Some details in the Street Fighter 6 trailer I wanted to talk about

Thank you to everyone that visited the blog as I went through all of the formerly announced, and leaked characters in Street Fighter 6. I wanted to take a moment, and talk a little bit about some of the other things that were shown in the first trailer. You may or may not know that I am a huge fan of the Final Fight series. I like to remind new fans of the fighting game genre that Final Fight was released after Street Fighter. It was originally called Street Fighter ’89. The success of Double Dragon made Capcom want to make their own version of a brawler. The team wanted to replace Ken, and Ryu with Cody, and Guy respectively. Plus a big wrestler named Mike Haggar to round out the lineup. Arcade owners liked the concept, but they also wanted to see a formal one-vs-one fighting game as well. So the studio relabeled it Final Fight, and started work on an actual Street Fighter II which was released in 1991. Over several games, manga, cartoons, and comics Capcom officially connected the characters, and events featured in Street Fighter, Final Fight, Muscle Bomber / Slam Masters, and Rival Schools games. Having the studio circle back to Metro City in the latest version of a Street Fighter was almost a love letter for long time fans.

In the Luke preview I talked a little bit about Metro City, and how the SF6 trailer began in the Metro City gym. That was the same place where Final Fight began more than 30 years ago. If you had never played the game then let me set the scene. Mike Haggar was a former wrestler, and street fighting world champion. He was born, and raised in Metro City. He saw that it had become corrupt, and run down so he decided to clean it up. He was elected mayor, and no sooner was he settling into his new role than the Mad Gear gang tried to extort him. They kidnapped his daughter Jessica, and told him to stop trying to turn the city around. Instead of negotiating with the thugs he recruited Jessica’s boyfriend Cody, and his friend Guy to literally take the fight to the gang.

The trio fought through every borough on the trail of Jessica, and the ringleader of the gang. They discovered that they couldn’t even trust the cops of Metro City, as one of their biggest officers Edi E. was also a Mad Gear boss. This didn’t deter the heroes as they fought all sorts of memorable characters. The search for Jessica lead them all the way to the top of a skyscraper where they discovered that a kingpin named Belger was pulling the strings. The three defeated the gang, but Cody ended up throwing Belger out of his penthouse office. He would be arrested for the murder of the villain, and sadly there was nothing that Haggar could do to keep him out of jail. Cody spent a few years behind bars. Upon his release he was still a dangerous fighter, but decided to pick up where Mike had left off. He ran for, and became the new mayor of Metro City.

Haggar ended up fighting for the people a few more times. The Mad Gear gang had unfinished business with Mike, they kidnapped Guy’s finance’, and her father. So Haggar was recruited by Maki, a ninja that trained alongside Guy, and Carlos, a South American swordsman to take the battle around the world in Final Fight 2. By the time he returned to Metro City a new gang had set up operations. This time they were run by an evil general named Black. In Final Fight 3 Haggar recruited Guy, a good cop named Lucia, and a mysterious newcomer named Dean to take out the Skull Cross gang. We can assume after all of this traveling, and fighting it was time for the Mayor to retire. The Street Fighter 6 debut trailer featured a shot of multiple areas around Metro City. In on particular scene we saw a statue dedicated to Haggar. A lot of fans online, myself included, were worried that the statue was erected following the death of the former mayor. I’m hoping that the statue was built because he managed to actually turn the city around. He fought corruption, and crime with his bare hands. He made the people feel safe, turned the economy around, and made Metro City a beacon of hope. Perhaps the big reveal in the game was that Haggar was now running for Governor, Senator, or a higher office.

The SF6 developers were shouting out a lot of other Metro City locations in the debut trailer. I have a feeling that a number of them would be used as background stages in the SF6 tournament. For example we saw a subway. The subway took our heroes through the boroughs in Final Fight. But it was also used in one of the memorable stages in Street Fighter III. I’m wondering if players will be able to visit every corner of the city, and whether or not they will have to fight Mad Gear members along the way.

We saw China Town, basketball courts, and downtown Metro City as well in the footage. The studio made sure to give everybody a glimpse of Abigail’s Scrap Metal shop. Abigail was the biggest character in the Street Fighter universe. This was saying something because every member of the Andore family was well over seven feet in height. Abigail was eight-feet tall, and had a bad temper. He was one of the Mad Gear bosses, who happened to run his own small business on the side. I had talked about Hugo, and Abigail in the history of giant fighters.

Even though Haggar had cut off the head of the snake, by defeating Belger, and Retu. The individual soldiers, and generals of the gang were still very much alive, and active. Even if we did not get Abigail as a playable character, it was a great nod to the history of the franchise to give him a shout-out. He was not the only general we saw in the trailer. Damnd / Thrasher was a low-level general in the organization, and the person that called Haggar in the very first Final Fight. He was the first general we had to fight in the game. He was a good brawler, but he tended to hang back, and whistle for reinforcements to do most of the fighting for him. Seeing him in the trailer now in the role as the President of the Mad Gear Gang Motorcycle Club was a nice touch. I had talked about the origins of the Mad Gear Gang, and its members earlier on the blog. Damnd seemed to be in charge of faceless villains taking on Jamie in the trailer. Well to be fair, they were not faceless, these people instead wore boxes over their heads.

