles. I have no doubt that the the Overlander from Gerry Anderson’s Terrahawks was inspired by the Letourneau land train. In the sci-fi series the Overlander was supposed to be massive, a rolling base of operations. It was closer in scale to a space station, than a monster truck. I could only imagine how awe inspiring a real life version would be. Even more I wanted to see what a toy based on that would be like. In all fairness there was a six-wheeled science fiction toy that predated all of the ones I lusted after. The Milton Bradley Big Trak was a programmable vehicle from 1979. You could punch in commands for driving, turning, and distance using the keypad on the back. As nice as the design was I never could figure out the target audience. I wanted a toy sci-fi vehicle to play with, not to program.

The end of the climbing vehicle trend pretty much ended in 1991. Kenner was the company that had made the Star Wars toys of our youth. They were looking to do something else now that there were no new Star Wars films on the horizon. Return of the Jedi had come out in 1983, and the prequel movies wouldn’t come out until 1999. They needed to change with the times, or close down. Kenner was late to the party when released a vehicle called The Claw. To be fair It looked better, and moved much smoother than the 4x4’s of the ‘80s. The gimmick for this truck were tires that split, and extended to help it climb over rough terrain. The addition of teeth on the exposed treads, and ninja-star-like rims made it look wilder than the Animal. Of course by the time it came out I was almost out of high school. My tastes were changing. I still loved monster trucks, and always would, but video games seemed much more interesting, and engaging than traditional toys.

In the middle of the ’80s there was one multi-wheeled monster that Tomy made that gave the Leader 16 a run for its money. Tomy had launched a line of monster trucks called Monster Machines. The battery powered trucks were much different than my Bigfoot toy. Tomy was taking a shot at Galoob, and by my estimation created the best looking ride of that era. The Rad Rig / Mad Masher was a 16-wheeled, multi-engine, diesel truck capable of climbing over obstacles. Proportionally the wheels were larger than the Leader 16’s, making it look more like a real monster truck than a caterpillar. I was captivated by its design. Two sets of exposed, supercharged V8’s over the lead wheels, plus a massive spoiler on the rear made it look like something out of The Road Warrior. There were different colored versions. I only saw the red, and blue ones in stores. The yellow one may have been exclusive to the UK.

My sketches in school switched from the Leader 16 to the Rad Rig almost overnight. The scale, proportions, and design of it made it look much more realistic. Realism was something that tended to sell me on a toy design. Not to mention that Tomy had licensed the use of Goodyear, and STP so that the racing stickers on the truck made it feel more authentic. I lusted after the truck, but never managed to score one as a kid. Years later that I learned that there was a French auto sports promotion that had actually built a monster truck that was almost an exact copy of the Tomy icon. The Road Boss had one less engine, and set of wheels, but the proof was there that a Rad Rig could indeed exist. It made my love of the toy that much fonder. My brothers, and I never forgot about the toys we grew up with. A good portion of them I still have in my garage. Especially the ones I was gifted on Christmas. 

The toys that I wanted as a kid I kept an eye on as an adult. At least once a week I jump on eBay, and take a look at some rare items. Sometimes I spot a deal, but most of the time I look them up just for the sake of nostalgia. I don’t have room in my tiny apartment for toy collecting. So I often talk myself out of buying anything. The Rad Rig comes up often, but it’s usually incomplete, missing the cab, or some tires, or the stickers. A complete one that works does pop up from time to time. They are often the red model, the one that never spoke to me. A complete model, with the box is the rarest of the rare. As any toy hunter could tell you the value of a complete toy with the packaging could be astronomical. An old toy could fetch a lot, even if the box had been opened. You could imagine my shock when one of my grail toys had turned up in early December 2021. Not only was it complete, but it was in the box, with the instructions, and sticker sheet untouched. I told myself I didn’t really need it, but I had wanted it so badly growing up that pangs of that childhood frustration came bubbling to the surface. The seller wasn’t asking anything too outlandish either. I was just being a fiscally responsible adult, and didn’t go for the buy it now price. The seller offered $20 off the asking price just because I put it on my watch list. I couldn’t resist, and bought it. 

