Capoeira Fighter 3, the interview - A 1UP classic from January 4, 2008

The fighting game genre isn't as popular as it was in the early 90's, but given the attention that Street Fighter IV has garnered in the past few months it is safe to say that the fans haven't gone anywhere. Director of SF IV, Yoshinori Ono, believes that the game is like a sleeping giant, ready to be roused from a long slumber with a kick to the ribs. I believe the genre is asleep as well but more than just to be awoken it is ready for a renaissance.

Developers from every corner of the world are going to take notes on SF IV and begin developing fighting titles of their own. I'm certain there are fans of Killer Instinct ready to pounce on Rare when they see a potential for success. Those old enough to remember Primal Rage will petition to get some closure on the sequel. But those that focus too much on the past will fail to see the future of the genre. The world has grown quite a lot since the 90's. There is a whole new generation ready to test out the fighting genre.

The only guarantee that we have is in Capcom capturing the pure aspect of the fighter without 3D gimmicks. Until SF IV comes out we have to find titles cut from the same cloth. I don't mean a fighter by SNK, Namco, Taito, Sammy or DIMPS, but something more local. The game featured today has a lot of the classic Street Fighter vibe, it's creator inspired by Capcom's greatest, Street Fighter Alpha.

It has been two years and three months since I last did an interview with Scott C. Stoddard. His name should be important to you and everyone here on 1UP, especially those that consider themselves fighting game fans. Scott created a fighting game by himself. Okay, to be fair, his friends Adam Ford (most of the backgrounds and character selection art), Ethan Halvorsen (new music), and Trent and Melissa Halvorsen (arcade dialogue and ending art) helped at the end. Regardless I don't know of anyone else that can claim to have made a good, let alone great, fighting game all by themselves. I'm talking about character designs, backgrounds, models, animation, music, balance... the works. In this age of multi-million dollar development budgets, Hollywood writers and endorsement deals, it is humbling that one man is keeping the genre alive. The name of the game (in case you haven't guessed) is Capoeira Fighter 3. Go on and check out the demo but be sure to come back here.

Capoeira is a beautiful martial art. It looks amazing in videogames like Tekken and Street Fighter III and doubly amazing on film. A former practitioner of the art, Scott currently works at a game studio but has been filling his free time by plugging away on Capoeira Fighter for near a decade. As a dedicated family man his time is precious, it takes years for his titles to come out. Unlike Capcom, Scott has never stopped working on his series. This most recent release is by far the best and deserves some love on 1UP.

BigMex: Scott, it's great talking with you again. So tell us are you still with the team at Avalanche? I understand the company is part of Disney Interactive now. How is this working out for you?

Scott Stoddard: Disney is a great employer. I did have to animate Hannah's singing lips for the Hannah Montana Wii game, but I'm lead animator on a cool IP project right now. Plus I get into Disneyland free!

BM: The team at Avalanche (and you) now keep a blog. On the Avalanche Software blog the artists all contribute to monthly themes. Are you going to become more involved with those now that Capoeira Fighter 3 has gone "gold?"

SS: I plan to. I've had a lot of fun with my posts in the past, just been a matter of priorities lately trying to get CF3 out the door. All this coding is turning my brain lefty. I definately need to do more good ol' drawing and painting.

BM: Before we get to the actual CF3 questions is there an upcoming game you are working on with Avalanche that you'd like to mention?

SS: Sorry can't mention anything here, but I can say that it is more exciting to work on than Hannah Montana.

BM: Now let's talk about the genre. The fighting game scene has been pretty quiet these past few years. Everything changed in October when Street Fighter IV was announced. What was your reaction to the announcement?

SS: Loved the trailer. Watched it a few dozen times. The motion and ink effect was fun. The impacts and cloth had a great feel to them. Only hitch was the faces and hair. They look really, I mean REALLY bad compared to what I know Capcom is capable of. They've had so many cool stylized versions over the years, but SFIV looks like they hired a middle schooler to design the faces. Very sad to see them going away from the anime look.

BM: Back when I first interviewed you two years ago, you mentioned that Capcom needs to do a cel-shaded 3D fighter with all the characters from past titles. Your words now seem prophetic as details of SF IV have been released. Were these steps logical for the franchise?

SS: As long as the gameplay stays true to the old 2D version, 3D has some very attractive advantages.

BM: What are the advantages of working in 3D over a sprite-based system?

SS: Iteration, iteration, iteration. It is so much easier to fix and change things on a 3D character, or tweak 3D animation. Let's say you want to make Ryu's head smaller (or you want to make it ridiculously small like they apparently have for SFIV). In a 3D system, you just open the model, scale down the head, re-export and your done, maybe 5-10 min tops. If you want to shrink the head on a 2D character, you're pixel pushing every sprite, probably days, if not weeks of work.
The main thing 2D still has going for it is control. You know exactly what that sprite is going to look like because it is only ever going to be seen from one angle. In a 3D game, an animation might look great from one angle, and terrible from another.

BM: Is there a particular character that you can't wait to try out?

SS: Mostly I'm just curious to see the gameplay in motion. The screen grabs didn't wow me, but you've really got to see it in motion to judge it fairly. Some of the screens looked like the faces were going to be a lot more animated, which looks promising. I guess I would go for Ryu because it would be easiest to get a feel for the new gameplay using a familiar character, unless of course they include Elena... got a soft spot for capoeiras.

