Showing posts with label karate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karate. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Bookmark This Page; How fight culture became fighting game history
One of the first series I created for this blog was a look at the martial arts legends that inspired many of our favorite characters, and games. If you want to learn the ancient history of modern games then Bookmark This Page.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Figuring out the changing Street Fighter style, part 1...
Over the last month I had talked a lot about the new, and returning faces in Street Fighter 6. I studied their outfits, the colors assigned to them, their nationality, and physical build. I did my best to try to figure out their roots, and fighting method, and share it with the visitors to my blog. In the end it reminded me that there was a style of character design that could be considered uniquely “Street Fighter.” By that same token there was a style of design that worked for Mortal Kombat, Tekken, King of Fighters, and Killer Instinct. The aesthetic of Capcom was distinct. This was thanks to the legacy of artists that had worked there. Akiman, Shoei, Bengus, Daigo Ikeno, Edayan, Kinu Nishimura were brilliant artists that had a hand in developing the style, and direction of the SF series.
Monday, June 27, 2022
The greatest fighting game boss returns to Street Fighter 6, a look at Gouki
Gouki / Akuma is slated to return in Street Fighter 6. Of the countless fighting games that have come out over the past 40+ years there is one boss character that I consider the greatest of all time. I’m certain that many would agree that Gouki is the bar by which all fighting game bosses are measured. There have been many great boss characters throughout history. Revenge against Geese Howard drove the plot in the Fatal Fury series. Then there was the villainous Heihachi Mishima, and his attempts to kill his own son in the Tekken tournament. Plus Bilstein set the galaxy on fire in Star Gladiator, and his ghost came back to continue his path of destruction in Plasma Sword. Despite all those great titles Gouki was still head, and shoulders above the competition.
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!
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
How fight culture became fighting game history, part 1
If you've been reading my blogs for a minute then you know that I love fighting games. The genre is sorely underrated for its contribution to the game industry. It means more to the community of gamers than most genres and despite its combative nature it actually unites audiences all around the world. The success of many franchises is due to the influences from hundreds of real life and fictional sources. There is a reason that some of the best fighting myths have withstood the test of time. They speak to the collective human experience. The most storied fighting game heroes are a reflection of us, our hopes, desires and aspirations. They are playable fables where good and evil are pitted against each other and the outcome depends on how well the player can rise to the challenge. The ability to assume the role of the main character is really the biggest selling point behind the greatest adventures. Players are not passively watching the action but are instead engaged on multiple levels. What they see, what they hear and what they learn are all internalized. Very few forms of media allow audiences that luxury. But before I become too long winded let me try to explain the purpose of this series. I was going to repost some of my best fighting game blogs from 1UP and Capcom-Unity but thought twice about it. Rather than just copy and paste those entries I decided to edit them together and come up with a sort of comprehensive history of the martial arts and fighters that inspired some of the greatest characters introduced into the genre. We will explore the origins of the martial arts, the mythology behind them and how they were represented in pop culture. I'll try to go chronologically but will have to jump forward and back in time because I will try to explore the Eastern and Western myths that inspired the earliest games.
Normally I start a fighting game series in the early 20th century but this time around we are going back more than a millennia. It is understood that the roots of the Asian martial arts stem from China. Even the popular forms of karate and tae kwon do from japan and Korea respectively have roots in Chinese martial arts. Yet how did those styles get introduced to different nations? How did they evolve? What differences did they carry? Is there any sort of common ancestry? The answer to that is actually rooted in the spiritual beliefs from India.
Buddhism, as a path towards finding enlightenment began in the heart of India over 1500 years ago. The system spread throughout Asia over the next 1000 years. It travelled north and south via monks and disciples. It crossed boundaries and nationalities and became ingrained with the art, language and culture of every place it visited. The symbols of Buddha were adapted and refined to fit the customs of local tribes. Whether they lived in the Himalayan mountains or in the monsoon belt of the Southeast Asian peninsula the followers of Buddha tried to reflect the lessons and remain ever vigilant against worldly corruptions. This meant that many practitioners had to learn how to strengthen their mind, body and resolve as to not give into temptation. A series of exercises was developed to help monks maintain focus and protect themselves and their communities wherever they travelled. These early forms of fighting were rooted in the Indian fighting art Kalaripayattu. It was the predecessor to Kung-Fu and Karate. The person that was most influential to the spread of the martial arts and Buddhism throughout China was a man named Bodhidharma. He was described as a dark skinned man that was treated rather unkindly by Chinese villagers. They were suspicious of foreigners, even if they professed to be spiritual men. Little by little he won over their trust and eventually respect by sharing his insight and instructing the early Shaolin Buddhists in the arts of self-defense.
