The Return of Virtua Fighter, part 2...

The announcement of a new Virtua Fighter at the 2024 Game Awards was a pleasant surprise. The only reveal I was more excited about was a new game from Fumito Ueda, and his team at gen DESIGN. These were the people formerly on Team Ico at Sony Studios Japan. Both ICO, and Shadow of the Colossus were a revelation for me. The game reveals were also a little melancholy for me. A long time had indeed passed between titles. I’m talking about major life changes; new jobs, getting married, raising a kid before I saw another sequel. I began thinking of how much history I had with the games. I began thinking of how much the industry had changed throughout the decades. I especially began to focus on how my love of Sega games went back a few generations.

There was another reason why the game reveals made me reflect. You see in November of 2024 I celebrated my 50th birthday. It was a bittersweet time. A relative came down with a medical emergency in the fall of 2024. My wife sprung into action, and moved in to help take care of this person. The original plan was for a few days, maybe a week. That had turned into almost 4 months and counting. We were apart for our wedding anniversary, Halloween, my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. The time, and distance had been heavy for us, especially with no reunion in sight. This health issue made me think of my own life, and mortality as well.

I realized that I’d been a fan of video games, and specifically fighting genre for almost as long as I’d been alive. Yet at no point did I ever think that it was time wasted. My first fighting game memory went back years before the creation of Street Fighter. It was the extremely rare Warrior by Vectorbeam. I was five-years-old when it came out. The innovative top-down view, sword combat, and painted background of the arcade cabinet sparked my imagination. It also made me realize that fighting games could be more than a boxing sim. They could be about knights, karate masters, and even dinosaurs! I would argue that 1984 was the most important year for the development of the fighting genre. This was two years before the original Street Fighter, and the template of the brawler was revealed through Renegade.

Punch-Out!!, Karate Champ, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, and Kung-Fu Master all came out in ’84. Each influenced the studios, and developers that would create the modern fighting game. I was grateful that I had a chance to play through them when they debuted. In fact I was born at the perfect time to experience the peak years of the arcade revolution. The memories I had of the dozens of arcades I frequented, and hundreds of games that I’d played were irreplaceable to me. I would not have changed one thing about the time I spent playing video games. Especially not after I discovered fighting games. I was grateful for each, and every title that I enjoyed over my time on Earth. Knowing that Virtua Fighter was getting a reboot, and celebrating 30 years made me realize that I first played the game when I was 20-years-old. This also meant that the architects of the genre were getting old too.

The masterminds behind Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, the King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Tekken, Samurai Shodown, Virtua Fighter, and more were now in their 50’s, and 60’s. A few of them were retired, if not considering retirement. This meant that some games, and entire genres could potentially die off. It was important for the publishers to have younger talent take over the projects. New directors, and producers to be just as passionate about the genre as their mentors. This ensured that the games would continue to grow, evolve, and remain fresh. I wasn’t a fan of Yoshinori Ono as the producer of Street Fighter IV, and V. I did appreciate his enthusiasm, and how he pushed Capcom to bring the franchise back after almost a decade after SFIII had been released. I believe that his eye would have worked better on a series like Vampire / Darkstalkers.

I was much happier with the team putting together Street Fighter 6. Mr. Nakayma, Mr. Matsumoto, and Mr. Tsuchiya had been with Capcom for years. They were ready to slide into their new roles, and take over the franchise. They managed to honor the legacy of Street Fighter, Final Fight, and bring in elements from 40 years of Capcom games without breaking the continuity of the series. They were able to update the game play, the elements that modern audiences expected from a video game, and even help bring new players up to speed. Most important they were also young. They would be able to carry their passion, and insight to SF for years to come. Not every classic series had these types of directors. Many of those games faded away from relevancy once their creators left the studio.

