Street Fighter V: Clues to the roster

And as the hype train begins to build momentum Ono continues his tradition of tweeting hints regarding the new game.













Last night he tweeted this:

Any fan of the franchise spotted the clue immediately...day before yesterday when they showed off the new stage in London I thought of Ono's hint about the new character reveal for E3 being someone we haven't seen in awhile and thought Eagle but with Ono's Tweet it's 99% confirmed Birdie is returning!

Now the next hint was spotted in the Nash artwork below, look at the statue behind to the right of Nash...

Now check out Gill's stage from SFIII (S.I. I think)....see that statue in the center of the stage???

It's another clue that the Illuminati is in SFV aside from the gem in Nash's forehead, but will it be Gill or Urien or a new member I can't say for certain.

I'm very excited, it looks like a Illuminati- Shadaloo showdown!!!

Coloring Perception by BigMex

Back in February 2009 I wrote a blog post a day titled Memorable Black Characters In Video Games. My way of showing my appreciation for the month and for industry I've grown up with, it was actually a bit more difficult to find black video game characters that represented the values of Black History Month.
I've read a few of Big Mex's blog posts over on Capcom Unity and 1Up and this 18 part blog series was so amazing I couldn't stop reading it! Even if you're not a fan of fighting games I really recommend taking the time and reading this series! And if you are a member of the FGC this series will really be a gem of a read!

coloring-perception-part-1
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Chun Li: Capcom's female pioneer in the video game industry

I was so impressed by Arttronik's blog article Ryu: A Study on Design and Inspiration it motivated me to write a similar article for Chun Li! I have been playing Street Fighter since Ryu wore red slippers and when Street Fighter II hit arcades in 1992 I discovered I had a very competitive streak in me. I remember my friend Krogenar from Buried Planet bringing me to an arcade where there was 5 or 6 SFII arcade cabinets right at the front doors with over 30 people crowded around them cheering and jeering, waiting for their quarter to be up next. I must've waited almost 20 minutes for my first time to play, I had watched plenty of matches while waiting my turn and I remember seeing many people try and take down the guy playing Ryu...most choose Ken or Guile. When I saw some guy play Chun Li and make the Ryu player really work for his win I knew exactly who I was going to choose when my turn came! Thru the years and the many iterations of Street Fighter I have played almost every character in the franchise's lengthy roster, but I always return to the first lady of fighting games* I seem to enjoy playing Chun Li the most. And apparently I'm not the only one, Ryu may be the poster child for Street Fighter and one of the top ten most recognizable video game characters in gaming history but I'd be willing to bet Chun Li isn't far behind!
So what is it about Chun Li makes her such an iconic, popular character? What inspired her creation?
I've scoured the interwebs for as much info I think may be relate-able to the stimulus of Chun Li's creation as possible. I know there are many fans of Chun Li out there and they may posses worthwhile knowledge that I'm unaware of so feel free to share!
Street Fighter II's predecessor laid the ground work for what would become one of the most influential video games in history. To many the original Street Fighter is thought to be the forefather of fighting games but that is not the case, before Ryu hit the streets Oolong was fighting in the streets in Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu!

Many similarities can be seen between Yie Ar Kung Fu and Street Fighter. In YAKF Oolong faces has 10 unique martial arts masters Buchu, Star, Nuncha, Pole, Feedle, Chain, Club, Fan, Sword, Tonfun and final boss Blues.
In Street Fighter Ryu faces 10 unique fighters all over the world, Retsu ( Kempo) Geki (Ninjitsu), Lee () Gen(Sou-ryuu and Ki-ryuu)  Joe (kick boxing) , Mike (boxer),Birdie (bouncer) Eagle(Street Fighter), Adon (Muai Thai), and the final boss Sagat (Muai Thai).
other similarities include stage design...

Ok history class is concluded, so Capcom saw potential in YAKF and
built their fighting game using ideas from Konami's fighter. But YAKF had something SF didn't....female fighters! Yie Ar Kung Fu had 2 Star, a young ninja girl in a pink outfit who uses shuriken to slow Oolong down along with fast punches and kicks and Fan, a female warrior who wears a cheongsam, she throws steel fans at Oolong like shuriken and attacks very fiercely...Sounds like the blue prints for Chun Li and Mai Shiranui.