In Mainland China kung-fu is more commonly known as kempo or whushu. It is well known and understood as one of the oldest forms of fighting on the face of the Earth. Take the description of one of the oldest forms, Shorinji Kempo, into account. According to this webpage highlighting the various forms of martial arts.
"Shorinji Kempo traces its origins back almost 5000 years to India. From India, Buddhism spread to many countries, including China. Bodhidharma, the sixth century founder of Zen Buddhism, introduced kempo to the legendary Shaolin Temple ('Shorin-Ji' in Japanese), located in Honan prefecture. Here kempo became the main form of spiritual training for the buddhist monks and the monastery became famous for its fighting arts. Wall paintings can still be seen today in the Shaolin Temple of dark-skinned (Indian) monks practicing and teaching kempo to light-skinned (Chinese) monks. The Imperial Chinese Government, feeling threatened, destroyed the temple and persecuted the monks. The techniques however continued to be taught and practiced by various secret societies as a means of protection against bandits and corrupt officials. Many different forms of kempo were developed and kept alive by these secret societies."
Bodhidharma had introduced physical exercises to the Shaolin monks to strengthen their bodies and minds. He wrote the manuscripts which established the physical regiments that the monks were expected to adhere to and even a book on dieting to achieve the maximum results from exercise. His manuscript Included a diet of teas which would help the monks focus and concentrate during long meditation sessions. It was said that Bodhidharma became enraged with himself when he fell asleep during his meditation and created the manuscripts so that his physical body would no longer fail him. The manuscripts disappeared over the centuries but many of the fighting techniques that he taught, including the use of the staff, survived to this day. Bodhidharma became synonymous with the martial arts and became a symbol for its lineage.
When Buddhism arrived in Japan and mixed with Shinto traditions the personification of Bodhidharma became almost subversive. He was dark and brooding, the polar opposite of the white and chaste symbols of divinity and purity in ancient Japan. His influence, especially in the martial arts seemed primitive, almost backwoods. There was no denying its effectiveness however, the early practitioners of the martial arts in Japan were immigrants that had arrived from China. Before Karate became synonymous with the "Empty Hand" techniques it was instead known as "China Hand" in Japanese. The original martial arts masters in Japan had brought with them the techniques that Bodhidharma coveted. In Japanese pop culture this lineage would be celebrated again and again in the manga, or comic books, that told the stories of turn-of-the century masters. The character Goutsetsu, the master of Gouki and Gouken from Street Fighter mythology was Chinese. He had brought with him the secret techniques of an "Assassins Fist" or Ansatsuken from China and trusted his students with them.
The influence that Buddhism had throughout Asia was immeasurable. It went well beyond what Bodhidharma did for the martial arts. Systems of fighting had been around since recorded history. The bigger the civilization was the more likely it had several forms of fighting taught in each provence. Some styles were created for military conquest and some for sport. What Buddhism did was cross pollenate spirituality, culture and the martial arts throughout Asia. As the Buddhist monks went from village to village they adapted the customs and art of the locals. They traded symbology and philosophy with many spiritual leaders and traded blows with bandits that attacked them on their travels. If you were to study the history of the martial arts you would actually see how certain systems predated others and how some forms were based on older schools. The oldest forms began in India and progressed east. It was no accident that the rise in martial arts ran parallel with the spread of Buddhism.
In a thousand years the fighting forms that would withstand the test of time had developed along the roads taken by merchants and travelers but especially by monks. By the time the monks reached the Sea of Japan they had brought with them countless lessons from their travels. The closest point between the Asian mainland and the main island of Japan was from a peninsula of what was now known as South Korea. Early immigrants from China and Korea, some monks and some merchants crossed the channel and settled in the center of Japan. The largest town being Osaka, where the seeds of what would become Karate were planted. Before we cross the channel ourselves this blog will take its time and see how various fighting arts were created and how they were represented in pop culture, but specifically in video games. 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!
Normally I start a fighting game series in the early 20th century but this time around we are going back more than a millennia. It is understood that the roots of the Asian martial arts stem from China. Even the popular forms of karate and tae kwon do from japan and Korea respectively have roots in Chinese martial arts. Yet how did those styles get introduced to different nations? How did they evolve? What differences did they carry? Is there any sort of common ancestry? The answer to that is actually rooted in the spiritual beliefs from India.
