The Street Fighter X Tekken Event Coverage! - A 1UP classic from March 2, 2012

Happy Friday amigos! I hope you have a great weekend planned. On my side I have a long day of work and orchestra rehearsal scheduled for tonight. Our first concert of the season is this Sunday. I'll see about getting some footage for you hopefully in the week ahead. I'd like to talk about the Street Fighter X Tekken event that went down in Los Angeles last night.

As with other Capcom release parties this one had a queue almost a block long at least two hours before the doors opened! If you ever think about going to a release party then make sure to get there early. I was fortunate because work was not too far from there and I could drive down and get in line relatively early. The people at Capcom were trying things slightly different and made sure that people understood it was 21 and over only. They, and the hosts at Majestic Halls did not want any trouble with minors crashing a party that was serving alcohol so they were going through the RSVP list and checking state issued ID's very carefully.

Once inside the building guests received a complimentary tee shirt. This shirt will undoubtedly be fetching a pretty penny on eBay very soon. Sorry but even though the shirt was too small for me does not mean I will be selling it.

Capcom has gotten quite experienced at hosting release parties. Every SF IV release, Marvel VS Capcom 3, Resident Evil and various Comic Cons would testify that they are a very community-oriented company. They had multiple cabinets set up for players to check out the final version of SF X TK. Plus they had free drinks, and a live DJ spinning at the show.

Attendees and sponsors were dressed up for the event.

Capcom spared no expense posting gigantic banners and making guests feel welcome. Goodies were given away at the event and Producer Yoshinori Ono was signing posters for attendees.

The coolest thing at the event was the art show presented by the Tsunami Syndicate. It was a collection of local artists putting forward original pieces and prints for sale of the SF and TK characters.

I would like to say thanks to Capcom, as always, for showing the community much love. They demonstrate time and time again how a publisher should reach out to the fanbase and make them feel like a part each and every release. The studio supports the local and national fighting tournament scenes, even when their games have to share the spotlight with other titles.There aren't many publishers that can claim to do the same thing. Cacpom, unlike several publishers that save their showings to the GDC or E3 make sure to appear at public events including PAX and the Comic Con.

Keeping tabs on community members on forums and sites outside of Capcom-Unity and Facebook makes the company seem more invested in the community than just about any other publisher. This type of reaching out will continue to earn the respect and admiration of the fans. Although I am not a fond of Mr. Ono's direction with the fighting titles I still wish the studio the best. Be sure to check out SF X TK this weekend and let me know what you think.

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!

Street Fight Club: Special Weekend Posting!!! - A 1UP classic from July 19, 2008

Hello friends! I am breaking tradition of not blogging on the weekend for a special reason. Last night Capcom held a Street Fight Club at a secret location in Downtown LA from 8PM to Midnight. I managed to get on the list and made sure to represent 1UP to the best of my abilities.

Those that found out about this event by scouring NeoGAF or getting clued in by a friend (thanks Eric!) had to pre-register with the Capcom people early, it was a first-come first served basis. Only after getting approved did you find out where the event was. In this case it was in an industrial district, inside an old brick warehouse.

Once past security you go through a steel door into a dark concrete room. From there you find the stairs and head up. The walls are covered in graffiti, lending an air of ghetto urbane to the club idea.

Past another door there were some Capcom staffers in Ryu headbands checking people in and making sure they had RSVP'd. Once you filled out a name tag they gave you a playing card. Turn the card in at the end of the night for a special gift bag.

Capcom supplied pizza and drinks to the few hundred gamers that showed up. They even had a DJ spinning. Unfortunately they were not happy with the latest build of SF II HD Remix so it was not available at this event. Which is a bummer because I wanted to see how the SF II experience translated after 17 years and countless builds.

Even without SF II HD Remix the event went off like a bomb because there were no less than a dozen SF IV arcade cabinets set up all over the club. People queued up again and again to get a chance to try it out for the first time.

