How fight culture became fighting game history, part 23

In the early '90s the various fight communities had debated about which style was the best. Each assumed that their own school or method was superior. Some business savvy people, including Rorion Gracie got together and formed a pay-per-view event called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. They meant the tournament-style format to be a one-time contest to determine which martial art was the best. The first tournament had few rules, no time limit, no weight classes and the winner of each match would advance to the next fight until there was only one man standing. Royce Gracie was selected to represent the family. Royce went on to quickly dispatch a boxer, shoot fighter and savage / karate expert before taking the title of Ultimate Fighter and a $50,000 payout.

The take from the PPV was so great that the creators began to think that there might be a market for this type of show. The audience rose exponentially for the subsequent UFC fights. Royce Gracie won three of the first four battles. He could not finish the 3rd UFC fight because he was too exhausted after battling Kimo Leopoldo. Otherwise he demonstrated the superiority of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu when compared to all the other fight forms and fighters. He went through his opponents in rapid succession with most fights lasting less than a minute. The BJJ system was insanely efficient and he got to demonstrate it again and again to the millions of people watching on television. It did not matter if he was fighting men bigger or stronger than he was, just like his father he made the most out of technique rather than brute force.

Even nonbelievers were converted as they watched Royce dispatch with fighters from different backgrounds year after year. The Gracie schools took off in popularity and expanded all over North America and the world. Before too long the UFC-style of fighting had become part of the mainstream consciousness. It was apparent when Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi used the staple "ground and pound" system in a battle between Yogi Bear and Ranger Smith in the animated short "Boo Boo Runs Wild."

Students of the BJJ school, and not solely Gracie family members began winning tournaments the world over. By the end of the '90s and the start of the new millennia the system had garnered a tremendous reputation. Fighters in the UFC, Pride, and other promotions were beginning to favor BJJ practitioners. The promotions themselves wanted to make sure that they kept themselves closely aligned with the Gracies so that the name could help guarantee viewers. Whenever a Gracie battled they wanted certain stipulations on the matches so that any advantages might be evened out for a competitor. The larger promotions did not want to risk losing the biggest names in the game so they conceded to most of their demands.

In true heroic tradition a caricature of Royce would be adapted for fighting games. This time the country bypassed the manga and animé series and went right to video games. SNK was fairly certain that by now the entire world was familiar with the legend of Royce and the contribution of Ju-jitsu to the fight universe. To prevent any similarities with persons living or dead the studio changed up some details for their character in the game Buriki-One. The Judo expert Jacques Ducalis was French and not Brazilian for one, but he also had a birthmark which discolored his hair, it was just enough to keep the Gracie family out of court but also appease gamers that followed real-world fighters.

However Jacques was not the poster boy for Buriki-One. Nor was "Mr. Karate II" Ryo Sakazaki the star. Ryo had made his debut in the Art of Fighting and was considered a Yoshiji Soeno-type character. His father Takuma Sakazaki was the original Mr. Karate and modeled after Mas Oyama. In less than a decade since Street Fighter II and the Art of Fighting had been released both karate and even jujitsu had fallen out of favor. The world (or at the very least the Japanese) had embraced a new fighting hero. The star of Buriki-One was a flashy Japanese striker named Tendo Gai, the person he was based on had accomplished a tremendous amount in a short span of time. The next blog will look at "the Gracie Hunter" Kasushi Sakuraba. 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!

Hiding the master in plain sight, the genius of SNK's character design... part 3

In previous blogs I established that Shinkiro had become one of the most influential fighting game artists of all time. The reason for this was obvious when comparing his work to other artists in the studio and abroad. He would render many of his subjects in realistic settings, with realistic clothing choices. They were often presented in casual settings, perhaps enjoying a cocktail, playing in the park or hanging out at the pool. Prior to that most character illustrations had the figures in fighting scenes and only in fighting scenes. Audiences were used to characters looking highly stylized, with exaggerated physiques. Guys were overly muscular and females were slim with large bouncy breasts. After all these were the types of physiques that manga and comic books expected the archetypes to have. Shinkiro changed all of that. You could look at his art and see people that very well could have existed. By looking at these figures you would necessarily be able to tell what martial arts form they represented. Again, he his that martial arts master in plain site.

 

Eventually all of the artists at SNK started to become attuned to what Shinkiro had brought to the genre. They understood that if they wanted to put a character into the Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting or King of Fighters, they they had to meet the elements that Shinkiro had established for the series. There would be no green-skinned Brazilian wild man or stretchy-limbed Indian for example. Those figures were not necessarily grounded in any sort of realism. The fighters did not have to be realistic, but they did have to have a sense of realism. The artist Hiroaki Hashimoto aka Hiroaki was an exceptional painter and considered an understudy of Shinkiro. He worked on a number of excellent pieces for the KOF series. In 1999 he was a lead on a new title called Buriki One. This game was set in the KOF universe but a bit in the future. There was a new tournament in town, inspired by the real world K-1 and Pride fighting championships in Japan. There was a call for representatives of the various martial arts. It was the closest that the team at SNK came to creating martial arts archetypes in the vein of the Street Fighter series. The final opponent was a new villain. Silber was very much an SNK answer to Gouki, he had traveled the globe defeating the masters of various arts and even a few wild animals.

 

One of the competitors in the Buriki One tournament was an elderly Tai Chi master named Song Xuandou. It turned out that this was the only character that had a previous run in with Silber. Decades earlier, before MMA tournaments were being televised the only way for these fighters to find out who was the best was by actually visiting various dojos and exotic locations. There were no newspapers, no radio or film crews following these people. The fights that went down were the stuff of legend and only a handful of people actually saw them. This was how people like Mas Oyama earned a reputation. When Song was a young man he was lightning quick and very confident in his abilities. He took on Silber and lost. Although he was defeated it was a close battle. It could have been likened to the fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man. Song was one of the few people that could have claimed to have survived a fight with the powerful German. Silber was and remained a secretive figure in the world of SNK. It was entirely possible that he killed some of the people that he battled. Official character art for example featured him smashing in the face of a polar bear. When the designers of Buriki One called for a Chinese fighter to be put into the game Hiroaki gave audiences an elderly archetype. Nothing about the character seemed to stand out. But again, he was hiding the master in plain sight.

