Remix Culture, how Asian designers changed the game, part 6

In the previous entry of this series I talked about how context changed the way I thought about the artists following on the heels of Michael Lau, and his figure art. I argued that some creators were helping spread the art form. They understood the elements that made Lau’s work unique. They were creating highly-detailed 12” figures inspired by a certain subculture. Lau had street culture covered, Brothersfree highlighted industrial workers, Eric So, and CoolRain were working on high profile NBA licenses. Then there were creators that I thought were exploiting the trend. People like Jason Siu, and Pal Wong seemed to be poaching the style that Lau had established, and retreading street culture as well. So what was it that made Michael’s work stand out from his contemporaries? How was he able to put so much context in his work that it could be understood by people around the world? It actually had a lot to do with the insight he had across a number of genres.

When I started this series I mentioned that Lau had grown up in a culture that celebrated the East, and the West. He read comics, and manhua, watched cartoons, films, and TV from all over the world. As a kid he played with handmade toys, bootleg kanji, action figures both the 12” and 3.75” sizes, and also Playmobil. These things stayed on the shelves of his work studio, continuing to inspire him as he cranked out figures, and comics for East Touch magazine. He also played sports; futbol / soccer specifically, and was good friends with a number of musicians. All of these things influenced his tastes, and by extension his style of art. 

The creators that rubbed off on Lau, and his contemporaries were people like Matt Groening (the Simpsons), Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl, Gorillaz), Simon Bisley (Lobo, Judge Dredd), and Mike Mignola (Hellboy). You could see their influence on Lau, his contemporaries, and even the modern crop of toy, and game designers. I would argue that Lau was a member of an entirely new wave of creators that came into their own in the 1990’s. Lau was a little kid when comic books started becoming stale. Publishers tried a lot of things in the late ‘70s / early ‘80s to grow their base. Including focusing on comics inspired by toy lines, such as G.I. Joe, Transformers, and even lesser know lines like US-1, and Team America. 

These changes happened when Generation-X was learning to appreciate the art form. The Gen-Xers going to grade school were told that in order to work at Marvel, or DC they had to follow the house style of the artists that came before. These included luminaries like George Perez, John Byrne, and John Romita Sr. The thing was that the style guides hadn’t evolved much since the ‘60s. According to the publishers it was hard to break into the market if your style didn’t conform. By the end of the ‘80s it was apparent that the opposite was true. The most popular books were drawn by artists who drew vastly different from the old guard. Even the leading characters were radically different than what came before. For example the anti-heros, like Deadpool rose to prominence.

People like Jim Lee (X-Men), Rob Liefeld (X-Force / Deadpool), Whilce Portacio (X-Factor), Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man), and Dale Keown (the Incredible Hulk) not only threw the style guides out of the window, they also rewrote the rules of the industry. They broke away from Marvel, and founded Image comics. Along with Dark Horse comics there was a place to turn to if your style was not a fit at Marvel or DC. The big publishers had to push the envelope in order to keep up with the new school. Although their young stars had jumped ship, the publishers they left behind had to update their IP in order to remain relevant with readers. The artists that they picked up to replace McFarlane, Lee, or Keown had to mirror their style at the very least. The big publishers also added new artists that brought that same outsider spirit with them. Simon Bisley’s run on Lobo for DC, and Mark Texeira’s run on the Ghost Rider for Marvel were every bit as mature as what audiences wanted from the Image books. Their contributions to the industry were just as important as the best indy creators from the ‘90s.

The Gen-X comics themselves were new takes on various genres. Violence, drugs, and sex had never been front, and center in the classic hero books. The new titles like Youngblood, Wild Cats, the Pitt, Spawn, Savage Dragon, and Wetworks could be adult, silly, serious, satirical, and everything in between. The books also evolved as the Gen-Xers got older. That wasn’t the most important thing this new batch of creators put forward. Minority characters finally got the spotlight in the ‘90s. People tend to forget that Spawn who was arguably the most popular of the new characters, was a Black mercenary before he died, and got his powers. Urban heroes, and villains, Asians, Latinos, Blacks, and Natives were more than token characters in the team comics. Every ethnic group started having more dimension, and gravity than in the previous decades. One of my favorite creators was Jason Pearson (Rest In Peace). His art was refreshing. He took aesthetic cues from manga, cartoonists, and most important video game artists. Contemporaries in a similar vein included Francisco Herrera, Joe Madureira, and Humbero Ramos.

