Two Street Fighter Fan Films in a week? FFS!

I admire this kind of dedication and level of fandom. I'm the kind of nerd that just spends money on stuff to prove to other just how 'into it' I really am. Hats off to these guys then, who went out and made pretty decent tribute films to the ever-awesome Street Fighter.

Unfortunately for the guys that made this first one, they didn't realise that there was a higher-budget, Capcom-sanctioned one in the works. BAM! DENIED!!

Beginnings End (the lower budget one)



Street Fighter Legacy (the sanctioned one)





Both look pretty awesome for what they are, but unfortunately both feature nerdy weaklings that makes them look like little more than dedicated cosplayers. I don't think these characters were ever intended for live action. What about you, which one looks better?

Street Fighter X Triumvir

Streetwear label Triumvir have been making some incredible pieces of Street Fighter clothing for the past year or so: ranging from graphic tees to their 'Psycho Brigade' collection - for the Shadaloo soldier with style.

Regrettably, I passed on their first line of Street Fighter graphic t-shirts. This is not a mistake I plan on repeating. Knowing how it felt missing them, I thought I'd make you all aware that there will be another line available for pre-order from the Triumvir web store tomorrow (link). I've already bought at least five of them in my head.

Only 2 days 'til SUPER, for us Brits anyway........sad face.....Oh, what's that? Your pre-order has shipped already? GET HYYYYYYYPPPPE!

The World Warriors: The Everlasting aesthetic quality of the original Street Fighters

In an age before FMV sequences and dialogue heavy cut-scenes, game designers faced greater challenges in order to express the personalities of their characters. The visual design was paramount in order to tell gamers who or what they were playing as. A character’s design had to speak volumes in order to engage the player, or at least captivate their imaginations beyond the duration of a play session. Without exposition and cut-scenes, designers would have to strive to create memorable images that would remain firm in the minds of the players and fans. A costume or a haircut had to speak a thousand words. It was an age of overcoming limitations with unmatched creativity and simple, effective design.

Proof of this simple, effective character design can be seen in the lasting, almost iconic images of Pac-Man, Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog. These designs have retained their aesthetic basics for decades and have proven to be both memorable and endearing enough to warrant sustained success for their respective games. Admittedly Pac Man and Sonic may not enjoy the same successes as Mario, but the strength of their images despite commercial failures in more recent years only reinforces the quality of their design. Such classic characters needed strong, likeable designs in order to keep the player interested and more importantly, give the games a unique and identifiable mascot. After all, being forced to play as a character you hated the sight of for the duration of a game is not likely to sustain your enjoyment. So, what happens then, when the player is given a choice of characters? How do you create images for a selection of characters; images that are so strong, that a player will be able to identify with them and enjoy playing as them for the duration? I think Capcom has the answer to that one.

In Capcom’s first Street Fighter game, the player took control of Ryu – the series’ long standing protagonist- as he fought colourful and varied opponents around the world. With Street Fighter II, they changed the template and gave the player a selection of eight different characters from which to choose. How is a gamer meant to cope with such unprecedented levels of choice? Back then, such diversity was unheard of and Capcom still had to ensure that everybody didn’t simply just pick Ryu, or Ken, to be more accurate. Capcom’s answer was to create eight unique fighters, all with images so memorable and emotive, that a player could make a heartfelt choice. Add to this a slew of unique fighting styles and choosing your world warrior became less about which was the best and more about which was the best fit for you. For me, personally, this is where the character’s aesthetics play the biggest role.


Each character’s appearance speaks volumes about their personalities and history and it is this that allows players to make the informed choices about who they prefer. No need to read a backstory, no need to research their strengths and weaknesses – just put your faith in how well-balanced the game is and pick whoever you think is the coolest.

If you want a safe bet, you’ll pick Ryu, after all he’s the protagonist from the series’ beginning and his design is the simplest of all. Like his fighting style, Ryu’s design is straight up, balanced and effective. His stoic gaze, his muted colour palette and his well-rounded repertoire of moves make Ryu a logical starting point. His white suit and red headband not only echoing the simplicity of his design, but also representing his home country of Japan. Simple and pure both in aesthetics and mechanics: Ryu is the all-rounder, the starting point.
Next, we come to Ken. To the untrained eye, he is effectively the same as Ryu, only displaying a few subtle, but massively important details. Ken is Ryu re-drawn with a grin, a red outfit and the blonde surfer hairdo that, in the 90’s, seemingly represented American males the world over. He is the Zach Morris of Street Fighting. If Ryu was American, he would be cocky, wear his hair long and not be seen dead in an understated white outfit. Ken, like his design, is Ryu’s louder, brash cousin.

