Bookmark This Page; where did the Capcom giants come from?

Sometimes my biggest series are very short, if you love fighting game giants then Bookmark This Page.

A look at the big man, where did the Capcom giants come from? Part 1…

A look at the big man, where did the Capcom giants come from? Part 2…

A look at the big man, where did the Capcom giants come from? Part 3…

Did you have a favorite giant fighting game character? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bookmark This Page; Art, graphics, and aesthetics in fighting games

Video game players sometimes use the word graphics, when instead they mean the aesthetics, or art style of the game. If you want to learn about some of the most unique looking fighters then Bookmark This Page.

The aesthetic versus graphics debate, part 1…

The aesthetic versus graphics debate, part 2…

The aesthetic versus graphics debate, part 3…

The Style Files, Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer & Goketsuji Ichizoku aka Power Instinct

The Style Files, Psikyo and the aesthetic copies

The Style Files, Daraku Tenshi: The Fallen Angels, part 1

The Style Files: Daraku Tenshi The Fallen Angels, part 2...

Did you get a chance to play any of these fighting games? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

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.

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 1…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 2…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 3…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 4…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 5…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 6…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 7…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 8…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 9…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 10…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 11…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 12…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 13…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 14…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 15…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 16…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 17…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 18…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 19…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 20…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 21…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 22…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 23…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 24…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 25…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 26…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 27…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 28…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 29…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 30…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 31…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 32…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 33…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 34…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 35…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 36…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 37…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 38…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 39…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 40…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 41…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 42…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 43…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 44…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 45…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 46…

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 47…

How fight culture became fighting game history, final part…

Did you have a favorite legend, or real world fighter that you were inspired by? Let me know about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Art Requests from 2024 finally completed.

At the end of 2024 I asked my friends if they had drawing ideas to get me out of my creative slump. I said they could throw three ideas at me, then I would choose one. After drawing it I would send it to them. I had done that in the past, and after a dry spell thought I should do it again. Sadly it took me about 11 months to get it done. Today we look at the drawings for my friends, and the story that went with one of them.

My friend Andrew asked for a Lunar character, or Fire Emblem character, or Heathcliff. I chose Edelgard even though I’ve never played Fire Emblem. I hope it looks okay.

My friend Tamson works as a park ranger. He asked for a skateboarder, or dragon, or something cool from Mexican folklore. It turns out a lot of creatures from Mexican folklore are monsters that lure children to their death. Such was the case for the Lechoza which looks like an old lady but turns into an owl monster. I hope Tamson doesn’t run into any while patrolling the parks.

My friend Jeremy is also a producer on the indie fighting game Rotten Core. He asked for a creepypasta character , or an obscure SNK character, or Spawn. Touji Sakata is a rare SNK character. Despite looking imposing he’s actually very short, not that I would want to mess with his bone-breaking throws. If you know what game he’s from post it in the comments.

My friend Christy kept it simple and asked for Santa. This was actually the first of the drawing that I had finished last year, but she wouldn’t get it until 2025.

Diana had some really great fantasy ideas. Falcor from Never Ending Story, the Goblin King from Labyrinth, or The Horned King from the Black Cauldron. I was going to draw the Horned King, but I had never drawn Falcor before so I did that instead. Have you seen any of the movies that Diana had requested characters from?

Our good family friend Paul had a bunch of great ideas. Adventure through Inner Space, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, or The Santa Fe Super Chief. I had actually drawn an Adventure through Inner Space illustration for my friend Ray a long time ago, so that was out. The choices were Disneyland attraction or classic train. Since Paul is a Disney super fan I went with a couple of characters from the attraction.

My old boss, and mentor Angel asked for something so specific I had to draw it in color. “Hello Kitty in a pink sprinkle donut!” I didn’t mail this drawing out when it was done, instead I gave it to her over breakfast when we caught up.

Long time friend Erin also had a bunch of great ideas; any Lucha you really love, or a chocobo from FFVII, or the "clever girl" Dino from Jurassic Park. I was super tempted to draw the velociraptor but instead I went with my favorite tag team from the modern era “Los Ice Creams.” They wrestled for Chikara Pro Wrestling and lasted a few years. My favorite old school tag team was the Road Warriors / Legion of Doom.

