The return of Sonic... Blast Man?! - A 1UP classic from April 12, 2011

For almost as long as electronic games have been in penny arcades and the boardwalks of old there have been machines designed to test the strength and punching prowess of gamers. Some tested the hand grip strength of patrons, others Punching games have been part of the arcade scene for a long time and have never really disappeared. If anything they have evolved with technology and trends and have managed to keep on entertaining for decades.

The simplest type of punching game measures the punching strength and speed on some sort of scale. Most of the machines consist of a punching bag and an LCD screen. In some arcades these are ticket dispensing prize machines and have limited gameplay.

In 1990 Taito combined the punching game with the videogame in Sonic Blast Man. In it players wore boxing gloves and assumed the role of the over-the-top superhero Sonic Blast Man. Players were treated to simple scenarios going up in difficulty regarding speed and punching power. In the early stages our hero would get the chance to punch out a mugger. In latter levels he would get the chance to punch out a runaway truck, giant octopus and even meteor.

The character got a chance to shine on the Super Nintendo in two games. These titles were not like the arcade at all but instead side-scrolling brawlers like Final Fight or Double Dragon. The original title featured only Sonic Blast Man but the sequel introduced two new characters, Sonia and Captain Choyear, each with variations on the punching powers. The games were short and simplistic but gamers could take comfort in being able to punch opponents into oblivion.

Sonic Blast Man predated the over-the-top fighting of games like Capcom?s Godhand by more than a decade, yet was not the first or best game in the arcade to use the punching mechanic. Capcom had in fact beaten Taito to the punch (pardon the pun) in 1986.

The original Street Fighter arcade cabinet featured two oversized buttons that responded to the force applied to punches or kicks, from light and medium to hard. This game came out years before Sonic Blast Man and was far more interactive. Unfortunately for many arcade owners the pads were not always responsive and required routine maintenance. Gamers could not get into the early SF mechanics and the pads were quickly swapped out for the now standard six button control scheme. 

The punching mechanic was perfected in another arcade title, Hokuto No Ken (HNK), or Fist of the North Star. In in players assumed the role of Kenshiro and would play through scenarios made famous in the manga and animé series. Players donned hard plastic gloves and punched at targets timed with animations on the screen. The moves and techniques that were used in the comics actually made their way into the patterns employed in the game. It was a fun title but exhausting for the amount of effort, reflexes and timing required to get through levels. 

Taito is not hoping to topple HNK as the most interactive punching game ever but instead celebrate the arrival of the punching icon. Sonic Blast Heroes is not only getting a new arcade title but also a graphical makeover. As is the case with modern characters the hero himself is swollen to ungodly proportions. Aside from punching a new target in the arcade I really look forward to hearing the new soundtrack provided by their internal music group Zuntata.  

The Zuntata team celebrates 25 years in 2012. I had previously talked about the studio and a free album they published in Arcadia. Many game companies have come and gone in the past 25 years, it is rare to find a group that has not only survived the generations but has also maintained quality in their productions.

To celebrate Taito is publishing the Cozmo album which is a collection of the best from Zuntata. Arcade classics, console and handheld releases all appear on the album. From Battle Gear to Darius Burst, all of the catchy melodies are on the album. Check the track listing on the website and if there is a Japanese bookstore near you be sure to order a copy for yourself!

Do you ever play punching games in the arcade? If so which is your favorite? Do you have a favorite music team, or an underrated music team in gaming? I'd like to hear about it.

I bet you thought I was going to talk about the other Sonic announcement with this blog. But I'm not. Here is the video of Sonic with Sonic? 

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Muscle Bomber - the Capcom wrestling series, part 3

Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters had moderate success in the arcade. It certainly had a following among wrestling game fans. Capcom learned a lot from the reception of the first title. They made a few tweaks, added more multiplayer options, and released the Muscle Bomber Duo upgrade. As fun as it was, and as well as the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo version sold they knew that they had to change their approach for a proper sequel. Muscle Bomber had the control, and gameplay of a brawler-meets-wrestling game. If you had played any of the classic Capcom brawlers; Final Fight, Captain Commando, the King of Dragons, Warriors of Fate, Alien vs Predator, etc. then you could instantly pick up and play Muscle Bomber. The downside was that brawler fans were used to fighting waves of opponents, rather than one person for minutes on end. It felt kind of stale in that regard. Of course in the early ‘90s the brawler had also taken a back seat to the fighting game. Capcom needed to approach their wrestling sequel from a completely new angle.

The first thing the studio did was decide that Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout needed to be a fighting game. The sprites, control, and animation from the first game were easily adapted for 2D combat. The levels themselves also had to change drastically. In the original MB the matches were supposed to take place all around the world. The problem was that the stages all looked the same with the exception of the colors of the ropes, and ring. In Final Fight, and the other brawlers actually made players feel like they were traveling to new locations. Super Muscle Bomber would have a few traditional-looking rings, however every background was original. For example the British giant Titan the Great fought inside a palace, with the Queen of England in attendance. The Russian Aleksey Zalazof fought in the snow, and the mat was made of ice. The wild Missing “IQ” Gomez fought in the jungle, with ropes made of vines. As with other great fighting games every stage told a story through its details. Unlike the first game Capcom made sure that the audiences were unique in each stage. Some mats were made of metal, wood, or stone, and some of the ropes were replaced with chains.

The other, and more important visual edit that Capcom did was return to Tetsuo Hara’s original designs. They were featured in all of the win, and loss character profiles. Unfortunately there were no makeovers for the original sprites. All of the sprites from the first game were brought over. They were created by the Capcom art team, and had the softer edge of all the classic Capcom brawlers. The new characters introduced for Super Muscle Bomber were much bolder. They had the proportions, muscularity, and shading that we had come to expect from Mr. Hara’s renders. For example the former CWA champion Victor Ortega returned, this time as a playable character. Capcom stuck closely to Mr. Hara’s original design which was previously only seen in the opening animation of the Super Famicom version of MB. For Super Muscle Bomber Capcom created what was arguably the most muscular sprite ever. His proportions were nowhere near the way that they presented him in the ending scene of the original Muscle Bomber. To show that he was competing fairly in the tournament he was designed wearing armored trunks, and not the CWA belt.

