About a month ago, video game website Arcade Sushi released a list of the “10 Most Bizarre Fighting Game Characters.” After a while it circulated around to the shores of Japan where it was translated and submitted to the fighting gamers here for consideration.
In true fighting game fashion, we thought it would be fun to pit Arcade Sushi’s 10 fighters against suggestions made by gamers in Japan. So put your quarters up and let’s see who emerges the King of Weird Characters.
This fight will consist of 10 rounds, each pitting one of Arcade Sushi’s 10 Most Bizarre characters against one suggested by a Japanese netizen.
Granted “Brad Wong” isn’t the zaniest of names, but this guy uses the ancient Drunken kung fu (zui quan). Although it looks like he can barely stand up straight, this method is highly unpredictable to opponents and leaves them open to unexpected strikes. It’s a little strange but really more co–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Also with a rather bland name and appearance, Captain Sawada was a minor character in the Street Fighter movie but given a major role as a playable character in the game adaptation of a movie adaptation of a game.
Captain Sawada has a few quirks that occurred during his development but what truly jacks up his weirdness is his super-move which involves raising his arms straight into the air and running shirtless right into his opponent. Based on my experiences that’s real drunken fighting!
WINNER: Captain Sawada
Dr. Boskonovitch is definitely…what? They didn’t choose him?
Well, Eddy Gordo and Christie Moteiro are kind of strange too with their chiseled good looks and mastery of capoeira… Maybe this is some kind of statement on unrealistic body images for impressionable youth? I mean sure, if they would have given Eddy a whole disco loo–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
In true team battle fashion, Japanese netizens are putting their weakest offering against this sure-fire win. Bulleta (aka Baby Bonnie Hood) wavers dangerously close to the very cool side of weird with her vast arsenal of automatic weaponry. But what keeps her anchored in the bizarro world is her special move of attacking opponents with her streams of tears.
WINNER: Bulleta
As far as character design goes, he was really ambitious – a fighter who could transform into any other fighter with the right button combination had a lot of promise. Hell if I could remember more than one or two, though. I’m pretty sure other people cou–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Hailing from a monstrosity of a Sega Saturn fighter, Heart Heat Harn carries his own head around by his pony tail. Also, much like Shang Tsung he can morph into other characters. Well, only one character actually, but it’s the one with the best name ever: Strawbelly Jam! Enough said.
WINNER: Heart Heat Harn
Ma…HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Kusaregedo is similar to Blackheart in being a creature spawned of evil behavior, but he stands apart in not being badass at all. Playing as him makes Zangief feel like a nimble grasshopper and he looks like a guy way too old to be trading baseball cards with you in the back of his van.
His finishing move involves jumping off-screen with his opponent and eating them alive as they scream in pain. Pretty much everything about him is unsettling and weird and I feel icky discussing him further.
WINNER: Kusaregedo Youkai
Alright, now we’re talking! Arakune is what remains of a scientist who had gone too far in his endeavors. Now he barely clings to his humanity as a pile of ooze, dust and insects. This oddball’s going to be tough to beat!
…
Um, He als–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Starting out in the World Heroes series, the Russian magician was a prophet of love. However somewhere along the way he seemed to get a little carried away with his notion of love with special moves like this…
That’s pretty creepy but not quite a-blanket-full-of-bugs level of creepy.
WINNER: Arakune
The dousing himself with oil mid-fight is a little zany but I always though the strangest thing about Hakan was how the artists for all intents and purposes decided to give a normal human such an odd maraschino-cherry-red skin–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Ikkyu is an animated Jizo statue…very animated as it spends most of its downtime unnecessarily wobbling back and forth like Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. It also fights by hurling sutras at foes. At the end of the fight one of these sutras can cause the opponent’s entire upper half to explode in a fountain of blood and intestines. Now that’s Buddhism, baby!
Still, why is Hakan so damn red?!
WINNER: Hakan
Animals have been used in fighting games before but Iggy bri–HERE COMES aw son of A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Neco Arc Chaos shares Iggy’s small size making both of them difficult to fight against. However, Neco Arc Chaos is a chain-smoking cat who also comes in the larger-sized mecha version, Neco Chaos Black 666. It also has many moves which involves spitting something up. If I were a cat, I would aspire to be it.
WINNER: Neco Arc Chaos
Yeah, Voldo certainly should belong on any list of weird fighting game characters. Although he can be fun to control I always felt queasy after winning and having to sit through his victory poses…
Well? I’m done, go ahe–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Blitztank certainly is unique among fighting game characters in that it’s a freakin’ tank with a freakin’ skull that shoots lasers!
Blitztank would normally be a formidable foe in any weird character battle…but damn, that Voldo is gross looking. This is a tough one…
DRAW
This list really should just be made entirely up of Guilty Gear characters as a good deal of them are as out there as you can get. From a cast that includes Faust whose moves include slamming you in the face with an inter-dimensional door, to the possessed Zappa, and Dizzy a robot with an angel and devil stuck to her back. Zato-One and his ability to manipulate darkness through an alien parasite, however, is one of the original cast members and it was nice that Arcade Sushi acknowledged that.
Wow, I did i–HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Similar and yet completely opposite to Zato-One, Kira is a girl who rather than darkness manipulates water to do her fighting. She gets the win in this one since although Zato-One is unorthodox, he’s still the kind of thing you might expect to find in a fighting game. Girls with school-issue swimsuits and cat ears…not so much.
WINNER: Kira Daidohji
The godfather of bizarre fighting game characters indeed. When it comes to weirdness Dhalsim was through with it before you all knew what to do with it. Even today, his stretchy legs and arms make him a formidable opponent while still holding on to mysteries like how he can say “yoga flame” while spitting out fire at the same time. His prestige alone in the fighting game genre makes him a tough one to beat.
…
Okay, I’m done. You can go.
…
Come on now. (I think they’re scared.)
…
HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!!
Thank you.
Double is…I don’t know what she/it is but some kind of nun monster that fights with eight-balls and…Gradius. See for yourself in this demonstration video, but if you can understand anything in it, I’m sorry. That probably means you probably have a severe case of ADHD.
And so, with only the utmost respect to Dhalsim we have to give credit where credit is due and award the last round to…
WINNER: Double
And the final score is…
Despite the loss, Arcade Sushi really deserves a hand for their efforts. They opted for more mainstream games particularly 3D fighters which don’t have the same potential for craziness that 2D ones do. They also made the effort to tip their hats to the more legendary oddball martial artists more. One the other hand, the Japanese fighting game fans often dipped into the world of doujin (fan-made works) which is a fertile breeding ground of the bizarre.
As any seasoned fighter knows, in the end it’s the battle that matters, not the result. And if we can keep getting newer and weirder characters to fight with in games to come, then everyone’s a winner.
Source: Arcade Sushi (English) via Kotaku Japan, My Game News Flash (Japanese)
Video: YouTube – DestructionBomb, Nekketsu Game TV, Insenity, Famitsu Tube, Soul Snatching, RoboMelvana, Angst Overlord, Raylind Donnelly, kurokodairanburanbu-chan, MegamanNG, Bilgi Dunyasi, IGN, HystericalGameZ, BoggyTheWorm, Bain Street Productions, Dwayne Schwartz, TheloTheGreat, nobodyknows182, 4GamerMovie, SyaoranQ8, Mario Souza, GameSpot, Nakamuu On TV
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Origin: Website makes list of “10 Most Bizarre” fighting game characters, Japanese fans beg to differ
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