So how does it play? It plays fast and relatively tight. It's not ZOMG TOO fast like the 1UP editors would have you believe. The players, including myself were busy figuring out the hit boxes on the characters and where this fell in regards to SF II and SF III. There was a lot of eye candy on some levels and layers of details on the Chun-Li stage (as it was the longest stage in production) where you can almost lose yourself staring at the details.

There were some nuances to figure out yet and the whole EX, Saving thing is very strange. Mr. Ono went in trying to balance the game for everybody with his unblockable attacks but what I think happened is he found out a way to make top players dominate the scrubs even more. Only time will tell how players adapt to these new moves.

Unfortunately everyone was eager to try out their favorite characters and none bothered to stop and realize that we have a chance to play each character through from beginning to end and not only see the final boss, but also to record some endings. Like kids at Christmas time logic was overridden by the desire to play with their new toy.

I cannot understate how out-of-their-way Capcom went to give the fans something to talk about and share with their friends. Capcom staffers and BBS honchos Kramez and S-Kill have been pushing for serious community involvement for a while now. Taking the events out of the online forums and making them material at both Captivate08 and now with the Street Fight Club shows their dedication. Bringing SF IV to the people, to the die-hards, in a great atmosphere has to be commended. They knew that the scene was out there and if they built it, people would come. If it were in my power I'd give them medals for their efforts and for all the staffers that put this event together.

Capcom decorated the inside of the club with gears, camo netting and bomb reproductions. Possibly the theme displays they had from the E3, specifically the Commando 3, 1942 and Bionic Commando military themes. For the hardest of the hardcore players, the serious tournament guys, they even had a cage in the middle of the club with a head-to head cabinet.

While I was there I met some cool people and made some new friends, including Ted, whose Vega win streaks make up the majority of match footage that I got. Check GameVideos and do a search for Street Fighter IV footage, 13 new videos are from yours truly! Other cools guys that I met were Luke Anderson, a staff writer for Gamespot UK and Ryan Gutierrez aka Gootecks. Ryan is a fantastic Street Fighter III player and has a podcast to raise money to send Team USA to compete against Japan. Check it out, and more importantly kick in a few dollars to help cover the cost of traveling.

Of course what would a Street Fighter event be without some cosplay? The best costume of the night goes to Chun-Li!

I bet you are wondering what went into the gift bag at the end of the night? Well, once I woke up this morning, no thanks to a telephone call from my little brother! I got out the camera and took pics for you to see. The poster of the secret event was in the bag.

As were some other equally awesome things. Stickers and a postcard for the upcoming I Am 8-Bit show in August. The poster and tee shirt design appear in the show this year. A gold foil limited edition Street Fighter comic book. A red Ryu headband that says Street Fighter IV on the front and a bar of soap with Street Fighter embossed on it. Tyler Durden must be rolling in his grave!

I managed to get on camera at least four times that night. Be on the lookout for me on G4, Spike's GameTrailers, GameSpot and Capcom's own mini documentary. How will you be able to spot me? Well, this was part of the surprise that I was working on. Since I did not go to the E3 and cover it for my friends and family I wanted to make sure that they would be able to spot me on TV. I made a mask of the new Street Fighter IV character, El Fuerte. It coincides with the lucha libre game series I'm working on. I kept it on all throughout the night and attracted the attention of media types and new faces.

The surprise for you is that when my lucha series is finished I'll teach you how to make your own lucha libre mask out of an old tee shirt. The El Fuerte maskabove  is nothing more than a tee shirt and a couple of felt squares! It's not too hard, if I can do it, anybody can! You just need patience and some craft supplies. I hope you have a great rest of the weekend!