Two of the new characters; Rip Saber, and The Wraith were members of the Blood Wrestling Association. They would be joining Astro, and Kimala the Bouncer in trying to takeover the CWA. The BWA characters were reflective of the “hardcore” wrestling movement. This really took off in Japan first in the early ‘90s with promotions like Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), and then later in the US with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Many wrestling purists in Japan considered this garbage wrestling. Mr. Hara saw a lot of potential to make over-the-top, almost Hokuto no Ken-type villains, for Capcom with these new BWA opponents.

Hardcore wrestlers were notorious for bleeding in matches. They would use foreign objects at every opportunity to cut each other open. Light tubes, panes of glass, razor wire, and cinder blocks were often used to beat each other half to death. The former soldier Rip Saber was one such dirty character. He would hack at opponents with his combat shovel. He would also toss grenades at opponents, similar to Rolento, one of the bosses in Final Fight. The Wraith was a different kind of hardcore wrestler. He was akin to the original Sheik, or his nephew Sabu. He was a callback to the reckless foreign wrestlers. The Wraith used his height, and ghoul-like powers to absolutely shred opponents. We would see lots of pro wrestling characters over the decades, but Mr. Hara was ahead of the curve when he included hardcore archetypes into a fighting game way back in 1993. We wouldn’t see these types of villains again until Exodus from ARIKA’s Fighting Layer in 1998.

The other thing Mr. Hara was known for was creating eccentric fighters. Hokuto no Ken was known for its hyper masculine designs, and story. There were however many characters that were effeminate, had long hair, and wore makeup in the series as well. They were supposed to conjure images of the glam metal bands like Poison, and Mötley Crüe. In other cases the homoerotic overtones were very obvious, especially with characters like Yuda. That didn’t always translate to anime, but it did let audiences know that sometimes the most beautiful fighters were also the most dangerous. Mr. Hara wanted to throw a curveball into the new lineup with this logic. Missing “IQ” Gomez was the strange character in the first game. Super Muscle Bomber needed another odd character. Thus he gave us a lanky, androgynous wrestler named Black Widow.

B. Widow had a strange latex-like costume, and mask. She was tall too, 6’ 7” to be precise. This made her taller than most of the lineup including Sheep the Royal. She was a hair taller than Mike Haggar, Kimala the Bouncer, and even Victor Ortega. Of course the game had actual giants. The Wraith was 7’ 2”, and Titan the Great was 7’ 9.” B. Widow was muscular, but lean. She moved awkwardly, and had strange poses. She also had an odd digitized voice that we could hear before, and after matches. These things made her sex, and gender hard to figure out. Every other character had a deep masculine voice in the game. We wouldn’t see B. Widow’s true identity until the end of the game. She took off her mask and revealed that she was the only female in the tournament. As Mr. Hara was well versed in wrestling history I would argue that he based her on Mariko Yoshida. Audiences wouldn’t see another massive female in the Street Fighter universe until 2023 when we got Marisa in Street Fighter 6. She by the way was 6’ 8”.

The new character designs, and stages were welcome, but that there was much more to making a good fighting game. The animation, and balance were decent in MB, but it needed a lot of refinement for Super MB. This was especially true if it were to appeal to fans of Street Fighter. The other thing that the game needed were special attacks. Muscle Bomber wasn’t just a wrestling game, it had to have characters, and moves that were every bit as amazing as the ones in Street Fighter. If Ken, and Ryu were head-and-shoulders above the greatest karate masters ever, then how much better did the Mysterious Budo have to be over other Japanese wrestlers? Or how much more of a high flyer did El Stinger have to be when compared to the greatest lucha libre enmascarados? Thankfully Capcom had answered this right away. Every character in the original Muscle Bomber had a special attack that were plausibly impossible. These attacks were expanded in Super MB. Some characters had sweeps, and tackles. Many had spinning grapples that would have made Zangief proud. Some even had ranged attacks. Black Widow for example had a fireball-like ranged web attack that allowed her to stun, and even draw opponents closer. This move predated Ed’s “Psycho Snatcher” special attack in Street Fighter V.

Capcom, and their fans certainly believed in their game. They made sure to promote it on the convention circuit, and all of the media outlets. The publisher made a few rare collectables, including some posters, and small plastic figures. They even made plush figures that could be found in crane games. These items were mainly Japanese exclusives. Sadly the following that Capcom hoped for never materialized. The bar that Street Fighter II set was impossibly high to beat. Well to be honest, the bar that Super SFII set was high. It addressed the control, combo, balance issues from earlier SFII releases (Champion, Turbo). It was obvious how much better Super MB was when compared to the first edition of SFII. The Muscle Bomber series would build a cult following, but it was not the massive hit that the company wanted it to be. It would remain a fondly remembered title to audiences from the arcade generation. Like Rival Schools, Star Gladiator, Power Stone, and other gems from the studio, the hope for a reboot was the only thing that remained.

I was a big fan of the series. It married my love of the Street Fighter universe, pro wrestling, and the art of Tetsuo Hara. I never collected too may Muscle Bomber items, aside from the guides. I hoped to get all the plush figures someday. The MB item from my collection that I’m most proud of was a poster of the original release. Capcom didn’t design too many posters for it, especially when compared to the number that they released for SFII. Sadly there was never a Super Muscle Bomber poster to the best of my knowledge. I spent years hunting down the Ortega poster because it featured the original Tetsuo Hara art. More important it featured his original design for the CWA championship belt. As an obsessive fan of Street Fighter I made myself a promise. One day I would own a replica of that belt. Going back to 2008 I started work on an illustration of it. Little by little I spent more than a decade on that piece. I recreated as many tiny details as I could pull from screen grabs. This was in the hopes that I could get my vector file to a belt maker someday. I didn’t touch that illustration again until a few years ago. It was because my working conditions had changed dramatically.

