Some of my favorite Street Fighter collectibles, part 2...

In the previous blog I highlighted some of my favorite collector covers from the Chinese Street Fighter comics. Today we're going to look at some of the other memorable special issues that they printed. Often a special issue not only came with a unique cover, it also came with a collectible. Some of these things were postcards, puzzles or calendars featuring the best covers from the past year. Sometimes these issues came with an embroidered hat or sweatband featuring a character. The best were even more original. Take Chun-Li for example, when the publisher wanted to celebrate the character in Street Fighter Zero they distributed spike bracelets to their fans.

Of course the bracelet was foam wrapped in vinyl, but it was a very clever marketing toy. In what other country did Capcom create anything like that for their fans? Another soft good that they distributed through the comics was actually attached to the cover of a comic. The Spanish assassin Balrog (Claw) wore a trademark mask. The publisher of the Street Fighter Zero comics created a die-cut cover of Balrog wearing the mask. Fans could remove the mask and wear it. Imagine being a kid and being a huge fan of Street Fighter. How awesome would it be if your favorite comic book came with a goody on a regular basis? What if Marvel did the same for Spider-Man, or DC for Batman? People would be all over it.

Granted in the US there have been unique collectibles released with comics as well. The Batman trade paperback A Death in the Family came with a grotesque Joker mask and the Court of Owls came with an owl mask. Fans had to wait until the specific series had ended and was put into a TPB before they could buy it. Yet overseas these giveaways are more common. In Italy for example the Topolino (Mickey Mouse) comics sometimes come with toys, called gadgets. The most popular Chinese comics came with all sorts of soft goods and toys on a more regular basis.

 

Of all the collectibles I've gotten from the Chinese Street Fighter comics the best one was without a doubt the dog tags worn by Charlie Nash. Like the Balrog issue this comic also had a die-cut cover. There were two holes poked in the sides of the neck were a metal chain and polished metal dog tags were on display. These were full-size dog tags with the name and likeness of Nash. To make sure collectors picked up the issues there was even an embossed Capcom license on them. I wonder how many people that cosplayed as Guile ever tracked down these dog tags.

 

What about you? Do you have any rare or unique Street Fighter items in you collection? If so I'd like to hear about it! 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!

Some of my favorite Street Fighter collectibles, part 1...

Howdy friends and visitors. I apologize for the lack of updates. I was working on a new series when my computer crashed. I was in the process of gathering images and history for a few projects actually. It was the reason I had started a Patreon to help me raise some money. I knew the days of my computer were numbered so I wanted to get a back up as well as new system. Unfortunately it died before I could do either. I am saving up my money to get a new computer and hopefully salvage the data on my old hard drive. Once I am up and running I may actually be able to put together podcasts and even videos a little bit faster, that is the goal after all! I was saving some of the text and image links on my email for those future projects just in case. This way I didn't have to start from scratch when I got a new computer. The next few posts might be a little short, I hope you understand.

Like many of you I am a huge fan of Street Fighter and I like to collect SF merchandise. I focus on things that are not common in the USA, so I have a lot of books and guides from Japan. Udon made a fantastic comic book series out of the franchise, no doubt about it! When it came to collector issues and special issues Udon gave the fans what they wanted. Some of my favorite Street Fighter comics actually came from China. As great as the comics were in North America I have to say that the Chinese comics sometimes had the better exclusives. Best of all these were not bootlegs, but actual licensed items!
 

Let's be completely honest when talking about licensed Chinese comics, or manhua as they are traditionally known. From a print standpoint these comics are inferior to those from the West. The paper the comics are printed on are not as good as the magazine quality paper used in comics from North America. In fact they still use the old 4-color process instead of modern digital printing, except for the covers. The covers are glossy and sometimes feature wrap-around painted images. Yet the best cover poses are often stolen from the official character art from Capcom in Japan.

 

Sometimes it's even more shameful than a repaint of a classic Akiman illustration. The artists working on the manhua will actually redraw, or repaint the art from a licensed Japanese manga and change the main characters around! It's tough to be a fan where there is so much shameless poaching on the part of the Chinese. It happens in comics, in film, toys, gaming, fashion and electronics. Yet to be fair they do this with everything that is popular, not just Street Fighter. The nation doesn't necessarily correlate copying with a bad thing, at least not the people that run the companies. They consider it more of an "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" or just smart business to follow the popular trends. The consumers on the other hand have a less favorable opinion on copies or counterfeit items.

