Style Wars, looking at Kimberly in Street Fighter 6, and Isla from King of Fighters XIV.

I think we should have the conversation about Kimberly, about culture, and the developers at SNK, and Capcom. I had previewed Kimberly when she was leaked a month or so ago. Most of my observations turned out to be accurate. The internet has absolutely fallen in love with her, posting fan art, and cosplay pics following the reveal trailer including the updated Juri. The thing I think we have to acknowledge is that Kimberly has themes that were seen in SNK characters much earlier.

There were at least three SNK characters that Kimberly follows in the footsteps of. Zarina was a Brazilian conservationist, fan of Samba dancing, and kicker of crotches. She debuted in King of Fighters XIV, in 2016, along with Bandeiras Hattori founder of the Brazilian Ninja Arts Dojo. The minority characters were introduced as members of Team South America. The King of Fighters series is wildly popular in Brazil, and other South American countries, and it made sense that SNK would design a team in order to appeal to them. On a surface level Kimberly is young, and energetic, like Zarina, she even has a similar outfit. On a deeper level Kimberly is obsessed with the ‘80s, and ninjitsu. In her debut trailer we see her using a bunch of over-the-top ninja moves.

Bandeiras is also a huge fan of ninjutsu. He’s even invented his own form, and is actively trying to recruit students. He’s an absolute geek for Mai Shiranui, the most popular ninja in the KOF tournament. To be fair who wouldn’t be a fan of Mai? Kimberly by the same token is also a ninja super fan, she’s a follower of Guy, the most famous ninja in the Street Fighter universe. Kimberly has natural ability, making traditional fighting game style strikes with her own flair. Both Bandeiras, and Kimberly have lightning quick dashes to punches, and kicks. Ninjas in 3D fighting games often have a lethal move where they suplex their opponent onto their head from a tremendous height. Kage-Maru from Virtua Fighter helped start the tradition way back in 1993. Both Kimberly, and Bandeiras keep the tradition alive almost 30 years later.

Dark-skinned ninjas, and ninja apprentices aside, there was another character that predated Kimberly. Isla aka the “Dreaming Brilliance” was a Chilean KOF contestant. She was set up as a parallel, and rival to Shun’Ei. She debuted in King of Fighters XV in 2022. Her trailer premiered on Sept 30 2021, almost one full year before Kimberly’s first trailer. It is entirely possible that the new developers working on Street Fighter 6 were keeping tabs on every new face appearing in the KOF series. I would say that they challenged themselves to create characters better than the new faces introduced into the previous two KOF games.

Isla was another South American. SNK was going all-in on making their cast appeal to the community. She was not a dark-skinned character, and her fighting style had nothing to do with ninjitsu or any other traditional art. She has mysterious psychic powers, floating hands nicknamed Amanda help her fight. These are similar to Shun’ei’s psychic hands. Where Isla overlaps with Kimberly is in the use of spray cans. Isla is a graffiti artist, and social media star. She uses the spray can in several of her special, and super attacks. Spray cans, especially those favored by graffiti artists are highly pressurized, and dangerous in certain conditions. In addition to spraying colors capable of blinding an opponent, they are also flammable. In both Isla, and Kimberly’s trailers audiences saw the cans used as explosives. Isla adding them to her kicks, and Kimberly to her punches. If I didn’t know better I would say that the Street Fighter developers simply mixed elements from Bandeiras, and Isla in order to come up with Kimberly. This would be an oversimplification of how her character evolved.

We need to take a step back from the minority ninja-meets-graffiti artist design behind Kimberly, and dig in deeper to how Hip Hop culture influenced the development of fighting games. When a game studio wants to ground a Western character as being “urban” or from the big city what visual cues do they give us? In the case of Guy, Kimberly, or the previous ninja female from the SF universe Maki, it was very subtle. They were wearing sneakers. Aside from that their outfits had elements of traditional ninja uniforms. Perhaps it was a mesh vest, pants, or a top pulled from classic designs. Then to ground it into the modern world they would be wearing modern sneakers. When the studios wanted to ground the universe, and presentation to Western audiences, or let international players know the world was set in a gritty western environment then what else did they do? Perhaps they showed landmarks in the distance. The Statue of Liberty, or high rise buildings that looked like the Empire State, or Chrysler Building from New York instantly told a story. Up close these streets, and environments were covered in graffiti. Graffiti decorated a number of stage backgrounds in many Japanese developed fighting, and brawling games.