Buddhism, as a path towards finding enlightenment began in the heart of India over 1500 years ago. The system spread throughout Asia over the next 1000 years. It travelled north and south via monks and disciples. It crossed boundaries and nationalities and became ingrained with the art, language and culture of every place it visited. The symbols of Buddha were adapted and refined to fit the customs of local tribes. Whether they lived in the Himalayan mountains or in the monsoon belt of the Southeast Asian peninsula the followers of Buddha tried to reflect the lessons and remain ever vigilant against worldly corruptions. This meant that many practitioners had to learn how to strengthen their mind, body and resolve as to not give into temptation. A series of exercises was developed to help monks maintain focus and protect themselves and their communities wherever they travelled. These early forms of fighting were rooted in the Indian fighting art Kalaripayattu. It was the predecessor to Kung-Fu and Karate. The person that was most influential to the spread of the martial arts and Buddhism throughout China was a man named Bodhidharma. He was described as a dark skinned man that was treated rather unkindly by Chinese villagers. They were suspicious of foreigners, even if they professed to be spiritual men. Little by little he won over their trust and eventually respect by sharing his insight and instructing the early Shaolin Buddhists in the arts of self-defense.
In Mainland China kung-fu is more commonly known as kempo or whushu. It is well known and understood as one of the oldest forms of fighting on the face of the Earth. Take the description of one of the oldest forms, Shorinji Kempo, into account. According to this webpage highlighting the various forms of martial arts.
"Shorinji Kempo traces its origins back almost 5000 years to India. From India, Buddhism spread to many countries, including China. Bodhidharma, the sixth century founder of Zen Buddhism, introduced kempo to the legendary Shaolin Temple ('Shorin-Ji' in Japanese), located in Honan prefecture. Here kempo became the main form of spiritual training for the buddhist monks and the monastery became famous for its fighting arts. Wall paintings can still be seen today in the Shaolin Temple of dark-skinned (Indian) monks practicing and teaching kempo to light-skinned (Chinese) monks. The Imperial Chinese Government, feeling threatened, destroyed the temple and persecuted the monks. The techniques however continued to be taught and practiced by various secret societies as a means of protection against bandits and corrupt officials. Many different forms of kempo were developed and kept alive by these secret societies."
Bodhidharma had introduced physical exercises to the Shaolin monks to strengthen their bodies and minds. He wrote the manuscripts which established the physical regiments that the monks were expected to adhere to and even a book on dieting to achieve the maximum results from exercise. His manuscript Included a diet of teas which would help the monks focus and concentrate during long meditation sessions. It was said that Bodhidharma became enraged with himself when he fell asleep during his meditation and created the manuscripts so that his physical body would no longer fail him. The manuscripts disappeared over the centuries but many of the fighting techniques that he taught, including the use of the staff, survived to this day. Bodhidharma became synonymous with the martial arts and became a symbol for its lineage.
When Buddhism arrived in Japan and mixed with Shinto traditions the personification of Bodhidharma became almost subversive. He was dark and brooding, the polar opposite of the white and chaste symbols of divinity and purity in ancient Japan. His influence, especially in the martial arts seemed primitive, almost backwoods. There was no denying its effectiveness however, the early practitioners of the martial arts in Japan were immigrants that had arrived from China. Before Karate became synonymous with the "Empty Hand" techniques it was instead known as "China Hand" in Japanese. The original martial arts masters in Japan had brought with them the techniques that Bodhidharma coveted. In Japanese pop culture this lineage would be celebrated again and again in the manga, or comic books, that told the stories of turn-of-the century masters. The character Goutsetsu, the master of Gouki and Gouken from Street Fighter mythology was Chinese. He had brought with him the secret techniques of an "Assassins Fist" or Ansatsuken from China and trusted his students with them.
The influence that Buddhism had throughout Asia was immeasurable. It went well beyond what Bodhidharma did for the martial arts. Systems of fighting had been around since recorded history. The bigger the civilization was the more likely it had several forms of fighting taught in each provence. Some styles were created for military conquest and some for sport. What Buddhism did was cross pollenate spirituality, culture and the martial arts throughout Asia. As the Buddhist monks went from village to village they adapted the customs and art of the locals. They traded symbology and philosophy with many spiritual leaders and traded blows with bandits that attacked them on their travels. If you were to study the history of the martial arts you would actually see how certain systems predated others and how some forms were based on older schools. The oldest forms began in India and progressed east. It was no accident that the rise in martial arts ran parallel with the spread of Buddhism.
In a thousand years the fighting forms that would withstand the test of time had developed along the roads taken by merchants and travelers but especially by monks. By the time the monks reached the Sea of Japan they had brought with them countless lessons from their travels. The closest point between the Asian mainland and the main island of Japan was from a peninsula of what was now known as South Korea. Early immigrants from China and Korea, some monks and some merchants crossed the channel and settled in the center of Japan. The largest town being Osaka, where the seeds of what would become Karate were planted. Before we cross the channel ourselves this blog will take its time and see how various fighting arts were created and how they were represented in pop culture, but specifically in video games. 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!
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