The missus asked for the stars of her favorite Disney movie the live action So Dear to my Heart. This movie was a very subtle look at race relations in the USA that was very rarely brought up when instead people would point at Song of the South as proof that the Disney studios were filled with racists. If you get a chance please watch this film.

My good friend Jennifer asked for Stitch or Eeyore. I decided to combine both because I thought they should get along well.

Blaine had the hardest idea to draw. He said “The only thing I’ll throw in here is an illustration of a funny moment in your life.” It took me months but I remembered something funny that happened when I was a kid. Like many of you my family went to church on Sunday. My brothers and I were fairly well behaved at church because we knew that our parents wouldn’t tolerate us acting a fool. Two little kids didn’t get the memo and were way out of control. The entire church service they were crawling all over and under the pews. Which wouldn’t have been so bad but they rolled up their missalette (a church program) and used them as megaphones. Every few minutes one kid would yell “PEE PEE” and his brother would call out “POO POO.” This went on for an hour. We did our best to bite our tongues and not laugh out loud. Even our parents were finding it hard to breathe. To this day whenever we pass by my old neighborhood I just point in the direction of the church and say “Pee Pee Poo Poo” to my family and they bust out laughing.

Family friend Wendy is another Disney Fan. Her ideas were the Cheshire Cat and Caterpillar, or Dobby the house elf, or Pee Wee Herman and his dog Speck. I’ve drawn the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland previously, and I don’t care for JK Rowling's politics. So the choice was obvious. I’ve never drawn Pee Wee before. I did get a chance to interview him many years ago at a Disney event. He was a genuinely kind soul. I miss him.

Last but not least was my old friend Dan. One of the most insightful people when it comes to movie, and comic book storytelling. I miss hanging out in his old comic book shop. He had a very specific request. “Draw me as a fat space marine preferably an ultramarine por favor.” Ask and ye shall receive. I had fun putting this piece together. So that wraps up my drawing request from 2024. Will I open up requests for 2025? Well that remains to be seen. Did you have a favorite drawing? I’d like to hear about it. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Why I'm not talking about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves

Hello friends. Thank you for dropping by. You probably know that I’m a huge fan of fighting games. I’ve been playing them for 45 years. The first fighter I remember playing was Warrior by Vectorbeam. I wrote about this when I was doing a look at the Virtua Fighter relaunch. With that said I’ve avoided posting on the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves for some time now. People may think that I’m biased against SNK, or only write about Street Fighter, but that is far from the truth. In fact the very first blog that I posted here in 2014 was dedicated to Mr. Karate from the SNK universe. I’ve written a lot about the history of Fatal Fury, the creators, and the characters on this blog. I was such a fan of the Garou series specifically that I tracked down the manhua (Chinese comics) based on Garou: Mark of the Wolves. I loved all fighting games, it’s just I loved some titles more than others.

I was very passionate about the Garou / Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves project for some time. I started talking about the development of the game in 2022. It had been ages since I was excited for a classic game to return. By March of 2024 I shared everything that I could pull from the character reveal, and gameplay trailers. I did a look at how the characters featured in the game evolved from concept art. With the guest character reveals of Mai, and Terry in Street Fighter 6 I had to mention why Mai Shiranui was important in fighting game history. Yet once the final details of the game were announced this year, and released on April 25, 2025 I had yet to say anything.

Why would I walk away from a sequel that I had been waiting on since November 26, 1999? That was when the original Garou: Mark of the Wolves came out. After a quarter-century wasn’t it going to be worth the wait? Sadly the answer would be no. The game was the embodiment of The Monkey's Paw. The short story taught us to be careful of what you wish for. Sometimes it’s better for things to stay dead, and buried. Even though SNK said that their new Saudi owners would not influence the direction of the games it was obvious that wasn’t entirely true. The game would be pandering to pop culture, rather than celebrating the fighting game legacy that built an industry. Will Borger with Digital Trends summed up everything that needed to be said about Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Mr. Borger's review touches all the basis for the game itself, but does us all a favor and explains why it doesn't reflect the fighting game community at all.