BM: What do you think about the Saving / Revenge system that EGM / 1UP has reported on?

SS: Hmm... I'll have to try it out. Sounded kinda muddy in the article I read, but might work better in actual gameplay. The idea of keeping the match interesting to the very end is definitely a good goal.

BM: Now that we have established your love of the Street Fighter franchise let's talk a little about your title. It's been two years and change since we last spoke, can you guess how many hours you've spent bringing Capoeira Fighter 3 from beta to final copy? Or specific time spent balancing moves and tweaking the engine?

SS: 1,000's easily. Adam Ford who worked on the backgrounds, and had a strong SF background played CF3 with me on our lunch break almost everyday. I also played nights, and my brother John put in quite a few hours with me. Overall I am very satisfied with the final product. There are still a lot of things that other games do better, but I have to honestly say, when I get together with friends that used to play SF, we would rather play Capoeira Fighter now.

BM: How has the reaction been for your title during development and final release?

SS: We've got some diehard fans out there. We're starting to get more fan vids on youtube. That's fun to see what people are doing with the game. I've also invited the shoryuken.com forums to test it out, they have responded pretty positively, and made some very useful suggestions that I implemented. Things are still pretty quiet as the final build is only available on my site right now where it's had a few thousand hits. Shockwave is really where most of the fans play it. I expect things to be more exciting when Shockwave releases the download version in Jan-Feb '08. Usually get over a million hits a month there.

BM: You mentioned previously that once CF3 was finished you hoped that a publisher might bring it to the home consoles. Any luck with that?

SS: I've talked to a few companies about getting it ported to XBLA and there have been plenty of fans asking for a console version. Turns out it's really tough and expensive to develop for consoles, so to answer your question, we're looking into it, and we want to do it. It's just a matter of finding the right company that is willing to port our game instead of working on their own IP.

BM: There are new and expanded modes in your game, ways to cancel out of combos and supers, a story mode, tag team, solo and versus options. Can you highlight the control scheme and these new modes for us?

SS: Yeah, CF3 is um... full featured to put it nicely (bloated is how I was feeling trying to bug test all the little things I've put in over the years), but the final product is very satisfying and much deeper than most fighting games.

As far as the fighting system goes, there are quite a few little polishing tweaks in the final build. CF3 is very combo heavy. Special moves can be linked with regular moves, but cannot be repeated in a combo unless a hyper move is used to cancel the move usage. To balance out the crazy long combos, you can special dodge to escape between moves or to air recover. So you see a lot of situations where one guy gets an uppercut into a jump kick, then he escapes and returns a punishing downward blow sending the attacker back into the ground. The back and forth in the air is lots of fun, and tends to generate gameplay that is more focused on the flow of combos and escapes than any one move by itself.

We also added color coated swooshes to indicate overhead hits so you can tell how you need to dodge.

There are the usual arcade and versus modes, plus a few other practice and minigame modes.
Capoeira Fighter 3's arcade mode is unique in the fighting genre, because of the branching story. You choose one fighter to start, and depending on that character's story, you may or may not start with a partner. The cool thing is that the partner's story is actually part of yours. Half way through you'll have the option to switch partners, or in some cases to go solo, so there are two endings for every character. Trent Halvorsen and his wife Melissa did all the writing and ending art, and they did a great job weaving all 29 character's stories together. It is also possible to play co-op if your fighter has a partner. I've had a lot of fun playing through co-op with my 4 year old son. He can already do most of the super moves.

The other unique thing to Capoeira Fighter is the match types. My brother an I grew up on SNES Street Fighter II. We started to get bored after a while, so we set up our own mini games, seeing who could get the other guy against the wall first, or who get past the guy to his back wall first. So when I made Capoeira Fighter, I wanted to put more of that stuff in the game to mix it up and keep the game fresh longer.

We ended up with 6 match types, all of which I enjoy (Adam hates the money game). Knock Out is the regular beat-up-the-other guy match. Then there is Ring-King, where you can damage your opponent by keeping them out of the center of the arena. Ring of Fire has a fire pit where you can score extra damage knocking the other guy into it. Money Game plays like capture the flag, and finally Ring Out is a quick match where the first guy to be hit out of the arena wins. You can also set it to switch randomly every round which keeps you on your toes.

Minigame Mode allows you to record scores for each fighter in things like the most damaging combo, the longest combo, busting targets etc... It's a great place to master combos.

BM: The roster of fighters has really expanded. In addition to the fantastic library of capoeira fighters you now feature a lineup of fighters from all over the world. I spy an homage to Street Fighter II as well as at least one character inspired from a popular movie. Can you introduce us to the new faces and some of the new fighting styles presented?

SS: Yeah we felt like the game needed some other styles to balance it out. We ended up building almost half of the 29 character roster with non-capoeira martial artists. Among my favorites are Jimmy Zappa who plays like a classic fireballer, except that we replaced the fireball with a lunging sweep kick. Panda is bubbly asian school girl that happens to be very good at tae kwon do. There's Aleron, the English boxing champ with small man syndrome and his nemesis, Angus, the Irish street fighting soccer player in a kilt. We also have Helicopter the German break dancer, and your monkey kung fu fighter Macaco (AKA Avery).

BM: You have some unique faces in the lineup, Arubim and Saryn aren't human, these are cameos from another game you created, right?

