Another Rufus blog... A 1UP classic from May 15, 2008

Hello friends, it looks like I'm on a bit of a Street Fighter IV kick again. We might as well keep the train going with some more random observations. Today's rant takes us back to look at the place and purpose of nobodies favorite SF fat man Rufus. It's funny timing that I bring him up as Capcom in Japan and the US has made no official mention of this guy. Even better, Cap USA wants to make 3 figurines of the new lineup and are letting fans vote. Rufus is nowhere to be found. Is it possible that the fan reaction was so strong that they buried him or are they holding him plus other characters as a surprise for when the game is launched? It might turn out to be like Tekken in which some characters appear after a certain amount of time has passed. Let's hope that some other SF-universe characters appear in the lineup.

Now I have nothing against fat people, I'm a fat guy. I also don't have a problem with fat fighting game characters. In fact, I'd like to see more of them, provided that they are consistent with what has already been established in the series. Just the other day a new character was introduced for the boxing game Ready2Rumbe 3 Facebreaker. He's a fat boxing master named Steve Talking Head. The game is supposed to be cartoonish and over-the-top, so he makes sense in that lineup... Make of him what you will.

I've already spoken at length about the subject with my origins of Rufus blog. In case you don't want to read old news I'll sum up some of my gripes. A character like Bob from Tekken moves too quickly for a man of his girth. It's as if they did some motion capture moves and thought it would be funny if the animations were stuck on a fat character. It seems that Rufus is even larger than Bob yet seems to move faster. Maybe Rufus was inspired by strongman Gene Rychlak. He's also a big guy with wild hair and a trucker mustache that bench pressed a thousand pounds. Sure he's strong, but can he move fast? Is he flexible? I doubt it.

While thinking about this character I began wondering what it is that I don't like about Rufus. 1UP member Smashbro mentioned that it could be the way obese people are demonized in US culture. But my issues are more about his speed, lack of muscle definition and seemingly weightless mass, not any bias against fat people. 1UP member Marc lamented that he seems to be the only one on 1UP willing to try this game. I never said that I wouldn't play SF IV or that I wouldn't try out this character. In fact if there is a location test anywhere in the southland then I'll be there, getting in line and trying each character at least once. I'm also thinking about which console to pick up based on which will have a better joystick for the game. To think that I'll pass on a SF IV after waiting so long after III is absurd. Remember that I got the Wii for NiGHTS? Or the Xbox for Jet Set Radio Future?

I've said that large characters tend to move slower in SF games, Rufus is contrary to that. Smashbro mentioned that the Japanese tradition of sumo might explain why they created him and seem to be more accepting of this large character than the US is. The US demonizes obesity yet has a large population that is overweight. My biases might be based from a cultural P.O.V. I began thinking about who Rufus reminded me of, aside from Gene Rychlak and where his place could be in the Street Fighter universe. I began thinking about large characters from cartoons, movies and even real life. Who were the ones that worked and why? As far as fighting games go, the fat guys in Final Fight worked, King Heart in Fist of the North Star worked and Karnov from Fighter's History Dynamite worked as well.

Heck, Karnov could even inflate himself and become even more massive than Rufus, yet he worked in the game because he also had an assortment of mystical properties. Karnov could breath fire, teleport and float, he was a fat doppleganger of Dhalsim. In the context of his game these things worked, but this is a different game. The issues that I have with Rufus and the other new characters are because I feel that Capcom is betraying their own design legacy. Actually part of the problem is that DIMPS is developing this game and their approach to character design is different than the classic Capcom formula. I'll talk about it more tomorrow but I strongly feel that Rufus is just a more complete vision of the character Boyd that DIMPS had put in their 2.5D fighter Rumble Fish.

I couldn't just leave it at that. Like a scab I have to keep picking at the design until it starts bleeding. Where did Rufus come from? What was it about his costume that works or doesn't? Yellow jumpsuit, unzipped to his belly with built-in pads? What about that ponytail and facial hair? Looking at Rufus' trucker mustache I was reminded of the larger-than-life character of Bull Hurley from the movie Over the Top.

