As much shit as Ono got over V I gotta give him his due respect for getting us 4. Dude clearly loves SF and is extremely passionate about it, something I relate to wholeheartedly. I'm almost 42 now and I still love, live and breathe Street Fighter as a whole. It's an absolutely massive part of my life and until the day I die I'll always cherish the memories I made in the arcades in the 90's. That game, 2 in particular, helped a kid from the ghetto in LA during some rough times stay off the streets and was one of the only things I was genuinely passionate about. I made friends and enemies, spent countless hours playing not only that but KoF, World Heroes, MK, MvC, the list goes on and on. Love these in depth videos so very much, they really are something special to me just like Street Fighter, and fighting games as a whole.
This episode was worth the wait. Love how Keiji Inafune has become a villain in this Street Fighter story only for him to be the one who brought back Nishiyama and as a result Dimps, that is some documentary level stuff right there
Inufuna has a bad reputation nowadays because of M#9 but people forget that at Capcom, if he supported a project then he went all out. That level of dedication is worthy of respect.
@@FeiFongWang Personally, the theory is good, but he ignored two key things: 1. His vision of "Western Audiences" in that era was founded on a concept of "0% Weebs" and...no, dude. You GOTTA pump that number closer to 25-30%. And that might STILL be lowballing it, at least a little. 2. Even if you aren't, the stink of hollow, plastic, art doesn't really sell ANYONE on ANYTHING. At BEST, with an active IP quickly getting plastic, you get short term gain, long term loss. At worst...Bionic Commando 2009.
To be fair, Ono talked probably as his own ambition. He wanted to move from SF4 to Darkstalkers 4. Then he took (or, let's be honest, shoved himself) a SFxTK in the knee.
Anyone else mad at how easy it used to be to get a job. Jim Shooter was 14 years old when he reached out to DC about Legion of Super Heroes and they just hired him. They didn't know he was 14, but they hired him and he became a writer and they didn't know for at least another couple of years. You could literally just say "I'm a fan, here's some stuff" and you'd get into a major company of the thing you love. Does that happen anymore?
Considering how much high quality fan content you can find online now, it kinda 'devalues' all of it. If there're thousands of people who could get hired like your examples, then none of them stand out anymore. You can't hire all of them. So the only way to choose one is to wait for them to apply professionally (aka get lucky enough to pass through automated resume management systems) or to hire someone you know and goes above everyone else, which gets harder the more skilled fans you can see.
@@grimpthemeltedchimp4705in addition to this, I think these industries have just gotten more professional as time has passed. Things inevitably become less driven my a small group of novice creatives and more so business-minded people and seasoned professionals who have higher standards now.
@@thedapperdolphin1590 I mean, depends on what you mean by higher standards. Cause there are lots of extremely talented fans that could work for companies like Capcom and have their work for right in. But I do agree that game companies have gotten more corporate, along with budgets ballooning and microtransactions flourishing. They've helped give themselves more stakes per each project, so they have more reasons to avoid taking chances on fans, even if their work is incredible. Besides, if you just ignore the fans and let them publish their work online, that's free promotion. Capcom could hire Thorgie to make fully featured, official Street Fighter retrospectives (just as an example), but why bother when people like him do this work for free (from the company's perspective). All Capcom would do in this example, is raise production quality and advertisements. And the video isn't hurting in those departments on its own.
I have to admit, i teared up during this episode. I was a HUGE Fighting Game fan back in the Nineties and after the arcades died, I thought Fighting Games were just a dead genre. But seeing that SF4 trailer again put me back in that glorious time when FIGHTING GAMES WERE BACK!! And everybody loved them again! SF4 lead to Mortal Kombat 9, the first ever Mortal Kombat to make the big stage at EVO, and KOF XIV, which brought SNK back from the dead! The Fighting Game genre has been going strong for the last fifteen years now! And while I miss the feeling of striding up to a machine at an arcade or a bowling alley or a 7-11 and challenging whoever, we're experiencing it in a new way now!
It's funny how fans complained about a lack of street fighter 3 characters in street fighter 4 back then and now we have that same problem today in sf6 lol
Yup. There is still not a single SF3 representative character in SF6, and I don't really know why. We have a rep for SF4 (Juri) and SF5 (Rashid & Ed), but we couldn't reserve one spot for 3rd Strike. I would have replaced E-Honda, but Capcom has a tradition of always bringing back the World Warriors.