The idea of generic people being represented with box heads had actually been done by Hong Kong artist Michael Lau. He had a comic strip in East Touch magazine featuring the “gardeners” they were kids from the street. He eventually made 12-inch figures out of his original characters, and helped spark the urban vinyl movement. He had gallery showings in Japan, and the US with these figures. They went on to influence character design in animation, gaming, and toys. The majority of the gardeners had distinct looks, then there were a handful of generic pedestrians that had boxes for heads. This was over 20 years ago, and I have no doubt had a hand in influencing the generic Mad Gear fighters in the trailer. Speaking of faceless characters, I’m wondering if Street Fighter 6 features a create-a-fighter option.

The trailer has a nameless, faceless fighter walking the streets of Metro City. It was inferred that SF6 would be the first open-world Street Fighter game. Yet instead of walking around as Ken, or Ryu we actually see a guy in a hoodie wandering around. The trailer made sure to hide the face, and identity of this person, but I could see from the corners of his face, finders, and ankles that this was a Black person. I’m pretty sure this is not supposed to be Black Cobra, but instead a generic fighter.

The thing about this generic person is that we see a number of them in the opening scenes at the Metro City gym. While Luke is punching a heavy bag there are a number of male, and female fighters sparring, stretching, and exercising as well. The thing about all of these background characters is that they are almost all the same build. They are the same height, and weight. They do have different skin colors, heads, and are barefoot or with shoes. I don’t think these models were created only to be background people. The gloves, striped pants, and sneakers of the person we follow around on the trailer were also used on the gym members. I have a feeling that players will be able to customize their walk around character as well.

The other thing that I thing that I think was leaked, or suggested in the trailer was that this character can learn things from the various named Street Fighters they came across. Or they pick up new moves by completing side missions. It looked like the character climbed a ladder in China Town, and came across Ken Masters. Then in the next frame we see the character performing a Dragon Punch. Maybe the person in the background was some random long haired blonde, and not Ken, but that’s what I made out. Did you see anything different about this? Street Fighter 6 wouldn't be the first time in the series that you could have a character learn moves. The Cycloid cyborgs in Street Fighter EX had moves from every character in the game. The character ACE in SF EX 3 could copy moves as well. The Cyborg in the Street Fighter II Movie game could also steal moves. Twelve in Street Fighter III could copy an entire character. Of course the boss character Seth from Street Fighter IV could also copy moves from the cast. 

There were countless other call outs to Final Fight, and Street Fighter games of the past. The back alleys, China Town, downtown, and playgrounds all looked very familiar. Other web sites pointed out that stage backgrounds in SF III were recreated in parts of Metro City. Many people inferred that some of the levels took place in New York City, but Capcom might have been retconning it to take place in Metro City instead. There were plenty of shop signs, and billboards that made direct reference to characters like Hakan, Hugo, Gill, and Marisa. Did you notice any other details that piqued your interest? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Street Writer Podcast, episode 10

As always if you enjoyed this podcast 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 entries!

30 years of Street Fighter: 30 years of Characters #11

In the 30 years since Street Fighter was created there have been many characters that have come and gone. One of those that remains timeless is Guy. The origin of Guy and his friends was the stuff of legend. The short version goes like this; Street Fighter wasn't a smash hit when it debuted in 1987. Technos on the other hand had ruled arcades with their game Double Dragon. When Capcom decided to create a sequel for Street Fighter they went in the direction of making a better version of Double Dragon. With three playable characters named Guy, Cody and Haggar, who were supposed to replace Ryu and Ken as the stars of the game. This new brawler would be called Street Fighter '89. Arcade owners didn't like the shift from one-vs-one fighting game so Capcom relabeled it Final Fight and started working on Street Fighter II instead. Guy was supposed to replace Ryu, as Cody was supposed to replace Ken in the series. This time around the Japanese and US fighters would look and play completely different.

The DNA of Final Fight could be seen in SNK's Fatal Fury. Takashi Nishiyama and Hiroshi Matsumoto helped create the original Street Fighter and had a lot of notes about a radical new sequel. One which featured three main characters instead of two. They never got to start work on this new fighting game at Capcom. The duo left the studio and went to SNK where they developed the King of Fighters universe. The trio of characters they created turned out to be Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard and Joe Higashi. The reason why Guy worked in the lineup was the same as why Terry worked. These were the new fighting archetypes. Instead of looking like a character from an old martial arts movie they had cues from modern heroes. Guy looked like some sort of classical ninja until you noticed that he was wearing sneakers. It was a subtle but stylish upgrade to the classical look. It was Bruce Lee that we had to thank for this shift in thinking. Lee pulled the action movie genre into the future. He didn't have to play a master in ancient China when he could be a present-day hero. He could wear sneakers, sunglasses and ride a motorcycle while still being a realistic fighter.

Guy's red solid-color uniform and sneakers had the same level of coolness as Bruce Lee's yellow outfit in the movie Game of Death. It wasn't hard to imagine that he could easily dethrone Ryu as the main character in the Street Fighter universe. The fact that his lightning quick speed, leaping kicks and backhand punches easily made the transition from Final Fight in 1989 to Street Fighter Zero in 1995 showed that he was always ready for the spotlight. Throw in a mysterious master named Zeku that only recently became a playable character and you had all the makings of a Street Fighter Legend. Guy was just one of the many reasons why the series has lasted for 30 years. The game had now multiple generations following it and it showed no signs of slowing down. 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!

