Showing posts with label fighting layer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fighting layer. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Bookmark This Page; how ARIKA turned an April Fools joke into a great fighting game
Many of the people that created Street Fighter II left Capcom, and founded ARIKA. If you want to find out about how they teased a successor to Street Fighter EX then Bookmark This Page.
Monday, March 2, 2026
Bookmark This Page; Enter the Dragon, Fighting Layer & the roots of Street Fighter II
For those that are visiting my page for the first time my name is Noe aka BigMex. I love fighting games, as well as racing games, skateboarding, theme parks, and much more. You might know that this blog had been around for a long time. A good portion of what I wrote on the 1UP, and the Capcom-Unity pages some 20+ years ago were shared here. My best work was hidden at the bottom of this page. To make things easy for new visitors I started collecting similar threads. If you were interested in a certain topic then I was asking you to Bookmark This Page.
Did you ever play Fighting Layer? Even an emulated version? What did you think about it? Let me know about it in the comments section. 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!
Thursday, June 21, 2018
30 years of Street Fighter: 30 years of Characters #10
Blair Dame is a very unique character in the Street Fighter universe. There have been many amazing women leading the charge but Blair is a real standout. She was introduced in Street Fighter EX in 1996. ARIKA developed their cast to be a balance for the Street Fighter II: World Warriors. Blair was the counter to Chun-Li. This meant that she had to be strong, powerful and confident. Her heritage was one of prestige and wealth but these things bored her. Her passion was in fighting. She wasn't a student of one style or form. She had fast hands in the game and equally fast feet. She could go toe-to-toe with a striker but was also a capable grappler. She could take down opponents and get them in a bone-breaking move very quickly. Her well-rounded ability made her the first mixed martial arts star in the Street Fighter universe. Alex from Street Fighter III wouldn't appear until a year later. The haughty billionaire Karin Kanzuki, from Street Fighter Alpha 3, appeared two years after Blair.
Blair is fun to play as in the series because she can string together punches and kicks so easily. Players can mix and match different moves to hit high or low depending on whatever is most effective. To confuse opponents she can even move from a strike to a tackle faster than just about any fighter. Blair also has the distinction of appearing in ARIKA's other fighting game, the Namco produced Fighting Layer. She, along with Allen Snider, helped expand the universe of Street Fighter into new uncharted territory. Granted most Street Fighter fans will never acknowledge the Fighting Layer characters as falling within canon. It doesn't mean they were not great characters to begin with. A good reason why Street Fighter II was a hit was due to Akira Nishitani and his team that founded ARIKA. Now that they are back in the business with Fighting EX Layer then it makes Blair one of the rare characters that has appeared in three different 3D fighting games.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
30 Years of Street Fighter, 30 Days of Characters; #26
If there were a contest as to who was the coolest Street Fighter universe character ever the front runner might be Cracker Jack, aka C. Jack or simply Jack. The character made his debut in 1996 in Street Fighter EX. Jack was designed to be mysterious and interesting at the same time. The shirt and tie, and even hat were supposed to be reminiscent of Shadowlaw field agents. It was actually an old trope from comics and cartoons. Tough guys like mobsters and sometimes detectives wore the dark suit and tie. Except that Jack was not a bad guy. He was a bodyguard / double agent working for an organization fighting crime. Jack was like a super cop that played by his own rules.
Jack fought with mostly punches in the series. He had an occasional grapple and body slam he could execute but he was a pure striker. He didn't have any fireball or other supernatural attacks to give him a ranged advantage but he did have something that none of the other characters had; a baseball bat. Jack could strike quickly and cut the distance between himself and his opponent. He really controlled the screen with the swing of his bat. He could strike away fireballs from a distance and smash the ribs of an opponent that wandered too close. This no-nonsense brawling that he had made him stand out from the traditional Street Fighter characters which were mostly based on martial arts.
The team at ARIKA that designed the character kept him mysterious on purpose. They were vague on his affiliation, vague on his allies and even vague on his origin. They even made sure to make it difficult to see the face of the character. With his shaggy hair, sideburns and hat you could never get a clear look at his face. In canon the fighter went missing for years. He was found hiding out in the American Southwest. Whether is was to protect his former employer, on stakeout for a top secret mission or just to avoid his past was unknown. His transition from city brawler to fighting cowboy was one of the great redesigns in fighting game history. What do you think about non-traditional fighters in the Street Fighter universe? Would you like to see more of them? Please let me know 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!
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Speculation on ARIKA's unnamed Street Fighter EX successor, final part
I have said a lot about the poor design choices made at Capcom over the past few years. I haven’t found much greatness in characters like Rufus, Hakan or F.A.N.G. introduced in Street Fighter IV and V. Nor have I enjoyed watching classic characters like Birdie, Hugo and Abigail get turned into jokes. Of course I had a dilemma. Capcom Producer Yoshinori Ono was beloved in the community. He traveled the globe promoting the brand, promoting the games and meeting with fans. His energy was infectious, his enthusiasm was genuine and his passion just about single-handedly brought back the franchise. Without him the Street Fighter series would have stayed dead and fighting game scene would not have been as big as it was today. Without him other developers would not have pushed to bring back long-extinct titles like Killer Instinct, or even ARIKA’s updated EX title. With all that said I’m not on board with his creative input. I don’t agree with the addition of silly characters, silly mechanics, silly animations or silly game play. I will continue to call his team out on the poor choices that I think they made with regards to character design. I will remind them of the standards that they used to have. Let’s talk about one of the worst characters Capcom ever put into the series.
Rufus captured everything that was wrong with the direction of the Street Fighter cast starting with Street Fighter IV. He was big, fat, dumb and obnoxious. He was written as Ken’s great American rival, the only thing was he was too stupid to even know what Ken looked like. How can you be a rival when you can’t recognize your nemesis? What’s worse is that in the early stages Rufus was a powerful black character, nicknamed the King Cobra / Black Cobra. Capcom wanted to give Ken his very own Sagat-type rival, a literal giant. The inspiration was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from Bruce Lee’s last film Game of Death. This character evolved and became a unique karateka in his own right. Then Yoshinori Ono decided that it would be funny if he put a fatty in the game instead. This new character was rushed into the game and both Ono and the artist Ikeno said it was a bad choice later on. Ono saw that the fat gimmick worked for Bob in the Tekken series. Bob was a much better developed character and was never presented as an idiot. The subtext was obvious to international audiences, fat was funny, and Americans were fat and dumb. There was a different path that could have been used to create the self-obsessed American. ARIKA showed us that more than 20 years ago.
I said in the previous blog that Allen Snider was a second chance for the Street Fighter II and Street Fighter EX developers to create the Ken archetype. They wanted this character to be way more “American” than Ken. Somebody that would be easy to identify in a lineup. He didn’t need to wear camouflage pants or have USA flag tattoos on his shoulders. They gave him a very non-traditional karate gi and made him brash. As over the top as Allen was he was still a good fighter. He couldn’t be confused with Dan Hibiki as being a joke character. Allen was also as far removed from the personality of Kairi as possible. I think they accomplished their goal. Snider was loud in the EX and Fighting Layer titles. He captured the arrogant showmanship of television superstars. His victory poses reminded me of the characters from US pro wrestling. Clearly the team at ARIKA had picked up the personality traits of the most famous superstars of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. When he was revealed for the new EX game he looked better than ever.