 

While Song no longer held the speed or flashy kicks of his youth, he retained most of his power. Song was modeled partly on Bruce Lee. This was a version from another timeline, say if he had remained in China and had stayed closer to the kung-fu traditions. This was why he didn’t move or fight like Marshall Law from the Tekken games. He was not just a carbon copy of the actor. Song had the vigor and even look of a youthful Lee in the ’60s. This was back when both he and Silber were getting started in their careers. Song had now distilled his techniques to a few deceptive moves. He could strike, trip and kick his opponents with ease. It was graceful watching him work in the tournament. You could have mistaken him for the old guy practicing Tai Chi in the park rather than a former martial arts superstar. Again this was the SNK school of design at their best, they hid the master in plain sight. It should be noted that not every SNK fighting game required this type of design. For example Shinkiro did a tremendous amount of promotional art for the Samurai Spirits / Shodown series. But he was not the only artist that influenced the fighters.

 

The game was set centuries ago, in feudal Japan. Gunpowder and steam were barely shaping the world, changing the course of the industrialized nations. Japan was insular during this period and held onto tradition longer than most other countries. SNK wanted to capture that era but not romanticize it. They wanted it to pop, to be vibrant, like an animé show. In order to do that the game had to be highly stylized. One of the artists that got picked up for the sequels was manga artist Shiro Ono. He had a very sharp style, with hard lines and exaggerated poses. At the same time the studio did not want the designs to be too outlandish. Shinkiro’s realistic style would have been in contrast with their goal. The artist that the company settled with was Jin Mera aka Eiji Shiroi. Her style was deceptively clean. No extra brush strokes in his renderings. The character designs were easy to read, her choice of color and style really stood out from her peers. In fact the thing that helped cement the look of the series were some paintings that she created using charcoal ink. The sumi-e style was traditional and went back centuries, if not thousands of years. Calligraphers and portrait artists used minimalism to create forms and figures.

 

The solid black and white paintings that Ms. Shiroi created perfectly reflected the era that SNK was trying to capture. Eiji was a drawing teacher, her training and insight were perfect for this project. In the case of Samurai Spirits the masters of the various sword arts did not have to be hiding. They wore classic-looking costumes, some wore armor, and they all fought with traditional melee weapons. There were swords, daggers, cleavers, hammers and axes used by the various fighters. As the series grew these things began to include the occasional explosive and even a rifle. For the most part however combat was based on bladed weapons. The designs had to be clear and easy to read. A Chinese warlord for example had a different costume than a Japanese ronin. Even among the various Japanese sword masters there was a lot of diversity. Ms. Shiroi helped plan their look and assigned each person bright primary colors so that they all stood out. As the series aged SNK experimented with 3D and they discovered that the muted colors that were en vogue didn’t really work for Samurai Spirits. This was most apparent in Samurai Spirits Sen. Realism didn’t work very well for the fantastic swordsmen and women. So they returned to 2D shortly after with Samurai Spirits V.

 

Not every design that SNK created went over well. The studio had a lot of growing pains and made a lot of mistakes when they were trying to capture the fighting game crown. We’ll explore one of the most diverse lineups the company ever gave us in the next blog. 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!

Hiding the master in plain sight, the genius of SNK's character design... part 5

SNK had exploded on the scene in the early ‘90s. The success of the Neo Geo console in the arcade, and the steady stream of fighting games made sure they would be around for the long haul. I had mentioned previously that the success to their school of design was based in hiding the masters of the martial arts in plain sight. A karate master didn’t have to be Japanese or wear a gi. This was demonstrated in the Art of Fighting (AoF); Robert Garcia was an Italian playboy that drove exotic cars, wore thousand-dollar shoes, tailored suits, and could go toe-to-toe with the ambassador of Kyokugenryu karate, his friend Ryo Sakazaki. King was a Muay Thai goddess but you would never have suspected it as she dressed like a high-class bartender. Shinkiro and the art team didn’t have a chance to create these plain-clothes masters for every new release but that didn’t stop them from experimenting. Before they found their groove they were as guilty as the other developers of following the trends. Boxers Michael Max, Axel Hawk and Micky Rogers were very generic designs. Pulled in part from real-world fighters Mike Tyson and George Foreman. All of that changed in 1994 when the studio released King of Fighters ’94 (KOF). From this point on it was almost mandated that the figures looked like cool manga characters instead of martial artists.

 

Manga and animé were very influential to the design of early fighting games. The team at Capcom were influenced by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara’s work on Hokuto No Ken / Fist of the North Star. The people at SNK were influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo’s science fiction masterpiece AKIRA. The people at SNK were so influenced by the book that it shaped the story of later KOF games. The entire plot revolving around clones and the paramilitary government organization N.E.S.T.S. was roughly pulled from the plot of AKIRA. Even the character K9999 from King of Fighters 2001 was eerily similar to Tetsuo, the antagonist in AKIRA. The likeness was so much so that publisher Kodansha took SNK to court and got them to remove any likeness of the character from future releases and official publications. I would argue that the imposing Heavy D, mohawk, square jaw and all was based on Colonel Shikishima from AKIRA as well. Thankfully SNK made him a dark-skinned character so the comparisons wouldn’t be as obvious. From that point forward the artists at SNK were taking very bold creative chances.