@@101Youfailits concerning how many franchises have this sort of problem. Even outside of the gaming space you have series like transformers and power rangers that keep defaulting back to their original/most popular versions. Those being generation one and mighty morphin
Considering the original pitch for Street Fighter 4 with Flashback and the fact that the original Final Fight was called Street Fighter '89, you can say the story went full circle with the genre swap
@@sollato0293 Seriously, Capcom has done a complete 180 in its focus. They were pushing Onimusha and Mega Man all over the place. Nowadays, they get literally the greatest selling Mega Man games of all time and still ignore the Blue Bomber; who used to be their flagship character.
Pre release: This video is probably gonna be 4 hours, all of which I will enjoy. Post release: This is amazing! It’s a good couple of days for fighting game fans
You know, I have to thank this channel for making me rethink my views on Yoshinori Ono and Keiji Inafune. Didn't know that they single-handedly created, revived and almost destroyed Mega Man and Street Fighter, until I found the retrospectives.
Same. Plus hey, he embraced the goofiness of SF much like I embrace the goofiness of the animated series. He just went too far which is subjective IMO.
Just give us a *real* progression and (multiple) unlockables. Change the core gameplay from time-to-time, not just "fight, now fight again." Just make Fighting Games fun! Give us a reason to play from start to finish, not just "Go Online, bro! The Offline are *always* barebones." Racing Games (usually) get this right, so what's going on to Fighting Games? Heck, you know a Fighting Game story mode *SUCKS* when the side survival mode has more to do than the main mode...
Same along with stages. I prefer unlocking characters (preferably a number that take up 30% of the roster) especially if it forces you to try out certain modes and characters.
I once deleted my Smash 3DS data JUST so I could unlock the entire cast again through shit like Smash run. And I LOVED playing smash run it was worth it. I'd never do it again tho lol
i do too(which street fighter 6 & other recent fighting games that aren't super smash bros. should really lean more towards again instead of characters that should've been in base being dlc.)
@@BradPrichard hated the char at first but was fun to mess with against other players. And in pro tournaments i remember a few players going nuts with him. Was always fun to see!
Honestly, the way you described fighting games in the 2000’s is less of a dark age, and more of a console age. Where many franchises thrived or died based on their ability to master the console market.
It's weird because the same thing can be said about RPGs. Bethesda + Bioware won the era by making god damn great console games, but marketing them AS console games.
I really think like Thorgi said in the video, another major factor is that it was the time general audience and company assumed that 2d=the past. (or handheld game) and everything had to be 3d. Notably, the franchises that thrives at the time Like Tekken, Soul Calibur where the 3d one. Sure, there where still 2d games like Guilty Gear on PS2, and KoF games kept coming out despite SnK reccuring troubles, but overall 2d versus fighting went from the biggest genre in gaming to something played by fans of 2d fighting games. Ironically, now this is kinda becoming the opposite (probably due to how expensive games major games devellopement have become). 2d fighting game are doing good, but the only 3d fighting serie still getting major attention is Tekken.
@@kyokyodisaster4842 Eh, the Dark Age for RPGs is less "the 2000s" and more 2009-April 2015. BioWare fell apart, Bethesda, already kinda white bread bland, was reaching saltine cracker levels, Atlus was mostly gone, Square Enix was going all in on Final Fantasy XIII, the New Vegas mess, and CDPR looked like just an over-ambitious rookie. The highlight RPG of that period was South Park! But now? Oh, we've got it GOOD now.
Switching well to consoles was definitely a factor, but a massive portion of them died not just due to a lack of singleplayer content but a lack of any interest in 2D. that's way more than just an adaptation issue, and it required a reformatting of everything they had in order to survive back in the day. They would become something else entirely.
Ironically, I got into fighting games during the "dark times" if the early/mid 2000's. Didn't even know it too. Played a ton of CVS2 and Nest and Ash saga KOF. It was good times for me.
I'm not going to lie, it seems that from 2000 to 2010 is the best era of fighting games (the best tekken, the best Street fighter, the best KOF, the best Virtua Fighter, the best Dead or Alive, the best Guilty Gear, the best Mortal Kombat, the best Samurai Shodown, the best SoulCalibur, the best Marvel vs Capcom, the best Capcom vs SNK, etc...) is almost ridiculous
We absolutely need a video on the Dark Age of Fighting Games! You hit the nail on the head that, regardless of the quality of games at the time, lack of gathering places and being largely before netplay (and before *good* netplay with most of the exceptions there) mean it's a rough time to actually want to play these games with and against *people.* But it's also a time period where lots of *weird* games came out, and the bones of a lot of modern classics were forged. It's absolutely a space worth and in need of exploring.
