In a case of Hollywood going by the "old ways," the the Chun-Li movie has an official poster now.

Of course those that actually play Street Fighter are wondering why a white girl (well, Dutch-Chinese) is playing Chun-Li. Those that have been around Hollywood know better than to ask why. The "old ways" that I mention are actually still alive and well in Hollywood. The studios have little to no faith in a minority character being able to carry a movie if it's released here. When it comes to an asian theme or a Japanese adaptation then expect for at least one American to be added to the lineup, if not the entire cast to be made up of white actors. Honestly, a film with both Jet Li and Jackie Chan just wont fly without a white kid?

It is very sad when publishers, like Capcom, have to concede to the requests (or demands) of Hollywood. Or when in some instances, like the development of Street Fighter IV, lose the ethnicity of the characters to make them more appealing to the west. I used to think that Capcom and the other studios in Japan were proud of their ethnically diverse cast. I remember back when Chun-Li looked unapologetically Chinese and before Ryu was stripped of his ethnic features. 

Conceding to these perceived demands from the west has only weakened the franchise in my eyes.

What say you?

Hello friends, happy humpday! I hope your week is going well. I'm sure you are all eager to hear about new developments at the Tokyo Game Show. One bomb was already dropped by Famitsu magazine this week. They published that Sakura is officially in the console version of Street Fighter IV. This is good news for fans of the character and another stab in my side.

 

This is where I have to be absolutely clear. I am not against seeing returning characters in a Street Fighter game. I am against the direction that Street Fighter IV is taking because it breaks from the conventions established in previous Street Fighter games as well as introduces nonsensical characters and abilities into canon.

The previous numbered Street Fighter games followed a set order and had the following things going for them:

1. Ken and Ryu were the main characters.

2. They, and the rest of the universe, grew and matured in every game.

3. Previous fighters were "retired" and new fighters and styles were introduced in every game to round out the cast.

4. Returning characters were used sparingly and only to appease the fanbase in eventual upgrades. Street Fighter IV has a lot more in common with Street Fighter Alpha / Zero and even EX than it does with Street Fighters I through III.

Apologies to Mr. Ono but this game is not so much an homage to SF II, or trying to recapture the spirit of the title as it is plain and simple fanservice.

1. Street Fighter IV is set between games II and III.

2. It features the entire cast from the original SF II plus characters from Alpha.

3. The characters from previous games, in canon and chronology, are not getting older.

 

It should be obvious that the characters in SF have grown up through the series. The way Ryu is presented in SF Zero is noticeably different than the way he is in SF III. He is taller, more muscular and his features more defined. This was obvious not only in the official art but in the sprites themselves. My concern is that Mr. Ono, his team or the people at Capcom and DIMPS are simply ignoring these conventions for the sake of appeasing fans.

 

People would assume that the same would be true for Cammy, the soldier who was a young girl in SF II, yet she doesn't look any older in different versions of the game. However Cammy has actually matured in the game and in canon. Her design changes are subtle but they are there. She is a girl in SF Zero 3, a Shadowlaw DOLL agent with a schoolgirl necktie and army hat. She is a young woman in Delta Red camouflage and a beret by the time SF II takes place. She is perhaps a year younger than Sakura in canon but has actually shown some changes in the series.

 

Mr. Ono and his team did not have to stick so close to the "script" and recreate the classic characters line-for-line for fear of alienating the fanbase. Fans would have been happy to see Sakura return to the series with some minor cosmetic changes. They would have understood that some time has passed since SF Zero and would have welcomed her as a more experienced fighter. SF IV is heavy with fanservice and light on evolution.

Mr. Ono approached this game as way to recapture the golden years of the series and make IV in tune with the runaway success of SF II. At the least to be a "gateway drug" into the fighting genre and at the most to be the title that his competitors will copy from. The emphasis on fanservice means good things for the bottom line, it will appease fans that have fond memories of SF II and it will sell units. The one thing that fanservice does not guarantee is evolution. Evolution is critical for the success of the fighting genre. Lack of evolution has sunk many a franchise. Mortal Kombat anyone?