It may seem hard to believe but Virtua Fighter was such an important game that it changed the direction of the industry. In 1991 Capcom already created a global phenomenon with Street Fighter II. This made every studio in Japan, and the US start developing their own fighting games. A few years later Sega demonstrated that 3D would be the next step in the process. Companies that weren’t already developing their own 3D engines were at a loss. They could however license the work from Sega for their own titles. Some gamers may not know this but the original Dead or Alive arcade game was built on the Model 2 engine, the same one that powered Virtua Fighter 2. The game’s creator Tomonobu Itagaki had been described as a creep. It was no surprise that the girls in his fighting game had very bouncy breast physics applied to their models. He left Tecmo with many of his Team Ninja developers to strike out on his own. He eventually closed his studio in 2024. Dead or Alive managed to make it to DOA 6 which was released in 2019, with no word on another sequel.

That was not to say that Virtua Fighter was a superior experience to Street Fighter II, or many other sprite-based fighting games from the early ‘90s. The game play was not as quick, or as intuitive as audiences were used to from 2D fighters. Visually however Sega was offering something that was unlike anything else in the arcade. When you saw a Sega 3D engine in a racing game, air combat, or Star Wars title then you immediately took notice. The visuals were so unlike anything else in the arcade that players were instantly drawn to them. In the early 1990’s 3D human models were still in their infancy. People were so blocky that the team at Sega referred to them as robots. They looked embarrassingly like somebody wearing cardboard boxes. To my knowledge the only fictional style in the original game was given to the ninja Kage-Maru. Yet it was still inspired my elements of actual ninjitsu.

Series creator Yu Suzuki knew what he was doing. Smooth, perfect 3D characters were not his goal. The team at AM2 were using every trick at their disposal to create a solid engine that they could improve upon. Knowing that people would look more realistic in every future iteration. The team also focused on creating a library of characters that represented a broad spectrum of fighting arts. Each sequel would introduce another fighting style. The brother, and sister team of Jacky, and Sarah Bryant used Bruce Lee’s very own Jeet Kun Do aka the Way of the Intercepting Fist. They were fast, flashy, and designed to appeal to western audiences. They were not the only relatives in the game.

The Chinese father, and daughter pair of Lau, and Pai Chan were central to the story as well. They were a sort of classic martial arts cinema archetype that was universally understood. Anyone that approached the game could tell that they used some form of kung-fu. Then there were the two heavy hitters in the game, the ones that I favored. The Native character Wolf Hawkfield, and the Caribbean Jeffry McWild. Although Wolf was light skinned it was nice to see some form of Native representation in a game. The same applied to Jeffry. The duo were so popular that they would appear in future pro wrestling games as well.

With a cast, and engine in place it was only a matter of time before the rival studios would have an answer to VF. The first would be Tekken. Namco had been going back-and-forth with Sega on everything they released. Just because they went from 2D sprites to 3D polygons didn’t mean the rivalry would end. There was not one genre where the two publishers did not have direct competition. Tekken floored audiences with their textured polygons. These stood apart from Sega's flat shaded polygons. Visually Tekken looked like the superior game, even if the frame rate or other elements weren’t as well done as VF. Each sequel from the two companies felt like a call, and answer.

The differences between the two games were tiny, but their impact to the community was tremendous. The four years from the release of the first VF in 1993 to Tekken 3 in 1997 was a technological leap. The improvement on textures, engine, animation, and frame-rate was apparent in the Virtua Fighter 2 arcade intro. Virtua Fighter was focused on realism rather than the more fantastic Tekken. By the time Sega released VF 3 the characters could not only turn their heads to follow opponents, but even turn their eyes as well. Not to mention when they stepped in sand, or snow they left tracks. Doing tiny things like having head tracking, showing damage, and even breathing was an unheard detail in any other game. Suddenly Capcom’s reputation as the best fighting game developer was in doubt.

Sega, and Namco had turned the fighting game community upside down in the mid-‘90s. This made every major publisher increase funding into 3D R&D, helping push the entire entertainment industry forward. What many people didn’t realize was that Sega, and Namco relied on outside contractors to help create next generation 3D graphics. Namco built their System-22 engine on simulator tech from Evans & Sutherland. Sega developed the Model 3 board with military-level technology from General Electric Aerospace Simulation & Control Systems. The two publishers created an arms race. This applied equally to arcade, and console developers. Whichever company could bring 3D graphics home for a reasonable price would win the war.