A look at the big man, where did the Capcom giants come from? Part 1...

It is a great time to be a fighting game fan. That's a sentence I never thought I would be writing at my age. After fighting games fell by the wayside at the end of the '90s I didn't think they would come roaring back. Thanks to Capcom, Namco, SNK, Arc System Works, NetherRealm Studios and Double Helix Games for keeping the genre alive. An extra special thanks to the community for supporting the wide spectrum of titles. I never thought that Street Fighter would live to see 30, or that King of Fighters, Tekken, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct would still be going strong as well. Sega might never release another Virtua Fighter but considering that even ARIKA is getting back into the mix gives me hope for the future. Nostalgia is a good reason why many of the titles are still being developed. The games are improving as a whole but fans also want to see familiar characters return. At the 2017 EVO Championships in Las Vegas we were reminded of this. Several major studios held back some details from the E3 in Los Angeles. They waited until they had a dedicated gathering at EVO to announce these major reveals. The biggest announcements were actually for some very old characters.

 

Trunks, a warrior from the future, was announced for Dragon Ball FighterZ. The character first appeared in the Dragon Ball manga in 1991. Geese Howard was the surprise guest announced for Tekken 7. He also debuted in 1991 for the SNK hit Fatal Fury: King of Fighters. Both of these character reveals sent shock-waves through the fighting game community. It was Capcom's announcement that was met with mixed emotions. The studio dug up a character that debuted in the 1989 cult hit Final Fight. Abigail was gigantic in proportion, had a few silly mannerisms and some awe-inspiring attacks. Long time fans of Capcom noticed that he had changed a bit from his original appearance. Some online commentators said that his design was too swollen and disproportionate when compared to his original look. Others thought that he fit right in with the already super-buff Street Fighter lineup. Who was this character? Where did he come from and did he really fit into the Street Fighter universe? In order to understand the significance of Abigail we have to travel back in time.

 

Capcom had marginal success when Street Fighter (SF) debuted in 1987. You might already know that Final Fight was designed to be the sequel to the original Street Fighter. It was originally called Street Fighter '89. In 1987 Technos had a smash hit arcade game called Double Dragon. I chronicled the importance of this game in my Brawling series. Double Dragon was essentially a more polished version of Renegade, a title the same publisher released in 1986. Instead of fighting on a fixed two-dimensional plane characters were free to move around the foreground and background and fight wave after wave of different opponents. This game was far more popular than the original SF and had been ported over to multiple systems. Capcom knew that they could probably make a superior version of the game with their own hardware. Producer Yoshiki Okamoto worked closely with designer Akira Nishitani (founder of ARIKA) and Akira Yasuda (designer better known as AKIMAN) to improve on everything in Double Dragon. They had bigger sprites, better graphics, more stages, more opponents and far more moves. They even created a story for audiences to follow. Among these were some enormous villains, one which was called Abigail.

 

 The story of Abigail and the designs behind the villains was very unique. The Mad Gear gang was inspired by Western pop culture, and in particular heavy metal music. A number of the characters were modeled after popular acts of the '70s and '80s. These included Billy Idol, Sid Vicious and Guns 'N Roses. The character of Abigail was considered a boss. He was very high up in the chain of command. Second only to Rolento, the military leader and right hand man of Belger, the organizer behind Mad Gear. Because of his status Abigail had to visually be different from his contemporaries. His uniform was white, which made him stand out from the darker colors assigned to the other Mad Gear characters. He was also the largest of the gang members, at 8 feet tall and over 580 lbs. he was the biggest character ever in the Street Fighter universe. Hugo Andore was no slouch though, at 7' 10" and 440 lbs. he was the second-largest Street Fighter character ever. Abigail sported some unique face paint. This makeup hearkened to an earlier era in metal music. Alice Cooper was a shock rocker that started the trend in the mid-1960s. He employed magic tricks in his performances, with some of his best illusions created by the Amazing Randi. Cooper's work set the foundation for the makeup and character-driven acts like KISS and King Diamond from the mid-1970s. Abigail in fact was the name of King Diamond’s second album from 1987. Abigail represented the foundation of hard rock while the rest of the Mad Gear members reflected the newer generation of metal stars.

 

From a design standpoint Abigail was somewhat unique but not wholly original. The character in the game was a different colored version of the Andore sprite, with a slightly different head. The Andore family; (Hugo) Andore, G. Andore, U. Andore, F. Andore and Andore Jr., were inspired by Andre the Giant. The Andore family hearkened back to actual wrestling dynasties like the Von Erichs, the Harts and the Guerreros. They were unfortunately large oafish wrestlers who relied on sheer force rather than technique to win fights. The family was among the middle ranks of the Mad Gear organization. In canon wrestling was a way to recruit Mad Gear members and the format that they used in underground tournaments. Sodom for example was another famous Mad Gear wrestler and a boss in the organization. Abigail was designed to be much different than the Andore's in fighting ability as well as in temper. His white uniform, buzz cut and makeup stood out compared to the shaggy-haired Andore's.