EDIT: Hello friends, it turns out that Chun-Li is actually a fellow 1UPper, Jay Jay aka J4Yx2, go visit her page if you don't believe me. Talk about small world! And seriously, bug the 1UP editors to see about raising money for Team USA's trip to Japan. The Super Battle Opera is the Arcadia Tournament that I've been talking on and off about here for years. If 1UP is serious about the gaming community in every aspect, including the most core of the core, they they should get behind Team USA at least a little bit. Keep the dream alive people. The deadline to raise the funds is quickly approaching and they haven't even gotten close!

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!

Korean fantasy fighting game Chosun Musa is not cancelled!

Friends in the fighting game community, I have wonderful news! If you are a fan of fantasy, historical or sword fighting games then you might remember I wrote about Chosun Musa previously. I had been keeping tabs on the Korean game since 2007, and couldn’t find any news on it recently. As it turns out the game was not cancelled. As it is a small independent studio working on it the game was simply delayed. But don’t take my word for it. Please read below from the game creator.

“Hello, I am Iron Witch, the person who created the fighting game Chosun Musa (2008) based on my fan project Mortal Kombat Zero in 2007. It's an honor that you still remember the game title I'm working on! 

To be brief, unlike the content of your article, I am still working on the Chosun Musa project. I recently revealed details on two characters that can be found in Chosun Musa (Refined) on ChosunMusa_US in 2022 for testing purposes. As stated in "The Document of Chosun Musa" on that Twitter page, Chosun Musa (Refined) is based on HD sprites, and the character accessories and weaponry will be pre-rendered as detailed 3D models. 

Also, I recently purchased the trademark Chosun Musa, and domain name (chosunmusa.com) for Chosun Musa in Korea. Although the development process will take a long time because the game's production direction is focused on high-resolution pixel art and quality, I have preemptively purchased the game's IP name and domain name to minimize disputes from others. 

Unfortunately, at present, I am working on a side project for Chosun Musa, a fan-created project called Darkstalkers Re-Creation. In this project, I aim to create two illustrations: the original costumes of the characters and alternative costumes that I created myself. I believe that Darkstalkers Re-Creation will have a positive impact on improving my creative skills as I am currently producing Chosun Musa.”

This is wonderful news for the fighting game community, both for the Chosun Musa, and also for Darkstalkers Re-Creation. I can’t wait to see more news as both get closer to publication. A big thank you to Iron Witch for reaching out, and letting us know that the game is still in development. If you are just getting into fantasy sword fighters I wrote a bit about them on the blog. Please check it out. Golden Axe the Duel Dragon's Heaven Warzard Asura Blade Sword of Dynasty Asura Buster Eternal Warriors Chaos Breaker - Dark Awake Battle Fantasia 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!

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, final part

Street Fighter 6 Designer Yusuke Hashimoto had an impossible task. Update the look of the classic SF characters without causing an all-out riot with the fans. I did a quick take on all the leaked designs last year, like Zangief for example. Mr. Hashimoto had impeccable fashion sense, knew how to work with color, and use fabric, and layers to tell a story with costuming. He worked on Bayonetta, and Bayonetta 2 previously. Those games had some amazing designs, turning witches, demons, angels, and other religious figures into a dazzling runway fashion show but with guns, and cheeky humor. I would argue that he approached each SF character with a certain level of respect. He wouldn't be turning them into Bayonetta characters, but preserve their roots as best as he could while trying to update them a little. He might have asked himself what did they wear in a formal setting? What did they wear when they weren’t fighting? I believe that half the SF6 lineup were wearing casual outfits on purpose.

We wouldn’t expect Chun-Li to walk around the city wearing 30 lbs. spiked bracelets on each wrist, and wrestling boots. So she was given a very casual makeover that still looked like classic Chinese costuming. The same applied to Luke, Jamie, Kimberly, and the other new faces. They each had fight wear, and street wear as alternate costumes or vice-versa. Mr. Hashimoto had probably gone through the Capcom archives to see what some of the concept art was for each character, and even abandoned characters like the Fighting Literary Master that was in the planning stages of SFV. The bearded professor archetype would be easy to apply to the Red Cyclone. Presenting Zangief an intellectual when he wasn’t wrestling perfectly captured his personality. Zangief was absolutely dedicated to his craft. When he wasn’t training we could expect to find him learning new subjects with the same level of intensity. In the game he finished books faster than he finished reps in the weight room.