It got to me a few days later. I checked the contents, and sure enough everything was included in as close to mint condition as you would expect for a 36-year-old toy. I haven’t decided if I’m going to wrap it up, and then open it for Christmas, or even if I’m going to put the stickers on it. Just having it in my hands fills me with a sense of joy I haven’t had in a long time. I’d like to think that this was not an accident. I’m almost certain that Aunt Irma called in a favor from heaven so I could get that one Tomy toy I had always wanted. I hope this Christmas you get everything you want, and need. Tell me about a favorite toy you had always wanted, but never got. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

A quick take on Luke, the new Street Fighter.

Another year goes by, and another new Street Fighter character is introduced to a lukewarm reception. This new character is named Luke, he was the mystery character added for the Summer 2021 Street Fighter V reveal. Takayuki Nakayama Director of Street Fighter V, and Shuhei Matsumoto the Producer of Street Fighter V showed off the inclusion or Oro. The elderly fighter that had originally appeared in Street Fighter III way back in 1997. Luke was a new face, and presented as the future of the series. I am thankful for Twitter because the hot takes on this character were very spot-on.

Many fans were unimpressed with the reveal. One of the first reactions came from @adam_rsfv who compared the new character to YouTube personality-turned-pro fighter Logan Paul. Logan, and his brother Jake have grated many people with their online antics. These include allegations of sexual assault, filming a dead body in a park, insulting the Japanese while on vacation, and acting like general nuisances. In a way they do reflect the culture of fame, and notoriety from the USA. You don’t have to be the best at what you do, you just have to be the best at promoting what you do. But those were far from being the only takes on the character reveal.

The fish-mash of design elements for the hair, tattoos, and costume of Luke were pointed out right away. @ryo_redcyclone said the character was piecemeal from other Street Fighters. It was easy to point out these influences. Like a villain in a daikaiju, or giant monster tv show.

Many lamented that there was another white boxer in the series. Luke follows on the heels of Ed, a white striker that had been introduced not long ago. The Street Fighter series was known for having a string of powerful Black fighters including Mike, M. Bison, and Dudley. Now in one game two white boxers had turned up. Some compared his look, and introduction to Steve Fox, the British boxer from the Tekken series. Katsuhiro Harada, producer, and director behind the Tekken series agreed with a fan reaction that this might be Steve’s younger brother.

All jokes aside the news of another white character designed to be the face of Street Fighter, the future of the franchise, was met with groans from many fans. Those that had been with the series a long while remember that Alex was supposed to be the face of a New Generation, starting with Street Fighter III. Then almost 15 years later the grappler Abel was designed to appeal to the west in Street Fighter IV. He was supposed to be the go-to character for Americans. Yet in each instance players passed him over to try other other new faces.

With one word to Capcom @KAINONAUT calls out the pattern, and like many minorities, is exhausted with the trend. With each legacy character returning to Street Fighter V players could see that the franchise was favoring the return, and the introduction of white, mostly blonde characters. It was hardly representative of the USA, and given the past four plus years of politics, and civil unrest, you would think Capcom could read the writing on the wall. This is why I am grateful for the internet, for Twitter, and players that are able to dig deep into the history of the series, and call out the company for making missteps when they have a chance to rise up, and produce something exceptional.

In a reply to Kai @mossy_dahlia reminds us of the greatness that could have been. King Cobra was a marvelous design, and the final design known as Rufus was the opposite. On the 30th Anniversary of Street Fighter I highlighted the 30 most important characters to me. Although he never appeared in a game I named King Cobra #1 When that character was turned into an obese white guy for the sake of being funny I knew the series, and director had lost their way. It didn’t make me boycott the series, but constantly call the studio out because I knew they could do better. Most people that read my blogs want to get to the heart of the character, what works, what doesn’t work with Luke? What should Capcom do?

First-off white boxers are nothing new in Street Fighter, or fighting games. Joe was featured in the original Street Fighter. What is concerning is that many of the newer boxers that end up in fighting games tend to be white, and blonde. Even if they come from Hong Kong like Shen Woo in the King of Fighters series. SNK, and Capcom have had their share of Black boxers in the KOF, and SF series. If I were to ask most of my friends to name champion boxers in any weight division I’m sure they could come up with many Black, Latino, and Asian-Pacific names. The white champions (especially blondes) would be few, and far between. Why then should fighting games go out of their way to cater to a certain demographic?