 

Heavy D started the trend of non-traditional boxers in the KOF universe. His street fashion, paired with his leather jacket and wild haircut made him look like an intimidating opponent. His was the type of look that audiences expected from SNK. It was their follow-up that was even more unique. One of the most unusual boxers in the SNK universe was Rick Strowd. He first appeared in Fatal Fury Real Bout 2 in 1998. I say he was unusual because of his appearance. He was as physically strong as any other character but that wasn’t unusual. He was actually a Native American character although he didn’t look like a typical one that we might have expected. Rick had pale skin, long white hair and bright paintings covering his body. His white pants and blue gloves were solid color choices, they matched the markings painted on his chest and back. He was not rooted in any actual native group, nor were his markings reflective of any tradition. The inverted skull painted on his back looked a bit too cartoonish for example. SNK was experimenting with different influences, different stylistic choices and different ways of presenting a traditional fighting art. They figured that they could shake things up by presenting a unique looking character and call him a Native. Their decision worked for the most part. From that point on the studio realized that boxing was not the only thing that American characters could represent.

 

The other thing that the artists at SNK, and a few other Japanese studios, realized post Rick Strowd was that boxers did not all have to be big black guys. Two leaner blonde boxers made their marks after 2000. Namco introduced the fighting community to Steve Fox in Tekken 4. The British boxer had an athletic build and not too bulky. Most Tekken characters were nowhere near as swollen as the Capcom or SNK fighters. Fox had long slick blonde hair and most of his costumes in the series were street outfits. Even his “traditional” costume broke the mold. His boxing trunks were actually long training pants. His most unique element were the enormous scars covering his arm. He wasn’t sure how he got them or what their purpose was, making it an interesting side story for the character. Not to be outdone SNK dropped Shen Woo into KOF continuity in 2003. This blonde boxer was cut from the save cloth as Fox but his look and style were even more street. The Shanghai native was mostly a self-taught fighter, similar to Terry Bogard, and had gained a reputation as one of the most dangerous men in South China. Many of the tournament stars in the KOF series were young cool guys with street clothing so Woo fight right in. If the design had any failings it was that SNK had started relying on the street look too much. Prior to Woo the company had introduced a boxer that I would consider one of the best designs in the past 20 years. This character was named Rob Python from Buriki One.

 

Python represented a break from tradition, he was reflective of the next-generation fighting black superstar. His look was inspired in part by actual MMA fighters Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Kevin Randleman. They were wildly popular in Japanese tournaments. SNK knew that audiences had outgrown the clean-cut look of a young Tyson and the aging Foreman. They had been playing Neo Geo fighters for almost a decade and wanted new blood. The next boxer had to ooze personality and in the case of Python, he also had to ooze a sense of danger. He was among one of the most dangerous fighters in the Buriki One tournament and also the rival to Gai Tendo, the star of the game. Python was an understudy of Silber, whom I had mentioned previously on this series. Python’s tattoos were as much a part of his costume as his gloves or shorts were. No character before or after had ever looked as imposing. The enormous pair of Colt revolvers tattooed on his chest were meant to intimidate his opponents. It was assumed that he spent time in prison where he had learned of Silber. SNK, and in particular the talented artist Hiroaki, had changed the formula yet again. Python was not a fighting master hidden in plain sight, instead he was a killer masked as a boxer. It would take Capcom almost 17 years to reinvent the boxer by going full circle as well.

 

In 1991 M. Bison had pretty much set the standard that other boxers were compared against. There wasn’t a fighting game in the ‘90s that wasn’t compared to Street Fighter II. Every boxer was compared to Bison. His look had stagnated in the late ‘90s while SNK was committed to experimenting. Capcom finally conceded and created their own hidden master with Dudley in Street Fighter III (1997). The aristocratic boxer had a unique library of moves but long-time fans of Bison had a soft spot for tradition. Senior Capcom artist (and personal hero) Bengus was called in to work on the Street Fighter V (2016) designs. While he did not develop the original M. Bison, that was more likely AKIMAN and Shoei, Bengus was responsible for the new look. He wanted Bison to have the same big, brash personality but with an updated costume. The Capcom style of design was rooted in making traditional fighting archetypes. Their karate masters had to look like karate masters, their kung-fu masters had to look like kung-fu masters, and their boxers had to be boxers. Bengus went full-bore Americana with red white and blue trunks but then wrapped everything in a red, white and blue robe, with torn sleeves and gold jewelry to boot. The “Crazy Buffalo” now sported elements of the street, elements of real pro boxers and even cartoonish archetypes. He was still classic layered underneath modern accents.

 

This was not to take anything away from Rob Python and all of the work that SNK had done with boxers over the past 25+ years. Their fighters had been among the most unique, most colorful and most diverse ever assembled. I honestly wish that they would revisit their Buriki One cast for the future installments of the KOF series. With that said they still managed to break new ground. One of their most stylish boxers debuted in 2000, right on the heels of Python. The new fighter was a mysterious special agent named Vanessa. She had taken up boxing when her lover was killed. Like King she was a master hidden in plain site. Her pants and suspenders were a nice touch under her sleeveless shirt and tie. The look was very chic. It wasn’t the first time than SNK had explored the dangerous femme. Vice and Mature, the valets for early KOF sponsor Rugal Bernstein were assassins in disguise. Vanessa was a hero using a similar fashion aesthetic. The trio predated and were more than likely the inspiration behind Crimson Viper in Street Fighter IV.