The office that I used to travel to had closed down due to COVID-19. Half the staff was moved to Canada. Many friends, and coworkers were let go. Those that remained were put on remote access. After years of working from home I could feel myself going stir crazy. No matter how many games I played, or how much I wrote, or drew it just didn’t feel rewarding. I knew that I needed an extra special treat to break out of the depression cycle. I bit the bullet, and got the blessing of my wife to commission a belt maker. Not long after I was holding the CWA title. It was perfect down to the tiniest detail. I wish I could share with you the feeling that it gave me. One day I hope to go to a fighting game tournament in either Zangief, or Mike Haggar cosplay with it. It would be great to see you there.

I also have a long-term goal. Many years from now I’d like to visit Japan with my family. If there was a chance that Mr. Hara would autograph the belt then I would bring it with me in a heartbeat. I think it’s good to set goals, but it’s also fun to have dreams. If I can get enough people talking about Muscle Bomber then maybe we’ll see some wrestlers turn up in the Street Fighter series again. What do you think? Should Capcom take another crack at this game, or perhaps other fighters like Vampire / Darkstalkers, and Rival Schools? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Muscle Bomber - the Capcom wrestling series, part 2

Through most of the ‘80s, and ‘90s there were many gaming magazines in Japan covering all of the latest releases. Famitsu was among the biggest covering the entire industry. Then there were the magazines that focused on specific consoles, like the Famicom / Nintendo Entertainment System, Mega Drive / Sega Genesis, Playstation, etc. These magazines often featured interviews with the developers, in addition to previews, and reviews of the latest releases. One of my favorite magazines was Gamest. It was focused on the arcade industry. The best part of the magazine was how it did deep dives on each game, and would write detailed strategy guides. These magazine-type guides were called Mooks, for magazine-books. Gamest also had a monthly manga series where many of the fighting games were serialized. These were among the earliest places where fans could find out the canon of their favorite games. Not every game got an official guide for the arcade, and even less had its story fleshed out, and universe explained.

I was able to pick up a lot of material on fighting games from the local import bookstores in the early ‘90s. I was a fan of Hokuto no Ken, and was fascinated with Tetsuo Hara’s design work for Muscle Bomber. Especially since it was an extension of Final Fight, and Street Fighter, which were highly influential to me. Unfortunately it was hard to find any information about the game when it was in arcades. As far as I know there was never an arcade guide published, however when it came to the home consoles I managed to hit the jackpot. Various publishers in Japan would cover console guides. Sometimes there would be small guides, or previews in their magazines. Shonen Jump (Boy’s Jump) comics had a video game journal called V-Jump. It mostly covered home releases. I was thankful to have been at the right place, at the right time. I was visiting the Japanese bookstore in Little Tokyo with my friends, and brothers in the ‘90s when I spotted a gem. V-Jump was previewing Muscle Bomber for the Super Famicom, and covering the various changes between the arcade, and home versions. Shortly after they published a formal guide where they revealed the entire story. I managed to pick both up on sale, and held onto them for the next 30 years.

Final Fight had a very specific set of heroes, villains, and story. It would be canonized over several games by Capcom. Street Fighter by comparison had a more open-ended interpretation. Which characters actually fought against each other? Which ones had crossed paths, who were friends, or enemies? These things were explored in various game endings, manga, anime, and comic books. Some stories from Japan contradicted other stories from China, or the USA. This made a definitive timeline of events hard to agree on. Muscle Bomber on the other hand actually had an entire mythos planned out. It all started many years ago. There was a merger between various wrestling organizations, and the Capcom Wrestling Association (CWA) was born. The very first champion was Victor Ortega. The massive wrestler steamrolled his opponents. Once he ran out of competition he simply disappeared.

With Ortega out of the picture there was a power vacuum between the different organizations. To make things worse there was a rival group called the Blood Wrestling Association (BWA) that was trying to take over the sport. This group was founded by illegal gambling outfits. Leadership of the BWA was assumed by a masked wrestler called Astro. He was literally from parts unknown. He knew various forms of marital arts, his body glowed with electricity, and no one knew his true identity. He was arguably the coolest wrestler ever featured in the SF universe. His number two was the massive Kimala the Bouncer. The 440 lb. bruiser loved nothing more than making his opponents bleed. The duo had entered themselves into what was called the Crash Carnival.

It was decided that each league would send their best representative in order to determine who would become the new CWA champion. There were fighters from around the world; El Stinger from the MWA - Mexican Lucha Libre Association, the Mysterious Budo from the AJA - Asia Japan Wrestling Association, Missing “IQ” Gomez from the AWF - American Wrestling Federation (Dominican Republic / Santo Domingo), Lucky Colt from the NWA - North American Wrestling Association. As well as Kimala who I just mentioned. You can imagine that each person fought their way to the top of the ladder in their native country. Who knows how many other memorable characters were waiting in their various organizations, or if Capcom was ever planning on featuring them?

Then there was Aleksey Zalazof from the RWA - Russian Wrestling Association, the sadistic Sheep the Royal from the OWF - Oceana Wrestling Federation, our favorite mayor Mike “Macho” Haggar from the AWF - American Wrestling Federation, Titan the Great from the EWF - England Wrestling Federation, and Astro the champion from the BWA. There were a lot of different personalities on display. Tetsuo Hara created a good cross section of the different wrestling archetypes. There were brawlers, technical performers, high flyers, hardcore, and submission experts in the lineup. It was up to the players to learn the nuances between each of the characters.