There was no mistaking that Snider had returned in all his patriotic glory. His star-spangled uniform was amazing. It was layered in details that helped tell a story. Even if you had never heard of the character you could tell a lot just by looking at him. He was definitely American and he was definitely not Ken. The updated look also harkened back to the era that inspired the original Street Fighter. Ken was based on actual fighters like Bill Wallace and Joe Lewis. While his hair and facial features were inspired by Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, the whole persona of Snider being the great American hero were based on multiple real-world sources. Kung-fu and karate enjoyed a popularity boom in the ’60s and ‘70s thanks to cinema. American fighters appeared almost overnight on television competing against Japanese champions. Imagine how absurd it looked to the rest of the world. Karate had evolved in Japan from Chinese immigrants that had introduced them to kung-fu. The Asian countries had centuries perfecting the “empty hand” techniques. It was a part of their culture. It was a part of their national identity. It was sacred and revered. All of a sudden a bunch of Americans showed up in colorful uniforms treating the martial art like a team sport.
Karate tournaments popped up all over the country and trophies were handed out at a feverish pace. People wondered if it was easy to earn a black belt and pick up a bunch of medals in the process. After all, if the guys on TV could do it then anybody could, right? Even the famous singer Elvis Presley was smitten with the fighting arts. He studied under a number of different teachers, having various belts bestowed upon him. Traditionalists didn’t appreciate karate being treated like an organized sport. It had cultural relevance, it was more like a lifestyle, with the discipline of a serious religion rolled into one. It was certainly not a points-based game that anyone could “play.” Thanks to people like Wallace, Norris and Lewis, who were legit athletes, and the coverage provided by ABC’s Wide World of Sports it gained momentum through the ‘70s and ‘80s. For better or worse they laid the foundation for mixed martial arts schools gaining a foothold in the states. The team at ARIKA didn’t forget the culture shock of seeing how the US represented the martial arts in those early days. It made the costume choice placed on Snider that much sweeter.
In the EX series Snider’s first professional defeat was at the hands of Ken Masters. Akira Nishitani didn’t want to disrespect the template he was working from after all. Snider decided to become the understudy of masters and unlock his true potential. This was before Sean was created as his pupil in Street Fighter III. When I looked at Rufus I didn’t see half the forethought that went into making Snider. I didn’t see the nods to history, to the legacy characters or the real world legends that inspired them. I could see it in Black Cobra for certain but not in Rufus. I wondered if Yoshinori Ono and his team could really be so blind to their design choices when other studios didn’t seem to fall into the same traps. There were many days when I wished that Akira Nishitani and his team were still at Capcom, but sadly that ship sailed 21 years ago. Now that Snider was back I hoped that his library of moves had been expanded. Every character revealed so far seems to have matured, I expected no less for the champ. What do you think of the character? Do you think I was too hard on Rufus or Mr. Ono? I’d like to read about your favorite characters it in the comments section. 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!
Rufus captured everything that was wrong with the direction of the Street Fighter cast starting with Street Fighter IV. He was big, fat, dumb and obnoxious. He was written as Ken’s great American rival, the only thing was he was too stupid to even know what Ken looked like. How can you be a rival when you can’t recognize your nemesis? What’s worse is that in the early stages Rufus was a powerful black character, nicknamed the King Cobra / Black Cobra. Capcom wanted to give Ken his very own Sagat-type rival, a literal giant. The inspiration was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from Bruce Lee’s last film Game of Death. This character evolved and became a unique karateka in his own right. Then Yoshinori Ono decided that it would be funny if he put a fatty in the game instead. This new character was rushed into the game and both Ono and the artist Ikeno said it was a bad choice later on. Ono saw that the fat gimmick worked for Bob in the Tekken series. Bob was a much better developed character and was never presented as an idiot. The subtext was obvious to international audiences, fat was funny, and Americans were fat and dumb. There was a different path that could have been used to create the self-obsessed American. ARIKA showed us that more than 20 years ago.
I said in the previous blog that Allen Snider was a second chance for the Street Fighter II and Street Fighter EX developers to create the Ken archetype. They wanted this character to be way more “American” than Ken. Somebody that would be easy to identify in a lineup. He didn’t need to wear camouflage pants or have USA flag tattoos on his shoulders. They gave him a very non-traditional karate gi and made him brash. As over the top as Allen was he was still a good fighter. He couldn’t be confused with Dan Hibiki as being a joke character. Allen was also as far removed from the personality of Kairi as possible. I think they accomplished their goal. Snider was loud in the EX and Fighting Layer titles. He captured the arrogant showmanship of television superstars. His victory poses reminded me of the characters from US pro wrestling. Clearly the team at ARIKA had picked up the personality traits of the most famous superstars of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. When he was revealed for the new EX game he looked better than ever.
There was no mistaking that Snider had returned in all his patriotic glory. His star-spangled uniform was amazing. It was layered in details that helped tell a story. Even if you had never heard of the character you could tell a lot just by looking at him. He was definitely American and he was definitely not Ken. The updated look also harkened back to the era that inspired the original Street Fighter. Ken was based on actual fighters like Bill Wallace and Joe Lewis. While his hair and facial features were inspired by Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, the whole persona of Snider being the great American hero were based on multiple real-world sources. Kung-fu and karate enjoyed a popularity boom in the ’60s and ‘70s thanks to cinema. American fighters appeared almost overnight on television competing against Japanese champions. Imagine how absurd it looked to the rest of the world. Karate had evolved in Japan from Chinese immigrants that had introduced them to kung-fu. The Asian countries had centuries perfecting the “empty hand” techniques. It was a part of their culture. It was a part of their national identity. It was sacred and revered. All of a sudden a bunch of Americans showed up in colorful uniforms treating the martial art like a team sport.
Karate tournaments popped up all over the country and trophies were handed out at a feverish pace. People wondered if it was easy to earn a black belt and pick up a bunch of medals in the process. After all, if the guys on TV could do it then anybody could, right? Even the famous singer Elvis Presley was smitten with the fighting arts. He studied under a number of different teachers, having various belts bestowed upon him. Traditionalists didn’t appreciate karate being treated like an organized sport. It had cultural relevance, it was more like a lifestyle, with the discipline of a serious religion rolled into one. It was certainly not a points-based game that anyone could “play.” Thanks to people like Wallace, Norris and Lewis, who were legit athletes, and the coverage provided by ABC’s Wide World of Sports it gained momentum through the ‘70s and ‘80s. For better or worse they laid the foundation for mixed martial arts schools gaining a foothold in the states. The team at ARIKA didn’t forget the culture shock of seeing how the US represented the martial arts in those early days. It made the costume choice placed on Snider that much sweeter.
In the EX series Snider’s first professional defeat was at the hands of Ken Masters. Akira Nishitani didn’t want to disrespect the template he was working from after all. Snider decided to become the understudy of masters and unlock his true potential. This was before Sean was created as his pupil in Street Fighter III. When I looked at Rufus I didn’t see half the forethought that went into making Snider. I didn’t see the nods to history, to the legacy characters or the real world legends that inspired them. I could see it in Black Cobra for certain but not in Rufus. I wondered if Yoshinori Ono and his team could really be so blind to their design choices when other studios didn’t seem to fall into the same traps. There were many days when I wished that Akira Nishitani and his team were still at Capcom, but sadly that ship sailed 21 years ago. Now that Snider was back I hoped that his library of moves had been expanded. Every character revealed so far seems to have matured, I expected no less for the champ. What do you think of the character? Do you think I was too hard on Rufus or Mr. Ono? I’d like to read about your favorite characters it in the comments section. 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!
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Speculation on ARIKA's unnamed Street Fighter EX successor, part 2...
