Retronauts - Retronauts Episode 423: Street Fighter II - Beyond the Game

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

When is a game not just a game? Continuing our series on the fighting game franchise that changed the world, host Diamond Feit and returning guests Shivam Bhatt & Matt McMuscles explore the world of Street Fighter II-related media. Retronauts is made possible by listener support through Patreon! Support the show to enjoy ad-free early access, better audio quality, and great exclusive content. Learn more at http://www.patreon.com/retronauts

This week in Retronauts, everything is lies. Everything is lies! Welcome to Retronauts. We've got a big topic this week. It's more Street Fighter 2. I want to say nonsense this week because, yes, we're not talking about the game itself. We've established this. We know the game is great.

We've had multiple episodes, multiple, more than one episode about this fantastic and landmark video game. But today we're diving into the Street Fighter 2 that exists outside of Street Fighter 2. Does that make sense? Because wouldn't you know it, when a game is a hit of that magnitude, everybody wants a piece. And everyone wants to have Street Fighter 2 in their corner. What if we have Street Fighter 2 on a printed page? What if we have Street Fighter 2 on an audio CD? What if we have Street Fighter 2 on the big screen?

And I don't mean like a tournament. I mean a big screen version. So today we're going to talk about all those topics. I'm your host this week, Diamond Fight. I am dressed for the occasion. You can't see it, but I'm ready. joining me first in the Pacific time zone. Hello, it's Shiven Putt, regular Retronauts contributor.

I was here on the last Streetfighter episode, which is I guess why they brought me back, because I love this game. Thank you so much, Shiven. Thank you much for coming back this week. And I believe not the first time on Retronauts, but the first time on this particular topic is Matman Muscles from the Greatest Coast, the East Coast. See, we can say West Coast, best coast, but you have East Coast, Wheat Coast? I don't know, it doesn't work. East Coast, I'll have you know. East Coast, Least Coast.

Is that what we say? Damn it. I have no comeback for that. You know, the Street Fighter hasn't even talked about yet, and the Fista Cups are already going off. I can't, I can't say, I left, I left both coasts personally, but I am from New York. I mean, as they say in Street Fighter, Fist will fly at this location. But yes, we're all here to talk about Street Fighter 2 because I think we're all fans of the game. I think we've established this.

Although, actually, Matt, you were not on a previous Street Fighter 2 episode. So maybe you'd like to share quickly what happened to you when your eyes met Street Fighter 2? Yeah, sure. I mean, it probably is similar to a lot of other people that have spoken on this podcast about in your previous episodes. But I think, like, not even Arcade was the first. exposure, I think like Street Fighter 2 on the Super Nintendo, and I was aware of it as a franchise, and I finally got to see in the arcades. I think I actually started by playing the Rainbow edition of the arcade machine, which had all

the funny things that you could do with the special moves, and it just kind of being a weird rom hack, so that was a great introduction. And, you know, just like any kid in the 90s, was there more Street Fighter anywhere else? Were there animated movies? Were there comic books? And I kind of, I was a huge smelly mark, so I just gobbled it all up, as it were. And less of a fan of the franchise today as Street Fighter 5 kind of never really grabbed me. But I'm always on the lookout to see what the franchise is going to do next.

And I'm always like ready to be like a hardcore fan of it again. But I love like, you know, it in general, like, you know, without it, I wouldn't be like a huge fan of fighting games that I am today. Absolutely. It's definitely, I think for a lot of people, it was like that was the entry drug, if you will, the gateway, the gateway to tapping buttons and punching people, safely, but still getting just as angry, you know, inside your heart. I mean, you got to slam those keys, man. Otherwise, you don't know how, like, if you don't show the machine you mean it, how does it know that you mean it? Right. Like, if you're not beating the crap out of that standing arcade machine, they will never know. I mean, Street Fighter one had them. those stupid pressure buttons in the first version where you had to pound it hard enough to make Ryu do a fierce rift of a jab

and I'm glad that they got rid that because poor arcade owners were just getting jobbed by having like those machines get basically beaten to death I believe one of the earlier taglines for that version of the arcade machine like you'd see them in arcades and stuff like the posters it would say like

arcade operators like by the street fighter one arcade machine never stop pounding I believe it was called that was their tagline No, no, no, no. Who wrote that Chuck Tingle? What's going on to? Hurricaneed in the butt by my own hurricane.

Oh, God. Oh, he should. If he doesn't have, he hasn't written that book, he should. Maybe by the time we've finished recording, he'll have written it already. So, yeah, speaking of Chuck Tangle, yes, let's move on to other medians because, yes, the games, the games are great. We agree the game and the many variations are great. But there are other things out there. And, well, not all of them are great, but all of them are special. And they all deserve our attention in some way or another. And I think the best way to start, this with is talk about animation because I feel like that's the um yes that's probably the nearest sister

if you will to an actual video game is like well what if we just what if we just draw the cartoons and the kids watch the cartoons instead of actually playing with these characters and you know I think one of the strong points of street fighter too was its um it's appeal it's aesthetic appeal you know these characters were very you know very well drawn you know they didn't have a lot of animation but you know compared to their peers it was pretty good and uh you know they have the varied moves And I mean, the sprites were huge. They were unique. They were easily identifiable from far away.

They all had very distinct art styles. And like even for the 90s when like all the arcade games had to have big crazy attractings, Street Fighter characters just look cool. But the first time you see Vega climbing up the wall with the claw and the mask, it looks sick. Dalsam floating and looking like a every stereotype you've ever heard of. Just like amazing. I mean, these characters had character for lack of a better word, which is super cheesy to say, but you know what I'm talking about?

Like a mile away, you can recognize a silhouette of an M. Bison or a ballrog or something like that. And it makes sense that they would want to capitalize on that as much as possible. It's funny that you said they want to capitalize on that because as far as I can tell, the first person to capitalize on it had no permission whatsoever. There was a 1992 Korean animated special about an hour long. You can find it on YouTube these days. I didn't find it with any subtitles. and I'm afraid, I don't speak any Korean,

but it appears to be some sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland, but all the people love Street Fighter and they're dressed as Street Fighter characters. I don't know if anyone else has seen this show or not, but... No, but that sounds like every anime con I went to in the 90s. Just very, yeah, very goofy, very gag-heavy, you know, a lot of, you know, slapping each other. And, but of course, I think what maybe what got most people's attention was the 1994 animated film produced right here in Japan, produced by Capcom themselves, in fact,

a group called Group TAC, unfortunately now bankrupt, but Group TAC apparently born out of a bunch of ex-Mushi Pro animators, and looking at their history, the only thing that stood out to me was they worked on Touch, the very popular 80s anime, but they took over this project and Capcom was behind it. The Capcom announced it at a Street Fighter tournament in 1993. It was released theatrically here in Japan in 1994 and I don't think it got it got an official release in America but probably I don't think it was only on home media and even then depending what version you saw it may have been dubbed it may have been heavily edited I don't know when when did you I assume everyone here at least has heard of this movie have not seen it yeah multiple

times I have seen the hell out of this movie so as I recall I think there was like a theatrical least in, like, San Francisco or a couple of different places, you know, the very small anime markets, the type of place that would show an Akira in theater type of thing. But what I remember is being able to go to your Suncoast video, and then they had the PG-13 version, and they had the rated R or the unrated version. And there was the good version, and the one your parents would let you buy. And we all knew which one that was important, because there was one scene in that movie, which was the greatest scene of all time if you're a 13-year-old boy in 1994, and that is

Chunnley taking a shower. Let's be real. It was gorgeous. Like, just the art style of this film, first off, even without the weird salaciousness, the art style was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me a lot of the Super Street Fighter 2 intro sequence of like when Ryu and Ken are doing the hood of you can into each other.

The story was exactly what you would expect out of a street fighter story. They're getting together for reasons and have to fight shadow a lot or whatever. But it felt like it came out of the Ninja Scroll school of animation, kind of like that. It's had a very stylized effect. There's a scene where it's weird. I haven't seen this movie since like 1999 or something like that, right? But I remember distinctly, there's a scene where Vega goes up to Chun Lee and he's got his claw right on her face. And you see it just kind of like split a little in this blood bead kind of go down her cheek. And it was very, very much evocative. It was very like stylistic and creepy in an amazingly cool way. And this show was

just, it was great. As a street fighter diehard, I was like, holy crap, this is. is what I want out of my street fighter media. It was so much fun to watch and like, I mean, I must have watched that damn tape like a dozen times because it was cool. It was really, the fights were incredibly well choreographed. The sequences were really well done. Even the dub was not terrible. It was like par for the course for like, you know, pioneer era dubs of the time.

But man, yeah, I love that movie. I remember this being like one of the earliest examples of like, I wouldn't say a hundred percent successfully adapting something. There is no tournament in this movie, which is weird. It's just the characters kind of walking around fighting each other every so often. And there's like a very thin plot with Bison just wanting to collect street fighters and get their fighting data and enslave them for shadow law, not shadow Lou, but shadow law for whatever reason decided to call it that.