I noticed that even though Bull, as played by the late character actor Rick Zumwalt was massive, he wasn't obese. I began wondering how "fat" a character could get and still be valid in the SF universe. I began wondering how big a person could be and still remain a valid fighter. Here is where the distinction between what "fits" in the real world and what "fits" in SF has to be made. We are willing to suspend our disbelief up to a point. If the point is crossed then that character becomes redundant, broken or laughable. At some point something has to be done with the character and design to make him or her fit into the game. This is the part that I think Capcom and DIMPS is missing with Rufus. They are not separating his purpose from his moves. The reason for my thinking of that actually goes back to the character of Bull and the movie he was in. The real arm wrestling legend at the time, Cleve Dean, makes a few cameos but isn't the last person that Stallone faces. According to the Wiki page the filmmakers didn't think that audiences would believe that Stallone could beat Dean.

Wait a minute. We could believe that Stallone could beat Bull but not Dean? How much more massive and imposing was Dean over Hurley?

At his peak in the late 70's / early 80's Cleve Dean was a multiple time world champion. He simply dominated his opponents. The reason for this was because of his tremendous size and strength. He was about 6' 7" and over 450 lbs. easily dwarfing Stallone and even some of his competition. His girth beguiled his opponents, he wasn't just a mountain of a man but rather a mountain of a man with lots of muscle. Like a modern-day Paul Bunyan, Cleve became synonymous with power.

Cleve represents a certain athletic aesthetic that is older than most people realize. Throughout history some of the strongest men in the world haven't always looked like bodybuilders. Some of the most powerful figures in myth have been on the heavy side. The giants and titans of ancient Greek and Norse mythology were usually heavy-set. The legendary Olympic weightlifter Vasili Alexeyev was another mountain of a man but he also did the unthinkable. Before his time many thought it would be impossible to lift more than 500 lbs. in the clean and jerk. Even though there were many strong weightlifters in that era, part of the reason for not being able to break the mark was psychological. Before his record-setting lift his coaches told him that he would be lifting 497 lbs. something that he had done in the past. As he lifted it he thought it felt heavier than normal but pushed himself to complete the cycle. Once he broke the barrier many in the sport realized that the human body had even more strength potential.

But the incredible strength of Cleve or Vasili doesn't mean much in the fighting arena. Grappler Royce Gracie once said a person with an average build that is experienced with judo would be able to beat a person with a bodybuilder physique and no fighting experience. There seems to be a lot to his reasoning. Big, tough guys that know a little fighting are usually taken out by smaller, experienced MMA fighters. The only large people that knowingly have fighting ability are sumo wrestlers. I've already mentioned that sumo wrestlers have a lot of muscle underneath their mass. More than that they have technique. Being absurdly strong is one thing but most sumos are evenly matched, they need technique to counter the strength. They need technique to decide a winner. A champion like Akebono made for a great sumo wrestler because he had the raw size and strength of Cleve or Vasili but combined it with impeccable fighting technique and strategies.

This is where I don't understand the purpose of Rufus. Street Fighter is already filled with archetypical strongmen. Zangief is a giant, bearded version, of Alexander Karelin. Like Alexander, Zangief is capable of superhuman feats of strength with his wrestling ability. E. Honda is a champion-class sumo wrestler, a kabuki-painted yokozuna. Where does Rufus fit between those other big men? He doesn't seem to have the design or purpose of the legendary strongmen I've mentioned. Instead he is a fat guy that knows kung-fu and moves really, really fast. He jumps fast, punches and kicks fast and has fast super attacks. Zangief and Honda are slower by comparison.

It just doesn't make sense to me. I'd love to see Rufus as massive as his is now, playing sickly powerful but also slow. A middleman between Zangief and Honda. Or a "slimmer" version, one that is still chubby but also fast and more reminiscent of Sammo Hung. But a Rufus that is both absurdly fat and fast? That, like Bob from Tekken, is a stretch and I don't think I'm the only one that thinks so. At some point character design stopped being great. It stopped evolving logically and just became absurd. I'm not going to lie and say that 2D fighters all had great designs, there were some awful designs back in the day. However the third dimension really brought the worst designs to life. Advances is animation and 3D modeling allowed a character of any shape or size to move as lightly as an olympic gymnast or as fast as a professional boxer.

When did the gatekeeper to great fighting character design go on holiday? Wish I could have been there in his stead, some characters would have never gotten the greenlight. All I can do now is point out the tragedies and lament the days gone bye. What do you think. Do fat characters have a place in fighting games? Is it about time or just a gimmick so far? Am I making too much about nothing? Does Rufus work in SF IV? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Painted faces, where have I seen that sumo before?