 

But I digress... the reason I like some of my Chinese Street Fighter comics more than those from Udon are because of the painted panels. They are few and far between but some of the better covers and spreads in manhua are actually brush paintings instead of digital color illustrations like in the US comics. There is something to be admired in the art form, in the ability to create an actual physical painting and see it reproduced in print. These original panels and covers were rare, but when done right they jumped off the page.

 

The other reason I enjoyed the SF manhua were because of the special issues. Limited runs, foil, hologram and other gimmick covers had been used by Udon and other publishers for years. In China they went the extra mile when creating the exclusive covers. One that they released for Street Fighter Zero3 featured Gouki in a red metallic ink. It was printed over a black vinyl cover, that looked a bit like leather. It was a classic pose but not poached from any official Capcom art.



The special edition covers are often placed over the regular covers. I have a few issues with both the regular and special edition covers. What makes these covers unique is that no two are printed exactly the same. A different black and red cover that I had featured Balrog (Claw). It was also printed in a red metallic ink yet the cover was a hard black plastic with tiny cracks that gave it a prismatic effect. It was a great pose which highlighted how the Chinese artists had their own unique aesthetic, their own unique was of interpreting the character that was every bit as memorable as those from Japan and the USA.



Some of the covers I had celebrated the fan-favorite characters. A Sakura cover for example was printed on a very thin piece of corkboard. It was printed in black and silver-flake ink. The inspiration behind this cover was school related. The corkboard was supposed to rekindle images of doodling on folders and pinning favorite pictures on a study area. The cover actually had a lot of hand-drawn details. Once printed the finishing touches were applied by hand. Some of the hair and costume were hand-painted in black ink. It's hard to tell from my fuzzy pictured but you can actually see the brush strokes and different shades of black ink used by the artists.



Possibly the most unique of the custom covers again featured Gouki. This cover was printed on a paper-thin piece of bamboo and then laminated to prevent splitting. The texture was unique and thanks to the printing process no two covers would ever be exactly alike.


There are a few more special issues that I would like to share with you, but I'll save it for next time. Are there any Street Fighter comics that you are proud of or are your favorites? Please let me know in the comments. 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!

What is going on with the Street Fighter V character designs? Part 1, who is F.A.N.G?

I've been pretty quiet these past few months on the characters unveiled for Street Fighter V. However seeing as the majority have been announced I think we can start talking about them. Let's start with the newest character F.A.N.G. Let's put down the initial impressions of him. The character is dumb, he is ugly, he is insincere and has no redeeming factors.

 

I think it would be safe for me to say that F.A.N.G. is the new Rufus. He is a character that is so over-the-top, that is so beyond the conventions of the other Street Fighter characters that he simply doesn't belong in the game. This is really saying something considering that a rubber-limbed Indian and a green-skinned Brazilian wild man are considered some of the great all-time characters. So what is it about F.A.N.G. that doesn't work? Well his design is a sort of polar opposite of Rufus. Instead of a big, fat and dumb US character we have a tall, skinny and sneaky Chinese character. In either case we have extremes in stereotype, extremes in caricature that say a lot more about the producer and director of the game than of what Street Fighter has become.

Yoshinori Ono should be taken to task for every character, every design that makes in into the game. He was the one that pulled the Black Cobra and made a strong black character into a fat white character. The excuse was that he thought it would be funny to put a fatty into the game. He was the one that made sure that the Turkish character was beet red and obsessed with oil, he was the one that made sure that the masked Mexican wrestler named every move after a Mexican dish. He made sure that the returning black character in Street Fighter V was turned into a fat slob. And now the joke is that a tall skinny Chinese character is flying around the screen like a pelican. Stop and think about how he has presented the British, Japanese, white and female characters that are returning to the series. Is there any bias, whether intended or not, in his decisions?

 

As the producer Mr. Ono has the final say as to how the game is going to present itself. He has a reputation for being a funny guy, always kind to his fans, but very silly at the same time. This silly humor has found its way into the game in how the characters act, how their special moves appear and even with the constant use of breaking the fourth wall. The Street Fighter games that came before Mr. Ono were considered templates for great design. The ones that came after certainly looked nice and were well balanced but they did not contribute as much to the genre as the earlier titles. This is especially true with the appearance of F.A.N.G. I know some people read my blogs because I try and understand the roots of a character's design. The long sleeves given to his costume are more akin to Chinese opera than a traditional kung-fu uniform or even classic Mandarin robe.

