The latest entry in the Dead or Alive fighting game series is coming for the brand new Nintendo 3DS! I'm not really a fan of the series and prefer other similar fighters such as Tekken and Soul Calibur, but I've played a few of the entries and find them decent at the least.
What I really found impressive from this trailer is how powerful the graphics engine of the 3DS seems to be. That's some seriously impressive animation coming from a handheld platform! Despite the fact that there is 3D involved somewhere here, the trailer doesn't really give you a clear indication of what the experience will be like. Anyway, check out the trailer below and judge for yourself!
Aside from the recent reveals of Phoenix and Mike Haggar as brand new inclusions in the game, there have been a bunch of new videos and pictures out for Marvel vs. Capcom 3:
Here are Yun and Yang's fully animated endings from Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition. The video's in Japanese, but there's also a translation courtesy of Event Hubs:
The latest characters to be added in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 are Mike Haggar from Final Fight and Phoenix / Jean Grey from X-Men. Below are their official reveal trailers, plus some hi-res art:
Okay, now this is just perfect! I love Mixed Martial Arts and I love Mortal Kombat, so mixing them together in a single video this well done is just amazing to me! Expertly put together and genuinely funny, this is a treat for any fan of MMA and Mortal Kombat. Thanks very much to lookoutawhale for this presentation! Check it out:
The NEOGEO Station, featuring many classic SNK arcade games from the 90's, became available to the PSN this month. Being the martial arts media freak that I am, I immediately grabbed up all the fighting games it offered at launch. This includes Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, Samurai Shodown, and King of Fighters '94. Check out the official trailer below:
The latest title in the popular game franchise, Tekken, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is officially coming out for arcades in 2011! Here's the official trailer:
The Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter 4 came out a few days ago and there have a been a flood of gameplay videos coming out. Check out some of them below!
There's a new Marvel vs. Capcom 3 trailer! While it's mostly clips from past trailers, there is some neat new gameplay footage near the end that shows off some cool, new alternate costumes for some of the characters. Check it out!
I'm not a big God of War fan. I've never played any of the games outside of the PSN demo of God of War 3. That said, I think it's a great game series and the addition of its main character to the new Mortal Kombat game is absolutely cool. Check it out!
You’ve probably already read my general thoughts on the film, but if it not, please check it out first! This review is basically a continuation of the first one, but with added notes that the hardcore Tekken and fighting game fans might want to know. As such, this contains MASSIVE SPOILERS. You have been warned.
In part one, I outlined in detail why I thought I needed to voice out my opinion regarding obese characters in fighting games. In this follow up article, I just want to clarify a few thoughts on characters, persons, and ideas that may run contrary to my thoughts, but actually don’t.
E. HONDA
What about E. Honda,though? The famous sumo wrestler that first appeared in the granddaddy of all fighting games, Street Fighter II, way back in 1991? Well, first of all, my specific complaint was about characters who are obese, and not just fat. There are plenty of people all over the world that some may categorize as fat for whatever aesthetic reasons, but when physically examined, they wind up to be perfectly healthy. E. Honda pretty much fits this description. If you actually look at his design, you’ll notice that much of his torso is meant to actually be muscle, and not fat. His character design in the classic, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, is even more evident of this.
SUMO WRESTLERS
But what about a lot of the other sumo wrestlerswho are truly mostly fat and not muscle? Well, there’s plenty of controversy right now regarding this. Sumo is a sport where one opponent has to push the other outside the ring, and mass obviously plays a huge aspect of that. In this case, sumo wrestlers often pack on extra mass in order to gain an upper hand against their opponents. Of course, a lot of this mass is muscle, as sumo wrestlers typically engage in very rigorous physical training every day, like any other fighter. The problem is when they gain too much body fat in order to increase their weight even more. There have been numerous occasions when champion sumo wrestlers have died because of cardiovascular diseases related to high amounts of body fat.
