Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Thing 173 Street Fighter

Ya, that picture pretty much gives away how lame this Thing is in comparison to what goes on in the ceann when you read the title. I did not go out to the street, dressed in martial arts gear and hurl fire balls at blonde people. I did however, play a computer game.

The second reason this is lame is that I've never played Street Fighter before. I never owned a Mega Drive. I had a snes, and I limited game time to MarioKart, Mario World and Bomberman. Not bad choices if I do say so myself. The neighbours had Street Fighter, and I remember being little and watching the older kids play it. So close... yet so far. Sometimes I wonder if I even qualify for nerddom if I've never played Street Fighter.

Beat 'em up games were never my thing... until Smackdown on the PS One, which I loved. Dearly and sincerely.

Street Fighter has a cult following. It's massive. There are internet forums and Trekkie like debates over which characters are better than which. Ken versus Ryu... Honda versus Bison... Blanco versus Chun Li, and all of them in aggressive racist, late 80's early 90's stereotypes. Awesome.

They even made a genius movie... I use the term genius lightly.. VERY lightly.

CLICK HERE to see a Belgian man pretending to be American in a fight to the death...

Token Northy arrived home the other day and quietly announced he'd bought the new Street Fighter for the X-Box. Now for some logic... Token Northy lives with me. Token Northy bought Street Fighter for the x-Box. I own an X-Box. Therefor I can play Street Fighter. Cue excitement.

Honestly, I'm that slow that it took me that long to reach that conclusion.

Shortly afterwards, I didn't want to play anymore. It's all very well being excited to try to catch up on a section of childhood you managed to somehow miss, except that Pony Boy and Token Northy have muscle memory extending back about sixteen years and could remember all the good moves. I mashed the controller with my fingers and thumbs and hoped for the best.

It was not enough.

So just like my childhood, I sat there and watched the older boys play. Stupid beat 'em ups. I'll learn them good though. I'm spending all my next days off in front of the XBox. It's on...

P.S. Watching Pony Boy lose the rag when he gets beaten actually nearly makes it worth your while being a spectator. He's hilarious.


5 comments:

  1. Blanco is a talented Mexican footballer. Blanca is a talented Brazilian streetfighter (actually he's American but that's a whole other story). You are no longer one of us nerds after that error. Turn in your badge my friend, I CAST THEE OUT!

    Dar

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  2. "Watching Pony Boy lose the rag when he gets beaten actually nearly makes it worth your while being a spectator. He's hilarious."
    .....hahahaha, brilliant !! ;)

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  3. Im younger than you, grandad :p

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  4. The Walker: This is by far the most important thing you've done in your year. Sure, a marathon is impressive, smashing guitars? Pah! I've been doing that for years, and to much better guitars! But this, this had to be done Dan. You may have been cast out of Dar's club, but in doing this you've joined a much bigger and better one - all of the males on planet earth who are awesome.

    You haven't lived until you've lost your temper with a SNES/Mega Drive game and booted either the game or the console into the air. IT has to be a thing, but it has to be organic. No faking anger. You won't have to if you try and complete mario in a day.

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  5. I've been trying to get inter-building streetfighter going... all the big buildings have LED displays.. it could be awesome!... next time I'm home I'm kicking your ass in Streetfighter... train up!

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