A look at IGS, the Martial Masters. A 1UP classic...

The second studio that I would like to mention in this post brawler series is IGS from Taiwan. This independent developer and publisher has been releasing titles for almost 20 years, the majority of which players in the US have never tried or seen. The company does not go out of its way to promote a strong presence in English-speaking countries and only partially updates their web presence in Asian countries outside of Taiwan and China. Their focus has always seemed to have been based on following trends and becoming very good at imitating styles from developers in Japan. Currently they seem to be testing the waters of iPhone and other smart phone game projects as well as partnering up with MMO developers. They first entered the arcade consciousness in 1994 with Alien Challenge. The fighting game was subpar and even nonsensical when compared to other titles on the market. Their follow up fighter Gouken Kyoutou aka the Killing Blade, released in 1997, was a sort of Chinese take on the sword fighting game Samurai Spirits. Again, it was nothing special considering the number of great fighting games that had been in circulation at that time. However each successive arcade title was better than the previous, they were evolving at a rapid pace and would release a title that would be discovered in latter years through the MUGEN PC fighting engine. Those that managed to see Martial Masters in their local arcade certainly did a double-take.

Martial Masters was released in 1999, after Street Fighter III: Third Strike yet bore an uncanny resemblance to the Capcom fighter. At that point every major publisher and developer of fighting games had shut down their 2D game development teams. The sprite they assumed was a dead format and players would be likely to ignore new fighters using traditional methods. As the success of Sammy, DIMPS and SNK showed through the new millennia the other publishers were wrong IGS bet that their fighting game would grab long time fans of the Street Fighter series and give them a new experience to sink their quarters into. They started with their own PGM system, an arcade console more powerful than the Neo Geo and thus capable of rendering large sprites with dozens of animations per character. These sprites looked closer to those presented on the more powerful Capcom CPS-III system. What IGS did was nothing short of genius or a blatant rip-off, depending on whom you asked.

In order to make a fighter that had the elements of Street Fighter without outright copying the cast. Data East had copied Street Fighter II with Fighters History in 1993 and got slapped with a lawsuit by Capcom a year later. The courts ruled in favor of Data East and the results of which were other studios were able to develop fighting games with eerily similar characters and control schemes. IGS did not outright copy the cast as controls through Martial Masters, they did however poach the Capcom artistic style. Of course copying an artistic style was only part of the challenge. The other would be to fill a roster of fighting archetypes that were unique and memorable. By '99 there had been dozens of fighting games at home and the arcade, just about every possible character combination and fighting style had been explored. The brilliance of IGS was in filling out the roster with characters that were inspired by, and almost direct copies of, the fighters featured in the Once upon a time in China movie series The strict IP laws that curb comics, movies and games in the US seem to be more lax overseas. This loose interpretation of copyright allows for a thriving fan-based comic industry in Asia, as well as hobbyists creating models of popular characters in limited edition runs. Martial Masters was an example of that type of mentality influencing character designs in a game.

The sprites featured in Martial Masters (MM) were large and colorful. The male and female archetypes were all there, including a strong Chinese female lead, just as in the SF series. However the differences between SF design and designs featured in other fighting games were subtle yet more complex than most realized. The SF series succeeded in part because the masters of their respective art were inspired by actual and mythological heroes. They were an amalgamation of the inspirations but done in such a way as that the characters could never be pinned onto one person. Ryu in SF for example was based in part on karate masters Mas Oyama and Yoshiji Soeno with a look from Ken from Fist of the North Star. For MM and some of the other games, the designs were blatantly based on the mannerisms and gestures of popular actors, including Jet Li, Bruce Lee and Donny Yen.

More than that, some of the characters and moves in MM appeared to have multiple sources of inspiration. The Tiger character for example had the size and proportions from SF III's Alex but with some of the slashing moves from Wolverine of the X-Men.

Speaking of Tiger, he was a good example of the proportions that IGS had used to create sprites similar to Capcom's. The design of the characters was set somewhere in between the sprites used for SFIII and SF Zero / Alpha. Tiger appeared very much like a playable version of Chun-Li's partner from the ending of the game.

The other characters used the general proportions and scale made popular by Bengus. The Monk character for example had roughly the same size and proportions of the Hulk from the Marvel fighting game. If not Zangief from Street Fighter Alpha.

Of course not all of the characters were inspired by Capcom characters. Others were inspired by archetypes featured in other games but presented in the Capcom style. The Drunk Master for example appeared like the hybrid of Chin Gentsai from the King of Fighters and Gen from SF Zero. Not to take anything away from IGS because the character was fun to play as and had many original moves and animations. He, and several other characters should have returned for a sequel.