Where does Street Fighter go from here? Will SF V be nothing more than a 3D version of SF III? Will SF VI go further back in time and retcon the events from the original Street Fighter to SF Zero? Appeasing fans by giving them the same characters and story time and again will wear thin on the franchise. As much as gamers enjoy a certain title and wants to know what happens next they are hyper-critical of getting exactly that. Street Fighter has to break convention while remaining true to its roots. It sounds like a paradox but was actually pulled off in 4 games. SF through SF III and SF Zero. Street Fighter IV failed to push the genre forward and instead recreated SF II in it's own image. This is by all accounts de-evolution.

What do you think?

It was announced the other day but I'm going to remind you that Gouken is in the new Street Fighter.

 

He's not an April Fools joke anymore but an actual computer-controlled character with his own special moves. His power level and balance has yet to be determined.

 

 

 

Let's hope that Capcom does the right thing and makes him a very powerful, top-tier character, for the console release of the game. Most SF players will tell you that Gouki has never been a top-tier character. In canon and with "Shin" versions of the boss he is very powerful. However as a selectable character he is underpowered. Capcom did this for the sake of balancing the cast, if Gouki was as powerful as he is supposed to be then all the tournament players would be using him exclusively. I wouldn't mind seeing an all-powerful Gouki in the game, provided that his brother is in the game to balance him out. Even then Gouki and Gouken should be banned from competition, rather than dumbed down because they are so absurdly powerful.

Gouken might end up being the strongest character in the game as Gouki does not seem to be anything special in SF IV. The first video of Gouki in SF IV shows him getting beaten easily by Abel. It's quite insulting to see such an iconic character done in without much difficulty. Fans would have been in an uproar if it were Rufus serving Gouki easily. Gouki needs to become a real beast of a character and thusly Gouken should also be a very powerful character. In this way it would make the inclusion of Gouken all the more important. The brothers are the only ones that should be able to go toe-to-toe with one another. They are not great fighters but the peak of all the masters in the SF universe. They need to represent that in form and function. 

The importance of balancing out a powerful opponent, rather than watering him down for the console, goes back to the Frightful Symmetry of Street Fighter. Gouki and Gouken have that same frightful symmetry that all the iconic Street Fighters have. They shouldn't be dumbed down for the consoles but kept at absurdly high power levels. Having two strong bosses makes for more interesting tournament matchups and isn't an insult to the legacy (and symbolism) behind the characters. 

In other fighting game news, it seems SF IV news is always tempered by KOF news, and I don't even like KOF but I'll be damned if this isn't the approach Capcom should have taken for SF IV. Check out the new KOF trailer and weep.

Have a good day and let me know what you think!

Heya friends, what are you up to? Today I'll be griping about the same thing that seemingly has all the Street Fighter fans in an uproar. Namely it is the art direction and recent mock-ups for the console cover of Street Fighter IV.

Nothing is finalized yet people are complaining that these paintings are ugly. That the art or artists featured in the SF Tribute book could have been a better substitute. Fans have been either for or against the art direction of SF IV since day 1. The bold outline and large muscles have divided players. What surprises me is not the mock up box art but the fan reaction to it. They are upset that the mock-ups are not up par with what Capcom is capable of. Those of us that have been following the work of Akiman, Bengus, Ikeno and Kinu know that they are among the best artists to have ever worked in videogames. What fans seem to have forgotten that Capcom USA has a legacy of really crappy box art, ignoring the aforementioned Capcom Japan staffers and instead hiring outside artists to create their covers. Part of which is parodied in the Mega Man 9 box art / press kit.

Even as a kid I knew that the box art on some of my favorite games was crap. I'm not going to sugar coat it and say they gave it a good shot because those that played the games knew that the art was not even remotely close to the game itself. As early as the era of the NES we had been exposed to some Japanese anime. We knew how their art direction differed from crap fantasy artists that never played a game in their life. The art that we were presented with on our titles was very US-centric. Just because the game was being published here it didn't mean that we wanted to see a white guy as the hero on the box art. Even worse was that some of the character art was stolen. Those of us growing up on Warhammer 40,000 called shennanigans on the Genesis box art. Can you spy the Space Marines in the corner of the Strider cover?

