Here is latest translation for the Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG) Brazilian fanzine: Punho do Guerreiro. Thank you to Eric and Giovane for the original issue, as well as their help with the translations.
This issue examines Karate Combat and how to implement this traditional fighting competition into Street Fighter. The next installment of the series looking at the origins of Elementals. This article looks at different Elemental cults, religious and cultural groups of mages (witches/sorcerers/etc.). There is a nice hint of Mage: the Ascension here as well, those conversion ideas were covered previously in WF8.
This issue looks at the idea of running a Mortal Kombat: Conquest setting, plus we are given character sheets for: Kung Lao, Siro, and Taja! I love the cheesy good fun with of that series, it had good character development, consequences, etc., and although I have run SFRPG games in that setting before, I never made sheets for the main characters, so it is great to see some.
The Forest Demon is an adventure about a chance to train with Ryu, but, well things go awry. The Maneuver of the Month is Butterfly Kick. This month’s Circuit Legend is the kickboxing legend: Tadashi Sawamura! Finally, information on the Brazilian Online Circuit.
Issue 24. Plus here is a link to the folder for Warrior’s Fist, which includes all the issues, the Circuit Guide, and the Mortal Kombat files. The whole folder can be downloaded as a Zip file 🙂
I present a PDF of different tables presenting the numerous articles from Punho do Guerreiro (Warrior’s Fist) in different categories. A fantastic Brazilian fanzine for Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG).
Thank you to the many contributors of Warrior’s Fist (WF). They have provided a treasure-trove of ideas. (Obrigado aos muitos contribuições da Punho do Guerreiro (PdG). Eles têm fornecido uma riqueza de ideias.)
I’ve finished translating another issue of Punho do Guerreiro, a Brazilian fanzine for Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG).
This issue contains an adventure based in Kabuki Town, which uses places and people from previous issues. A whole bunch of characters in this issue, in particular prospects from the Cobra Kai series, plus Circuit Legend: Yamada Aiko. New Maneuver: Instant Regeneration, plus on the same theme is the idea presented in Never Back Down; examining heroes that just won’t give up, presenting the possibility for PCs to use ‘Iron Will’ to stay in the fight.
I’ve finished translating another issue of Punho do Guerreiro, a Brazilian fanzine for Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG).
The last few issues have had some epic stuff, this issue maintains that level. I’ll start by mentioning the Mud Arena, it may sound straightforward, but this is a lot of mud; dirty and deadly! D&D Alignments is a complex topic, which sends many role-players off on epic rants at its mere mention, why on earth would we want Alignments in SFRPG… oh, this is quite a simple and nice adaption, adds flavour, not restrictions; definitely worth a read 😉
Rules for Traditional and Olympic Karate, sweet. More interesting strategy analysis with the School of Combos part 3. New options for Cyber characters. Rope Boost, what a fabulously simple, yet clever, maneuver, very thematic when tied with this issue’s examination of Professional Wrestling and how it fits into the Street Fighter universe.
I’ve finished translating another issue of Punho do Guerreiro, a Brazilian fanzine for Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG). More Merits & Flaws for SFRPG! Chain Combos. Rock Beach Arena and Circuit Legend: Nida. An useful article about the humanity of thugs, highlighting why even most thugs would be inclined to run away from a Street Fighter 😉 Plus the new Maneuver Flaming Hurricane Kick; Kentastic.
Another great issue by the Punho do Guerreiro team! 😀
I’ve finished translating another issue of Punho do Guerreiro, a Brazilian fanzine for Street Fighter RPG (SFRPG). Issue 1 is here, plus an explanation of why I am doing this.
Thanks to the Punho do Guerreiro team for this fun issue; extra thanks to Eric “Musashi” Souza and Giovane do Monte for their translation assistance. This issue brings Easter to SFRPG. Circuit Prospects and Circuit Legend focusing on the Karate Kid series. This issue brings a maneuver for the famous Crane Kick! Adventure: Faerie Spittle. Finally … the … Easter Bunny! Well sort of. Actually it is quite cool, definitely check this one.
Continuing on from my previous article about my favourite 8-bit fighter, the amazing Way of the Exploding Fist, or Fist for short. The follow-on to that gem is Fist 2: The Legend Continues (1986), which took the then brilliant animation and clean fighting system of Fist and made a quite different game. This new direction split the fans of the first game, since some people just wanted Fist with extra features and improvements. Thankfully for young me, Fist 2 was everything I didn’t know I wanted, adventure with some depth. Castlevania and Metroid were both released in 1986; interestingly Fist 2 can be considered a basic Metroidvania.
