Street Fighter Trailer, My Thoughts

Some time back, I wrote about the teaser for the upcoming new live-action Street Fighter movie. I thought it looked like some harmless silly fun. So, let's travel back to the wild year of 1993 and look at this trailer!

Yeah, I don't see the point of this whole "Trailer Starts Now" thing. I mean, why is it here? I know it's a tiny little thing, only like, a couple seconds, but I just wonder why they do it. More curious than annoyed, to be honest.

Chun-Li: "LOOK AT MY NICE NEW BOOT!" She's very proud of her nice new boots. Can't wait to kick some butt in them.

I get the impression that Shadaloo here is kind of like Ancient Rome, a beautiful place with a very dark underbelly.

The people love them some Ken Masters. 

I think it would be nice if the trailer used a song from 1993. People were making music then.

I think Chun-Li is working undercover here. She's the one gathering the fighters and is hoping to have them help her take down M. Bison. Would fit her motivation in the games. 

I love that they let Guile have his wild flattop. 👍 

Ooh, El Fuerte did not have a good time in the ring that day.

Ken wasting perfectly good champagne. I mean for other people to enjoy, I'm a teetotaler. I do not drink alcoholic beverages.

Yeah, I'm betting Ken's arc is his rediscovering his fighter roots or something like that. Classic story, nothing wrong with that.

Heh heh, he's beating up a car. Another game reference.

Okay, now we got an actual 90s song here. And even better? "What's Up?" was actually released...in 1993!

Dear goodness, the size of that lad! Where did they find this guy? And what does he eat?!

Heh heh, you can tell Ryu and Ken are bros. Either that, or Ryu really owes Ken some money.

Well, the tournament is being held by M. Bison. Of course it's not going to be on the complete up-and-up.

Again, it would have been so funny if Cody Rhodes screamed "AMERICAAAAAAAAA!" as he gave Vega that Flash Kick.

Chun Li: "Oh yeah? Well, everyone goes crazy over your butt, but I don't see why!" 

Getting pile-driven into a car. That would SUCK.

...yeah, I'll be doing a lot of that during the movie.

Acknowledge Akuma. ☝

BLANKA.

Guile ain't lyin'.

AND WE HAVE A HADOUKEN! I love that it seemingly takes time to charge, like it's something that requires a lot of effort and concentration to pull off. You have to be good to pull off that move. 

Well, I was excited for this movie before, but now I am even more hyped! This film is going to be a fun time at the theater. I can't wait to watch this movie! Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you enjoy what I write and want to give this blog a little additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-fi! See you next time!

Street Fighter Teaser, My Thoughts

When it comes to the Street Fighter franchise, one naturally would think of the video game series, especially Street Fighter II. That's understandable, as the game was a massive hit in arcades and home console releases. The game arguably popularized the fighting game as a genre, and the characters would become iconic. This game's world would make the series into a full-on multimedia franchise, which covered comic books, animated series, and yes, movies.

Street Fighter has graced live-action film before. Mainly, the notorious 1994 film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile and the late Raul Julia as M. Bison. The film was a box office and video hit, but fans and critics disliked it. However, it has over the years, been regarded as a cult classic. And now, the high-kickin' punch-throwin' Hadouken-throwin' gang is returning to the live-action silver screen with a new film directed by Kitao Sakurai from a screenplay he and T.J. Fixman developed from a story by Dalan Musson and Gary Dauberman.

The film has an ensemble cast, including Andrew Koji as Ryu, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, and for wrestling fans like me, we got Cody Rhodes as Guile and Roman Reigns as Akuma. Let's look at this teaser!

Wow. Callina Liang looks incredible as Chun-Li. 

Good lord, look at the size of this lad! That man is an absolute unit! Where did they find this guy?!

I love that for Guile they just show his hairstyle, because it's that iconic. 

Nice they have Ryu's intro animation from the game. 

I admit, I'm a bit mixed on David Dastmalchian as M. Bison. I don't think he quite fits it in the looks department, but at the same time, I don't doubt he'll put in a heck of a performance. 

I'm surprised Guile didn't scream "AMERICAAAAAAAA!" when he kicked Vega through that wall. Although going through a wall has to hurt. 

Looks like we'll get more actual fights than the 1994 film, so that's nice. Don't get me wrong, I love that movie, but yeah. It needed more brawls. 

BLEEEEEAAHHHHHH! Ken loves showing off his tongue.