Thorgi, I hadn't watched your channel in months then I decided to rewatch your KOF retrospective now I have this. I have finals on Thursday for hard classes and this makes me happy thank you. SF4 was my first Street fighter
2:04:07 I can tell you that Sagat and Dhalsim are paired because in the Udon comics, Sim is the one that helped Sagat cope with his defeat at the hands of Ryu.
loved their moments in the udon comics(reminds me of in the street fighter anime 2v sagat telling ryu about him after trying to be taught alongside foreshadowing sagat becoming friends with ryu in 4.:3) & at least makes sense. compared to juri/m. bison(where outside the obvious betrayal she's as much as i love her not taking bison's name in a one on one fight.),ibuki/rolento(which felt more done to put characters as outside referencing ibuki's costume in super gem fighter her with sakura,makoto or kunimitsu/yoshimitsu would've been fun to see) & definitely zangief/rufus(where it should've been r. mika instead of 2 just mean fake-outs.).
Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition for the XBOX 360 is what got me into Street Fighter in the first place. It made my childhood. Plus it introduced me to one of my top favorite female fighting game characters of all time, Juri Han.
Being a Capcom kid myself, I didn't feel the "Dark Age" like many others. Me and the boys would play Capcom vs. SNK 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Don't get me wrong, we played Dead or Alive, Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat, Soulcalibur, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter as well, but Capcom games were also always in rotation.
@@Dracobyte See, you didn't really listen to anyone here. Midway went bankrupt, Nintendo was barely considered FGC at the time, I didn't know any human in real life who had heard of Arksys
Ryu didn't die at the end of Street Fighter x Tekken, the box transported him to the world of Ashura's Wrath. He runs into Ashura and they get into a fight that takes them to the moon. Akuma shows up out of nowhere and Tatsus Ryu so hard that it sends Ryu back to the SF4 world
Tbf, that's just fan speculation given the setup. I've checked but I've found no confirmation that this was the case. Only thing I found was that none of this was canon and it's just fun DLC that we tried to make sense of pointlessly.
that's a similar thing i thought cause with how world breaking strong asura is/the ways he got over & controlled his anger from grief would make sense for ryu & akuma to be brought over to him though poor ken at the end not knowing what happened to his best friend/similar thing that happens to jin and xiayou.(tbh with that,the other misfortune that happens to some characters in their endings even if comical at times & eddy nearly dying to christies horror in the vita stories would say that's a more real solid reason for fans hating ingrid as the events of that game are her fault.)
Special voice acting note about Seth! He not only played Lelouches Father in Code Geass, he also played Schartzvald in Big O, The Litch King in WOW and the original Vampire Hunter D! Just to name a few!!!
"Why would anyone hack the game? That's illegal!" And, mind you, games had been getting cracked illegally for over 20 years at this point; Even arcade machines were vulnerable to getting cracked back in the 80's and 90's. The amount of ignorance and dumbassery in that statement by staff from Capcom Japan just screams "We have no goddamn clue how the gaming industry works whatsoever." They paid the price for their arrogance in the end...
@@dnmstarsi Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame said the reason he left Capcom is because he felt that they grown too big. Making good games isn't enough anymore, if your games doesn't meat Capcom's exceptions it's a problem.
"Street Fighter 4" will always have a special place in my Heart, it not only got me into introducing the entire Franchise, but has Won me back into playing 2-D Fighting Games again since my KOF 99 Days.
I grew up in SoCal, more specifically Orange County. During the mid to late 00’s, streetwear had a burgeoning community especially with local brands like IMKING, Orisue, Franco Shade, Triumvir, and more famously, LRG, that would rub shoulders with the likes of The Hundreds, HUF, Black Scale, and Diamond to name a few. One of those brands, Triumvir (stylized as Triumvir3), was based out of my hometown of Santa Ana. Out of the blue, they did a collab with Capcom for Street Fighter IV, releasing shirts with artwork from the previous entries and some original designs (the Balrog/Mike Tyson in Supreme. Still my personal favorite). They premiered at our local skate/streetwear shop called Avenue (later named OCGS) with Street Fighter IV also set up for the public to play. It was one of, if not the very first instance of two different cultures converging. Fashion, and gaming. These days it’s commonplace to see collaborations like this happening, but in 2008, as a kid that loved fashion and video games, this was a dream come true, especially from dudes that were from my neck of the woods.