A crucial combat mechanic difference between Fist and Fist 2 was the introduction of a health bar; this was probably an influence from Yie Ar Kung-Fu. Otherwise combat had the same approach and depth as Fist 1.
Exploration had been added in to the mix of Fist 2. My young mind imagined that all the time I had spent playing Fist had really been preparation for this new game. That my character was now leaving the temple, exploring the wider world and utilising all that training to defeat real enemies. That the stakes were higher, the fights were not just friendly sparring matches. I am sure a lot of people can relate to the idea/feeling they got when playing games like the GTA or Souls series; the freedom of a sandbox world with some depth, plus also the visual depth and in particular the jump from GTA 1 or 2 to GTA 3 and later games.
Whilst it is true that there had been exploration games that included fighting before Fist 2, they were done in a limited way, such as the Bruce Leevideo game on the C64. Okay, a quick tangent since I wrote in the last article that Bruce Lee hadn’t been a big impact as a kid. Firstly I didn’t see any of his movies until a few years later; then they had an impact. The Bruce Lee game came out in 1984, but it was really a platform game with two attacks. Even at the age of 8, the game’s plot seemed randomly thrown together, it was quite poor; granted back then the vast majority of computer games plots were not considered important, but a good one helped. The problems were: the game was too easy, lacked game depth, and was not really a fighting game. At least the movement of the character was good, feeling both responsive and quick.
In the playground at school, Bruce Lee’s name was used all the time, so I had a vague idea of who this person was, despite him dying the year that I was born. To have his name associated with what could barely be called a fighting game was odd to me, even considering how young I was. In these days we were used to the idea that games with film or celebrity tie-ins are nearly always garbage; this is often still the case. Considering how many things over the years have metaphorically sucked the Chi from the Bruce’s Lee legend, this game overview shouldn’t be a surprise. Given what I have learned over the years about Bruce’s diverse training, including with the incredible “Judo” Gene LeBell, who was effectively the first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, it is another reason why the Bruce Lee game was such a disappointment.
There were also several side scrolling beat ‘em ups over those early years, but they were not really exploration games. Whilst I did enjoy games like Kung Fu Master (C64 1985), Double Dragon (Arcade 1987), etc., I found them to be too simple, as they generally only had a few attacks. They were quite formulaic, because the opponents generally only did one or two things themselves, easily identifiable enemies allowed a player to recognise what attack type was incoming. These types of games were often about repeating the whole process to get a higher score and complete quicker; often completing the game quicker gave bonus points based upon how much time was left. Overall fun, but not as interesting as Fist 2.
Before my tangent I had mentioned exploration. For me, the idea that a good fighting simulator could form the foundation of an adventure game was amazing. A step up from the classic text based adventures such as The Hobbit, Zork, Adventureland (Vic 20), etc.; fun but not as visually immersive. The idea that you could find and fight nuanced opponents was refreshing, plus it seemed more like the TV series Kung Fu, or the few martial art movies I had managed to watch. Also these were not like a ‘boss fight’, requiring a specific set of criteria to be performed, which typically made all the normal attacks effectively useless. Each one-on-one duel felt legitimate, since they had the full range of attacks that my character did.
In addition to enemies there were certain zones that had environmental obstacles that required a character to have more health in order to survive. Special scrolls (trigrams) were hidden away throughout the game that made a character tougher. Also temples could be found that allowed you to heal through resting, plus were used to activate scrolls. Some temples were locked away, and these required that the character have already found a certain number of scrolls to gain access to them. So between the combat, environment, as well as locked areas, the game promoted exploration in regards to trying to become as tough as possible; hence the Metroidvania association.
Fist 2 map plus screenshot from Spectrum version.
It’s not that this game was innovative, it is more that this game was well done, as well as followed up on a game I adored and meant a lot to me. Fist 2 helped form a huge part of my lifetime interests. It was years till I played another good martial arts exploration game that had a big impact on me; that game was Oni, although that game received mixed criticism, I loved it. It was a few years later when another game hit that sweet spot for me, with Jade Empire. A special mention goes to Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, even though the core of that game’s design is stealth.