Many of the aforementioned artists demonstrated that pulling cues from overseas anime, and manga could be appealing to western audiences. Pearson’s breakthrough series was Body Bags. The series was first published by Gaijin Comics in 1996. It was arguably the most controversial title of the decade. It featured Latino anti-heroes Mac “Clownface” Delgado, and his daughter Panda. The style, fashion, and cultures that he featured in his dystopian world were a mashup of all things that Pearson enjoyed. His books were equal parts Punisher, Quentin Tarantino, and Cholo gang culture. This mentality of going “all-in” on your art was embraced by a lot of creatives in the ‘90s. They were remixing, and sharing the cultures that they loved to an entirely new fan base.

In Japan there were also phenomenal creators like Santa Inoue. His Tokyo Tribe manga series debuted in Boon magazine before it was serialized. Tokyo Tribe would eventually become animated, and even get a live action feature. Inoue used Hip Hop culture as the backdrop of the story revolving around Kai, his Saru gang, and their battles against rival gangs; Waru, Hands, and Wu-Ronz. He kept his stories grounded to the streets, and his heroes fought with their fists (and baseball bats) where other titles featured heroes that relied on magic, super powers, or psychic abilities. The heavy, and violent tone of his books captured the angst of a new generation of Japanese kids. They identified more with western Hip Hop, than with traditional Japanese culture. This poured into every element of pop culture in Japan, including fighting game character designs. 

As entertaining as the Tokyo Tribe comics were, they also served as a primer to introduce adults into this world that was shaping street culture before their very eyes. Mr. Inoue had grown up listening to rap, and watching music videos from the west. He was well versed in the four pillars of Hip Hop, and his attention to detail, and remixing of cultural brands was extremely well done. Michael Lau ended up doing a crossover with Tokyo Tribe, and releasing some figures as well. Lau, and Inoue were prominent creators putting their passion for street culture front, and center. The Hong Kong toy community in the late ‘90s, and early 2000’s were as revolutionary as the Image crew was to the US in the early ‘90s.

In the US it wasn’t a straight line to get urban art turned into collectable figures, but there was a change happening. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane would go on to build an epic toy empire. He could tell that the quality of action figures had been lacking in the US for some time. Fans of his comics were growing older, and they wanted to collect more than just books. So he formed his own company, and had steadily raised the bar by releasing highly detailed, quality figures over the decades. He also licensed movie, game, and pro sports franchises for his catalog to great success.

It was apparent that as they got older Gen-Xers were really into collecting toys, and figures more than any previous generation. This understanding was embraced by Lau, and his contemporaries. By turning the figures from his comic book run into art gallery presentations Mr. Lau was able to elevate the form in the eyes of the international community. This was not a fad, and this was not a hobby. Urban vinyl could be as legitimate as any print, painting, or sculpture from established artists.

Of all of the figures that Lau created, and released, it was the athletes that got the strongest reaction from me. I’ll talk about it more in the next entry. For now I’d like to know if you were a fan of the comics, or toys from the ‘90s. Was there a particular culture that you identified with? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always 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!

Clash Road and Ring King, early sport games to check out - A 1UP classic from July 31, 2012

Hello friends, hope you are having a good week so far. My back is killing me. I might have pulled something moving furniture this past weekend. Hopefully it will be better by next weekend as the missus and I will be painting a room. What have you been up to? Right now we're in the early days of the Olympics. What do you think so far? Did you like the opening ceremonies? Are there any sports you are following? For some reason I was thinking about cycle racing and one of my favorite cycle racing games.

