Hiding the master in plain sight, the genius of SNK's character design... part 3

In previous blogs I established that Shinkiro had become one of the most influential fighting game artists of all time. The reason for this was obvious when comparing his work to other artists in the studio and abroad. He would render many of his subjects in realistic settings, with realistic clothing choices. They were often presented in casual settings, perhaps enjoying a cocktail, playing in the park or hanging out at the pool. Prior to that most character illustrations had the figures in fighting scenes and only in fighting scenes. Audiences were used to characters looking highly stylized, with exaggerated physiques. Guys were overly muscular and females were slim with large bouncy breasts. After all these were the types of physiques that manga and comic books expected the archetypes to have. Shinkiro changed all of that. You could look at his art and see people that very well could have existed. By looking at these figures you would necessarily be able to tell what martial arts form they represented. Again, he his that martial arts master in plain site.

 

Eventually all of the artists at SNK started to become attuned to what Shinkiro had brought to the genre. They understood that if they wanted to put a character into the Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting or King of Fighters, they they had to meet the elements that Shinkiro had established for the series. There would be no green-skinned Brazilian wild man or stretchy-limbed Indian for example. Those figures were not necessarily grounded in any sort of realism. The fighters did not have to be realistic, but they did have to have a sense of realism. The artist Hiroaki Hashimoto aka Hiroaki was an exceptional painter and considered an understudy of Shinkiro. He worked on a number of excellent pieces for the KOF series. In 1999 he was a lead on a new title called Buriki One. This game was set in the KOF universe but a bit in the future. There was a new tournament in town, inspired by the real world K-1 and Pride fighting championships in Japan. There was a call for representatives of the various martial arts. It was the closest that the team at SNK came to creating martial arts archetypes in the vein of the Street Fighter series. The final opponent was a new villain. Silber was very much an SNK answer to Gouki, he had traveled the globe defeating the masters of various arts and even a few wild animals.

 

One of the competitors in the Buriki One tournament was an elderly Tai Chi master named Song Xuandou. It turned out that this was the only character that had a previous run in with Silber. Decades earlier, before MMA tournaments were being televised the only way for these fighters to find out who was the best was by actually visiting various dojos and exotic locations. There were no newspapers, no radio or film crews following these people. The fights that went down were the stuff of legend and only a handful of people actually saw them. This was how people like Mas Oyama earned a reputation. When Song was a young man he was lightning quick and very confident in his abilities. He took on Silber and lost. Although he was defeated it was a close battle. It could have been likened to the fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man. Song was one of the few people that could have claimed to have survived a fight with the powerful German. Silber was and remained a secretive figure in the world of SNK. It was entirely possible that he killed some of the people that he battled. Official character art for example featured him smashing in the face of a polar bear. When the designers of Buriki One called for a Chinese fighter to be put into the game Hiroaki gave audiences an elderly archetype. Nothing about the character seemed to stand out. But again, he was hiding the master in plain sight.

 

While Song no longer held the speed or flashy kicks of his youth, he retained most of his power. Song was modeled partly on Bruce Lee. This was a version from another timeline, say if he had remained in China and had stayed closer to the kung-fu traditions. This was why he didn’t move or fight like Marshall Law from the Tekken games. He was not just a carbon copy of the actor. Song had the vigor and even look of a youthful Lee in the ’60s. This was back when both he and Silber were getting started in their careers. Song had now distilled his techniques to a few deceptive moves. He could strike, trip and kick his opponents with ease. It was graceful watching him work in the tournament. You could have mistaken him for the old guy practicing Tai Chi in the park rather than a former martial arts superstar. Again this was the SNK school of design at their best, they hid the master in plain sight. It should be noted that not every SNK fighting game required this type of design. For example Shinkiro did a tremendous amount of promotional art for the Samurai Spirits / Shodown series. But he was not the only artist that influenced the fighters.

 

The game was set centuries ago, in feudal Japan. Gunpowder and steam were barely shaping the world, changing the course of the industrialized nations. Japan was insular during this period and held onto tradition longer than most other countries. SNK wanted to capture that era but not romanticize it. They wanted it to pop, to be vibrant, like an animé show. In order to do that the game had to be highly stylized. One of the artists that got picked up for the sequels was manga artist Shiro Ono. He had a very sharp style, with hard lines and exaggerated poses. At the same time the studio did not want the designs to be too outlandish. Shinkiro’s realistic style would have been in contrast with their goal. The artist that the company settled with was Jin Mera aka Eiji Shiroi. Her style was deceptively clean. No extra brush strokes in his renderings. The character designs were easy to read, her choice of color and style really stood out from her peers. In fact the thing that helped cement the look of the series were some paintings that she created using charcoal ink. The sumi-e style was traditional and went back centuries, if not thousands of years. Calligraphers and portrait artists used minimalism to create forms and figures.

 

The solid black and white paintings that Ms. Shiroi created perfectly reflected the era that SNK was trying to capture. Eiji was a drawing teacher, her training and insight were perfect for this project. In the case of Samurai Spirits the masters of the various sword arts did not have to be hiding. They wore classic-looking costumes, some wore armor, and they all fought with traditional melee weapons. There were swords, daggers, cleavers, hammers and axes used by the various fighters. As the series grew these things began to include the occasional explosive and even a rifle. For the most part however combat was based on bladed weapons. The designs had to be clear and easy to read. A Chinese warlord for example had a different costume than a Japanese ronin. Even among the various Japanese sword masters there was a lot of diversity. Ms. Shiroi helped plan their look and assigned each person bright primary colors so that they all stood out. As the series aged SNK experimented with 3D and they discovered that the muted colors that were en vogue didn’t really work for Samurai Spirits. This was most apparent in Samurai Spirits Sen. Realism didn’t work very well for the fantastic swordsmen and women. So they returned to 2D shortly after with Samurai Spirits V.