Sumo wrestlers that value technique over mass have been emerging, and these are much lighter competitors who have a tremendous amount of lean mass, and use their skills as the primary form of winning. This is obviously a better form of sumo wrestler.
ROY NELSON
Okay, but what about Big Country Roy Nelson, the recent winner of The Ultimate FighterSeason 10who is currently tearing through opponents in the UFC? Well, first of all, “Big Country” Roy Nelson has a big belly, but I really don’t think he can be classified as obese (compare his picture to that of Bob’s or Rufus’ in part one). He pretty much has a ton of muscle underneath all that flab, and he has the cardiovascular endurance of a champion. He works hard in the gym, and it shows in the Octagon. In this case, I don’t think his façade is something young people should emulate, but his work ethic sure is.
Also, if you notice, from his time on The Ultimate Fighter to his more recent fight against Stefan Struve, you can actually notice Big Country slim down quite a bit. This is because of his increased training to prepare for higher level competitors. The higher he climbs the ranks of the UFC, the fitter he’ll get.
And if you want to emulate a UFC heavyweight fighter, there are plenty of bigger names out there hyped even more than Big Country. People like champion Brock Lesnar, top contender Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, and Minotauro Nogueira are hyped way more than Nelson, and have slimmer, more muscular physiques, which is something that better represents the current Heavyweight division of the UFC.
Any more thoughts on “fat” or obese people being represented in popular culture? Drop me a comment below as I’d like to read your thoughts!
As some of you may have already figured out, I really enjoy fighting games. Heck, I’ve admitted that they’re part of the reason I got so into fitness in the first place. Street Fighter was my favorite, and I idolized the characters there, particularly the main character, Ryu. And this is actually the primary reason I wanted to voice out my opinion about this.
RYU
Some of these fighting games are extremely popular, and people idolize the characters associated with them. For whatever personal reason, they think they’re cool. Just like me, they want to emulate them, and be just as strong and physically impressive. Idolizing Ryu was a great thing for me as a child because it geared me towards becoming a strong Asian person. Ryu is a Japanese character, and he’s drawn as a well-muscled fighter, who is, both story and game-wise, one of the strongest competitors in the world. That’s a great inspiration for someone like me!
BOB
So, imagine my surprise in 2007 when Bandai Namco games revealed the new characters to the sequel of their most popular fighting game franchise, Tekken,and one of them was an obese American. I was seriously disturbed when I saw the images for the first time. I knew how some people all over the world viewed these characters, and now one of them is a seriously unhealthy person? Not only that, this person moves and fights like an incredibly strong, agile and well trained martial artist. To this regard, some young people may think that the character is cool and want to emulate him.
RUFUS
I quickly disregarded this as a sort of isolated incident, though, but when Capcom announced the lineup to Street Fighter IV,a sequel to arguably the most famous fighting game franchise of all time, they also included an obese American character. Not only that, this character moved even better than Bob and is actually one of the strongest characters in the game.
I really don’t understand why they needed to represent such a serious health problem in such a positive light. Young people are very impressionable, and they’ll cling to whatever imagery they find interesting. I really don’t want them to idolize obesity. Video games already propagate this by making them stick to the television screen even more and making them physically inactive. We really don’t need these games to create imagery that what they’re turning into is something cool, either.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
If these characters were featured in games that were very unpopular and which I didn’t really care for, I probably would never have thought of this whole idea. But the fact is, they’re being featured in some of the most popular video games in the whole world.
I really want these sorts of characters to stop being created. I want Bob and Rufus to be the end of the line. Obesityis a serious problem and it doesn’t need to be represented as cool in any sort of way. Fighting game characters are usually great sources of inspiration for young people because they’re popular and feature very fit and athletic characters that people can emulate and create positive goals from. In my personal opinion, new characters to these popular franchises should continue this trend and not do the opposite.