   

In the game Abigail was prone to fits of rage and would actually turn red and charge the heroes with his tree trunk-sized arms. Some of these details made it into Street Fighter V while others did not. As unique as he looked Abigail was far from an original idea. One of the major villains in the Double Dragon series was a giant bodybuilder named Abobo. If you go back through the early arcade hits you can draw a number of parallels between the story and characters in Double Dragon and Final Fight. Abigail was the Final Fight equivalent to Abobo. When Abobo first appeared he had the familiar face paint and spiked wrist guards. His size wasn't officially given by Technos in the original game. All players knew was that he was much taller than Billy and Jimmy Lee and about twice as wide. When Technos made a Double Dragon fighting game in 1995 and revisited the character he was described as being 7' 2" tall and weighing some 336 lbs. He was simply massive and at the time was among the largest sprite ever created for a fighting game. More surprising was that he could actually get more muscular with the use of his special move. How Capcom adapted his look and the theme for Final Fight was an important part in the history of the genre.

 

There was a game that predated Double Dragon that was designed by Takashi Nishiyama. When it came to fighting games very few people could be considered the godfather of the genre. My. Nishiyama was definitely one of them. His tenure at Irem was important to the industry. He worked on Moon Patrol, the 1982 science fiction game that introduced parallax scrolling to the arcade. This graphic technique allowed layers to move at different speeds on screen, creating the illusion of depth in 2-dimensions. Double Dragon and Final Fight used parallax scrolling to good effect. Take a close look at the floors in most brawlers and fighting games and see how bricks, tiles and even wood seem to stay in perspective as the characters advance. Then look in the distance, especially if the stage has water or an ocean in the background. You'll notice that the layered effect gives a good sense of depth to a 2D world. As fun as Moon Patrol was, it was Mr. Nishiyama's following game that was even more important. The 1984 game Kung-Fu Master was revolutionary. It was one of the first fighting games and also set the standard for brawling games as well.

 

There was another game from 1984 that could be considered the father of the modern fighting game. Karate Champ developed by Technos was the first player-versus-player, side-profile martial arts game. Kung-Fu Master expanded on that idea and introduced many new elements to the genre. It had a narrative, the hero Thomas fought wave after wave of bad guys in order to save his girlfriend. Predating the same plot used in both Double Dragon and Final Fight. The enemies came in different shapes and sizes and there was even a final boss. The only other influential fighter from this period that I should name was Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu from 1985. Yie Ar Kung Fu also featured characters of different sizes and abilities. Mr. Nishiyama left Irem to go work for Capcom in the mid '80s. He took his ideas about featuring characters with unique martial arts, adding a narrative and different boss characters when he directed the original Street Fighter.

Mr. Nishiyama and the team at Capcom were heavily influenced by Japanese pop culture. The developers grew up on a steady diet of comics and cartoons and they reflected these things with every game they released. At that time most Japanese audiences would have gotten their points of reference. The fireball thrown by Ryu for example was inspired by the energy attack from the Space Battleship Yamato, a popular animé show from the mid '70s. The story of Ryu travelling around the world fighting masters of different styles was inspired by the '70s manga series Karate Backa Ichidai. The visual language, heroes and villains in western-style costumes in both Final Fight and Street Fighter were based on the '80s manga Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star (HNK) series. The post-apocalyptic setting featured in the HNK stories by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara colored a lot of the work coming out of Capcom in the '80s and '90s.

One of the earliest games to reflect a warrior fighting through a dystopian world was called Trojan. The arcade and NES console title was a sleeper from 1986 but it featured some very unique character designs. The villains, Armadillon, Mamushi and Iron Arm were a mix of mutants and soldiers wearing piecemeal armor. They looked like the roving gang members that inhabited the HNK wastelands. The dark future timeline was used again and again in both console and arcade releases. Bionic Commando (1987), Strider (1989), and Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight (1990) each had their own take on a future corrupted by villainy and greed. The HNK manga shaped the world of Double Dragon as well, especially when it came to character design. The manga had many memorable villains. Some were covered in tattoos and face paint. Some wore armor, others were simply giants that couldn't be hurt by conventional weapons. These were all perfect for gaming.

 

It wasn't just Japanese pop culture that shaped the look and feel of the early Capcom hits. Western pop culture was just as influential. Hokuto No Ken was itself inspired by the films of Bruce Lee, but also by movies like the Terminator (1984), Cobra (1986) and the Mad Max series. The gangs in Mad Max (1979) and the Road Warrior (1981) were poached by Tetsuo Hara for HNK. Characters had very radical designs in these films. They wore armor that was made up of leather, football pads, hockey gear and car tires. Some gang members wore face paint with Mohawks, others were deformed by radiation and hid behind masks. Director George Miller had a very strong visual style. He often worked directly from storyboards that he created while he was finalizing a script. His approach ended up influencing games, comics and other films for over 30 years. One of the lesser known Capcom arcade games themed after Mad Max was called Speed Rumbler, in which the hero drove an armed car and shot up bad guys. Some were in trucks, others in buggies or tanks. Mr. Nishiyama worked on a different type of vehicle combat game after Street Fighter. This new game was set in a science fiction road race. The future looked much more promising than it did in the Speed Rumbler. The new game was called Mad Gear in Japan and Led Storm in the rest of the world. In the planning stages for a Street Fighter sequel Mr. Nishiyama left Capcom to work at rival studio SNK.