You mentioned the voice acting. Brian Cranston from Breaking Bad plays Faye Long in this movie. It was one of his earliest roles and he's just the like English voice actor and I had seen the English version of this movie like, you know, a dozen times like it's ingrained to me how they say, you know, certain words and they say everything

correctly, which is important. They say Hadoken and, you know, like they couldn't even do that in the major motion picture with Van Dam. They could even do it in like the video game based on that movie. So that stood out to me as a kid watching it like wow they got all the moves right

and just like in every anime adaptation of a fighting game the moves are devastating like something that takes like 15% of your life bar it kills you in the anime adaptation. And the last little thing I like

I personally have to say about this movie is that when you watch the Japanese version, it's a very different film. There's completely different musical decisions that are made. When Riyu and Ken are, when there's flashbacks, when they're younger,

which is always interesting to me, because those are the exact same designs that Calcom used for Street Fighter Alpha, like long-haired Ken with the ponytail. There's a love ballad that plays in the Japanese version where you can watch it with the

lyrics, and it's a love ballad. And it's just Riu and Ken on screen, so you knew Capcom knew what was up for the American version. They're like, no, no, you can't know. You can't have that. That's, it's the 90s, you know?

So they made sure to replace all that music. You know, when Chunle fights Vega, it's like KMFDM. Yeah, I know. It was amazing. It was really good. And corn plays in the last scene, when the credits start rolling, which is just, you know,

Bison's about to, you know, show up against Ryu at the last second. And you just hear, are you ready? And then just close to this class and you're like, hell yeah. Okay, look, look. The Japanese people have a very sensibility for like anime and music and things like that. Like, I mean, the song you were talking about is called This Love, This Pain, This Strength of Heart, right? Like, that is very melodramatic Japanese like Dragon Ball Z Arab. music, right? But the American one really understood what the, what the 90s American audience

watching? Yeah, exactly. And it's like, what do I want? I want to see these guys just beating each other with chairs until they die, right? Like, like, first off, it remind me a lot of, like, that same era is where we got the Mortal Kombat movie, which is like the best music video of all time, right, for just hard techno music. But the soundtrack for the Street Fighter movie was actually really, really sick. Like, obviously, like you just mentioned, corn's blind, which is amazing song. Allison Chains is Them Bone, one of the best. bass lines ever for alternative music. KMFDM, which is like one of my secret

favorite industrial bands, silver chair, silver chair of all people, come on. But it was just like, yes, they totally shifted the entire movie. However, I don't think it was for a negative. I think that it was rad, actually. They're both very valid. I love them.

Yeah, no, they're both great. It was only like a couple of years ago I saw the Japanese version when I think discotheque, I think they put out a Blu-ray of that movie. Yeah, 2016. Yeah, okay, 2016, I thought that was it. And it was just a very comprehensive disc. with like anything you could possibly want and um i even i haven't played it yet but i even got i acquired the Sega Saturn version of this movie which which has little bits of gameplay

where you play i believe as a monitor cyborg and you have to fight against for you it's like this one sprite that was only made for that game but oh wait we can't talk about the games too much but that's amazing i've never heard of it and it's just it's just like a little thing you do in between watching the movie. You're basically just watching the whole movie and there's little bits of gameplay interspersed throughout it. I don't have a Japanese Saturn.

So sadly, I haven't played it, but I've watched some clips on YouTube and I'm like, this is amazing. I have the disc. I just haven't gotten the chance to experience it yet. Yes, well, since you brought it up, yeah, there was in fact, in Japan only, apparently it was apparently exhibited at E3 one year, but it never

came out in any of their nations. It was on PlayStation 1 and 95, and Saturn in 96. And yeah, it's an FMV game based on that movie. So you're watching clips from the movie and you are playing as a cyborg. So you're like analyzing the fights, like looking for combat data or whatever. And the more stuff you pick out and the more stuff you latch on to, like the stronger your character gets and you get like a password. What?

So you can save your progress. Wow. And then there's, yeah, there's basically a one, you can play it like a street fighter game. It looks like a turbo actually or super turbo. Um, but the only, the only characters are the cyborg and a hologram of view. So you can either fight, you can either play a cyborg and fight computer view or if you've two players, you can each, I guess you're each cyborgs. Um, and the moves, but, but basically the movesets are like, yeah, it's like, it's like,

it's like, it's like, moving like view. So it's a, that's wild. I can't, I mean, I guess, I guess if I was a kid in Japan, I probably would have run out and bought it right away because why not? But yeah, looking back on it, I'm like, I don't know how much. much it's you know for an interactive movie there's not that much interactivity to it but it's just look you know it looks awesome they must have just figured here's an easy way we can just monetize the movie since cd systems were like becoming a thing like this out on the

playstation so let's just slap it on a disc why not and you know i i guess well why not is because i'm assuming no one really bought it and that's why it never came over to to well i think about it if your choice i'm going to buy a DVD of this movie or i'm going to buy the saga saturn version What are you going to do? Yeah, that's true. Well, if it's 96, then maybe you don't have a DVD player yet. Fair, fair, fair. But just, you probably didn't have a Sega Saturn either, though, to be fair.

Well, in Japan, in Japan, maybe. Yeah, fair enough. But actually, I didn't want to mention that I encounter this way, as God intended, in that I was at a Star Trek convention, and it was a fan-subbed bootleg VHS tape. being sold, you know, with a third generation photocopy cover. Hell, yeah. And I was like, what is this thing? I've barely heard.

I barely used the internet at this point. What even is this thing? But they made sure to include Topless Chunli on the cover. So it's like, oh, this is what you're getting. I was like, you've got my money, sir. I, you know, go where the people are. Right. But yeah, I mean, when I first saw this, which would have been, you know, pretty close to 94, maybe early 95, you know, I hadn't seen that much anime at that.

point in my life. So it was, it was a pretty early, early hook for me. And I was, you know, it was, it was fantastic. It was a fantastic movie. It certainly, it played into all the stuff that I liked about Street Fighter. You know, it had all the characters recognizable in it. And they, you know, even some of them had very short scenes. I think, um, like Blanca and Zongief, I think just have one fight and it doesn't really impact the rest of the plot. But they have a big fight and they do all the stuff that they do. And you're like, well, that is definitely Blanca fighting Zongif. And, you know, that's what I wanted to see. So, You know, it wasn't until, yeah, years later when I think I was working in Suncoast and I saw the regular version on the shelf and I saw the, you know, had the big sticker on it saying, you know, featuring songs by corn and KMFDM and I was like, that, that's not the version that I have.

Okay. But yeah, I do, I really appreciate how much work went into that movie. You know, you mentioned the Chunlee Vega fight scene in particular is just there is so much attention to detail in every, every action. I mean, I think a lot of it, let's be real, there's at least some, you know, 20, 20, 20. 45% horniness at it worked here because Chenli is barely dressed. So every move that she does, you can sort of like you see her shirt flop up

and you can see her underwear or her bra sometimes. Look, it was really detailed animation, okay? Right. But she's still kicking, you know, she's still kicking the shit out of this guy and he's trying to kill her. And like, it's, you can, like, it's a really serious scene, but it's also cheesecake. And in any case, they, you know,

they went all out. The fight, like I said in the beginning, the fight choreography in this was fantastic. Even though, Yes, it was a very serious, like Vega is trying to assassinate her. Bad things are happening. She's a completely caught off guard. She's like basically naked right out of a shower, like wearing just like a, you know, a sweater or something.

But the fight scene is real, it's got real heft to it. It's got like the building is distracting. Like, I feel like if they were to take that stage today and put it into his fighting game, it would be sick. It would just be completely like mayhem and like, I mean, it really, it added a lot of gravitas to what is just otherwise, you know, Vega versus Sean. a very common fight you see. And I thought it was really cool to have the two airborne characters fighting each other

because then you get like, you know, all the kicks. She's jumping off the walls. Oh, my God. And the animators really cared and put a lot of care and concern into making sure that there was fidelity between the video game and the animation. Because it's hard to make real humans move like video game characters. And in animation where you're trying to make real, kind of realistic looking people, getting them to jump off a wall into a like spinning bird kick is not an,

easy task to do and yet they managed to pull it off in a way that was just like edge of your seat like holy crap you know it was a really really good and why that scene stands out as well like in addition to everything you just said is because like aside from the very first like opening intro fight with Ryu and Sagat the movie is actually quite slow up until the Chunli and Vega fight it's just characters kind of just talking you know the plot slowly unveiling And when that scene happens, and Giles also trying to, like, you know, get to Chunli's apartment because you know something's wrong, there is this, like, sudden burst of, like, tension and forward momentum. And then, like, after that, the movie kind of, like, takes off from then on. It's a series of things that are just ramping up and, you know, leading up to the climax.

And, like, that's why, like, if you mention this movie to anybody today, they'll say, yes, I remember Chunley's shower scene. but they'll also be the fight is really awesome too and you're absolutely right I think the rest of the fights of the show are maybe less than great I mean they're good but nothing is as stand that was definitely the set piece center piece of the movie I think Raiu versus Phelong was also really cool

yeah that was really good too I remember rewinding that scene a bunch of times because I was trying to pick out all the special moves like Phelong does his dragon kick but there's a little bit of flame And I'm kind of like, oh, that looks a little. I need to rewind and make sure that he did it because I love that move so much. So the movie is filled with that type of stuff.