Matches observed the traditional rules of pro wrestling. The majority of the fighting took place within the confines of the ring. Players however could roll under the ropes, and take the action to the outside. There they could make use of foreign objects. A match could be won by a three-count pin, submission, or if the opponent was counted out of the ring. There was a referee in the matches, the highly respected Harry Hicks. Harry would be traveling the globe with the finalists of the tournament, and help crown the new CWA champion. He wasn’t the only supporting member of the Crash Carnival. Mike Haggar was accompanied by his daughter Jessica who had been nicknamed the Pretty Doll. We had last seen her in Final Fight, when she was rescued by Mike, Cody, and Guy. The other valet was a bit unusual, a cute monkey named Freak. Missing “IQ” Gomez (relabeled King Rasta Mon in the US) was a wild man that lived in the jungles of Santo Domingo. He had a short fuze, and was known for freaking out in the ring. His wild nature served him well. He lived with the apes, and one in particular named Freak was like a brother to him. It turned out that Freak was a genius, he had an IQ of over 200, and could understand most languages. He helped Gomez come up with strategies against his opponents. All of this was explained in the official Crash Carnival program.

Muscle Bomber introduced a number of elements into the Capcom fighters that would be expanded upon in future games. Since the birth of the genre a character would typically appear on each stage, and start fighting once prompted. They might walk in from off camera, sometimes there was a ref, sometimes there wasn’t. Most titles from Capcom, and their contemporaries started the action in a similar fashion. The Crash Carnival was treated like an actual wrestling show. Before each match we had the rivals talk about what they were going to do to their opponent. Then we saw a ring entrance, reminiscent of the biggest promotions. There were pyrotechnics going off, fireworks, smoke, and lasers lights flashing as the wrestlers walked out of the backstage area. After the match the crowd would go wild. If you were playing as Mike Haggar sometimes Jessica would run into the ring, and celebrate with her father. We even had commentary from the victor, and loser. Again these things were very similar to what was shown in actual wrestling shows. These special intros, and animations predated the elements that would appear in Street Fighter’s IV, V, and 6 by years, if not decades.

I would argue that working on Muscle Bomber, and its successors Muscle Bomber Duo, and Super Muscle bomber really affected the approach that the Capcom art team had with stages, animation, game play, and especially character designs. They saw firsthand that the more a character was stylized the stronger the reaction was from audiences. Aesthetics had a lot to do with how players responded to the game. If a design was bold, and unlike the work from rival companies, then it would help the game stand apart from the competition. The hyper muscular wrestlers in Muscle Bomber demonstrated that. The question was how would that lesson be applied to Street Fighter? We would get our answer as BENGUS became the lead on SF Zero which was being developed during the tail end of working on Super Muscle Bomber. Nobody had seen work as brilliant as his. This was doubly true when Vampire / Darkstalkers was released. The exaggerated proportions that BENGUS used in SF Zero would not only influence contemporary studios, but also the animation, and comic book industry for years to come.

The publisher also wanted to make sure that audiences understood the relationship between Street Fighter, Final Fight, and now Muscle Bomber. Every game was taking place in a shared universe. It wasn’t enough that Mike Haggar had appeared in all three games. The company wanted to make sure that stages reflected locations visited in the various games. Places like Metro City, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, and Thailand were all revisited in Zero, and its sequels. Even in rare character art it was revealed that there was specific overlap between games. For example Birdie was a British punk from the original SF. Titan the Great had actually partnered with him for tag team matches in the EWF. The duo were known as the 500 Million Trillion Powers.

A more direct connection was made during Street Fighter III: Giant Attack. The wrestler Hugo was scouring the world looking for a tag team partner. His manager Poison accompanied him at each stop. At the end of the game he finally settled on a match. The game actually gave us four possible endings depending on who the last person was that he fought. Ryu, Necro, Gill, and Elena were all possible tag members, each with a unique tag name. The ending even mentioned that they were in the CWA Tag Tournament, against one of two teams. The US, and Russian team of Aleksey Zalazof and Lucky Colt, or the team of Mike Haggar and Black Widow. B. Widow was the only female Muscle Bomber character designed by Tetsuo Hara. She would appear in Super Muscle Bomber. This inter-gender team was used if Elena was Hugo’s partner. But I digress…

The original Crash Carnival event was designed to crown the new CWA Champion. In the ending of Muscle Bomber your character was given the belt, and also a few tournament trophies reminiscent of actual championships. In any other game that would have been the end of it. Some wrestling games would usually have you defend your title against all of the other characters one more time before the actual ending. This title was a little different. Mr. Hara, and Capcom were keenly aware that a good storyline is what kept pro wrestling fans coming back. Just as your character was celebrating a new rival popped up. Victor Ortega, the former CWA champion had returned from the shadows. He was wearing a decorated cape, and standing ringside. He said that in order to claim the title you had to defeat him.

Microphone drop moments like this were expected in every major wrestling promotion. Fans would tune in every week for years on end just to see how the story for their favorite wresters shaped up. For the case of Ortega his return was an unexpected surprise. He also had a valid point. He was never defeated in the ring, he simply disappeared after all the worthy opponents had dried up. The organization assumed that he had abdicated the belt. Technically he was still the true CWA champion. This was when Capcom revealed that the first Crash Carnival was just to determine the qualifiers for the CWA championship. They traveled the world finding the best from the various promotions. Now with Ortega in the mix the battle for the actual CWA title would be decided in the next tournament. We would find out who the true king of the ring was in the events of the arcade sequel called Super Muscle Bomber.