The Street Fighter EX series had always had a more spiritual tone compared to the other Street Fighter titles. In fact the same thing could be said about ARIKA's other game Fighting Layer. Many of the characters, good and bad, were inspired by regional mythology. The religious or spiritual practices of different Japanese cultures had an influence on the design behind Kairi, Garuda, Vold Ignitio and several other characters in both games. Kairi was a melancholy character who was tortured by his powers. Unlike Ken and Ryu who were able to harness their chi in energy wave attacks, or fireballs, every time Kairi used his energy attacks it took a toll on his spirit. His style of fighting may have been similar to Ken and Ryu’s but the origins were even older. His body was covered in scars and he was missing an eye. There was something terrible in his past that seemed to haunt him. He was suffering from amnesia and had no idea who he was or where he came from. During the events of the Street Fighter EX series was on a path looking to fight the greatest warriors or die in the process. Kairi's sister Hokuto, was tasked with bringing him back to the Mizugami clan, or killing him if she couldn't.
Hokuto looked like a kyudoka, a practitioner of traditional archery. She dressed very conservatively, wearing a costume that would have fit right into feudal Japan. It made sense given that she was responsible for the fate of her brother. Despite her uniform and archery glove she did not actually carry a bow and arrows. Instead she shot bolts of spiritual energy from her hands. Hokuto was also well versed in tessenjutsu, the fighting art of the war fan. People often mistook Hokuto as an akido practitioner considering how many of her moves were counters to traditional attacks. Hokuto had the ability to perform energy wave attacks but they did not harm her as they did her brother. Whether it was because of her training or something else was not explained at first. She was actually harboring a few secrets of her own, these were revealed over the course of the series.
Hokuto came from the same cursed blood as Kairi. She actually had a seal placed on her that prevented her from succumbing to the same killer instincts of her brother. There was a variation of the character that could be unlocked in Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. This evil version was known as Bloody Hokuto. Her uniform was a stark black in this form. She even had a slightly darker skin tone. Darker colored characters usually denoted a hint of evil. This was a tradition observed in many different cultures and story telling techniques. It was one of the reasons why Gouki had skin that appeared dark red like clay. But I digress. A mark of evil was visible on her forehead. Her attacks were more aggressive and she even had the ability to perform the Renbu, or “death touch” attack. Bloody Hokuto even had her own unique stage and ending in the game.
If Bloody Hokuto defeated all of the opponents in the EX tournament she was seen standing on top of a temple. The blood moon was in the background. All of the other rivals were dead on the floor. The whole nocturnal scene, twisted background and use of moon and darkness was the same symbolism featured with Kyo and Iori from the King of Fighters series. There was a reason for this. The mythology behind the orochi, an ancient demon that was bound to the moon was also loosely tied into the EX mythos. The Hayate clan had locked away the demon and was responsible for keeping it locked away. A character named Hayate appeared only once in the series, in Street Fighter EX2. He dressed like a samurai and was a sort of fighting priest. His special attacks allowed him to materialize swords out of thin air before dissipating as energy from his hands. It was a refined version of the same attacks Garuda used. Except that Garuda made spikes appear from his flesh, all over his body and even head. It turned out that the demon Garuda had escaped and was following Kairi. Whether Hayate was scheduled to be in the new game was unknown as of this writing.
Garuda was a mighty warrior that became possessed. He actually fed off the spirits of people that were defeated in battle. Since Kairi was destroying people left and right all Garuda had to do was follow behind and steal their essence, growing stronger along the way. I had talked about spirits possessing human bodies previously on this blog. In the Street Fighter EX series Kairi was on the path of being consumed by the energy within. A possessed person was known as a yorimashi. Gouki / Akuma for example could be considered a yorimashi. He was consumed by the evil energy or Dark Hadou. He kept this energy under his control as symbolized by the prayer beads he wore around his neck. Garuda was another such yorimashi, the person that he possessed probably died a long time ago. There was probably a reckoning between Kairi and Garuda planned for the climax of this game. How Hokuto would figure into the story was an important piece of the story.
After 21 years since the debut of the EX series ARIKA had a confession to make. Hokuto was not the character’s real name. In fact she was an assassin that had been programmed to kill Kairi. Her real name was Shirase. About the only thing in her history that was true was that they were related. However Hokuto was only the half-sister of Kairi. Whether she was under the employment of the Mizugami, Hayate or other family had yet to be revealed. Then there was the question of the youngest member of the family, the little sister known as Nanase. Well she was in fact Kairi’s actual sister and Shirase’s half-sister. When her programming was revealed Shirase did something drastic, she wiped Nanase’s memory of her. How much remains of the family, and relationships between the three will hopefully be revealed in the game. There was no word on whether Nanase would return to the series. It would be interesting to see how the story progresses because of these developments.
ARIKA was no stranger to supernatural character designs. When the studio created Fighting Layer they had heroes and villains with supernatural powers or supernatural origins. It was unknown (as of this writing) whether Shirase would have the full library of moves of Hokuto and Bloody Hokuto, or if there was a version of Bloody Shirase yet to be revealed. The characters in this game also had something called Gouji that they could tap into. The name of this game mechanic was based on a fruit called gouji, aka wolf berries in the west. These berries were said to be highly medicinal in value, they inspired the Senzu Beans in the Dragon Ball series. In the ARIKA game players wouldn’t take berries in the middle of a match but instead choose from a stack of five different gouji, little symbols that appeared next to the energy bar. They granted attributes that they could activate in battle. It could make attacks stronger, help buff defenses or maintain a high special meter. When this mechanic was unveiled at the EVO tournament many likened it to the Infinity Gems that players could use in Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. It created an entirely new way to play and no two matches could even be similar with the number of different combinations players could use.
Gouji was the reason that Darun Mister survived his encounter with Garuda. He must have been superhumanly tough to have lived through the ordeal. Then after he recovered he wanted a rematch. The studio had roughly another seven months of development and there was plenty of time to balance the Gouji mechanic as well as expand the library of characters. One of the recently announced returning characters was another fan-favorite. He inspired me to talk a little bit more about what made the EX characters so memorable. We’ll take a look at this character 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!
Hokuto looked like a kyudoka, a practitioner of traditional archery. She dressed very conservatively, wearing a costume that would have fit right into feudal Japan. It made sense given that she was responsible for the fate of her brother. Despite her uniform and archery glove she did not actually carry a bow and arrows. Instead she shot bolts of spiritual energy from her hands. Hokuto was also well versed in tessenjutsu, the fighting art of the war fan. People often mistook Hokuto as an akido practitioner considering how many of her moves were counters to traditional attacks. Hokuto had the ability to perform energy wave attacks but they did not harm her as they did her brother. Whether it was because of her training or something else was not explained at first. She was actually harboring a few secrets of her own, these were revealed over the course of the series.
Hokuto came from the same cursed blood as Kairi. She actually had a seal placed on her that prevented her from succumbing to the same killer instincts of her brother. There was a variation of the character that could be unlocked in Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha. This evil version was known as Bloody Hokuto. Her uniform was a stark black in this form. She even had a slightly darker skin tone. Darker colored characters usually denoted a hint of evil. This was a tradition observed in many different cultures and story telling techniques. It was one of the reasons why Gouki had skin that appeared dark red like clay. But I digress. A mark of evil was visible on her forehead. Her attacks were more aggressive and she even had the ability to perform the Renbu, or “death touch” attack. Bloody Hokuto even had her own unique stage and ending in the game.
If Bloody Hokuto defeated all of the opponents in the EX tournament she was seen standing on top of a temple. The blood moon was in the background. All of the other rivals were dead on the floor. The whole nocturnal scene, twisted background and use of moon and darkness was the same symbolism featured with Kyo and Iori from the King of Fighters series. There was a reason for this. The mythology behind the orochi, an ancient demon that was bound to the moon was also loosely tied into the EX mythos. The Hayate clan had locked away the demon and was responsible for keeping it locked away. A character named Hayate appeared only once in the series, in Street Fighter EX2. He dressed like a samurai and was a sort of fighting priest. His special attacks allowed him to materialize swords out of thin air before dissipating as energy from his hands. It was a refined version of the same attacks Garuda used. Except that Garuda made spikes appear from his flesh, all over his body and even head. It turned out that the demon Garuda had escaped and was following Kairi. Whether Hayate was scheduled to be in the new game was unknown as of this writing.