The subtle elements that IGS designers missed when imitating the SF character designs became obvious for the more esoteric fighting styles. The characters Scorpion and Ghost Kick highlighted the lack of understanding of how certain fighting styles appeared in the SF universe. The characters in Street Fighter were all representatives a particular style, like karate, kung-fu and wrestling. These characters had moves were not grounded in any particular school however. What the team at Capcom did was apply a stance and set of moves that mirrored the popular concepts but were optimized for use in a game engine. Ken and Ryu had moves that looked like karate strikes, Chun-Li had moves that looked like kung-fu strikes. Most of these moves looked fantastic, even if they were impractical, the purpose was that they could be animated and balanced within the fighting engine. Martial Masters took some of the styles too literally and presented the masters with exaggerated arts and stances. These forms may have appeared in a SF game, however the designs and stances for Scorpion and Ghost Kick were too unbalanced and exaggerated. The characters created a visual distraction that upset the symmetry of the rest of the cast. Moreover they would be difficult to animate moving and fighting convincingly with the rest of the cast.

As well made as the sprites were, the game was lacking substance. This would prove to be the biggest trend for almost all the IGS games. The studio was capable of following trends and even imitating the best developers in the industry, however the games were always lacking something. In the case of Martial Masters the game had decent controls and move sets for each character but it lacked balance. Every great fighting game strives for balance. Balance in the amount of damage that moves take, balance in how quickly characters attack, how slowly they recover and what strikes take precedence. A game that allows for players to constantly juggle opponents with a barrage of strikes and gives them no chance to recover or counter is clearly unbalanced. Almost all of the characters in Martial Masters were able to perform an endless loop of attacks that could completely drain the energy of an opponent. These things would have never appeared in a numbered SF title because of the extensive balancing process.

The flaw for IGS was clearly the lack of experience behind their developers. They could imitate Capcom and even create characters that were animated on par with the best efforts from the Japanese studio but they did not understand how all of the elements worked together in order to build a Capcom caliber fighting game. The levels were nice but lacked the vitality of the SF levels, the controls were good but not precise, the characters were diverse but almost all rooted in Asia rather than the global community that made up the SF cast. If I could describe an IGS game it would be anemic. It lacked the size and energy to have run with the major publishers. Players could see what the studio and designers wanted to do and appreciated the effort they made in bringing a game to market, especially after Capcom had closed its 2D wing. What killed the gamers though was that the games always seemed to be lacking something. Martial Masters looked and played like a SF game that was 80% maybe even 85% finished. At that stage it was good enough to demo at a trade show and get buyers interested in ordering arcade cabinets. For gamers it was not enough, that 85% was still more than a half a year's worth of hard work to make up for. It lacked the polish and level of detail that made the Capcom fighters great. Had IGS only had more time or team members then perhaps Martial Masters could have made an even bigger impact with the community. That, or the very least they could have had larger publishers looking to bring their fighting game to home consoles.

Thankfully, the PC emulation program MUGEN had brought these sprites to a whole new generation. Players could see how the Martial Masters would have stacked up against the Street Fighters. IGS did not create another game that was in the traditional SF vein. However a few years ago they did release a title in the arcades and the Playstation 2 that was similar to Guilty Gear. Spectral VS Generation came out in 2006 featuring developer Idea Factory’s Spectral Force vs Generation of Chaos. The game was fun but lacking. It was similar to Martial Masters in that it felt anemic. The levels were sparse, animations fun but not extraordinary, the character designs familiar but not revolutionary. IGS had fallen into a trap of a "good" game being "good enough" for the publisher.

The publisher would actually release two titles that were better gaming experiences. One of which fell into the trappings of Martial Masters, but in a different genre, and one title which could honestly stand on its own merits among the best arcade games ever produced. 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!

A look at IGS, the Gladiator; Road of Sword. A 1UP classic...

Gladiator: Road of Sword was released in 2001, just a year after Demon Front. I had mentioned this game previously during my Brawler series but decided that it should get an additional mention here. It deserves special mention because it was the best game published by IGS and was easily one of the greatest brawling games ever made. If I had to rank it among all of the brawling games ever released I would say it was in the top 10 of all-time. I would go further and say that it belonged in the top 5. After that it would be a matter of opinion. I would actually rank it in the top 3 for its designs, control, animation, characters, originality and execution. Consider also that this title was completely ignored by the staff at Game Informer when they compiled a list of the Top 10 Brawlers in October 2011.

In the past month and a half I had covered over 100 games in my brawling series. I’ve played them all, and thanks to emulators played several recently just to refresh my memories. When I read Game Informer’s list I was saddened and dismayed. One of the greatest brawlers ever was completely dismissed, possibly because it was a rare arcade title unfamiliar to the console-leaning staff.

Gladiator: Road of Sword got many things right. It was a brawler set in classic Dynasty-era China. However it was more refined than IGS’s other popular Knights of Valour series, which was beat-for-beat a better version of Capcom’s Warriors of Fate. Of course it would stand to reason that IGS was producing sprite-based brawlers that looked better than the Capcom classics because they were released almost a decade after Capcom's! Where Gladiator succeeded was in recreating the best elements that Capcom refined, if not introduced into the genre. IGS then improved on the mechanics and took the experience in new directions.