What are your thoughts on these characters? Should they continue to be created or not? Drop me a comment, as I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Past readers of this blog may know that I have a very tremendous passion for the video game franchise known as Street Fighter. I love fighting games in general, and want to try out pretty much all of them. Many born in the 80’s (like myself) very well know of the rivalry the Street Fighter franchise had with its Western, and more brutal, counterpart: Mortal Kombat.
While Street Fighter was based on hand drawn, anime-style sprites with a bit of comic relief thrown into the mix to be friendly to all audiences, Mortal Kombat differentiated itself by using actual videotaped live martial artists performing stunts to be used in the game. The characters, abilities, and storylines were also more inherently brutal, and the game even included “Fatalities”, where you could execute your opponent in various ways, including beheading, electrocution, and so on.
While I personally liked this aspect of Mortal Kombat as a young boy, what really got me hooked into the franchise was the first movie, released in 1995. A cheesy chop socky flick for sure, it nonetheless includes several martial arts fight scenes that I personally, to this day, deem to be classics.
MY PERSONAL FAVORITE IS THE REPTILE FIGHT SCENE:
The bicycle kick and spinning off that stone whatever to kick the ninja aside, I feel that it’s an excellent fight scene. Both actors moved very quickly and fluidly, exchanging punches and kicks cut such that they seem to be thrown at intense speeds. I also really like how throws are used very freely throughout the fights. Too often have I seen movie fight scenes that focus only on punching and kicking, and never on the possible grappling aspects that could be added. My favorite throw is actually Liu kang’s scissor throw, which is, yes, extremely unrealistic, I suppose, but I personally find it very creative (what’s up with Liu Kang catching Reptile in mid air, though? I never liked that part as well). The movie is based on fantasy characters of sorts, after all, so these sorts of things are expected. Besides, historically, more fantastic fight scenes sell much better than standard, very realistic, UFC-style combat on the big screen. Just ask Jackie Chan. I just wish that all of these sorts of moves were performed as well (eg: that bicycle kick again).
I also like that, when the camera gets tight onto the characters, the moves that you see them execute are largely very realistic combos. Hook kicks, roundhouse, kicks, knees, elbows, classic 1-2-3 combos, and the like.
Of course, tons of credit should go to the sound department as well, for mixing in those wildly explosive sound effects to make each technique seem mightier than they really are. Add to that a very catchy techno tune, and you’ve got a classic martial arts sequence right there.
Okay, let’s break the scene down a bit more specifically. After Liu Kang gets knocked through that stone wall (remember, fantasy characters and whatnot) Reptile goes in for a double flying kick. The fight becomes very realistic after the initial, wild, largely fantastical opening. Okay, so Reptile still zones in with a flying front kick, and Liu Kang counters with a spin kick for some reason, but notice that Reptile has a very logical, aggressive plan worked out. After gauging Liu Kang’s distance with the jumping front kick, he moves in slowly with a hook kick to the body, which Liu counters with his own, move in some more with a distance – gauging 1 – 2 combo, and grabs Liu Kang’s head.
This is an interesting key to what makes a great fight scene. Reptile is the more aggressive one in the beginning of the fight and Liu Kang is defending, primarily because he’s, y’know, shocked from being blasted through a stone wall and all. Reptile’s very aggressive and his still is to clinch and grapple. He gauges your distance and grabs hold of you. This is even more pronounced when, after Reptile first throws Liu Kang into the stone pillar, he kicks Liu and zones in with punches to clinch.
Liu Kang, on the other hand, likes to keep his distance and throw more kicks to knock out his opponent. Pretty much every chance he is given, he’ll throw a kick and, well, follow up with some more kicks. Simple as that. Hell, even his first attempted throw is leg-based.