If you are a long-time arcade fan then chances are you are familiar with a rare Nintendo game called Arm Wrestling. It was a sort of spiritual successor to Punch-Out!!. The game came out in 1985 and it featured a cavalcade of silly arm wrestlers, including Frankenstein's monster, a burly Texan and pro boxer Bald Bull in a mask. One of the standout rivals was a sumo wrestler named Kabuki. What made this character unique was his face paint. Apparently this character had a flair for the dramatic. I'm not sure if the idea of mixing kabuki theater face paint with a sumo wrestler was solely Nintendo's idea or if the designers had mixed elements from various pop culture sources. I'm leaning towards the latter. The thing was that the seeds were planted for over-the-top characters to be featured in fighting games.



I credit Nintendo with developing a series of international archetypes in the original Punch-Out!! The various boxers from around the world had unique personality traits to go along with their memorable appearances. These caricatures would be emulated by Capcom and various studios when designing the first crop of fighting game all-stars. In 1991 E. Honda would take a page directly from Kabuki. Few remembered the Nintendo character came first and that was okay. Capcom was helping spread fight culture through their characters. The same year that Street Fighter II came out a manga called Aah! Harimanada debuted. The series was by Kei Sadayasu and would eventually be adapted into an anime series and fighting game as well. The series featured the brash Isao Harimanada, a sumo wrestler who was arrogant and insulting to opponents. He was a very dramatic character that would wear masks and headgear to the tournaments, including samurai helmets. The character would boast that that he would beat the 69-consecutive win streak of Sadaji Futabayama or retire trying. The series was kind of boring. It was a definite "Mary Sue" sports hero from Mr. Sadayasu. Isao could be rude and self absorbed and was somehow supposed to be appealing to young readers. As far as fictional sports figures go there was nothing that stood out for the hero. Audiences could guess that he would indeed reach 70 consecutive victories over the series. There was no real chance that he would lose any match. The only thing that changed were which techniques he used in order to beat his opponents. For that matter the rivals were far more interesting than the main character. One of the former champs that gave Isao a run for his money was named Kishin-Nada. The character had a nasty scar on the side of his head.

Kishin lost the match and felt humiliated by Isao, as did many of his opponents. They were all working hard to get a rematch but none took it more personal than Kishin. At the end of Isao's streak a mysterious figure appeared. This sumo was a former champ and he wore a creepy wakaonna, or girl mask from the Noh plays. It was as if Isao would have to wrestle someone with the same flare for the dramatic. When the wrestler removed the mask audiences gasped at his painted face. It was sacrilege that a sumo wrestler would actually wear kabuki face paint into the ring. This figure was trying to create a personae that was every bit as dramatic as Isao. Of course eagle-eyed readers saw that despite the face paint there was a noticeable scar on the side of this new character's face. This fighter called himself Kishin-Ryu, the dragon or ultimate version of Kishin-Nada. I'd like to think that this was Mr. Sadayasu's nod to E. Honda.

There was a Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) version of Aah! Harimanada that came out in 1993. The game by Megasoft was sorely lacking in the control department. Audiences could play through a campaign mode and every battle in the manga was presented in the same order within the game. After a few matches the game felt tedious. It would be a grind to try and beat 70 opponents in a row. What was cool however was how each sumo had their own strength and weaknesses. These things manifested as special attacks and super strikes. Imagine a version of Street Fighter but solely made up of sumo wrestlers. Super thrusts, headbutts, throws and slaps were some of the many techniques players could learn. A dozen characters each had their own super attacks that could be figured out and mastered in a two-player mode. I often wonder how Street Fighter would have been if characters had entirely new move sets applied to them in each sequel. What would have happened to E. Honda if he had new moves added to his library in Turbo, Hyper and Super versions of the game.

I hope you think about this rare series and the flamboyant sumo wrestler that appeared in other games the next time you play Street Fighter. Truth of course was much more interesting than fiction. Isao Harimanada was nowhere near as interesting as the real Futabayama. The record-setting sumo wrestler was blind in one eye but he never revealed this to anyone until after he retired. His opponents could have of course used this information against him. He was certainly much more humble about his abilities than Isao. Maybe a fighting game might base a character after a real legend. Stranger things have happened! 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!