Unsung Moments in Video Gaming!

[Ridureyu]

This is the thread for... well, really awesome video gaming moments that either are totally forgotten, or generally acknowledged but not *really* acknowledged for their coolness. Take as much or as little time as you want, although my entry here is going to be rather long:


Super Street Fighter II Turbo: Akuma's First Appearance

Akuma, or Gouki, if you're a Japanese purist who has an anyeurism whenever somebody says "M. Bison" or "Dragon Punch," is one of Capcom's favorite villains, enough to even get a playable appearance in X-Men: Children of the Atom. He has definitely suffered from overexposure (See X-Men) and other assorted low points, ranging from karate-chopping nuclear submarines to being turned into a cyborg to pulling a Darth Vader and being Ryu's father (but only in one of the movies, and it is apparently non-canon).


Really, who thought this was a good idea?

However, he has good points, and those things are why he ever became popular in the first place. His first appearance was in Super Street Fighter II Turbo, the last Street Fighter II game before the series branched out into Alpha, III, and beating up The Incredible Hulk. Back in 1994, the concept of hidden characters in fighting games was not exactly new. Mortal Kombat had Reptile poking his head out of corners, flying in front of the moon, and announcing that if you earn enough points you can face him. The thing is, that's really not a secret, it's a puzzle to solve. You know he's there, you just need a way to face him. Akuma was different. As far as I can tell, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo did not advertise his existence at any point during the game. In fact, I don't remember hearing about him until long after the game was out in the arcades. Long, long after. With that in mind, how did you face him? To see Akuma, you had to make it up to M. Bison without losing a single round. Unfortunately, SFIIT had arguably the toughest AI of all of Street Fighter II's incarnations, making this an incredibly difficult feat. For some reason, the games that force you to go totally undefeated to see their final boss were usually the toughest around (see Art of Fighting II, in which every opponent was like a boss). If you did accompllish this, however, you got a rare treat for it. Your match with Bison would start normally, except that the music sounded different, and Bison's character portrait was blacked out. Before the match would start, Akuma dashes in, kills Bison, and challenges you. That's pretty old news, and you can read about it on Wikipedia. But what about it was cool?

Finding good youtube videos of this is fairly difficult, but a few do exist.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qdF58NP2B7U&feature=related
And the Japanese version, in which he actually speaks:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o8Up9XAZmF4 (this video makes beating him look easy. It isn't, but people tend not to want to upload videos of themselves getting their tails kicked).

Complete, absolute surprise. Try to imagine yoruself as an arcade gamer back in 1994 who's good enough to breeze through the CPU challenges. Just how would you react to this surprise?


Everything looks normal here. Except for Bison's chin.


Most gamers would not notice the blackk-out portrait, or just think that it's a glitch. The new music, though, is noticeable.


Hey, who's that?


Not Shown: Butt-kicking


Aw, crap.


I mentioned earlier that this rendition of Street Fighter was tougher than the others. This is quite true, and it certainly holds up for Akuma. Despite how the video clip makes it look, he is incredibly difficult. Many of Akuma's moves have infinite priority, he is very fast, and the damage is atrocious. His fierce Dragon Punch, for example, has priority over anything, comes out with no warning, and does nearly 50% damage. Of special note, Akuma had no super meter, nor did he possess a super move. Before he fights you he kills Bison off-screen, leaving you to imagine how it happened, but that later became his famous "Raging Demon" attack. I kind of like its initial conception not as an attack, but just a random slaughter. It helps the "Oh, crap" part of the fight.


This is the result of one attack.

I have played games in which he did nothing but the quick, low Dragon Punches in a row, effectively rendering himself invincible. He was not just a head-swap of Ryu with sandals, as Akuma also had a few new moves, such as his now-infamous teleport, the ability to toss two fireballs in mid-air (were there any other aerial projectiles in that game?), and the fact that he just kind of wins by existing. Akuma was unfair and beat the stuffing out of you, but by then you felt you deserved it. Say goodbye, winning streak!


See how Bison has no health left? Keep in mind that this player hadn't lost a match before this fight.


Another point is the music. Akuma's theme has been remixed often, but nearly every new version of it emphasizes its "asian" sound (not that there really was one in SSF2T). The original, as low-tech as it is, contains a driving, dangerous "final battle" intensity that is completely missing from all of its remixes. And the less that is said about his theme music in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, the better. Akuma's theme music in Super Street Fighter II Turbo enhanced the fight as a "final battle" incredibly well. It's surprisingly hard to find an MP3 of this theme when compared to other Street Fighter music.


Akuma's identity was kept a complete secret in-game. Notice that his name is not bemeath his health bar. They did something similar in the Game Over screen by blacking out his face and not giving him a win quote.


Don't worry, Bison. It's okay to cry.

I managed to find some acknowledgement of his existence in Bison's ending, although it goes by pretty fast if you're not paying attention.


No, actually you just fought him.


to be continued