And in the Van Dam film, like, you blink and you'll miss it. They kind of do an homage to a special move every so often, but they're really half-hearted attempts. In the Van Dam movie, they kind of like, it's like homeopathic street fighter. It's like they kind of wave a super move in the corner and you're like, okay, bro, really? but at least in the animated one like for instance in the Raiu of Phelong fight when Raiu does a combo right

he does fierce into strong into his roundhouse kick and you can actually see the way that they're chaining it together that you have to be a real street fighter nerd to understand that like you know the target combo he just did but it's visible he does

you know left punch right punch and then kick and it's like oh somebody played street fighter when making this movie unlike the Van Dam one somebody actually knew what Street Fighter was Right. You know, you mentioned the alpha influence. And yeah, absolutely, this game directly influenced the creation of Alpha, which debuted in 95. And I believe it's Alpha 2 that actually has the sort of grassy scene from the opening bow of View versus Sagat. Yeah. So I think that's the most direct reference, at least to, although I guess you have the, in the, in Alpha, there's also the dramatic battle where you can play as view and Ken fighting by. one of the coolest things of all time yeah there's no truck though truck should have been a

playable character someone's got that in mugan by now i'm sure man it's so much better than the street fighter american cartoon that was released around that time though. What are you talking about? The one which had like dialed like you're wrong. What are you talking about? It's not nearly as good as that. Let's talk about that because yes, the after the animated film in Japan, which was 94, a lot of the same studio and directors, they worked on a series which is confusingly titled Street Fighter 2V. It's very hard to Google now because of course, Street Fighter V means Street Fighter 5 now. But yeah, I remember also seeing in Suncoast, There were VHS copies of Street Fighter 2V.

Unfortunately, I never actually watched that show, but I know it continues a lot of things from the movie. Do you almost see that series? It does, but it doesn't because it also is kind of like a reboot where Ken and Ryu are just a little bit younger, and they meet characters for the first time. Like, they'll meet Gile and meet Chun Li. I don't have a whole lot to say about V.

I think it's because V stands for victory, if my memory serves. But I remember renting the first VHS tape that had, like, I don't know, three or four episodes on it. And I remember as a kid not really liking it because they did change quite a few things. Like Ryu and Ken are very jokey with each other. Like Ryu is not that dissimilar from Ken. He's kind of like, yeah, let's party. Let's do some things. Let's go and drink.

And as a kid, I was like, what? What? Okay. And they meet characters in this. weird way there's still no tournament uh charlie uh from street fighter alpha's in it i believe he's just called nash he's got a beard and he's got brown hair and as a kid i just remember thinking this isn't street fighter this is some other uh anime well back then i didn't know what anime was so i just went by the marketing term which which was japanamation i was like this isn't the j this japan

amation must be some different series and they called it street fire That was my overlying thought. It was the robotech of anime, right? The problem was that Street Fighter 2V, because I remember when it came out, because obviously at that time, I was a hardcore Street Fighter nerd. And I watched it for like 10 minutes, and I was like, the character designs felt off model. The character design felt off model. The storyline was kind of vaguely alpha, alpha 2-ish.

And I was like expecting the movie, which was like sleek and like mature and cool. And this felt more like a cartoon. You know, like, if you can understand the connotation I'm lending to that word, right? Like, it felt more aged down for kids. It felt more like cheesy. And it was just not as cool. It was not nearly as cool. And I mean, you could tell that the budget was much lower than it was for the movie.

Cammy looked hello weird. Dalsam looked hella weird. Gile had a fat chin and a tiny haircut and I don't know what was going on with that. And it was just not, it's not a good time. Like, I didn't spend very much time with Street Fighter 2V at all. I was like, I'm just going to go back and watch the movie again. I wouldn't mind watching it again and just seeing if, you know, I can appreciate it a bit better. Yeah, like, you go back and watch these things.

You can kind of laugh or be entertained by them. But I remember at the time just being, like, disappointed with it. But this is like, yeah, this is like 97 or something. I might have watched it. And that's the time where you're at that age where you get really, really angry if the thing is not. exactly like the thing that you want. If a character behaves differently or a move is different, you're like, no, but now I'm like, I don't nearly care like as much.

Like, I want to see silly differences, which is why I like the USA animated cartoon so much because it's so stupid and because it's so wrong. The USA cartoon looks like if you went to a Chinese toy factory in Shenzon and got like knockoff versions of Street Fighter toys that were made out like melting plastic. or, like, they just, you know, repainted old, like, transformers or something and put it into a TV show. That's what it would look like. Whoa, whoa, slow down, Rockefeller.

It's not nearly that good. You have to go into the dumpster behind that factory and get, like, the reject toys that they threw out. It's so garbage. Oh, my God. It was so horrifically bad. And just, just Guy will look so stupid. He is, of course, because he's a white American guy, he's the hero of the show.

And it's the dumbest. thing, I think, has ever been put on air for, like, a video game knockoff. And that is a low bar to cross. Let's talk about the, the cartoon just a little bit. So, yeah, the, the American show, which debuted on USA, it first appeared in 1995. So it's after the live action film. And yes, Gile was the main character. And he is the leader of a squad of heroes. And they're fighting against bison and his evil team and honestly i guess the each episode i think they they do whatever the hell they want honestly it's freeing it's it's a it's a it's a show that's absolutely free it doesn't have to be beholden by rules and lore and all that silly stuff it's actually

a sequel to the van dam movie like it talks about that film like it happened in the past which it was always kind of interesting to me. And, like, Ryu and Ken are, like, gun hustlers. Like, they're always, they're trying to get, like, scams going. Oh, Ken really is, which never made sense to me as a kid because Ken is rich. He just, he doesn't need to do this. So he's just a spiteful human being at that point. There's so much to talk about this show.

I know we can't spend forever, but, like, I've based most of my personality on this show. Like, half of my career on the end. internet is all about making fun of this show. I do a weekly, a monthly watch-along of every episode on my Patreon. Go check it out. The only thing I really want to say is that they do throw some curveballs that are really fun. Sakara gets introduced in this show as like a character.

There's an episode all about Final Fight where they go to Metro City. It wasn't Mike Hager in this show? He's in it for about three seconds. It's Cody is this hot-headed meat head. that's just like, where's my Jessica? They rewrite the final fight stories that Ryu and Ken are the heroes

that makes any sense. I would play Final Fight with Ryan and Ken. I would too. And the last thing is that Akuma actually appears in two episodes. He has one where he just kind of fights bison and Guile and they have to team up to fight him. And the other one, which is

actually pretty interesting. It's probably one of the better episodes of the entire show is that it's a story about Ryu and Ken fighting Akuma and Gokin is introduced for I believe the first time like in terms of seeing him physically in any sort of medium

because remember this is like 95-96 so and you see him and he's pretty accurate to what Gokin would look like when he was introduced in Street Fighter 4. He has a similar beard there's some differences in his in his color whatever. I am aghast that the first time they introduced

Gokin in Canon is from this friggin' pile of the TV show. And he's not called Shen Long, right? He's not called by that, like, you know, mistranslation. So someone that was working on this TV show, ask Capcom Japan directly, what the hell is the name of this character? That is wild. Because they really wanted to capitalize on that, like, who is Ryu and Ken's master. So most of the show is like, yeah, it's fluff garbage. But there's a couple of gems in there where they do one all about Ryu and Sagat's rivalry.

It doesn't have all the other G.I. Joe crap in it. So I'd say there's like five or six episodes that are like really neat, like Curios, whereas like the other 20 episodes are kind of like take it or leave it. That's wild. As you said, yes, there were

in fact, there's only two 13 episodes seasons. So there's not that much of this cartoon to go around, but it apparently the viewers have found it, they must have stuck with it because there is so much information in the internet about this show. It must have touched so many lives.

It sure did for me. I love what it says in the Wikipedia, though. Despite lasting two seasons, the same amount as Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm and Darkstalkers combined, Street Fighter has suffered from a predominantly negative reception. No kidding, but it's a complete trashy. The animation was sub-captain Planet,

the story was contrived, and the dialogue was wretched. Yes. Yes, Wikipedia. Yes. It's funny that Captain Planet came up because in looking to the creative staff, it was very interesting to me that I couldn't find, like, if you look at Wikipedia and like the list of creators, like the first season seems to have like three or four different people behind it, but the second season seems dominated by one name.

I looked at this guy, Will Minio, and he is a veteran cartoon man. He worked on Captain Planet. He worked on Batman. He worked on the X-Men show. He worked on a later, not the, not the 89 version, but the later Turtles show. He worked on G.I. J. He worked on a lot of stuff. And his name is all over the second season.

So I wonder if somehow maybe someone started the show and then they had, maybe they brought someone in for the second season to sort of try to give it more direction. Like the first season is kind of all, you know, a mixed bag of names. The second season, like he's a credited writer or the storywriter on most of the episodes. and you also have credits from other, like, established comic writers, like, Len Ween, Marv Wolfman, like, people who, like, you know. Okay, so I need to, I need to aside for a second. When you said that name, Will Migno, that triggered something in my head. I'm like, I've heard that name before. And I was like, why would I have heard this name?

Because the other thing I'm known for is being one, the world's biggest Dragon Lance fan. Dragonlance, of course, the D&D setting and a book series and whatnot. And Dragonlance had an animated movie that was put out in 20, 2007, 8 or something like that. It's starring Who the hell was that guy from 24 who was angry all the time? Jack Maurer.