SS: Yes, Saryn and Arubim are from Guardians of Altarris, Spiritonin's take on a Final Fight style game. We needed two more characters to fill in the blank spots on the selection grid and we thought it would be a fun and completely non-logical mix. They are definitely some of my favorite characters to play.

BM: The CF3 design a character contest brought in some interesting designs, I was lucky enough to be one of those selected as was Pantera by a younger artist. Did you have fun coming up with moves for these characters?

SS: Yes! They both turned out to be very fun and different from the other characters in the game. They each have very distinct personalities that come across in their vocals and attacks.

BM: The fighting game genre is a hard sell for publishers. If your game is not a license, MMO or a GTA-clone then you really can't pitch it. This is where the life long gamer takes things into their own hands. You are a member of a small group keeping the genre alive. The new, unique, fighting games are not made by the big studios these days. Tekken and Virtua Fighter are becoming carbon copies of the other. 2D fighters (not made by SNK) are few and far between. Subtle Style from Japan was made by a small team and distributed on PC before it caught the attention of the industry. Now an arcade version is being released to great reviews. In Korea a one or two person team is making Chosun Musa, a fighter based on mythical Korean warriors. Here in the states you've been plugging away single-handed at Capoeira Fighter for years. How does it feel knowing that you are one of the small global developers keeping the genre alive and unique?

SS: As someone who got into video games because of games like Street Fighter II, it's sad to see the genre displaced in today's market. I made Capoeira Fighter so I could have my own engine to try out new gameplay concepts and see if I couldn't offer something worthwhile to the genre. The PC is a very small market for fighting games, but Capoeira Fighter has proved popular and profitable so far. My hope is that the fighting community give it a serious look. I don't think they'll be dissapointed.

BM: Do you think people in the industry should devote more time to building these small games in a variety of genres rather than focusing only on their work project?

SS: I think a lot of guys do that already. Maybe not on the scale that we have attempted here, but you see lots of games on the web that are developed on the side. It's definitely good for me and has helped me understand the industry better.

BM: Do you think that the industry could invest or support these developers by offering release time, stipends or distribution?

SS: It would be nice if console development was more friendly to small developers. From the research I've done, it's pretty daunting to get a game on a console, time, resource and expense wise. Even with something like CF3 that would be a simple port, it is still more than my small team could handle for a console.

BM: Do you foresee a time where digital distribution will replace traditional publishers and give you a chance to gain a wider audience and / or monetary compensation?

SS: I don't see publishers going anywhere, they will adapt. I still rely heavily on publishers for the majority of my profit because they handle all the marketing and ad sales etc...

BM: Any fears that Street Fighter IV will cause the other publishers to have a knee-jerk reaction and begin creating bad fighting titles rather than investing in yours? For reference think of the horrid fighters that flooded the market in the 90's after the success of Street Fighter II. We had to wade through Fighters History, Shaq-Fu, Blood Storm, Time Killers, Thrill Kill, Rise of the Robots, Pit Fighter, War Gods, etc...

SS: Yeah I remember buying all those games looking for another SFII experience and being sorely disappointed every time. It will be interesting to see. I don't think anyone is going to do anything serious until they see SFIV do really well. Grade A console games cost so much to make now. If Capcom's strategy to return to the SFII roots proves successful, and the fighting genre regains popularity, we will definitely see more fighting games. It's all about the money.

BM: Do you hope that SF IV sparks interest in your fighter as well?

SS: I hope anything sparks interest in my fighter. It will be interesting to see if any of the bigger developers use any of my ideas like the match types and abilities attached to hyper combos...

BM: You said that your back would have healed while you were working on this title. Is it well enough for you to return to practicing capoeira with your friends?

SS: Been thinking about that seriously. I do need to get back in shape, but my family also needs me back. I think I'll be taking it easy for a few months.

BM: You are a dedicated family man but does your wife ever have to pull you away from the computer and say enough is enough, especially now that CF 3 is out? Or are you just thinking of things for CF 4? SS: My wife is very supportive, and she keeps me balanced. Plus she did the voices for several of the girls! She is very excited to have a full time husband & dad back, and I am excited to be done. I imagine a CF4 is inevitable, but there will probably be a few more iterations of 3 with some characters added and a few more features that we wanted to get into it. I hope the game does well. Thanks for the interview!

So there you have it, the first interview of the new year. If you are a fighting game fan then you should support the dream and buy a copy. Even if you aren't big into fighting games then you should at least give the online version a spin at Spiritonin or at Shockwave.com. Scott deserves some exposure for his hard work so do me a favor and please, please, please tell a friend. Tell the editors at EGM and 1UP to shine some light on the small developers. Street Fighter IV is still a long ways off, so how about putting some hype behind a homegrown fighter for a change? Have a great weekend and let me know what you are up to!

---EDIT 2025---

Did you ever play this classic game when it came out? Did you know about the free download of the newly polished 60FPS version? Download the Legacy Edition of Capoeira Fighter 3. I’d like to read about which long gone fighting games would come back 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!

The Return of Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament!

If you didn’t believe in Santa Claus then you might want to start believing now! The fighting game community got a special present before the end of the year. Shout out to Luis Lopez for giving me the heads up! The best web-based fighting game ever made (and one of my favorite fighting games of all time) was now available for free download! Windows users only. The criminally underrated Capoeira Fighter 3: Ultimate World Tournament was a Shockwave-based game released by Spiritonin Media in the 2007. I must have played thousands of matches over the years whenever I had a break. Adobe ended support for the Shockwave plugin on 2019, and it was only a matter of time before CF3, and countless other games would be made obsolete. None of the defunct titles made me sadder than losing CF3.