 So at some point between 1987 and 1991 Capcom began development of a sequel to Street Fighter, the roster would grow to 12, 3 from SF would return, Ryu, Ken and Sagat, the remaining 9 would be brand new fighters. 8 of the 12 characters would now be playable in 1v1 each with unique and special moves. Street Fighter II improves every aspect of it's predecessor, graphics, sound effects, game play, controls, soundtrack.
Street Fighter II also introduces us to *The First Lady of Fighting Games Chun Li. The reason I've astrik'd that title twice already is because historically Star and Fan from YAKF should be considered the first women of fighting games. But they certainly didn't have the impact that Chun Li has had, at the time women in video games were portrayed as damsels in distress, Jessica in Final Fight, Princess Peace, and Zelda are great examples.
But Chun Li was no damsel in distress, she represented a very rare characteristic, one that is seldom seen in other forms of media....the strong woman, determined, intelligent, beautiful and physically powerful. Chun Li wasn't fighting in the second Street Fighter tournament for some nonsensical reason, she was an Interpol agent investigating a shadowy underground criminal organization and she was driven by the murder of her father.
With that in mind I did a little investigating of my own on the interwebs and I believe I have found the inspration behind Chun Li.
In the 1970's martial arts films were a dime a dozen and women were primarily portrayed as victims, it was unheard of to have a woman in the lead role in a kung fu film, In the late 60's Huang Feng, an action film director discovered 17 year old Angela Mao Ying (Hong Kong Movie Database , http://www.angelfire.com/az/ying/ ).

As a child Angela studied ballet and performed at the Fu Shing Peking Opera and studied Hapkido under master Whang In Sik.



With her acting and martial arts skills Angela was just what Hwang Feng was looking for for the lead role in The Angry River. After starring as Bruce Lee's sister in Enter the Dragon Angela Mao gained international recognition and continued to star as the lead role in many Martial art films throughout the seventies. Some of Angela Mao's more notable films are The Tournament Plot:Angela's father has a kung fu school in modern Hong Kong, but after her brother, Carter Wong, is defeated in a kick-boxing tournament in Thailand her father is disgraced, so Angela and Carter strive to restore the honor of the school. (Sounds like Mao's storyline)




Hapkido Plot:Angela and her friends establish a hapkido school in China, but a rival Japanese judo school won't leave them in peace 



Broken Oath Plot:Angela tracks down the killers of her father, aided by her pet scorpions.(aside from the scorpions that sounds like Chun Li's storyline)


Stoner Plot:In modern Hong Kong, Angela and Lazenby seek to smash a drug ring which uses a Taoist temple as a front.(coughShadaloocough)

Lady Whirlwind  Plot:Angela seeks to kill Chang Yi, who is responsible for her sister's suicide, but she grants him a reprieve so that he can take revenge against a gang leader.(  





When Taekwondo Strikes Plot:Japanese seek to capture the leader of the Korean resistance movement, who is a friend of Angela's





I'm not sure if it's a coincidence but in every fight scene above Angela in wearing some shade of blue.Chun Li's outfit is a variation of a qipao, a popular Chinese gown that. Traditionally long and form fitting, so when Capcom was designing her they wanted an outfit that was instantly recognizable as chinese but also had some sex appeal but nothing to slutty, so where did they look? I believe Akiman, Kinu, Nin Nin and Sensai may have been fans of Super Dimentional Fortress Macross...

I've always believed the character Lynn Minmay from SDFM was influential in the design of the Chun Li character and another possible source of influence in the design of Chun Li comes from the 1976 film Master of the flying Guillotine, in fact many aspects of Street fighter II can be seen in the Master of the Flying Guillotine movie...most notably the character Dhalsim. But the daughter of Wu is aesthetically similar but her fighting style has no similarities to Chun Li.


















Of the the 8 original World Warriors Chun Li has gone thru the most upgrades to her character, not visually but ability wise, betwwen SFII The World Warriors and SFII Turbo she received her Kikoken.In the Alpha series she learned the Tenshokyaku, in SFIII she learned the Hazanshu. This constant evolution of the characters' moves and abilities might suggest that Chun Li is a low tier character that constantly needed to be buffed to be competitive but that couldn't be further from the truth, throughout the series Chun Li has almost always been a top tier character. Every new move or ability has added depth to her fighting style without coming off as a cheap or broken move, they all seem like a natural progression of the characters abilities, the below video gives a good demonstration of some of Chun Li's evolution:


Next to Ryu, Chun Li has been in more games than any other character in the Street Fighter roster starting with her debut in Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, with her popularity cemented she went on to appear in:
Street Fighter II / CE/ Turbo / Hyper Fighting/ 
Super Street Fighter II/ SSFII Turbo / Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, 
Street Fighter Alpha / SFA 2 /SFA2 Gold / SFA3, SFA3 Max
Street Fighter III Third Strike, 
Street Fighter IV, SSFIV, SSFIV: AE/2012
Street Fighter EX+@ /SFEX2 /SFEX3, 
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo / Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix
Xmen Vs Street Fighter 
Marvel Vs Capcom, MVC2, MVC3
Capcom Vs SNK, CVS2, 
Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, 
Breathe of Fire
Namco X Capcom
Street Fighter X Tekken, Tekken X Street FighterFinal Fight2

Chun Li Ni Makase China slot machine! (see below)

 Aside from games Chun Li is the only Street Fighter character to get her own live action film, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li starring Kristin Kreuk, the movie was bad but not as bad as the 1994 live action Street Fighter movie starring Jean Claude Van Dam where Chun Li was played by Ming Na  

And then there's Jackie Chan's 1993 movie City Hunter....best if you see for yourself..



Good to see Chun beat Ken but karma does have a way of coming around when you least expect it...poor Justin



Chun Li's life, and the people that affect her and in turn she effects are also explored in print media such as the Street Fighter II manga,                                                                                                                                                                    

the Sakura Ganbaru manga where she investigates an underground fight club where she meets up with Gen.














Udon has also done a fantastic series of comics based on different Street Fighter characters, The Street Fighter Legends: Chun Li series looks incredible (I need to get these)!

Malibu Comics also did a Street Fighter series back in the day...based on this one clip I'm kinda glad it was never completed...gag reflex!

But after a bit of Interwebs excavating I discovered that this whole Ryu/Chun thing wasn't a one time booty call that Malibu Comics dreamt up!
Behold the horror!

 

Chun Li's future looks bright thou, Udon is localizing a new manga for us here called Street Fighter Gaiden and look who is gracing the cover of volume!

 Aside from her strong presence in video games, movies and print media another way to know Chun Li is a highly recognized part of popular culture is how many people Cos Play her! Look no further than former co host of Attack of the Show Olivia Mun!

 

YATA!

Oh yeah and this lil lady..ULTRA KAWAII!!!!!

In closing Angela Mao Ying  was a pioneer and the worlds first female action star, Chun Li is a pioneer and the strongest woman in the world, she is the gaming industries first lady of fighting games, they both broke into a predominantly male form of entertainment and built a bridge for future women like Sigourney Weaver and Meryl from the MGS series,  for this reason they deserve a legendary place in film and gaming history! 

Ryu: A study on Design and Inspiration by Arttronik

Of all the video games I've played since my childhood the one franchise I've consistently enjoyed is Street Fighter, I can remember playing the original Street Fighter in the arcades back in 1989. My addiction to the franchise really took hold in 1992 when Street Fighter II came to arcades. Aside from enjoyment of playing the game, Street Fighter has a fascinating and diverse cast of characters that have a rich story of how they came to fruition and where the inspiration was derived from.
Today I read a blog article regarding the origins of the design for Ryu and the inspirations that helped create one of the most iconic and recognizable video game characters in history.
Even if you're not a fan of Street Fighter or fighting games this is a worthwhile read I highly recomend!

Ryu a study on design and inspiration by Arttronik

SSX 2012 cast

Here is the cast for SSX2012, I'm a little torn, I loved Allegra in SSX3 but this new french chick Alex looks to give Elise a run for her money in the looks department. I do expect to see my girl Allegra via DLC shortly after launch.





1. Elise Riggs

Nickname: Bombshell
Nationality: Canadian
Home Mountain: Cypress, Grouse, Seymour Mountains
Bio: Even though she left The Tour, Elise refuses to leave snowboarding behind, much to the chagrin of her agent and insurers she still gets out to shred between film shoots and convention appearances. Elise has found a perfect balance in her life between acting and riding and she’s never been more content. Always searching for the next rush, Elise has recently been consumed by a new obsession: base-jumping with a wing-suit. Contour flying down a mountainside at 150km per hour delivers a rush unmatched by anything she could do on a snowboard alone and quickly Elsie realizes that she has to find a way to marry the two.