There was a quick answer as to why I walked away from the game after a release date was announced. The two guest characters revealed were shockingly disappointing. Rather than include a classic character from the SNK universe, or any crossover characters from Capcom, Sega, ARIKA, or Namco. The developers decided that a professional futbol / soccer player, and a DJ would be the welcome additions. These two people were so outside of the fighting game orbit that they would have never been voted on by the actual players. The athlete himself had been in the news for sex crimes. As for the Swedish-Bosnian DJ... he might be a global superstar but I had never even heard of him. Apologies to Super Greg for being overlooked as a better Hip Hop representative. It was obvious that the Saudis were directly influencing the development of the game. SNK would not bother to do as much of a cultural deep dive as Capcom did with Street Fighter 6.

That is not to say that a soccer character couldn’t be used in a fighting game. Roberto Miura from the Capcom game Rival Schools: United by Fate showed us that it was possible way back in 1997. Not only that but athletes had already been used in an SNK fighting game. Team USA aka Team American Sports appeared in King of Fighters ’94. These was a professional boxer named Heavy D! A pro football player / race car driver named Brian Battler. Lastly there was the basketball pro named Lucky Glauber. So yes the game could have used pro sports athletes, as long as they were made somewhat fantastic, and not just a copy / paste of an existing athlete. As for the DJ… fighting breakdancers could be done well. See Helicopter in Capoeria Fighter 3.

In many ways the bigger insult to the Fatal Fury series was in adding a real DJ to the game (whom I would also not name). Hip Hop already had a representative in the series called Duck King. This character debuted in the original Fatal Fury on November 25, 1991 then appeared another 11 times over the decades. The mohawked star was a literal street fighter. He was a battling b-boy (breakdancer) using tumbles, and sweeps to great effect. He was followed by a crew of baby ducks, wore street clothes, had a flamboyant personality, and was beloved in the fighting game community. Even if it was revealed that mentored the DJ in the new game it would have been better to stay with the original South Town legend. It was clear that the people working on SNK today didn’t understand the tone, and feel of the original series.

The early days of the arcade era were very experimental for most studios. In the ‘80s SNK was known for its bold game designs. They did combat game exceptionally well because SNK founder Eikichi Kawasaki was a boxer in his younger days. He wanted the fights in his games to be more visceral. This meant that masters of various forms were welcome to be represented in their releases. That was why SNK introduced Capoeira to arcade goers way back to 1989. The developers had a great appreciation for fighting in all styles. When MMA started to surpass all combat sports in the late ‘90s they developed a rare 3D title called Buriki One in 1999. It was the same year that they released Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Many of those team members had since retired, or moved to other studios. The current team at SNK was good at recreating themes, and elements of classic games with modern art, aesthetics, controls, and game play. The thing they seemed to lack was the imagination, and appreciation of the influences that created the iconic series. 

The new developers didn’t seem to know how to add a new character into the franchise that wasn’t pulled from old design notes. Worse yet they were listening to the whims of their Saudi owners, and just throwing in real people for no reason. This made me afraid that they would try to reboot Buriki One next. Or they might reconsider bringing back other games based on the cold reception of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. At least I hoped they would do better if they were thinking about it. What about you? Did you pick up the game? Was it your first time playing an SNK game, or were you a veteran player like me? I’d like to hear about it. Tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Freeze frame, my poster collection, part 20…

It turns out that my fighting game posters are not limited to Capcom. I also want to celebrate their friendly rivals at SNK as well. One of my favorite games is the Samurai Spirits / Showdown series. If you are looking for posters from the SNK franchises then I would suggest tracking down issues of NEO GEO Freak from Japan. They often came with a poster. There are a few issues that I’d like to get still, but if, and when I do I’ll blog about it in the future.

I’ve written about the genius of SNK’s art team on the blog, especially the brush style used by the Samurai Spirits illustrators.

Samurai Showdown II was ranked one of my favorite games of all time. If you’ve never played it then please try to track down a copy in an anthology.

Garou Mark of the Wolves is one of the most underrated fighting games in the history of the genre. Thankfully it is getting a sequel decades later.

I love the SNK posters that I have, and I’d like to add a few more. I’ll never get as many as the Capcom posters I have, but it’s always work trying. Do you have any favorite SNK games or posters? 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!

Mai Shiranui returns in Fatal Fury the City of the Wolves...