What I meant when I wrote “this is an interesting key to what makes a great fight scene” is a sort of logic and consistency when it comes to choreographing them. The actors and stuntmen may be incredibly talented and athletic, but it’s all for naught if their choreography’s no good. The logic is in finding out what the character’s personality is and what makes him fight a certain way. I’ll admit that I have no idea why the choreographers chose to make Liu Kang a more long distance – oriented character, but I suppose it has to do with the actor’s strengths. Robin Shou kicks really well, and looks extremely good in front of the camera while doing them. Shou was supposedly the choreographer as well for this particular fight scene, and I think it’s brilliant that he established that Reptile’s fight plan is almost the exact opposite of Liu Kang’s: clinch and grapple. This makes for an excellent variety of moves within a single scene, as well as seeing two almost completely different styles play against each other.
Consistency is also important because you have to show that it’s the same character throughout the fight, despite the fact that it may take months on end to successfully shoot a full action sequence like this. Even near the end of the fight, Reptile still grabs hold of Liu’s arm locks his head, and throws him to the ground. Meanwhile, Liu Kang still likes to retaliate with kicks.
If a fighter’s style changes in the middle of a sequence, it should be for a good reason. It could be that he was injured and he lost the use of his right arm, thus necessitating a complete change in stance, or it could be because of fear. He becomes overwhelmed by his opponent and changes from an aggressive to a defensive tactic. It shouldn’t change randomly during the fight for no reason unless it’s part of the character’s shtick.
MY SECOND FAVORITE FIGHT SCENE IN THE MOVIE IS THE JOHNNY CAGE VS. SCORPION ONE:
This fight is largely more fantastical than the Liu Kang vs. Reptile one, especially in the beginning, but it’s also longer. Once we get to the elevated bone yard, though, things start turning into a full fledged martial arts sequence.
Johnny Cage is shown to have a pretty standard chop socky martial arts style. Lots of kicks and punches strung together, but nothing really creative and different coming from him. Scorpion, on the other hand, is the much more interesting subject. While the contrast in the Liu Kang vs. Reptile fight seemed to concentrate more on distance preference, here it’s more of a creative choice. Johnny Cage’s standard, clean cut, by-the-book martial arts style is contrasted by Scorpion’s wilder, more creative choices for combat. This is highlighted by stunts such as blindsiding cage with a punch once they first enter the bone yard, trapping of Cage’s arm, then kicking him over and over (in real life, though, if you do manage to trap your opponents arm, it would be better to a) go to a clinch and knee his head over and over, b) continue the arm lock and break his elbow joint, or c) smash his head into the environment. Kicking him over and over wouldn’t do much good since your blows would lack power because of the stance you’d be in. Still much flashy to look at, though, which is the single reason why they chose to do it), kicking Cage over and over while he’s downed, reversing Cage’s throw and so on.
Whenever Johnny Cage does something creative, it just winds up looking weird and funny, like when he picks up Scorpion while attempting to get up from the ground, or doing that gymnastics kick thing. I have no idea what they were going for with those. What I do like about Cage’s throw was how Scorpion’s legs hit a barrier of sorts on landing, which is an excellent use of the environment (as opposed to, say, Liu Kang spinning on a stone thingamajig). If the environment is extremely messy, like this one, then the fighters should constantly interact with it and not pretend like it doesn’t exist. Even the 1991 Street Fighter 2 game had destructible barrels and statues in some of the stages.
Mortal Kombat also had a very short lived TV seriescalledMortal Kombat Conquest, which was relatively low budget and poorly written at times, but always had excellently entertaining fight sequences, such as this one:
If you've never seen this series before, I seriously recommend you check it out if you're a Mortal Kombat fan or a fan of martial arts movies and TV shows in general. It's a load of fun.
So, why have I suddenly become hung up on Mortal Kombat? I admit that my interest franchise greatly waned during the late 90’s and has never quite recovered ever since, until this new test footage for something called“Mortal Kombat Rebirth”came along:
Let’s take a look at it a bit shall we? The fight scene between Johnny Cage and Baraka, I personally think, is excellent. I personally wish it was shot better though, since several of the movements are blurred and obscured by some of the wild camera changes and movements. Granted, only a small portion of the sequence is like this, but as a martial arts enthusiast, I’d like to see literally all the stuntmen’s movements clear as day, like the Liu Kang vs, Reptile one.