2. Mackenzie Fraser

 Nickname: Mac
Nationality: American
Home Mountain: Mount Baker
Bio: Mac is a legend on The Tour, holding all records on the pro circuit, having done and won it all – but being as good as he is has meant that there is very little left to challenge him. He is the epitome of ‘Shredder’, loves big air, big tricks and pushing the limits of what is possible on a snowboard. He’s usually the first person to nail an impossible combo and stick the landing (think triple corkscrew guy from 2011 X-Games), and has invented more tricks than Tony Hawk. Always looking for new challenges, and to elevate his skills once again, Mac left The Tour behind to co-found SSX.

3. Kaori Nishidake

Nickname: None
Nationality: Japanese
Home Mountain: HokkaidoBio: In the beginning Kaori had designs on joining the Japanese Olympic Team, but once The Tour came knocking, she quickly changed gears and focused on snowboarding as a career. Kaori worked her way through The Tour rankings and quickly established herself as one of the best. While she was burning up the circuit on her snowboard, her older brother Akira was busy working on his latest creation: The Tokyo Megaplex Snowboard Park. And he wanted Kaori to be the first to ride it. The Megaplex was a love letter to urban snowboarding, and theme park nuts, but mostly Akira’s way of telling his little sister how proud he was of her. 


4. Moby Jones

 Nickname: None
Nationality: British / Trinidadian
Home Mountain: Chamonix
Bio: Moby Jones was born in Brixton, England in 1982 to Trinidadian immigrant parents. Growing up on the rough streets of Brixton meant growing up fast but Moby managed to find a way around that rule; at age ten he had a skateboard thrust into his hands. Moby took to the sport like a duck to water. He began entering into local skate competitions and found himself winning more often than not. After a short while he was picked up by a local skate shop and given his first taste of what sponsorship could offer. After that more lucrative deals started to flow in; he was making a name for himself and it was paying off in dividends.

5. Psymon Stark

 Nickname: Sketchy
Nationality: Canadian
Home Mountain: Garibaldi back-country
Bio: Psymon Stark was born in Squamish, British Columbia in 1974. His parents weren’t around much growing up so as a result, he rarely found much time for school, choosing instead to spend his time in Whistler snowboarding the backcountry during the winter and glacier climbing during the warmer months.

When Psymon turned eighteen, he moved to Whistler fulltime and took a job working the graveyard shift as a groomer. Psymon did more damage to the runs with his cat than good, spending most of his time secretly building “kickers” all over the mountain so he and his friends could ride them the next day. This played havoc with newbie tourists and ski-school kids but made Psymon something of a legend in the circles that mattered. Off the mountain Psymon was the same kind of renegade. He was an animal. The all-night partying, the bar binges and the dust-ups were just fuel for the fire for Psymon. Nothing could slow him down. He fully embraced the bad-ass side of snowboarding culture and he very quickly started to build a name for himself with both local police and people on the pro snowboarding circuit.

Alternate Bio: Psymon was the original wild man on The Tour. He was a focused and formidable rider on the track, and absolute loose cannon off. His exploits (stealing a police car, riding a dirt bike through a high-end hotel) earned him more than a few overnight stays behind bars as well as the nickname "Sketchy" due to his erratic behavior. When things got to be too much for his sponsors, they threatened to kill his contracts if he didn't behave. Psymon told them where they could put their contracts. Fed up with it all, he turned his attention to building custom muscle-bikes in his own garage and little to no snowboarding - until long time friend Zoe Payne showed up and offered him something new.

6. Zoe Payne

Nickname: Demon
Nationality: American
Home Mountain: Flat Top Mountain, West VirginiaBio: Zoe Payne was born in the rural outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland in 1983 and from a very early age she knew she liked to go fast. She latched onto anything that would put the wind in her hair, even managing to get her Big Wheel up to highway speeds on the hill outside her house. Zoe received her first pint sized dirt bike at age nine – and never looked back. Riding took over her life. Each birthday the bike got bigger, the riding got wilder. The only thing that ever got in the way – was winter. But Zoe discovered that snow offered up a different kind of riding. She flung herself headfirst into snowboarding. An instant natural she soaked up the culture and quickly honed her skills to become a formidable rider. Always looking to push herself, she tried her hand at some competitive riding and instantly laid waste to her fellow racers. Through sheer willpower and almost psychopathic determination, she landed herself a spot on The Tour and quickly became a dominating force in the world of professional snowboarding. 