 

Not every design that SNK created went over well. The studio had a lot of growing pains and made a lot of mistakes when they were trying to capture the fighting game crown. We’ll explore one of the most diverse lineups the company ever gave us in the next blog. As always if you enjoyed this blog and 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!

Hiding the master in plain sight, the genius of SNK's character design...part 1

For this series I will be looking at the design elements behind the SNK fighters. I won't be talking about every fighting game that appeared on the Neo Geo console, that would take years to put together. Instead I will focus on a few titles and some of the most influential characters, and designers. This blog has been a long time coming. The little bit that I talk about SNK will not be enough for most fans. It will hopefully get a discussion going with the design community. If I could boil down the SNK school of design, the reason why their characters were so long-lived, it would be because they hid the fighting masters in plain site. That's it. That's the secret to their success. Okay so maybe it is a little bit more complicated. Let's go back in time and see how the people that made Street Fighter changed the course of SNK as well. The late ‘70s and most of the ‘80s were considered a boom time for the arcade industry. Hundreds of studios popped up in the hopes of striking it rich. They wanted to create the next Space Invaders, the next Pac Man or Donkey Kong. Everything was an experiment and when one idea worked you could expect other studios to copy the formula. If one company had a racing game then everyone else had to have a racing game. If one company had a successful space shooter then other studios needed their own. This type of thinking sunk many developers. If they were only copying and not innovating then audiences would often pass over their games. SNK was a company that took many chances, in doing so they were often financially drained. The games they produced in the early days were the results of a small team of very dedicated employees. One of the biggest changes for the company happened when Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto left Capcom to join SNK. The pair had designed many of Capcom’s early arcade hits, including the original Street Fighter.

 

SNK founder and boss Eikichi Kawasaki had a keen insight to what gamers wanted. Unlike other company presidents who sat back and let his team develop hits he was actively involved producing many of their early titles. Mr. Nishiyama and Mr. Matsumoto had plans for a Street Fighter successor but the industry was evolving so rapidly that what it meant to have a fighting game was literally changing from month to month. Many arcade veterans would consider Technos’ game Karate Champ as the forefather of the modern fighting game. In 1984 it introduced audiences to the idea of traveling from place to place to fight other karate masters. There were even bonus stages in the game where players broke bricks and punched bulls. Some of these things found their way into the original Street Fighter. The colors for player 1 and player 2 could even be considered the inspiration for Ryu and Ken respectively.

 

To say that Street Fighter was solely based on one game, or even one myth was wrong. There were a few other games that shaped the industry as well. In 1984 Irem released Kung-Fu Master, that Mr. Nishiyama had also developed when he was with Irem. This game had a hero fighting wave after wave of different types of opponents in a nonstop showdown. It was essentially the foundation of the brawler as well as a key piece in the development of the fighting game genre. 1984 was also important because of Punch-Out!! The Nintendo hit introduced stylized opponents from different countries and different weight classes as well. The first-person perspective in a fighter was rarely used but Nintendo demonstrated that it could be done. Then there was Yie-ar Kung Fu by Konami. In 1985 the company added the concept of life bars to the genre. Also it introduced different schools of martial arts, some with weapons, and it featured the first Chinese female martial arts opponent as well.

 

The action titles from ’84 and ’85 things colored the development of the fighting genre. When Street Fighter was released in 1987 Capcom made sure that it was bigger and better than anything that preceded it. Karate Champ may have been the roots but this game was so much more. The new stars, Ken and Ryu, would travel the globe and take on challengers of every background. Mr. Nishiyama and Mr. Matsumoto didn’t create a generic martial arts tournament, they instead pulled in influences from pop culture. The movies, the comics and cartoons they enjoyed inspired the setting and opponents of Street Fighter. More than that they helped inspire the development of special attacks like the hadouken or fireball. Street Fighter wasn’t the breakout hit that the company expected it to be. Instead there was a game by Technos that ruled arcades that year. Double Dragon was a new type of fighting game. Audiences all over the world were instantly hooked on this brawler. It was essentially a pseudo-3D version of the Kung-Fu Master story. An evil gang kidnaped a girl but instead of one person fighting to get her back it was two. These two could punch, kick, grab and throw opponents. No other game had that many attacks or “combination” moves. Billy and Jimmy Lee were stars for a new generation. There was nothing traditional about these heroes. They were tough guys from the street, vigilantes that took justice into their own hands. Audiences could identify with them easier than they could a martial artist in ancient China.

 

Double Dragon would have a profound influence on the industry. Studios were forced to change with the times or audiences might skip their next release. Any plans for a Street Fighter sequel were scrubbed as Mr. Nishiyama and Mr. Matsumoto left to join SNK. The designers taking over at Capcom, Yoshiki Okamoto, Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda wanted to make the next Street Fighter a superior version of Double Dragon. You know the story by now of how Final Fight was originally called Street Fighter ’89. It was no accident that the stars of this game were not Ken and Ryu but instead a more contemporary Cody and Guy. Their sprites were bigger and more detailed than Billy and Jimmy Lee. They fought through a bigger city and had more moves and more opponents to deal with as well. Final Fight was one of dozens of Double Dragon clones that came out over the next few years. Many for the arcade but some for the consoles as well. Of these developers Konami put out some of the best brawlers and I dare say that Vendetta (1991) might be peak Double Dragon clone.