These were "Madison Ave" people crapping on our favorites, proof that the publishers were out of touch with the public. As Capcom continued to publish games in the states they continued to use crap art, as recently as the SF Alpha release for the Playstation / Saturn. Eventually the times changed and the mainstream learned to appreciate the stylings of anime and manga artists. Publishers were more willing to print the original Japanese art on boxes and advertisements than at any other time in gaming history.

It seemed that new blood has entered Capcom and they finally allowed the Japanese artists to shine on the packaging. At the same time they were going back to basics and resurrecting Bionic Commando and returning to Street Fighter. Of course at the same time it seems that the Capcom Japanese artists and developers are concerned with appealing to the west. The results of which are art and characters redesigns that lack the original spark. As if they are going backwards into the realm of weaker box art with disjointed characters and themes that don't fit the game itself.

People need to relax. In the grand scheme of things the box art really is a final detail Capcom has to worry about. The control, graphics, animation and balance have to be set first for the consoles. Then the online modes and new characters. Box art may be what attracts non-fans in the stores but those of us that play fighting games know to get it on day 1, special edition if possible. The box art for Street Fighter IV can be anything from a painting to a number and it will still sell. Heck, even a screenshot would move units.

Gamers are demanding people and Capcom can never appease them all. The mock-ups for the SF IV box art weren't good enough for fans, yet those fans will never say exactly what they want because even they don't know. They know something is wrong but can't put their concerns in so-many words without just talking trash about the art. If Capcom decides to have fun with their legacy and intentionally release crap art on a box then it is called inspired and even genius. So what gives?

Capcom can't make everyone happy. Fans need to design their own box art and submit it to them. Have a voting contest and let the people decide. This is the internet, it is the new democracy. With that said, Gouken is officially in the game according to Famitsu. I'm against his redesign, his Sheng Long inspired cues or even the fact that he is alive after being presumed dead for 20 years. But again, can't please everybody...

I'll let you guys tell me what's going on.

Friends, what are you up to today? Things are going smoothly over here. The cousin and fiancé sure enough visited last night, and they decided to stay here a week. Oh boy! Entertaining guests now. It's all-good though because we haven't seen him in about 5 years. A whole lot has changed in that time. Catching up is fun. He's taking his little brother and fiancé to Disneyland sometime next week. I hope he doesn't plan going on the weekend because it would be stupid packed. Like David Jaffe said, Wednesdays are the best time to go.

So it looks like I'll be chilling and watching some more wrestling this weekend. Hopefully the DVD I'm burning doesn't crap out on me. The one I did yesterday crapped out about 10 minutes in so I have to re-export the entire project. Dual Layer DVD's aren't cheap, let's hope Apple can put better Super-Drives in future machines. Don't trust DVD technology. If you want something done right then export to VHS! Aside from that, there isn't much else to talk about. No new movies, comics, graphic novels or games catching my eye. The Tokyo Game Show is still a ways down so it's just passing the days keeping myself entertained. What about you guys, what do you do when you get stuck in a rut?

In topic news we've had this conversation before. I keep going back to fighting game character design because it is one of the most important things in all fighting games. It is very interesting to see how Japanese developers share some common ground when evolving the look of their designs over the years. Could the Japanese approach to character design be the result of zeitgeist or the market? I think it's a little bit of both. Their fighting game character conventions change from day-to-day. Some days they make sense given the evolution of the fighting arts, popularity of MMA tournaments, modern action films, advances in graphics, changes in design tastes and so on. At a point however it seems that the character designers, in every team around the world, end up running out of ideas. Take the most recent alternate costume screens from Virtua Fighter 5. They sum up and warn us about the current trends in fighting game character design.