We will explore this title, and the legacy that Capcom left in the next blog. Did you ever play this game? Were you a fan of the series, or pro wrestling? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Muscle Bomber - the Capcom wrestling series, part 1

The developers at Capcom that brought us the early hits were heavily influenced by pop culture. The movies, manga, and anime that they grew up with helped shape the creation of their games. One of the most influential manga, and anime shows that influenced the creation of Street Fighter (as well as World Heroes, and many other titles) was Hokuto no Ken (HNK), better known in the USA as Fist of the North Star. The manga issues were published by Shonen Jump from 1983-1988, it would be collected, and translated into multiple languages over the next 30+ years. It was so successful that it got a 109 episode TV series from 1984-1987, and an additional 43 episodes from 1987-1988. Not to mention an anime movie in 1986. It should not be understated how important that series was in shaping the tastes, and presentation of games coming out of Capcom.

For those unfamiliar with HNK, it was a post-apocalyptic story that revolved around Kenshiro, the master of Hokuto Shinken. It was a fictional martial art that allowed practitioners to control the pressure points, or meridians of a person. Kenshiro wandered the wastes, righting wrongs with his bare hands. He could cause body parts to explode with a few touches. His victims, often marauding gang member had grisly deaths. Their arms, and legs would break backwards, heads would split open, with bones, and brain shooting in every possible direction. The violence in the series was very graphic, even with a lot of censorship, and selective edits the anime shows were almost as gory as the manga. The series was more than just violence, a very colorful cast of heroes, and villains were as memorable as the biggest comic book stars. Most of the characters influenced the designs coming from Japan, and the West for decades.

The series was illustrated by Tetsuo Hara, and written by Buronson. The duo didn’t just create a fantastic manga, they shaped pop culture for years to come. Hokuto no Ken ranked among the most successful properties ever created. As far as brands went it had generated some $22 billion in revenue. This was of course split across licensors, and not the creators themselves. The comics inspired many games over the years. I had discussed Hokuto no Ken in the history of the brawler. There were even a few fighting games in the arcade, and home consoles based on HNK. The most successful franchises however were influenced by the series, rather than based on it. Nowhere else was this more apparent than with Capcom, and the development of Street Fighter.

The first Street Fighter was inspired by the real world adventures of master karate fighters Mas Oyama, and Yoshiji Soeno. The karate hero had a redesign for SFII, and had become more of an action star. Early concept art had Ryu ditch the karate gi for a costume more like Kenshiro’s. The similarities didn’t end there. The giant characters in Hokuto no Ken influenced the creation of giants in the Street Fighter series. Even the villains like Rolento was inspired by Colonel from HNK. Meaning the series had influenced the world of Street Fighter, and Final Fight through the ‘80s, and early ‘90s. Some of the influences were subtle, and others were very overt. Look at the official art for Vega / Dictator, he was posed just like Raoh, the ultimate rival to Kenshiro.

In 1991 Street Fighter II put the fighting genre on the map. Capcom couldn’t release updates to the game, and begin developing home ports fast enough. At the same time they wanted to strike while the market was hot. The publisher wanted expand their library of fighters, but without cutting into the success of SF. They were successful, and experienced with brawler games, but needed something that played more than a fighter. They were indebted to Tetsuo Hara for his influence on their biggest hits. They decided to work with him on a new project. The publisher looked at what might work in that format, but wouldn’t take people away from their hit. The wrestling game was an obvious solution, and Capcom owed Tetsuo Hara some work. They asked him to design the cast of characters. These fighters would be set in the shared universe of Street Fighter, and Final Fight. The game would be called Muscle Bomber (MB). It would spark the creation of a trilogy.

Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion came out in 1993, Muscle Bomber Duo came out later that same year, and Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout debuted in 1994. Muscle Bomber Duo was an expansion to the original game, sort of like Turbo was for Street Fighter. Duo added tag team matches to the story of the original. The first two MB games in the series were not well known to many arcade visitors. The mix of wrestling, brawler, and fighting game moves didn’t capture the magic of Street Fighter. The third game in the series Super Muscle Bomber played more like a traditional fighting game. It was a rarely seen cabinet, and not really known to the majority of first generation SF fans. When the games were being brought over to the US the studio renamed it Saturday Night Slam Masters. This was most likely due to the popular late night WWF (WWE) show Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Capcom made sure to get the collaboration in front of as many gaming outlets as they good. All of the magazines, and even weekly manga anthologies made sure to write about the father of Hokuto no Ken creating a library of wrestlers for the Street Fighter universe. The stakes for this new franchise were pretty high after all. During development of SFII Capcom had more people working on designs than at any other point in time. Each employee poured their heart, and soul into a the fighters. Countless revisions were made in order to ensure that The World Warriors were as strong as they could be. They built a following in the few years they were around. The challenge was whether or not Mr. Hara’s style worked for the genre, and if he could make anybody as memorable. Audiences were worried that his style of art, his character work had become dated. After HNK the artist worked on a feudal-era piece called Hana no Keiji / The Flowery Keiji, between 1990 - 1993. It didn’t have the same impact as his previous series.

It turned out that Mr. Hara was more than up for the challenge. He let the various outlets know that he was a huge fan of pro wrestling. He wasn’t just familiar with the happenings in Japan, but also with international wrestlers as well. It was apparent that many of the villains in HNK were based on actual wrestlers. For example King Heart was inspired in part on Abdullah the Butcher. This deep understanding translated to the game. Sheep the Royal was based on Big Van Vader, and Victor Ortega was inspired by ‘70s wrestling icons like Superstar Billy Graham, Jessie “the Body” Ventura, and Hulk Hogan. Fans of Mr. Hara’s work noticed that although his concept art was used in magazine articles, and the game cover, it was not seen in the actual game itself. All of his work was redone by the staff at Capcom, I think it was Kinu Nishimura in a number of portraits. I’m sure these changes disappointed Mr. Hara. I’d like to think there was a backlash for this change from fans, as well as some of the developers when the game was published. When the game was adapted for the Super Famicom / Super Nintendo, they made sure to go back to all of the original art.