Chances are you've never heard of Clash Road, in all my years I've only seen the cabinet in the wild three times. Two in an arcade and one in a liquor store. The game was never ported over to the consoles as far as I can remember. It's a shame too, it's like the version of pro cycling that should be real and everyone should play! Players are riding in a no-holds-barred bike race. Despite the sponsor logos and authentic looking gear the bikers actually are allowed to punch each other and run opponents off the road. If I could describe the gameplay mechanics think of a mash up between the skateboarding section of T&C Surf Designs and Road Rash. Players have to worry about keeping pace and trying not to lose too much energy before the end of a race. The calorie count that each character has is like the fuel gage in most classic racing games. Players can get more energy by running down joggers, whom I guess give up their water bottles? The majority of the game is avoiding obstacles by jumping over them with a well timed bunny hop while backhanding rivals. Players can collect turtles with letters on their backs. If players spell out "Clash Road" they become temporarily invincible and can plow down opponents. I loved the nuance and control of the game. I would line up my bike with my rivals and then bunny hop right onto their back tire, sending them flying. Often times I didn't need to throw a punch as a simple jump could topple the toughest racer.

Clash Road was also the first game where I saw a burly fighter with a mohawk and beard. If I didn't know better this game was the first appearance of Zangief almost 8 years before Street Fighter II. However the title was not from Capcom but instead by a company known as Woodplace. That studio was perhaps better known for creating Ring King. It was a semi-popular arcade boxing game that was ported over to the NES by Data East. As far as fighting games went Ring King was a pretty good arcade title. There were some questionable elements in the game but these didn't become apparent until 1UP pointed them out in one of the funniest videos ever.

Woodplace managed to make bicycle road racing more masculine and violent than the actual sport yet they sort of did the opposite to boxing...

So those are the two sports type games that I wanted to mention during this Olympics period. I do think that isometric boxing was done better than Ring King however. Taito's Kageki came out in 1988 and was a more well-rounded fighting game with less questionable elements. Are there any sports games that you are playing during these few weeks? Tell me about them in the comments section.

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Could graphic novels inspire great games? A 1UP classic from September 5, 2012

Hello friends, yesterday I talked about some buddy comic book characters that would make for great videogame heroes. As for what single character would make for a great videogame. How about Nixon from the graphic novel Hard Boiled?

The cyborg detective worked the streets of a very dystopian future Earth. The mix of noir and cyberpunk was amazing. It would take a very big studio to recreate the world that Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow presented. The game I imagine would be Crackdown meets State of Emergency. Those were two games that flew in under the radar but presented enough ideas to warrant another look.

If you could nominate one graphic novel to get the videogame treatment which would it be and why? The first person who says the Watchmen in a Lego format gets a boot to the head. As always 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!

Remix Culture, how Asian designers changed the game, part 5

In a previous blog I mentioned that I thought Pal Wong was doing a disservice to the art toy community when he released his own line of 12” figures. Especially as he was poaching the earlier style, and designs of Michael Lau. Then I mentioned that Korean figure artist CoolRain was capitalizing on the movement, and like Eric So from Hong Kong I didn’t seem to have a big problem with it. Where did I draw the line? I think context had a lot to do with it, and I think the intent of the creatives could easily be taken out of context because they were Asian.

In the US we often considered luxury products coming from China to be cheap counterfeits. The nation was notorious for loose copyright protections. Clothing, shoes, and entire stores had been written about as poaching established brands. When it came to copying an IP nothing seemed out of bounds, least of all 12” vinyl figures. These things were not isolated to one country. South Korea had similar counterfeit markets as well. A portion of customers buying knock-offs was because they weren’t aware that they were fake. They wanted to appear like conspicuous consumers, to keep up with their neighbors, so they spent billions of dollars supporting the gray market. On this blog I’ve called out time, and time again how manhua artists copied illustrations from SNK, and Capcom manga when creating licensed, and unlicensed comics. I even did a multi-part series on the game Xuan Dou Zhi Wang / King of Combat for poaching designs, and elements from several fighting games. At the bottom of the blog I linked all the entries in that series.