 

The most recent boxer in KOF canon was a mix of traditional and modern. Nelson debuted in the King of Fighters XIV, also released in 2016. He was a dark-skinned Brazilian and up-and-coming phenom. The young fighter was involved in a hit and run leaving the gym one night. He lost an arm and his girlfriend was put into a coma. A secretive sponsor paid for his cybernetic replacement arm and saw him enter the KOF tournament. SNK embraced his back story and and incorporated the tire tread motif on his boxing gloves and workout gear. His scars were very bright and spread across his face and torso, giving him the look of someone with the skin disease vitiligo. While I think there may have been too many color choices and design elements placed on the character he worked within the series. Like Vanessa he was a progressive character. His appearance might have appealed to people with disabilities or those recovering from amputations. I would like to see how SNK builds on their library moving forward. Speaking of which, some of the more recent entries in the KOF universe were also a mixed bag of design choices. We’ll look at these in the next blog. 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 28

Buriki One was released by SNK in 1999. The game tried to capture the spirit of the early MMA competitions. To help ground the game in reality none of the characters could throw fireball-like projectiles. It also featured character designs that were inspired by actual fighters. Royce Gracie had influenced the development of Jacques Ducalis and Kazushi Sakuraba had influenced Tendo Gai. Those weren't the only high-profile athletes whose fingerprints were in the game. Multi Olympic and World Gold Medalist Alexander Karelin influenced the inclusion of Ivan Sokalov. At his peak Alexander was considered the most dangerous man on the planet. More than a decade had gone without a defeat in international competition, and not only that but during that time an opponent could not manage to score a point off of him. He had a list of incredible statistics that would make him a shoe-in for the pantheon of wrestling Gods. Possibly his most outstanding accomplishment was that he would routinely pick opponents off of the mat and flip them upside down in the air. These were men weighing almost 300 lbs and most of that solid muscle, they would kick, squirm and flail and still they would be tossed like rag dolls. it was something not seen before or since Karelin. Yet since he was not a striker then most people did not know about his legacy or his contribution to the fighting arts.

Rival studio Capcom had actually incorporated an MMA fighter years before Gai. Instead of basing a character on real world fighters Capcom invented their own legend. This was one thing that Capcom did better than any other studio. They took cues from various fighting arts and real legends and adapted them into new and refreshing designs. In 1997 they introduced the world to the star of Street Fighter III. The first of the "New Generation" fighters was named Alex.

In keeping with tradition the studio had to tell a story through the design of the character. They made Alex tall and incredibly muscular. His costume had to show off enough skin to highlight his massive frame, as well as two massive scars that ran under his eyes and down his shoulders. His clothing consisted of fingerless gloves, a pair of green overalls and green combat boots. Street Fighter characters had typically been assigned a primary color to help them stand out in a lineup. Chun-Li wore blue, Ken wore red and Ryu wore white for example. A large red bandanna kept Alex's long hair out of his face. Designer Kinu Nishimura had considered placing him in the more traditional MMA uniform. However it was not believable that a half naked person wearing only shorts and sparring gloves would have been able to wander from town to town without drawing the attention of local authorities.

Alex was in essence a new fighter that was following in the traditions of Ryu. The red bandana was partially an homage to Ryu as well as his mentor Tom. Instead of traveling from place to place fighting the masters of the martial arts he was learning from them. Alex wanted to be the best fighter the world had ever known so that he could get revenge on a powerful Illuminati leader named Gill.
The fighting style given to Alex was unique for SF characters yet also eerily familiar. Capcom wanted to make it very obvious who his fighting influences had been. Unlike Ken and Ryu who shared a similar form of karate or any of the Kung-Fu fighters, Alex had strikes and special attacks that crossed the spectrum of schools. The attacks were meant to remind players of older characters.

Long time fans of the series could pick out the moves that Alex had learned and who he had learned them from. He had the scrappy street brawling style of Birdie from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha. From Birdie he also picked up a dangerous headbutt strike. Alex had a flurry of vicious elbow strikes that could only come from a master of muay thai. However he did not have the knees or kicks of Sagat so the flashy elbows were undoubtedly from Adon, the understudy. Adon was also from the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter Alpha. The grappling moves, throws and rolling German suplex attacks could have only come from the Russian Zangief.

Capcom managed to create a character that was textbook MMA, as in he had bits and pieces of very effective systems, and combined them into his own form. By not making him look like any fighter living or dead they would not date themselves to a particular era. Overalls and combat boots could be found in any time of the modern world yet could have also worked a century ago. Some of the fighters featured in Buriki One were based on real people and thus marked a particular era. By 2013 most of the original fighters from Pride and K1 had retired from competition and some of the promotions that hosted early MMA tournaments had closed as well.

To be fair Capcom had also inserted a character that looked eerily similar to a certain BJJ master. The character of Oro was an ancient fighter that was looking for a worthy understudy. He was so powerful that he would only use one arm in combat. That was all he needed too! He could choke out opponents and even throw them effortlessly with his single arm. Oro had been influenced in part by the One Armed Boxer, a character created by Jimmy Wang Yu, but his physical appearance was very much based on Helio Gracie. That was if Helio were 140-years-old and had lived in a cave for the past half century. The arm tucked into his gi was also a nod to the toughness of Helio and his refusal to ever tap out.

Capcom had actually featured a different MMA fighter earlier. A year before Street Fighter III was released the character Blair Dame appeared in Street Fighter EX. The game was rendered in 3D rather than 2D as Street Fighter had traditionally been done. Blair had a number of strikes, takedowns and bone-breaking locks that she could use in rapid succession. Yet despite this few people acknowledged the contribution of the EX designs even though they were done by current and former Capcom employees.

Additionally ARIKA held the rights to the EX characters so most did not recognize the first lady of MMA in a Street Fighter game. A decade after Street Fighter III was released Capcom returned for a sequel. One of the bruisers they introduced in Street Fighter IV was modeled after the God of heavyweight MMA fighters.