Sega was able to bring some 3D games home. They made a decent 16-bit adaptation of VF using the 32-X add-on for the Sega Genesis. A closer arcade-quality version would appear on the 32-bit Sega Saturn as well. Not to be outdone Namco partnered with Sony to create an arcade-perfect version of Tekken for the new Playstation console. Fighting games were not the only titles to help move consoles, but they certainly helped. The shift from 2D to 3D was pushed along thanks to Sega and Namco. More than 30 years had now passed. Mr. Harada, and his team were still keeping Tekken alive. Sega had drifted away from many of their biggest hits through the 2000's and 2010’s. How would Virtua Fighter become relevant once more, and especially with Mr. Suzuki talking about retirement? We’ll talk about it in the next blog. Were you a fan of 2D fighters, 3D fighters? How long had you been playing video games? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Return of Virtua Fighter, part 1...

On December 12, 2024 the fighting game community was given an early Christmas present. During the annual game awards Sega revealed that there would be a new Virtua Fighter (VF). Sega would once again return to their roots in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the first 3D fighter. Needless to say this announcement made me, and millions of fans around the world extremely happy. The first details of the project would be revealed during a stream immediately following the awards show.

For those keeping track the last numbered VF entry was Virtua Fighter V in 2006. There were however various remixes for different platforms as recently as 2021. For long-time fans it seemed surreal that going into 2025 we might see the next evolution in the franchise that many of us thought was dead. In fact the idea of a resurrected game was more than coincidence.

The VF stream began with two lines from the poem Morning Has Broken by Eleanor Farjeon. This almost 100-year-old poem was designed to be a celebration of the Christian faith, without it necessarily calling out a specific Bible passage, or parable. The last part of the poem was particularly important considering they were reintroducing Virtua Fighter. 

Mine is the sunlight,

Mine is the morning,

Born of the one light Eden saw play;

Praise with elation,

Praise every morning,

God’s re-creation Of the new day.

After the poem the new developers were revealed. Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio aka Like A Dragon Studio would be doing the heavy lifting. The company was founded in 2011, however their core team went back to 1998 when they were known as Sega’s internal team AM11. Dragon Studio founder Toshihiro Nagoshi was the guy that created Super Monkey Ball, but he was also the mastermind behind the Yakuza series. Mr. Nagoshi had been with Sega for decades. He first joined the company in 1989, and helped bring Daytona USA to arcades. His insight to the series, his team of programmers, and artists were easily the best choice to reintroduce VF. I’ll talk more about the studio, and Mr. Nagoshi shortly.

The teaser for the game showed a mysterious figure in a back-alley fight. We only caught glimpses of the figure in a window reflection, or in a pool of water. Even without a clear look at the guy the eagle-eyed fans could identify him based solely on his attacks. The dashing elbow, and tetsuzanko (which was used to throw his opponent through a wall) were trademark moves for Akira Yuki. Yet this didn’t look like the character that we had come to expect. His jacket, hat, and uniform looked tattered. A good amount of time must had passed since we last saw him.

Akira was traditionally presented in the VF games as a young master with spiky hair, and a white headband. The martial artist was the star of the series, not unlike Ryu was for Street Fighter, or Terry was for Fatal Fury. This new presentation was shocking

The studio went out of their way to build up the dramatic tension with the mysterious fighter. We never got a clear look at him during any of the footage. Instead he was presented in shadow. We could see tears in his hat, and even what appeared to be bullet holes in his jacket. This acted as both a storytelling device, to let us know that our mystery man had been in some dangerous battles, but also to show off the next generation rendering of the characters. The realistic cut of his coat, faded colors, and wrinkles were a far cry from his earlier crispy white uniform. This was a more grounded, more experienced fighter.

After Akira threw the unknown opponent through a wall the teaser reveals the official return of the Virtua Fighter franchise.

The last few seconds of footage showed off what appeared to be Akira fighting with another star of the game. The blonde woman with a blue skin suit was assumed to be Sarah Bryant. However it was later revealed to be a character called Stella.

The stages were highly detailed, but they lacked any pedestrians or other people in the background. I don’t know if this was because it was very early in production, or if it was a design choice. In either case this was one of the most detailed environments that I had ever seen in a fighting game.