 

SNK had not yet released the Neo Geo console but the company saw where the arcade industry was headed. Specifically the President and Founder Eikichi Kawasaki saw that fighting games was the next big trend. He had his team begin working on new experiences. One of the most important and often overlooked titles that Mr. Kawasaki produced was called Street Smart. It was a sort of “missing link” between the brawler and the modern fighting game. It had a sense of depth like Double Dragon and even had a broad stage that allowed players to move far left and right. There were a number of different opponents each with techniques and abilities. It was the first fighting game to feature the Brazilian art of Capoeira, the Stage 2 boss “Slippery” Sam Santana could flip, tumble and strike. This game also featured an unlicensed version of I can’t turn you loose, an old Otis Redding tune made popular by the Blues Brothers. Poached music aside this game was important because it allowed for two players to team up against two opponents at the same time. It had a frenetic energy about it and being able to double-team an opponent felt very rewarding.

 

Mr. Kawasaki was a fan of the fighting arts and was even an amateur boxer in his youth. He knew a thing or two about real fighting. The idea of mixing up the forms intrigued him and he made sure that he had both a karate or wrestler be playable in Street Smart. It was SNK’s next game that helped put them on the map. Mr. Nishiyama and Mr. Matsumoto had their hands full trying to stay one step ahead of the competition. Street Fighter II exploded on the scene in February 1991. Somewhere in between Street Fighter and the original Fatal Fury the duo considered making a fighting game like Double Dragon with at least three playable characters. They had to act fast as Street Fighter II was gaining momentum. They narrowed their idea to a traditional fighting game but kept three main characters and even the ability to jump between the foreground and background. Fatal Fury was released at the end of 1991 and was an answer to both Final Fight and Street Fighter II. Audiences gravitated to the unique library of characters. Traditional fighting arts masters were balanced out by modern brawlers in street clothing. In fact you could see the spectrum in the main characters. Joe Higashi looked like a traditional May Thai specialist. His shorts, his taped hands and feet, dark tan and bold colors were classic. Andy Bogard was a sort of ninja-hybrid, his costume wasn’t quite classic nor was it quite modern, his design was literally a bridge between the old world and the new. If Joe was a nod to the past then Terry Bogard represented the future.

 

Terry Bogard was a new type of hero, the modern action film star. The days of Japanese karate masters being the heroes of the game were coming to an end. Some companies didn’t get the memo and kept rehashing old ideas, that’s why not many of those copycat fighting games were around today. Terry was a literal street fighter. He wore street clothing; a trucker cap, leather jacket, jeans and sneakers. He learned how to fight growing up on the rough streets of South Town. Of all the SNK heroes he was the one that went the furthest despite having a formal martial arts instructor. When SNK put him up against Geese Howard, the man who murdered his father, they created one of the great rivalries in fighting game history. Mr. Kawasaki and his star developers had a hit on their hands. It was the mix of traditional and modern character designs that helped put SNK on the map. When SNK’s next major fighting game was released it cemented their school of design. We will look at this in the next blog. As always if you enjoyed this blog and 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 Street Writer Podcast, Episode 7

On the previous blog I had talked about the Bancho, Japanese school delinquents that knew how to fight. They were made popular in the '80s thanks to manga and anime. In the '90s they would be incorporated into fighting game design. We begin today in the early '90s. The stand alone King of Fighters franchise hadn't been born yet and SNK was a crossroads. Should they keep taking chances in the fighting game genre or branch out with other formats? The studio had found moderate success with their fighting games but they wanted to create a breakout hit, like Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat. In order to do this they had to take some chances with the genre and introduce some new blood to the lineup. They had done some experimentation previously, the ability to jump between the foreground and background in Fatal Fury was revolutionary. The large scaling sprites in the Art of Fighting gave it a cinematic feel. Budgets were tight during the development of the King of Fighters '94 (KoF) and risking it all on a completely new cast was out of the question. It made sense to bring together the Art of Fighting (AoF) and Fatal Fury (FF) groups. Those titles had both evil and heroic fighters that audiences were already familiar with. Reaching out and including the Ikari Warriors and Psycho Soldiers would ensure some non-fighting game players would check out the title too. As the teams were being finalized the studio decided that they had to take a chance on some new faces. They did not want to place either the AoF or FF teams as the stars of the game but rather a new group which the plot would focus on. The designers bet that the new teams would become as iconic as the previous franchise characters. Well the studio was half right. Team Japan would grow a tremendous following. These fighters would become pivotal in the canon of the series while the members of Team USA would fade into obscurity.


As the first generation of fighting games tapered off the developers began looking for new influences. Team Japan and Team USA were pulled mainly from pop culture rather than fight culture. The references worked in favor of Team Japan. The team captain was Kyo Kusanagi was a young and handsome high school student. His design was was very clean cut but deceptive. His uniform looked like a traditional gakuran, yet there was something unique about his design. Think about a character like Ryu, he certainly looked like a traditional karate fighter, yet most traditional fighters did not wear a gi with torn sleeves and frayed pant cuffs. Nor did they let their hair grow too long and unruly. At first glance you were supposed to know that Ryu was a karate fighter, but the details of his costume told a story. Similar details applied to Kyo's design. His hair was long and held up with a headband rather than a cap, his jacket was open allowing him a wide range of movement. His sleeves were rolled up and he wore fingerless black gloves. He was certainly a fighter more than a scholar. His teammates represented other aspects of Japanese culture. The flamboyant Benimaru Nikaido, whose crop-top, earrings and tall blonde hair were very counter-culture. The character had a unique fighting style and the ability to generate electricity and shock his opponents. Benimaru was modeled closely on Jean Pierre Polnareff from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The third member, Goro Diamon, was the bruiser of the team and the one with the closest traditional fighting style. He was a Judo gold-medalist yet also had the ability to perform some superhuman feats of strength. When deciding who would represent Japan in the KOF global tournament there was an MMA tournament. Kyo defeated his two partners and became team captain.