Capcom has demonstrated time, and time again that they are unwilling to take a risk. They want their lead character designs to be accepted by the west. This goes into the use of colors, tattoos, body markings, costumes, etc. If you look at several of the new characters, you’ll start to spot certain trends. Blonde female characters for example tend to get military alternate costumes, with goggles. For the new men the use of solid color tattoos, and patterns, turns up. It was on Necalli, Ed, and now prominent on Luke. The USA is a huge market for the studio. So if they look at pop culture, fight culture, wrestling, MMA, and the like they want to create a fighter that appeals to those fans. The Logan / Jake Paul comparisons for Luke are warranted. What Takayuki Nakayama, and Shuhei Matsumoto may not realize is that this type of fighting "personality" may be popular, but they are often reviled. They aren’t necessarily what the Street Fighter audience either wants, or what the game needs. In many cases fans are eager to try more unique characters.

I mentioned that Abel was designed to be the new face of the series in SF IV, but he was originally an androgynous little boy. The studio thought it would be too risky to have the skinny character in pigtails be able to judo flip larger opponents, so they turned him into a huge bruiser. To cover their bases the studio also created a female spy for the west. C. Viper took her inspiration from the western ideal of beauty, skinny with big lips, a bit like actress Angelina Jolie. When Capcom started trying out the SF IV cabinet in the US they were surprised that players were skipping over Abel, and C. Viper. The characters they designed for the market were failing. Yes they found some fans, but were largely not missed in SFV. There were many reasons why they didn’t work. I think Japanese interpretations of western trends was simply lost in translation. It turned out that when the studio created a character that more closely reflected a classic design, say Juri Han compared to Chun-Li, then the character was more widely accepted. I’m willing to bet that the little kid Abel would have been better remembered by audiences because he was out of the ordinary. Or then again, because he reflected smaller fighters like Ibuki, Makoto, and Sakura.

There is something that concerns me with Luke’s design. Again, it circles back to Japanese creators trying to interpret western tastes. We can tell he is supposed to be a patriotic character, somebody akin to Guile. Guile was a soldier that literally carried his nation on his sleeve. For Luke the stars, and stripes, in the form of tattoos, and even a haircut sends a similar, but not equal message. The use of solid color tattoos is something that I don’t think the people at Capcom considered. These types of tattoos have been more closely aligned with Far Right ideology in recent years. We saw police covered in patriotic tattoos, notably those of the Three Percent, a group identified by the Anti Defamation League as a far right militia movement. These officers have intimidated, and killed in the past. Many were fired, or forced to retire when they were outed as members of the group. The tattoos even turned up Patriots kicker Justin Rohrwasser.

In every instance people with Three Percent tattoos, and the like, all claim to be patriots. They claim not to subscribe to any racist ideology, but want to defend their country. It turns out that they want to defend their country from people that are not like them. Usually white, usually well off. Those that are minorities, gays, trans, Black Lives Matter supporters, Muslims, Liberals, Socialists, or immigrants are the enemy. They even go so far as to claim Anti-Fascists are the biggest threat to the American way of life. The irony in that logic cannot be understated. Guile had a design that could never be lumped into a hate group. He was intentionally designed to be over-the-top, like a GI Joe character that happened to be in a fighting game. He was fighting not for fame, but to get revenge for his fallen comrade, the soldier Charlie Nash. Luke seems to be in the game for himself, to be big, and famous. Sure it could be seen as being distinctly American, but there was more to this nation than a clone of the Paul brothers. I believe Luke doesn’t work because he has conflicting design elements. The sorts of elements that went into Ken for Street Fighter V.

More important I think Luke doesn’t work because Capcom does not know how to take a creative risk. When the studio says they are doing a deep dive, they often miss the elements that made their early generation characters work so well. They fall back on tropes, and stereotypes. Look at how Turkish oil wrestling was presented, or Mexican lucha libre with Hakan, and El Fuerte in SF IV. Fat people became used as joke characters in the series. Starting with Rufus, but spilling over into Birdie as well. The studio forgot that giant characters weren’t always stupid. Luke is designed to be modern, and edgy. He’s probably going to be as well remembered as Necalli in a few years. This is what drives me crazy about Capcom. Greatness is right in front of them, in many concept pieces for a character never used. For a throw-away design given to an existing character, as a costume. If only they would take a moment to listen, to trust their idea, and not what they think we really want. Lord knows I’ve tried to get through to them. I’ve applied to work at that company a half-dozen times. Even asked the producers to please read the blog. I’ll keep on pushing them to do better. I hope the community does too. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Chun-Li template, don't follow it too closely! A 1UP classic...

NOTE: This blog entry was originally published on 1UP on April 18, 2012.