The few seconds of footage between Akira and Stella were among the most impressive of any modern fighting game. I mean more than just in terms of graphics, and animation. The way the moves, countermoves, blocks, and angles flowed between the two were dazzling. They were unlike the combat in Tekken, the nearest contemporary to the 3D franchise. The moves almost seemed choreographed the way the two traded strikes. They skirted the line between the realistic and the fantastic battle you might see in an action movie.

The weathered environment was stunning. It signaled a change in tone, and direction for the series. Yet at the same time it honored the legacy that came before. The world of Virtua Fighter had always been grounded in realism, and not necessary reality. The stages were often set around the world, and were often pristine environments. Now we were seeing a more subdued area, some place that might have been arounds for decades, possibly centuries. It was dirty, worn down, and essentially lived in.

The first high resolution shots of the featured characters were unveiled. Akira was rightfully labeled “The Legend is Back.” This was when most of us found out that the blonde in the early footage was named Stella. She was described as the “Bridge Between Worlds.” This gave fans of the franchise two possible ideas. The first that it was a mistranslation of Sarah. The other was that the youthful character was actually the daughter of Sarah Bryant. Her looks, and moves were spot-on for the iconic character. To many it didn’t make sense that she would be replaced.

The idea of a daughter being featured in a reboot of a franchise was not a new concept. The most recent example of that was with the character Cassie Cage from Mortal Kombat X in 2015. Cassie was a special forces agent that combined the moves of her parents, Sonya Blade, and the martial arts star Johnny Cage.

Sonya Blade was an icon in the fighting game community. She was the first notable western blonde in fighting game. Her military-inspired look actually predated Cammy in Super Street Fighter II by a year. I would argue that the Mount Rushmore of fighting game female characters should include her as well as Chun-Li, Mai Shiranui, and Nina Williams. The first few games of Mortal Kombat were sprite based, and not in 3D. It didn’t matter because Mortal Kombat gave the world a taste of western aesthetics, and confirmed to the Virtua Fighter, and Tekken teams that a strong blonde female character could be a star in their fighters as well.

Looking back at the history of the fighting game genre made me think about how unique Virtua Fighter was. It also made me realize that not a lot of people knew what it meant in context. The gaming industry was different 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and especially 30 years ago. High resolution 3D gaming was available today on every console, handheld, mobile, and even web browser. If you go back three decades high resolution 3D gaming wasn’t even possible. Back then the 2D sprites were the standard in the graphics department. This was not a bad thing, in many instances sprites were superior to 3D models when a studio was trying to capture a certain aesthetic.

Many arcade firsts came from Namco. At the start of the ‘80s their breakout racing hit was Pole Position. Yet the company knew that sprite graphics had a technological limit. So they started development on 3D engines while also cranking out arcade, and console hits. This investment in polygon rendering would pay off before the end of the decade. Winning Run came out in 1988. It was the first 3D racing game. Sega started development on 3D technology not too long after. Sega’s Virtua Racing would blow the genre wide open in 1992. The back-and-forth would lead to Sega and Namco having an amazing rivalry.

Sega had developed a number of racing video games in the late 1970’s that set the standard for the arcade. When Namco released Pole Position in 1982, and claimed the racing crown a friendly rivalry in the genre was launched. Both Sega, and Namco would try to beat each other every year in genre. The part that people tend to forget was who helped keep Sega one step ahead of their rivals.

The game designer / director / producer Yu Suzuki was a major reason why Sega succeeded in the arcade, and console markets. I had talked about Mr. Suzuki previously on the blog, calling him the racing fan that started a revolution. The thing that I did not realize was how much his passion, his insight helped make every game that he worked on into something truly special. Mr. Suzuki was a huge fan of motorsports, movies, pop culture, anime, and the like. The things that influenced him helped color the games he produced. The majority of Sega’s earliest arcade hits were created under his direction. To say that he was a brilliant game designer would be a severe understatement.