The team that represented the USA was based on basic knowledge of the US. If anything they were stereotypes of Western culture. The team captain was a street boxer named Heavy D. possibly after the rapper with the same name. His partners were a basketball player named Lucky Glauber who was not unlike Kobe Bryant, even wearing the Los Angeles Lakers gold and royal colors. He even had a distinct "swoosh" logo on his cheek, certainly without Nike's knowledge or consent. He could summon basketballs to throw at his opponents instead of fireballs. The third, Brian Battler, had a football shoulder pad and a few tackling moves. In the KoF manga by Gamest the character was introduced as a stock car driver that was seemingly indestructible. Having walked away from a burning car crash just a few moments after being introduced in the series. It was obvious that the US team didn't have the same level of forethought that SNK had used when creating Team Japan. There was no doubt that international audiences would understand that they were typical "American" characters with their focus on sports. Past that there was little that made the US figures interesting. Each character had a few neat moves but none really looked like a fighter except for Heavy D. One character couldn't really carry the team and that was part of the reason why they faded into obscurity. The members were seen after KOF '94 but weren't the stars that SNK had hoped for. That gamble had only partially paid-off.

 

Team Japan and Team USA were planned as being the counter points to the Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting teams, so that no one country (or series) could claim to having the best fighters in the SNK universe. In canon Team Japan was written as the winners of the first three KOF titles. It was obvious from the onset that the team had some staying power. None of the new characters introduced had a bigger following than Kyo. The bancho had finally found a mainstream fighting game. Like Ryo Sakazaki and Terry Bogard before him there was a star that would help keep SNK on the map and give audiences somebody to root for, somebody to follow and most important somebody to play as. With the introduction of Kyo something was missing. He lacked a rival. In promotional material Team Japan was featured sided against Team Italy, the Fatal Fury group. Yet many players didn't see that as a balanced lineup. Terry was an older and more experienced brawler, his brother Andy had mastered the Shiranui ninjitsu art and Joe Higashi was also a muay thai striker and not a grappler. None of the men were as outlandish as Benimaru or as large as Goro. Also, despite being teams of three the team captain was usually recognized as the most interesting or most popular character. Whomever was going to rival team Japan needed to have someone as interesting as Kyo. This was going to be a problem.

Kyo wasn't just a really good fighter, he had the ability to project fire from his hands. It was the special attack that allowed him to hold his own against Ryo or Terry plus it was a very well animated effect. As the series grew it was revealed that Kyo had mastered the art of fire at the age of 15. It was a secret technique known only to the members of the Kusanagi clan. At a young age he had passed all of the trials of his family and had even surpassed his father Saisyu in fighting ability. Yet in typical fatherly (stubborn) fashion Saisyu would never admit that he was no longer the greatest warrior in his clan. Just as Takuma Sakazaki would never admit that he was ready to defer the throne to Ryo. Both men felt that they still had something they could teach the next generation. Saisyu would turn up in King of Fighters '95 as a sub-boss. He had an interesting design, his costume was closer to a fighting monk with the family crest, an eclipsed sun on the back of his robe. Kyo had the same logo on the back of his jacket. Yet Saisyu was not a great rival for Kyo. The animosity was not there. The two would never be rivals like Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima from Tekken. The studio had to dig a little deeper in order to create just the right rival. It turned out that the SNK had made a similar design error previously.

 

In 1993 the studio had released a smash hit called Samurai Shodown / Samurai Spirits in Japan. It was one of the first and best weaponized fighting games ever developed. It had very bold character designs, inspired by fictional and real sword fighters from the feudal era. The star of the game was the hard-drinking, wild-haired Haohmaru. A wandering swordsman very loosely based on the actual Miyamoto Musashi. While the first game had many other sword fighters none really matched the design of Haohmaru or could be considered his main rival. A year later the studio finally crafted a rival that was beat-for-beat every bit as interesting as the main character, if not more so. Genjuro Kibagami was the red-haired rival with a nasty scar running the length of his back. It was given to him by his mother after Genjuro killed her lover. In return he killed his own mother. There was a whole lot of drama in the series and I might talk about it some day, but the main beef among the cast was between Genjuro and Haohmaru. They used to be friends but that friendship turning into a rivalry. It made things difficult for the star of the game, knowing that not only did he have to deal with the main villain, usually a demon of some sort, but that there was another sword master out there looking to take his head. SNK looked at this rivalry and found the missing ingredient for the King of Fighters. It didn't really matter if Team Japan had a person to balance out Benimaru or Goro as long as there was somebody for Kyo to deal with.

   

Heavy D from the USA did not seem interesting enough to merit a rivalry with Kyo. Team captains Terry and Ryo had their own rivalries and their own villains to contend with, not to mention that they were older and more seasoned fighters than Kyo. SNK decided to create an age-appropriate and culturally similar rival. This young fighter was Iori Yagami, like Kyo he was a high school student, a bancho without a gang to lead. He had his own unique spin on the school uniform, with an un-tucked long shirt, bright red pants and suspenders tying his knees together. His look was so bold that audiences instantly knew that he was the perfect rival for Kyo. Nothing had to be stated in canon in order for audiences to see that this character was going places. As the series went on it was revealed that the fire powers of Kyo, and odd blue fire of Iori were from their respective clans. The two were part of a lineage that was destined to battle the Orochi, historically this was an eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent from Shinto mythology. In KOF canon it could instead be represented as a human. The original creature was an Earth god and required a sacrifice every year. The sun goddess Amaterasu (the star of the Capcom game Okami) cast her brother Susanoo down from Heaven for tricking her. While on Earth Susanoo found out about the sacrifices and fought the Orochi. First by getting each head drunk and then cutting the monster into pieces. There was a fantastic science fiction retelling of the legend in the manga titled Orion by Masamune Shirow. But I digress...