Garuda was a mighty warrior that became possessed. He actually fed off the spirits of people that were defeated in battle. Since Kairi was destroying people left and right all Garuda had to do was follow behind and steal their essence, growing stronger along the way. I had talked about spirits possessing human bodies previously on this blog. In the Street Fighter EX series Kairi was on the path of being consumed by the energy within. A possessed person was known as a yorimashi. Gouki / Akuma for example could be considered a yorimashi. He was consumed by the evil energy or Dark Hadou. He kept this energy under his control as symbolized by the prayer beads he wore around his neck. Garuda was another such yorimashi, the person that he possessed probably died a long time ago. There was probably a reckoning between Kairi and Garuda planned for the climax of this game. How Hokuto would figure into the story was an important piece of the story.
After 21 years since the debut of the EX series ARIKA had a confession to make. Hokuto was not the character’s real name. In fact she was an assassin that had been programmed to kill Kairi. Her real name was Shirase. About the only thing in her history that was true was that they were related. However Hokuto was only the half-sister of Kairi. Whether she was under the employment of the Mizugami, Hayate or other family had yet to be revealed. Then there was the question of the youngest member of the family, the little sister known as Nanase. Well she was in fact Kairi’s actual sister and Shirase’s half-sister. When her programming was revealed Shirase did something drastic, she wiped Nanase’s memory of her. How much remains of the family, and relationships between the three will hopefully be revealed in the game. There was no word on whether Nanase would return to the series. It would be interesting to see how the story progresses because of these developments.
ARIKA was no stranger to supernatural character designs. When the studio created Fighting Layer they had heroes and villains with supernatural powers or supernatural origins. It was unknown (as of this writing) whether Shirase would have the full library of moves of Hokuto and Bloody Hokuto, or if there was a version of Bloody Shirase yet to be revealed. The characters in this game also had something called Gouji that they could tap into. The name of this game mechanic was based on a fruit called gouji, aka wolf berries in the west. These berries were said to be highly medicinal in value, they inspired the Senzu Beans in the Dragon Ball series. In the ARIKA game players wouldn’t take berries in the middle of a match but instead choose from a stack of five different gouji, little symbols that appeared next to the energy bar. They granted attributes that they could activate in battle. It could make attacks stronger, help buff defenses or maintain a high special meter. When this mechanic was unveiled at the EVO tournament many likened it to the Infinity Gems that players could use in Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite. It created an entirely new way to play and no two matches could even be similar with the number of different combinations players could use.
Gouji was the reason that Darun Mister survived his encounter with Garuda. He must have been superhumanly tough to have lived through the ordeal. Then after he recovered he wanted a rematch. The studio had roughly another seven months of development and there was plenty of time to balance the Gouji mechanic as well as expand the library of characters. One of the recently announced returning characters was another fan-favorite. He inspired me to talk a little bit more about what made the EX characters so memorable. We’ll take a look at this character 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!
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Speculation on ARIKA's unnamed Street Fighter EX successor, part 1...
Like I said in the previous series, it's a great time to be a fan of fighting games. There are many good titles out right now and many more scheduled for the future. One of which I have a very close watch on is the Untitled fighting game by ARIKA. I've called it Fighting EX Layer in the past and other people are calling it Fighting Layer EX (FLEX for short). It features the new characters from the Street Fighter EX series, and not the ones created by Capcom. ARIKA had been teasing the next Street Fighter EX game for years. They would do this on April Fool's day almost like clockwork. They would get the hopes up of fighting game fans with a screenshot, trailer or even actual gameplay footage. Then a few days later they would pretend like nothing happened. Offering no release dates or other information on the game. This year was no exception. They released a short trailer on April Fool's day and even did a live demo of the game-in-progress. Previous demos were on Nintendo 3DS hardware, this time the demo was on a development kit for the Playstation 4.
ARIKA's last original arcade fighter was Fighting Layer in 1998 and their last console fighting game was Street Fighter EX 3 in 2000. They did have a hand in developing other fighting games for consoles and handhelds but none featuring their own IP. Something was different about the most recent April Fool's. The demo was so well done that many speculated that the studio was actually working on a new fighting game. This was proven to be true a few months later when they released a longer trailer during the EVO tournament. This trailer included more returning Street Fighter EX characters and even a hint to the story mode. At the end we learned many things.
The game was a Playstation 4 exclusive. There will be a beta / online test by the end of 2017. The studio hoped to have a full release by April Fools Day 2018. The game did not have an official title yet but I certainly hope they considered FLEX. The extended trailer gave audiences the first glimpse of a couple of classic characters. The first one revealed was a personal favorite and one that had a cult-like following in the fighting game community. Skullomania was definitely a character out of left field. The salary-man-turned-circus acrobat-turned-superhero had a unique design. He looked and moved unlike any other character before or since. His assortment of diving and tumbling moves was fresh. The character was so far beyond the definition of a martial arts master that he was very much like what Blanka or Dhalsim were to the Street Fighter II lineup.
The other big reveal was Darun Mister. The wrestler in the series was on par with Zangief and I believe he had a better overall design than the Russian. In the EX series Darun was the bodyguard of the globe-trotting Pullum Purna. The Indian Darun and Saudi Pullum were a colorful addition to the lineup. In this latest update Darun had left his job as a bodyguard after the god of Indian wrestling spoke to him in a dream. He flew to Japan to fight the strongest opponent he could. Garuda the demon beat him severely and left him for dead. Darun recovered and now wants revenge. The redesigned Darun, along with the updated designs for the rest of the cast look amazing.
More characters were expected to be revealed throughout the summer. The developments in the story were tremendous. There was much more drama this time around and for a few characters there was a lot more at stake. We'll explore these 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!
ARIKA's last original arcade fighter was Fighting Layer in 1998 and their last console fighting game was Street Fighter EX 3 in 2000. They did have a hand in developing other fighting games for consoles and handhelds but none featuring their own IP. Something was different about the most recent April Fool's. The demo was so well done that many speculated that the studio was actually working on a new fighting game. This was proven to be true a few months later when they released a longer trailer during the EVO tournament. This trailer included more returning Street Fighter EX characters and even a hint to the story mode. At the end we learned many things.
The game was a Playstation 4 exclusive. There will be a beta / online test by the end of 2017. The studio hoped to have a full release by April Fools Day 2018. The game did not have an official title yet but I certainly hope they considered FLEX. The extended trailer gave audiences the first glimpse of a couple of classic characters. The first one revealed was a personal favorite and one that had a cult-like following in the fighting game community. Skullomania was definitely a character out of left field. The salary-man-turned-circus acrobat-turned-superhero had a unique design. He looked and moved unlike any other character before or since. His assortment of diving and tumbling moves was fresh. The character was so far beyond the definition of a martial arts master that he was very much like what Blanka or Dhalsim were to the Street Fighter II lineup.
The other big reveal was Darun Mister. The wrestler in the series was on par with Zangief and I believe he had a better overall design than the Russian. In the EX series Darun was the bodyguard of the globe-trotting Pullum Purna. The Indian Darun and Saudi Pullum were a colorful addition to the lineup. In this latest update Darun had left his job as a bodyguard after the god of Indian wrestling spoke to him in a dream. He flew to Japan to fight the strongest opponent he could. Garuda the demon beat him severely and left him for dead. Darun recovered and now wants revenge. The redesigned Darun, along with the updated designs for the rest of the cast look amazing.