Mr. Suzuki seemed unrivaled with everything he created whether it was air combat, racing, shooting, and sci-fi titles. His games were all groundbreaking. It was his passion for racing, and his love of the Ferrari badge that really elevated the genre. One of his greatest hits was OutRun from 1986. It made everyone forget about Pole Position in the arcade. OutRun introduced a branching path, and rally narrative to arcade visitors. Each year the racing games he produced got better and better. His entry into 3D with Virtua Racing in 1992 made everyone forget about Namco’s Winning Run, and Driver’s Eyes.

I would argue that the tracks in Daytona and Super GT set a standard by which all racing games in the arcade would be measured. The peak of Mr. Suzuki’s influence came at the end of the ‘90s with the brilliant Scud Race aka Super GT. Visually the last 3D racing games he created were cinematic masterpieces, compared to the very simple pixel racing games that he started off with a decade earlier. The question was whether his vision could put Sega on the map for fighting games. Through the ‘80s, and of course early ‘90s Capcom had few peers. Sega needed a hit just to get noticed. Would Virtua Fighter be enough? We will talk a little bit more about it on the next blog (Saturday). Are you excited with the announcement? Will this be a game you get on Day 1, or will you wait and see? What do you think the series needs to really hit with the modern fighting game community?  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!

Freeze frame, my poster collection, part 4…

Today’s poster collection was gathered from the occasional visits to the Los Angeles Science Fiction, and Comic Book convention. Which took place every month at the Shrine Auditorium in Downtown LA. Back in the early ‘90s admission was $5. Vendors from all over the Southland had tons of goodies including rare imports from Japan. My brothers, and a few friends would take the Metro Blue Line, which was the first new light rail service in LA.

The neat thing about the convention were the studios would have posters of upcoming movies by the entrance. Sometimes they were full size, but often they were mini posters. We took many during our visits but few remained. I saved some of my favorites, and they’ve been with me for decades. A visit to the show was also a chance to see some comic book artists do signings outside of the San Diego Comic Con. It was how I managed to score lots of autographs from comic, and cartoon creators.

Sometimes we would luck out and there would be a preview of an upcoming movie. Perhaps a chance to do a Q&A with the actors, or directors. It was one such visit when we happened to preview the live action Double Dragon movie, and have the director insult the audience. We knew from that moment that the film was a hot pile of garbage, and would further cement the lack of understanding that Hollywood had with any source material.

Every now and then we’d get to see an indy movie, and meet the people that created them. I have my little brother’s press kit, and autographed photo from Gary Daniels, who played Kenshiro in the Fist of the North Star movie. He was a genuinely nice guy, and was familiar with the Hokuto No Ken books. It was one of the reasons why he got into martial arts in the first place. Of course he was hyped to sign a picture for somebody named Bruce. He cited Bruce Lee as his main inspiration.

Many of the posters in my collection have warm memories attached to them. My brothers, and I saw the Frighteners in the theater. We were impressed by this new director called Peter Jackson. We were sorely disappointed that the film didn’t get a sequel. When the Mortal Kombat movie premiered I won some tickets to see it from a local TV station. My little brother, and I were first in line. We got a mini poster, and a CD of the soundtrack. Cary Takagawa (Shang Tsung) had actually snuck into the back of the theater to see it with his son. Before he snuck out my little brother scored an autograph on his CD. These memories are irreplaceable in my book. The posters remind me of those shared experiences.

Did you have any pictures, or posters that took you back to a favorite memory? I’d like to read about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The aesthetic versus graphics debate, part 1...

Aesthetics were critically important in fighting games. They were the visual cues that set each company apart. In the previous blog I showed that a number of games and studios were developing on the same graphics engine. This made the titles all look eerily similar whether they were made in Japan, the US or the UK. A great fighting game had to set itself apart from the competition. The longest surviving studios knew this. It was the reason why many companies hired teams of unique artists. Look very carefully at the way different artists, from within Capcom and outsiders, presented Chun-Li.

   

The costume was the same but the style varied widely from artist to artist. Perhaps one artist drew her make up and the other with none. Style also trickled down to the details. Things like how big the spikes on the bracelet should be, how tall her boots were, how slender Chun-Li’s waist was or how wide her thighs should be. All of these things depended on the artist. Once the artist finalized the designs they created turnarounds so they could see the character from all sides. These turnarounds were used for the official character guides. In this way every other artist and animator at the studio could be consistent. Back when fighting games were in 2D is was very easy to capture an artists’ individual style.