The thing about Chinese, or Hong Kong creators was that anything they worked on was met with suspicion from consumers in the west. It didn’t matter if they were making a comic, game, toy, or fashion piece. The first thing that people overseas did (myself included) was try to dissect what they were doing, or try to find the direct connection to something that existed previously. I don’t think that this level of skepticism was equal compared to creators from Japan, or the US. It seemed all but impossible for me to give the Chinese credit for the work they were doing, and any new ground they were breaking. One of the things that hurt the reception from people in the west was that any new trends were instantly jumped on by contemporaries, and competitors. Copycats flooded the market as soon as a trend started.

I’m sure you’ve seen countless ads for Chinese, and Korean MMO’s that looked identical to each other. Worse yet they were poaching the designs from popular RPGs. I saw it happen in the figure market with Lau, where several contemporaries became much better known from being at the right place, at the right time. It didn’t seem fair to me that he didn’t get his flowers from the west for the movement he started. As I started putting together this series I took a hard look at the trends of copying, counterfeiting, and thought that maybe I had the wrong mindset. Maybe I was looking at the process from the wrong perspective. If I considered the intent, and context of Korean, Chinese, Hong Kong, and even Taiwanese creators then I might come to a different conclusion.

I began thinking of the culture, how the Chinese were manufacturing the lion’s share of consumer goods that the west enjoyed, but getting none of the respect for the labels. When it came to fighting games I thought of how many marital arts from China had been presented by studios the world over, but were always met with skepticism when a fighting game came from a Chinese developer. I thought of how many artists in the West were called geniuses for “remixing” established brands. Andy Warhol and his can of Campbells soup, Roy Lichtenstein making millions for copying old comic book panels, or Ron English taking jabs at US icons. It was art when they did it, but when the Chinese artist did it then it became a counterfeit. The oddest thing was that counterfeits could boost the sales of genuine products.

What if the Chinese were remixing culture, remixing brands, and not hung up on IP because it was not part of their cultural lexicon? This could work in a society that favored the collective good, rather than the individual achievement. Yes there were some creators intent on creating a knock-off to dupe prospective buyers. They wanted to sell a cheaper alternative to people searching for a brand name product. There were also some creating an homage to an established brand, but determined to put their own unique spin on it. They would make up variations of established logos, colors, and brands. Sometimes with a lot of creativity. Who would be the judges in determining what was on brand, versus a fake, versus an artistic interpretation?

Context had a lot to do with how we reported, and perceived these copies. In any case the nation was able to turn an idea into a product in record time. The volume, and speed that Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese creators were able to get toys, games, and fashion out there was dizzying. They were remixing products before the trends were even able to spread around the world. This approach made me reconsider the way I thought about the games, toys, and fashion items they were putting into the market. The difference between what Michael Lau, Eric So, Pal Wong, Jason Siu, CoolRain, and the Brothersfree trio did was so subtle that to many collectors it was imperceptible.

The figures that Michael Lau released were always a step ahead of his contemporaries. They were layered with details that some people missed. Take Meter Chen for example. The initial for the character’s name was based on the familiar McDonald’s fast food “Golden Arches” but it also represented the three legs of the character. The story behind the design made much more sense in context. Meterchen was based on an actual friend of Michael, the globe trotting journalist from East Touch magazine walked everywhere, hence the three legs. He spent more time in airports than at home, hence the rolling suitcase. He lived off of fast food, hence his packaging looked like a black, and gold McDonald’s bag. The levels of storytelling were amazing, but you could still enjoy the three-legged figure without any other context. It wasn’t always this deep with figures from some of his contemporaries. Not that it mattered, the style of his characters, and toys inspired countless variations, or “remixes” if you prefer.

Michael was aware of what the contemporaries were working on the entire decade of 2000. He was creating paintings, sculptures, and other mixed media projects in the interim. Like many artists he didn’t want to rest on his laurels, he wanted to be seen as something other than the vinyl figure guy. He made sure to share his toy influences on his future projects, but in entirely new formats, including massive resin, and fiberglass statues. He coined the term ar+oy, pronounced ArtToy, the meaning was that 'All Art Are Toys, All Toys Are Art'.