Graffiti is a way of storytelling, and is one of the few visual languages that is almost universally understood. It is one of the four pillars of Hip Hop culture. Graffiti is the visual art of the culture, b-boy (breakdancing) is the style of dance, emcee (rapping) is the style of singing, and dj (turntablism) is the style of music. Hip Hop was born in New York in the ‘70s, and became a globally recognized culture over the next 50 years. That means that a Hip Hop practitioner can come from anywhere. They can breakdance to music in a different language, and write graffiti using a non-English alphabet, and it is still recognized as part of the culture. Graffiti was used in stage backgrounds, and intro screens on video games, and is still used in game design. When graffiti is used with supporting details, such as additional tags, trash, and weathered textures then it helps ground the audience to a particular era, culture, or economic class.

When graffiti is used without supporting context then it can be interpreted as a superficial element, as the developers do not fully grasp the culture they are trying to recreate. Poorly done graffiti doesn’t really help sell the game, or even ground the player. I would argue the superficial use of graffiti applies to Isla, and the train tunnel stage in KOF XV. The tunnel is coded for subway cars, however it features a freight car, which rarely, if ever, use the electrified tracks of a subway system. Also the graffiti covering the walls, and pillars of the tunnel are very clean, and stylish. They are not surrounded by illegible gang tags, trash, or other elements that are often found in living, breathing cities. SNK is very good at introducing characters into the KOF universe based on Western pop culture. The trade off is that these characters sometimes appear to only have a surface appreciation of the culture, and not a deeper foundation. Duck King for example appeared in 1991. He was the first b-boy-turned-fighting game character. His appearance was memorable, but as far as pop culture went it demonstrated that Japanese developers were behind the curve. 

MC Hammer was a famous US rapper, and also an exceptional dancer. He popularized the oversized “genie pants” in the late ‘80s. However by the early ‘90s he was already waning in popularity in the west. Trends traveled much slower before the internet became commonplace. The Japanese developers at SNK thought they were beating the trend, and compared to other studios they very much were. However in a broader sense they were simply exploiting a trend, and not really invested in the culture. It was apparent as Duck King was a relatively minor character in the Fatal Fury timeline. It wasn’t the first time that a Japanese studio appropriated Hip Hop culture in a game. Kaneko released DJ Boy in the arcades in 1989. The brawling game featured an early attempt at recreating the culture for international audiences. It didn’t make much sense for people from the US, but I’m certain that audiences in Japan assumed that rollerskating gangs were everywhere in New York City.

I had posted earlier on this blog that the genius of SNK’s character design was in hiding martial arts masters in plain sight. When the characters were done right, like Terry Bogard, or Kyo Kusanagi, who wore stylish street clothes they were as memorable as the Capcom school of design which favored fighters in more traditional costumes. However not every character was as well regarded. When you look at the design notes from the art team you can see how much they were trying to pander to western audiences. The concept art for Team USA in the King of Fighters ’94 looked like a Hip Hop dance troupe. The mix of spandex, and oversized coats was a popular trend in the late ’80s, and early ‘90s. By the time the team would be introduced the fashion would be outdated in the USA. Thankfully the studio went with a football player, basketball player, and boxer all wearing street clothes. These designs wouldn’t necessarily lock the team into a specific era. Capcom wasn’t immune to the trends from the west either. The original Street Fighter starts with a brick wall covered in graffiti. The Capcom logo is stylized in the original title screen, as well as the SF6 reveal trailer some 35 years later. 