I don’t know why but I had a massive spike in views the other day. I’m betting it had something to do with the character reveal trailer for Mai Shiranui in Fatal Fury / Garou City of the Wolves. This was a long running series and I had blogged a much earlier this year I even did some character breakdowns for the game for both new, and returning faces. Takashi Nishiyama was the Godfather of the fighting game genre, while he may not have designed Mai Shiranui, he certainly deserved respect from the entire community for the direction of the SNK titles.

I’ve never talked at length about Mai, or most of the characters in the Fatal Fury / King of Fighters franchise by SNK. I played through most of the games, but enjoyed the titles by Capcom just a little bit more. I still loved the characters, and canon they created for audiences. Mai was unique among all the early fighting game girls. The Capcom titles tended to make caricatures of the fighting arts with their cast. The difference for the SNK universe was in their costuming. Very often the Fatal Fury characters were also masters of the fighting arts, but they didn’t always dress the part. That was the genius of the SNK school of art. They hid the masters in plain sight. A world champion level boxer for example could show up in a dress suit, an assassin might sport a fur coat.

Female ninjas were referred to as kunoichi. They were normally presented with a dark outfit, and a mask. The very first kunoichi in gaming that I remember was in the game The Ninja Warriors. The Taito game used multiple screens, and featured rotoscoped animation. It was an important contribution to the genre with a shocking ending. From there on kunoichi weren’t featured very often in fighting games. I could remember Taki from the Soul Edge series by Namco. To be fair Kunimitsu was a hidden character in Tekken from 1994, she was a boss for Michelle Chang. The last new lady ninja that I could remember was Hibana from the action game Kunoichi (Nightshade) by Sega. She was the successor to the Shinobi franchise. In essence it seemed that a new lead female ninja character would appear once a decade in gaming. 

Mai looked nothing like any of the classic lady ninja characters in pop culture. She wore a bright red outfit, that revealed her bosom, and backside. Mai was anything but shy or demure. She was the heiress of the Shiranui clan. Her form of ninjitsu went back centuries, and was closely guarded. Despite protecting her form of fighting the team at SNK made sure she stood out from her contemporaries. This tradition continued into 2024 with an updated form-fitting leather outfit.

Mai was meant to be a response to Chun-Li. Street Fighter II was more than a fighting game. When it came out in 1991 it became a global phenomenon. A few months after it came out SNK released Fatal Fury, which helped keep the momentum going. Fatal Fury was more than a lucky break, it was more than a studio trying to capitalize on the moment. The game was designed by Mr. Nishiyama. He had created the original Street Fighter back in 1986. He was planning new ideas for a Street Fighter sequel, some of which would inspire Street Fighter ’89, which would later become the arcade hit Final Fight. Mr. Nishiyama changed companies and wanted to try out entirely new play mechanics through Fatal Fury.

Mai was not in the original Fatal Fury, she debuted in 1992 with the release of Fatal Fury 2. During this time Capcom was developing a Super Famicom / Super Nintendo follow up to Final Fight. The game from 1993 would introduce some new faces, among them a female ninja wearing red, and white. The blonde Maki Genryusai debuted in Final Fight 2. Despite outward appearances she was not a clone of Shiranui. Maki had a completely different move set, her costume, and sneakers were designed to parallel Guy. It was simply coincidence that Mai, and Maki had similar looks. Not only that but Mai was meant with a fighting game in mind, rather than a brawler.

Terry Bogard, and Ryo Sakazaki (Art of Fighting) were a sort of male equivalent to Ken, and Ryu, but the studio needed a strong female lead as well. From the very first day audiences knew that Shiranui was a scene stealer. There was no doubt in our minds that she was going to be the face for the franchise, similar to how Chun-Li was embraced by the global community. When it came to fan art the two female leads were in a category all their own. Capcom and SNK would play up the friendly rivalry in official art, and often present Chun-Li and Mai Shiranui as opponents. Sakura was considered a little sister clone, a jab at Yuri Sakazaki from the Art of Fighting 2. In fact Dan Hibiki was also a parody of Ryo, and Robert Garcia from the Art of Fighting. This is why they sometimes turned up in the Mai vs Chun-Li art as well.With her leather outfit the most recent version of Mai was one of the better contemporary remakes for the character. It was not the first time she was presented with a mostly black costume.