The animation team was as insightful as Mr. Hashimoto. They dug into the archives when modeling the cast. The studio used concept art to create taunts, and victory poses from. They captured an absurd amount tiny details for each character that either was missed, or never created in the first place. For example Zangief was known for being covered in scars. This was because he wrestled bears in the Siberian tundra. However all of his scars were only on his front. As a trained wrestler he never gave his back up to an opponent, and never ran from a conflict. In canon he actually had one scar on his back, but this was from taking an assassin’s bullet for the former president of the Soviet Union. I think it was only mentioned in a novel, and never illustrated in any manga. This tiny, insignificant detail was modeled, and skinned onto the character. As I said previously, the amount of work that went into SF6 was absurd.

The SF6 art team also had to figure out what style, aesthetic, and proportions they were going to go with for the cast. One of the things that really made Japanese audiences upset was when the studio changed the look of Cammy between SFIV, and SFV. many Japanese gamers said Cammy looked ugly in Street Fighter V. They said the studio was trying to appeal more to European tastes, rather than keep her looking more like an anime character. I had covered the aesthetic debate previously on this blog. It was hard to make the visuals of a franchise stand out from the competition. Every now and then we would get a genius like BENGUS to create new looks for the character that were recreated in sprite form. The SFIV models were based on Daigo Iken's work, and SFV models were trying to use the BENGUS style. Unfortunately proportions that worked in 2D did not always work in 3D.

The models in SFIV, and SFV were getting bulkier, and bulkier, and it was hard to see relative heights between the fighters because they were so thick. Not to mention that the character models looked like they were made out of lumpy clay. The exaggerated BENGUS proportions that looked brilliant as sprites in Street Fighter Zero / Alpha were hard to recreate in 3D without making the characters look grotesque. The SF6 team went back to the more realistic proportions that AKIMAN, and Shoei used when designing the SFII lineup. These more lifelike designs were easier to read on screen, their moves, and animations flowed better, and the differences between fat, skinny, tall, and short body types really stood out.

Cammy got a similar type of ground-up makeover. I don’t know what the average Japanese or global reaction was for the cast. Based on the fan art I’ve seen online it looked like people on both sides of the Pacific were really digging her new look. She still had a youthful appearance, but her eyes weren’t too big, or cartoonish like with Lily. Her muscular frame was still there, as was her love of cats. For anybody that believed athletic women couldn’t have her model looks I would argue that she might have been based on Team USA weightlifter Samantha Wright. Her bright eyes, soft features, and naturally pursed lips beguiled that she could easily out lift many men in the gym. It turned out that it was possible to find a balance between realistic, and stylized aesthetics for the cast. In this way it could be argued that the developers were able to strike a look that could appeal to international audiences.

In my book Capcom had knocked Street Fighter 6 out of the park. Every element that went into the game was influenced by 35 years of the Capcom legacy. We're not only talking about the Street Fighter franchise but also Final Fight, Rival Schools, Tech Romancer, Vampire / Darkstalkers, Star Gladiator, Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters, and Warzard / Red Earth. It also allowed players to enjoy more than a dozen classic arcade games in a virtual arcade open 24/7. The studio was making nods to anime, manga, wrestling, and pop culture all throughout the adventure. Capcom was doing all of this while pushing the franchise into the future. Character design, plot, music, sound, animation, modeling, balance, level design, stage layout, world building, control, and balance were executed to perfection. Capcom did the impossible. They elevated the fighting genre, and put it on par with the best AAA adventure titles. The games that took 30 or 40 hours to complete now had competition from a completely different format. We did not have to play as Link, Mario, Spider-Man, the One-Armed Wolf, Kratos, or any other named character. Instead we could make up our own avatar and become the hero of the Street Fighter universe. I do not think that any other studio could have pulled it off. At least not nearly as well. In fact I do not think that any other studio did anything more revolutionary for gaming in 2023. Street Fighter 6 was an absolute master class in game design.

