Home

Karate Supers is a label that I've coined (and as far as I know, I'm the only one to use and accept) for a very specific type of fighting game, which is played on a two dimensional field, where two (usually) unarmed combatants will fight. The genre also is notable for being pioneered and largely still made by companies in Japan, and features characters that have superhuman powers and act like superhero comic book characters, except seen through a Japanese cultural lens instead of an American one. In that sense, the characters can be seen as comparable in many respects to Batman or Spider-man or Captain America--which is curious because some games in the Karate Supers subgenre do indeed feature American comic book characters. But mostly it's the original Japanese characters and games that we're talking about. In spite of the foreign nature of the genre--and I'm admittedly not really any kind of Japanophile by any means--the Karate Supers genre has widespread, universal appeal, much as American comic book superheroes do, and some of the games of the Karate Supers genre have enjoyed global popularity and recognition.

So what games exactly are we talking about here, then? There's a lot, and many of them are also-rans and imitations, or spin-offs, or other such things like that, but I'm specifically talking about the kinds of games that are like the Street Fighter series. I've been in love with Street Fighter since the late 80s when the first Street Fighter game came out, but in the next few years when Street Fighter II was released, the genre really exploded, and its widespread popularity was ensured, I really went along for the ride. So, while there are other examples that can be found, my real purpose in coining this label is to talk about the Street Fighter franchise, and the spin-off Capcom franchise Darkstalkers, as well as the rival franchises from SNK like Fatal Fury and King of Fighters.

And what exactly am I proposing to do with this stuff? There's already a horde of things on the internet about these games; what do I hope to add to the mix? Well, actually... I've been wanting to write a fan fiction for many years that combines characters and plot elements from all of those four franchises and weaves them together into a new tapestry that resembles each of the sources, but which enriched by the presence of the others. This means an adaptation, not a faithful reproduction of the plots and character elements, and many things will have to be changed to make them all work. Besides, just retelling the existing stories; that seems kinda weak. If I'm not doing something new with the elements of character and setting and potential plot points, then what's the point?

This weaving together of elements is helped by the notion that many of the Street Fighter, Fatal Fury and King of Fighters characters; villains in particular, already have a very Darkstalker-like vibe to them; so all four of the franchises and their characters can be weaved together as supernatural and mystical "colleagues" of each other, so to speak. It even makes sense to combine stuff in a very particular way; the Orochi Saga of King of Fighters, for example, are trying to break a seal and free their sealed demon-god Orochi to destroy humanity. Jedah from Darkstalkers is also trying to open a sealed portal between Earth and the Makai, or demon-land, and is stealing souls to forge them into a new being, the horrible fetus thing in his stage from Darkstalkers 3. Doesn't it make perfect sense to combine these notions, somehow? I think so. The fact that Majigen and Orochi are different beings doesn't really matter when conceptually they are the same. Besides, I always thought that the Heralds of Orochi were pretty stupid anyway, and replacing them with some other characters, from Darkstalkers maybe, isn't a terrible idea.

The cloning and super-science world domination plots of Shadaloo and NESTS are also directly comparable and almost, in fact, identical. One side effect of doing things this way is that I will be forced to cherry-pick elements that I prefer, and ignore elements or characters that I'm not interested in, even if they, in fact, are of very high importance in the original plot and games from whence they came. The Heralds of Orochi are a prime example of that; of the bunch, really only Goenitz is a character that I care about. This is convenient, because there really is a lot of redundancy; what's the difference between the Orochi organization, the Darkstalkers, and the "Those From the Past" organization really, anyway? What's the difference between Shadaloo, S.I.N. and N.E.S.T.S.? Anyway, I think that point has been aptly made.

So that's the kind of thing that I'll be changing.