Western pop culture from the ‘80s was all over early video games. Just on the influences of cult movies there would be no Metal Gear Solid without Escape from New York. There would be no Final Fight without Streets of Fire. The difference between how Capcom approached Kimberly, and how SNK created Isla demonstrate the different schools of design, especially with regards to appreciating Hip Hop culture. Kimberly is an energetic Black girl, as enthusiastic as Sakura was when she debuted in Street Fighter Zero. Both characters wore traditional costumes, Sakura dressed like a schoolgirl version of Ryu, and Kimberly dressed as a Black girl version of Guy. Both in sneakers, both essentially modernized takes on the iconic fighters. Kimberly is layered with additional details. Successful Black athletes have to blaze their own trails. In order to stand out from their peers. They have to be bold. Being Black, and successful in the USA means to live with more than a third of the country hating your existence for no reason other than the color of your skin. If you are going to be hated for everything you do then why not then flaunt your greatness? Audiences can see that Kimberly is a blindingly fast fighter, she is impatient as well. Doing running warmups before each battle. I do not think this was a throw-away detail.

Kimberly is obsessed with the ‘80s. In that era there were many standout Black athletes. One of the most flamboyant was Florence Griffith Joyner aka “Flo-Jo”. The Olympian was a world class track star, that also happened to design her own stylish track suits. She became an icon on, and off the track. Most Black athletes were also subject to a lot of scrutiny. Flo-Jo was such a dominant figure on the track that she was accused of being on performance enhancing drugs. She was rigorously investigated, and subject to far more testing than her white contemporaries. She tested clean every single time, much to the chagrin of racist judges, and spectators. Sadly she passed away in 1998 from an epileptic seizure in her sleep. To this day we see shades of Flo-Jo with young Black track stars. The most recent of which would be Sha’Carri Richardson. The Olympic hopeful was sadly disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics for testing positive for marijuana use. To be fair she was self-medicating following the death of her mother. Of course other athletes, mostly white, did not receive such harsh criticism for recreational drug use. Kimberly has a gift for fighting, and at the same time she is also a young Black athlete. She reflects Hip Hop culture. She is a graffiti artist, she uses a classic cassette player to listen to music. Along with Jamie, the kung-fu b-boy, she is the second Hip Hop influenced character appearing in SF6.

Isla by comparison appears to have cultural elements placed on her, and doesn’t necessarily represent Hip Hop. Not unlike Duck King when he debuted. Isla is focused on being a social media influencer, but SNK didn’t push anything about her art, or upbringing. They instead kept her past ambiguous, focusing less on her art, and more on her strange powers, and rivalry with Shun’ei. SNK could have at the very least associated her with Valparaiso, the street art center of Chile. Or made her an activist painting political street art in South America. I doubt that the current owners of SNK would be willing to put an anti-authoritarian in the game. I am glad that the studio is focusing on adding South American figures to the series, however any character could be placed in street fashion with splashes of paint, a respirator. It doesn’t mean they are a graffiti artist, any more than they represent Hip Hop, or Black culture. If they paid attention to what Marvel, and Sony Animation did with the character of Miles Morales as Spider-Man then they would know how much bigger graffiti art could define a character.

Street Fighter 6 Director Takayuki Nakayama, Producers Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, and Shuhei Matsumoto, and Designer Yusuke Hashimoto have all demonstrated a better understanding, and love of the culture with the footage they’ve released so far, and in their interviews. I doubt that the previous direction under Yoshinori Ono would have gotten it right. Perhaps that was why King Cobra never appeared in the game, despite the strong audience reaction. This is all of course my opinion. I’d like to hear your take on Kimberly, or the other fighters I’ve mentioned in the blog. Do you think Isla, Bandeiras, or Zarina were as well received by the fighting game community as Kimberly? Let me know 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!