Jack Bauer guy. He was playing Raceland the main character. But this was a really horrific animation series, a movie that had terrible animation. I mean, I knew all the cast because I was a hardcore fan boy. And it was written and created by Will Migno, who went and got the license and made the anime version of Dragon Lance. So great.

Thanks, Will. You have destroyed two of my favorite franchises of all time. Please touch no more. I have to get this in there. When I was making like kind of YouTube poop videos based on this cartoon, I would just show the highlights and all the stupid stuff, make my own edits, whatever. Capcom community, the Capcom Unity site, back then, Seth Killian worked for Capcom, and he thought these videos that I cut up were so funny that when they're recording the voiceover and cutscene lines,

for like the rival fights in Street Fighter 4, he tried to get a note to the voice casting director for Gile to yell, Bison! Exactly like he does in this cartoon, because in the very first episode, if anyone has not seen this cartoon, just watch the first episode,

and you'll get exactly what it's doing, where it's so over the top and silly, that when someone just tells Gile that Bison is, is doing something. He raises his fist to the sky and screams bison. And then a fire of unknown origin bursts from behind him. And he screams out bison.

Seth Killion tried his best. He's like, hey, I told the voice acting director, I love this old dumb cartoon. Make sure that the guy playing guile says bison in this way. And then he got back to me and he's like, yeah, they didn't really do it. So in Street Fighter 4, he just kind of goes, bison, you know, and I was, I was mortified. I was like, oh, that would have been so sick. But they could have at least gotten bison's like, yes, yes, in there.

But sadly, no. God damn, this show is so bad. We've spent the most time talking about it. Well, it's funny. You know, and that show definitely kept the idea that Blanca was Charlie, like those, which was you know, tease in the movie, and the show kept that up. And, you know, Capcom absolutely does not want that to be real. Not at all.

Because, you know, they actually brought Charlie back from the dead in five. Like, I don't know. He's got a half-half robot phase. Yeah, he's like cyborg Charlie. Yeah. So it's funny how there's two very different ideas about who Charlie is and who Blanca is. And in the games, Blanca's very comedic relief, like, as the games go on, like in the alpha series and later.

He's just kind of like, I'm a goofy monster, blah, blah, blah. And in this show, even though the Alpha Series was starting up, like when Blank was added in Alpha 3, they did something very, like, they tried to make him into Frankenstein's monster in this show. It's always like, oh, woe is me. And like, oh, Bison, I knew him well. And, like, he's always grappling with man versus beast, like, every single episode. And they go back to that well over and oh,

over and over. And whenever there's a Blanca heavy episode, I just kind of tune out. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it sucks being a monster, boo-hoo. But I think that's plenty on the extramable animation. I can keep going. You better move on, though. We should move from the animation to the actual comic books that were put out. Yes, I think it's time to transform to the printed page. And as before, you know, there was a Japanese version first.

There was, in fact, a manga produced in Japan, starting as early as, 1983. Apparently in Japan, the title was Street Fighter 2. Do you? And I guess he, you know, focusing on his story, which actually was released, like commercially released, probably I think was Viz. I'm not, I'm not sure it was Viz or Manga Entertainment, but it did get an official release. Unfortunately, I have not read that one. Did anyone? I never saw it. I think that was before I started getting Weeby, so I probably didn't get it. That's all right. Because there sure was an American comment. It was produced by Malibu comics

And correct if I'm wrong Malibu, they seemed to do a lot of like commercial tie-in stuff Like they did Moral Combat, I think, as well Malibu? Yeah, they did. It's funny because Malibu was founded by one of my friends actually For who I know through Magic the Gathering, which is not at all related to Street Fighter.

But yeah, like Malibu was a weird like comics place that basically did a lot of third-rate comics that came out. It felt like just a whole. A whole bunch of, like, I mean, they did a lot of, like, comics that other companies wouldn't touch. It was kind of a weird indie, like, other brands type of things. Like, they didn't have their mutant. I mean, they didn't have, like, you know, the X-Men. They had, like...

The ferret. Yeah. Like, you know, the protectors or whatever. A honey badger. I mean, they were making comics out of Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan, which I'm sure were great hits in 1994. And the ex-mutants and other, you know, like other things. said it felt definitely like a step down from ye old Marvels and DCs, which is funny could Marvel eventually bought them and then canceled like everything they had. But the thing is

they got somehow the street fighter license. And I had the first three of these comics before it was canceled. And I remember very little about it except they looked horrifically bad, like horrifically bad Balrog looked like a 60 year old ex-fighter who was just like on his last legs and just fighting because he desperately needs to pay the rent and it was just bad

it's not great I have the trade paperback and I've been trying to think of some way to monetize this make a video series about I don't know I haven't cracked the code yet but the opening first page is

instantly problematic because Ryu's fighting Chun Li and he's just like Chun Li you'll never beat me due to your vagina like he's just he's just like it is written like a 90s comic to a T where he's just like you're a woman

you can never possibly be better than me and then they flirt and it's just really creepy it's implied it's never resolved because guess what Capcom canceled this after three issues in the trade paperback, there's a page that has the creators of this comic.

It has this salty rant. Oh, the letter, the letter that I will never forget. Okay, so this letter, which, okay, so mind you, listener, I do not have the comic in front of me. However, to this day, like almost 30 years after I read this piece of drag, I could still remember how salty these guys were in this letter. Because they sat and they read like, well, our license has been pulled by Capcom. We were going to introduce all sorts of new characters. I was going to have the first street fighter that had a weapon and she was going to be awesome. And these guys totally, I mean, it was just the saddest, like, it felt like a fanfic writer just getting like completely just sent off the internet.

Just being like, they wouldn't let me write my story. I'm like, oh my God, just stop forever, please. We should probably break down because the first issue, you know, yes, absolutely there is this, the, the view and Chenli stuff is very, very strange to me. Like, why are they even, like, why are they suggesting a relationship at all? Yeah. Oh, God. Some of it is at least on brand and that Sagat is clearly angry about you, like, beating him in the past and he wants to get revenge. And he's team, you know, he's working with Bison. He's working with Vega. Sorry, I'm confusing the English and Japanese names. He's working with Bison the boxer. He's working with Bison the Dictator. And he's working

with Bison, the Dictator. And, you know, he's got this plan to get revenge on. you, so he's, you know, they're like, oh, you can get revenge on him by fighting Ken. And, okay. Yeah, Ken is now like, like, a Johnny Cage. Like, he makes movies and he's like an action movie star. So they, they, like, sort of ambush him and they're fighting him literally in a street. They're literally just fighting in the street. And, like, it's sort of like, it's a little too violent, but it is like they are fighting

and they're doing the things that, you know, they literally shout fireball, like when he throws a fireball, whatever, or dragon punch. But at least you can see where they were going with this. But then in issue two, they defeat Ken, and apparently they kill him. They murder him and send his scalp in a box to you in the mail, like, but in a car? It's the best. It is, it is, you look at this and you can just imagine the execs of Japan, of Capcom, Japan, looking at this book going like, no, never, not in a million years. Get the hell out.

You're lucky we didn't sue you. If Street Fighter 6 has a trailer that shows Ryu getting Ken's scalp in the mail, all pre-order. That's amazing. Oh, my God, dude. But it's just, it's so messed up. It was never resolved either. Like, it got canceled before they could even reveal if Ken was alive, I think. The ending tirade where they sort of recap what they wanted to do with the story, they insisted that Ken was going to prove out he's not dead, but he is bald.

Because he got scalped And that's what happens when you're scalped You lose all your hair, not your skin And it's like Okay, I guess that's What the hell is it? I mean like you've got like Sagitt is just standing here holding Ken by the hair

With a gigantic knife in his hand And like what? Why? What happened? Yeah, and then the third issue Yeah, somehow the ferret appears And he starts training with Honda Oh yeah, Honda butt crunches onto his feet

you can you can feel like issue one is like yeah this this isn't very good but at least i see you did your homework at least and issue two is like no it's what you'd expect at the time if it was like a lower class company like there wasn't marvel or dc was making it but if they try to shoehorn the ferret in there to try to like oh street fighters way more popular than anything we'll ever make but we can get kids hooked on the ferret if we shove him in there against Honda is like real desperate like real desperate feeling it was bad and shang long is there by name but he's being poisoned by this new character they wanted to make you know like i think her name is nida or nida i don't know i pronounce it but that that was one of the new characters

they want to introduce uh i mean good on them for making another woman in the game at least but still it was the comic but yeah it's an ugly it's an ugly thing like the the melibum mortal combat comics from what I remember there were lots of them like that was a success and whatever team that they had doing the Mortal Comet ones like at least got somewhere like there are multiple spin-off series like there was like a Goro like mini like series and like a they at least Malibu did okay there but the street fighter one like it's it was I think they needed to wait maybe like a few more years like maybe 96 97 to really get that out there and have a team that kind of understood because If they made it as fast as they did, it's like they didn't really understand the characters quite yet because it hadn't been fleshed out with more like official like adaptations, like the animated movie.

What year did you say it was the Malibu comic? 93. So it predated that film. So yeah, predates it. Of course. That makes more sense now. Like it like we don't understand that Ryu is not really like this. But if you just played like the first street farting, you might not know like.