In the previous blog I had highlighted how Chun Li was the template from which Capcom drew its great female character designs. I wanted to make a special mention of how the context of the character design was important as well. The studio could have and did try to introduce two new female characters in Street Fighter IV. The audience reaction was lukewarm to one and somewhat better for the other. Crimson Viper, the spy in a tight fitting pantsuit was actually a character design based on marketing data. Capcom learned that western audiences were drawn to women that looked like Angelina Jolie. They decided to make a Jolie-like character and put her in the game. Unfortunately most players skipped out on playing her during the first public showings of the game. This was a surprise to everyone working internally. The studio had made the mistake of trying to predict their audience based on trends from outside of the community. Jolie was a popular actress and she might have made for a fun character in a game like Tomb Raider, where running and gunning were the objective, however she had absolutely zero credibility as a martial artist. She was no Angela Mao or or Michelle Yeoh, those were actresses that had made a living by playing fighters on the big screen.

Capcom could not convince audiences that a fighting game character in tight-fitting street clothes with the same features of a size zero Hollywood actress belonged in the Street Fighter universe. The other character, Juri Han, went much further with audiences.

Capcom learned that SF fans were interested more in fighting designs than pop culture caricatures. You would think that they had learned that with the Bruce Lee clone called Fei Long… but I digress. Players were used to seeing multiple layers of detail that supported the character as a fighter. With Juri the details were more apparent. The costumes for the SF cast were story elements that explained who the character was in fighting style and personality to gamers. Juri was like Chun-Li, a variation of a traditional design. However it took Capcom senior designer Daigo Ikeno multiple revisions to find a character that worked.

Like Chun-Li before her the character started off in a more traditional costume. The new character was to be of Korean descent and Capcom wanted audiences to identify her easily as such. She was placed her in a Hanbok or traditional Korean clothing. The oversized dress was an interesting design choice however might have proved nonfunctional in a fight. Juri was to have a majority of kicking attacks to balance out her rival, Chun-Li. Her kicks would have been impossible to make out in the dress. Ikeno went back to the drawing board and kept on revising the character.

There were many revisions made Juri. Some of the design choices were bold while others were nonsensical. In this way Mr. Ikeno was able to demonstrate that during the development process every idea was considered, not solely the traditional choices but the outlandish ones as well. The countless revisions would not end up influencing the final design as much as Chun-Li did.

Visually Juri was almost point-for-point a repeat of the elements featured with Chun-Li. Savvy viewers might notice that some of the clothing options were reversed for the character. Chun-Li had bare arms and legs and Juri had covered arms and legs. Chun-Li wore a wide belt and Juri had a bare midriff.

Both characters had unique elements on their heads. Chun-Li had her hair in buns with long flowing ribbons while Juri sported two outlandish pigtails. Both characters featured a contrasting color on their uniforms, a filigree pattern that outlined their breasts.

Both characters also sported spiked bracelets. Juri's were a little harder to make out and seemed more decorative than functional in a fight.

Both characters relied on kicking moves that were supposedly inspired by their home countries. Chun-Li used a fictional form of kung-fu while Juri relied on fantastic Tae-Kwon Do attacks. Both characters also sported uniforms that were pseudo-authentic. Chun-Li's was a little more believable but it was still completely fabricated. These things were not noticeable until her uniform was compared to actual Chinese martial arts clothing. The cut of Juri's costume was extremely odd. Her top and sleeves were not based on any known martial art or fashion. Her leggings were a take-off of the traditional dobok or tae kwon do uniform. The dobok sported loose fitting pants so practitioners could perform a wide range of kicks. Juri's pants actually hung from her belt and were open on the hips and inner thigh, they were more like chaps that people wore while riding horses. Even her belt was unlike the traditional "dhee" worn on a dobok. Tae Kwon Do belts were styled similar to karate belts and were also colored to show what level of proficiency the fighter had. Instead of a short black belt Juri had an extremely long belt with purple striping which hung low across her waist.

Juri made a bigger impression on players of Street Fighter IV than almost any other character introduced in the series. A big reason for that was because she borrowed tremendously from the design of Chun-Li. Gamers that didn't pay attention to Juri's design influences but enjoyed the character nonetheless were possibly drawn to her at a subconscious level. Daigo Ikeno did a good job at introducing a new female into the SF universe that covered many of the elements that made the other characters memorable. Juri certainly stood apart from the more "traditional" designs explored in the SNK games. SNK had created an entire library of Korean characters starting with Kim Kaphwan, a TKD practitioner from Fatal Fury 2, released in 1992 a year after SF II had come out. The Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series had a unique cross sampling of Korean characters and styles. Capcom was barely exploring this part of Asia some 16 years after SNK.