The combination of sunglasses and robes has been seen many times before in film and television. Sometimes detectives set in pre-cultural revolution China wear fedoras and sunglasses while tracking down criminals. However in film the majority of those wearing the sunglasses and robes are villains. They are often mob bosses if not mob enforcers. A good example of these dangerous characters can be seen in the film Kung-Fu Hustle. The harpist assassins as played by Gar Hong-hay and Fung Hak were mysterious agents sent to kill some kung-fu masters. Their traditional costumes were nondescript. They seemed harmless until they unveiled their secret techniques. Of course there was nothing subdued about F.A.N.G.'s costume. The colors and cut on his robe were as flamboyant as his personality. Instead of a modest hat he wore the widest brim possible.

There was a reason why F.A.N.G.'s design had to be super exaggerated. Every character in the Street Fighter universe had been presented in a costume that looked traditional on a superficial level. Karate masters after all did not walk around with torn sleeves, and female masters of wushu did not really wear wrestling boots and spiked bracelets. F.A.N.G. had a costume that at first glance looked like a traditional robe and hat. But the more you looked at his costume the more you realized that they were as exaggerated as his proportions. F.A.N.G. wasn't just skinny, his head appeared as if it had been squeezed by a vice grip. His costume shared the same qualities, he didn't just have long sleeves, they could double as wings if he flapped his arms fast enough. It was absurd of course but also par the course for Street Fighter character designs.

 

Traditional Chinese costumes had been used for generations in pop culture. Whether they were in a movie, comic book or cartoon, the classic Chinese tunic had been seen many times by audiences and not solely on Chinese people either! These costumes were even finding their way into game designs. The Jiangshi for example were zombie-like Chinese ghosts. They could be summoned to life with a special talisman placed on their head. Since they were dead and rigor mortis had set in they had limited use of their limbs. Rather than shuffle around like a zombie these monsters had to hop around like rabbits. Read about it on the Chinese Ghost Primer. The jiangshi turned up in a number of modern games, for example you could fight them in Sleeping Dogs, specifically the DLC called Nightmare in North Point. The costumes and designs of the undead were stylized in the fighting game Vampire / Darkstalkers by Capcom. The sisters Lei-Lei & Lin-Lin aka Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling wore very bright (and revealing) versions of the classic robes. The costume given to F.A.N.G. was no more different than what Capcom had done previously. At first glance it had the appearance of a traditional costume however upon further inspection it was something else entirely. Yet the costume, weird moves and silly personality were only part of the reason why F.A.N.G. didn't really inspire me.

 

In the reveal trailer we could see several things about the character. He was goofy and lanky of course but he was also quite tall. In fact he appeared to be as tall as Sagat, the once world champion. And like Sagat this new character was marking a place for himself in the pantheon of Shadowlaw / Shadaloo villains. In the reveal trailer there was a level that was set inside of a secret base. In the background there was a statue celebrating the leader and "generals" of Shadowlaw. Sagat was previously the second-in-command to Vega "the Dictator." Yet during Street Fighter V there is no sign of Sagat, not only that but his visage would not be in the background details either. Instead the bust of F.A.N.G. had been carved out of a mini Mt. Rushmore.

This flew in the face of everything that had been established about Shadowlaw from many years earlier. Whether it was mentioned in the game, in the comics or supplemental material The other generals were dangerous fighters in their own right. In propaganda posters, in Shadowlaw art the four figures were placed side-by-side in a show of solidarity. The generals looked intimidating but there was something about F.A.N.G. that did not match the gravitas of the earlier bosses. A one-eyed, seven-foot, muay thai fighter was a sight to behold. A seven-foot, flamboyant Chinese kung-fu master was also a sight to behold, but not for the same reasons. Why the designers working on Street Fighter V would replace the legacy character Sagat with F.A.N.G. didn't make much sense. Why they would go out of their way to erase any hint of Sagat was frankly insulting.

What were the roots of F.A.N.G. and why was he so bad? Was there anything about the character that might work? These are things that we can explore in the next blog. Right now I'd like to read your thoughts on the character. 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!