Whilst there have been lots of excellent games over the years fulfilling exploration and role-play, for some reason it is rare for those game types to be mixed with empty hand martial arts, and theme matters.
A few years after playing Fist 2 I went to high school, at aged 11 I was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and the role-playing games (RPG) in general. I loved RPG, like most role-players in part because of reading The Hobbit and then Lord of the Rings. The many hours of fun of the books of Fight Fantasy, Choose Your Own Adventure, Lone Wolf. But, I also because I wanted to play the wandering unarmed martial artist, like in the TV show Kung Fu or the game Fist 2. This would lead me to one of my favourite games Street Fighter 2 (SF2) and later SFRPG.
From Way of the Exploding Fist to Street Fighter RPG 3 part series
I originally published this opinion piece in 2015 on Noobgrind, a computer game website, but since that has gone I’m posting it here. Whilst the original article’s focus was about computer games, this article is more about my influences, how old games led me to martial arts and my RPG designs.
For me Way of the Exploding Fist (WotEF / Fist) is the Mario of 8-bit fighting games! Okay, considering the cultural weight of Mario, maybe that is too strong a statement, but I do consider this game to be of that design calibre. Later beat ‘em up games like Street Fighter weren’t quite the gem, especially the 8-bit version on the Commodore 64; IMHO, not until Street Fighter 2 did things improve. Today there are many iconic fighting series, but in the mid-80s there were only a few basic unarmed combat games, nothing I would call iconic, then Fist came out! The game received a 93% from Zzap! 64 magazine in August 1985 and game of the year, plus according to the wiki page it apparently went on to become the bestselling game for both ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
Why write about a game from thirty years ago? The classic answer of it being helpful to know our roots, to understand how they influence us; even if we are not aware, which is often the case 😉 I would urge any budding game designer to check this game out, to see what the creator Gregg Barnett did with a good design, an emphasis on game-play, and a clean interface. Additionally this was achieved with a very limited amount of processing power. Also maybe check out some other quirky game ideas like Attack of the Phantom Karate Devils, if only for its novel approach to reducing the need to draw lots of graphics on the screen.
For many reasons this game carries great importance for me. It wasn’t Bruce Lee or other martial artist movies, which made me obsessed with martial arts. In 1985 my dad purchased this amazing game for our Commodore 64, the title sounded just so exciting: ‘Way of the Exploding Fist’ or the simple punchy ‘Fist’. Thankfully due to my dad, even at 9 years of age I had a tiny frame of reference in understanding how difficult combat training is; my dad is ex-military and he had studied several different styles of fighting, and he’d started teaching me. Although I was already interested in martial arts, there was unfortunately limited access to media on any style in the early 80s in the UK, and we did not have enough money to pay for lessons. Crucially for me Fist wasn’t a platformer, or a game with just a few basic attacks, no, this was my first proper fighting game, and it is more like a fighting simulator.
Anecdotes aside, the graphics and imagery were incredible, yes dated now, but in its time quite impressive. I loved how crisp the game-play felt, the fantastic movement of the character led to a great sense of tactile feedback, and the attacks felt brilliant; for me game-play is the most important factor in any game. The game had 16 moves, enough that a fight felt strategic, not formulaic. Like so many people I believe that even a point-and-click or text-based adventure needs a good feeling of interactivity, and the graphic user interface (GUI) is a key part of this. Some people criticised the game in regards to how a character turned around, but I consider this criticism to be unfair since turning was just another thing to practice; besides you could attack someone behind you. In comparison to other games of the time Fist was spectacular. The music and sound effects were great, carrying that great combination of quality, feeling right and being distinctive. The music evokes strong memories of the game, and still carries importance for me; I’ve been humming it for decades!
Although a game called Karate Champ(KC) actually came out before Fist, I didn’t come across it until afterwards, so it didn’t have any impact on me. KC had so many firsts to it, and can be considered the basis for all the fighting games to come. Whilst the arcade game, Warrior, came out in 1979, it looks and plays barely like anything in the fighting game genre. Even though it was made just a year earlier, KC was not as fluid or well-paced, nor as graphical or musically as impressive as Fist.