Well, you got no story to go with. You just know this guy's a loner who. likes to fight in waterfalls, right? Like, Street Fighter 2 did not have much in the way of plot. Like, so if you're just going to make up fanfic based on it, I guess fine, but make him into a weird MRI that's trying to just like, I don't know, like beat Chun Lee into loving him is the dumbest thing you could possibly open a comic book with. Because even if you know nothing about Street Fighter, but Ryu is like a loner who likes

to fight, that in itself is not a guy who's going to be like, oh, Chun Lee, once you were like the rushing river and now you are like this oak that is immobile and you have given up the fight. Oh, here, let me just read to you, uh, Riyud dialogue. Okay. Dramatic reading time. We agreed that we are together to train. You are more

beautiful than ever, Chunli. But you've changed these past months. Changed? What do you mean? Once you were like this stream laughing, flowing around life. Now you are like this tree, strong, flexible, yet rooted in your

obsession. Your quest for revenge against M. Bison had made you a different person. What? Are you saying that I'm unjustified? He murdered my father. I will have justice. You don't know that. You don't have evidence. No, yeah, but I've been doing more than improving my martial arts. I joined Interpol.

Oh, for Christ's sake, stop. Just kill me. Just kill me. Were you just gaslighting her? Like, allegedly Bison killed your father. And Ryu's answer is like, what are you saying? You abandoned the way of the warrior? for the common police force.

No, you said ACAP. Oh, my God. Yeah, dude. He's like straight up just like, what is this garbage? And then she just gut punches him. And that's really what he deserved. No, actually. So Chun Lee fighting for revenge against her father, that is a street fighter too. But is her being a police officer being a street fighter too?

Yes. It is. Is that part of the ending? Yes. That's her story. Yeah, just the police force, I think. She's in like the Hong Kong police force. she's working with international agents.

All of that street fighter cannon. It's always been. Like that's, like, her ending sequence is like, now she is, you know, finally freed. Like, she is like, avenged her father's death and she can go off and be a cop and stuff like that. Yeah, that's all part of the story. So that's, like, the few parts that were actually correct. Oh, God, these guys are just so, this, this comic was horrible, horrible.

You really have to respect then. You don't respect them at all, but you have, You have to respect their naked appeal to fans in that as part of this lengthy, you know, epilogue where they want to, oh, here's all the ideas we wanted to include. They literally include Capcom, Capcom USA's address, phone number, and fax number. For all 12 people. Like, yeah, go, go get them. Yeah, it's for all 12 people who read this to be able to go and say, we want ferret. more effect add ferret to street fighter three yeah we'll we'll get right on it buddy oh god

So I think we can move on from animation and comics to music because at least one of these things is very interesting to me, personally. At least in Japan, Capcom started making Street Fighter albums right away. The first album came out in March of 91. What? So, yeah, at that point, Street Fighter 2 is still very new in arcades. And it's actually the album's name is Tree Fighter 2, GSM Capcom 4, and it has, like, arranged medleys of Street Fighter 2 music, but also

Magic Sword and Final Fight and games I've never heard of. Chiki, Chiqui Boys? I don't even know what that game is. I'll be honest. How could you not have heard of Chiki, cheeky, boys? It was the hit of 1987. But they're arranged medleys for each of those games, and then it just has all the original music.

So if you were, if you went to the arcades and you were really into Street Fighter 2, this was your first chance to get that music, you know, and play it at home. And then months later, they released a second album, which is very common. They call the image album, Street Fighter 2 Image album. And that's a full Street Fighter 2 soundtrack of all arranged tracks. So that's like, you know, I want to hear the music, but I don't want to hear the chip tunes. I want to hear like real instruments. So that's what that, that's what that delivers to you. But for me, what's always going to be closest to my heart is Nest Show, Nest Show Street Fighter 2. Now, Ness Show is a Japanese word, is sort of means like passionate singing, like hot-blooded, sort of, if you think of, you know,

the Coon No Coon is like hot-blooded, like sort of hot-blooded songs. So Next Show, Street Fighter 2 came out in 1992. These are arrangements of Street Fighter 2 music, but these songs all have lyrics and they're sung mostly in the first person. So this is a song where you get to hear each character sing a song about themselves to the tune of the music that you've heard in the game. And it is, I feel like magic. I think magic is the best word to describe this. Experience is what you're saying.

Yes. Now, obviously, this is produced in Japan. So almost all these songs are in Japanese, even for the characters who are not Japanese themselves. Like, the Zungiv song is really weird because it's like, it's all about, it's like sung in Osaka Ben, like the local dialect. And he's like, I guess he's coming to Osaka and he's going to like spin around a lot because of because of his, you know, power.

And but yeah, the Blanca song, because Blanca doesn't talk. Blanca's song is all about Blanca coming to Tokyo. So people are singing about Blanca, but Blanca does all those roars. See, the people who are roaring in response to Blanca. And it's got game audio. So like the Blanca audio is in the game of him roaring. And then you've got this, like, must be a room of full of men going roar back at Blanca. It is so much dedication here to like the characters.

Yes. But the two songs that stand out to me the most. One of them is, you know, boxer. Bison is the boxer in this one because it's Japan. That, that song is in English. So you've got an entire song about the boxer singing about how he's going to punch his way around the world and he's going to, you know, he's going to punch his way towards victory and he's going to live his dream. I think the song is called Bison's dream. And it's him, you know, singing, singing about his goals and aspirations, you know, as being a boxer. This is very inspirational. I hope he's thriving wherever he is. And lastly, lastly, you've got, you know, you've got the Vegas song, Dictator Song, which is called Silent Gravestone. And this one has no words. It's just grunts and groans and sort of snickering sounds all to the, you know, all to the background music. And it is for me, I first found this when I was into the mood. Mugan scene. And I put this song as a background stage to one of the weirdest Mugan characters

I ever saw that was sort of this half-humid, like, blob. And so if we were to be fought him, you just had this sort of grunting, you know, grunting bison laugh in the background. Did they just run out of ideas for him? Or like, I don't, I don't know. Maybe it was like the idea was that, oh, well, you know, if everyone else is singing about their passions, then this is, he's evil. So he can't, he can't sing a song about what he wants. He's just. I mean, I would love to have a bison, like, song about him wrapping cakes for Christmas or something. Yeah.

Like, we're like stealing cakes. His side job in a bakery. God, dude. Japan and, like, doing weird soundtracks for things is just one of the great, like, it's so weird because when you're a fan of, like, a Japanese property and you go and start looking for music, you will see things like random, like, Phoenix Wright jazz arrangements or whatever. And it's like, I love this. Why does this exist?

I don't know, but I love it. But, like, sometimes they go a little overboard with these, like, weird vocal albums. And you're like, who wanted this? And who is passionate enough to put this together and then sell it? And you're like, well, Japan, here we go. And now they're, like, $12,000 on, like, eBay or something. I should stress next show, as all these albums I've mentioned, you can just find this on YouTube now and listen to it. So I do encourage everyone at the very least, at the very least, look up Bison's Dream,

because that is in English so you can enjoy his, you know, his spirited wishes. It's probably better than reading the Malibu comic, that's for sure. Probably. I'm punching my way on through life. Punching my way on through the world. I don't have time to be nice. I'm punching my way on through the world. Punching my way or through my life.

I will be the champion of the world. Get back Go back! Yes, so it's, I think it's high time we talk about the live action productions. Yes. It's funny, in the one hand, it took a little longer, but at the same time, it didn't because as early as 1993, you had Hong Kong adaptations. Obviously, this was not official stuff, but what's funny to me is that, you know, in 1983, a Jackie Chan movie, which was a licensed adaptation of a Japanese property, but it was, you know, city. hunter, the manga, the anime about the sort of private detective guy. But in that movie, they go to

an arcade and Jackie Chan gets electrocuted by, you know, he gets thrown into an arcade machine. And that changes the entire movie for a scene where everyone becomes Street Fighter characters. It is so weird. Like Jackie Chan in Chun Lee's outfit is just like so deeply surreal. It's perfect. And the sound effects are straight out of the arcade machine because I think it was like, obviously not a licensed product. So they literally. had somebody audio taping it off of of the arcade. And it was hilarious. It was absolutely hilarious.

And the speed is all jacked up. So like when characters like a moat or when he does Chunle's like poses, like they look more authentic to the game's speed or something. It's bizarre. It was so weird. But you can tell because it's, you know, because in 1983 there, you know,

there is no special effects for whatever we can do physically. So when you've got these actors doing all the spin kicks and there, because there's a guy doing, there's a guy who's playing Ken and Jackie becomes Chun Lee. So the two of them start doing spin kicks at each other. So these two actors are physically rotating as they're being pushed and pulled towards each other inside of this set. You know, I can't imagine that how long that must have taken to shoot.