   

Arcade operators had their pulse on the trends and would push developers into certain formats. Many of them were interested in a new fighting game following the success of Double Dragon and they let Capcom know. That was when Mr. Okamoto, Nishitani and Yasuda decided to create their take on the brawler. To do this they needed to create an enormous western metropolis that felt more realistic than the world that Technos had established. They needed reference material for everything audiences might see. How were the buildings laid out, what architecture was used, how did alleys and street corners look? They needed to present convincing subway systems, neighborhoods and boroughs that had a distinct "USA" feel to them. Even things like police uniforms, gang colors and street fashion needed to be recreated. These things were all very different than how cities, advertising, pedestrians and gangs looked in Japan or Europe after all. The designers at Capcom studied a number of cult films while trying to create the fictional Metro City. Among these films were the Wanderers, Escape from New York, and Streets of Fire. The films from 1979, 1981 and 1984 respectively had over-the-top characters and settings. Watching the three films you could easily to spot where Mike Haggar, Cody, Jessica and the various Mad Gear gang members came from.

 

Metro City needed to have all of the elements that might be found in New York but without being bound by an actual site. In this way Capcom could take players to the most interesting landmarks within the span of a day, or rather a single play-through. Each location could tell a story, and every stage could be more unique than the last. The new virtual city was created on an island on the North Eastern Seaboard of the USA, right on the Atlantic Ocean. One of the most memorable stages was near the end of the game. Players had fought their way from the slums, through the subway and all the way to the Bay Side. At this point it was dusk and off in the distance players could see the Statue of Liberty. It was the perfect "American" point of reference and one that international audiences could recognize. When Capcom designed a stage for Abigail in Street Fighter V they made sure to recreate that slice of Metro City.

   

The interesting thing about Metro City was how the layout and planning were very similar to the design of South Town. This other virtual city would appear in the SNK fighting game Fatal Fury, almost two years after Final Fight debuted and just as Street Fighter II came out. South Town was set in the southern coast of the USA, closer to Florida but it retained many of the same big city themes as Metro City. I believe that Mr. Nishiyama was putting out ideas for his next fighting game while still with at Capcom. He would have been discussing these ideas with Mr. Okamoto and Nishitani. If you look at the stage progression in both Final Fight and Fatal Fury they were very similar. The final battle in both games took place on the penthouse of the crime boss' skyscraper, and both games ending with the villain getting knocked from the top.

Mr. Nishiyama was thinking about creating three main heroes for the series. They may have been Ken, Ryu and a third fighter, or they may have been three completely new characters. The trio eventually became Andy Bogard, Terry Bogard and Joe Higashi. Mr. Nishiyama also recognized that audiences wanted to see some visual depth to the game. Fatal Fury introduced a system where players could jump to the foreground or background and launch an attack. It wasn't the free-roaming environment of Double Dragon or Final Fight but it was something that had not been tried before in a fighting game. I believe that Mr. Okamoto and Nishitani ran with some of these ideas when they created Final Fight. In honor of their old colleague they named the bad guys Mad Gear gang members. With the return of Abigail we should explore the limits on character scale in a fighting game. How big is too big? What did Capcom get right or wrong with him? We'll look at these things 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 best championships in fighting games, part 2

In the previous blog I had pointed out the unique belts and champions featured in fighting games. From the small symbolic belt of Russian boxer Andrei in the King of Combat to the gaudy bull horn belt of Antonov from King of Fighters. There was a championship for every form of fighting. The wrestlers in these games seemed to have the best titles. While Darun Mister of Street Fighter EX fame had a total of 3 championship belts he was nowhere near the most decorated champion. Hugo Andore, the German giant from Street Fighter III also had three championship belts and at least 5 other trophies and awards from different promotions. These were all visible in his stage from Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.

 

The accolades given to Hugo were based on real-world championships. Take a look below at some of the Japanese promotions that inspired the gold. In some promotions the best wrestlers are given statues, plaques or towering cups wrapped in streamers. They are the result of winning a tournament or even beating multiple opponents in a "battle royal." In the multiple endings in Street Fighter III: Giant Attack Hugo was written as having different tag team partners, there was a chance that one of his belts or trophies was won with the help of a partner. It was never established who the actual person was but many assumed it was Alex, the American MMA star.

 

Hugo was a Mad Gear Gang-member-turned wrestler. He along with the Andore family from the Final Fight series was inspired by Andre the Giant. The French wrestling star was huge (pardon the pun) in the '70s and '80s. He traveled the world and made a following wherever he landed. In his younger days he was quite athletic and could actually perform some high risk 1st and 2nd rope leaping moves. He had a large head of hair, almost like an afro which gave him a wild appearance when he debuted. As he got older he gained some weight, slowed down and cut his hair a little bit shorter. Age did nothing to curb his awesome strength and legendary drinking ability. The character of Hugo is a sort of amalgamation of the young and old Andre. He has some of the speed, moves and hair of the younger version with the raw power of the older self. One of Andre's great rivalries, and even tag team friendships was with Hulk Hogan. This insight from the developers was celebrated as a special animation whenever he fought Alex. The two would have a stare down before the round, similar to the Wrestlemania III match.