I’ve spent the past three months on this blog showing the individual elements that when combined made for what I consider to be the game of the year. What more could I say to convince you? When voting opens up on the various forums, and websites later this year I sincerely hope that you consider Street Fighter 6 as the best of the lineup. Thank you for joining me on this series. I appreciate every view, share, and comment. I put a lot time, energy, and myself into this series. I'm exhausted, and will probably rest for a few months before writing something new. Thanks for watching me massacre the English sentence structure. I wouldn't have done it without you. If you are a long time fan of Final Fight, or Street Fighter then I would like to hear your impressions of SF6. If you have never played any game previously then tell me your experiences in the comments section please. 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!

Street Fighter 6: A master class in game design, part 31

In an earlier blog I mentioned that the US had a terrible track record with adaptations from Japan. It didn’t matter how big the budget was, or how many writers, producers, or directors they threw at the project. If they didn’t understand the source material, and they didn’t meet the characters at their level, then the project would fail. To be fair the major US Studios couldn’t even get US comic, or cartoon properties right half the time. This was no where else more apparent than Capcom Studio 8 and their trainwreck called Final Fight Streetwise. Let’s start with the most obvious thing, the visuals.

I had been collecting Capcom books, and magazines for over 30 years. I especially loved the game guides. I could see the character art, and concepts as they were designed by my favorite art team. Final Fight, and the related titles always had a strong anime aesthetic. Bright costumes, bold colors, over-the-top designs. Everything was played up, there was nothing remotely serious about their approach. Even though the situations, and locations seemed serious, they were presented in a melodramatic fashion. It was something that not a lot of fans of the franchises understood. This was obvious in the writing, and direction of Streetwise. It was a dark game, very much in the vein of Beat Down from the year before.

The only difference between the two Capcom games were the character designs. One was created by a Japanese studio, and the other by a US team. Both were trying to capture the same serious look, and feel. Only the US team actually had the FF property to work with. A preview of how bad things would be were seen in the limited edition Streetwise comic. You could get one if you pre-ordered the game. It was Illustrated by Trent Kaniuga. The credits included; Story by Dave Ralston, Gerardo Sprigg, and Trent Kaniuga. Scenarios written by Tom Mason, Dan Danko, and Gary Reed. The comic introduced us to a character named Kyle Travers, the brother of Cody Travers. Right away my head snapped back. I was like what?!? I had played every game in the series, and was fairly certain there had never even been a mention of a brother. The comic was filled with smoking, drinking, realistic depictions of violence, sexual overtones, and gun play. It was the very definition of tell me you’ve never played Final Fight, without telling me you’ve never played Final Fight.

In the back pages of the comic we were treated to the concept art of the various locations in the game. As well as art of new, and returning characters. New faces like the tattoo-covered Lou “The Skin”, gangster-looking Simms, the Rasta-trope Reefer Madness, and the scummy Weasel. Returning characters included Poison, Sodom, and Andore. Cammy would even turn up in the game with a makeover as well. Everything was dark, and ugly. The streets, and businesses in Metro City were much worse off than they were in the original FF. The bright colors, and cartoonish designs of the Mad Gear members were absent. Instead replaced with the tough guys that would be found in an angsty teenager’s sketchbook. Learning that the comic creator, and writer also turned out to be the voice of Kyle suddenly made a lot of sense. This would the game industry's most expensive self-insert fanfiction.