And, you know, they must have gotten dizzy at some point because that is, that's just physically demanded to be up. At least, especially in Jackie's case, because he's got to be upside down. Put him on a good turntable and just spin it while he's out there. But it, I mean, it looked cool. it looked really cool and I know that back then when it came out a lot of us were passing either tapes around and everybody had that tape

of like the scene where he gets sucked into the arcade and it's fun and playing Street Fighter because everybody's like what in the hell is going on and we only had like weird Hong Kong dubs of this stuff so nobody had ever seen the actual movie but it was just super weird and he's got lipstick on he's really committing to the Chun Lee bit

it's phenomenal and I don't know what Capcom thought of it but I know everybody it's like legendary now, right? The scene is just super weird. I need to go back and actually watch that movie fully now. Well, no one must have sent any angry letters because a mere six months later, there's another movie called Future

Cops, which is the same director, I believe Wang Jing, same director. And that is, it's a different story entirely, but there are lots of characters who are just straight up taken from Street Fighter 2 in that movie. Just with, you know, the slightest of name changes, like, guile is broomhead,

you know? As an angry boxer, there's a, you know, the evil, there's an evil dictator, like almost all your favorites are here. They're just not called what you expected. And it's a science, but it's a science fiction sort of, you know, epic. Okay, so I need to interrupt you for a second. I'm sorry, but I went back and I found an image of the guy playing Ken doing the hurricane kick. And he's literally standing there with his leg out in the kick pose, but he's being spun artificially.

You can, like, you could tell that he's like on top of something that is being spun and he has to just hold that pose. And it looks so deeply painful. for him to be doing the Tatamaki like that, but, uh, you know, go figure. Well, it's funny, as you mentioned before, you know, in that first animated film, you know, the one that we actually made in Japan. Yes. They went, they went to great lengths to sort of not, you know, it's not realistic, but they tried to make the idea of a human spinning kick look like it mattered.

Right. And every comic, the U.S. cartoon and, you know, these, these Hong Kong movies, like, they all went in very different directions and none of them, you know, you know, know, in the case of the Hong Kong movie, at least I think they're trying to be funny. But in the U.S. cartoon and the U.S. comic book, it just looks, it just looks weird, you know. I think they just didn't really understand or try to get the conceit of what it means to do these fireballs and stuff. Because the thing about Street Fighter and these moves, obviously they're taking from the manga tradition. They're taking from Chinese Wusha type of, like, movies and action.

Like, calling out your move while you're doing it is very much out of the Wusha tradition. it's like a very kung fu thing to do it's like I'm going to do the seven tiger strike or whatever and if you don't have that background you don't understand necessarily why these things are being done then it seems like okay well they're just weird they're yelling at there moving and spinning I don't get it but at least the Japanese art

the Japanese anime at least tried to contextualize it within that understanding that by yelling the thing channeling my key I can treat a fireball and it makes sense in context so in that sense it almost like the Hong Kong movies are sort of taking it back. Yeah, right? I mean, I'm sure some of those guys have played monks in Wucho movies, too, so it works.

So, live action, we should, live action, we should at least address. the fact that, yes, in 1994, the same year as the animated film, we did in fact get a Hollywood production, a big budget live action film starring, you know, the man, the myth, the Belgian Jean-Claude Van Dam as Colonel William Gile. This was released for Christmas in 1994. I remember I personally, I went to see this on Christmas Day. I'm, as a Jewish person, you know, Christmas Day is usually, I go to the movie because nothing else is open. So I saw this film on Christmas Day, 1984. And I got to say, a little disappointing. A little disappointing for me at the time as a teenager.

I mean, for me, it was Tuesday. So one of us was going to get it in there at some point. Dude. Listen, listen. This movie was not good at the time. You watch this movie now. It's still not good. It's still not good. you'll have a thousand percent more fun than almost every other video game movie ever made. Like, watch this over the Assassin's Creed or the Warcraft movie or the second Silent Hill movie or the second Mortal Kombat.

You know what I mean? Hey, Prince of Persia was actually a really good adaptation. Thank you very much. Yeah, yeah. No, that was solid. I mean, even the first Silent Hill movie, you can make an argument for that. But at the time, being like a huge street fighter fan and watching this, you're just, I guess. You're speechless.

You have no idea. I'm sorry, the second that E Honda walked out of the back of the truck is the newsroom camera guy. And I'm like, what in the hell are you doing? What is this? And, like, Cheneley's a reporter and all everyone's job is mixed up. Everyone just took a random job from the job hat. Oh, yeah, DJ's a computer hacker. I'm not sure if you have this written, but I do know a little bit about this production

in the sense that they had to get Capcom, USA, executives before they left Japan because they tried pitching this all over Hollywood. No one could give them something they wanted. And they decreed you have to have every single character from Super Street Fighter 2 in this. Like that is one of our mandates. So they struggled to every movie company was like, oh, how about this? How about that? Like, no, no, no.

Someone told the director, Stephen DeSuzza, who has made actually quite a few like notable movies as a writer. Yes. He had a career. Yeah. Yeah. He worked on a diehard and a bunch of Schwarzenegger movies. And he was told, you have to get something ready over the weekend. Like, you have to get a story treatment done before like Tuesday out of all days. And just threw this together, just said, how can I get a bunch of characters like in a movie? Like you create two warring factions, right? So that's why I took that G.I. Joe style like thing and just where can I shove in all the characters? Blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm done. Send it. We have to film it before Christmas. Like, this movie got filmed, edited during the summer and was out by Christmas. Like, considering, let's be fair, considering all those things, it's a miracle.

It's as entertaining as it is, as bad and as cheesy as it is. To be fair, DeSuzza had quite an active of 1994. He put out both the Flintstones, Beverly Hills Cop 3, and Street Fighter. Wow, Worker. And that was right before Judge Dread in 1995. So this man has definitely put in his effort. His magnum opus. Kylie Minogue as Cammy. She's probably one of the best actual adaptations of the characters. She looks the part and she does a couple of her mood. She even says thrust kick, which I still can't believe someone actually said a move because no one does.

Dude, all I know is that they turned Dalcim into a scientist with hair. And what blew my mind is the actor who played Dalcim, Rosh and Seth, he is one of the great British Indian actors. He was freaking Jawarlal Naru

in Gandhi, like literal Academy Award winning genius actor and they stick him as Dalcim in this goddamn I'm a wreck of a movie and I'm like the role of a lifetime. Wow, man. You went from like literally one of the greatest roles in cinema and then just what? Well, speaking of one of the greatest roles in cinema, we have Rawl Julia as M. Bison.

I mean, like, look, fans, we've done an episode on this show fully in 2012. You should go look it up because that's like two full hours of like this movie. And because I don't want to get too deep into it because we can. can go deep into like because the making of this movie is incredible all the story it's been it's been nine years we can address some topics again but yeah it was a little julia's last movie just hurts my soul yeah it's true it just it hits me right here like what i believe he passed away in between like before it was released because by the town was released there was a dedication to him yeah i remember seeing that on screen i think it said via con dieos yeah there's a there's a

post credit scene in this movie that predates marvel by decades Where do they imply that Bison's fine? You didn't even die. It's amazing. They knew they were going to make sequels and sequels and sequels for years. Boy, did they think that. It's funny. You mentioned the G.I. Joe thing, which we should actually mention.

There were, in fact, G.I., like, Hasbro produced actual action figures for Street Fighter, and they're very much literally branded as G.I. Joe characters with vehicles and guns and, like, backpacks and all this like they went full on so it makes sense that you know by the time they made a live action movie like okay well it's and even in the cartoon they seem to stick with the idea of well we've got good guy army and bad guy army yeah because it was like a formula that worked for like kids like for gi jo and even like to a lesser extent like he man you know lots of shows so i don't and when you say that there is a criminal organization like the game almost sets it up like oh there it's shadow loo now shadow loo is the name of an organization you know

organization and in the in these adaptations it becomes like a country like made up a stan uh it's just somewhere in the world shadow loo is and i'm still surprised that they called shadow loo i don't know why the animated the dub of the animated movie called that shadow law still so well i mean because in the early 90s versions of the translations it was in american localization it was shadow loo and shadow law kind of interchangeably for a while before they really settled on chatteloo yeah i never i was never sure which one was correct. I just assumed that, you know, someone made their best guess. I was, I was a thought Shadow Loo was the wrong one because, like, what the hell is a Shadow Loo? But eventually that

is proven to be the, that is proven to be the canon answer. So yeah, like, you know, take that teenage diamond. In the original, in the original Street Fighter 2, like, arcade released in the US, it was shadow law. And then I think eventually they just picked one and went with it. So, um, yeah. Well, I'm so glad they did that because, you know, it did, it did mean that many, many years later when they made The Legend of Chun Lee, you get to have, what's his name? The American Pie Kid say, say Shadowloo so many times, straight into the camera. Oh my God, dude. Yeah, what's this, a Klein, something?

Yeah, Chris Klein, Chris Klein, yes. Chris Klein plays Nash. Like, here's, like, I could talk about Legend of Chun Lee, but I won't, what I will say, it's like, that's an actual dreadful movie that, like, saps, like, happiness out of people. Hang on. Like, there's nothing there. So I saw, so I was working at IGN or a PlayStation magazine or something. When did this come out?

2009. I was at like PlayStation magazine when this came out. And I remember going from the office to go see this movie. And it was literally like me and like four other people from the office were the only people in the theater. Because, you know, we're a game magazine. We have to go and watch the Tunley movie. Oh, wow. Was this definitely next to the Dragon Ball live action American version.

this might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. And it's just like Kristen Croyke, the girl who played Tunley, was just awful and wooden, and she was a piano player and just like all these things. And it was so weird. It was so weird. And it was just so unrelated to literally anything at all. And it's just, it's like one of those things that we need to make a gritty reboot where everything's more grounded. We need to make like the Batman begins of Street Fighter.