SNK had at least two female Korean leads in the KOF series. The first was Mae Lee, a character dressed in modern street clothing sporting a strange belt and large scarf. Her design was rooted more in henshin, the Japanese superhero shows than on a classic fighting art. The other was Chae Lim. She was the first female wearing a traditional dobok featured in a videogame. She predated Juri by six years. The bold cut of Juri's uniform and use of contrasting colors black, white and purple made her stand out from the crowd however. Juri was designed to be a non-conformist or a non-traditionalist. It could explain why the character took extreme liberties with the uniform of TKD practitioners. Everything from the hair and colors associated with her were bold. She had shock value going in her favor, more so than even Crimson Viper and her electrified gloves. However was shock value enough to make her fit within the Street Fighter universe?

I would argue that Juri was lacking the elements to make her as timeless as Chun-Li. The character was instantly liked because she borrowed a large number of elements from Chun-Li. However this new character lacked inspiration and originality. Chun-Li went through several revisions before a character emerged that audiences could identify with. The influences from martial arts cinema and Chinese culture were tangible with Chun-Li. With Juri audiences could not readily see or identify any inspirations behind the character other than those of Chun-Li. Juri was a copy of a caricature. She suffered from the same inconsistencies of the other characters placed into SFIV, namely that the designers were not looking to the outside world for inspiration but looking at their own series to fill a slot on the roster.

Juri was a bit too formulaic. Capcom saw the reaction that western audiences had with the new characters and went back to the drawing board for Super SFIV. They went back to basics and tried applying a traditional fighting style on a national representative. Juri represented Korea and TKD and Hakan represented Turkey and their native wrestling. The the decision to reverse the clothing elements featured on Chun-Li helped make sure that Juri was better received than the oily red-colored man. Juri was a better design than C. Viper and certainly leagues ahead of Rufus, however even those two seemed pulled from characters featured in an older DIMPS fighting game.

Perhaps Mr. Ikeno played the design a little too safe. By following the template of Chun-Li so closely he created a character that lacked personality. All of the moves attached to the character were over-the-top, not to mention that she acted out sadistically in her animations. She was like an animé character placed into a fighting game. If the character was indeed a non-traditionalist then Capcom should have ignored trying to give her dobok leggings. The character in only her tights looked more like a cross-between Cammy and Chun-Li and possibly would have been more believable as the super fighter capable of taking on both icons at once. But that's just me speaking as an armchair designer.

I don't believe that Juri was as well designed as she could have been. Capcom wanted to push the envelope but they were not sure how. They had tried to make a dramatic change and failed with C. Viper. They returned to basics and succeeded somewhat with Juri. The differences between the two characters was obvious. One had more fighting elements while the other looked like she was wearing street clothes. Yet the nuances for a memorable female fighting lead were harder to pin down. Cammy was not a reversal of the costume elements of Chun-Li, she was her own person that complimented the designs of the earlier character. Cammy did not move or fight like Chun-Li but had her own special attacks. In Street Fighter EX Blair Dame was also nothing like Chun-Li yet she represented a strong female archetype with her own original style. Juri's pseudo-traditional costume and kick-based attacks were a little too similar to Chun-Li's to be considered completely original. That was my interpretation of the character, what do you think?

My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon final part

Carmageddon Max Damage is a worthy sequel to the franchise, and also one of the best vehicle combat games ever made. That should go without saying. For some reason the critics did not come to the same conclusion when it debuted in 2015. I have an idea what their issues were with the game, and I will explain them below. As for myself I’ve been playing driving games, racing games, and vehicle combat games for all my life. From the arcade pioneers at Atari with Gran Trak 10, and Sprint 2 in the ‘70s. All of the Sega, Atari, Midway, and Namco racing games from the ‘80s through the ‘90s like Monaco GP, Spy Hunter, Pole Position, Hot Rod, Virtua Racing, Ridge Racer, Sega Rally, Hydro Thunder, Daytona USA, San Francisco Rush, Cruisin’ USA, and Race Drivin.’ Not to mention the dozens of console games on Nintendo, Sony, Sega, and Microsoft. RC Pro Am, Gran Turismo, Forza, DIRT, MotorStorm, Burnout, F-Zero, Blood Wake, Twisted Metal, Full Auto, etc. Plus tons of games on the Mac, and PC like Intersate ’76, AutoDuel, Need for Speed, TrackMania, Deathtrak, and Hi-Octane. I’d like to think I am qualified to talk about whether a vehicle game is good or not.