Many of the larger pieces he created went to private collectors, and international galleries. He didn’t want to leave his community of vinyl figure fans out of the loop. He released a few 12” figures between 2011 through 2015. A young version of Maxx called STREETMAXX, and an older version called WORKMAXX in which he had a mustache, and was wearing Carhartt brand workwear. This helped appease the demands of audiences for his original gardeners. These were limited to around 800 or less for each character. Of course fans wanted more. In the middle of the decade he dropped another line that would force his contemporaries to take notice.

The Michael Lau x How2Work Garden(palm)er series came out in 2013. The name itself was chosen because they could fit in the palm of your hand. Each drop featured nine figures in a box that looked just like a case of spray cans. It wouldn’t be the first time he had released art toys this way. A collectors set of the NY-Fat graffiti gardener figures in spray can cases came out a few years prior. What made the palmers unique was that they were 1/12 scale figures. Unlike the squat 6-inch mini-gardeners these figures were proportional to the original gardeners, but now roughly eight-inches in height. Each character even featured the same clothing as the original gardeners from 1999. Michael had a tradition of rewarding his most die-hard collectors. In a callout to his 2001 Crazy Children series each of the nine Garden(palm)er figures came with a bonus piece. If you collected all nine figures then you had enough pieces to assemble the mystery 10th figure. The mystery figures across all four seasons introduced entirely new gardeners into canon.

The rest of the figure community soon caught on that they could release figures in different scales, and proportions as well. They would not be locked into 1/6 scale, they could go 1/12, or 1/9 scale, just as easily. Or they could make figures that were round, or square, out of wood, resin, metal, or any number of material. The point was that fans would show up. The community was hungry for more. The studio that understood the assignment was Come4Arts. Their Corner Bar Series were essentially drinking buddies in roughly the same 8” area. Instead of spray cans each figure came in a fake beer can. Of course a set came in a six-pack. It was some very clever work from the Chinese group. I only wish I had bought the palmer figures when I had a chance, but I was on a very tight budget at the time. The toy importers were selling them at roughly $400 a box. So imagine that spending $1600 in four years on figures wouldn’t work out for me. I understand that serious collectors out there spend that much on single items. Good on them, I’m totally not jealous! (imveryjealousactually)

As fantastic as the palmer set was, they didn’t feature my favorite of the gardeners. A few of the original 6” mini gardeners did have some of my absolute favorite characters. I’d like to talk about them in a future blog. For now I would like to hear your thoughts on remix culture. Was it possible for Chinese, Korean, or other creators to get credit for remixing familiar brands, and logos without being accused of being counterfeiters? Or here’s another question for you. What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a toy, or figure? Tell me about it in the comments section please. If you wanted to read about the birth of the Chinese fighting game Xuan Dou Zhi Wang / King of Combat the series is below. 

Copycat Culture, part 1 

Copycat Culture, part 2 

Copycat Culture, part 3 

Copycat Culture, part 4 

Copycat Culture, part 5 

Copycat Culture, part 6 

Copycat Culture, part 7 

Copycat Culture, final part 

As always 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!

Count Dante, the man, the myth, the illustration - A 1UP classic from May 21, 2012

Hello friends, how was your weekend? I hope it went well. Things didn't go quite as planned on my side. Ended up running a lot of chores and missed the book signing. I hope to catch up with Dwayne Vance at a later date to talk about his new book a little further down the road. Right now I'm planning out some new projects and working on my portfolio. What did you guys and gals get up to this weekend and what do you have coming up? One thing I hadn't done in a long while was work on a new illustration. I decided to take a simple graphic and try to recreate it on the computer. I found one from the classic comic book ad for Count Dante.

It turns out that the real Count Dante was a character and a half. Martial artist, self-promoter and Playboy hairstylist? There had been dueling documentaries being produced over the past decade but only one looks like it will actually be coming out. I'm a big fan of the martial arts myth, especially the true stories of the fighters that inspired the legends, and in the case of Count Dante, the urban legends.

Are there any odd characters you wish you knew more about? As always 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!