 

Once the game engines started going into 3D then things got much harder. The proportions used in 2D wouldn’t necessarily work in 3D without making the characters appear grossly disproportionate. This became more obvious as the entire Street Fighter cast was more swollen in SF IV. Suddenly Chun-Li looked like a tank. She was almost as wide as she was tall. This mass made sense for the burly Zangief but not for Chun-Li. Her increase in size didn’t really go with her lighting quick moves and it broke the player’s suspension of disbelief. This was especially obvious with the character Rufus, a man that was extremely fat yet moved as fast as Chun-Li. Capcom tried to pay more attention to aesthetics in Street Fighter V. They listened to the feedback that they got from the community and they slimmed down the cast. There was a difference in how Daigo Ikeno’s Chun-Li looked in SFIV and how the new version looked in SFV. Sorry but the name of the new lead artist escapes me. Capcom was moving in the right direction but I was surprised that they didn’t learn from the past a little bit sooner.

 

In the first wave of fighting games, during the early to mid-1990s, each studio had their own unique style. The games that were lost to time, titles like Fighters History and Martial Masters, copied the Street Fighter II aesthetic but failed to innovate the format. They didn’t do much in terms of new control schemes, moves or even character origins. Other studios like SNK and Midway learned that in order to stand out each game had to have a distinct visual style. All of the studios were using similar sprite technology but their aesthetics varied widely. Compare how different the lead characters were in Street Fighter II, Samurai Showdown, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer and Mortal Kombat. The games were released within five years yet were vastly different in terms of aesthetics. Many fans simply commented on how great the graphics looked between games even if they were all built with comparable hardware and software.

   

As technology evolved so too did the techniques used to build a fighter. Midway and Atari experimented with stop motion figures to create the monsters featured in Mortal Kombad and Primal Rage respectively. Rare began creating sprites out of high-end CGI workstations for Killer Instinct. Aesthetically speaking all of these games were very diverse too. Then Sega planted the seeds for the future of the genre, and the industry itself. They used a polygon-based graphics engine. It didn’t have the detailed backgrounds or high speed game play of the 2D titles but it did have an entirely new aesthetic. Clean, simple shapes, creating actual 3D objects that had weight, dimension and shape.

   

In the mid-90s other studios saw the potential of 3D engines. The technology could be applied in multiple formats and genres. Space shooters, racing games, RPGs, action titles and even platformers could all be done in 3D. When the studios began developing 3D fighting games it was as if they had reset the clock on aesthetics. Every studio was so focused on learning the new technology that they did not bother to push the envelope on aesthetics. The original 2D fighting games all stuck to the tropes. A karate master, a kung fu practitioner, a boxer and wrestler could all be guaranteed to appear in the early games. They were all drawn in a style that fell somewhere in between a Japanese animé or manga. The exact same tropes happened in 3D. There were some minor differences but think about how Chun-Li set the standard for the Chinese fighter. Pai Chan (and her father Lau Chan) was the first Chinese polygon star in Sega’s Virtua Fighter (1993). Her color scheme of blue with gold trim was very much based on Chun-Li. This set the template for the Chinese dress on Tekken’s Anna Williams (Namco 1994) and Dead or Alive’s Leifang (Tecmo 1996). The graphics were cutting edge at the time yet the aesthetics in the games were almost universal.

   

Think about how the majority of the fighting games today are built on the same graphics engine. Think about how the majority are using the same aesthetic. From Street Fighter IV to Injustice, every modern title was dark and gritty. It was as if the studios forgot everything they had learned in the ‘90s. How they forgot the importance of having a strong aesthetic. It stands to reason however, many of the new designers and developers were kids when the first fighting game boom happened. They are now programmers, artists and animators in their own right. They are recreating all the things they loved about their favorite games. This is where I present a challenge to them. Do not recreate what was great. Do not settle for what the graphics standards are now but instead carve out an entirely new path. Take a creative risk. Change up the format without erasing the original formula. Fighting games, and video games in general, are very much a visually based form of storytelling. Just because you are given the same tools as your contemporaries it doesn’t mean your games have to all look the same. Think about what makes an animé unique when compared to a CGI film. Think about the Transformer’s series of the ‘80s and the live action Transformers film of today. The reason that fans remembered the original was because of how unique it looked when compared to the western cartoons. Thirty years later when a western and eastern studio developed a 3D version of the franchise there was a striking difference between the aesthetic styles. One managed to capture the look of the animated series while the other looked like every other 3rd person shooter.