Unfortunately audiences in the west had made up their minds as to the authenticity of wrestling and wrestlers. To them only boxing or karate were real fighting arts and any wrestler trying to convince the public otherwise was looking for a big payday. This perception only grew through the 80's and 90's as gimmick gave way to attitude and wrestling shows began to be scripted by Hollywood writers. This shift began to polarize the audience and those that grew up on a steady diet of wrestling were looking for something more genuine. By this time Japan was going through a mixed martial arts renaissance.

The MMA concept has actually been around for thousands of years in one format or another. Not content with being one of the first cultures to establish both wrestling and boxing the Greeks also developed pankration which was a hybrid of the two. It was the closest thing to no-holds-barred fighting. The modern world would rediscover this type of combat and package it with all the spectacle of pro wrestling, with pyrotechnics, ring girls and hyped match-ups. The K-1 Grand Prix and Pride Tournaments were becoming very popular.

The US was slow on adopting the format as the UFC and King of the Cage tournaments followed at a slower pace. Young grapplers, eager to show their skills and become television superstars were more than willing to try out for reality shows like WWE's "Tough Enough." One of the challenges had hopefuls taking on Olympic gold medalist and WWE superstar Kurt Angle in a wrestling match. To ensure that Angle looked unbeatable the challengers were forced to do wind sprints and other exercises for an hour before accepting Angle's test. The organizers assumed that the activity would tire them out and they wouldn't be able to put up a decent fight. The opposite turned out to be true.

Daniel Puder was trained in various martial arts and had already competed in UFC matches before auditioning for Tough Enough. He was eager to fight Angle and give the audience a taste of some real fighting. In the video you can clearly hear the fans cheering on Puder with chants of "UFC." Angle did not dominate the match as management had hoped and was angered at being shown-up on national television. A rift between the entertainment product, the audience and the wrestlers had grown tremendously on that night. Rather than embrace the MMA community and audience WWE instead went out of their way to downplay and humiliate Puder for his efforts. Fans of the sport argued that WWE management had no idea what the audience was looking for and should have capitalized on the rivalry between Angle and Puder, between wrestling and MMA.

Angle was furious for several reasons. Had the hold Puder put on Angle lasted a few more seconds he would have separated Angle's arm from his shoulder. Severely injuring the star wrestler of a company you are trying to get a contract with is not only bad for business but it also made Puder look selfish and reckless with his skills. This was also a severe blow to Angle's ego. Angle had won a gold medal competing in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, as he likes to remind people, "with a broken frickin' neck." So Angle had genuine wrestling skills and in a competition under greco-roman wrestling or freestyle wrestling he would have outclassed Puder. Unfortunately he was not well versed in the trappings of jujitsu and could not have foreseen that Puder would try to get him in a submission move. It was probably Angle's pride that took the biggest hit.

Over the next few years many pro wrestlers would begin adopting submission moves into their repertoire. The "Dead Man" character the Undertaker even adopted the gogoplata jujitsu submission move to make him more fearful. Even without formally saying anything about the contribution of mixed martial arts, the wrestlers were slowly taking on more of their cues in an attempt to broaden their appeal. None more so than Angle. After leaving the WWE Angle maintained his wrestler gimmick a while longer before slowly changing his look to more of a MMA fighter. He ditched the stars and stripes wrestling suit and boots in favor of shorts and taped up hands and feet. Without saying he had renounced wrestling it was easy to see that Angle had taken on the guise of MMA fighter to appeal more to the fans.

This part of the draw of modern mixed martial arts. The reason why it, above all of the combat sports, has been growing in popularity around the world. Many fighters hungry for fame and fortune began seeing the sport as a way to reach the top. To achieve what we call the "American Dream." Beating the snot out of people is appealing in and of itself for the majority of the fighters. However the challenge is more than being able to dish out the hits but to be able to take them as well. You would think that burly guys would reign supreme in the culture. Several strongmen have tried their hand at the sport. Bouncers, professional football players and yes indeed, champion wrestlers like Brock Lesnar have all stepped into the cage. The results have been varied. It seems that it takes more than brute force to be a successful MMA fighter.

The best, or at least longest-lived MMA fighters were more than gifted athletes or strongmen. They proved their dominance by learning to adapt and build on the legacy of several martial arts. The angles exploited by boxers, the punishing strikes of karate, the close work of muay thai, the grappling of judo and jujitsu and even the mat skills of wrestling. As the name implies, these fighters practice under a mixed bag of martial arts. Some of them were better on the mat and some were better strikers on their feet, very rarely would we find fighters that could do both well. It would make sense that the brutal art would find favor in the most recent fighting game sequels.

Even with the rise in popularity of MMA tournaments Pro wrestling would remain as popular as ever. The pioneers of the sport were some of the most colorful performers ever to step into the ring. In North America they reflected a culture steeped in centuries of tradition. The next blog will highlight these people. 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 24

In Japan there was a new fighting promotion called Pride FC. It was similar to Vale Tudo or UFC in that it allowed just about any strike or grapple short of eye gouges or groin shots. A young Japanese wrestler named Kasushi Sakuraba was making a name for himself with his unorthodox style and amazing adaptability when battling people above his weight class. He was known for his over-the-top ring entrances. He would often put on a costume, dressing himself up like a video game character or a gimmick wrestler. He tried to honor some of the most legendary wrestlers with his costumes, such as the Great Muta and Big Van Vader. This was odd considering how reserved the Japanese were but it certainly helped him gain a following.

 

Despite the flash there was substance to the man. Sakuraba seemed to excel at defeating experts at the BJJ style. The people he defeated read like a who's-who of top Gracie students. The list included Paul Herrera, Conan Silveira, Vernon White, Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, Ebenezer Fontes Braga, Anthony Macias and Guy Mezger. Eventually his successes had caught the eye of the Gracie family. Determined not to let one person undo the half-century of work that Helio had put into the system they began sending actual family members to fight Sakuraba. Royler was the first and he was defeated using the same move applied to Helio decades earlier, the Kimura. In fact it was the first defeat for an actual family member since that encounter in 1954. The Gracie family was out for blood now. Unfortunately for them Renzo, Ryan and even Royce Gracie were all met with defeat. Before the dust had settled Sakuraba was awarded a belt by the Pride organizers in his trademark orange and was dubbed the "Gracie Hunter" by the press.