Dance 'till you drop, do the LoboCop - A 1UP classic from December 15, 2010

As I'm going through the old comics to share with the little gal I can't help but wonder where the fun went in comic books. Sometimes the storylines and characters take themselves too seriously.

I stumbled across one of the best parodies of film-meets-comic book characters ever. Featuring two unlikely but very complimentary sources. The "Main Man" Lobo getting put into the titanium body of a Robocop. The result of which was a crazy send up of law enforcement gone too far.

With fun designs and lots of violence I'm wondering why DC didn't bother revisiting the character. LoboCop would make for a fun videogame. Perhaps the arcade mechanics of Robocop, plus the comedic timing of Sunset Riders. It would certainly much better than the Lobo videogame that never came out.

I guess there was the good and bad in the 90's now that I think about it. Comics were fun but every quick-buck videogame was a fighter. It's a darn shame too.

As always 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 story of Burnov. Or how to make a fat character work in a fighting game.

Last week I talked about Rage of the Dragons by Evoga, Steel Hearts, and BreezaSoft from 2002 as a sequel to the Double Dragon fighting game by Technōs from 1995. Technōs had created the original Double Dragon as a brawler way back in 1987. It put the genre on the map, and had every major studio making their own clone. Each Double Dragon sequel in the arcade lacked the innovative game play that appeared in rival titles. It seemed that when it came to development they were playing it safe, cheap, and simply going through the motions. A few years later when fighting games were more popular they released their own fighter as well. The game suffered when they tied their SNK fighter to the horrid live action movie. The company did not seem to know how to evolve their own franchise regardless of what format they used. Despite the failings of their fighting game I would argue that one of the best character designs, and certainly one of my favorite redesigns came out of it.

The original Double Dragon brawling game was set in a post apocalyptic future. Although there were still big cities, cars, and modern amenities there were also roving gangs, mutants, and bad guys that terrorized even the police. It was up to people to take the law into their own hands. This was the context that stars of the game Billy, and Jimmy Lee fought in. Abobo was one of the giant characters in the first game. Those massive bruisers changed a little in the sequel. One of the larger bad guys was a masked former wrestler-turned-villain. Burnov made his debut in Double Dragon II: The Revenge. His look in the game pulled elements from pro wrestlers, but more specific the gangs featured in the Mad Max movie series. The films by director George Miller started in 1979. The wild characters, armor, and vehicle designs by Miller influenced the mangas Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star, Trigun, Battle Angel Alita, and the game franchises Twisted Metal, Carmageddon, and even Street Fighter II.

Burnov had a metal mask in his original form, and long stringy hair. He was most likely inspired by the Lord Humungus from the Road Warrior sequel to Mad Max. He appeared as a level 1 boss in Double Dragon II. He was much taller than the Lee brothers, and even came with his own stage music. If you got too close to this boss, or tried to grapple with him then he would pick you up by the head, and punch you in the face. It was a brutal but equally cool attack. This character would turn up again in the various sequels, and reboots to the franchise. Shortly after his debut the character was made a considerably fatter. Contrary to popular belief I didn’t have a problem with fat fighting game characters. I had an issue with fat being used as a punchline. Bob in Tekken, and Rufus in Street Fighter being introduced as joke characters. They diluted otherwise great ensembles.

Some of the best designs for brawlers, and fighters were obese wrestlers. Almost a decade ago I talked about how Burnov, and Kimala the Bouncer were two of the best characters ever featured in a game. They happened to be massively fat, but underneath that fat was a large amount of muscle as well. They had power in spades, as some famous fat strongmen had all throughout history. I had a low opinion of the Double Dragon fighting game, and especially the movie, but thought that Burnov’s new look was brilliant.

I was surprised at how fat he had become, especially when compared to his original look. He was proportionally much fatter than any other character used in a fighting game. This list would go beyond sumo wrestlers, and into the realm of fantasy characters like Avu, Sheik Maherl, and Karnov. With the exception of Buchu from Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1984) it was Karnov (1987) that became first breakout game star that was also fat. I had mentioned his status in the blog about representation a decade ago. 