Hiding the master in plain sight, the genius of SNK's character design... final part

SNK had spent more than 25 years creating a library of amazing fighting game characters. The best ones were the results of talented artists and insightful creative decisions. To stand out from the rival studios they created fighting archetypes that were hidden in plain sight. Martial arts masters could wear street clothing, or in some cases trendy fashion and still work within the context of the game. This rule was not set in stone. Some of the early design choices were made because of what audiences expected from fighters. After all, how would the player be able to tell a karate fighter apart from a boxer if they both wore identical suits? Because of this some martial arts were represented by characters in classic costumes. Some boxers wore shorts and punching gloves. Some karate fighters wore gi's and black belts. China was considered the birthplace of modern martial arts. Just about every major studio, Capcom, Sega, Namco, Midway and SNK at one point or another created a kung-fu master wearing a traditional uniform. Some of these designs were actually quite memorable. In the Art of Fighting for example the character Lee Pai Long not only wore a classic costume, he also sported a monkey mask. This was the type of outfit an actor from the Chinese Opera would actually wear.

 

Lee was a mysterious figure, his actual face was known only by a few people in King of Fighters continuity. As memorable as the character was, he didn't work well enough to be used as often as some other fighters. The seeds however had been planted to include the traditional costumed fighter from time to time. Almost 25 years later the studio went back to the classics and introduced another masked Chinese character. Mian was not a representative of the Chinese team in the KOF series, she was instead a member invited by tournament organizer Antonov. The dancer and master of the Chinese art of mask changing, was breaking down stereotypes. Her Sichuanese Opera costume was traditionally worn by male actors and even the historic mask changing magic was performed almost exclusively by men. SNK had become more attuned to the Chinese consumer over the past few years. Chinese gaming had exploded in popularity the past decade and every major studio was trying to make headway into the Chinese market. SNK had even partnered with Shanda, one of the largest publishers, to get a KOF massively multiplayer online (MMO) game launched. They were paying closer attention to the growing markets than just about any other fighting game publisher had in the past few years. After facing a few financial crisis, a merger with Playmore and restructuring, SNK had to ensure that they made business savvy moves. This wasn't the case when they originally fleshed out the Chinese team or even Brazilian team in KOF '94.

 

SNK wanted to create a sense of a global competition in the KOF series, the only problem was that they lacked familiar characters from each nation. To circumvent this they relied on characters from other games to act as representatives of a country. The Chinese team of Athena Asamiya and her partner Sie Kensou for example were pulled from the game Psycho Soldier. They were not necessarily fighters trained in a specific named form. The two relied instead on psychic attacks to supplement their martial arts training. The third Chinese representative, Chin Gentsai, was modeled after the "Drunken Master" a movie character named Beggar So played by Yuen Siu-tien. The three barely had a thread that connected them to China. How do you think that Chinese audiences reacted to the characters? The same thing could be observed with the Ikari Warriors, Ralf Jones and Clark Still. The two had appeared in an action shooter set in the jungle but it was not known if they, or team captain Heidern, were actually from Brazil. The three were mercenaries and didn't represent any school of Brazilian martial arts. More than 20 years later SNK had become more attuned to their audiences. The Japanese publishers (Capcom included) were surprised to learn how popular their games were in Central and South America. The Brazil Game Show for example had more than 300,000 attendees in 2017! Because of this the designers took a little more time in crafting new characters for the King of Fighters XIV. Nelson the boxer was from Brazil. I had mentioned previously in this series, but he was joined by two new Brazilians as well.

 