Series creator Scott Stoddard had actually been plugging away at the title in his free time. Adding some polish to it, and trying to make it even better. I did a deep dive on Capoeira Fighter 3 on the blog. For the record Mr. Stoddard had also created a noir fighting game called Death Vegas shortly after CF3 had been released. I managed to dig up an old interview that I conducted with Scott during the 1UP days. I will post it this weekend. Make sure you Download the Legacy Edition of Capoeira Fighter 3, join the Discord (https://discord.gg/PTpuvqkyhF), and give Scott some feedback. It would be nice to see this game get some momentum, and even get featured at EVO.

So this is the last bit of good news that I want to leave you with. A huge thank you for Scott Stoddard for revisiting this gem, and giving it out to the community! May every project you work on bring you much joy, and success! I want to thank all of the visitors that stopped by in 2024. Thank you to those that left a comment, or shared my link on social media. This was the most prolific year that I have ever had on this blog A total of 169 posts in a year... nice! I would not have done it without the support of my friends, and family. I may not be as prolific in 2025, but I will try to find neat things to share with you. I hope 2024 went well for you, and I look forward to playing lots more Capoeira Fighter 3 in 2025. Did you ever play this game when it was available? Is this the first time you’ve heard of it? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you like my 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!

Welcome to Death Vegas - A 1UP classic from January 23, 2009

We've made it to another Friday, hooray! What are your plans for the weekend? Anything fun happening? There's not much going on over here. Just relaxing and sleeping in a little. I did get wind of a new web-based fighter by our favorite indy fighting game developer Scott Stoddard. You might remember Scott better as the creator of the Capoeira Fighter series.

Scott has a new game called Death Vegas. It was created by his studio Spiritonin for Adult Swim. Fans of Metalocalypse and Robot Chicken, this fighter might be up your alley. But calling it a fighting game might be a little short sighted. This game doesn't play like Capoeira Fighter at all. Because of the control scheme and ability to read opponents moves in advance it involves a lot more concentration and faster reflexes than most fighters. If Capoeira Fighter were akin to Street Fighter Alpha then it would be fair to say that Death Vegas plays somewhere in between Killer Instinct and Primal Rage. Those arcade games used unique control schemes that gamers either liked or hated, there was no in between.

   

In addition to a dial-a-combo type gameplay Killer Instinct also incorporated a combo breaker system. A sort of forefather to the parry in Street Fighter III and the Revenge attack in Street Fighter IV. Death Vegas offers a sort of dial-combo move during special attacks yet also offers opponents a chance to block all those strikes. Primal Rage used joystick movements and delayed button releases (rather than presses) to perform moves and combos. Good players of Primal Rage had to be able to plan attacks and counter-attacks well in advance. Mashing buttons wouldn't get you far in either Killer Instinct or Primal Rage. The ability to read and react to every move in Death Vegas means the same thing. Players must be able to concentrate and plan the next few strikes in advance and that might put many gamers off.

The characters in Death Vegas are all unique and are scaled much larger than the characters in Capoeira Fighter 3. They are so large that they remind me of Art of Fighting sprites. Again, taking this game further from the Street Fighter comparisons. An extensive tutoring mode is included to allow gamers to learn the nuances for the game. A plot is used to pull the players through a mystery involving all of the characters they encounter on the streets and back alleys of the city.

Something that you might notice is the distinct character style that Spiritonin used in this game. The characters and game have a decidedly Sin City-meets-Killer 7 vibe to it. Very powerful contrast and carefully marked colors make out the characters and level details. All this adds a layer of detail and originality in this world of cookie-cutter 3D fighters. It also helps Death Vegas stick out in the world of web-based fighters.

Now this game isn't for everyone. The fighting can become very redundant with the computer-controlled opponent blocking almost all of your moves the further you get into the game. It can quickly become a test of concentration and looking for a mistake rather than a full throttle fight. Those that aren't hardcore fighters will want to pass on this title.

   

Death Vegas has some fun things going for it, the scale of the characters and polish of the animation and presentation shows that Spiritonin is only getting better with age. However this isn't likely to dethrone Capoeira Fighter 3 as the best web-based fighter. Check it out and let me know what you think. Oh yeah, and also have a great weekend! 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!

Laura, the new leading lady of Street Fighter V or more fanservice?

We cannot separate the over-sexualization of the female Street Fighter character designs from reality. Capcom has done a fine job of pandering to the mostly male demographic with the changes made to the female characters in the Street Fighter series. Yet to put all the blame squarely on Capcom would mean ignoring the society that we live in. Capcom creates characters that reflect society, the good and the bad aspects of it. If they are creating female characters and presenting them as objects of desire then they are following the trends. SNK does this, Sega does this, Namco does this, Microsoft does this, just about every studio that makes a fighting game is guilty of following the trend. Sex sells and when it comes to female athletes it is the most important thing to sell. The design behind Laura Matsuda, the new Brazilian fighter in Street Fighter V certainly caught onto the trends.