   

Andre had beaten many of the best wrestlers around the world. Yet he was not necessarily the person who would be considered the heavyweight champion for a particular company or promotion. He never held the title for any length of time because he was constantly travelling. Andre was a sort of sideshow attraction. He would only appear from time-to-time so that his marketability and thus legend would remain intact. Promoters knew that audiences would eventually tire of seeing him squash all of his opponents, so he was considered a gimmick fighter and only hired him for a few weeks at a time. Any belt he won was usually won back by the hometown champ before he left the country. Hugo on the other hand was a runaway terror. He took the belts and steamrolled every promotion he went to. There was no one in the Street Fighter universe that seemed capable of stopping the giant. But did that make him the best wrestler in the SF universe? I would argue no, he was not the best wrestler and certainly not the best fighter. Guy, Cody and Mike Haggar from Final Fight have all shown that they could take him, and his extended family of giants in a stand up brawl. Despite Hugo's collection of belts and trophies he is missing a very important one. He does not have the Capcom Wrestling Association or CWA belt. This would be THE title held by Victor Ortega in Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters. Hugo also does not possess the rival promotion Blood Wrestling Association or BWA belt.

 

I have talked previously about the middle-aged phenom known as Victor Ortega on previous blogs. This character and his title was created by Tetsuo Hara. The co-creator and artist behind Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star. is a huge wrestling fan. Many of the big wrestling names from the '70s inspired several of the characters in his comic book series through the '80s. These in turn inspired the artists working at Capcom through the '80s and '90s. When they began designing the villains in Street Fighter and Final Fight series a few were based on the work of Mr. Hara. When the company wanted to create a wrestling-inspired brawling and later fighting game they went directly to Tetsuo Hara. He created a cast of characters and set the pro wrestling canon of the Street Fighter universe. At the top of the chain was Victor Ortega, based on the flamboyant and photogenic Superstar Billy Graham. Billy had a bodybuilder physique and looked incredible in televised matches. It didn't matter if other wrestlers were technically more sound, because they didn't look and act like a champion they often had to "work" (lose a match) to Graham.

   

The version of a champion that Mr. Hara created may have been visually inspired by wrestlers like Graham, however his in-ring skills were the real deal. Ortega had legitimate punching, kicking and grappling skills. Despite his size he was also very fast and very flexible. He needed to be a great all-around champion considering the different styles of wrestlers that filled both the CWA and BWA rosters. Some were technicians, some brawlers, some were high flyers and some were shooters (submission fighters). Victor Ortega was easily the most muscular character set in the Street Fighter universe. This undoubtedly made him intimidating, even to a giant like Hugo. I would like to think that not only did Hugo fail to capture the CWA title, but that he was afraid of Ortega.

In the real world Andre the Giant faced all sorts of opponents, including some almost as tall and as strong as he was. Outside of the ring he sometimes had to fight off hecklers, drunks and angry wrestlers. He beat just about all of them, most with ease. After all of his travels and all of his victories there were only two men that Andre was afraid of. According to former wrestler and manager Bobby "the Brain" Heenan the two men were Harley Race and Tonga Uli'uli Fifita. Both men had reputations for being tough as nails. They were strong, intimidating and did not appreciate being messed with. Both were also fiercely loyal, good to their friends and stand-up men whose word was their bond. The two men were also a foot shorter than Andre.

 

Tonga was the younger of the two hard legends. He was a trained martial artist and had actually been picked up as a teen to learn the art of Sumo by a Japanese stable. While in Japan he was able to adapt to life in the squared circle. He was gifted with great strength and stamina. These things came in handy as he fought many Japanese legends. They were trained in the "hard style" of wrestling where people barely pulled their kicks and punches. Karl Gotch was a pioneering grappler that took his classic techniques with him to Japan. Pro wrestling in Gotch's day was much more about grappling and submission holds than the "sports entertainment" it tries to be on television. He wanted his students and opponents to come at him with the same ferocity of the turn-of-the-century wrestlers. He wanted them to know how to legitimately catch holds and counter attack. Tonga was already a tough person but his time in Japan tempered him into a dangerous weapon. It was not hard for him to find work in any promotion acting as a heel or bad guy. In the '70s and '80s the large Pacific Islanders were often marketed as savages or wild men by the various promotions. This worked to their advantage as they intimidated opponents and audiences alike. The gimmick had gone over so well that one of the concept fighters for Street Fighter II was a Ugandan warrior. This character had elements of the Wild Samoans, the body paint of Kimala (the original Ugandan warrior) and the frame of Tonga.

The bar fights that Tonga participated in were the stuff of legend. The majority of the time all he wanted was a drink and to be left alone but trouble would find him. Many of his friends were astonished by how often people would pick fights with him. There are stories of how he took on groups of people and even the police in the melees. The scariest were stories of how he bit the nose off of an attacker, or how he reached into a man's mouth and pulled out his teeth. The stories were gruesome and certified by witnesses. He worked with Andre a few times and they got along great, possibly because Andre avoided him outside of the ring and never tested him. It would be interesting to see a redesign of this character by the people at Capcom, one that captured more of the presence of Tonga without pandering to the wild man mystique. The other person that Andre feared had an equally interesting history.