 

Be bold with your designs! Regardless of what surveys tell you simply know that the fans are there. They are waiting for something to change their perception. The market will follow those that take a chance. Street Fighter II was only the beginning of the revolution. Mortal Kombat, Samurai Shodown, Primal Rage, King of Fighters and Killer Instinct were some of the biggest risk takers. Their gambles didn’t always pay off but they gave audiences a reason to return. In doing so the market grew and grew. More people were playing fighting games because of the diversity in subjects and aesthetics. A good director knows when to push the envelope, when to challenge their designers. They know what things the audience expects and doesn’t. In the next blog we will look at the impact a good director and a strong aesthetic can have on the industry. 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!

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 34

Characters in the fighting game genre did battle for any number of reasons. Some were noble, like police officers trying to bring criminals to justice. Others to prove their fighting style was the best. Some simply for the sake of achieving fame and glory. Black fighters seemed focused on the fame and glory part but to all things there were exceptions. The military officer Jackson "JAX" Briggs from Midway's Mortal Kombat II (1993) and the gentleman boxer Dudley from Capcom's Street Fighter III (1997) were contrary to the typical portrayal of black characters in most games. They were noble, powerful, fit well into their respective franchises and never allowed old conventions to dictate their presence or personality. Unfortunately both Jax and Dudley were rare in that regard. Japanese and US developers seemed to find it easier to rely on the trope that a black fighter was a brute, a thug. EA Sports BIG even created an entire fighting game series based on the Hip Hop / Thug characters in 2003. Def Jam Vendetta put actual rappers like DMX, Ludacris and Method Man against fictional thugs in an underground fighting tournament. The game did well enough to spawn a couple of sequels. It seemed that as long as fighting games were halfway decent then audiences would play characters of any color or background and support the publishers. Yet long-term success seemed to elude the games that only pandered to the lowest common denominator. The demand for a Def Jam fighting game had never been very high, especially when compared to the demand for Street Fighter.

It seemed that substance did matter to the core fighting game audience. Respect for the genre and the audience was good for the long term success of a franchise. The gameplay, control, and animation featured in the Street Fighter series was better presented than any other series. The characters featured within had become more iconic than those from any other game. Most players were familiar with Balrog, the name of M. Bison in the USA, They knew that he was based on pro boxer Mike Tyson. However during the development of Street Fighter II there was going to be a boxer as a playable character. This boxer was named Dick Jumpsey. He was inspired heavily by Jack Dempsey, a prize fighter from the turn of the century. The stance, moves and techniques of those early legends like Dempsey were the stuff of legend, especially in Japan. Boxing was made popular in the manga and anime series Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow's Joe) and the more contemporary Hajime no ippo. The influences of popular culture on the decision to use a boxer and even how he appeared should not be underestimated. These elements have been influencing designers for decades. The Joe story would have been something that the team at Capcom had grown up with in the early 1970's while the Hajime no ippo story would have been a contemporary manga running parallel to the development of Street Fighter II in the late 80’s.

A Dempsey-inspired character would not appear until years later. Dudley, featured in SF III was a gentleman boxer whose timeless qualities made him an instant success and a perfect fit for the SF universe Dudley could be argued as a complete vision for the Dick Jumpsey character abandoned previously. The "Dempsey Roll" was a technique that the actual Dempsey used to dodge under opponents and throw a flurry of punches while bobbing and weaving. This was a rarity as a real life technique rather than a fantastically impossible one would end up in a videogame. In anime form the move looks fantastic, in game form it was doubly so and could be used in combos with relative ease. Dudley's Rolling Thunder in SF IV was based largely on the Hajime no ippo version of the attack and makes for a very visceral super. Dudley may not have been based on a real person but he had a better reputation as a fighter than Method Man.