7. Griff Simmons

Nickname: King of the Mountain
Nationality: American
Home Mountain: AspenBio: Born American and damn proud of it, Griffin Simmons is the preeminent pro snowboarder riding on The Tour today. An Olympic gold-medal winner in boarder cross and big-air, he currently holds the title of "King of the Mountain", according to top snowboarding Magazine Snow Shredder. The fortune and fame was very quickly going straight to his head, and Griffin soon became his own biggest fan. Consumed by arrogance and the idea of being number one, his expert skills as a snowboarder only worked to facilitate his insatiable hunger for the center podium. If Griffin failed at that number-one spot, whatever prize he won would go uncollected; because if he was accepting anything less than first place, he was accepting failure. 










8. Tane Mumea

 Nickname: Hippie
Nationality: Fijian
Home Mountain: None
Bio: Tane is the quintessential gypsy-surfer. His laid-back ways and zest for life attitude have earned him the reputation of being one of the most personable and approachable people on the beach. But once he hits the waves in competition, Tane turns on his razor-sharp focus, tearing up the circuit. Still, it's not the spotlight that Tane seeks out on the waves - it's the personal satisfaction he gets from connecting with the ocean and the adventure that it provides him. As the sport of surfing has become twisted into a competition of corporations, Tane longs for the days when all that truly mattered was your skills on a surfboard. Wanting to rid himself of this new wave of surfing, Tane has left the pro circuit to look for other ways to satisfy his hunger, something that speaks to his true self. Tane hooks up with friends Zoe Payne and Mac Fraser to start SSX.

9. Ty Thorsen

 Nickname: Lucky
Nationality: Norwegian
Home Mountain: Lyngen Alps
Bio: Growing up in the remote town of Tromso, Norway - known as the gateway to the Arctic - Ty began crafting his skill as a snowboarder at a very early age. Never quite finding the success he eventually ended up working as a test rider for The Tour - a job that provided all of the riding and none of the pressure the others had to deal with. His easy-going manner, insane skills, and fearless attitude caught the attention of Zoe Payne. It was an easy decision to ask Ty to join her new team, and just as easy for Ty to accept. 

Alternate Bio: Ty Thorsen is a Terrain park test rider who works for the professional snowboarding circuit known as The Tour. Ty sets up the boardercross and big-air runs, riding them to ensure that safety and regulations are adhered to prior to The Tour riders hitting them in competition. Growing up in the remote town of Tromso, Norway - known as the gateway to the Arctic - Ty began crafting his skill as a snowboarder at a very early age. His father was a helicopter pilot who worked for an adventure tour company ferrying boarders and skiers in and out of the Lyngen Alps - otherwise inaccessible mountains. As a result, Ty would spend countless hours on the mountain, shredding some of the most unspoiled terrain there was. Being one of the preeminent backcountry destinations on the planet, The Lyngen Alps drew in dozens of the world’s best riders. Pros from around the globe would descend on the area looking to get a taste of the unspoiled terrain experience. These pros were the people that Ty learned from. As Ty grew older he began to look at where he was headed in his life and what opportunities lay ahead. He loved snowboarding and knew that he wanted to do something with that but competition wasn’t in his nature; Ty was about the ride and the personal connection between rider and mountain.

10. Alex Moreau

Nickname: The Chamonix Assassin
Nationality: French
Home Mountain: Mont BlancBio: Alex Moreau was born in the Chamonix, Mont Blanc region of France in 1985 with the spirit of competition sewn into her DNA and coursing through her veins. Her grandfather Paul Moreau was a world-class skier who led the French National ski team to the Winter Olympics in 1924 - held in the family's own backyard of Chamonix. From a very early age, Alex embraced her lineage: she was in skis when most children her age were still mastering the art of walking. By the time she'd entered grade school, the skiing trophies on her mantle outweighed the finger paintings on the family fridge. But when Alex entered high school, she caused quite a stir in the Moreau family: she traded in her skis for a snowboard. Alex set her first snowboarding record on Chamonix just 6 months later. By the time she was sixteen she had set each and every record on Chamonix - and most of the surrounding mountains. Alex knew she had found her calling. As she grew older Alex's stunning beauty and flair for fashion made her a much sought-after model, but she never forgot her roots, and defends her seven world records with a ferociousness that has earned her the nickname, "The Chamonix Assassin." 


Pre Order Bonus Character.Eddie Wachowski


















For more info visit http://www.ea.com/ssx and the uber SSX fansite http://www.merqurycity.com/