How fight culture became fighting game history, final part

The seeds for the fighting game genre were planted in 1984. That year saw the introduction of three important arcade games which would profoundly change the industry. Irem released Kung-Fu Master, which predated Double Dragon and could actually be considered the forefather of the brawler. It had stage after stage of different villains approaching from the left and right and had a boss waiting at the end of each stage. Technos developed Karate Champ which was the original two-player fighting game featuring a red and white karateka. This was years before Ken and Ryu had appeared in the first Street Fighter. The only thing that the previously mentioned games lacked was diversity, in terms of different ethnicities. Although to be fair there was a dark-skinned giant, possibly of Indian or even Arabian descent in Kung-Fu Master. Minority characters were not playable characters however. The first prominent black character in a fighting game was Mr. Sandman.

The original WVBA (World Video Boxing Association) Champion from the Nintendo game Punch Out!! Boxing would be pinned on many black characters from the earliest point in Japanese games. Some of the characters developed during the late '80s and early '90s were done as an homage to Mike Tyson. He was going through opponents at a feverish pace when he turned professional. Near the end of his reign other black athletes began to replace him. Axel Hawk was written as the mentor of Michael Max (another Tyson clone) from the Fatal Fury series. Axel was a nod to George Forman who made a comeback at the age of 46 and recaptured the heavyweight championship of the world 21 years after he had originally won it.

The game was also released in 1984 but had a reputation for its ethnically stereotypical characters including the Cuban Piston Hurricane and Italian Pizza Pasta. These were meant to be taken as a joke by the Japanese developers. Many game fans did not find too much offense in those characters however that changed with the introduction of the Vodka Drunkenski in Punch Out 2. The Russian was renamed when the game was translated to the home consoles. His bottle of vodka had been replaced by a soda bottle. Mr. Sandman was different though. He did not have any gimmick or racially biased name. There had been professional black fighters that also went by aliases like "Sugar," "Hitman" and "Dynamite," so the Sandman seemed to be a good fit. The character was deadpan serious, as one would expect a World Champion to be. He required perfect timing to beat and most arcade gamers never did. The character still managed to intimidate opponents 25 years later when a new Punch-Out!! was released for the Nintendo Wii.

Shigeru Miyamaoto, creator of the Mario Bros, the Legend of Zelda, Metroid and a slew of other franchises had actually designed the cast and started a tradition in for developers. He demonstrated through Mr. Sandman that a character designed with respect rather than trope would reflect back to gamers. In the very first blog of this series I mentioned that the developers that respected their subject matter often did better with audiences. Even if a fighting game pitted skeletons against cyborgs or revolved around dinosaurs the players could pick up whether or not the developer was simply trying to cash in on a trend or if they had really invested their efforts into the game and the universe they created. Kung-Fu master and Karate Champ were ported to multiple consoles yet neither received a proper sequel. By comparison the Punch-Out!! series was a hit in the arcade, on the 8-bit NES with an added plot, on the 16-bit Super Nintendo with new villains and years later on the Wii. The extra time, energy, diversity and attention to detail that Miyamoto and his team had put into their game clearly came across to audiences every time.

The Japanese did not think that creating caricatures of ethnic stereotypes or names would have caused a big fuss. Through the '80s not many people took notice. However when the Politically Correct / Ethnic Sensitivity movements took off in popularity the Westerners expected those in the business world to follow the trends. In Japan that was not the case. Again there was cultural relativism to consider. Of the two nations only the US had a major civil rights movement.

Capcom had created a great legacy of black boxers through the Street Fighter series, one of which played up the strengths and abilities of the sweet science rather than perpetuate stereotypical tropes. The bar that had been raised by the Street Fighter III team when they created Dudley was unfortunately lowered by the Street Fighter IV. More than a decade between games didn't make the Capcom artists any wiser. Dudley would receive an alternate costume of an afro and sunglasses modeled after the look of Tiger Jackson in Street Fighter X Tekken. He certainly didn't look very much like a world champ any more.