Aside from Kimala the Bouncer, the closest design that you compare him to would be King Heart from Hokuto No Ken. Both were obese boss characters from a post apocalyptic world. Yet like Heart this character was also absurdly muscular as well. It turned out that it was more than coincidence that their designs were so similar. Kimala, Burnov, and Heart (and especially Karnov) were all inspired by the pro wrestler Abdullah the Butcher. The “Madman from Sudan” traveled the globe brutalizing his opponents. He wore a keffiyeh, curled toe boots, and Arabian pants as part of his outfit.

Technōs had the WWF (WWE) license for arcade games in the late '80s, and had created the wrestling games WWF Superstars in 1989, and WWF Wrestlefest in 1991. Abdullah was supposed to be in the game. He was in the design stages, but his sprite, and animations were never finished. So the developers instead changed his skin color, added some armor, and a mohawk to Burnov. His attacks were still based on wrestling moves, chops, tackles, and leg drops. His special attacks were fire-based, like the Arabian characters mentioned above. Everything about this character worked surprisingly well, especially in the context of the Double Dragon universe.

Burnov was created as the second bruiser in the game, a sort of rival to Abobo. His girth, strikes, and special attacks were a perfect counter to Abobo’s height, and power moves. Remember that Abobo was a literal giant. He was over seven feet tall, and 336 lbs. In order to hold his own the shorter Burnov had to be massive, weighing in at 495 lbs. The game referred to him as the Muscle Bomber Man. I'm not sure if they were calling out the Capcom wrestling series Muscle Bomber intentionally. In any instance it was completely believable that he could bulldoze through all of his opponents. In fact I thought his Dynamite Tackle was one of the most awesome moves in all of fighting game history. 

His super attack saw the man nicknamed “The Human Bomb” become engulfed in flame, and just plow through his enemies. It wasn't a fireball, sonic boom, knife, or other kind of projectile attack. Instead it was a man that weighed a quarter-ton simply running full speed at his opponent. I ranked this attack above Vega’s Psycho Crusher from Street Fighter II, especially when it came to believability. Why would I think so? When I was younger I studied karate with my big brother, and our friends. It was hard for me to find an equal sparring partner given my height, and weight. I was 6’ 7”, and around 330 lbs. at the time. Our sensei appreciated how hard I was working to learn the proper forms, and strikes. He revealed that in an actual fight these moves were impractical for me.

My teacher knew that I was a passive person, and not the type to look for trouble. Anyone foolish enough to pick a fight with me was probably carrying a weapon. They were looking for a reason to shoot, or stab somebody. This was especially true if they could claim self defense, or stand-your-ground laws. He advised that if I could not avoid a fight then I should literally run through that person. In a mortal situation don’t try to punch, kick, or grapple. He said just bowl them over, and get out of there. They wouldn't be able to stop me from doing so. Even the best martial arts practitioners could get trampled. Burnov was really good at doing exactly what I was taught. The fact that he could run down the Double Dragon sub-boss Duke, and boss Shuko was proof of this.

The next version of this character in a Double Dragon title wouldn't have the same impact. Jae-Mo Kang was a fat South Korean wrestler that appeared in the Rage of Dragons. He was a silly homage to Burnov. According to the designers at Evoga "Kang was one of the last characters to join, since we decided to include Mr. Jones I thought on a "Laurel & Hardy" team, so at first his name was McGuire, a Pro Wrestler and Businessman, later on during development we were told that we needed to change his nationality ot Korean for marketing reasons, so I asked for advice about a good Korean name..." Sadly Evoga missed the point of Burnov's redesign. This was evident when they insisted on making Kang, and his partner Mr. Jones into stereotypical caricatures. 

Burnov was the type of over-the-top character that added color, and personality to fighting games. He had a shocking appearance in the vein of Blanka, and Dhalsim, mixed with the entertainment factor of Skullomania. Like those characters he was also effective against the various martial arts styles. He was fun, and energetic, but not a joke. He was the fat fighter done right. He was a template that should be learned from for all the budding game designers out there. Were there any fighting game characters that you thought were well done in otherwise forgettable games? I’d like to read about them in the comments section. As always 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!