Women are paid less in general than men for the same amount of work in the business world. The divide becomes much more noticeable for female athletes. For example Abby Wambach, forward for the USA Women's National Soccer Team makes far less than her male counterparts. She has an incredible record in league, international and World Cup play yet her annual earnings, including endorsements and sponsorships are less than even the big name retired male peers. Despite her accomplishments and abilities she is marginalized in the sports community. She does not turn up in much advertising, she does not get asked to appear in movies or television cameos. She doesn't even warrant an interview on the sports networks. At the same time retired NBA and NFL athletes have a steady stream of work in commercials and as commentators and are expected to make more than Wambach annually. As she retires chances are that she will fade away unlike the male athletes from the same generation. She was not the first to have this broad divide come to light. Women have to fight for respect at every turn. Earlier this year Sports Illustrated announced the Sportsperson of the year was tennis star Serena Williams. They took an online poll and people voted for the horse American Pharaoh to win the honor. Was it trollish behavior from the online crowd? Possibly. Was it sexist, racist or misogynist to pick a horse over a black woman? Quite possible as well. The news that people were upset about the decision made headlines around the world. Women have to walk a fine line between being taken seriously as athletes and at the same time being marketable through attractiveness. This is especially noticeable in the fighting community. One of the first things that people noticed in the design of Laura were her looks, and aside from her breasts it was her hair that stuck out.

Laura Matsuda wore a half head of tight braids or cornrows. Most female fighters wore their hair in full braids during competition. This way it stayed out of their eyes. Unlike using a headband these braids couldn't easily fall apart even in a grapple. The half-head of braids was made popular in part by pro fighter Ronda Rousey. She would often wear her hair this way during media events and premiers. The hair itself can be seen as a part of the trend of having to be an attractive female athlete in order to be marketable. Do you remember the media outlets doing interviews on the stylists of any other fighter or boxer, male or female? We now know that stylist Abraham Esparza helped create Rousey's trademark style only because the sports outlets decided this was important. Ronda still has to contend with the standards that society has on beauty. She still has to deal with people calling her fat. Serena Williams and her sister have been called ugly and mannish because they were extremely muscular. By comparison the Russian Maria Sharapova was easier to market, easier to build a brand around and feature as a mode because she fit the western ideal of beauty. She was blonde, thin and not as muscular as the Williams sisters. It did not matter if she was not as highly ranked a player or if she didn't have as many championships as either sister. Great looking fighters could be marketed. It didn't matter if Rousey had a judo record that earned a gold medal in the Pan American Games, a Silver in the World Championships and the Bronze in the Olympics. Or that her professional MMA career was 12-1, a prior women's champ for the UFC. The focus from many outlets was her appearance and even her sexual appetite more than her in-ring ability.

In Street Fighter V Laura Matsuda has a very attractive design however that is in contrast to her striking moves, traps and grappling takedowns. She has speed and power that almost put her on par with the bruiser Abel from Street Fighter IV. This might be a seen as a turn-off for some players. Even in the ring women have to be marketed as strong and sexy. Michelle Waterson is nicknamed "the Karate Hottie" and the Japanese fighter Rin Nakai is advertised as strength and beauty by the UFC. Is referring to women like this macho posturing? Is mixed martial arts is the most alpha-male of sports? Do men get intimidated by alpha-females in competition? If so do they believe that women belong in the ring as ring girls rather than fighters? Women walk the line and always have to look their best. Whether it's during training, a press conference or even weigh-in. They have to be made up and look presentable. Men do not have to deal with the double standard. They can be ugly or slovenly if they want. They can show up in torn pants with a 5 o'clock shadow to an interview and nobody cares. They can even act inappropriate to the reporter if they want to. Remember when Quentin "Rampage" Jackson dry humped a female reporter on air? Or when he did the same thing to a Japanese reporter overseas? Would you expect or even accept this behavior from a pro baseball or basketball player? Would female fighters be called sluts if they behaved in the same way? Or were male fighters somehow a part of a different crowd? Were they allowed to be as sexually dominant as they wanted because they were fulfilling some sort of contract with our primal desires?

It is hard to be a professional female athlete in any discipline and much more for a fighter. Ronda is just one example of female fighters having to fit a certain mold, but let's look at somebody from Laura's part of the world and see if the same thing applies. Kyra Gracie, daughter of Rorion Gracie and a member of the legendary Gracie clan is a proud Brazilian. Like her family members she is expected to excel in jujitsu. It is not luck or genetic engineering that makes Kyra or her family members great. It is lots of hard work, practice and a system that has been refined by almost a century. The Gracie family was participating in international bouts and no-holds barred matches since the start of the 20th century. This was well before the term mixed martial arts was even coined. The Japanese champion Mitsuyo "Count Kouma" Maeda helped introduce jujitsu to Brazil. He had a hand in teaching the Gracie family the art and exposed an entire nation to its effectiveness. Kyra represents a third-generation practitioner. She does very well in local and national tournaments. She fights in both gi, wearing the traditional uniform as well as non-gi contests where opponents wear tight-fitting rash guards. She had no plans on transitioning to MMA because the life-span of those fighters, and earning power, is much shorter. When it came to actual fighting Kyra did not sex up her uniform at all. Like other female fighters she wore something that was functional if not modest. Yet this did not mean that she was not presented as a sexual being to audiences.