Developers in Japan and the US were stuck in a rut. Aside from professional boxers there wasn't much in terms of styles that they felt comfortable assigning black athletes. Basketball and breakdancing had become the new fad and by the mid-90s it was becoming tired to audiences. Thankfully Capcom and Namco wizened up and pointed to new fighting styles. Capoeira came into focus in 1997 thanks to Eddy Gordo and Elena. Even Sean was allowed to learn the assassin's fist that had been previously reserved for Ken and Ryu. Minority fighters suddenly no longer seemed locked into one role. A few years later Spiritonin expanded on that concept and began flipping conventions in their Capoeira Fighter series. Blacks, Whites, Latinos, men and women from different nations were all presented as exceptional capoeiristas. When those characters went on a wold tour they faced many new styles. These fighters from different nations also broke convention.

The boxing champion was a short British person with a Napoleon Complex. There was also a young Shaolin Monk, a German breakdancer, a female Tae KwonDo practitioner, a karateka based on the villain from the film the Karate Kid, a Scottish barroom fighter and a large Southern grappler. Rarely had any fighting game featured such diversity with regards to ethnicity, age and technique. Spiritonin had put the same level of detail on all the new fighters that they had with the capoeiristas. The moves each had, the special attacks, costumes, voices, names and even stages were built with forethought. The studio made sure to incorporate actual or appropriate details from each nation or culture to place on their cast. The name of the Shaolin Monk Kuan Yin Shen was based on a Buddhist deity. The young man spoke in wise passages during cut scenes, beguiling his age. Other characters had their own personalities on display while fighting or in their own cinemas.

The capoeiristas were joined by some other traditional and non-traditional faces. A Bruce Lee clone which all fighting games needed to have, a wild jungle girl, a female Muay Thai master (the first one ever featured in a fighting game!), a monkey kung-fu master (that I designed) and a couple of alien beings from the Guardians of Altarris (a different Spiritonin game) made a cameo appearance as well.

Spiritonin knew that a colorful cast was important but not as important as good control, great animations and a balanced fighting engine. They delivered on all those things while at the same time deconstructing the ideas of minority characters in fighting games. Women and blacks could not only make good supporting characters but they could also be important leading ones as well. The game had no set main characters although Meste Loka and Mestre Rochedo had been in the series the longest followed by their students. In order to make sure the game went beyond all expectations Spiritonin also wrote a new chapter in the book on villains. Zumbi Azul was so well done that I would rank him among the best villains ever created for a fighter. Zumbi was already an impressive bad guy but his dark alter-ego raised the bar. In all honesty I would rank Zumbi Azul in the top-5 bosses of all-time. He would even be in my personal top-3, second only to Gouki and ahead of Silber.

Spiritonin was able to insert powerful minorities and females into the genre as if they had always been there. They did not play the race card because they did not have to. They simply decided that it was finally time to bring fighting games into the 21st century. The biggest publishers in Japan and the US were taking too long to catch up with society. Spiritonin learned from Miyamoto and the other industry leaders. They treated their audience with respect. They placed men and women of color into a game without any pandering or gimmicks. The cast was balanced from a gameplay perspective but almost as important the members of both sexes had equal weight on the plot and outcome of the game. When Spiritonin wanted locations that meant something to Western players then they used actual landmarks. Even the fictional locations were still inspired by reality. The plantation mansions, the secluded beaches, the rain-forests and the colorful hotels featured in CF3 could be found sprinkled throughout South America. When Spiritonin wanted to create a convincing villain they used elements from ancient Afro-Caribbean and African-American spiritual customs that modern players could still identify. They did not put a costumed European in a corner and have him wave his hand to call down a meteor strike. In short the studio delivered something that audiences were not expecting.

An important chapter in the history of the fighting genre was written but for the web browsers instead of the arcade or home consoles. Capoeira Fighter 3 was a great game but did not get wide exposure. Because of this many "hardcore" and even casual players missed out. The biggest loser would be the entire industry. The big publishers on both sides of the Pacific would not learn how a fighting game should treat members of every ethnic group and culture. Nor would they learn that they could present attractive females that were also strong and athletic instead of just big boobs in skimpy costumes. Without a popular and successful template to work from most developers would rely on trope to design the next fighter. A generation that grew up seeing minorities and women portrayed in one way would never expect to see them in any other light. It was important that the developers get these impressions right the first time or else they would perpetuate stereotypes. It was simply not enough to live up to player expectations, the studios had to exceed them and redefine what the expectations should be. A great game and a terrible game could equally color their perception of gamers. The industry should always remember that the color of their audience should always be respected more than the color of their money.