It was a proud few years for the nation. One of their own hometown boys had single-handedly defeated the system that had conquered the MMA universe. Sakuraba had stripped the mystique surrounding Gracie Ju-jitsu. Even when the Gracie family made stipulations before each match Sakuraba agreed to abide by them. He had exposed the flaws of the system and the practitioners. The mystique and air of superiority that the family once enjoyed had been shattered.

Yet it was not the first time a world champion had been humbled by the inevitable. Young "Iron" Mike Tyson had enjoyed an amazing run in his professional boxing career in the early '80s. Destroying most of his opponents in the first few seconds of the fight was impressive but made countless millions of cable subscribers furious. Yet the lack of discipline after the death of his trainer and mentor Constantine "Cus" D'Amato had started Tyson on a downward spiral. He began falling in with the wrong crowd, including promoter Don King, and before too long the mystique of Mike Tyson disappeared with his first defeat at the hands of James "Buster" Douglas. Tyson found himself on a downward spiral of self-destruction. His time spent in jail dulled his legacy and by the time he was given a chance to reclaim the title it was apparent to all that Tyson was no longer an immortal. For a fighter to remain at the top hard work, technique and natural ability were all important assets but the one wildcard was presence. If a fighter appeared to be impossible to defeat, or got into the head of an opponent then they would gain the advantage.

The Gracies and BJJ practitioners had the reputation going for them. The techniques had been proven on the streets, in the bars, in the dojos and on the professional stage. Gracie Ju-jitsu was a serious fighting art, capable of disabling or even killing a person. Yet once there was a crack in the armor, something that could be exploited, then other fighters would no longer believe in the superiority of the BJJ practitioner. They would no longer allow themselves to be intimidated even by actually dangerous fighters. What Sakuraba had done to the system was dull its reputation. He went into each fight prepared and fearless.

A similar thing had happened in 1971 when Joe Frazier knocked down Muhammad Ali. Considered the greatest heavyweight boxer that ever lived few ever stood toe-to-toe with Ali and even less managed to drop the man. Joe Frazier had actually been worked into a frenzy by Ali. The constant ridicule and trash talking had gotten into the mind of Frazier. They had once been friends but Ali raised the stakes when he tried to assert his presence over Frazier. What Frazier saw in the mocking by Ali, being called an "Uncle Tom" and a gorilla to the press was not promotion but betrayal. The heavyweights had said all that could be said about the man. Frazier was the only fighter ever to talk back to Ali in the ring, even when he was getting beat. George Foreman even admitted that he feared Joe Frazier. It was said that when Frazier stepped into the ring against Ali he was prepared to die. What he did was show the world that the great Ali was mortal after all.

Sakuraba was rewarded for his efforts with more than a belt and the admiration of millions. He also influenced the character design of Tendo Gai for SNK's Buriki-One. The flashy young fighter could never be mistaken for a master of one of the traditional arts. The game did in fact feature karate, sumo, tae kwon do, muay thai and wrestling characters. Each of the fighters wore traditional uniforms save for Tendo who wore the shorts and gloves of a modern MMA superstar. Gai was also influenced by the character Baki from the manga and animé series Baki the Grappler. In the series Baki was a gifted teenager with impossible strength, speed and stamina. He was capable of destroying older, larger fighters. He used creative training techniques, beat up wild animals and did all sorts of amazing things in the graphically violent series. Tendo Gai was only 17-years-old in the game. He was a self taught master of "Total Fighting" which he developed after graduating from middle school. It would make him one of the younger fighting game masters ever developed.

Buriki One featured blocky characters, an odd control scheme and lacked the smooth gameplay that audiences were used to. Few saw the title and many forgot it was even part of SNK canon until they brought back a few of the characters in the King of Fighters series. By then the studio had adapted a few of the actual fighting moves of Sakuraba into something that would work for a game. For example the Gracie fighters would sometimes lay prone on their backs and try to trick fighters into engaging them on the ground. It seemed like an easy target for most but the BJJ fighters excelled in ground grappling and often made opponents submit just moments after taking the battle to the floor. Sakuraba kept a cool head during his fights with them and refused to engage them on the ground. Instead of trying to mount his opponents Sakuraba would kick at their legs and try to do as much damage as he could to them while they laid prone. This would slow them down and weaken their resistance as the rounds went on. By being on their backs they could not generate much force when they kicked back. When Sakuraba saw an opening he would actually take a running leap at his opponents and try to kick them as he came down. After a few attempts at this he would sometimes trick opponents by running at them and hitting them with a baseball slide kick. These attacks would be included in Tendo Gai's move set for the KOF series.

In one Sakuraba's more flamboyant moves he would try to close the distance between the prone grapplers by performing a cartwheel and going after an exposed arm. This move was also given to Gai as the character dashed forward to close the gap between he and his opponent.

By controlling the pace of the encounters Sakuraba managed to throw the BJJ experts off of their game. What was interesting about the development of Tendo Gai was that he was given moves more grounded in reality than those usually reserved for KOF or even Street Fighter characters. He existed in a world where some characters could throw "fireballs" or topple giants with "dragon punches" but it didn't matter. His all-around moves, solid combo system and painful joint locks were just as destructive and much more plausible.