Let’s talk about the complaints that people have. The first was that the vehicles were hard to control, that the physics were floaty. I don't agree at all. I’ve played, and mastered games with very hard control, poor physics, and handling. Max Damage was nothing like that. The cars in Max Damage responded accurately to their design, power, and weight. One of my favorite cars is the Annihilator, a top fuel funny car that has so much horsepower that it flips over if you mash the throttle. It is possibly the hardest car to use in the game, that is if you try to handle it like the rest. To get a 10,000 horsepower car to go where you want to you have to have the a feather-light touch on the throttle. In first gear it accelerates slowly, but by the time you get into second gear you’re already going over 100 mph, you can hit 300 mph an instant after that, and blast through any opponent. Not every car requires that much concentration to keep in a straight line. Additionally the game itself was fun on the very first race. It didn’t kill the enjoyment of just smashing cars into each other right from the get-go, unlike say Burnout Paradise, which has you go through tutorials for minutes before you can even get into the game itself. Stainless treats their audience like adults. They trust players can figure out the gas pedal, and brake as soon as the game begins. With that said there is a tutorial built in, if you need it. 

The majority of the vehicles in Max Damage are easy to handle. That is because Stainless Games was able to recreate the arcade feel of the original. It was designed to be easy to pick up, and play. It was not supposed to be a hyper detailed simulation. After a few minutes with each new car I could get them to do exactly what I wanted. I could do spinouts, sharp turns, drifts, and even save the car from flipping over while balancing on two wheels. Basic driving, and advanced techniques applied differently, as they should with the vehicle selection. With that said every car handled every bit as well as they had in the other games in the series. I’m not sure why there was so much push back from reviewers. I have a feeling however that the harshest critics were used to the controls, and physics from their favorite racing, or sandbox game. They wanted the throttle, and brakes to be just like FlatOut, Rocket League, or GTA. They couldn’t get the understeer, or oversteer to match what they were used to, and therefore it was broken in their eyes. Those that remember the control in the first two numbered Carmageddon games could say that Max Damage was fairly on point.

There were people complaining about the soundtrack. How the music didn’t fit the experience. The first few games had metal, electronic, and industrial soundtracks. Why would this game not keep that tradition going? Plus Maximum Sexy Pigeon, and Morgue really had some great songs in the game. I can't say enough good things about the sound design in the game. The sounds of cars, and tanks rolling on metal grates, grass, asphalt, sand, and concrete all sound unique. Engine sounds are unique whether you are driving a supercharged V8, an electric, or even diesel motor. Stages have ambient sounds from nature, machinery, vehicles, and anything else that happens to be out on a stage. Add on top people screaming, yelling, and begging for their lives, and the game really comes alive. Then there were people complaining that the levels were bare. I think that those people mistook what the genre was about. The best vehicle combat games took place on a closed course. The world that Stainless created was anything but bare. I mentioned previously the level of detail applied to the environments, pedestrians, and the levels themselves. I’m not sure what would make critics think the stages were lacking. I went back through the original Carmageddon, the Splat Pack, and Carmageddon II just to confirm there was much more happening in the stages of Max Damage than in all the previous games combined.

To clarify my point of the level designs, think of the Carma environments like arenas in a first person shooter. It wouldn’t make sense to have a world that was 100 square miles. You’d spent 20 minutes just looking for an opponent. Also, there are no snipers in Carma. The fights had to be up close. Look at the most memorable multiplayer stages in Team Fortress 2, Fortnight, Halo, Gears of War, or Call of Duty. They were detailed but compact. There were plenty of ways to get in, and out of the action. A portion of a city was more than enough for a handful of cars to fight through. Plus when your focus is on your opponents you don’t really check to see if pedestrians are evenly distributed on the map. They tend to be concentrated in the open areas where the cars are likely to collide. Again, it made sense from a design, and game play perspective.