 

The latest versions of Tekken, Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter, feature characters with alternate costumes that reflect modern conventions. Each new character design is layered with themes, they do not simply stand on their own but represent several things. Some of the things they represent are subtle homages to the studio's legacy, other things are done just to break up the "traditional" fighting character look. These cues can be drawn from traditional to modern Japanese "tough guy" garb, a body wrap or construction worker uniform for example. For women, as well as men, the look is not about making the character appear like a fighter, but rather making them appear like anything but. The gap between what a character looks like and what he or she represents is widening in fighting games. Fighting game characters no longer have to "look" the part and I feel that it has served to weaken the genre. The arcade scene in Japan might ultimately be what is hurting character design.

 

Character customization is very popular in arcade fighters. It is one of the ways arcade owners and publishers themselves can ensure repeat business. Sega, Namco and Capcom are all using a card-based system to store the information of the players and their costume upgrades every time they play. From a business standpoint this all makes sense. With cards averaging $5 and each play $1, repeat business means survival. Producers have to ensure that their game retains re-playability by adding bonus items, costumes, downloads and secrets in the arcade release. There are a lot of things that have to be ironed-out before the game goes to consoles, including more bonus goodies and the possibility of downloadable content. However it is not the business of making games that I'm talking about, but rather how the business is causing designers to add layers of unnecessary or senseless cosmetic changes to fighting game characters. Changes that on the surface level are good for business but end up hurting the reputation of the iconic fighters and their classic designs.

 

The argument that I have against silly costume choices is not only an aesthetic issue but also a cultural one. The costumes look nice and help break up the visuals of the game and allow players to show off their own wardrobe style but the core of the fighting game should be about the balance and control. Has Sega (or Capcom or Namco) really perfected the control and inherent balance issues between characters? Or are they more worried about making sure that the kimono/ J-pop idol / kabuki facelift are in the game?

Some of these looks and changes makes sense in Japan but are nonsensical in the west. Which is funny considering how much of a concentrated effort some of these studios are putting into their designs in order to appeal to western gamers. It is a very fine line that all of the fighting game producers are walking. At what point does the gimmick replace purpose? Each producer will tell you something different. Yoshinori Ono was adamant that the alternate costumes or customizability of characters in Street Fighter IV would never be absurd. Where players could put a skirt on Ryu or make him wear a silly hat. These seem to be the trends in other fighters but even Capcom is not immune to the trend. Street Fighter Mouse Generation not only allows for absurd costume changes but also for entire body parts to be swapped between characters. Zangief's arms can be put on Chun-Li's legs for example. I know that in canon it "makes sense" because these are toys of the fighters, not humans, but the alternate costume gripe remains the same.

 

Some of the cosmetic changes placed on characters have nothing to do with adding a silly costume. Many of these alternate costumes are done as an homage to the publisher's legacy. The Sarah Bryant tennis costume is an homage to Sega's popular Virtua Tennis series. In a similar fashion the Arabian costume for Jeffery McWild is actually an homage to Siba, a character that was replaced by Akira in the original VF.

 

Wolf Hawkfield's pasty complexion and flesh-toned leather pants is undoubtedly pulled from House of the Dead.

 

But what of the other costumes in VF 5, are they done as an homage to the Sega legacy, titles like Virtua On, Route 66 and Shining Force or are they just flashy, nonsensical, designs? I am not certain in either regard. What is that gigantic bottle opener doing on El Blaze's pant? Aren't characters with giant afros played out in Japanese arcades yet?

 

The cultural context of these alternate costumes can be lost on a western audience. Take the pig snout and ears of Lei-Fei, the former Shaolin Monk. Unless you were familiar with the character of Zhu Bajie then it might come off as mean spirited that a Japanese studio is making a Chinese character into a pig.

 

Zhu Baije is one of the principle heroes featured in the classic stories ofJourney to the West. The hero from Eastern tradition does not always have to be a person but can be an animal that fights for good. Zhu and the "Monkey King" Sun Wukong were featured in many moral pieces and turn up again and again in animation and pop culture. Even Street Fighter has played an homage to the mythological heroes in their legacy. The monkey king, once imprisoned in stone, was actually a detail in Yun and Yang's level in Street Fighter III.