Sadly the era of Sakuraba would close almost as quickly as it came. Another Brazilian would dethrone the man but not with the BJJ techniques. Wanderlei Silva aka the Axe Murderer was an exceptional striker and excelled at muay thai techniques. His barrage of strikes and knees defeated Sakuraba in all three of their encounters. Sakuraba would lose more than he won through a period in the early '00s. Eventually he would end up splitting the difference between wins and losses for the rest of the decade. To many Sakuraba had stayed in the fight game for too long. The next generation would try to make a name for themselves by going after a man past his prime. Royce Gracie got a much anticipated rematch and won the decision. He later tested positive for steroids so the match was declared a no-contest. A Gracie family member would finally manage to defeat the man but under controversial circumstances. Ralek Gracie, the son of Rorion defeated Sakuraba in 2010. The ref stopped the fight and allowed Ralek to pull up his shorts after Sakuraba had applied a submission move. To add insult to injury Ralek was 24 at the time and Sakuraba was 41.

To many the legend of Sakuraba would never die. He had proven himself time and time again against some of the best in the world at their prime. As an old man he could still pull a rabbit out of the hat. His submission of the decade against an up-and-comer Zelg Galesic was the stuff that dreams were made of.

What the fight community wondered aloud was whether Sakuraba was a flash-in-the-pan, a fluke. He was a pro wrestler that knew how to throw bombs. But wrestlers never faired well in most MMA tournaments no matter how well they punched or kicked. What was the community overlooking if anything in the ability of Sakuraba? The next blog will try to unravel the mysteries of wrestling and see it as the fight science it actually is. 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 41

When Gouki debuted in 1994's Super Street Fighter II Turbo he set the standard for boss characters and villains in fighting games. The other studios took notice and tried to create legends of their own. SNK was a long time rival to Capcom. They had a masked fighter named "Mr. Karate" that predated Gouki by a few years. Takuma Sakazaki was the masked villain and final boss in the Art of Fighting. He was also the father of the heroes of the game Ryo and Yuri Sakazaki. The 1992 title did not originally feature the character as a pseudo demon but instead had him wearing a Tengu or devil mask. As the series went on the character of Mr. Karate grew more and more powerful until he took on a number of the same traits that Gouki had. His attacks became more powerful and he seemed to be a completely different person behind the mask. Most fans would consider the characters to be evenly-matched villains.

Not many fighting game aficionados however would remember that SNK had introduced a character that was eerily closer to Gouki in form and presentation than Mr. Karate. The 1999 arcade release Buriki One was one of SNK's first attempts at moving their IP into three-dimensions. The game had a cast of mostly new faces with the exception of Ryo Sakazaki, who had entered the tournament under the name of Mr. Karate II. Players fought masters of various styles and could beat the game by winning the tournament. The secret character in the game had an entrance that was reminiscent of the first appearance of Gouki. Players would go through their usual opening animation; where the selected character walked from backstage to the tournament platform. When the rival was announced the screen switched to the locker room. The opponent would be thrown through the double doors and crash into the caged-off platform. The true boss character would then appear. He was a muscular German named Silber. The character had a terrible gash over one eye and was covered in grizzly scars. The white-haired fighter looked nightmarish. He would rush the stage and take a superhuman leap over the barrier.

Silber had a very unorthodox stance and fighting style. The story behind the character was very interesting. The German had spend the last 30 years traveling the globe, fighting the best masters of other fighting arts and leaving few witnesses in his wake. He had developed his own form of karate which was unlike the traditional Japanese schools but just as lethal if not more so. When he learned there was a tournament to find out which was the best fighting style he decided to enter without an invitation. Silber was the first non-Japanese karate villain in a fighting game. The fact that SNK made him the boss character was even more impressive. It was as if the Japanese developers had suddenly come to realize that people from other nations could not only master foreign fighting arts, but they could also create their own contributions to the form. To help Silber stand out from Mr. Karate or the other bosses from SNK history the studio took a page from Capcom's school of design. They made the German look like a supernatural character. The patchwork of scars that covered his body made him appear like Frankenstein's monster. It was more than coincidence that his look was pulled from classic literary traditions.

Gouki had elements from Eastern mythology and Silber's design observed many Western ones. Centuries ago the Black Forest in Germany had been romanticized in fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm brought imps, dwarfs, witches and shapeshifters from classic folklore into popular culture. Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty were just some of the old stories that the brothers had adapted not only to entertain but to also put the fear of the unknown into children. In fact, some of the stories were not called fairy tales but instead "warning tales." The Black Forest, like many other forests in Germany, was once very dangerous. It hosted wild boars, bears and wolves that killed many a settler. Many of those creatures were hunted to extinction but the legends of dangerous predators remained in the stories. The designers at SNK thought to develop a new fable out of a creature that came out of the woods to hunt down man as well. Silber would take on the appearance of the animal-turned-human in the Buriki One tournament. The artists did not look at a lion for inspiration this time. The bright white hair and sideburns stuck out like the mane of a timber wolf. The look was enhanced by the fur-lined gi that he wore in competition. The character was certainly an alpha-predator. It was assumed that he had killed an animal and skinned it to line his uniform. The cold German winters would have made outdoor training unbearable without some protection. His clothing had dark black stripes that looked like claw marks to perpetuate the myth of the animal-like survivalist. The character art and profile featured in the game was unmistakable. This was a major villain, a nightmare from classic storytelling traditions.

SNK wanted to make the character very mysterious. They gave him no dialogue or lines in the game. If a player managed to defeat Silber an ending animation would play before the credits. He survived the fight, stood up and took another superhuman leap to escape from the ring. If gamers managed to beat Silber with all of the regular characters then he too would become a playable character. This meant that Silber had his own stats, alternate costume and even ending cinema. Each character held a press conference at the end of the game where they talked about the fighting style that took them to the top. The credits would roll during the press conference and players could get filled into the plot.