I do think it amusing that Shadaloo and NESTS have developed to the point where they are also very direct analogs to H.Y.D.R.A. of early Marvel fame. Keep in mind that HYDRA was originally meant to not necessarily be a Captain America villainous organization, although it did kind of develop that way over time, but as a villainous organization for SHIELD and Nick Fury to face. At the time, it was directly analogous to James Bond and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. type stuff, which Stan Lee has given direct credit to for inspiring him. Also curiously, Larry Hama had been trying to pitch a revival of this idea with a Fury Force comic book which would be based on SHIELD super-soldiers and spies up against HYDRA back in the 80s, but wasn't having much luck with the Marvel brass. But when the Hasbro CEO and the Marvel President met by chance at a fundraiser, they got to talking and Galton (Marvel) proposed helping Hasbro come up with a backstory for the GI. Joe line that Hasbro was wanting to launch. Hama got involved and dusted off his Fury Force concept. GI Joe was thus exactly the concept of SHIELD adapted slightly for Hasbro, and Hama created Cobra Command--Hasbro had initially had no intention of coming up with villains for Joe to fight. And Cobra Command was literally the exact same as HYDRA. When you watch movies like Winter Soldier, keep in mind that that's exactly what GI Joe should have looked like. GI Joe ended up being Marvel's most popular title through much of the 80s and is credited with bringing an entire generation of comic book readers into the fold. But more to the point on this blog, since HYDRA and Cobra Command are directly analogous not only to each other but also to NESTS and Shadaloo (and S.I.N. and to some extent, Gill's Illuminati organization too) look that direction for inspiration. Mixing up the super-science comic book villains of NESTS and Shadaloo with the more directly mystical/supernatural villains of Orochi, the Darkstalkers, Akuma, etc. gives me two completely different directions to go with villains. Even three, if I add some basic criminal enterprises like Mad Gear Gang and the Howard Connection but I'm a little too spoiled for choice. There's too many redundant organizations, so I can't do them all without cherry-picking my favorite characters and collapsing some of the organizations into each other.

Now, I know that fan fiction doesn't really have a good reputation. Sadly, this is not unfair. There is a huge, and I mean HUGE pile of really, really, bad, cringey, and awkward fan fiction out there. The vast majority of it is terrible. That said; I've seen some good fan fiction related to Street Fighter and other properties here and there in the past. And honestly; what's the difference between fan fiction written by a no-talent hack who at least loves the characters and the franchise, and official fiction written by no-talent hacks who hate the franchise and want to turn it into something other than what the fans have always loved about it? (I'm looking directly at both Marvel and Star Wars here...) To be honest with you, I've sadly had to come to the conclusion that much of what our entertainment industries puts out is completely incapable of and not even meant to entertain us anyway, which is why those industries are failing so badly and posting huge, embarrassing flops. This has been going on in the novel industry, the comic book industry, the movie industry, and with the release of Last of Us 2 (not that this is the first, but it's the biggest, highest profile example) even the video game industry. They are so converged by SJWs that these industries are incapable of completing their most basic function. So, we turn to other sources, and if we want to be entertained, we better hope that there are indie creators out there who have more capability than the talentless losers who are doing it professionally. To be honest with you, even the worst fan fiction can't be too much worse than some of what Marvel comics and Star Wars is doing, for example. So, I'm feeling once again the call to attempt to rise to the challenge and put my own work into the ring.

In that regard, I've established for myself a rather intimidating task. Although I tend to like stories that move around from multiple point of view characters in order to establish cliffhangers and tension, the reality is that even pruning the potential protagonist characters down tremendously, there are a lot of characters to use. So I'll need to just focus on my favorites and leave it at that. My favorites are not necessarily the developers favorites, nor necessarily fan favorites, though--and not only will I be changing plenty of plot details, but I'll be doing other things to just wring the most out of the characters that I can. This means potentially changing things in their bios and whatnot too; but we'll see how far I go with this. The whole point of using established characters is to use them after all, but I can't just reproduce what's already there, or what's the point? Anyway, I hope that this is something that piques the interest of those who find this, but even if it's not, I'll do it for my own benefit, because I like doing this kind of thing. We'll see where it goes, but I can guarantee that it'll be a pretty wild ride no matter what.