 

Harley Race was similar to Karl Gotch in that he came from a different era. Harley was a tough guy, even at a young age. As a teen he was thrown out of school for beating up his teacher. He decided that he wanted to be a wrestler and actually joined up with a carnival where he learned the ropes from actual carney catch-as-catch can fighters and strongmen. This was a direct link to another time, literally a connection to the 19th Century, when wrestling was real. Before promotions divided the talent and before television turned it into a soap opera. Harley had no amateur wrestling experience, unlike his opponents which often came from college backgrounds. As he went from town to town he had to take on any and all challengers. Some were men, some were teens but most had experience on the mat. Harley learned that he had to adapt quickly to these people and try to get a pin or submission right away. If he lost then he didn't get paid. Not only that but his handlers would beat him up as well. Harley survived a car accident as a young man and was told he'd never walk, let alone wrestle again. Harley recovered and became one of the hardest men in the business. He was a legit shooter and knew a countless number of ways to hurt someone. He picked up many things along the way from pro wrestlers which complimented his street experience. Harley was soft spoken but intense, his promos became legendary. It was his mastery of the ring and respect for the business that earned him followers the world over.

   

Harley, like Tonga, did not get into wrestling the easy way. He knew many different ways to seriously hurt people but instead worked to make his opponents look great and have long careers. He was just over 6 feet tall but had worked with many bigger men including Andre. Audiences soon forgot about the size difference in their matches because his presence was so commanding. It was Harley and not Hulk Hogan that had first slammed Andre the giant. Harley would often chaperone the big wrestlers when they traveled abroad. It was said that just a look from Race was enough to make the biggest wrestler back down when they crossed the line. Harley's old-school origin and NWA championship, which represented some 30+ or 40+ independent promotions / territories was the ultimate prize for a pro wrestler. There were other "world's" titles, including those from WCW, ECW, WWF and NJPW but among the purists you could not really consider yourself the heavyweight champ unless you held the same belt that Harley did. Andre the giant did not hold that belt. He once wrestled Harley to a 60-minute draw but that's as close as he ever got. When Harley joined the WWF he won the first Royal Rumble and became the King. When he felt ready to leave the business there was only one person he felt appropriate to lose the crown to and his name was Tonga.

Hugo may have been a beast but he was not the best. Mike Haggar had the chops to be the true CWA champion. Zangief and Darun probably have the chops too. As for Hugo, well, if he doesn't have the belt then he has not beaten the best. Or more likely he is scared to fight Ortega. Do you have a favorite video game champion? Or a favorite title? Who do you think is the best game wrestler? I'd like to read about it in the comments. 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 Abridged History of the Brawler, part 4

The games featured today were the best examples of how the brawler was shaping the game industry and creating sub-genres in its wake. 1989 was the year that showed it was not simply enough to follow the trend, studios had to innovate and change the genre in order to keep the momentum going. The first title was a sort of high water mark for the brawling sub-genre better known as the hack-and-slash.

Golden Axe developed by Sega was a sword and sorcery take on the brawler. It featured three characters, a barbarian like warrior known as Axe Battler, a dwarf named Gilius Thunderhead and a female warrior named Tyris Flare. All three fought with weapons instead of their bare hands across a medieval fantasy setting. They could take down rogues, bandits and monsters. In several portions the characters could even mount dragon-like creatures and burn down opponents. The trio of fighters were set to defeat a barbarian lord named Death Adder (which always was a cool name) before he could claim the Golden Axe and the kingdom that followed it.

The game was important to the history of the brawler for the design and magic system that went along with it. Although it was infamous for a sound bite or two they ripped off of the movie Conan the Barbarian. The characters were fun but for the adolescent boys playing, the warrior Tyris was the memorable one. A perfect tan, a toned figure and a tiny white bikini weren’t quite the things people thought of as suitable for a warrior until Tyris came along. Tyris also sported the most powerful magic attacks in the game making her a practical choice and not just a sex object.

The fantasy themes worked well for the genre but were cemented by the exotic locations featured on the travels to find Death Adder. One level, which appeared like an island actually took place atop a giant sea turtle as it moved from port to port. Another branching path was set on the back of a giant eagle. Branching paths was a new feature in video games and Golden Axe was among the first, if not the first arcade title to use them. Incorporating a tremendous sense of scale had not been done in any previous brawler. The magic system itself was completely unique among brawlers. Players collected magic vials by hitting tiny thieves. Each level of magic required a set amount of vials. Once the player had collected them they could activate the magic at any time. The more vials required to activate a spell then the more damage it did to opponents. Players learned to save a magic attack for when they were surrounded by opponents or the final boss himself.

By this point the industry was clearly interested in the brawler and they were trying to bring the experience to home systems. Technos released a variation of the brawler with a Japanese High School theme titled Downtown Nekketsu Monogata. It was set in the same continuity as the arcade title Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun. For a while Technos actually had Kunio-kun act as a mascot. When that game came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America we knew it better as River City Ransom. The limited processing power, color palette and memory of the NES meant that there was no way that the 8-bit console would be able to match anything the arcade had.

Technos succeeded in creating a memorable brawling experience by creating small stylized figures out of the Japanese high school characters. The smaller figures required less details and animations and the memory saved on limiting the detail on each character meant that more rivals could be drawn on screen by the processor. To keep the NES from being overworked the environment was limited to a strict, flat battleground while still allowing for backgrounds to change and show that characters were advancing through the city. In the end it was a pocket version of the brawler and proof that consoles were capable of carving their own niche with the genre.