So now Bison's just a real estate mogul in a suit. And I mean, then there was like the Black IPs guy is Vega, which was weird. And I was like, so weird. And the guy that played Lou Kang in Mortal Kombat plays Gen. It's just, yeah. He's not that old. Yeah, they gave him like an old wig and that's it. They didn't even age like poorly at all.

And they're just like, yeah, he's Gen now. I'm like, what the hell? Oh my God, dude. That dude, Chris Klein playing. Nash was just awful, awful. I mean, this, okay, you know what? I don't want to talk about this movie. It makes me mad.

I do want to share two things, though. My favorite thing about the movie is the fact that I think it's still online. If you look up, someone has made a super cut of every line Chris Klein says in the movie. And it really accentuates how sort of just lifeless his performance is. Like, yeah. Like, I think the review I read that, like, said that, you know, sometimes you, if an actor can't even convince you when he walks into a room, that's telling. Like every line he says, no, I don't believe you. I don't believe you.

But it's almost, it's treading that's so bad, it's good, like thing that it's like Kristen that plays Chun Li, like she's actually just kind of wooden and she doesn't really have much to do. But Chris Klein is almost, he's like he could be in the room. Like he could have been casted in that somewhere, you know, like it's almost there. But everyone else is so, so forgettable. Even the guy, Neil McDonough. who's been in a lot of movies over the years, like a million roles.

He's usually quite good. And here, like, he kind of hams it up, but you can't compare to the role Julia Bison. So they try to do something different, but it just, it doesn't really do anything. Like, he's not intimidating in the least. I should also mention much to my surprise, they actually have a different cut of this movie in Japan where they swap out the names. So they say Vega, not Bison. Wow. Which I just can't imagine how much that must have cost money.

Like, that's somebody taking scenes. Somebody spent time doing that. Yeah, and that's unique. You know, I don't think, I don't think the 94 movie did that. I doubt any of the property did that. But for this movie, you know, this total failure of a movie, they actually took the time. And, you know, so there's a cut out there of Chris Klein saying Vega, Vega, Vega, Vega. You know, I just.

Okay. I need to read Leonard Moulton. So the film critic Leonard Moulton wrote one of my favorite lines about this. this movie, which is, the 1994 picture was one of the worst movies ever inspired by a video game. Even Jean-Claude Van Dam fans couldn't rationalize this turkey, which should have been titled 400 funerals and no sex. Yet, yet, this pointless and inept action vehicle makes its predecessor seem like gone with the wind.

Yeah. And I'm like, yes. Hopelessly contrived with lamely choreographed fight scenes, the highlight is Chris Klein's cry of, bomb, get out now. Our sentiments, exactly. Bam, got it. It was the hottest trash. It was so bad.

Like, this is the bad that's not even a good rewatch when you're drunk bad. Yeah. This is the bad bad. The 94 film, I think, is long overdue for me revisiting it, you know, now that I'm not... It's fun. A fissy teenager, but I have no interest in seeing anything outside of, you know, the supercutter Chris Klein for this movie. So that happened. Did it?

It's real. You can buy it. You can buy that movie if you want to buy it. So we should probably move on to one more item that I had listed here, which is a game, but it's not a streetfighter game. It's a street fighter storytelling game. It was released in 1994 by White Wolf. Yes, the people who brought you vampire and werewolf, those games, they made an official street fighter, you know, officially called Street Fighter, the storytelling game. And, you know, I put this in here as sort of,

oh, this was real. I never, never heard about this. But Shivam, you said you have, you have this game? Yeah, because I'm a streetfighter nerd and a tabletop nerd and I was like there's a street fighter tabletop game. Okay, I need to, okay, so first off, I need to say that when I was a kid, I used to play a lot of RPGs in my school and we used to play rifts.

Rifts is this kind of big, like heavy game. If you imagine like kind of Geiver or Gundam or like just super big exploding things. And one of the things is I tried to make Raiu as a character. And everybody else is sitting here with like giant like mecca and like things and I'm just like a little human shooting fireball once in a while. It did

not work well, it's in my favor. So when I saw that White Wolf actually had put out their own Street Fighter game, I was intrigued because Vampire is a fantastic setting. Whether you like it or not, it's one of the most well-developed rule sets in Tabletop RPGs. And so if anybody's going to do this, I figured, okay, let's see what an actual Street Fighter RPG would be like. It turns out it was actually really, really good. Like, this game didn't go anywhere, but it definitely had a lot of, like, it had a couple of extensions, but I think the crossover between street fighter fans and RPG fans is like limited to me and maybe 20 other people

because like if you're if you're fighting in the streets you're not really throwing the dice in the sheets is what I'm saying but the thing is though they used basically a modified version of the vampire rule set with you could have like a dots of different skills that you could like

buy and you had a point by system that you could use to build up your thing and you had all these cool skills like perception I mean perception everywhere but like you know intimidation or streetwise or blind fighting and like how good you are in an arena and all of these other things there were a whole bunch of like rules on different kung fu styles on different fighting styles even like you know dalcim's weird usage of kabaddi now this thing is always bug me cabaddi is not a fighting system

india's got plenty of martial arts kabaddi is like a sport it's like if you ever played the kindergarten game red rover that is literally what kabaddi is where there's two lines of people on either side trying to run at each other and break through the line that's not a very good like kung fu right like this is this is good for kindergartens not for fighting but they had basically this whole kind of like they found every sort of pseudo human like fighting system in the world that you could use to apply to these street fighters what they're doing and they made them into rule sets and it was really really cool it was a really neat way to actually tell uh to make a story about like being a street fighter what does it like to be able to RPG your way through

when you can also shoot fireballs and like, you know, do hurricane kicks and stretch your arms and stuff. And they realize like, okay, kind of the gimmick here is that you're a street fighter, you want to be doing street fights. So a lot of the story kind of plot is about arena battles,

about one-on-one fights with other like, you know, street fighter type characters about leveling up your things to be good in these type of arena fights. You could also use a system because it's an RPG. You could tell any kind of story you want if you wanted to redo the street fighter animated movie and go cop hunting and stuff

but it was cool it was one of the better fight systems I've seen it was a lot of fun and I think that like this game is one of those games that's like 20 years late it's probably cool for a redo like it was balanced well it had good stats

I mean it's cool I just really respected I liked it a lot and I never found anybody like after that first time to play it with because it's just like everyone's like we could be playing through fighter or I could be playing anything else. Like, we could be fighting about beholders instead.

But no, it's cool. There's still, like, kind of a fan community out there that still plays this game. It was just a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. So I looked this up, and I found a 2017 piece on Vice about this game, where they interviewed some of the people behind it. And I got this interesting quote from Steve, Steve Wick, who was, you know, apparently a major force at White Wolf at the time.

and he talked about what input they had because it was licensed. They had to talk to Capcom of like, you know, who are these characters? And the quote is, Capcom just basically gave them a bunch of sort of like outlines where it's like, don't change any of the main characters. There should never be a situation where they die. And when it comes to Shadowloo or at any parts of the setting, they basically said, well, we don't know. So we'd write things and have them approve it.

And they more or less said, sure, to what we'd done. So that's why I guess you can, you can, you're, they were allowed to sort of incorporate like other kinds of fighting styles and even sort of things that were, you know, a little weird, you know, compared to Street Fighter. But honestly, Street Fighter itself, like Street Fighter, too, at least, is already full of weird stuff. So I guess it's, it's kind of hard out weird Street Fighter as it is. Yeah, like, for instance, they had really good grapple rules and stuff. Because I mean, when you think about a lot of Street Fighter is close combat. It's about running up and doing combos. It's about doing fireballs. It's about grabbing people and throwing them. And trying to get that. in tabletop is very difficult. So you have to do things like, you have like basically combat cards, which had different maneuvers on them and different moves, and you try to use them kind of in chain and combos

in order to be able to link your things together. For instance, in the rule book here, like if you're trying to do a, like here's one of their examples of play, right? So Hugo and Jade square off. There eight hexes apart because it's a tabletop role playing game. The round begins, and Jade attempts a spinning knuckle punch while Hugo plays a block.

they go they compare their speeds whoever speed is faster as the one that hits and then because of her spinning knuckle punch she moves forward six hexes but it's still far enough away so she can't actually hit him and so on and so forth and it's like it's a very good way to take an abstract fighting

of this like I'm running at you and punching and turning it into something you can put numbers on that would actually let you play a game and it basically felt a lot like one-on-one D&D combat where you got your second edition where you had like speed initiative and so But, like, you know, Hugo's got a lower speed, so he goes first.

He tries to do a roundhouse kick to close the distance, et cetera, et cetera. It's great. It's really, really fun. Like, it reads weird, and it's hard to actually, like, try to wrap your head around when you're looking at it. But if you get into it, it's rad. Like, I loved it. I thought it was super cool.