The visuals on the PS4 were good, they weren’t poor quality PS3 graphics like some people say. Could they have been better? Could they have used more polish? Probably, but what game with a relatively short development cycle couldn't also benefit from that? I will admit that the Xbox One graphics were much better, and the PC best of all. The level load times seemed a bit long, however once loaded I’ve had marathon matches lasting an hour or more with no slowdown, or buffering. That’s a small price to pay for uninterrupted game play. The single player campaigns were good, but Carmageddon has always worked best with multiplayer. Online matches were a good start, as were the multitude of match types. Waiting for random players to show up was a waste of time. Many people wanted to see LAN support, or at the very least two-player split screen. This is usually where detractors find fault. They ignored the great elements in the game, and began tearing it down by what it lacked. Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The thing that critics rarely bring up. PC games adapted for home consoles rarely held up to the original platform. Carmageddon has never sold well on home consoles because of terrible ports by third parties. This was the first time it was presented as closely to the PC as possible. Reviewers complained that it looked, played, sounded, and offended like the original Carmageddon. Doesn't that mean that the studio did the remake correctly? 

Many reviewers made the off-hand comment that games like this had evolved since the '90s. I had a feeling what these critics wanted was a slow-burn, dramatic adventure. One where you play as Max Damage, a shell of a man, and no longer a racer. He washes dishes in the back of a cafe in Bleak City. Burdened with guilt he raises money for the families of those killed in the Carmageddon tournament. He regains his humanity by making amends to the people he's wronged. He doesn't actually get behind the wheel of the Eagle until the last 10 minutes of an 18 hour game when his adopted daughter / puppy / robot wife is killed. If that's the kind of mature storytelling the game needed then count me out. Let's be honest here. Being upset that Stainless captured the spirit of the classic was like being mad at Capcom because Street Fighter V brought back the feel of Street Fighter III. I cannot think of another example of where a studio recreated a title while updating everything in the game, and then got dragged for it. It certainly didn't apply to Zelda, Doom, Mario, or Halo did it? Stainless pretty much created a new genre, then came back a generation later to show that it still held up. They updated all of their original selling points. They managed to draw an audience, and build a community that still wanted more of this type of experience. Their reward for this was being told their game was old, and dumb.

Stainless Games was not founded as a console developer. They would never claim to be the best at it. They cut their teeth making games for the Mac. They also adapted some games from PC, to the Mac. That was a lifetime ago, when they developed for SCi rather than themselves. Max Damage was a chance for them to take control of the IP. They believed that they could self-publish for the PC, and took a gamble on doing the adaptation for the consoles as well. This would be a monumental task for a major studio. Large publishers usually brought in a partner to help make a console version. Stainless Games managed to do all of this with a tiny staff, on a rarely short development cycle. If I remember correctly the company had about two dozen full-time staffers. They wore many hats, took on lots of roles, and somehow shaped a part of the industry. Other PC developers were three, or four times that size, and console developers had teams 10 times larger. The fact that this small company got all of this done without the backing of a major publisher should get some credit. But again, it was never brought up in the heavy-handed reviews.

If you really want to criticize Stainless for what was missing in Max Damage it would be everything they wanted to incorporate, but simply ran out of time, and money. The Carmageddon series was good, but it had the framework of something phenomenal as well. It was apparent in the original game. Such as the flying car proposed for Ed 101. No other game had mixed flying technology, with vehicle combat. Those elements would appear in the Twisted Metal series many years later. Tanka would have been the first trailer truck to be featured in a 3D vehicle combat game. Only to have the trailer half cut at the last minute before going gold. Again, the complete idea would appear later on in Twisted Metal. Stainless made sure to put an elevated train track in Bleak City. It helped break up the skyline, and gave the illusion that the world extended beyond the borders of the stage. They put a lot of forethought into world building, even if it lacked the animation that they wanted. The studio had planned for all sorts of animated set pieces. Carmageddon II got a lot of their wishlist items done, working trains, and planes in full 3D. This was back when GTA was still a top-down game. Fans, and community members would mod Carma to help fulfill the remaining plans. Stainless was finally able to put a working monorail, and many other details into the series 17 years later in Reincarnation. They were also able to get trailers working for every car in the game. Part of the reason they circled back was because they were finally working for themselves, on their own schedule, rather than for another publisher.