 

The symbolism behind these characters, their origins, powers and folklore does not have the same impact in the west. Even among self-described hardcore fans of fighting games and anime, the true symbolism behind these designs is not releavent. For this reason a show like Dragon Ball, which could be interpreted as a modern retelling of Journey to the West, did not have receive the same acclaim (nor longevity) in the US as it did in Japan.

 

The only "safe ground" for a fighting game designer these days seems to be to play the alternate costume choices as an homage to the fighting game legacy rather than East vs West designs. I put "safe ground" in quotes because there is no real safe ground when it comes to character design. This is a subjective art, open to multiple interpretations, what I see as something that is weakening fighting character design might be seen as a necessary step to ensure the growth and evolution of the genre. What one person sees as an homage another seems as lack of originality, or worse, a missed cue that would have worked better in the context of the game and world. Let's look at some of the alternate costumes in Street Fighter IV and see how they are similar or different to the trends in Virtua Fighter 5.

 

Vega has a torn uniform as one of his alternate costumes, is this an homage to his SF II movie battle or will this be mirrored in a future anime film? Zangief has the green pants and suspender of Mike Haggar, this is clearly an homage to Final Fight. Some fans would rather that the character be in the game rather than only his costume. If given a choice I would side with latter. Players have warm memories of these titles, as they shaped our youth and defined our generation. To include only the costume of a character rather than the character could be seen as stepping on the legacy rather than appealing to it. Fans would have certainly been up in arms if Chun-Li had an alternate costume that looked like Sakura's.

 

Stepping on the legacy is one complaint with these alternate costumes, missing the importance of the character is something else entirely. Take Sagat for example. One of his alternate costumes has him wearing skin-tight pants. Most of the posters on Shoryuken.com were wondering where the idea for that came from. Sagat has never been shown in anime, manga or comic book with that clothing. Like Rufus, this design choice was an example of the new SF team ignoring the real martial arts influence and importance of the iconic characters and instead making things up. Tight pants like the one Sagat sports can be seen in Savate, the French foot fighting art. Muay Thai and Savate have next-to-nothing in common. Putting Sagat in spandex is a slap in the face to his native martial art and worse yet, proof that the new SF team is ignoring the SF legacy from other games, films and books plus missing obvious cues from the real world.

Sagat would have and could have worn pants as an alternate costume and it would have worked within the context of the game. During the 1970's kickboxer Benny "the Jet" Urquidez popularized long pants in tournaments. Prior to him it was absurd that any person fighting in Muay Thai or kickboxing would wear pants, as this would seem to slow down the fighter. It didn't seem to slow down Urquidez at all as he compiled a near-perfect record in all his fights. In the original Street Fighter the character Joe was a kickboxer that also wore pants. Putting Sagat in long pants similar to Joe or Benny's would have made more sense than tights. Plus it would have shown that the developers had insight into the game legacy and the real fighters that influenced its evolution.

 

But at what point is it enough detail to appease fans? Can such a balance be reached when the design aesthetic appeals to both Eastern and Western tastes? It is not impossible but it is not easy. We have an arcade market telling developers one thing. But that arcade market is not flying in the USA. We have fans mixing and matching costumes as if the game were Ragnarok rather than Street Fighter. So is the balance and control between characters important anymore or should developers focus on cranking out skins and costumes instead? Designers are asked to make characters that appeal to the West, while at the same time including a look that is decidedly and unapolageticly Japanese. What happens when they fail to understand their audience as well as they should? What happens if they fail to understand the origins and history of their own game, then what should we expect from designers? These are just some things that I thought about while looking at the latest screens from Virtua Fighter 5 plus the alternate costumes in SF IV.

 

I don't have an answer for everything but it doesn't stop me from asking questions. It shouldn't stop you either. If you like a game, if you love a series, take the time to question everything that went into it. Take the time to question everything that is being done and will be done to it. We are at a place where developers are willing to listen. With that said have a great weekend and let me know what you are up to.