There was tremendous symbolism involved with the design of both Kyo and Iori. The fire techniques that each held were not scientific but spiritual in nature. The Kusanagi house symbol was a sun in eclipse. This unbroken ring represented both Amaterasu as the sun, but also symbolized the return of the Orochi. The eclipse was the moment that her light was no longer touching / protecting or enlightening the Earth. It was fire that would subdue the Orochi again. This layer of design was a bit more heavy-handed with Kyo's father. Saisyu had prayer beads, tabi socks and a robe that looked closer to that of a Shinto priest. The sun on the back of his costume was much more pronounced. Iori was a representative of the Yagami clan, they had built a blood feud with the Kusanagi clan going back untold generations. The Yagami had also been put in charge of keeping the Orochi at bay, and were also masters of the sacred fire techniques. At some point in the past they were seduced with promises of power. So they released the Orochi and in doing so they did gain more power than the Kusanagi. The family symbol on the back of Iori's gakuran was a crescent moon. The moon was a celestial counter to the sun, it was also mysterious to the ancient tribes on Earth. The silver globe in the sky seemed to have magical properties of its own. It illuminated the night and could even be seen during the day. The logo was more than the balance to Kyo's family crest. The sun was in heaven and the Orochi was bound to Earth. The Orochi could only break out with the help of the moon, the gateway between the Earth and the Heavens. It did this by blocking the sun during an eclipse or by following an opening at night. The crescent moon of the Yagami clan was specifically a waning moon. This was a moon that was on its way to becoming completely dark. The circle was broken, letting the darkness out, or perhaps in the case of the Yagami letting the darkness in.

 

The power that the Orochi promised was delivered but it came at a price. The sacred flame the Yagami created now turned blue. This supernatural power drove the Yagami members into a frenzy and shortened their lives in the process. Iori came from the same cursed blood and was a ticking time bomb. It wasn't high school pressure, nor was it runaway hormones driving him mad. The only thing that could satiate his bloodlust was the destruction of the Kusanagi lineage, at least that was what the Orochi promised. Kyo may not have believed in the myth or he may have been so confident in his powers that he actually seemed bored with his role. Kyo was young, the era he was living much different from ancient Japan. Bullet trains now criss-crossed the countryside, every phone had internet access and cars practically drove themselves. The superstition of the Orochi didn't quite fit in with his world view. It made sense that the high school student was being a little immature at the start of the KoF series. He was looking for a purpose and he found it in a girl, a classmate named Yuki. The sudden love interest was something that happened to bancho manga heroes Takagi Yoshiyuki and Taison Maeda in Osu Karate bu and Rokudenashi Blues. As Kyo grew up he also learned that his gift could be shared rather than coveted. Again, like Takagi and Taison there was a lot of growing and teaching happening in the series. Kyo and later-on his father, began teaching his classmate Shingo Yabuki their secret fighting techniques. Kyo would have an apprentice whereas his rival would have none. It seemed that the wisdom of Amaterasu did manage to get through to him.

Kyo matured into his role. He discovered other beings with inexpiable powers in the King of Fighters tournament. He discovered that cults and demons were real. The tournament was a front to bring together the greatest fighters and recruit them or kill them once learning their secrets. Kyo became central to the plot of NESTS; militant extremists bent on controlling the world with their super-powered clones. They were able to extract Kyo's blood and give other fighters some new powers. Iori was in the tournament not to represent his country but to finish the Kusanagi lineage. He didn't care for his teammates, opponents or anyone else in his path. If he could destroy the previous champion. If he could do it on the international stage with the world watching then it would be his perfect outcome. Kyo had an unnamed style of fighting but it was very direct and smooth. By comparison Iori fought like a wild man. Slashing at his opponent with his long fingers, stomping on them and just shy of biting their faces off. He would even slash at his own throat and draw out his blood for the temporary power boost it provided. The raw energy coursing through his veins made him one of the most dangerous fighters in SNK canon. Some villains tried to offer Iori a "cure" by allowing him to transfer his energy to them but that would leave him powerless to stop their agenda. At least one character, Ash Crimson, was able to steal part of his abilities and use it for his own devices. Ash would become a fighter that both Kyo and Iori would unite against.

   

SNK wanted to create a fighting game that would become a phenomenon. One that would steal the thunder away from Capcom, Sega, Namco and Midway. They took many chances, team battles, mixing old characters and new faces, and expanding the plot to make it more cinematic. Many of the risks they took paid off. The new stars of the series would hold up to the first generation of fighting game all-stars. The bancho hero and villain were definite Japanese character tropes. It turned out that fans around the world and not just the Japanese loved the duo. Kyo and Iori ended up eclipsing the popularity of the entire USA Team. Their inclusion worked out better than another pairing of martial arts masters. It was one of the first titles that brought the concept of the fighting master into the 21st century. SNK taught the industry that a great rivalry could make or break a series. For more than 20 years the most heated rivalry in the SNK universe wasn't between an orphan and a businessman, nor was it between two sword masters that used to be friends. The greatest rivalry was between two kids right out of school. No one could have predicted it. Especially not the Generation-X players that grew up living that rivalry.

Kyo and Iori had most of the elements that I had talked about throughout this series. They were well balanced, they represented unique styles, were visually interesting and had contrasting purposes. Both were headstrong, talented and dangerous fighters. They were assembled from various pop culture cues. They celebrated a cultural archetype, the roguish delinquent that just so happened to work perfectly for the genre. SNK also knew that they should plan a unique back story so they could keep bringing these fighters back. Best of all Kyo and Iori divided the community. The best rivalries always began with fans choosing a side. Some rooted for the hero and some for the anti-hero. Most rivalries I had talked about had fans siding with the hero. Great gameplay, great animation and great control were the things that kept fans coming back. After 25 years the King of Fighters tournament was still alive. Proof that a great fighting game could withstand the test of time. The feud between Kyo and Iori could now be enjoyed by a new generation. SNK would have it no other way. I would like to thank you for following me on this journey and I have some final questions for you. Through this series which rivalry was your favorite? Do you think that Kyo and Iori were the most memorable rivals in the SNK universe? Which series handled the rivalry best of all? Which rivalry do you want me to talk about? Please let me know and take care. 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 bigger and better recordings and videos.