More characters were expected to be revealed throughout the summer. The developments in the story were tremendous. There was much more drama this time around and for a few characters there was a lot more at stake. We'll explore these 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!
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Teasing the next Street Fighter EX and Fighting Layer, part 1
On April 1, 2017 ARIKA studios did a live demonstration of a game called Fighting EX Layer. It was a successor to their popular Street Fighter EX and Fighting Layer games. When it came to April Fools jokes ARIKA has consistently gone above and beyond. Previously the studio teased a Street Fighter EX remake on the Game Boy 3DS. They had also shown off the character select screen for a Street Fighter EX 2 remake they were allegedly working on. None of the games they teased has actually been released. The fact that they would make a working game engine just to pull off the prank was commendable. Yet there was something different about teasing this new build. It came at a time where even Capcom was acknowledging the Street Fighter EX legacy characters.
Prior to this April Fools it was understood that ARIKA and Capcom were not on the friendliest terms. ARIKA was founded by a former Capcom staffer, Akira Nishitani. He was one of the lead designers on Street Fighter II and he took a good portion of his team when he left the studio. He developed and proposed the first 3D Street Fighter game, it was labeled EX so that audiences wouldn't confuse it for one of the numbered Capcom titles. It also revolved around the EX tournament rather than the Street Fighter tournament. The original World Warriors (except for Blanka) appeared in EX, as did Sakura who had made her debut in Street Fighter Zero 2 at around the same time. They were paired off against an entirely new cast of characters. It was the last time the majority of the Street Fighter II team would work together. Some legal and licensing issues popped up around 1998 during the release of Fighting Layer. ARIKA wanted to expand their catalog so they developed a new arcade game that would be published by Namco. This new game featured two EX characters, Blair Dame and Allen Snider. By doing this the company wanted to build their library of characters. The assumption was that they could cross over in the future. ARIKA owned the rights to the new characters created for Street Fighter EX. We assume that they also owned the new characters created for Fighting Layer. They were technically allowed to use them in other games. This was a problem for Capcom because Namco was a perennial rival. If ARIKA wanted they could have featured a character or two in the Tekken series. This would have been great for fighting game fans but would have been a thorn in the side of Capcom. I don't know if there was a non-compete agreement between Capcom and ARIKA but many noticed that there was tension between the two companies after Fighting Layer. The speculation was that ARIKA had to take Capcom to court to ensure the EX series would be published per their previous agreements.
For almost 20 years neither studio mentioned the other, except when interviewed for the occasional Street Fighter retrospective. When they did that they were always cordial. In recent years ARIKA had began teasing their fans with rumors of a new EX game. They made sure to highlight their own characters and not the Capcom stars. About a year ago during the development of Street Fighter V (SFV) Capcom began releasing official character art. The studio not only released illustrations of the SFV cast, but they also began releasing illustrations of the supporting characters. Then they started releasing art for the Street Fighter IV cast, Street Fighter III and the original SF lineup. The Street Fighter Zero / Alpha characters and Final Fight cast soon followed. These were under the umbrella of the "Street Fighter Universe." The company wanted to canonize their official cast. Then Capcom did something unexpected, they released brand new art for "Other Title" characters. These were the EX and Capcom Fighting All-Star characters. It was as if Hell had frozen over. Capcom had acknowledged that there had been an EX cast and ARIKA was teasing a new EX game. Fans online were hoping that the two companies were working on a reconciliation. Perhaps with new producers, and the fact that fighting games are popular once again, both companies were considering a compromise. Stranger things had happened. I mean who could have ever predicted that the Tekken and Street Fighter characters would cross over in a versus title. Or that Gouki / Akuma would not only be a surprise character in Tekken 7, but that he would be important to the plot of the game.
I couldn't say if either Capcom or ARIKA had the resources to pull off a new EX game even if they wanted to. Don't forget that DIMPS did most of the development on Street Fighter IV and V. It would take the combined efforts of both Capcom and ARIKA to create a proper EX reboot. Before any development began the legalities of which characters to feature would be a chore. Audiences wanted Street Fighters and EX masters, but would they welcome any Fighting Layer characters as well? I for one would like to see Exodus hit a chair shot on an opponent at least one more time. Also, the canon of the EX series meant that at least one of the most popular villains would not appear. Kairi was the star of the EX universe. He was a much more tortured soul than Ryu ever was. Kairi had cursed blood and it caused him to lose control of himself. He would not only severely injure opponents in fights but he would often injure himself. He suffered from amnesia and at the end of the first EX tournament he killed Gouki and evolved into an even more powerful version of himself. Plenty of Street Fighter fans could never imagine that anybody but Ryu would be capable of defeating Gouki. Not only that but it made more sense for either Ryu or Ken to avenge the death of their master than a stranger introduced in EX. Yet that was the canon that ARIKA established and that’s why it exists in a different timeline / different continuity than the numbered SF series.
ARIKA was much more heavily influenced by the mystical elements of the fighting arts. By comparison the SF series was rooted more in science. The Dictator and his Shadowlaw / Shadaloo organization were unlocking the secrets of the martial arts masters through medical experiments. They used drugs, hypnosis and even cloning to crack the secrets of the ancient masters. There was a rational, scientific explanation for all of the amazing things that the fighters were capable of in that world. The EX universe was much more open to metaphysical origins. There were spirits, monsters and demons inhabiting the EX / Fighting Layer world. Garuda, designed to be the ultimate evil was demon animating some ancient samurai armor. It was assumed that he possessed the body of a human and turned him immortal. He could summon blades from his flesh and impale opponents with them. The powers that Kairi exploited were from a dark dimension and not meant for humans to control. It was possible that these energies came from the same place that Garuda had emerged from. Each time Kairi performed his special moves it took a toll on his body and spirit. By contrast Ryu could control his abilities and did not suffer any ill effects as they were from the natural world. Both characters however did have a light and a dark side. If Ryu used the forbidden techniques taught to him by his master then he opened himself to the Dark Hadou, a corrupting force. If Ryu gave in to the dark energy then he would become “Evil” and end up like Gouki. Kairi ended up having an almost opposite approach to this design. His “good” self, when he had black hair, was tormented by self-harm and nightmares. When he defeated Gouki he evolved into a more powerful version, his hair had turned white in the process, but he did not become “Evil Kairi.” He had gained a sort of peace with his strength. He accepted that he was now the most powerful fighter in the universe, neither a force for good or evil but destined to wander alone.
Garuda on the other hand was the constant force for evil. The Dictator Vega / M. Bison existed in the EX universe as well and had evolved somewhat since his introduction in Street Fighter II as well. He was as powerful as he had always been and was expanding his military might all over the globe. The Illuminati, introduced through Gill in Street Fighter III did not exist in this continuity. Instead it was all Shadowlaw and all Dictator running things. His R&D wings had created evolved cyborgs, known as the Cycloids. They could learn the fighting techniques of their opponents and use them in battle. The Dictator was looking to create a synthetic army that could fight as well as the best Street Fighters. His run-ins with the most powerful EX characters, whether it was Kairi or Garuda almost certainly spelled his death as well. When ARIKA teased Fighting EX Layer it was amazing to see how far the graphics had evolved and how visceral the new characters appeared.
Garuda had more details in his armor than his original concept art had ever shown. There were cracks in it, but there was also a unique gold trim. Centuries ago perhaps the armor originally belonged to some warlord or even noble. When he performed special attacks we could see that the spikes that came out of his skin were glowing red hot. Not only that but his skin seemed to glow and crackle with fissures of energy. He had a surplus of mystical energy to expel and it showed in every strike and ghost summon he performed. Garuda remained a fearsome character, and now that we could see him in high definition we could tell how he would appear in real life. I had talked about Garuda's design and the influence of both Buddhism and Shinto spirituality in previous blogs. The same level of detail applied to the other characters that ARIKA showed off in their April demo.