This was not to knock the Capcom art team. After all they had Akiman, SHOEI, Sensei, Bengus, and other icons. However the wrestlers that they presented were watered-down versions of what had been promised in previews. Mr. Hara stood out from his manga, and even US contemporaries, by creating hyper masculine figures. He predated, and influenced Karate Apocalypse, Berserk, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Grappler Baki, and Toriko to name a few. His heroes, and villains were not only strong, they had bodybuilder physiques. They were far more swollen than any other heroes on the market. It was no where more apparent than with the introduction of Victor Ortega, the first Capcom Wrestling Association (CWA) champion. He was featured in the intro animation.

In the arcade he was strong, but not absurdly huge. The original arcade intro version of Victor seemed anemic compared to what Mr. Hara had designed. The studio not only returned the original character profiles from Mr. Hara in the Super Famicom version. They also redid the intro animation to match Mr. Hara’s vision. The story, and characters of Muscle Bomber were fleshed out by Mr. Hara, and Capcom in far greater detail than either Final Fight or Street Fighter. Audiences wouldn’t know the full story until the game hit home consoles. We will dig into this in the next blog. Did you ever play this game? Were you a fan of the series, or pro wrestling? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

30 years of Street Fighter: 30 years of Characters #15

If you plan on going into battle make sure you are ready for war. Today we celebrate Rolento; the Mad Gear boss that is actually a mercenary and one of the most wily Street Fighters that you will ever come across. Rolento is easily one of the most memorable characters in the universe for reasons you might not be aware of. I had previously mentioned how military design works in fighting games. With the introduction of the character Falke in Street Fighter V I spoke a little bit about other military-inspired designs in fighting games. The Ikari Warriors; Ralf and Clark. Leona, Whip and Heidern all had military cues. Heidern specifically had something in common with Rolento. Both characters were a call out to a villain from Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star. A deranged mercenary known as the Colonel was terrorizing post-apocalypse survivors. He had a beret and wore an eye patch. He moved stealthily, leaving a trail of shadows behind him, he was also a master of hand-to-hand combat. There were other military characters in the series like Sargent Mad but the Colonel seemed to leave a lasting impression on the designers at Capcom and SNK.

Rolento made his debut in Final Fight. He was the top ranking Mad Gear boss, second only to the founder Belger. Rolento fought with a staff and moved very quickly all over the screen. He would leave a blur of shadows in his wake, just like the Colonel, before dropping a dozen grenades on his opponents. This made for a difficult fight when compared to the previous bosses. He turned up again in Final Fight 2 and the fighting game Final Fight Revenge. His unique library of moves carried over into Street Fighter Zero / Alpha 2, when Rolento officially entered the Street Fighter tournament. Rolento was possibly the most proficient character in the universe with a weapon. Whether it was a knife, staff, tripwire or grenade, he could use them all with deadly precision.

It was Rolento's mentality that made him stand out in the universe. He approached every fight with a win-at-all-costs attitude, even when battling young girls and pro wrestlers that weren't a threat to his rule. He was a fighter with lethal efficiency that made use of his weapons and environment. He could ambush his opponents with a wire and strangle them, the move was called Take No Prisoners. Fellow mercenaries and Mad Gear members El Gato (sometimes written as El Gado) and Holly Wood waited in the rafters with a hook and knife to help trap opponents. Rolento was the type of madman that worked well in the Street Fighter universe. That is why I'm happy to bring him up for this 30th anniversary series. I hope that someday in the future his rivalry with Doctrine Dark and Guile is reignited. As always if you enjoyed this blog and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

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

Hugo was a true giant, and a template for many of the great design elements that used to be a part of  the Street Fighter series. He was the second largest ever Street Fighter. At 7' 10" he was just a hair shorter than Abigail. The developers used a number of tricks to make him appear larger-than-life but still relatable. Even when they weren't playable characters in a game the giants were hard to ignore. Andore along with a few Mad Gear members appeared in the ending for Sodom in Street Fighter Zero. Both Andore and Abigail appeared in the Metro City background in Street Fighter Zero 2. To make them appear more imposing they were set apart from each other and framed by their surroundings. Andore stood by himself on top of a stack of I-beams, adding a few extra feet to his presence. Abigail was headbanging at the end of a dark alley, his fellow gang members squatting down next to him so he appeared taller. Even though they were in the distance they remained menacing.

   

These stages also served to tell a story. The events of Final Fight happened during the timeline in between Street Fighter Zero (SFZ) 2 and 3. Jessica had not been kidnapped during SFZ1 and 2. Cody was in jail for throwing Belger out of his skyscraper during SFZ3. Fans of the Final Fight games remember the bad blood that the Mad Gear gang had with Cody, Haggar and Guy. The subtext of having everyone on the level gave audiences a strong sense of nostalgia. At the same time Andore was getting tired of being a mid-level Mad Gear member. He wanted to be recognized. Poison Kiss, a fellow Mad Gear member, decided he should be a pro wrestler and became his manager. The stage backgrounds evolved from Andore sulking in the background to eventually show Hugo as a star on a billboard. The groundwork was set for his debut as a full blown pro wrestler in Street Fighter III. A US development team even took a crack at making a Final Fight fighting game with a similar narrative. Final Fight Revenge was released in 1999.

   

Kinu Nishimura and Daigo Ikeno worked on a number of the Street Fighter III designs. They wanted Hugo to be the new powerhouse, the new Zangief, since only Ken and Ryu were originally meant to return from Street Fighter II. This giant was supposed to use a different play mechanic than Zangief. He was going to play different, move different and thanks to Kinu and Ikeno he was going to look different as well. The basic appearance of Hugo would be the same as it was in the original Final Fight. His look had actually changed a little over the sequels. In Final Fight 2 he sported overalls and in Final Fight 3 he had a white tank-top and dread-locked hair. The pink leopard print tank top and pants returned from the first Final Fight. The large mane of hair, a nod to the early hairstyle of Andre the Giant, had also returned. His inclusion was supposed to rekindle a sense of nostalgia for the legacy characters. Most people didn't notice the number of changes the studio actually made to his design.