The game would give realistic makeovers to the other classic characters including Mike Haggar, and Guy. If you played the game for any amount of time, and were familiar with pop culture then it was obvious the direction that the team was going. Capcom Studio 8 was trying to turn FF into a cinematic experience. It would be something more akin to the movies Fight Club, or Snatch. Both gave dark, and gritty portrayals of illegal underground fighting tournaments. This was opposite of Streets of Fire, the cult ‘80s film that influenced the development of FF. The shirtless Kyle Travers surrounded by drunks in a makeshift ring was a substitute for Brad Pitt from the aforementioned movies. Except Kyle looked more like Mickey Rourke, which to be fair he was the macho rugged guy that predated Brad. The dialogue in the game, and themes were very mature. They predicted where Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series would be going.

The problem was that this was a Capcom game, not a Rockstar game. The developers were doing a major disservice to the source material. They were creating an action brawler that in, and of itself, was worth exploring. However by attaching it to the name Final Fight then audiences were expecting something similar to the previous four titles. If it couldn’t be similar then at the very least it should capture the spirit of the previous games. The move to 3D was not as jarring as the content. The casual drug use, swearing, and violence meant that it wasn’t aimed for general audiences. The combat was not well done, the dialogue poor, character development absent, and plot was nonsensical. A drug / stimulant was taking over the streets of Metro City called “Glow.” It acted very much like “Venom” the drug that Bane used to increase his strength, speed, and stamina in the Batman comics.

The climax of the game featured Kyle, against a Glow-overdosed Cody. What they did to the iconic character was as sad as you could possibly imagine. Every step of the journey reminded me how far the studio was walking away from the original. These were all conscious choices, this wasn’t their first rodeo. Capcom USA worked side-by-side with senior Japanese developers on Final Fight Revenge. They didn’t understand the quirky humor that was the basis for Mad Gear bosses. Such as Sodom, he was an obsessive Japanophile, however he couldn’t even write kanji correctly, or speak Japanese. They saw firsthand how the characters were designed, what the tone of the moves, world, and story was. They even had Zombie Belger doing Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance moves in the FF Revenge credits. If that didn’t explain not to take the world too seriously was then nothing the Japanese team could have said would have mattered to the US. It wouldn’t be the first time a western studio would try to rewrite the legend of a beloved franchise to fit their own vision.

In 2009 Grin released a 3D adventure game called Bionic Commando. Directed by Ulf Andersson, Produced by Ben Judd, and Designed by Anders Jonsson. It was based on one of the greatest classic games ever made. The original Bionic Commando I would consider one of my favorite games of all time. What audiences couldn’t understand was how off the tone, and design of the 3D remake was. This was especially jarring considering that the same studio released Bionic Commando Rearmed the year before. It was a 2.5D version of the classic title, and it hit all the right notes for fans of the original. It was a smash hit, and even the critics held it up as an example of how to properly adapt a classic NES game to modern consoles. A year later they said the full 3D version was an example of what not to do with a beloved IP. But I digress…

The Street Fighter 6 developers did not acknowledge BeatDown, or Final Fight Streetwise as being part of canon. Those games were missing from the tiles in Beat Square. The only one this did recognize was Final Fight Revenge. The SF6 team returned Metro City, the Mad Gear gang, and various cameos back to their full color lighthearted tone in the World Tour. I would argue that Capcom in Japan did sneak in a jab at the horrid western remakes. I’m convinced that the poster of Cody at the end of the subway cars was made to look like Patrick Bateman from the American Psycho film. As if this is the version of Cody that a US developer would have given us in SF6. 

Thankfully the Street Fighter, and Final Fight IP was back in good hands. The studio was keenly aware of how fan reactions from around the world were coloring the way the had to approach their designs. The growth of the internet made sure that audience feedback was instantaneous.  Japanese fans were being very vocal about their dissatisfaction of one of the most popular characters in SFV. What the SF6 team did to this character, and the rest of the cast was simply sublime. We will dig into it on the next blog entry. I hope to see you back for that. If you are a long time fan of Final Fight, or Street Fighter then I would like to hear your impressions of SF6. If you have never played any game previously then tell me your experiences in the comments section please. 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!