Hokuto, one of Kairi's younger sisters, appeared in the demo. She wore a hakama, a traditional uniform. She also wore an armored breastplate and archery gloves. Although she did not carry a bow and arrow she could shoot her spiritual energy in the form of an energy bolt. Her style of fighting was based on Kyudo, the a traditional archery techniques reserved for the samurai class but she also knew aikido moves as well. When she fired her energy bolts, the Kiren'Eki, she would go through the motions of shooting an arrow and could even hold her arms back to make the energy strike even stronger. In the series Hokuto was being raised to be the leader of the Mizukami clan. Yet it was revealed to her that she had an older brother. She was tasked with returning him home. She was unaware that the family had cursed blood or that Kairi was the result of an illicit affair. Hotukto had a curse placed on her as well, so that if she ever crossed paths with Kairi she would be forced to kill him. Hokuto would enter a trance and a seal would appear on her forehead. She became Bloody Hokuto at this point and her moves were much more dangerous. Hokuto never crossed paths with her brother in the EX series. In the games she would be joined by Nanase, the youngest sister of the family. She was a warrior in training. Although she didn't enjoy the strict training regiment she did so because she did not want to disappoint her sister. Nanase's costume was that of an Onna bugeisha, a warrior from the noble class. She fought with an expanding staff. It was never revealed if she had some sort of curse as well. Was she planned for Fighting EX Layer? Would she be reunited with her brother? Would she have to choose a side if Hokuto or Kairi ever crossed paths? Or would she abandon her family altogether? We don't know the answers to these questions yet. The ways in which ARIKA designed them was very unique for the genre. They contributed greatly to the mythology of fighting games. We will be exploring how 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!
Prior to this April Fools it was understood that ARIKA and Capcom were not on the friendliest terms. ARIKA was founded by a former Capcom staffer, Akira Nishitani. He was one of the lead designers on Street Fighter II and he took a good portion of his team when he left the studio. He developed and proposed the first 3D Street Fighter game, it was labeled EX so that audiences wouldn't confuse it for one of the numbered Capcom titles. It also revolved around the EX tournament rather than the Street Fighter tournament. The original World Warriors (except for Blanka) appeared in EX, as did Sakura who had made her debut in Street Fighter Zero 2 at around the same time. They were paired off against an entirely new cast of characters. It was the last time the majority of the Street Fighter II team would work together. Some legal and licensing issues popped up around 1998 during the release of Fighting Layer. ARIKA wanted to expand their catalog so they developed a new arcade game that would be published by Namco. This new game featured two EX characters, Blair Dame and Allen Snider. By doing this the company wanted to build their library of characters. The assumption was that they could cross over in the future. ARIKA owned the rights to the new characters created for Street Fighter EX. We assume that they also owned the new characters created for Fighting Layer. They were technically allowed to use them in other games. This was a problem for Capcom because Namco was a perennial rival. If ARIKA wanted they could have featured a character or two in the Tekken series. This would have been great for fighting game fans but would have been a thorn in the side of Capcom. I don't know if there was a non-compete agreement between Capcom and ARIKA but many noticed that there was tension between the two companies after Fighting Layer. The speculation was that ARIKA had to take Capcom to court to ensure the EX series would be published per their previous agreements.
For almost 20 years neither studio mentioned the other, except when interviewed for the occasional Street Fighter retrospective. When they did that they were always cordial. In recent years ARIKA had began teasing their fans with rumors of a new EX game. They made sure to highlight their own characters and not the Capcom stars. About a year ago during the development of Street Fighter V (SFV) Capcom began releasing official character art. The studio not only released illustrations of the SFV cast, but they also began releasing illustrations of the supporting characters. Then they started releasing art for the Street Fighter IV cast, Street Fighter III and the original SF lineup. The Street Fighter Zero / Alpha characters and Final Fight cast soon followed. These were under the umbrella of the "Street Fighter Universe." The company wanted to canonize their official cast. Then Capcom did something unexpected, they released brand new art for "Other Title" characters. These were the EX and Capcom Fighting All-Star characters. It was as if Hell had frozen over. Capcom had acknowledged that there had been an EX cast and ARIKA was teasing a new EX game. Fans online were hoping that the two companies were working on a reconciliation. Perhaps with new producers, and the fact that fighting games are popular once again, both companies were considering a compromise. Stranger things had happened. I mean who could have ever predicted that the Tekken and Street Fighter characters would cross over in a versus title. Or that Gouki / Akuma would not only be a surprise character in Tekken 7, but that he would be important to the plot of the game.
I couldn't say if either Capcom or ARIKA had the resources to pull off a new EX game even if they wanted to. Don't forget that DIMPS did most of the development on Street Fighter IV and V. It would take the combined efforts of both Capcom and ARIKA to create a proper EX reboot. Before any development began the legalities of which characters to feature would be a chore. Audiences wanted Street Fighters and EX masters, but would they welcome any Fighting Layer characters as well? I for one would like to see Exodus hit a chair shot on an opponent at least one more time. Also, the canon of the EX series meant that at least one of the most popular villains would not appear. Kairi was the star of the EX universe. He was a much more tortured soul than Ryu ever was. Kairi had cursed blood and it caused him to lose control of himself. He would not only severely injure opponents in fights but he would often injure himself. He suffered from amnesia and at the end of the first EX tournament he killed Gouki and evolved into an even more powerful version of himself. Plenty of Street Fighter fans could never imagine that anybody but Ryu would be capable of defeating Gouki. Not only that but it made more sense for either Ryu or Ken to avenge the death of their master than a stranger introduced in EX. Yet that was the canon that ARIKA established and that’s why it exists in a different timeline / different continuity than the numbered SF series.
ARIKA was much more heavily influenced by the mystical elements of the fighting arts. By comparison the SF series was rooted more in science. The Dictator and his Shadowlaw / Shadaloo organization were unlocking the secrets of the martial arts masters through medical experiments. They used drugs, hypnosis and even cloning to crack the secrets of the ancient masters. There was a rational, scientific explanation for all of the amazing things that the fighters were capable of in that world. The EX universe was much more open to metaphysical origins. There were spirits, monsters and demons inhabiting the EX / Fighting Layer world. Garuda, designed to be the ultimate evil was demon animating some ancient samurai armor. It was assumed that he possessed the body of a human and turned him immortal. He could summon blades from his flesh and impale opponents with them. The powers that Kairi exploited were from a dark dimension and not meant for humans to control. It was possible that these energies came from the same place that Garuda had emerged from. Each time Kairi performed his special moves it took a toll on his body and spirit. By contrast Ryu could control his abilities and did not suffer any ill effects as they were from the natural world. Both characters however did have a light and a dark side. If Ryu used the forbidden techniques taught to him by his master then he opened himself to the Dark Hadou, a corrupting force. If Ryu gave in to the dark energy then he would become “Evil” and end up like Gouki. Kairi ended up having an almost opposite approach to this design. His “good” self, when he had black hair, was tormented by self-harm and nightmares. When he defeated Gouki he evolved into a more powerful version, his hair had turned white in the process, but he did not become “Evil Kairi.” He had gained a sort of peace with his strength. He accepted that he was now the most powerful fighter in the universe, neither a force for good or evil but destined to wander alone.