Quick correction about sf4 3D - you totally can play the game normally, and can totally remap everything. So you could get rid of anything being on the touch pad Or set up a one button ex spd. Dealers choice
Back in the day there was definitely a story doing the rounds that Seth Killian was not only a great help but also a master player of A LOT of the cast. Which impressed the devs and (as sf4 seth has facets of A LOT of the cast) that’s also why the char was named after him.
This types of videos is like a nerd's wet dream. Well researched video essays with the fonts cited in the description about a very niche subject? Thorgi you are an angel for doing this for us
SFIV 3D Edition was the first Street Fighter I owned as a christmas gift for the 3DS in 2011 when I was in middle school, sorry if that made you feel old.
@@glacierwolf2155 a lengthy retrospective!? Surely Thorgi would never do such a thing 😉. I barely played blaz blue but loved that retrospective and would surely wath a gg one as well!
1:34:58 I still remember being surprised by that since Microsoft has always been a "We don't give a fuck about Japanese dev'ed games. Hell, it took us until 2024 to give a shit about the Persona series."
Thank you for giving a much more in depth explanation on the "Dark Age of Fighting Games" era, because everytime I heard someone else explain it all they would say is "no Street Fighters", it really helped shed a light on what was going on in that time of fighting games.
It really had to do with brand recognition. People were definitely familiar with Tekken and Soul Calibur, albeit the majority were casual fans, but Street Fighter was almost as household a name as Nintendo or Kleenex, and it was gone. There's a reason why Street Fighter is a pillar of Evo, and it's not because of whatever support Capcom gives it. It's unfair, but fact is while there were a lot of fantastic games out there, people just weren't aware of them. Hell, I wasn't aware of Guilty Gear XX until a cousin came to visit us, and my mom wanted to buy us both a game to commemorate it (I got CvS2).
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy! I love the channel and the content and I was super sad that no new videos regarding retrospectives were uploaded Thank you so much t.
Dude, I don't know how you don't have any more subs than you do. You put a lot of heart into these, they are very informative and your humor is spot on. Keep up the good work, I look forward to more videos!
The Street Fighter IV times were wild, I can still remember how SFxT dominated the videogames news when it was about to release... and only for the bad reasons. Also, Juri is goated.
Personal story: SF4 came out around the time I was getting back into the series. I had played SF2 in the arcades before and it was one of my favorite games, and when I got my PS1 I would get my hands on MVC and CVS but I wasn't that into Street Fighter at that time. Then one day, my step-father got me the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on the PS2, and I became obssesed with Street Fighter. Then I got the Street Fighter 2 Annyversary Collection, played the hell out of that, and soon after that Capcom was like "YO! STREET FIGHTER 4 IS COMING!" and my brain exploded! Lol
I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I appreciate this long form meticulously researched and presented content, it is always appreciated when you upload Thorgi. Thank you!
I got into fighting games because of sf4. I randomly played a rented version of ultra street fighter 4, and I ended up buying the 3ds version. I learned fighting games with the 3ds circle pad. You totally can do specials with motion inputs, the touch screen had 4 slots you could customize for each character to have basically any move including supers, ultras, specials, normals, and even focus attack. I learned motion inputs so that I can change the moves on my touchscreen to harder moves. It felt like I was genuinley learning to do each special move, and with each one I learned I unlocked another new move. I have such fond memories of that game, and it’s funny that I learned to love fighting games on possibly the worst controller besides the WiiMote.
Street fighter 4 is a game that personally holds a bit of a special place in my heart. I never played vanilla 4 but I will never forget that really really dope as hell opening that was used in the promotional opening for the game and when I did play super street fighter 4 I had a lot of fun with it. Though I will say that there are plenty things I do remember street fighter 4 also for and they are: The final time capcom at this point stopped with the let's sell you the same version of the game again but with only a few new characters strategy. Now Ryu is voiced by Gohan, Ken is voiced by Dante, Chun Li is now Keiko from Yu Yu Hakusho, Guile is Roy Mustang, Cammy is Winry but Brtish and finally thanks to Juri, Everyone now loves their psycho chicks in fighting games to the point where nearly every new one has to add them in. But at the very least the game did bring back the fighting game genre to the point where it's at right now and I will always appreciate it for that. Great job Throgi and man, I will miss...... THE RUMBLE FISH!!! Now you're gonna make me sad every time you're not gonna reference it ever again lol.