Johnny Cage once again exhibits a more classic, by-the-book fighting style, but is not as boring as he once was. Figuring a bit like Reptile, Cage opts to zone in and close the distance, eventually locking in some sort of BJJ technique like that armbar we see him attempt at one point. Whenever he tries something nonclassical and flashy, he also looks much better, as when he hits Baraka with that spinning kick near the end, or when he grabs that bo staff earlier on.
His opponent, Baraka, characteristically has the wilder, more fictional martial arts style, reminiscent of many classic Hong Kong action villains, utilizing many spinning kicks and looping punches strung together.
There is also very, very good use of the environment here, starting with the opening of the sequence, as Johnny Cage is flung into a wall. Bottles are used to smash people in the face, and people get thrown into tables. Very creative fight scene overall, and I hope this movie gets picked up and funded well, because I’d honestly like to see more of it. I also very much appreciate that they’re embracing the more brutal aspect of the game, which is very key to its differentiation in the video game market back in the day, and is something the first movie sidestepped in order to appeal to a wider crowd.
Really fun looking stuff, and I’m sure it’ll be a blast to play.
Mortal Kombat was a huge part of my childhood at one point, and is definitely one of the major reasons why I got into martial arts and fitness in general. I’ve also always wanted to dissect two of my favorite fight scenes of all time, both coming from the first Mortal Kombat movie, and I’m glad I found a good enough excuse to finally do so.
Okay, I just bought Super Street Fighter IV, played a few matches to try it out and am really hyped over it! But, no, I’m not going to review it. I know that I really like to review stuff, but this isn’t a video game blog. What I will do is relate how the Street Fighter franchise relates to my personal views of fitness and well – being.
When I was a kid, I’d play pretty much only one type of video game: fighting. And most of the time, the Street Fighter franchise would, more often than not, fill my video gaming needs. What this instilled in me as a little boy is a sort of idol worship for the characters I played as. My favorite is, and always has been, the Ryu character. I’m not sure what it was about him, outside of the fact that he’s the male poster boy for the franchise and is the favored character of many players out there, but I believe it was because he always seemed the most human to me, and that made me relate to him more. Sure, he throws fireballs and flies vertically through the air, but he didn’t have green skin and fangs, or was bald, had an eye patch and stood nearly seven feet tall.
He was designed as a simple, Japanese fighter wearing a tattered gi of sorts. That’s it. Of course, he didn’t look specifically Japanese. He had a more generic, square – jawed hero look to him. In fact, some might even argue that he looks more Western than Asian in most of the artwork that depicts him. In any case, I knew he was Asian, same as me, and when I looked at him, he didn’t necessarily look Japanese. In a way, I could kind of see myself in his character design and so wanted to be exactly like him growing up.
Of course, he wasn’t my only childhood idol. As a kid, I’d chew up many things in pop culture, including comic books, action movies, anime, and, of course, video games. I liked (still do, actually) Batman, Goku, Bruce Lee, and other characters and celebrities. But I’m not writing about them right now; I’m writing about Street Fighter.
Ryu gave me a particular vision of the future that I wanted to inhabit; a future where I was like him, or at least close enough that I’d personally believe it. Of course, no matter how much I wanted to grow up throwing fireballs and launching dragon punches as a kid, I eventually conceded that I wasn’t going to be able to accomplish that. So, I went for the other aspects of the character. The tattered gi and bare feet were out, since I still wanted to be considered a normal member of society, so what we have left are the martial arts skills and buff physique.