Garuda on the other hand was the constant force for evil. The Dictator Vega / M. Bison existed in the EX universe as well and had evolved somewhat since his introduction in Street Fighter II as well. He was as powerful as he had always been and was expanding his military might all over the globe. The Illuminati, introduced through Gill in Street Fighter III did not exist in this continuity. Instead it was all Shadowlaw and all Dictator running things. His R&D wings had created evolved cyborgs, known as the Cycloids. They could learn the fighting techniques of their opponents and use them in battle. The Dictator was looking to create a synthetic army that could fight as well as the best Street Fighters. His run-ins with the most powerful EX characters, whether it was Kairi or Garuda almost certainly spelled his death as well. When ARIKA teased Fighting EX Layer it was amazing to see how far the graphics had evolved and how visceral the new characters appeared.
Garuda had more details in his armor than his original concept art had ever shown. There were cracks in it, but there was also a unique gold trim. Centuries ago perhaps the armor originally belonged to some warlord or even noble. When he performed special attacks we could see that the spikes that came out of his skin were glowing red hot. Not only that but his skin seemed to glow and crackle with fissures of energy. He had a surplus of mystical energy to expel and it showed in every strike and ghost summon he performed. Garuda remained a fearsome character, and now that we could see him in high definition we could tell how he would appear in real life. I had talked about Garuda's design and the influence of both Buddhism and Shinto spirituality in previous blogs. The same level of detail applied to the other characters that ARIKA showed off in their April demo.
Hokuto, one of Kairi's younger sisters, appeared in the demo. She wore a hakama, a traditional uniform. She also wore an armored breastplate and archery gloves. Although she did not carry a bow and arrow she could shoot her spiritual energy in the form of an energy bolt. Her style of fighting was based on Kyudo, the a traditional archery techniques reserved for the samurai class but she also knew aikido moves as well. When she fired her energy bolts, the Kiren'Eki, she would go through the motions of shooting an arrow and could even hold her arms back to make the energy strike even stronger. In the series Hokuto was being raised to be the leader of the Mizukami clan. Yet it was revealed to her that she had an older brother. She was tasked with returning him home. She was unaware that the family had cursed blood or that Kairi was the result of an illicit affair. Hotukto had a curse placed on her as well, so that if she ever crossed paths with Kairi she would be forced to kill him. Hokuto would enter a trance and a seal would appear on her forehead. She became Bloody Hokuto at this point and her moves were much more dangerous. Hokuto never crossed paths with her brother in the EX series. In the games she would be joined by Nanase, the youngest sister of the family. She was a warrior in training. Although she didn't enjoy the strict training regiment she did so because she did not want to disappoint her sister. Nanase's costume was that of an Onna bugeisha, a warrior from the noble class. She fought with an expanding staff. It was never revealed if she had some sort of curse as well. Was she planned for Fighting EX Layer? Would she be reunited with her brother? Would she have to choose a side if Hokuto or Kairi ever crossed paths? Or would she abandon her family altogether? We don't know the answers to these questions yet. The ways in which ARIKA designed them was very unique for the genre. They contributed greatly to the mythology of fighting games. We will be exploring how 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!
Sunday, July 19, 2015
The return of Charlie Nash, or how zombies make the best fighters...
Of the characters announced so far for Street Fighter V I think the most interesting was the return of Charlie Nash. I thought he was a great character in the Street Fighter Zero / Alpha series. I liked him partially because he wore glasses. For those that didn't get a chance to play as the soldier he was essentially the American representative for the series. He was created the person whose death Guile was avenging during Street Fighter II. What was most interesting was that this character did not have a face, only a name when Street Fighter II came out. In fact even the developers at Capcom didn't know what Charlie looked like originally. In some unused art by Bengus the only picture that Guile had of his friend had the face burned out. Making him the original gaming unknown soldier.
Audiences didn't know if Charlie was a friend or family member killed in the line of duty. Guile would hoist his dog tags in the air in some victory animations. The myth behind Charlie grew as the endings in the Street Fighter II were changed and new details were added. At first Guile would threaten the Dictator and in other versions Guile would visit the grave of his friend. Guile was a visually unique character, with his military look and odd haircut, but he became interesting thanks to his ending. He attacked the Dictator after his defeat, grabbing him by the collar. It was a palpable rage when he brought up the names of Charlie and Cambodia. Audiences didn't know quite what happened but it sounded like something serious went down. When Charlie Nash was killed Guile was younger, considered a runt, Only Guile's wife and daughter were able to talk him out of killing the Dictator. Some of the endings in the game were silly but most were played out like a dramatic movie, Guile's ending was no exception. He had abandoned his family in the pursuit of revenge and was reunited once his vendetta was completed.
Charlie Nash died officially during the events of the Street Fighter Zero / Alpha series. What was unique was how differently he died during each release of the game. In one version he had found a hideout for Shadowlaw and was radioing home base for reinforcement. The Dictator snuck up behind him and attacked him. All that was left was a bloody dog tag. It didn't really look like Cambodia but more like the US Southwest.
In the second release of the game Nash had the Dictator on the ropes, somewhere in Brazil, possibly the Iguazu Falls, when he was shot in the back by a Shadowlaw helicopter and fell to his presumed death. When the Shadowlaw soldier asked the Dictator if he wanted to confirm the kill the Dictator said that no one could have survived the fall. Again, all that was left of Nash were some dog tags. By the third release of the game Nash was flying a jet and had blown up the base of operations for Shadowlaw but was still on the hunt for the Dictator. So in one out of the three endings he did not die.
Then again Nash could have been captured and brainwashed by a different group. In Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter the Shadow version of Nash made his debut. He even popped up in X-Men vs Street Fighter. During the crossover games it was hinted that some mysterious group was responsible for his new form. Were these mad scientists, or cultists of some sort? All gamers could do was speculate as to the "true" fate of Charlie.
The dark Shadow version was literally a sprite of Charlie from the Zero series that had been discolored to make him look as if he were in a perpetual shadow. His eyes glowed and his attacks took on a blue hue. He had the same basic attacks and audiences began wondering if the character had returned from the dead. It did not become official until Udon began writing about the character and his history and of course when Street Fighter V was announced, almost 20 years since the character had debuted.
Of course many eagle-eyed Capcom fans said that the new Charlie Nash looked an awful lot like Dave. He was one of the alien henchmen characters from Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness. He served under Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX, an over-the-top lolita-dressed alien bent on universal domination. I could see where people would see the same hair and glasses on both characters. Dave debuted a few months before Charlie Nash, it's entirely possible that the artists liked the look of the character and incorporated some of his visual cues on Charlie as well.
When I saw Charlie back from the dead, complete with stapled and stitched body parts, I was reminded of a different fighting game character. Preston Ajax was a sub-boss character from the game Fighting Layer. The character was a mercenary that had been mortally wounded in a bomb attack. He was pieced together with the remains of his brother, who was a fellow mercenary. The discolored portions of his skin were like dead tissue, very macabre. I got the same feeling while looking at Charlie. Ajax was actually inspired by the manga character Black Jack. He was injured when he stepped on a land mine as a young man. His only friend, a young black boy named Kuro, donated his skin for a transplant. This contrast made him one of the most memorable manga heroes ever created. Black Jack went on to inspire the creation of the Tekken series as well, but I digress...
Preston was created by ARIKA, the studio that was founded by many Street Fighter II members. The game Fighting Layer that Ajax appeared in could be considered a revisit to the original plans for Street Fighter II. I wonder if it was a coincidence that two military characters with similar "back from the dead" origin stories ended up in fighting games or if it was an idea that the SF II team had kicked around before they split up. I guess the world may never know.
But there was more to the character than a cool background and a connection to one of the Street Fighter II characters. The series had always been about combining a great fighting game engine with characters that could perform amazing moves. Ken and Ryu had the Shoryuken or "Fireball" attack. In the original game only they and Sagat could perform the move. In the sequel it was the same thing but Guile was one of the new characters that could also perform a ranged attack. Guile's version was called a Sonic Boom. When Charlie appeared as a playable character a few years later he too was given the Sonic Boom attack. However there were nuances that separated Guile from Charlie.