You know, Chun-Li, there are people that will pay you to do that to them.

Ooh, that blow will hurt! Why would you hit someone there?! Seriously?!

Man, these fights look fun!

I liked that kick cut. Smooth as butter.

Well, this looks utterly dumb, ridiculous, and idiotic. I think this movie will be a ton of fun! Yeah, this will be one of those 'turn-your-brain-off-and-have-a-good-time' movies. And that's perfectly fine. It's okay to enjoy a mindless fun movie every now and then. I think this'll be a fun time at the theater! Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!

Street Fighter V Sagat Gameplay Trailer, My Thoughts

Yesterday, I did a Tekken trailer, and today, I'm doing a Street Fighter trailer. Funny how life works out, huh? Anyway, a new character is coming to Street Fighter V...well, an old character, but with a new look. The King of Muay Thai himself, Sagat, is coming to SFV! Let's look at his trailer!

Sagat likes tigers. Did you know that there is a species of tiger native to Sagat's home country of Thailand? Yup, the Indochinese Tiger. You know, it's a shame he never appeared in a Marvel vs. Capcom game. I think he'd like Tigra.

Aww, look at the ferocious jungle cat. He's so cute.

Sagat is not one for quipping. And where did he get that poncho?

I see Sagat is still totally not mad about Ryu scarring his chest. In Street Fighter lore, Sagat's big chest scar was caused by Ryu.

I have to admit, I love the music in the background.

Hey, he's got his classic Street Fighter II look, too! Awesome!

Tiger Charge! Tiger Charge! You all know Sagat likes to call all his attacks "Tiger _".He likes tigers.

Sagat is the King of Muay Thai. You come at the King, you best not miss. His having one eye will not help you.

Hey, he comes with a new stage, too. That's nice. King's Court is beautiful. I love the giant Buddha statue. He's just chilling while people are beating and blasting the tar out of each other in front of him.

I like the new costumes. And I'll have to look at the trailer for G at some point. He's a new character, so I am curious about him.

It's great to see Sagat make his comeback. I am curious as to what he was up to during the events of this game, and hopefully, his appearance will explain that.

Street Fighter V Falke Gameplay Trailer, My Thoughts

Well, Street Fighter V's Season 3 is still going! We have some veteran characters returning, but in this case, we got a brand-new lethal lady joining the ranks! Say hello to Falke!

Much like Cody, Falke uses a weapon: a quarterstaff. Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter-quarterstaff, but she's not going to tell anyone that. Points if you get the joke. It's also called "Harmony". I wonder why it got that name.

Based on her uniform, I think we can assume she may be connected to Shadoloo, the big evil criminal organization in the Street Fighter series. This game is set between III and IV (yeah, I know, from what I understand, the Street Fighter timeline is a bit of a mess), so I believe at that point, Shadaloo had collapsed. She and another character, Ed, were created to be clone bodies for the series' big bad, M. Bison, but they decided, "Screw that, we're doing our own thing." So, she's a clone made for evil, but rebels. She and Laura Kinney would get along rather well.

I think it's pretty cool she can shoot energy from her staff like it's a rifle.

I wonder what "Staerken" means. Is it German? Falke is a German/Nordic name (It means "falcon", and she's called the Guardian Hawk), and the character is supposed to be German...

"Psycho Angriff" ...Angriff? What's that? Well, "Angriff" means attack in German. So, it's not some weird translation thing.

FORE!

Her Story Costume feels to me like it should be a reference to something. And her Battle Costume makes me think of Black Widow.

Well, Falke seems really cool. I like her attacks, and her design. If I get SFV, I'll give her a try.

Street Fighter V Cody Gameplay Trailer, My Thoughts

A new batch of characters has come to SFV! Well, in this case, an old veteran: Mr. Cody Travers, from the Final Fight series. He also was in Street Fighter IV, because the two games are set pretty much in the same universe. When we last saw him, Mr. Travers was rather bored with life, rotting in a jail cell thanks to a growing addiction to fighting. But now, he's turned his life around. He's done such a good job of it he's succeeded Mike Haggar as mayor of Metro City! I'm guessing Haggar is out being Mayor of the World now or something like that.

But despite his busy life, he always makes some time to throw down when he has to. Because sometimes in Metro City, the only way to keep the streets clean is to clean them yourself. Makes you wonder if Cody plans to actually institute a police force at some point. But, I am rambling. Here's his gameplay trailer!