When the Fatal Fury games went to 3D many of the main characters got makeovers in the form of alternate costumes. Noise Factory developed the King of Fighters Maximum Impact in 2004. The updated looks of all the returning characters were well done, and Mai specifically had a bold new design. Her long hair had been cropped short. Her trademark red outfit was swapped to black. The occasional redraws by Tatsuhiko Kanaoka aka Falcoon were memorable.

I am a big fan of Falcoon’s art. I consider his bold style to be the BENGUS equivalent of the SNK art team. Back in 2005 the studio released two limited edition posters at the E3 in Los Angeles. I was able to get the black version of Mai for my little brother. I wish I had known about the signings both days so I could have scored the two prints.

It was great to see the Fatal Fury series continue into the 2020’s. I was glad that there were teams still passionate about the classic fighters. They were keeping the genre alive, and sharing them to an entirely new generation of fans. I’m certain that Mai would reclaim her spot on the fighting ladies Mount Rushmore. What did you think of Mai, and her new look? Were you a fan of any of her redesigns, or did you prefer her classic look? Tell me 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!

Remix Culture, how Asian designers changed the game, part 13

Earlier in this series I talked about changing the conversation. Most of us in the west would always associate China with counterfeit products, even though they also produced most of the authentic goods the world consumed. It was a heck of a thing to have praise for the product, but disdain for the country producing it. Michael Lau was raised in Hong Kong, a nation with one foot in the East, and West. Because of this distinction he absorbed, and remixed western culture in a new, and exciting format; the vinyl figure. When his contemporaries followed suit I didn’t have much respect for what they were doing because they were retreading the same idea. But I took a step back, and acknowledged that they were not all cash grabs, many of these creators were also celebrating the new art form.

In the early days artists followed along with what Lau was doing, essentially making street fashion character toys, whether they were stylized 12-inch figures or squat 6-inch collectables. They were almost all universally variations on a skater kid, or a Hip Hop kid. Then other studios like Brothersfree demonstrated that figures could be made out of industrial workers, robbers, or even clowns. The doors had been blown open. The best designers like Jei Tseng Studio were able to remix cartoon stars, video game characters, mythological heroes, basketball players, and even superheroes into something new, and unique. Comic book fans would be able to identify right away who some of the Street Mask series figures were just by looking at them. The four characters Ken, Ray, Derek, and Gino were inspired by the DC Justice League characters Superman, Flash, Batman, and the Green Lantern respectively. 

Yet these figures weren’t licensed from DC, nor were any of their fashion accessories licensed from similar manufacturers. The red crossbody bag on Ken was based on the SUPREME bag, but the matching font said SUPER instead. The studio was able to create something unique by layering multiple levels of detail, and meaning on their figures. This was whether they were using genuine branding, or a remixed logo. JT Studio understood the assignment. This trend had been happening for generations, not just in figure art, but all of the creative arts. In the 20th century millions of musicians jumped on the rock, punk, new wave, and Hip Hop sound after they first heard the music. We wouldn’t have had the Bauhaus, Modern Classical, Art Nouveau, or Art Deco movements unless it the form had also been embraced by millions of creators. Yes there were some derivative artists, but there were many fresh voices that helped propel the various formats forward.

The creators from Hong Kong, and China were remixing culture in real time. They were mashing together fashion, movies, music, cartoons, comics, and toys. Taking the elements that worked from different formats, and seeing how it would look in a figure, or game, or model. It was something that they had been accelerating at all through the ‘90s. In fact they were remixing, a remix before it even got a chance to catch on. This allowed the designs of urban vinyl figures to influence game character designs, and vice versa. I had talked about many of the biggest streetball MMO’s in previous entries of the series. JC Entertainment released FreeStyle Street Basketball, Freestyle2 Street Basketball, and 3on3 Freestyle Basketball. Beijing Halcyon Network Technology Co., LDT released Dunk Nation 3x3. All9Fun released Basketrio: Allstar Streetball. 