It was assumed that Nash had taught Guile the special attacks. As a master of these unknown fighting arts Nash was able to perform the same moves with a little more ease. For example he would perform his Sonic Boom attack with one hand while Guile used both. That was not the only special move that Guile possessed. He also had a Flash Kick, which was a backflip and kick combined into one. Nash also had a version of this move except he did it with his back turned to his opponent. Again the move looked a little bit easier for Nash to perform.
Both moves happened so fast that audiences didn't always catch the frames of animation that Capcom placed on them. There was a tremendous amount of forethought that went into how each fighter tumbled in the air. Each actually led with the opposite kicking leg in order to create the momentum for the attack. Since Charlie had his back to opponents he needed to be able to kick as well as twist in the air, this translated to him leaping cross legged. He would kick his back leg out and then tuck it in as his other leg created the arc for the Flash Kick. Then just before he landed he would complete the twist and land facing his opponent.
Both moves looked fantastic even if audiences didn't spend the time dissecting how each was performed. If assigning special attacks was all it took to make a character memorable in the genre then it would apply to any new character introduced. Right? Capcom pushed their luck in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike with a new character called Remy. This character had all of the moves of Guile and Nash and could perform them with even greater ease than the military fighters.
Audiences didn't know if Charlie was a friend or family member killed in the line of duty. Guile would hoist his dog tags in the air in some victory animations. The myth behind Charlie grew as the endings in the Street Fighter II were changed and new details were added. At first Guile would threaten the Dictator and in other versions Guile would visit the grave of his friend. Guile was a visually unique character, with his military look and odd haircut, but he became interesting thanks to his ending. He attacked the Dictator after his defeat, grabbing him by the collar. It was a palpable rage when he brought up the names of Charlie and Cambodia. Audiences didn't know quite what happened but it sounded like something serious went down. When Charlie Nash was killed Guile was younger, considered a runt, Only Guile's wife and daughter were able to talk him out of killing the Dictator. Some of the endings in the game were silly but most were played out like a dramatic movie, Guile's ending was no exception. He had abandoned his family in the pursuit of revenge and was reunited once his vendetta was completed.
Charlie Nash died officially during the events of the Street Fighter Zero / Alpha series. What was unique was how differently he died during each release of the game. In one version he had found a hideout for Shadowlaw and was radioing home base for reinforcement. The Dictator snuck up behind him and attacked him. All that was left was a bloody dog tag. It didn't really look like Cambodia but more like the US Southwest.
It was an interesting contrast from the previous game and this was something that the Street Fighter series had become known for. There were multiple endings in the games yet each ending did not necessarily work with every other one. There were even endings that contradicted the ending of a previous game. Sure the Dictator could have captured Nash and turned him into one of his brainwashed soldiers. He had done this before to soldiers and special agents the world over, including his prized subject the Delta Red agent known as Cammy.
The dark Shadow version was literally a sprite of Charlie from the Zero series that had been discolored to make him look as if he were in a perpetual shadow. His eyes glowed and his attacks took on a blue hue. He had the same basic attacks and audiences began wondering if the character had returned from the dead. It did not become official until Udon began writing about the character and his history and of course when Street Fighter V was announced, almost 20 years since the character had debuted.
Of course many eagle-eyed Capcom fans said that the new Charlie Nash looked an awful lot like Dave. He was one of the alien henchmen characters from Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness. He served under Princess Devilotte de Deathsatan IX, an over-the-top lolita-dressed alien bent on universal domination. I could see where people would see the same hair and glasses on both characters. Dave debuted a few months before Charlie Nash, it's entirely possible that the artists liked the look of the character and incorporated some of his visual cues on Charlie as well.
When I saw Charlie back from the dead, complete with stapled and stitched body parts, I was reminded of a different fighting game character. Preston Ajax was a sub-boss character from the game Fighting Layer. The character was a mercenary that had been mortally wounded in a bomb attack. He was pieced together with the remains of his brother, who was a fellow mercenary. The discolored portions of his skin were like dead tissue, very macabre. I got the same feeling while looking at Charlie. Ajax was actually inspired by the manga character Black Jack. He was injured when he stepped on a land mine as a young man. His only friend, a young black boy named Kuro, donated his skin for a transplant. This contrast made him one of the most memorable manga heroes ever created. Black Jack went on to inspire the creation of the Tekken series as well, but I digress...
Preston was created by ARIKA, the studio that was founded by many Street Fighter II members. The game Fighting Layer that Ajax appeared in could be considered a revisit to the original plans for Street Fighter II. I wonder if it was a coincidence that two military characters with similar "back from the dead" origin stories ended up in fighting games or if it was an idea that the SF II team had kicked around before they split up. I guess the world may never know.
But there was more to the character than a cool background and a connection to one of the Street Fighter II characters. The series had always been about combining a great fighting game engine with characters that could perform amazing moves. Ken and Ryu had the Shoryuken or "Fireball" attack. In the original game only they and Sagat could perform the move. In the sequel it was the same thing but Guile was one of the new characters that could also perform a ranged attack. Guile's version was called a Sonic Boom. When Charlie appeared as a playable character a few years later he too was given the Sonic Boom attack. However there were nuances that separated Guile from Charlie.
It was assumed that Nash had taught Guile the special attacks. As a master of these unknown fighting arts Nash was able to perform the same moves with a little more ease. For example he would perform his Sonic Boom attack with one hand while Guile used both. That was not the only special move that Guile possessed. He also had a Flash Kick, which was a backflip and kick combined into one. Nash also had a version of this move except he did it with his back turned to his opponent. Again the move looked a little bit easier for Nash to perform.
Both moves happened so fast that audiences didn't always catch the frames of animation that Capcom placed on them. There was a tremendous amount of forethought that went into how each fighter tumbled in the air. Each actually led with the opposite kicking leg in order to create the momentum for the attack. Since Charlie had his back to opponents he needed to be able to kick as well as twist in the air, this translated to him leaping cross legged. He would kick his back leg out and then tuck it in as his other leg created the arc for the Flash Kick. Then just before he landed he would complete the twist and land facing his opponent.
Both moves looked fantastic even if audiences didn't spend the time dissecting how each was performed. If assigning special attacks was all it took to make a character memorable in the genre then it would apply to any new character introduced. Right? Capcom pushed their luck in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike with a new character called Remy. This character had all of the moves of Guile and Nash and could perform them with even greater ease than the military fighters.
This character didn't have a fraction of the forethought that went into the design of Guile or Nash. It was a bit insulting to the legacy character that some skinny Frenchman with no build for fighting or no interesting origin would have the same techniques. Not only that he could also throw Sonic Boom attacks while crouching which was something that neither Charlie nor Guile could do. Audiences wondered why put in a character with all of Guile's attacks in Street Fighter III rather than just return Guile. After all the studio had brought back Chun-Li in the series as well. Remy was one of the more forgettable characters that the studio produced and had not been brought up since.
The physical appearance of Charlie was not the only thing that had changed with his return. The Flash Kick was gone, in it's place were two new special kicks, the Sonic Scythe and the Moonsault Slash. Nash now performed the trademark kick with one wide arcing leg movement. It was reminiscent of the special attacks of Rugal Bernstein, a boss character from the King of Fighters series. I kind of miss his original backwards flip.
The other kick was a front tumbling heel strike. It was very similar to the Jaguar Kick pioneered by Adon. Charlie's super attacks had been changed as well. The character not only looked new but played new. What do you think about the return of Charlie? What do you think of the changes of his strikes and abilities? Are you a fan of the new look? Who do you want to see in the new lineup? 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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)