 

Kyra did some modeling outside of the ring to help make her more visible to non-MMA, non-jujitsu fans. By appearing in some very revealing shoots was she pandering to her fans? Certainly, but she was keenly aware of what she was doing. The Brazilian was using sex to sell her image, she was building her brand more so than she was building the Gracie brand. If large companies could exploit women in their advertising then what would happen if the women were in control of the image? Athletes like Rin Nakai, Ronda Rousey, Michelle Waterson and even the Williams sisters knew that they were not getting paid as well as their male counterparts. They also knew that their life in pro sports would not last forever. They needed to make as much money as they could, by using any avenue that they could. This is the sad truth of female athletes. Many female athletes have to do things that are not expected of male counterparts. Also, like the previously aforementioned sports figures, Kyra was doing these shoots of her own free will. She was not coerced into appearing topless, or pants-less in her pictures. She did this because she knew the images would sell and she would gain a lot of new followers. These followers would bring with them their money and make the sponsors happy. Did the sex do anything to diminish her presence in the ring? Nope! Also she did not actually fight with her boobs hanging out of her top.

Designers at every studio need to ask themselves if the characters they are creating go above and beyond the sexy tropes and stereotypes, or are they just reflecting what society expects a female fighter to be. SNK, Namco, Sega, Capcom, Midway and the other studios have created many fantastic female characters for over 25 years without resorting to pandering. They created female fighters that were empowered and attractive. Yet they also created many that were sexy for the sake of being sexy. This is something that drives me especially crazy about Capcom. At their best they can create characters that cross multiple genres, that appeal to a broad range of demographics. Yet in recent years they haven't quite been able to hit the mark that the previous teams did. The icons created in Street Fighter II, Street Fighter Alpha and even Street Fighter EX had a lot more staying power. They accomplished this without the use of 3D graphics, without overly-sexual female characters.

So how does Laura stack up? She has some of the most imaginative moves in recent memory. Her grapples and takedowns, which can be mixed up with solid strikes and combos are a refreshing addition to the franchise. They break up the monotony of Ryu's fireball attacks or the stiff power moves of Zangief. They are even somewhat believable to perform. What the character didn't need was the special attacks focused around electricity. I understand it was a nod to Blanka but are all Brazilians really doubling as car batteries? Not only that, her super moves have her bouncing around the screen like a pinball. The Street Fighter IV and V teams really enjoy breaking the 4th wall but now the moves are really starting to lose their charm. Purpose-wise she is a positive of a representation of Brazil. I could do without the feathered-costume samba dancers on her stage, or the giant world cup trophy in the background (instead of the Jesus statue atop Rio De Janeiro). We get it Capcom, this is Brazil, you don't have to be so ham-fisted about it. With that said Laura is doing much more for the people of South America than Blanka ever did. The pairing of rash guard shorts under her pants just to show off her butt was sophomoric, and her too revealing top was lazy design. Her color selection of green and yellow was however perfect, especially when combined with the black ankle sleeves for contrast. Bright primary colors were usually assigned to each character and green wasn't really assigned to anybody in Street Fighter V. The colors did the double duty of mirroring the colors from the Brazilian national flag.

 

Laura was not the first minority character, or mixed ethnicity character to pull off this look. That honor would belong to Cobra from Spiritonin's Capoeira Fighter 3. Cobra was fast, flexible and very dangerous. She had some amazing strikes and brutal takedowns as well. She was a villain in the game yet at the same time fiercely proud of her nation. A good chunk of her costume, including the rash guard and ankle sleeves predates the look of Laura. Did I think Laura was derivative? No, I think it was coincidence in the design.

Do I think Laura works in the Street Fighter universe? I say yes. The game could always use more diversity with regards to ethnicity and diverse styles of fighting. I think characters like Laura belong especially when these are positive figures rather than stereotypical tropes. She certainly has more going for her than F.A.N.G. I could do less without the close ups on her butt or the gratuitous cleavage close ups during her intro or special animations. These don't do anything to make the game better or make audiences appreciate the character any more or less. She is very similar to Rashid in that she is a good design but does not actually achieve greatness. To be fair she is slightly more unique than Rashid for the move selection assigned to her and even for her creative hair style. Her moves, minus the electricity are more grounded and less fantastic than the sci-fi wind attacks of Rashid. I think that the character has much better design and purpose than her brother Sean, who was yet another "shotoclone" introduced in Street Fighter III.

 

Something that Capcom has to explain is why Laura is much lighter than her brother. I understand that they are siblings and sometimes there is a range in how dark or fair skinned a brother or sister can be. But this difference is very noticeable. It is okay to assume that they may be step-siblings but if they are truly brother and sister then why make her much lighter? I get the same feeling for Laura that I got for Vanessa Lewis. The studio is intentionally making her lighter just to appeal to the Asian market and of course Western ideal of beauty. Let's hope that is not the case. Laura is a good character and I hope to see her more in the future. I'd like to hear your take on this character and whether or not you think women fighters tend to be objectified more in 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!

How fight culture became fighting game history, part 39

Scott Stoddard and Adam Ford were the founders of Spiritonin, the independent game development studio. They had cut their teeth working on projects for Avalanche Software, Disney Interactive and other publishers. Both were huge fans of fighting games, especially the Street Fighter and Tekken series. Scott had actually practiced capoeira for a number of years. A back injury and family life kept him grounded but he never lost the passion for the art form. At the end of 2001 he put together a game called Capoeira Fighter. It was like a Shockwave tech demo. He converted 3D models into sprites for his newly created game engine.