Sounds phenomenal. And it sounds like it's too bad that because it's nature as a licensed work, it's probably, they probably can't even reprint it even if they want. Oh, yeah, no, but you can get the full PDF for the rules online very easily. nobody's going to stop you because Capcom doesn't care and White Wolf doesn't care. So it's worth your time if you care about like historic RPGs. It is a 1994 system so it's not modern in any way, shape, or form. But if you've ever played a vampire or werewolf or any of the kind of white wolf system games,

you will easily understand how to play this game. It's super quick to pick up. And it's complicated and gets a little nuts and bolty, but it's a street fighter. It's fine. You'll get it. One's in the road Got to love you I've broken people's bones

Oh supernatural You don't mind to be alone Once there were enemies Not front of nothing to realize You'll change Straight upper cut the mouths That brought you that love again Well before we wrap up today

I did want to find If anyone else had any other item They wanted to share That's not the game Street Fighter 2 Fighter 2, as far as media or fan works? Yes, yes, yes. Please. Okay, so you guys all know about O.C. Remix, of course, being the website online since like the early 2000s, where fans can go and upload their own versions of video game music. So one of my favorite songs of all time,

real music or not real music, just in general music, is this thing called The Ken Song. The Ken Song by JD Project, which is basically taking the Ken theme from Street Fighter 2 and then putting lyrics to it and it is fantastic. It is so like first off they re-baked he does

an absolutely beautiful job of just playing the song of like musically like the guy got a ton of talent. He builds up guitar textures. He's got great drumwork and then he does lyrics about this and it's just like they're so cheesy and like earnest that by

the end of it even like you want to the anime pose for your fist of the air, tears are streaming down your face, and you're like, I want to realize my can too. And it's so good. It's so good. It's like, it feels me, it's like one of the songs where when I'm down and sad, I fire this song up and it just fills me with happiness and life again. It's like super hair metal, super joyful. And it is one of the greatest fan works of Street Fighter ever, honestly God. Like, it's just super good. Lyrically speaking, where is it coming from? Is it someone singing about Ken or is it Ken about Ken or how does it work?

It's a song from like the standpoint of Ken and about trying to fight and like like the chorus line is like, oh, Eliza, help me. You know, like give me your strength so that I can go through and fight this. It's definitely like Ken has just had the crap kicked out of him. He's trying to get up and trying to like realize his inner strength. Trying to wake up dragon punch. Yeah, it's great. It's great.

it's one of those things where you're just like you listen to you're like this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard and then 38 listened later you're like I love this I love it so much it's seriously one of my favorite favorite things ever there's one other project that

I did want to speak about really briefly more of an anecdote on it there are a few other animated things that came out based on Street Fighter there was Street Fighter Alpha the animated movie which had a lot of made up O.C. that kind of show up, Bison's not even in it.

Then there's the Street Fighter 4 animated movie, The Ties That Bind. That was like in a special edition of Super Street Fighter 4, I believe. The one I wanted to mention is Street Fighter Alpha Generations, which was a very different take on the source material, which went for a really, like, gritty sort of realistic style, or like, not realistic, but like, very odd character designs. It tells all about Akuma becoming, like, you know, the demon he, everyone knows in the game.

So he's a regular guy. And you're watching this and said, and thinking, who asked for this? And he's just, he's like doing chores and talking to these really basic, like, almost non-existent woman character. I didn't even remember her name. And it's a short film. It's like 40 minutes. Like, it's barely, like, it's an OVA for all intents and purposes. And the reason I want to bring it up is because I think at one of the earlier evos, I want to say like 2006, maybe, a representative from manga entertainment who produced this is showing it in a special viewing.

So you see, you have a sea of really hardcore streetfighter fans watching this really poor adaptation of Street Fighter. And it did not go well. I've read multiple accounts of this. I was not there myself. But heckling, like mystery science theater levels of heckling at this as it was going on. And apparently the representative of Mang Entertainment walked out at some point because he was fed up of the crowd's reaction, people like, you know, hooting and hollering at all the wrong times, making lewd jokes. and everyone just taking this as like, you know, what it was, which is a really silly adaptation of the source material that didn't, you know,

like, can appear, can and Ryu appear for like one second towards the end? Wait, I'm not even sure of reusing it. I don't care. I think reuse in it. It's probably of the animated things, it's probably the worst one. Like, I would much rather, and I would suggest people, like, watch the animated cartoon series or Street Fighter 2. v compared to this because it's just it's kind of a downer there's no you know when i think a street

fighter i think of like it's a fun martial arts tournament there's some evil characters for sure but this is just like this i don't know boring and inspired sort of like dark take on the source material and it's it's not a good time i'm not even sure if it's been re-released since it's it's original release i have to assume maybe it did maybe like in a two-pack or something with Street Fighter Alpha, which is a much better film, but I just wanted to get that in there because it's such an oddity in the

animated adaptations. Well, the one project I wanted to mention, even though it is not retro, Gasp. About eight, maybe seven, eight years ago, I'm not sure the exact date, maybe 2014. There was a album released

here in Japan called Street Fighter Remix Chiptoon, Chiptoon being two word. And it's It's since released on streaming media, so I think it's pretty easy to find at this point. And it's a remix album of music from Street Fighter 2, the original 12, like the original 12 tracks. And each song is by a different artist. And there's really not any really singing, but there is lots of game audio in this music. And each song has a very different style to it.

Like one of them is, like, even though the album is called chip tune, I would say only one of them is really like chip tune, whereas the rest of them is just like there's electronic stuff. I would say one kind of sounds like a little bit of a dubstep a little bit. But each of these tracks, I think is very different and really enjoy. I think it's a really enjoyable album for just overall. It was a very cool disc. Yeah, the artwork is exceptional because the artwork has like, it's all the original portraits, but they've all been modified to like have like headphones on or a turntable or something. Like it's really cleverly marketed.

Like it's something that I saw in a store. I was like, oh, I have to have this. I bought it sight unseen. And it's an album I listen to a lot. It's really worth checking out if you haven't heard it yet. So, yeah, the only thing for me is the only one I can't stand is the Blanca song because the Blanca song is just a weird, it's a weird din because it's like, it's like they have a beat, but then it just goes off in weird directions and I don't know.

It's not for me. My personal favorite is the boxer, boxer song, because it just sounds like it's very, it's kind of vacancy. I like it. But on that note, I feel like we've been talking for a good 90 minutes. So I feel like we've, we've supplemented our stress. tree fighters. We did it. You know? Victory is ours. So let's wrap up the show and let's start with Shivam, please. Why don't you tell people about you? Yeah. So you can find me at ElectroTal or Gear Upory

Gears. You can find me on a podcast that I put out every week called Casual Magic. It's an interview podcast based around Magic the Gathering comes out every Tuesday and otherwise you can hear me on like half a dozen different retronauts episodes because Jeremy calls me whatever. He's like, there's a game that you love and we'll talk about for like three years so like he had me on a double episode talking about magic the gathering and civilization which is literally my two favorite things on the planet and it was just basically if you've ever wanted to hear me lecture for like two and a half hours while paris just sits there and tries to hold on i recommend you check out of that episode of retronauts thank you very much for your extended enthusiasm we really appreciate it uh mr rick mussels if that's there is your real name it is It's not, actually. You can find me at Madman Muscles on YouTube, where I do my series What Happened, which I've covered a couple of the things you talked about today, like the Street Fighter, the movie, the game, and I'll also dive into Street Fighter, the animated series as well. And I give that a watch-along, where I've consumed beverages of a certain type while I watch that show, because that's the only way you can possibly watch it. But you can find me there or on Twitter also at Matt McMussles.

I really appreciate your What Happens series because, you know, rather than just, you know, I think you instead of doing the YouTube thing where you just, you watch something like, boy, doesn't this suck? This sucks. You actually talk about, you know, production mistakes. And in some cases, you almost explain like, you know what? This is bad because this happened. And that's why it's bad.

And I really going an extra mile, I think makes a big difference. Thank you. Thank you. Doing quality assurance for games for seven. years is kind of what honed that in on me saying like there's always there's always a million reasons why games and certain projects

wind up the way they do. Yes. Everything has a reason. Even Mortal Kombat Annihilation has a reason. It does. It does. As for us, this is Retronauts. Thank you very much for listening to Retronauts. We have new episodes every Monday.

If you are a Patreon, a $3 patron, you get the episodes one week early. If you are a $5 Patreon. You get bonus episodes. We have two bonus episodes every month. You also have a weekly column from me. I write the column and then I read it to you if you'd like me to read it to you. $5 also gives you Discord access to our Retronauts Discord. Thank you very much for joining us in that rewards. As for me personally, Diamond Fight, you can find me on Twitter and Twitch as Fight Club, F-E-I-T, my last name, C-L-U-B, the regular English word.

And I also have my own Patreon and Kofi, but I didn't say it, did I? No, Patreon.com slash Retronauts is how you support the show and get those bonuses that I already mentioned. Isn't that coffee? Is it Kofi or K-Fi? It's coffee because they're like, hey, buy me a coffee. Like, you're buying me a tip. And then it became coffee, K-O-F. I always thought it was K-F-I, but then again, I don't know.

It's me living in Japan. I see K-O-F-I. I'm going to say it's cool, you know, Kofi. Khohoi or no don't like to say. And if you're a $50 Patreon of Retronaut, you can actually listen

to the show before we record it. It's true. It's a time warp edition. All right. That's out. Any last words? Any screams?

We want to scream out? It takes nothing to realize you can. It's all I'm going to say. Go and listen to Ochi Remakes. Trust me, it is worth your life. Good night.

to the end takes nothing to realize your care keep fighting for the ride if one you're so

dream it takes nothing to realize your can yes your can