The Street Writer Blogcast, Episode 2

Every time I release a new Podcast I will release the text version for my hearing-impaired friends. I don't want them to miss anything that I cover. Also you are welcome to leave comments and questions for this podcast as well as future podcasts on this blog.



Takashi Nishiyama was the designer on the original Street Fighter and had left Capcom to work on a new fighting game for the crosstown rivals at SNK. His title was called Garō Densetsu Shukumei no Tatakai aka Legend of the Hungry Wolf: The Battle of Destiny, which was changed to Fatal Fury: King of Fighters in the west. The game from 1991 was the first entry in the King of Fighters franchise and appeared months after the release of Street Fighter II. In the Fatal Fury series there have been countless rivalries, the most outstanding of which was between Geese Howard and the Bogard family. Mr. Nishiyama had created a classic rivalry in Street Fighter by basing traditional martial arts masters against each other. For his follow-up game he wanted to modernize the concept. The ones that dressed like traditional practitioners became supporting characters. He wanted audiences to recognize that a person dressed in regular street clothes could be the modern martial arts master. The three main characters in his game knew each other, two were brothers Terry and Andy Bogard and their best friend Joe Higashi. Andy studied a form of ninjitsu and Joe was a muay thai champ. Their costumes were riffs on classic outfits. Terry stood out most of all, his blue jeans, white shirt and red leather jacket screamed Western hero. He was inferred to be the true star of the game. Geese on the other hand was dressed in a traditional costume, reminiscent of samurai clothing. It was actually an aikidogi and hakama or akido pants. Geese had studied many different martial arts, including secretive ones. He had walked away as a master of ancient techniques whether the teachers wanted to reveal these secrets to him or not was a moot point.

Geese and Terry, like many of the main characters in SNK fighting games had moves based on fictional styles and supernatural abilities. They could direct energy waves from their bodies to their hands and feet. They could even send energy waves through the ground and bowl over opponents. While Geese had studied traditionally under different masters Terry was more of a "Lone Wolf." He learned how to fight in the street and picked up various techniques along the way. His unorthodox style was very different from Geese's. Terry had moves that were more aggressive, the Burn Knuckle punch that allowed him to fly across the screen and the Crack Shoot kick that spun through the air and caught opponents off guard. He fought unlike anybody else out there including characters from other studios. He bobbed on the toes of his feet and kept his fists up like a boxer yet threw diving strikes like a football player going after a tackle. This loose style was a stark contrast to Geese's more reserved power attacks. Geese stood calm with his hands relaxed and open. He waited for the perfect moment to strike. Like a true samurai warrior he did not waste any effort and tried to make every move a lethal hit. The contrast of styles helped define the two. The rivalry between the two was much different than the one between Ryu and Sagat. Geese did not have any moves in common with Terry or Andy Bogard. Geese still had a tighter defense, a greater range, could stuff any physical attack and counter all the special attacks of the brothers. Yet he had not always been powerful.

 

Geese grew up in Southtown, a fictional USA city connected via a few roads to the mainland. It was not unlike New Jersey sitting just outside of New York. But for a more accurate comparison Southtown was to the USA what Taiwan was to China. It was a powerful modern city that pretty much had its own economy, trade and industrial portions and didn't need to be a part of any other country in order to thrive. Geese was abandoned by his father leaving him and his mother poor while growing up. Geese struggled to provide for the household but his mother died poor and hungry. He wanted to track down his father and kill him for abandoning him. Along the way he ran into his half-brother Wolfgang Krauser. He learned his father was Rudolph Krauser Von Stronheim, a terrorist and a powerful man in his own right. If he wanted revenge he would have to become more powerful and more dangerous than his father ever was. Geese set out to do this by studying the most dangerous fighting arts. He picked techniques up from Toji Sakata, a character that later appeared in Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, as well as the grandfather of Mary Ryan aka Blue Mary, a detective from Fatal Fury 3. Geese's most influential teacher was an elderly Chinese master named Tung Fu Rue. He was learning Hakkyokuseiken: the Eight Extremities Holy Fist technique alongside another gifted martial artist named Jeff Bogard.

 

Jeff had adopted two orphans from the streets of Southtown, young brothers Terry and Andy. He gave them a last name, cleaned them up, put them through school and took care of them the best he could. He even began teaching the two how to fight. Jeff did pretty much the opposite of what Geese's father had done. It was just one thorn in the side of Geese. The other was that the final techniques of Tung Fu Rue would only be taught to his best pupil. Rue could tell that Geese would only use the techniques to hurt people and attain power. When Tung Fu Rue named the senior Bogard the new master of the dojo it sent Geese into a frenzy. He killed Jeff in front of Terry. Terry was barely 10 at the time and could do nothing to stop the murder. From that point on the two brothers swore that they would become great fighters and take their revenge. Geese disappeared shortly after and set about completing his goal. He would take over Southtown from the inside, starting with the gangs and mobs and work his way up to taking control of the corporations.