 

The animation was okay and the control was pretty good but sluggish when compared to any arcade or console fighter. The game featured two characters on one screen. There were none of the fancy level details, like scrolling or musicians in the background that appeared in subsequent titles. It was as bare-bones a fighting game on the web could get. The game actually had a plot which established the canon of the universe. Mestre Rochedo was honing his techniques for an upcoming fight with Mestre Zumbi. The fight was actually called a "Batizado" which meant Baptism in Portuguese. Students that were trying to earn their cordas, the rope belts worn by practitioners, had to prove themselves by competing against an upper classmate. It was similar to the trials that karate practitioners had to go through in order to earn a new belt. Rochedo was one of the shaved-head characters featured in the series and Zumbi was the one with large dreadlocks. In the first game Rochedo was player 1 and player 2. Zumbi would not appear officially until the sequel.

A few months after the original game came out a much more polished sequel had arrived. Released in 2002 Capoeira Fighter 2 had laid the foundation for an amazing series. The game had much larger and more complex models. The game camera would actually zoom in and out to follow the players. The background was static but there were now musicians playing traditional instruments as well as the other playable characters clapping along in the background. It was as if the players were competing in an actual roda. The gameplay was still fixed in 2D like Street Fighter with similar mechanics. There were a handful of selectable characters, each with their own techniques and moves. Although the models were crude they were all distinct. The sequel had expanded on the story of the game. This time around Mestre Loka and Mestre Rochedo had teamed up to get their students ready for a batizado. Loka's rival Mestre Zumbi showed up to cause trouble. This meant that they all had to fight to defend the honor of their school. This small plot helped establish who the major players were in the game and what their motivation was.

It may have sounded insignificant for a fighting game, especially a web-based fighting game, but the story helped demonstrate the commitment that Spiritonin was putting into the series. All of the individual personalities began to come through as the characters, moves and details of the game had gone up considerably. The game had whites and non-Brazilians as well as minority characters in the lineup. The people of color were not treated like exotic or token characters but just as equals. All of the playable characters studied capoeira yet each had their own unique form. It was a refreshing change of pace as far as videogames went, especially fighting games. The diversity reflected the heritage of Brazil and the cross pollination of different cultural elements that helped transform Kupigana Ngumi into Capoeira.

Things went quiet for a few years as Scott and Adam were working on another entry during their free time. The third game in the series could be considered the best web-based fighter ever made and one of the best fighting experiences period. Capoeira Fighter 3 (CF3) appeared in 2004 as a demo with a finished version not long after. Everything that was in the game was exponentially better than what had come before. Stoddard, Ford, their friends, coworkers and families all pitched in to help make sure that the game was worth remembering. The character models, animation, levels, effects, control, balance, music, sound and options were through the roof. Not that many people took notice of this detail but the game actually applied a lighting filter on the sprites. Shadows fell in the foreground or background depending on the placement of the "sun." Skin was shiny or dull, muscles and clothing were highlighted or dark, again depending on the placement of the light source. This was an amazing achievement considering that the game was created for the web on Shockwave, with a full version for the PC being available for purchase on CD.

It took a long time for Capoeira to become implemented properly in a game. It had actually required more work and research than any other Western or Eastern developer had put into the art. The tradition was still outlawed at the start of the 20th century. Just as blacks found it difficult to assimilate into society after the end of the Civil War in the US, the black Brazilians faced many of the same racial tensions, discriminatory practices, violence and oppression for decades after slavery had been abolished. They found it hard to gain acceptance or make headway into positions of power or respect. Capoeira was the one tradition they could hold onto and keep alive despite attempts to suppress the culture. The practice was gaining support in small communities and by 1937 the practice was tolerated by most non Afro-Brazilian towns. By 1953 it was no longer outlawed across the nation. Gamers should be thankful that SNK helped introduce the formerly forbidden art to gamers in 1989 and that by 1997 both Namco and Capcom helped it gain global visibility. In 2008 Brazil declared Capoeira part of its Cultural Heritage. It was only appropriate that the full version of Capoeira Fighter 3 was released in 2008 as well to further educate gamers to the Dance of War.

The game oozed style, Scott Stoddard and Adam Ford had created it as a love letter to the genre. It had pulled many elements from Street Fighter Zero / Alpha but with hints of the King of Fighters and Tekken series thrown in for good measure. To be fair the game also gave a nod to the characters, music and even locations featured in the cult martial arts film "Only the Strong" and even the 1977 classic Cordao De Ouro "Golden Cord."

All of the characters introduced thus far had returned in Capoeira Fighter 3. Each of the characters was far more developed and distinguished. The size, scale, body type and even color choices applied to the characters was done with forethought. For example the colored cords that the characters wore reflected their rank and were worked into the theme of each costume. The bold primary colors placed on the cords were reflected on the clothing worn by some of the fighters. The use of primary colors to help identify characters had been used to great effect in Street Fighter II more than 20 years prior. Ken wore red, Ryu wore white, Guile wore green and Chun-Li wore blue. In CF3 Furacao (hurricane) wore yellow, Santo wore green and Perereca (poisonous tree frog) wore white. All of the women in CF3 were also dressed more realistically as well. None sported the bikini of Elena or the revealing costume of Christie Monteiro. Their costumes were functional yet form fitting so that they still accentuated the curves of the females.