On a side note Yie Ar Kung-Fu came out the same year as Fist, which I also liked, it was fast, quite fluid. I was not as interested in this game, as most opponents had weapons, and I preferred unarmed combat. Crucially I thought it didn’t have that feeling of tactile weight, the jumping distance was gigantic and floaty, a Wire-Fu aesthetic. Despite there being a brief pause to indicate that a hit had landed and seeing that the opponent’s health bar went down a bit, but otherwise there was no physical effect to the opponent. Interestingly this game became the foundation of later fighting games. In contrast Fist follows the rules of full contact point sparring, with the fight pausing after a successful hit on a point scoring area, thus there are no health bars, and this approach has barely been used since. Whilst I did enjoy playing Yie Ar Kung-Fu, with it providing a different gameplay, I still preferred Fist.
Besides the excellent 1 on 1 game play, Fist also included an odd bonus level that involved a charging bull? I guess this bonus level was inspired by Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin Karate, who claimed to have fought many bulls! Like many outrageous stories in martial arts and the relationship with sports entertainment, one should be cautious about believing everything. Still, it was a cool edition to a computer game. Whilst I believe Karate Champ was probably the first game to include such bonus levels, it was years later when Mortal Kombat (MK) and Street Fighter 2 (SF2) in particular became known for popularising this level concept.
Fist included the cool and important ability to fake an attack. This does not refer to the simple idea of moving as a feint, although this can be a valid tactic in many games. What I mean is that attacks could be started but not completed; this was possible due to the great control system, which was all the better with a great micro-switch joystick. I find this particularly useful when playing against another person, plus it did seem to affect the computer controlled competitor. Nowadays whilst some games include the ability to feint, this important part of real fighting is not seen as a core feature in all fighting games, I wonder why this is?
The game was accessible due to a combination of being: well presented, there were no hidden moves, nor complicated sequences, but crucially I believe the game flow and speed elevated it. Like any good fighting game the timing was absolutely critical, and the well animated sprites allowed for good control of the timing, and therefore distance management became the first thing to consider. Because this is an important part of real fighting, it should be no surprise that this is often discussed as a crucial factor in all fighting games. Sadly there are games that lack the combination of fluid animation and character control; the amount of bad SF2 or MK clones are a testament to this issue. In some games, attacks with long animations are annoying, especially if you cannot do anything. Ideally a game should always a player to try something.
I love fighting games, I have no issue with games like Street Fighter with hidden moves, special attacks, nor the detailed list of techniques like in Tekken. It is not uncommon for new players to complain about such games being too complicated, requiring a lot of effort to learn even the basics. A modern game like Fist would go some way to providing a stepping stone in to the fighting game genre. I’ve heard it said that the UFC games maybe fulfils this a little bit, and the general fight fan is much better educated these days, but the UFC games are still somewhat complicated, since after all they are simulating Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
Another classic fighting debate is addressed by this Fist’s design, should button mashing be allowed? Although it was possible to button mash in Fist, learning the game could overcome the wild approach. This approach gave new players a chance to compete; their button mashing elevated my gameplay, and in turn helped them. I call this a successful design approach.
After a few weeks of extensive playing of Way of the Exploding Fist I got in trouble for misbehaving. I was banned from playing the computer for a few days, which at that age seemed like a lifetime! Since I dabbled in programming I was not banned from using the computer, just playing on it, so this gave me what I considered at the time, a creative workaround. I loaded the game and patiently waited, after a mini eternity I was rewarded with a successful load and the awesome music started. After about twenty seconds the computer would play against itself, so I could watch two competitors fight each other, with each attack being given added emphasis due to their kiai (spirit shouts). I had watched for an hour by the time my dad found out what I was doing, impressively he was not angry since I had not technically broken the rules. In fact he was amused by the fact that I was making my punishment more intense on myself, by having the object of my desire in such close proximity, but not being allowed to interact with it! When I explained I was watching the timing and distant management of the game he smiled, because he understood that this simple point fighting karate game actually did a great job in making this the focal part of the game.
There is no real ending to Fist, just like with real martial arts. Although I am not sure if the approach was due to design as metaphor, or more to do with just allowing a player to keep going to aim for a super high score.
The review from Zzap 64 Issue 4 August 1985 can be found here. For more information check of the game details on the wiki page. Whilst writing this article I found out that the music for this game was taken from Dance of the Yao Tribe, I had never looked it up until now; maybe that shows that a bit of hard work looking in to things you like can pay off? 😉
From Way of the Exploding Fist to Street Fighter RPG 3 part series
Batjutsu 