The first thing that most players noticed were the character designs. They were all well done and quite original, in a style that was closer to the Japanese manga aesthetic than the previous designs which were closer to Chinese manhwa comics. They did not poach the Bengus style as they had in Martial Masters or the Nazca style as they did in Demon Front, this was a new style altogether for Gladiator. The heroes were based on some familiar archetypes. The large burly fighter that moved slowly (Ko), the female swordfighter (Chin), the petit but speedy female fighter (Hsiung), the female weaponsmith (Huang), the elderly kung-fu master with strong special strikes (Mr Wu), and of course the young kung-fu master with great all-around attacks (Chu). The six playable characters had distinct styles and each had their own library of regular and special attacks. They did not all fight with bare hands, some of the characters had weapon-based attacks and special moves. Where the game elevated the standard was in the robust fighting system. Players could parry attacks with perfectly timed button and joystick inputs, perform mid air special attacks and even jump up quickly if knocked down to perform a counter attack. These things would normally be reserved for a dedicated fighting game rather than a brawler.

IGS then developed a new mechanic. Each character could collect special scrolls that expanded their techniques. Players could earn five scrolls with a completely different set of moves applied within. Players could then switch between the fighting techniques with the push of a button. Each style worked better for different bosses and enemy types. Best of all the techniques could be switched in the middle of a combo, or even combined with the special attacks of other players to form specially animated super attacks. The game supported 2, 3 or 4 characters performing super attacks, provided that the other characters also had earned the technique scrolls as well. It was as an impressive a fighting system if not more so than that featured in Guardian Heroes. Unlike GH however these characters were not locked onto a 2D playing field.

The game also featured a leveling system which applied to their health bar and increased their striking power. The more multi-hit combos players could perform the faster they could level up. Bosses offered the most points once defeated. It behooved players to use a string of special attacks to keep juggling bosses for a long combo string and then split the points with teammates at the end of the level. The way the combat system worked was not unlike the magic system in Capcom’s Dungeons and Dragons games. Where IGS trumped both Capcom and Treasure was that this title was a pure beat-em-up brawler. All of the attacks and special moves were based on the fighting arts, not on magic. Characters didn’t have to go searching through a level to obtain magic vials or pick up weapons. The characters had all the screen-clearing moves they needed. Yes, there were fireballs and other explosive attacks, but these were representative of the mythical techniques known only to a handful of masters in the history of the martial arts In this case it would be the main characters.

Having opponents that represented a cross archetype of mythological and historical villains also made the game more interesting. Bandits, soldiers, spies and roving guards were only the beginning of the opponents players faced. The game had bloodthirsty warlords, zealous monks, crooked priests and evil kung-fu masters. These were highly stylized representations of the male and female villains that might have turned up in a classic kung-fu movie. All of the villains of course had their own sets of special attacks that looked as impressive as anything players could perform.

The levels were very well done, populated with a diversity of enemy types each representing one of the warring factions. The stages ranged from rural and small towns to open fields, deserts and mountain paths where soldiers defended secret fortifications. The architecture was a cross section of Asian influences, including Chinese, Mongolian and Korean. Villages could have been located in any major city of the classical era, some temples and statues had Buddhist themes while others were non-secular. This diversity made the game more appealing to the countries that IGS was targeting Players could chose which path they wanted to explore in between levels, thus increasing the replay value.

Players that had grown up on fighting games and brawlers could find no better marriage of the two genres. Those that wanted to experience the game as only a brawler could do that by using basic moves over and over and exploiting techniques learned from past games. Those that wanted to experience the game as a fighter could try out the various styles and attacks that could be unlocked through the course of the adventure. The balance between the characters and their moves was very well done. There was no right or wrong way to play Gladiator, but those that dug deeper found out that it was a solid playing experience and quite possibly the pinnacle of the genre. It was the best experience from the studio that also developed the memorable Knights of Valour and Oriental Legend series. Game Informer be damned for leaving it off the list of top 10 brawlers!

Unfortunately this game suffered the same fate as Demon Front. Very few people ever saw it, let alone played it because it was only released in the arcades. Unless you lived in an Asian country, or were lucky enough to live in a city with a strong Asian community then you were out of luck. I was fortunate because the Los Angeles area has Little Tokyo, Chinatown and Korea Town, not to mention the numerous suburbs where arcades and stores with IGS games could be located. Had I never known the experiences of the PGM system then I would have been at a loss as a gamer. With the majority of the titles un-emulated then YouTube would be the only way for gamers to see the good times they missed.

Hopefully the brawling series has given readers a chance to learn a little something about some of the best games ever made. Perhaps players might be willing to explore their town for some rare arcade experiences and share them with the community as well. I had a fun time writing about brawlers over the past few weeks and hope to start enjoying some of them very soon. I am sorry that I have not replied to more of your comments. I do read them all but my 14-hour days limits how much time I get to respond or do anything else. I hope you understand and thank you for being good friends. 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!