A person might think that the gameplay would be very redundant with the number of capoeiristas but no two shared the same moves, combos or special attacks. Capoeira, like kung-fu and karate had hundreds of variations. The strikes applied to each character fit their personality as well as their body type. The muscular characters like Zumbi and Maestro had power moves which relied on tremendous upper body strength. They dealt a lot of damage with a few strikes but tired quickly. The smaller female characters like Coelha (named after a bunny rabbit) and Perereca did not do as much damage per attack but had lighting speed and did not tire as quickly.

The diversity of the characters could not be understated. There were 15 unique capoeiristas (16 including a special version of Zumbi). In addition there were 13 other "World Warrior" type characters that represented other fighting styles like Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do and boxing. It was not the sheer number that made the game unique but instead the showcase of figures. In other fighting games the playable characters were always roughly the same size and body type. They never had an ounce of fat on them and were never too short or tall. Capoeira Fighter 3 had every skin color and body type that a person could imagine. The various tones and shades of skin suggested that several characters were of mixed marriages, mulatto or even native.

Very few games before or after had put as many minority characters in the roster. Very few games had ever put minorities in prominent roles for the accompanying story. The lineup featured tall, skinny, fat, short, muscular and average build body types. Even the heroic Mestres could not have been more opposite. Rochedo was tall, tattooed and muscular whereas Loka was shorter, stocky and wore a tank top that covered his paunch. Loka also sported very nasty cut through one of his eyes. The character had lost it in a maculele or machete battle. The dangerous Cavalaria form of the art emphasized weapons and strong take downs which made Loka a tough fighter.

There was a character that reflected just about every type of gamer there was, including the young and old. None of them seemed feeble when competing against fighters in their prime. This distinction was important because the art form actually helped keep bodies healthy and limber even in old age. Something else to consider was that in most fighting games the token power character was a musclebound man. Zumbi and Maestro did fit the bill however one of the strongest characters in CF3 was a tall and heavyset woman nicknamed Buldogue. She didn't have the fancy tumbling moves of other characters, and she didn't jump very high for that matter. Instead she relied on more realistic open hand slaps, hip thrusts and kicks that could knock down walls.

The nicknames given to the characters was done in more earnest than tongue-in-cheek. Capoeira had been banned a few centuries prior in Brazil. Practitioners knew each other by nickname only. This protected the identities of the masters and their students. The nicknames were earned by peers, after a batizado and were closely guarded. These nicknames were the reputations that preceded the best fighters. The fighters could be named for their tenacity or lack thereof, like Stoddard's alias and playable character "Maionese," Animal names were revered because they were like avatars. Several fighters featured in CF3 were named after animals. Buldogue had the fearlessness and raw power to back up her nickname it was however her trademark yell that gave birth to her legend.

The other women in the game were just as unique and memorable. Some were shorter than their male counterparts and some taller. They all had a reputation and purpose written in canon which was revealed during the course of the game. For example Cobra was constantly pitting sides against each other. She was trying to get ahead in the criminal underworld that her father ran. Cobra had demonstrated that the women characters did not have to be heroes. Not only that but they could have as much influence on canon as any male character. Several of the main characters like Furacao, Zumbi and Jamaika were based on real people and the ones who trained Stoddard. It was funny because he turned some of them into villains.

Stoddard knew that it didn't make much sense in other fighting games that all of the characters knew each other or that they happened to be in the same country or town at the same time. So when he began writing the story for CF3 he made sure to reunite the characters under a common goal. This time it was Mestres Loka and Rochedo sending their students around the world to show off their capoeira skills. Zumbi was in hot pursuit of them. They had to prove their art against other fighting styles as well as each other. This meant that allies could fight each other through the course of the game and some could even switch sides. Male and female characters could be fighting for good or evil and the truth would only be revealed at the end of the game.

Some women had more altruistic goals than simply fighting for the sake of fighting. The tall light-skinned Ramba had actually been away from competition because she was busy at the university. She was asked by Mestre Loka to look after his students. She reluctantly agreed as it would be a good excuse to get away from law school for a moment. Along the way Ramba met Buldogue and offered her a better life. Ramba knew that Buldogue was a strong fighter but had never been given an opportunity outside of the roda. Buldogue had been used as hired muscle by other characters in the game and Ramba wanted to get her out of that life. She knew that the bruiser was actually respected by the community, especially the poor that lived in the favela or ghetto. If she were able to get an education and become known for something other than fighting then Buldogue could become an inspiration for other women trapped by their situation.

Players were given a choice whether to team up Ramba and Buldogue or to play solo. The purpose of Ramba in the game was not to beat the main villain but instead to help guide those in need. If players completed the game solo then Ramba learned what she was really fighting for. She earned her degree but decided to open her own firm to help the less fortunate. If she teamed up with Buldogue she became a mentor and enrolled her in school while still working double-duty as a lawyer.

Strong, positive, dynamic, interesting minority female characters that didn't need to flash skin to get noticed? There had been few and far between for over 25 years. Designers in Japan and the US had lost focus on how they could introduce new faces without relying on pandering or stereotype. Characters could color the perception of gamers after all. When done in a positive light they could stop perpetuating stereotypes. Capoeira Fighter 3 had set a standard that would be hard for many developers to follow. Where I believe the game excelled was in creating a villain that would hold his own against the best fighting bosses ever designed. The next portion of the series will break from the issue of color to explore what it took to become infamous in the genre. 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!