Somebody's got a phone call. I bet Cody is really tired of that guy thinking his office is the pizza parlor.

Hey, it's Kenny Omega! Who is Kenny Omega? He's a pro wrestler. Very big in Japan, often rolls with a faction called the Bullet Club. The Bullet Club are essentially a ripoff of a certain 90s faction WCW hit it big with back in the day. At least, that's my impression of them. And on the phone? That's Xavier Woods, pro wrestler and gamer extraordinaire. He has his own YouTube channel which you can see here.

I just realized that this is a nod to the first Final Fight game's intro! Clever Capcom.

Considering Cody's character, his fighting style to me would be plain old brawling mixed with some pro wrestling as a nod to Haggar, and maybe even some martial arts moves as a nod to Guy. His best friends are a pro wrestling mayor and a Converse-wearing ninja, so he would pick up something from them.

...why is he wearing Haggar's pants? Do they get passed down from Mayor to Mayor? I hope they get washed at the very least, consider how much sweat and blood Haggar's bathed them in over the years.

Cody using his knife and a pipe are a great nod to Final Fight, which was a beat-em-up that let the player use weapons. And I love his using a pipe as a baseball bat. Trying to project that All-American image there, Mr. Travers?

I do like the funky music in the background.

Cool, you can play him wearing his original Final Fight outfit? Awesome!

Well, this was really cool. I got a PS4 now, so I think I'll give SFV a shot. I also want to get that Street Fighter Collection for Switch...

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Announcement, My Thoughts

Mega Man is not the only Capcom franchise celebrating a big anniversary this year. Alongside the Blue Bomber, the World Warriors will be celebrating the big 3-0. And for that celebration, they are releasing a game collection! Let's check out the trailer!

The trailer begins with footage of people playing Street Fighter II in arcades, and a voice-over talking about how revolutionary the game was. And indeed, it was. Street Fighter II was the game that revolutionized the fighting genre, and gave rise to other fighting games like King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, and Art of Fighting.

I love that metal remix of Ryu's theme.

The list of games in this collection is not surprising: The very first Street Fighter, the various versions of II and III, and the three Alpha games. It is kind of sad that the three Street Fighter EX games aren't included here, but I imagine that was because they were co-developed by Capcom and another game company called Arika, and it led to some kind of rights issues. Speaking of EX, I have heard a fourth is in development...

I think the collection also has some neat features. My favorite one is the sprite viewer. Sprite art has always fascinated me, so this feature is a great way to see the artistic efforts they put in into rendering the characters and their attacks. I also like the music viewer. Hopefully, it can be a way to listen to some tunes on your console of choice. I also like the timeline feature, as it is a brilliant way to educate gamers about the history of the series. And concept art is always great.

Some of the games do have online play. It's a shame not all of them do, but I can imagine the games that got online play were the ones that were considered the most popular in sales, so it does make some sort of sense.

This is a fantastic gift for gamers. This could allow gamers who are new to the SF franchise to learn about the history of the series that created a fighting game boom, and I'm sure veterans would appreciate having all these games in one place.

And speaking of gaming compilations...I want Super Mario All-Stars brought to the Switch. Don't just slap it in a cartridge like they did with the Wii 25th Anniversary port. Bring in a ton of special features with it.

Street Fighter V Zeku Reveal Trailer, My Thoughts

Another brand new character has made his debut in Street Fighter V! And this one is not only connected to another character, but he's an homage to a classic Capcom game. Say hello to the 38th Master of the Bushinryu, the man who taught Guy all he knows. Give a warm welcome to Zeku!

The trailer begins with Ibuki in her schoolgirl ninja outfit getting ready to fight. And the man himself arrives, using a carpet like Mario uses a cape in Super Mario World.

Yup, and he's saying it's time to party! His theme music definitely has that party mood, mixing the funky jazz with traditional Japanese instruments. I have read that it's also an homage to Guy's Street Fighter music, which does make thematic sense. Zeku was Guy's sensei, after all. I do like his general look, including the 1970s anime-styled Hot-Blooded Sideburns. Yeah, he is a bit...colorful for a ninja, but this a game universe that has cyborgs, genetically enhanced super-soldiers, and the like. I'm honestly wondering if we'll get an extraterrestrial in the cast soon.