By simply changing a hairdo and swapping some colours, Ryu’s character model is transformed into Ken and his personality along with it. The loud red suit and unkempt hair show us the polar opposite to Ryu’s serious warrior persona. Such minor changes transform the character and give us another design that speaks volumes about the personality it represents. Only a dick such as Ken would leave his hair down for a fight and you don’t have to read a back story to figure it out.

With such simple changes impacting characters to such an extent, Capcom could have adjusted Ryu’s colour scheme and hairdo with enough variety to fill out the whole roster. Thankfully, they instead set about creating another six varied fighters from all across the globe. Again, their aesthetics would serve to express their personalities; whether it was the wild-man Blanka throwing himself around the screen, electrocuting his enemies and sinking his teeth into their flesh, or Dahlsim using his spiritual powers to conjure fire and contort his limbs. Add to this mix Guile’s ‘brush-head’ hairdo, Zangief’s Mohican and scars, Chun Li’s hair buns and - to a lesser extent - Honda’s face paint and you have visual calling cards for each and every one of the warriors. These elements have been integral parts of each of the characters’ designs from their inception and have remained intact in their most recent iterations in Street Fighter IV. By reducing and simplifying each character to a bold, limited colour palette and giving them each one defining visual characteristic, Capcom is able to ensure the lasting impact of their character’s designs.


With so many iterations of the Street Fighter series over the years, you could be forgiven for thinking that such simplistic designs may become quickly outdated or at least lose their effectiveness in more recent years. Capcom seem to adhere to a set of well thought out, self-imposed rules. Street Fighter IV looks just as contemporary as any other game currently available, yet sacrifices nothing about design choices made nearly twenty years ago. They focus on simple, distinctive characteristics, allowing the characters to be given a visual makeover and still retain their personalities.

Logically, these rules would apply to just about any character design. If you think about Batman, Spiderman and their superhero fraternity, or the aforementioned Mario and Sonic, the same rules echo true. However, said rules are all the easier to follow when you have only one protagonist to focus upon. As I said before, Street Fighter II’s design team had to make eight individual characters work. The best validation for their efforts would be that the designs of the original eight world warriors still remain so strong and fully intact. You can still choose your character based upon how their visually expressed personality resonates with your own: something that is not easily achieved.

You have a man who wears the evidence of his bear-wrestling on his chest, another who has hair that defies gravity and reasonable logic, yet is somehow more believable, and memorable, than any of those Final Fantasy fops. Mix in a thunder-thighed Chinese police officer, a Brazilian wildman, a lunatic sumo and an Indian mystic along with our much-discussed martial arts experts and you have one of the most memorable and colourful casts ever assembled.

It’s probably apparent by now that I can wax lyrical about Street Fighter characters all day long but no matter how many big words I use and no matter how well I rationalise things and try to appear intellectual, my love for the World Warriors comes down to very simple emotions. Each and every one of them is cool: totally and utterly rad. As a boy I would draw them endlessly, dream of decent action figures and yet still put up with those horrible GI Joe style movie tie-in ones.

I still feel the same way about these characters as I did when I would obsess over the artwork covering my local arcade cabinet. They are the epitome of good character design and my desire to own decent action figures is one that still burns brightly even to this day.
Capcom’s flair for lasting, quality design goes way beyond their original eight street fighters. The four bosses retain the same iconic qualities of those that challenge them and throughout the series’ life span Capcom have continued to introduce a plethora of equally as impressive characters. However, as much as I may love the likes of Dudley, Gen and Ibuki, there is no-one quite like the original eight. Whilst Ryu and Ken, along with Gen, Adon and Sagat may have retained their images from the original Street Fighter, it was in Street Fighter II that we saw these images and personalities be forged.

It was Street Fighter II that captured my imagination unlike any other game before it and I will forever, stubbornly insist that it is the true, original Street Fighter game. That game cemented such strong and vibrant images and personalities into my consciousness and to have them awakened and sustained by Street Fighter IV is the greatest testament to the quality of their design. Like an old photograph, those characters evoke powerful emotions in me and without Capcom’s timeless design, such things would not be possible.

Look at this cool picture of Street Fighter characters drawn in a Mario Brothers style.

Look. Cool isn't it?

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix is only 560 MS Points right now too. You should really get on that.