 

To outsiders Geese was a self-made tycoon, respected in business and political circles. To everyone on the street Geese was to be feared. Even before he murdered Bogard he had already started his own criminal empire. His first henchmen were Ripper and Hopper, two guys in suits and sunglasses, one bald and one with long black hair. They were often seen in stage backgrounds and official art. They were ruthless enforcers that helped infiltrate rival organizations. The previous crime lord of Southtown was a tall man named Mr. Big. Like all villains in video games he was also a martial arts master. Mr. Big wore fine suits, fur coats and fought with two sticks. He was eventually dethroned by Geese and rather than being executed he was turned into a right hand man. Geese believed in the old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Geese also recruited a master of stick fighting from Great Britain known as Billy Kane to act as a bodyguard. Those that Geese couldn't buyout or intimidate he often killed. Yet there were some people that he saw as threats but kept around to fulfill a purpose.

Takuma Sakazaki was possibly the most dangerous fighter in all of Southtown. He was the founder of Kyokugenryu Karate, the Extreme Utmost Limit Way of the open hand. Takuma was somebody that Geese could not beat in a fight. Mr. Big was aware of this and also respected and feared the fighter. When Mr. Big was trying to muscle out more territory in Southtown he decided to kidnap Takuma's daughter Yuri and blackmail him into becoming an enforcer. Takuma did as he was ordered but he wore an ancient tengu mask and called himself Mr. Karate. He wanted to hide his identity and distance himself from what he was being forced to do. The Mr. Karate personae of Sakazaki was completely ruthless. He wanted people to fear the character more than any crime boss. He was eventually stopped by his son Ryo Sakazaki and their family friend Robert Garcia.

Now the reason that I bring all of this backstory up is because Mr. Nishiyama and his team were creating a narrative that would bridge several games together. The story of Geese Howard and Terry Bogard would be explored in the Art of Fighting. The story between Mr. Big and Mr. Karate would be revealed in the Art of Fighting, an SNK game released in 1992. The events of both franchises laid the foundation for the King of Fighters series which debuted in 1994. Having an understanding of where the characters came from, where they were going and how they fit into the world took a tremendous amount of planning. The team at SNK didn't want to move from game to game and have nothing supporting the characters. They wanted every fighting game to be interconnected. They didn't want to have throw away characters or bosses that simply faded away either. By thinking three moves ahead the games were consistently good. Audiences were hooked with the series because of memorable good guys and bad guys. Mr. Nishiyama had done something similar, albeit to a lesser extent while with Capcom.

Many of the original Street Fighter characters were inspired by the martial arts but none had much depth to them, at least not much in the sense of a purpose. The more interesting ones would return and the studio began exploring their back story. Think about where Sagat came from, it wasn't really explained in the first game. He was simply the champion when Ryu met him. Later on the studio invented the character that took his eye, someone named Gou Hibiki that just so happened to like Mr. Karate. Capcom and SNK had been trading jabs with each other because they were early competitors in the market. It didn't hurt that the team members at the studios knew each other as well. Capcom began designing more fighting game characters with histories. If you look at Guile and Chun-Li they were much better developed than the original Street Fighter cast and became bigger hits with the community than the first characters. SNK demonstrated that fighting game characters with planning and a back story tended to be more memorable than those with just cool looks. This level of detail did not just apply to the characters but also to the world that they inhabited.

Geese was a very powerful man and a very arrogant man. He surrounded himself with treasures from Asia, various statues and temple guardians were on display. In his fancy robes Geese looked like the opposite of Terry, whose torn jeans and sneakers showed that he was poor. The penthouse on Geese Tower looked like a temple, this would be the setting of the final battle in Fatal Fury. It told a story and framed the battle between Terry and Geese. Players could see Southtown from high above the city. It was one of the most memorable stages in early fighting games. Not only that but from round to round the time of day changed. This was to illustrate that the fight had taken a long time to finish. Neither man could get the upper hand so the battle raged on. The team at SNK wanted to show that stages evolved in their fighting games. Perhaps it would rain between rounds, you would notice the audience clear out, or perhaps the stage would transition from day to night. They were doing things for the genre that other studios didn't even consider. Evolving levels were rarely done even in modern fighting games. The climax of the final battle came with Terry kicking Geese right off the rooftop. The setup and execution of the final stage meant a little bit more than the fight between Ryu and Sagat. Audiences could tell that the stakes were high. Every rival defeated in the original King of Fighters tournament had some sort of secret agenda but none was more important than the revenge of the Bogard brothers. Players felt a sense of relief that the evil villain fell to his death.

In the ending screen it said that Geese died October 10, 1913. This was mistranslated, the studio meant to say 19:13 hours, or 7:13 pm in the hospital. He fell from the building at dusk and died 3 hours later. So why was his death important? It helped give audiences a sense of closure. This fighting game came with a story, it had a beginning, middle and end. The King of Fighters tournament had nothing to do with winning a belt or trophy. Geese simply wanted to meet and beat the best, what he didn't expect to see where two brothers that wanted him dead. The game was a tale of revenge, like many of the great martial arts films. Stop and think about how important a story was to Street Fighter II. The tournament was a front for a much bigger plot involving Shadowlaw and a rogue Dictator. There was a connection between Ryu and Sagat that made that battle much more memorable. For the supporting cast there was a reason why they were fighting as well. For some it was fame, for others it was a national duty, still for others it was a shot at redemption.

If Mr. Nishiyama was such a good director then why would he kill the main villain in his very first appearance? Why would he develop such a rich back story if the character was a throw away figure? Well it turned out to be a false death. Geese survived the fall thanks to an outside influence. He would actually continue pulling strings from the shadows while he recovered. Audiences didn't know this until years later. The series would continue and players would get to fight as the Bogard brothers, Joe Higashi as well as knew friends and enemies. These new faces would have to fight Geese's half-brother Wolfgang Krauser and his brother-in-law Kain R. Heinlein in the various sequels. The rivalry between Geese and Terry had just started. It would be a cornerstone of the franchise for almost a decade. Rather than focus only on the hero the two were featured in SNK promotional material. A hero was only as popular as his rival after all. The two were also used to highlight the changes in technology. When the studio looked at leaving sprite graphics behind and developing the next generation of fighting games in 3D they made sure to show off the new models for Geese and Terry right away.