The studio could have added many more things to Carmageddon Max Damage. Again if only they had more time, and money. The framework was already there. For example you get to purchase Armor, Power (engine), and Offense upgrades for your car. They have an associated picture, and name for each upgrade, but the cars themselves never changed. Visually a level one car looks identical to a level five. This was not always the plan. As you purchased new items to make your car faster, or stronger, it was supposed to change the ride. At the start of the game you were supposed to get either the basic Eagle R, or Hawk R, and watch it evolve along the way. More blades were added to the frame. Wings, and air splitters became wider. Bumpers became sturdier. Fenders changed the shape, and body kits smoothed out the aerodynamics. Each item helped change the performance in different categories. Making it look faster, or tougher, or more lethal. Even a fully balanced version was possible.

This type of visual change was supposed to apply to every car in the game. It was actually seen in the mobile game Carmageddon Crashers in 2017. Stainless used the assets they had created in Max Damage, and continued shaping where they wanted to go with the series. It took the studio an additional two years of development to get to that point. They showed audiences what the base-model Eagle, Hawk, or any other car looked like in Crashers. The majority actually looked like street cars, or construction vehicles, and not the killing machines we know them as. The versions we were used to in the main series were considered mid-level in Crashers. The fully upgraded rides looked even more fantastic than we ever could have imagined. Stainless showed us what the top tier Eagle R, and Hawk R looked like. Much sportier, and more aggressive than the standard models. We certainly would have loved to see those in Max Damage. Even better the studio gave us the fully upgraded Iron (Tez) Eagle, and Iron Hawk to drool over. Of course audiences would not have waited three years after the debut of Reincarnation to get a more complete version of Max Damage. These things, and much more had always been in the plans.

The studio did not lack new ideas, they just lacked the resources to publish what they wanted. Bad press, and controversy made it so that the game would never get all the funding, and support it deserved. PC audiences had a sense of this, but console players had no idea. As such their perception of the franchise was skewed. Especially by reviewers who mostly focused on console games. Many assumed the game was all shock, and no substance. They never bothered doing their research, seeing how the previous entries stacked up to their contemporaries, if there even were any. The critics never bothered looking into the developers, and being amazed at everything they had contributed to the industry. As a fan knowing that Carmageddon could have been even greater was the hardest pill to swallow. Even today publisher THQ Nordic sits on the Carmageddon license, as they have been for years. In that time they have not announced another sequel. If you visit their company site, as of June 2021, there is no mention of Carmageddon in their games section. The only news you will find is the press release from 2018 when they announced their acquisition. Chances are THQ will not actually fund another sequel. It is simply too violent, and too controversial for the current climate. 

I contend that Max Damage was to the Carmageddon franchise, as Fury Road was to the Mad Max film series. George Miller broke new ground with his low budget Mad Max film in 1979. He had ideas that would elevate the character, and universe with each sequel. Even if Hollywood didn’t always understand it. Miller never stopped being a great director. He took on all sorts of projects for the past 30 years to pay the bills. All the time he kept refining what he wanted to do with his original idea. When the opportunity came he seized it. Practical, and special effects got to the point where his storyboards became reality. He let all his crazy ideas fly, and audiences took notice. The times may had changed, but there were still fans of this type of action. More important, new fans were drawn to this type of visual storytelling. Stainless actually gave audiences a more complete vision of what the original Carmageddon was about with Max Damage. They made no concessions. They did not tone it down, or make it more palatable for mainstream audiences. 

The studio did however have to wait 18 years, and develop a lot of smaller games before they could return to the series. In that time other companies came, and went. Many franchises grew. Stainless kept on rolling in obscurity. When the opportunity arose they got the crew back together, and gave it another go. Technology had finally caught up with their vision, they were able to push the limits on everything they had always wanted. I was not a fan of how the Kickstarter campaign was handled. I will not forgive the studio for their lack of transparency during that period. Yet at the same time I was satisfied with the final result. To this day fans, and community members keep modding, fixing, and tweaking the title. They hope that there might be another game on the horizon. They do this because no other game gives you the Carmageddon experience. Not GTA, not Burnout, not BeamNG Drive, and not Rocket League. I’d suggest that critics go back, and take a closer look. Max Damage deserves respect. It certainly deserves a new sequel. Credit is owed to Stainless Games for their contribution to the vehicle combat genre. They held true to their vision, and got lambasted by the critics for doing so. In a world where any remake is met with a suspicious eye Stainless Games never blinked.

I wish that reviewers would do more than blurt out a critical first impression. I wish that other game studios were as brave with their IP. Most important, I wish nothing but success to the people at Stainless Games. Here's to your continued success! Thank you for visiting this series. I greatly appreciate it. Do you have a favorite vehicle combat game? If so I'd like to hear about it in the comments. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!