Players that wanted to learn a bit more about Silber were disappointed with his ending. Nothing was revealed during his interview. He looked at the room full of reporters with disdain in his eyes. Instead of answering their questions he simply jumped off the screen. This bit of mystery would follow the character in all his future appearances. He was the boss character that would never stay down for long no matter how badly the player had beaten him. He would leap out of each game just as quickly as he arrived. It helped add an air of mystery to him and kept fans of the SNK universe guessing when he would turn up again. For older fans of animé the spectacular leaps that Silber made were a nod to the classic series Karate Baka Ichidai. The show was a serialized retelling of the life of Mas Oyama featuring his encounters against various fighting styles. This hinted that Silber was like a modern Oyama, only without scruples or compassion for other fighters.

There was something outside of the gruesome appearances that made Gouki and Silber similar. The two were not solely boss characters but also villains. They were not villains in the traditional sense of the word. They did not kidnap princesses or take Gotham City hostage. They were villains in the sense that they were both very evil men. They were both obsessed with power and were willing to achieve that power at any price. For professional and underground fighters this meant that they had to be the best that ever lived. In order to achieve that the duo had focused on nothing else except for training and fighting. They had no friends, no family and no sense of loyalty. Silber was rumored to have mentored the pro boxer and criminal Rob Python, also from the Buriki One universe. Gouki had a run in with his brother Gouken at several points during the training of Ken and Ryu. The wisdom and warnings from Gouki did not fall on deaf ears then. Despite these limited interactions with younger fighters the two had almost no contact with anyone else in canon or the games. There was something that made the characters truly evil though. The next blog will talk about the elements of evil design and how it inspired minority villains. 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 19

Successful fighting games had a lot going for them, not the least of which were memorable characters. The best games used the myths surrounding historical fighters and turned those people into playable characters. The best fighting games played like a highlight reel, where only the best possible opponents were faced. Rivals had to be persons of merit. If it were a boxing game then the player would have to work up the ranks until they got a title shot against the world champ. In martial arts games all the rivals were masters of a particular art. The goal for most fighting games was not simply to become a world champion but to be the best fighter that had ever lived against the best styles ever invented. In the real world reaching the top of the mountain was impermanent, transitory. There was always somebody better waiting in the wings. Records did not matter compared to the quality of fighters defeated. Even an undefeated fighter would have been dethroned by age. Legends were immortal. The name seemed to live on forever. The element often missed in the games was the backstory, the opponents that had to be overcome in order for the playable characters to become legend. But how could the fighters go from beginner to master without boring the player?

Design cues for the main characters had to tell a story. The clothes the characters wore were not always clean uniforms from a school or dojo. Some were humble, shoeless, giving up their worldly possessions in pursuit of the battle. Their uniforms were worn out, messy with torn sleeves. Others wore street clothes, jeans and heavy boots. They fought dirty, with knives and chains. Players could tell that these characters were not new to the fight game. But what about the fighters that represented a new movement, one which did not represent one particular school or form? Was it possible to capture the spirit of a modern fighting master without betraying the legacy that the martial arts and pop culture had established?

The two biggest fighting game publishers, Capcom and SNK tried to answer that in the late '90s. Both studios had grown tremendously since they helped establish the fighting game revolution at the start of the decade. Street Fighter II, Fatal Fury and the Art of Fighting were released between 1991 and 1992. The groundbreaking fighting games introduced new play mechanics to audiences and a library of memorable characters. By the end of that same decade the traditional martial arts master featured in those games had become tired and predictable. The genre needed some new ideas. What the studios did was look at what had happened in the fight game and found a way to incorporate those changes into their own universes.

The era of the "Mixed Martial Artist" or MMA fighter had begun and fighting games needed to reflect that change. It took almost a decade for the developers to catch up to those changes. Ryu, the karate inspired star of the Street Fighter series was an homage to the traditional martial arts heroes that the developers at Capcom had grown up with. SNK tried to take a step back away from the archetype in the game Buriki-One. The title from 1999 introduced a new main character named Gai Tendo. He did not seem to have any particular style or affiliation but was adept at striking and grappling. Gai reflected the new breed of MMA fighter that had become so wildly popular in Japan. They were energetic, stylish and exciting to watch. Unfortunately the game did not reflect that sentiment. It was slow and cumbersome. It also did not receive wide exposure. The arcade scene had been dwindling in the US for some time. The game itself suffered from dismal 3D graphics and odd controls, which were the major features of the best fighting games. Despite those things Gai stuck around and managed to return as a playable character in King of Fighters XI.

The introduction of Buriki-One went hand-in-hand with the rise in popularity of MMA tournaments. The K-1 series in Japan started in 1993 was labeled for its karate, kickboxing and kung-fu roots. The tournament was descended from a different format. Seidokaikan, was a full-contact knock down karate format that incorporated rules from professional kickboxing, including uses of knees and throws, until it became the K-1 tournament that people knew. The PRIDE Fighting Championships started in 1997 but closed a few years later. Both K-1 and Pride had huge followings overseas and fighters actually flew in from around the world, including North and South America in order to compete. Audiences appreciated the diversity of fighters and treated them with tremendous respect. In the US the tournament scene did not take off as quickly and fighters were not well regarded. The Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC series also began in 1993 but did not have the rules or weight class divisions that it currently had. Gai Tendo was reflective of the Japanese MMA tournaments. He was inserted into the King of Fighters universe to represent the modern fighting legends, including people like Kazushi Sakuraba. These modern fighters were more flashy than Mas Oyama or Yoshiji Soeno were when they inspired the legend of Ryu and the mythos of Street Fighter.

The MMA star seemed to rise out of nowhere and captured the hearts of millions of fans. The legend of Sakuraba had actually been centuries in the making, only many people didn't know it. This series will explore the influence of the grappling arts on fighting games and the community. I hope you return for the next entry! 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!