Capoeira found its way into the world of mixed martial arts in the latter half of the 20th century. Almost a century ago the Japanese Count Kouma had demonstrated that jujitsu could be used to defeat the best capoeira striker. Suddenly the Brazilians felt inclined to begin studying this new form from the East. Yet as Kazushi Sakuraba demonstrated time and time again not even the Gracie jujitsu system was perfect. Many mixed martial arts fighters, not solely the Brazilians, took another look at the Dance of War and began adapting the sweeping kicks and unpredictable strikes into their technique. Now modern fighters are well rounded in the various fighting forms and are able to put on demonstrations that are as exciting to watch as any fighting videogame. Marcus Aurelio for example has an incredible sense of balance and makes capoeira look easy to do in a professional match as he takes out opponents with dizzying speed. While he may never achieve the legend of Mas Oyama we can see that the lessons of knowing multiple forms does indeed make one a better fighter.

I hope that you enjoyed this survey on the various fighting arts and how they migrated around the world. From the roots of grappling and kung fu that Indian monks took with them to China. To the merchants that crossed the Sea of Japan and introduced a continent to the Empty Hand techniques. there were the indigenous tribes in Indonesia and the isles in the South Pacific that kept their form alive as Dutch, Spanish and French imperialists sought to destroy them. When the fluid striking of the African arts crossed the Atlantic it mirrored the journey of millions of slaves. It would become wrapped up in ancient animism beliefs of the Old World and the crown of thorns from the New World. Its legacy would become the mix of Japanese blood in the form of judo and ju-jitsu. It would bear the illegitimate offspring of English catch-as-catch-can and US wrestling. These children would grow up on a steady diet of fighting. Their children and great grandchildren would continue to fight and shape the arts.

When fighting games became popular almost 30 years ago the developers celebrated the colorful world that gave birth to the genre. Little by little they turned their backs on the real men and women that shaped history and began inventing fighters and forms. By doing so the games suffered just a little bit and the popularity of the titles declined. I still think that the best days of the genre were still ahead of us. If the new generation of designers learned where fight culture came from and worked as hard trying to evolve as much as the current crop of real world fighters then I think they could capture the spirit once more. Thank you for following this series, thank you for the questions and comments throughout and I wish you all the best. 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!

Fighting layer, return of the dragon, part 5...

Many of the early designs for Street Fighter II characters were based on what the Japanese found exotic, which was often Western characters and themes. I don't mean cowboys and indians however, I mean gangs, tattoos and thugs that were different than the Yakuza or Japanese criminals. Some of the other things that the developers found interesting were European culture, architecture, design and mythology. To this day many in Japan have a fondness for Victorian-era England and late 19th century / early 20th century Belle Époque France. Aristocratic characters in manga and animé are dressed right out of the Guilded Age and often lived in opulent mansions. They are waited on by butlers and maids even in high school and at work in many of the titles. The boxer Dudley in Street Fighter III and Lili de Rochefort from Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection are two of the more famous aristocratic fighters. They view themselves as superior to their counterparts in every way, but especially in fighting and etiquette. The original boss designs for Street Fighter II were far more different than the playable characters audiences saw. The majority of the cast had a martial arts style that could easily be identified by players. Karate, kung-fu and boxing masters could easily be made out by gamers after all. The final bosses had to stand out and not necessarily reflect any actual technique. Shadowlaw started off as an island before it became a landlocked country in Southeast Asia. In the planning stages the architecture and infrastructure on the island was Western. It was a blend of modern with the city and port, but also classic with the countryside. As the peak of the island there was a temple where fighters met the final boss. It was not always an Asian temple and the final villain was not always Asian.

Before the assassin became a mask-wearing Spaniard he looked more like a Templar Knight. This character completely broke the visual consistency of the rest of the cast. The armor, sword and tunic were from another era. Capcom might have made the character work but that would have meant revising the locations and themes they were already working on. It would be easier to redesign one character than change an entire game to make that character work. The boss went back to the drawing board and the designers tried to figure out what made him interesting. He needed to have a weapon but a sword would be hard to work around. The claws did increase the reach of the character but were less than half the length of a sword. The helmet was too cumbersome for a fighter so it was switched out for a mask. They mystery element remained but the character became more believable. The costume and tattoo were very reminiscent of the pirate San-Po from the Jackie Chan film Project A.