The masked Bandieras Hattori was obsessed with ninjitsu. He idolized Andy Bogard and Mai Shiranui and wanted to become a full-fledged ninja. His ultimate goal was teaching his own form of ninjitsu in Japan. His dark skin, armor and light pants, with sumi-e waves painted on the cuffs created some incredible contrast. His mask and pulled up braided hair made him appear unlike any other modern fighting game character. The character could be seen as an homage (or even parody depending on your perspective) of how passionate South Americans were about Japanese culture. The third new character was Zarina. She sported the colors of the Brazilian flag and most assumed that she would be a capoeirista. Despite her ginga, or dancing stance, she was actually a samba dancer that happened to be a good fighter. It was strange that the new developers would focus on her dance more than the martial arts. Capoeira had been a part of the SNK legacy since Street Smart back in 1989. Richard Meyer and Bob Wilson were two of the more famous Capoeira stars from the Fatal Fury series. I had talked about the origins of Capoeira in fighting games on a previous blog. I don’t understand why the newer generation of SNK developers would have missed this connection to their actual legacy. To be fair I think that many of the Street Fighter IV and V designs also failed to live up to the legacy designs. But I digress. The mix of new Brazilians was a unique choice, not quite the masters hidden in plain sight but perhaps something the studio could build on and learn from. Just like Heavy D was a change in direction for boxers, I’m certain that Bandeiras, Zarina and Nelson were the start of a new direction as well.

 

What really surprised me for the new characters in KOF XIV was the Chinese star Shun’ Ei. The design was pandering very heavily to what some Chinese gamers thought made a cool design. Many in the community saw the character as even poaching the design of a couple of characters from Xuan Duo Zhi Wang / the King of Combat. To be fair I had also brought up that fighting games had been stealing things from each other as much as from pop culture for over 30 years. When the Japanese studios did it nobody seemed to mind but when Chinese developers began doing it then suddenly audiences were in an uproar. If anything Shun’Ei was reinforcing the themes that many Chinese audiences favored in the character designs. King of Combat focused on martial arts masters in plain clothes, their inspirations were pulled from post KOF ’94 stars. Terry Bogard was probably the first plain clothes master in a franchise but it was Kyo Kusanagi that redefined the look. From that point going forward the characters in KOF didn’t even need a named fighting art. They could be dressed in trendy fashion and have psychic or elemental powers at their disposal. Ell Blue and Yan were distilled from that understanding.

 

Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, Shen Woo and Ash Crimson were some of the templates that the designers from Jade Studio were working from. The majority of the cast was supposed to look cool and trendy and there was no better studio to borrow from. The Chinese developers built a 3D fighter that was presented in 2D so that it played like a classic arcade fighter. They recreated all the elements found in latter KOF games, going so far as to capture the feel of SNK’s level and stage designs. They even sprinkled in elements from Street Fighter and Tekken as well to make a terrific mash-up for the PC. The artists working on the game knew enough of the origins behind characters like Kyo and Iori when they created their stars Ell Blue and Yan. The former being more western-themed and the latter being closer to the East. In case you weren’t familiar Kyo and Iori from the KOF series had costumes that were rooted in high school uniforms. The cut of their clothing was a little bit more fashionable, making them really stand out among the rest of the KOF lineup. Ell Blue had a certain Western hip hop flair to his design, sporting bright blue hair, headphones, and even a rolled up pant leg. He looked like a super producer, a DJ-turned-fighter. Yan had more of the high school uniform mixed with a belt and other stylist accessories.

 

When Shun’Ei was unveiled his design was so familiar it was uncanny. It was as if the designers at SNK took both Ell Blue and Yan and combined them into one character. There were the elemental powers, fire and electricity, but there was also the strong red and blue theme to accompany those powers. Then there was the costume itself. Part school uniform, with stylish belt, accessories, headphones and rolled up pant leg. There were too many elements brought in to be more than coincidence. They were reflecting back to the Chinese what they assumed they wanted to see in the star of their team. It wasn’t necessarily a case of the Japanese artists copying the Chinese. The publisher of King of Combat, Tencent, was one of the biggest publishers in the world, and they even licensed some KOF stars to appear in their game. There was a good chance that some of the Jade developers helped program or design some of the new faces in KOF IV. Of course only SNK could confirm or deny that observation. Regardless, the company had been at the forefront of fighting game development for almost as long as the genre had existed. Budding developers hoping to capture that SNK-style need to understand why their characters are unlike those in Capcom, Namco, or any other studio. They managed to hide the fighting master in plain sight. Remember this the next time a new character is announced for the series. Now there were two other characters on the new Team China. But I'll talk about them some other day. 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!