The designs in each basketball MMO were fairly well done. They pulled heavily from the stylized proportions of urban vinyl figures. Billy for example, the character pictured above looked like a vinyl figure I would have collected. The proportions of the 3D model, the style of his hair, gold jewelry, and designer sneakers certainly told a story. Streetball players in the real world all had their own distinct personalities. Some were flashy, some were powerful, some were tricksters. Their look, and their style of play reflected those personalities. The games from JC Ent. made sure that the library of characters they created represented a broad cross section of society. It was something that JC did better than a lot of other studios.

The games they had been developing since 2004 did feature a number of traditional looking male, and female basketball players. We’re talking about matching jerseys, knee gaskets, sneakers, etc. However they also had characters wearing regular street clothes, and people from all walks of life. Working professionals, inventors, mechanics, gang members, robots, and the wealthy elite. This with the case of Billy, and his rich mentors Robert, and Grace. Just because they came from wealth didn’t mean they knew nothing about the game of basketball. They were every bit as dangerous on the court as they were on the boardroom.

There was a tremendous amount of storytelling in Freestyle2, 3on3 Freestyle Basketball, and the other games. This came through in seasonal events, and even through the designs of the characters. When Billy made his debut so too did Team Black Lightning. The street kids were ready to take the game right to the one-percenters, and you were free to choose a side. While audiences became familiar with Saru, Jack, and Joey over the years there were technically no heroes, or villains in the universe, just different clashing personalities. The majority of the cast represented a particular subculture. Over time new teams would pop out of the woodwork. If there was something cool out there in the universe it would eventually end up in the game. For example people on both sides of the Pacific thought wuxia heroes were cool. What if there was a modern team that pulled elements from the ancient kung-fu masters? That was essentially the inspiration behind the Ace of Wulin team. 

The Wulin team's special moves on offense, and defense were inspired by their martial training. The name wulin was derived from “martial forest;” the secret society of wuxia heroes from fiction. Rich people, goths, and kung-fu masters, were just some of the teams that broke up the classic pro, or even Hip Hop designs going back to NBA Street from 2001. The studios weren’t afraid of coming up with designs that might work in a stand-alone science fiction adventure. Some characters like the cyberpunk mascot named Zero could transform into his armored alter ego with boosted stats. This sci-fi monster had no connection to basketball. I’d be lying if I said that the design didn’t go hard, and wasn’t someone that fans were eager to try.

Not every entry had some level of forethought. Sometimes the studios would just fit pop culture characters, or celeb look-alikes into the game. Not that it made sense to just give the Jared Leto version of the Joker from the Zack Snyder DC universe movies a basketball. Or say give the enigmatic guitarist Buckethead a basketball. Yet those characters, or rather ballers inspired by those characters ended up in Dunk Nation 3x3. Fans of pop culture that understood the reference appreciated these weird designs getting inserted into their favorite game. It was certainly an easy way to fill out a roster of recognizable faces without paying for a license. Speaking of putting in non-traditional, high-profile characters in a streetball game… what if the developers put fighting game icons into their titles? The designers at All9Fun placed several characters that were heavily inspired by Capcom, and SNK’s biggest stars in Basketrio. Of course they got away with it by changing the names, and details just enough so they wouldn’t get a cease and desist letter.

These were examples of the remix culture that I was talking about. After adding all sorts of traditional basketball, and streetball archetypes, the studios then started populating their worlds with unique figures. When they couldn’t think up new designs they instead starting asking “what if?” and found ways to incorporate musicians, actors, comic book characters, sci-fi, or fantasy heroes. The designers at all of the studios didn’t bother to ask for permission to use a character, or likeness in their game. They just went ahead and did it. Like the old saying goes “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness, than to ask for permission.” I didn’t think it was a good look to poach the designs of Street Fighter, or King of Fighters characters. I appreciated the hustle, but at least JC Entertainment bothered to create an original wuxia team without just copying from a Japanese developer.

Of all the remix figures that I enjoyed, at least for this genre, were the ones based on actual basketball players. After all they made more sense than comic book superheroes in a streetball game. The way these icons were remixed was what amazed me as an artist. I’d like to explore it a little bit more in the next blog. Until then I’d like to know if there was a character in an MMO that you thought looked cool enough to be featured in a stand alone game. Or if you knew of a character that was such a blatant rip off that you couldn’t believe the publisher wasn’t sued. 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!