An alternate to the knight was also in the planning stages. This character was a mix of contrasting elements. He too wore a mask but not a suit of armor. Instead he had an armored vest and shoulder pads. The character appeared more like she sort of European ninja. The early designs for Balrog and Vega, and even the medieval theme for Shadowlaw could have been inspired by the 1979 film the Castle of Cagliostro. The film featured assassins that were dressed like armored ninjas and also sported claws. It was considered one of the best animé films ever produced and one of the most memorable adventure films of all time. There was no doubt that the Capcom designers were familiar with the film and the fantastic world that director Hayao Miyazaki had created. But again, if Street Fighter II were to use villains inspired by the film then the entire game and levels would have to be re-themed in order to make them work with the cast.

Fighting Layer was different however. Akira Nishitani was revisiting the plans for Street Fighter II. This time he took a different path than producer Yoshiki Okamoto did with SF II. Nishitani wanted to have more fantasy in the game and allow his cast of fighters adapt to the weird and supernatural. Great fighting game characters were not far removed from the heroes in manga and comic books. At least not in the mind of Nishitani. Audiences didn't need to have everything explained to them in order to suspend their disbelief. The word "magic" was often more than enough for them to get the idea. In Fighting Layer players were dropped into a pit where an animated suit of armor appeared out of thin air. It was taller than the the other characters and moved very slowly. Punches and kicks did not knock the character down, only special and super attacks could manage that. The Knight swung a heavy lance, much longer than the sword that was originally planned for Balrog. The balance to giving an opponent a long weapon was found by making the character use it very slowly. This gave players time to dodge the strike and work on counter attacks. If players managed to defeat the Knight then he would fall apart in a cloud of smoke and flames. They would then be able to continue through the game. If time ran out then the suit of armor would simply turn and walk away, breaking into tiny pieces and fade into nothing as it took each step. It was an eerie sight for gamers.

There were actually two distinct Knights in the game. The original Knight in the second stage and the "True" Knight at the end of the game, after the host of the tournament was defeated. The True Knight was slightly stronger and could take 80% of an opponents energy before the match even started by throwing his lance at players as they fell into the underground stage. It was obvious that there was much more to this world than had been seen in other Capcom fighting games.

ARIKA had actually infused their fighting games with supernatural elements much earlier. In Street Fighter EX the character of Kairi was under the influence of evil spirits. They were in fact the source of his powers. His sisters were trying to bring Kairi back from the brink of madness in the plot of the game. One of the boss characters created for the series was an animated suit of samurai armor. The villain named Gardua had no true face. He was the first completely supernatural character introduced into the series. Because he could have also been interpreted as a madman in armor and not some sort of ghost then he was entirely plausible within the world of Street Fighter.

There were plenty of clues that the supernatural was a part of the Fighting Layer world and even a part of the competitors. The eerie glow of the eyes on ninja Sessyu Tsukikage mirrored the eerie glow that inhabited the armor of the Knight. Sessyu's ability to disappear and reappear in a puff of smoke seemed even more incredible than the ninja myths. Perhaps he too used some sort of magic to give him an edge in combat.

 

Every gamer that had read a comic book or watched a cartoon knew that spirits and giant animals would have to be under the control of some powerful villain. Whether the tournament was set in the real world or some sort of Twilight Zone there was still a host pulling the strings. This person may have been a drug lord, dictator or even sorcerer based on previous games. The truth would only be revealed to the fighter that made it through the final battle. The next entry in the series will look at the organizer of the Fighting Layer tournament and try to find his roots. 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!

Fighting Layer, return of the dragon, part 3...

The Fighting Layer tournament had pulled together many different styles of martial artists. Some of these archetypes reminded players of the Street Fighter II icons. Developer ARIKA had revisited some of the prototypical characters in the planning stages for Street Fighter II while building a cast for their new tournament. Two of the more lethal fighters had very contrasting styles yet both had a similar goal, to kill a target. The ninja Sessyu Tsukikage fought like a man possessed. He had an arsenal of quick attacks and traditional weapons. The man was extremely fast and could even disappear in a puff of smoke and drop down on opponents with his sword. The homicidal maniac Janice Luciani balanced out the ninja. She was a crazed killer that used knives and guns on opponents. It was suspected that both characters were trying to assassinate the sponsor of the tournament. Of the two Luciani seemed content with killing all her opponents on the way to the top.