In short, Ryu is a martial artist. He’s not a corrupt boxer, a psycho – powered terrorist, or a green monster. The basic story he’s usually given is that he wanders the world seeking out new challengers so that he can become a better fighter. He’s a martial artist, plain and simple; the original World Warrior. Well, I couldn’t travel the world like he did, but I could adopt his dedication. As a kid, I tried out karate and taekwondo, and eventually settled on the latter. I trained in it for several years, but never attended any of the tests or whatever it is they’re called, so until now I only have a yellow belt. I grew tired of taekwondo because the instructors I got never really took many of their classes seriously, possibly because we were all very young. So what I did was took all the basics I learned and build upon it by myself. I would (and still do to this day) get any and all books on the martial arts I could get my hands on, read them cover to cover, and move on. I’d do this for videos as well. I started slowly amassing equipment for myself, such as gloves and a heavy bag, that I could use to train. Of course, many of these books also detailed how to become fit enough to perform the movements detailed well and compete in tournaments, so I started on a particular road to fitness.
And so this road has led me to this day. As mentioned in my “About Me” entry on the right side of my blog, most of what I know today about fitness and martial arts is “personal”, meaning self – study. I practice as much of it as I can, of course, and to this, still imagine Ryu performing his special attacks whenever I practice martial arts. But since I took all this so seriously, I am now taking a formal degree in human kinetics, actively writing a blog about all my personal knowledge, and sharing what I know to as many people as I can in order to propagate fitness and better living.
As mentioned, I had many influences throughout childhood that pushed me towards where I am right now, and the Street Fighter series has always been a huge part of it. I know for a fact that everyone has a childhood influence or dream. Something like, “I want to be a superhero” or “I want to be an astronaut”, but eventually gave up on it to become an accountant or a math teacher. Was this because they honestly thought making balance was more exciting than fighting crime or going to outer space or because they just gave up on what they wanted? I know this feeling very well because, until now, I still can’t launch fireballs from my palms, but I still work hard on my martial arts and physical fitness, and help others do the same. My childhood dreams mean a lot to me to this day, and I take them very seriously.
This is what Street Fighter has given me. What have your childhood dreams given you?
Credit goes to Gamefaqs and Gamespot for the many pictures I used in this post.
! I'm not really a fan of the series and prefer other similar fighters such as Tekken and Soul Calibur, but I've played a few of the entries and find them decent at the least.
though? The famous sumo wrestler that first appeared in the granddaddy of all fighting games, Street Fighter II, way back in 1991? Well, first of all, my specific complaint was about characters who are obese, and not just fat. There are plenty of people all over the world that some may categorize as fat for whatever aesthetic reasons, but when physically examined, they wind up to be perfectly healthy. E. Honda pretty much fits this description. If you actually look at his design, you’ll notice that much of his torso is meant to actually be muscle, and not fat. His character design in the classic, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, is even more evident of this. 
who are truly mostly fat and not muscle? Well, there’s plenty of controversy right now regarding this. Sumo is a sport where one opponent has to push the other outside the ring, and mass obviously plays a huge aspect of that. In this case, sumo wrestlers often pack on extra mass in order to gain an upper hand against their opponents. Of course, a lot of this mass is muscle, as sumo wrestlers typically engage in very rigorous physical training every day, like any other fighter. The problem is when they gain too much body fat in order to increase their weight even more. There have been numerous occasions when champion sumo wrestlers have died because of 
who is currently tearing through opponents in the UFC? Well, first of all, “Big Country” Roy Nelson has a big belly, but I really don’t think he can be classified as obese (compare his picture to that of Bob’s or Rufus’ in
and one of them was an obese American. I was seriously disturbed when I saw the images for the first time. I knew how some people all over the world viewed these characters, and now one of them is a seriously unhealthy person? Not only that, this person moves and fights like an incredibly strong, agile and well trained martial artist. To this regard, some young people may think that the character is cool and want to emulate him.
a sequel to arguably the most famous fighting game franchise of all time, they also included an obese American character. Not only that, this character moved even better than Bob and is actually one of the strongest characters in the game.
is a serious problem and it doesn’t need to be represented as cool in any sort of way. Fighting game characters are usually great sources of inspiration for young people because they’re popular and feature very fit and athletic characters that people can emulate and create positive goals from. In my personal opinion, new characters to these popular franchises should continue this trend and not do the opposite.