   

The new details that Capcom placed on the character were actually enhancing a few elements of his original look. Most Street Fighter characters wore gloves or taped up hands. Hugo was given a studded wrist guard to make his arms look less bare. The chain on his belt became much thicker and more industrial. It now looked more like a heavy duty towing chain, or anchor chain. The most overlooked details were his pants and boots. Hugo was not only tall but he was very heavy. His pants and shoes were actually two large pairs that were sewn together so they could fit him. The cuffs on his pants had belt loops and a belt to highlight that his ankles were as thick as most people's waists. His boots were split down the middle because they were a left and right pair combined to fit each foot. As with all of the great character designs, Hugo's costume told a story.

   

Although Hugo was supposed to be in the original Street Fighter III: New Generation (1997) his sprite wasn't ready until Street Fighter III: Giant Attack later that year. After the events of Street Fighter Zero/Alpha he had accomplished his goals of being a top draw on the wrestling circuit and leaving behind the Mad Gear persona. He achieved a number of championships as a pro wrestler during the events of Street Fighter III: Third Strike in 1999 and Final Fight Revenge. The character had greatly evolved since his debut in 1989 but when a new development team took over at Capcom things changed. When Hugo reappeared in Street Fighter X Tekken (2012) and Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014) he had mentally regressed. The new developers made a conscious decision to dumb him down considerably. Poison had done most of the talking for Hugo but at the same time he could still form his own ideas and opinions in the series. Almost overnight he was turned into a bumbling idiot, like Abigail, and that was a shame. Being a dumb brute was never part of their original designs.

   

The people working on Street Fighter IV and V did not always preserve the character's original designs while updating their look. In some cases they haphazardly slapped together elements that had nothing to do with the fighter. Just look at the changes they made to the character Birdie. Compare the newer costume details placed on Hugo with those placed on Abigail. To let audiences know he was a punk rather than a wrestler they gave him a spiked collar (he originally had a chain around his neck). To show off his size they put truck tires around his biceps. Then hung car tires from his belt and gave him rings made out of small tires. They even printed tire marks on his pants, as if someone tried to run him over. Stealing a page out of Hugo's design they put a belt around his ankles. None of these things were part of Abigail's original design, none of these things were functional in battle and none of these things had the same subtlety of the other Street Fighter costume designs. Remember that Abigail wasn't always a moron. He was a fighter, and he had a temper, but he wasn't an idiot. He was very high up in the chain of command, only Rolento outranked him in Metro City's Mad Gear organization. But you know... tires!

   

Another major difference between Hugo and Abigail in Street Fighter was seen with their inclusion. Abigail was a huge 3D model that was put in Street Fighter V as a spectacle. He took up so much space on the screen he was hard to ignore. His mass offset the scale of the rest of the cast, including Zangief. But Hugo was presented with more forethought in Street Fighter III, he didn't detract from the rest of the lineup. In Final Fight he battled while standing perfectly straight. This made him appear much larger than his opponents, which he clearly was, but it wasn't practical in a fight. He didn't have the flexibility or range of motion of his opponents. Guy was way more agile and even Mike Haggar could run circles around him. In SF III he was only shown a few times standing straight up, these were in some introduction poses and in the ending screen.

   

When the match started in Street Fighter III he actually squatted down and got into a sort of grappling pose. He lacked the techniques of veteran wrestlers but it showed that he had gotten much better at fighting since his Final Fight days. Hugo was still a little bit clumsy in Street Fighter III. Audiences could tell this in his animations. He shifted his weight awkwardly as he advanced. His steps were heavy and flat-footed. He didn’t move on the balls of his feet like a pro fighter would. He relied on power rather than technique. If he had the experience of somebody like Zangief or Darun Mister then he would have dominated the Street Fighter tournament. But since he didn’t there were ways for smaller and faster opponents to get the best of him. When he wasn’t fighting the developers liked to remind audiences of how awe-inspiring the giant was.

   

When Hugo stood straight up the top of his head almost touched the top of the screen, none of the other characters were even remotely this tall. Audiences could tell the character was big but they didn’t realize how big until they saw his game ending. In SFIII Giant Attack he had four alternate endings. In each one he was partnered up with a different opponent; Ryu, Elena, Necro and even the boss character Gill. Each tag team even had a unique nickname. For example Hugo and Elena made up Beauty and the Beast, whereas Hugo and Ryu made up the Soul Brothers. When the characters stood side-by-side it appeared as if Hugo were twice as tall and four times as heavy as his partners. His back was as broad as a double door and quite muscular. The stylized art helped sell the incredible scale of the figures while still keeping them consistent with the universe. This was the benefit of two-dimensional art. The designers could play with the proportions of the characters without losing the sense of realism. It was a trick that they picked up from manga and animé.

   

Tetsuo Hara introduced a number of unique manga rules in the Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star series. Something he showed artists was that the scale of a character did not have to be consistent as long as it served the story. In the post-apocalyptic series Kenshiro often ran into roving gangs filled with giants. The scale of these villains was flexible. In some panels the bad guys looked like they were 10-feet tall, then a page later they appeared as if they were 30-feet tall. Mr. Hara would jump back and fourth between the different sizes depending on what he was trying to convey. In many instances he would highlight just one physical feature. There would be a close-up of a giant head behind Kenshiro so that it looked like he could bite the hero in half. Then in another panel it might be the hands of the giant engulfing the main character.

