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Video Game-Grade Pretension: Not For Street Fighter?

Posted by Nadia Oxford

Topless Robot posted a video of Street Fighter IV's entire cast doing its thing—that is, kicking, punching and philosophising. This is probably the first time you'll hear the aging World Warriors banter about their pills and arthritis in English. If you're a Street Fighter veteran, it's almost certainly not the first time you'll hear them ask one another the meaning of life while they pulverise one another's kidneys.



The “pretension” exuded by the cast in this video really gets at Topless Robot editor Rob Bricken, who made the post:

[H]ey Capcom--Street Fighter is not Sun Tzu's Art of War, okay? It is a fighting game. Where people punch luchadores, green fur-covered men, and Japanese schoolgirls, at that. No one needs some kind of bullshit examination into the human psyche here, and no one wants it,.either. What was the problem with the tournament idea? Was that not deep enough for you? Look, you're making a game so kids can beat up people of various ethnicities and not get thrown in jail. Do not get all pretentious about it.


I feel like I should be ashamed for being so interested in Street Fighter's backstories and character histories—like I should cement my braces back on and abandon my contact lenses for my old thick glasses with the pink frames.

Know what, though? I just gotta be me. I have to care about these testosterone-driven huns; they've been in my life since I was 11. Ryu is constantly on the verge of being consumed by hate and I think that is interesting. I think that's attractive Myspace profile info.

Eliza got her ultrasound in the last issue of Udon's Street Fighter comic, and goddammit, I'm excited about that.

Also, I'm not offended by the voices, but I have a history with Capcom's bad voice acting. This is disappointingly sane.

Related Links:

Licensing Tragedies: Malibu's Street Fighter Comic
Street Fighter IV's Fighting Spirit In Painstaking Detail
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix C-C-Combo Makers

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