As for the classic game homage, well...Zeku has a rather unique ability in the series. He can switch to a younger form of himself. I have no idea how that works. But look at the costume his younger self is wearing. Seems...familiar, doesn't it? Yup. It's an homage to Strider. In fact, I have heard that it's implied that Zeku goes on to create the Striders.

It's interesting seeing Capcom make subtle crossovers and tying together their franchises like this. Yeah, characters from Street Fighter and Final Fight have crossed over all the time, but involving another franchise? It's interesting to see. Yeah, I wouldn't count the Capcom crossover fighting games like the Marvel vs. Capcom series as part of Capcom's "canon".

I do have many questions about the whole "switching to a younger form" thing. How exactly does that work? Is it a clone or time travel? If he has a younger form, why not just stay in it? Yeah, I get some of the other unique mechanics in this game, but this one is weird.

Zeku seems like a pretty cool looking character. I wonder if we'll get a "Season Three" of DLC characters? And if so, who's next? Will some old favorites return? Will we get more new characters? Let's see what the future holds...

Street Fighter V Menat Reveal, My Thoughts

Street Fighter V's roster has grown again! And this time, it includes what I think is the series' first Egyptian character. Say hello to Menat!

When I first heard her, I thought she may have had a connection to Rose. She does talk about destiny and fate, things the tarot card-reading Rose deals with as well. She also seems to use a crystal ball in battle, which is kind of cool. I wonder if she'll have a unique mechanic like Kolin and F.A.N.G. have.

I wonder if that's her theme in the background. It's pretty neat.

She seems to employ dancing quite a bit in her moveset, which makes sense. Her name is another name for the Egyptian goddess Hathor, and one of the things she was a goddess of was dance. There's also a bit of a cat-like quality to her, which also makes sense. The ancient Egyptians loved their cats.

I can't really analyze her fighting style, as I know jack squat about fighting games. The only fighting games I ever really played were Street Fighter II and the Smash Bros. series. But she does seem to have some cool moves.

I like her. I think she's cute. Hope people take to her.

Ultra Street Fighter II Trailer, My Thoughts

30 years. The Street Fighter franchise is celebrating it's 30th anniversary this year. In 1987, Capcom released the original Street Fighter in arcades. It did pretty well, and even made it to some home computers and got ported to the TurboGrafx-CD.

But it was the sequel, Street Fighter II, that allowed the franchise to rocket to the massive level of popularity it enjoys today. The SNES port was one of the most popular games for the console, and it would introduce new versions that tweaked the combat balance and introduced new characters. Street Fighter II is regarded as the granddaddy of fighting games. And now, 25 years later...well, technically 26, Street Fighter II is coming to the Nintendo Switch! Say hello to Ultra Street Fighter II!

The trailer begins with a logo celebrating 30 years of Street Fighter. Nice logo. We then see footage of people in Japan lining up to play SFII in an arcade. This must be when it first came out. With this, I have a bit of a confession to make. I never played the game in the arcade. Never had a chance to as a kid. Did play the Genesis port on my Wii, though. I'll have to download it for my Wii U.

The game has HD graphics that look pretty good. I do like the option of being able to play with the original graphics as well. I'm sure that's something that many retrogamers would appreciate.

I have read this version will have more tweaks to the game's fighting balance. I think it would be nice to be able to pick different versions of the characters to play as, like in Hyper Street Fighter II.

The game allows two people to fight each other (One player gets a Joy-Con each), and there's a cooperative mode that allows both player to team-up against one CPU foe. I think this Cooperative Mode is a bit odd. Two against one? Why not have a "Tag Team" match up? Two players versus two CPUs. That would be fun.

I like that two people with Switches can battle each other. I'm guessing it's over local wireless. I wonder if online play is available?

Oh, and we get a brief glimpse of what looks like M. Bison getting Hadouken'd by Ryu, from a first-person perspective in the style of Street Fighter IV or V, I think. A mini-game of kind, maybe?

The trailer ends with giving us a brief glimpse of a pair of silhouettes. Based on the shapes, and he glowing fist, one is obviously Evil Ryu, a dark version of Ryu that first appeared in Street Fighter Alpha 2, and the other is Violent Ken, a dark version of Ken that first appeared in SNK vs. Capcom: SNK Chaos. He is described as a brainwashed version of Ken that uses M. Bison's Psycho Power. Neat.

Once I get a Switch, this will be on my list of games for it. This sounds like a lot of fun!