All of the characters announced thus far fell in the realm of possibility. Most were rooted in real fighting systems. The artists and designers at ARIKA did not use exaggerated proportions to make characters giants like Zangief or Sagat. Yet part of the charm of Street Fighter II was the oddball characters that fought alongside the "regular" characters. The wild man Blanka and elastic yoga master Dhalsim had become icons to fighting game fans. Those characters looked and fought unlike any other character in history. ARIKA had previously introduced Skullomania in the Street Fighter EX series. The circus performer wore a skeleton costume and thought of himself as a super hero. His attacks in the game were very unconventional but memorable. Fighting Layer had its own oddball character that was leagues beyond Skullomania, Dhalsim or Blanka. In fact the new character so beyond what had ever seen before that few knew what to make of him at all.

Capriccio was a sort of mystical, tribal, animistic witch doctor. His costume and helmet made him appear like a cycloptic bee. The best way I could describe the costume and influences that the ARIKA designers put into the character were if the Alien, as designed by H.R. Geiger had a lovechild with Mudman, the character from World Heroes. Capriccio fought with an assortment of odd attacks. He would crawl along the ground like an insect and make poisonous mushrooms appear from thin air for his opponents to step on. He was without a doubt the strangest human(?) character ever to appear in a fighting game.

The sub-boss characters in the game were not as eccentric as Capriccio. They were in fact a retelling of the bosses from Street Fighter II. In Fighting Layer players chose which sub-boss they wanted to fight, or had to fight, depending on which paths they had played through. Players faced one animal-boss and one sub-boss before facing the final villain. In SFII players had to defeat three consecutive boss characters before facing the final battle. The ability to choose a sub-boss was unique to audiences. Each boss character offered a different challenge to gamers. The characters themselves however seemed eerily familiar to veterans.

There was a one-eyed former world champion that was in the twilight of his career… Sagat was the boss of the original Street Fighter and was relegated to second-in-command by Street Fighter II. The former champ was still a powerful opponent but challengers knew he was a stepping stone on the way to a more powerful opponent. Clemence Kleiber was a wrestler that stepped out of the limelight to find a new challenge. What he found instead was an empty existence. He lived in the lap of luxury. A private ring was built inside of a library of an ornate castle. Kleiber would spend his final days waiting for a worthy challenger that might never come.

Almost as tragic was the story of the boxing champion that had been banned from the sport he was born to dominate. In Street Fighter II this character was M. Bison, or Balrog depending on which country you lived in. The Mike Tyson clone was once idolized the world over. He spent and drank his fortune away and had to work as a Shadowlaw enforcer to recapture some of his former glory. In Fighting Layer the former champ Joe Fendi was turned down by all of the boxing promotions because it was rumored that he had gone blind in an eye. A disabled athlete would never be allowed to compete on the professional circuit. Fendi denied these claims but never allowed a doctor to confirm his condition. Both fighters were extremely dirty boxers. They were known for throwing head-butts and elbows at opponents. Fendi would pummel his opponents with brass knuckles and even gauntlets during the Fighting Layer tournament. His personal trainer backed him up at every chance, especially when he taunted opponents.

The last of the sub-bosses was a trained killer. This person was more dangerous than either Janice Luciani or Sessyu Tsukikage. The masked assassin in SFII was named Balrog or Vega depending on your country. He was called "Claw" by Capcom developers as to avoid confusion. He wore a mask, not to hide his identity but to protect his beautiful face. This assassin was a famed matador, a bull fighter by day and one of the Shadowlaw generals by night. He was proud, vain and responsible for killing government officials, soldiers and law enforcement officers, including Chun-Li's father. The assassin acting as a sub-boss in Fighting Layer was neither pretty nor stealthy. Preston Ajax had been featured in an earlier blog. The character was a patchwork of body parts, half his own and half of his brother following a failed bombing attempt. Of the sub-bosses he was the most tragic. A fighting Frankenstein's monster, Ajax was also inspired in part by the manga character Dr. Black Jack.

Before players could even face these dangerous sub-bosses they had to defeat the fiercest predators from nature. The selection of creatures were right out of martial arts myth. The next blog will look at these characters. 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!