With that said Konami was going to point out how the arcade brawler could get away with things not allowed by Nintendo’s policies which were a form of game censorship. In the arcade they released Crime Fighters. It was a large 4-player cabinet featuring generic characters wearing white shirts and four different colored pants. Talk about taking the quick road to character design! The game was notable for a few reasons. The designers created large, detailed environments for the four players to fight in an around. The characters were smaller than those featured in other brawlers but proportional unlike the River City Ransom figures.

The game pandered to just about every adolescent boy’s fantasy. It was a cool version of New York with plenty of brightly colored graffiti covering the walls and lots of fighting. It was extremely violent as well, more so than even Double Dragon. Rivals could knee the player in the groin players could hit opponents with lead pipes and even use a handgun, which was against the code of fair fighting for most brawlers. There was also a bit of sex appeal with a lot of cleavage shown in a billboard early on in the game, not to mention that rival female gang members were dressed like dominatrix’s and used whips on the players. Crime Fighters would never have been released on a Nintendo console without some serious retooling.

The game itself was fun but very difficult. Every credit gave players a set amount of health and that health counted down slowly. Taking damage from opponents caused the energy to drain faster. Thankfully some of the damage could be recovered at the end of the level based on how many opponents were defeated. That was of course if the player managed to beat the boss characters. The bosses were larger variations on the gang members, each boss having a gimmick like wielding a chainsaw or fighting with wrestling moves.

The hardest part of the game was the end in which all of the bosses had to be defeated in a battle royal. Konami wasn’t mincing things, they wanted one of the most difficult and quarter-hungry games of all-time. It did fairly well in arcades, however there was another brawler released that same year which took the lion’s share of profits.

Final Fight by Capcom was the heir apparent to Double Dragon. In fact the producers went into the project trying to dethrone the game. For the most part it was mission accomplished. Visually the game was a great leap ahead of the Taito brawler. The sprites were larger, more detailed and better animated. The designs of the heroes and rival Mad Gear gang members would become brawling archetypes. For players there was a large and powerful character that moved slowly but could deal great damage with his wrestling moves. There was also a smaller martial artist that struck very quickly and whose quick punches and kicks could stun opponents approaching from any direction. Then there was a character in the middle that had strength and speed at his disposal. For the gang members there were character types that mirrored the heroes. The world that they inhabited, a certain Metro City, would become part of Street Fighter canon.

The plot was familiar, a girl was kidnapped and a team had to come to her rescue. Arcade players were treated to a shot of Jessica Haggar in her bra tied to a chair. This bit of skin already made the game more mature than other brawlers. This show would be toned down and even removed in future revisions and home versions. It turned out that she was the daughter of Mike Haggar the mayor of Metro City. The former champion pro wrestler recruits Jessica’s fiancé Cody and his martial arts trainer Guy to go into battle. The rest of the game was a lesson in flawless design and execution.

Players were taken through the boroughs of Metro City on the way to rescue Jessica from the crime lord Belger. The Mad Gear gang members hanging out, seemingly every few feet, waiting for their chance to take on the advancing heroes. Along the way new boss characters were introduced. Sodom, Rolento and Andore, that would become legendary in future Capcom fighting games. The game had the right amount of difficulty and challenge. Patient players could pick off most opponents and use all the time available to them to clear each stage with a minimal amount of health lost. Those that wanted to go all out and have all three players on screen at once for some mayhem could do the same at the risk of wasting plenty of quarters. Those that went full tilt into the game experienced the best that the brawler had to offer.

The arcade was the original social gaming experience. Players did not have the luxury of being connected to a network and having players across the country or around the world be able to drop into the action. If a player needed help clearing a stage then a friend or family member would have to be standing with them, fighting the good fight. Ask any player that remembers clearing a fighting game how much fun was had when the battle was a shared experience. Memories were made and bonds grew stronger when players could say that they fought from beginning to end with a good friend. It was that way for my brother and our friends when we visited the Cal State Long Beach campus while still in high school.

We were on a school field trip and Final Fight had been released earlier. A brand new cabinet was waiting in the campus arcade. Instead of enjoying our lunch my brother and friends decided we were going to beat the game and earn the bragging rights among the other gamers at school. The risk of not eating was not as big as missing the bus back to school. We were determined that nothing was going to stop us and played through level after level. Frantically running back and forth between the change machine and the cabinet to keep us engaged when the lives started running out. Defeating wave after wave of the relentless Mad Gear gang members with a combination of shoulder throws, jumping piledrivers and spinning back kicks. Surviving the cheap shots by bosses and their countless minions. Getting a small group of classmates gathered around the machine rooting us on and at long last kicking Belger out of a window and reuniting Cody with Jessica. Those memories would never be replaced in our collective consciousness. It was more than 20 years ago today yet the memories remain vivid as ever. Proof that gaming could have a profound impact on our lives. Yet the brawler would not be done shaping our gaming tastes The new decade would see the genres pulled in many different directions all at once. I hope to see you back for the next blog which will look at how the 1990s saw some of the defining moments in all of gaming. 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!