Hip Hop was influencing global culture at an alarming rate. From the rise in New York through the '70s through the exposure on mainstream media in the '80s Hip Hop had pushed for a major shift in pop culture. Blacks were becoming very prominent influences. The points of reference that the Japanese were using to recreate blacks and black culture had evolved greatly between the time the first and second Street Fighter games were released. The Japanese didn't always manage to keep up with those changes. When that happened the studios ran to two extremes of depiction for black characters. They were either over-the-top, boisterous and flamboyant characters. Or they were the opposite, completely devoid of personality and simply a dark skin tone on a 3D model. Jeffry McWild was the first black polygon-based character in a fighting game. He was one of the original faces in Sega's Virtua Fighter released in 1993. The character was neither thug nor cop. He did not have a basketball, nor did he dance. He was a powerful fighter from the caribbean that muscled through opponents with his unorthodox grappling style. Jeffry was a rarity in fighting games, especially for the 3D fighters. He had a personality, proud and confident but not silly like Dee Jay. It was unique that the two characters came from the same region but had vastly different design cues and presentations. The Japanese had demonstrated once more that they could have tremendous respect for black character designs. In 2001 Sega released their second black character in the series. Virtua Fighter 4 added Vanessa Lewis, the first black female mixed martial artist in gaming. She was similar to Jeffry in that she had striking and grappling moves but past that had zero personality. She was a stunning 3D model that was simply designed to appeal to male players. She demonstrated that the developers, while respectful of their audience, had less of a cultural understanding about strong black female characters than they had of black men.

Tecmo licensed the Virtua Fighter 2 engine from Sega when they started their own 3D fighting franchise, Dead or Alive. When Tecmo did not have a point of reference for an acceptable personality trait among the black community they made one up. The character Zack was a DJ that had entered the fighting tournament. He was not a Hip Hop DJ but seemed to be a flamboyant party DJ. To be honest he was never shown on the turntables in the series. Zack became obsessed with fame and attention and became more and more outlandish in each revision of the game. Absurd would not even properly describe the character, he went well beyond the excess of Dee Jay or any other character mentioned thus far in the series. Zack was not representative of black culture, Hip Hop culture or even Western culture. The basis for the character could be likened to Dennis Rodman, the eccentric NBA player. Yet Zack was simply a clown, a buffoon that happened to have dark skin. The defense once more would be that the character made sense within the context of his game and was a satire of typical character designs in a fighter. It was not a surprising defense of the series considering that the title was famous for its jiggling breast "physics" and objectification of its women characters.

There was a world of difference between Jax, Dudley, Jeffry, Dee Jay and Zack. Developers, publishers and even gamers may have dismissed the relevance of the designs over the past two decades but something had to be said. It was a duality that the industry and audience observed about gaming. Players wanted the mainstream culture, and especially the mainstream media to identify games as art. However when questions were raised about games being too violent or sexual for some audiences then it became an argument about entertainment and freedom of speech. The industry and the gamers themselves could argue the fundamental rights protected by the First Amendment, however they seemed to do that when it was most convenient to them. Gamers were passionate about their favorite titles and characters but only when it served their own interests. Many did not want to infer or interpret any controversial themes within their favorite games or even question the developers. There were many fighting game fans extremely passionate about the genre but to not question the characters featured in some of the most popular titles would be irresponsible of them as consumers.

To say that Zack or Dee Jay were just game characters and appropriate within the context of their title would be an attempt to bypass the argument. Without a cultural touchstone the Japanese studios seemed to rely on trope. The patterns of minority character designs were starting to become demeaning to audiences. Yet none of the gaming outlets seemed to call the publishers on that. But again, if I looked for the bad in fighting games I would find the bad. There were positive minority role models in fighting games and videogames in general. Characters like Dudley, Jeffry and Jax were created by Japanese and Western studios to show that diversity was alive and well. Games could still be art and entertainment in equal measure and publishers could still be socially responsible to their supporters. The next blog will look at the recent character that Capcom tried to create out of Hip Hop culture, classic cinema and black sports superstars. 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!