 

Identity was very important to the characters in the King of Fighters (KOF) universe. Every figure was treated like a franchise fighter. Each character had the potential of being a breakout star. They could be featured in their own game if the fan reaction was strong enough. Some KOF fighters were already stars from a different genre. All of the heroes and all of the villains were building an identity and helping strengthen the SNK brand. The development teams wanted the audience to know that the universe of KOF was constantly changing. The main characters were not set in stone. Other studios, namely Capcom, tried to keep their fighting stars locked into one look or one style. Ryu could only wear the white gi for example and Chun-Li could only wear a blue dress. While this rule has been relaxed a little thanks to the costume pack updates from Capcom most fans still expect to see the iconic characters in familiar costumes. The studio assumed that anything else might be a disservice to the series and turn off fans. SNK on the other hand didn't have a problem revising their main characters between games. They wanted audiences to see that the world was constantly evolving. Not only that but they could create sequels and prequels to show how the characters appeared at any point in time. At a future point in the universe Terry had changed his look completely. His red, white and blue costume gave way to a brown bomber jacket and jeans. He ditched his cap and let his long hair fall loose. The design for Geese Howard was different when he first started taking over Southtown. In his younger days he wore a business suit and had long hair. This was an aesthetic decision from the team at SNK. It was okay to play with the costumes of the characters as long as they retained their moves, purpose and personality. The two were still as dangerous as they had ever been and audiences more or less accepted the change in their appearance.

 

SNK did not want to have audiences think that Geese was indestructible. Players saw him get dropped from the top of a building in the first game. So how did he survive the fall? It turned out that all of the treasures he had been surrounding himself with had a purpose. In his travels he discovered a scroll of ancient techniques. It was called the Phoenix Scroll and allowed its owner to recover from mortal wounds. It took a long time but sure enough he came back with a renewed purpose. Geese learned that there were two more scrolls, known as the Jin Scrolls, these scrolls were part of the Qin Book of Secrets. Legend said that the person that had all three would obtain the secret to immortality. This became a plot point in the Fatal Fury sequels. The Bogard brothers had been robbed of their revenge. They tracked down Geese several years after the first encounter during the events of Fatal Fury Real Bout. Terry once again found himself at the top of Geese Tower. He knocked Geese through a railing but this time he did not mean to kill him. Terry reached out and grabbed Geese at the last moment. Refusing the gesture, or confident that he had indeed become immortal, Geese shrugged off the help and fell once more. He laughed the entire way down. It was a shocking ending. I don't remember the last time a villain had committed suicide on screen. Since Geese had been unable to secure all three Jin scrolls it was assumed that he died for real this time. Time would prove otherwise...

When Terry first knocked Geese from the tower he did so out of rage. As time went on he realized that he had made a mistake, of course not getting caught by the police for the murder of Southtown's biggest crime boss was a blessing in disguise. Killing Geese would not bring his father back. If anything Terry dishonored his own family name by fighting for the wrong reasons. Terry tried to make amends the next time they battled but Geese refused the gesture. The death weighed heavily on his conscience. It was not every day that you could say that a great rivalry ended with the hero feeling guilty. Just like you could say that it was not every day that a rivalry started with the hero killing the villain. This story did not end there however. Terry discovered that Geese had a son named Rock Howard. Geese had abandoned his son just as he himself had been abandoned. Terry became the surrogate father for Rock, guided him and taught him some of his own fighting techniques. What made Rock unique was that he had a mix of both Geese and Terry's moves but thankfully none of his biological father's evil tendencies. His uncle Kain R Heinlein did try to get Rock to side with him and throw Southtown into chaos and create what would be known as Second Southtown. Rock refused and battled his uncle during the events of the King of Fighters Maximum Mayhem tournament.

One of the great all-time fighting game rivalries was a clash of ideals. Terry Bogard and Geese Howard each came from broken homes, both had lost their parents at a young age. Each made it to adulthood and each became a powerful fighter in the process. The decisions they made along the way defined one as good and one as evil. The two were very similar otherwise, and I don't mean just on a physical level. At the core they had strong wills a were fiercely determined to overcome all obstacles and achieve their goal. This was something that Sagat and Ryu did not necessarily have in common. They were rivals but did not share many traits. Both fought to become the strongest Street Fighter and defend that title. SNK had a completely different approach to the genre and it was refreshing. The pre-planning by Mr. Nishiyama and his team paid off in Fatal Fury and the various sequels. Terry, Geese and the rest of the King of Fighters cast would enjoy an incredible fan following.

The success of the series demonstrated that there was more than one way to frame a rivalry. Planning had a lot to do with it. Think about successful books and movies, the creators had to know their world and how it worked backwards and forwards before sharing their story. J.K. Rowling had to know the history of her magical world, who came before and how everyone was related. She then sprinkled those details all throughout the Harry Potter books. George Lucas had to know how the Force worked and the history between the Sith and Jedi as he told the Star Wars trilogy. Mr. Nishiyama had a clear picture of Southtown and the origins of the King of Fighters tournament. He was very familiar with the most dangerous men in that universe before he told the story of Fatal Fury. These were important lessons for budding creators to remember. You must always know where your story comes from before you can tell people where it is going. Revenge was a powerful motivator but what about the other great rivalries in fighting games? What else caused a rivalry to start? We'll take a look at one of the most important ones in the next broadcast. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 is better than nothing..