Via gamovr

My custom fightstick

Even though I now use one of those lovely Madcatz Tournament Edition fightsticks to play my Street Fighter, I still own an old Hori EX2. It came out a long time ago, I barely used it, broke it and then left it in the cupboard. Thankfully Stick modder Extraordinaire, Cr0nt offered to max it out for me, with custom artwork and all the fancy buttons that make the Tournament Edition so lovely.
Progress has been slow, but things have begun to pick up pace recently. The main issue is that I've had difficulty choosing my artwork. I wanted to go for an old-school Street Fighter 2 arcade cabinet look, but I'd been having difficulty finding the resource images. Then, whilst over at the awesome Omega Level, I had a brainwave: I have to dedicate my arcade stick to none other than Cumshot Legend: Mr. Peter North.

Here is a mock-up of my design, I hope you all like it. Feedback would, as always, be much appreciated.

ZANGIEF!

ZANGIEF!!!

Guile going to jail.

Via Skull Swap

No more Super Street Fighter updates (or a lot less anyway)

I know the constant boner for all things Street Fighter must wear some of you down and for that, I apologise once again. It's hard not to talk about a game that I love so dearly, especially when the news and rumours concerning the upcoming Super SF4 are so scattered and fragmented - I feel a sense of duty to collate them here. No longer need I feel this way though as I have now discovered http://iplaywinner.com/

Their Street Fighter and beat em up coverage is far superior to mine and one of the best, most dedicated sites I've found in a long while. They obsess of the minute leaks and glimmers of information just as I do, so whenever you want to know what's happening with Street Fighter, just check there from now on. In short, it's like a more casual and amusing version of

http://shoryuken.com/

If you need more convincing, check out this intriguing shot of the character select screen that confirms our 'proper bit of news' from a while ago (here) that stated there would be 10 characters added to the roster.

Staying on that topic, rumours are now abound that there will be another brand new character accompanying Juri - an Arab grappler by the name of Hakan. I'm hoping that this turns out to be true as I'm a big fan of grapplers, not to mention how much of a shame it would be to see this parody video to be made in vain.

The Split-Screen Christmas swagbag big awesome giveaway bonanza! Seventh entry update!

Yeah, that's right, two in one day. BAM! Right there, readers! I always wanted to talk to people like the Beano characters talked to me. Look ma! I've made it! Now I'm doing it, just like Dennis The Menace!

The seventh entry into our illustrious giveaway is brought to you by none other than our current Street Fighter champion - Vandalworks. As a result of his success and all-round awesomeness, Capcom approached both Vandalworks and Split-Screen to collaborate on a special DLC pack for Super Street Fighter 4. Naturally, we said yes, but insisted on creating our own artwork. Here it is:

The DLC package will feature Vandalworks as a playable character. He plays almost identical to Gouken only he has guns and is invincible. He also has an attack that features vicious dogs. VERY vicious. The pack will be made exclusively available to PLATINUM Xbox Live members only. What? You don't have a PLATINUM account!? Just Gold? You pathetic turd!

Anyways, contest ends tomorrow! Vote or die!

Cody, Guy and Adon join the ranks of Super Street Fighter 4 *UPDATED WITH VIDEO!*

Look, it's not like the only thing I want to write about is Street Fighter tit bits, it's just that when they keep dropping little information nuggets, what am I supposed to do? Cast them aside like an unruly child? No, of course not. It is my duty to re-package and over-hype these things to breaking point.

For those of you not in the 'Street Fighter Club' there is a very simple solution if you are getting annoyed with this 'favouritism'. Just buy Street Fighter 4, or commit to buying Super Street Fighter 4. Get on the train. There's obviously going to be another awesome-as-fuck tournament which I'm going to be bullying everyone to take part in, so why not save yourself the trouble.

I'm going to hold back now. I've got an essay simmering in my brain, one where I gush over the importance of character and why Street Fighter does it best. This post did have a point at the beginning, and that was to show you these scans that confirm Adon, Guy and Cody as playable characters in SSF4.


By the looks of it, these scans come from Japanese gaming bible, Famitsu. Most hot-shit news scans do. If the Japanese gaming industry were a little healthier right now, I'd probably subscribe just to stay on top of announcements. Then again, I could just let Kotaku do all the work for me, which is, incidentally, where I swiped this news from.

Debate in the comments: good additions, or bad ones? Like the world needed a quicker Sagat, right? Prison Cody is rad. Still no Haggar.

UPDATE (cheers Cr0nt):

More Super Street Fighter IV News & Previews

Bloody Hell

I have seen the future, ladies and gentlemen. Do you want to know what I saw there? The world was full of Street Fighter dioramas that have light-up bits on them. Like this one:


Get your very own slice of the future for the bargain price of $344.99(!!!) from Sideshow Collectables. Oh, wait they're sold out........ SOLD OUT!? Who has the money to actually buy this stuff? Tony Stark!? Jesus Christ!?! Oprah!?! I bet they all have like, 50 each.