   

Often times when Kenshiro beat the giant the scene would be drawn from a distance showing that the bad guy wasn’t really the size of King Kong. These visual tricks made the odds seem greater for the hero of the story. Masahiko Nakahira wrote and drew a number of Capcom’s greatest Street Fighter stories in Japan. He was clearly aware of how influential Tetsuo Hara was to the development of Street Fighter II and III. In the Ryu Final manga he used many of the same techniques when featuring Hugo. In some panels he appeared to be several stories tall, capable of stepping over buildings. Then in other panels he seemed closer to his in-game size. Mr. Nakahira wanted to show how easily a giant could manhandle Ryu by messing around with the scale of the character. The thing that saved Ryu was his superior techniques. His relentless training could overpower any opponent, especially since Hugo lacked discipline.

   

The Street Fighter games could never take the same artistic liberties that Mr. Hara and Mr. Nakahira used. Audiences would be furious if characters changed size in between rounds. The distorted scale of hands and feet during special attacks made Street Fighter EX and Final Fight Revenge seem awkward. But that did not stop the designers at Capcom from pushing the envelope with massive characters. The company created a library of giants through the ‘90s. The studio learned that they could create bosses with different body shapes. Yes the majority were hyper-muscular but take a closer look at them. Some had a broad torso, they were as wide as they were tall. Others stood up straight or were hunched over masking their true size. The majority of these people appeared in the Final Fight series. If you look at the size of the heroes and villains you’ll notice that they didn’t always match up. Mike Haggar for example was the tallest and strongest of the good guys in the Final Fight trilogy. He stood 6’ 6” and weighed about 233 lbs. In Final Fight 2 just about every boss was larger than him even though they were listed as being smaller in the official material.

   

Freddie for example possibly had the broadest chest and thickest torso of any Mad Gear boss. This mercenary stood 6’ 4” and weighed 408 lbs. but his sprite was almost a head taller than Mike. Then there was Bratken, the Mad Gear boss that looked like Frankenstein’s monster. He was one of the largest sprites in the game but according to cannon he was 6’ 7” and 434 lbs. One inch of difference between he and Haggar meant a lot to Capcom of Japan. Then there was Won Won. Another of Mad Gear’s tallest bosses was 7’ 4” and an astonishing 450 lbs. Yet he was so muscular he couldn’t stand up straight, similar to Abubo in Rage of the Dragons. So his sprite was actually a little shorter than Bratken. Audiences could tell that the curve in his spine robbed him of his true size. Freddie was a tactical fighter whereas Bratken was a reckless brawler, locked away until he was needed. Won Won ran the streets of Hong Kong and chopped those who opposed Mad Gear in half with his cleaver. None of the bosses were ever presented as being stupid. There was too much at stake for betraying the gang. You couldn’t be stupid and be a boss at the same time.

   

From a design standpoint making someone gigantic worked best when used on the bad guys. From a storytelling perspective it also made sense. Audiences rooted for the underdog. It was hard to make someone like Abigail the main hero in Final Fight because he could steamroll his opponents. This rule worked especially well in the Street Fighter series. Just look at how intimidating Sagat was by design. A seven-foot, dark-skinned, bald, eyepatch-wearing, Muay Thai monster. People couldn’t help but cheer for the tiny Ryu. It took a change in designers to turn things around. Tetsuo Hara worked with Capcom on a couple of projects. He showed the studio that a good guy could also be gigantic. Hara designed the cast for the Muscle Bomber / Saturday Night Slam Masters series. Mr. Hara was a huge wrestling fan, he knew the history of the sport and major players in the USA as well as Japan. He also knew that the Street Fighter characters were more than average fighters, they needed special moves and abilities. So he created a large group inspired by real world wrestlers but each with a unique back story and collection of special attacks. These people would become the backbone of Capcom’s wrestling universe.

 

The tallest wrestler in the series turned out to be a good guy. Titan the Great aka Titanic Tim stood 7’ 9” and weighed 432 lbs. He was the third tallest character in the Street Fighter universe. But of those three he was the one with the most wrestling experience. The real world inspiration for the character were the 6' 6" Rick Bogner aka the Big Titan and 6' 5" Mike Awesome aka the Gladiator. The duo ran roughshod over the wrestlers in Japan during the early '90s. Titan the Great was an amalgamation of these two monsters. He did not have solely power moves in his arsenal but was a well rounded striker and grappler as well. He was agile despite his size. This was necessary when facing opponents that were blindingly quick. Titan was a British native and would sometimes team up with UK underground fighting legend Birdie. The two seven-footers were known as the 500 Million Trillion Powers.

   

Whether good or bad the giants deserved to be in the Street Fighter universe. With that said I was not a fan of the direction of the current Street Fighter series. I have said it before and will continue to say it. The silly mannerisms of certain characters, the constant breaking of the 4th wall during super attacks did not really make sense and detracted from the cast. Think about how absurd each of Hakan’s super attacks appeared on screen in Street Fighter IV. The opponent would be squished between his thighs and then shoot off into an invisible barrier. These invisible barriers also showed up in Abigail’s special as well. He could suspend his opponent in the air and then use them like a punching bag. Honestly, an opponent just floated at the top of the screen, defying gravity like some sort of Warner Bros. cartoon character. Then there was the absurd notion that Abigail couldn’t talk but instead made car noises like an infant that had lost his toy. All of these silly elements betrayed the designs of the earlier Street Fighter and Final Fight games. They simply weren’t a part of the legacy. Capcom used to know how to create fantastic giants, the template was there but they seemed to ignore it after 1999.

   

The goofy antics were all relatively new to the franchise. When Yoshinori Ono took on production duties they seemed to be part of his idea of what Street Fighter should be about. While nostalgia for the older characters is still in my heart I’m also afraid of what would happen if the studio decided to add any more legacy characters. I’d be embarrassed to see what they would do with the Muscle Bomber cast or any other fighter they had previously done. Giants in the Street Fighter universe should be feared and respected, as the majority were boss characters. Maybe someday the studio will remember that but I’m not holding my breath. I hope you have enjoyed this series, please leave a question or comment and I'll try to get back to you. 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!