SF4 has such a special place in my heart. It came out around the last times my friends from high school still hung out together. I already had reputation as the Street Fighter guy among my friends and then cemented that by "out Seth'ing Seth" with El Fuerte in an attempt to unlock all the characters.
It has taken me a couple days to get through it in parts, but loved it. Thanks for putting together these amazing retrospectives. Bringing back old memories and learning new things along the way. Great work!
As a Mega Man fan who suffered from the dark age of the Blue Bomber, I genuinely love that Mega Doofus. Seriously, he's my main in SFxT even though there's still issues and I wish he came back since I think he was a victim of poor timing. Also fun fact: Ken's current VA was also the Red Carranger (which became the Red Turbo Power Ranger) in Super Sentai so even before Battle for the Grid and MvC3, Ryu was fighting Power Rangers.
Honestly, you can make a whole series of the fighting game dark age and just pick out like one game an episode. I'd watch that for hours literally just realized that I just described this whole series
Consistently blown away by how in depth you manage to make these without making it feel like a slog. I’m going to be sad when this series is over, you have so much to be proud of
I thought we were friends. You almost didn't mention the Cammy & Charlie 3d shooter I missed and NO ONE told me about. I'm getting this game right now. Where has the been all m life. So many Dreamcast I have come across in my lifetime and never this
Yes I would love to see a video on the dark age of fighting games. As somebody introduced to the FGC just this past year, this has quickly become one of my favourite channels ever. Thanks for all the work you already put out my friend
While I honestly like 6 and 5 way more than 4 nowadays, I can’t deny the release of 4 was something magical, I still remember being in high school and being super excited for it, I remember ditching school early with a buddy and riding our bikes to GameStop to pick up our copies. People in my class were talking about it.
I've been a fighting games enthusiast since SF2 first hit the scene. I was 9 in 91' but in 2000, when I graduated high school to 2009, when SF4 came out, the only fighting games I really played were Tekken and MK. Most of my favorites have been on the Dreamcast only, and when mine broke, that was the end of that. When SF4 came out I was instantly thrown back into the FGC, but I had a limited income, two jobs and a wife and kid,so...... for years I had saw games like Blaze blue and Guilty Gear in Gamestop but never knew what they even were. Outside of the top 8 or 9 franchises SF, MK, Tekken, SC, VF, KI and DoA, I had no clue so many fighting games existed still. I remember stuff like Pit Fighter, Eternal Champions, Shaq-Fu, Clay fighters, and Primal Rage, but I didn't learn about stuff like Skull Girls until 2022! Also MvC2 is STILL my favorite game of all time ...of any genre!
As someone who got into fighting games when they were in a place where everything gets competitive play, I can't help but look back at The Dark Age like how Patrick reacted to Sandy's Treedome. Like, it was going on when I was alive, but it feels almost alien.
Juri Han became such a phenomena since she debuted in SFIV that gone to become a main stay in the franchise of SFV & SFVI. Tho I will say despite her popularity I'm a bit dishearten that no other SF4 representitive made a return back in the main series (other than Seth in SFV but that's barely anything). I do hope soon in SF6 we get more of them with either C.Viper, Hakan, El Feurte or hell even Rufus for as obnoxious he is he was actually really good in 4 compare to FANG in 5.
It’s been a while since I looked up your channel but man I used to live in NYC and remember seeing you at Midtown. You were a few that stood out at that place and was always informative. :)
Ngl, as someone who grew up playing fighting games like smash bros. Soul Calibur, Tekken and Guilty Gear XX with my brother, it kind of feels weird knowing that era was called the dark age.
These retrospectives always make me cry because it just makes me remember the past. I remember living through all of this at this it was coming out and being on the forums. I feel old lol
1:26:38, I remember when Max was playing somebody in SFIV and the dude just danced around saying the connection was good because he knew he'd get burned at the stake by his fanbase since everyone is always talking about how great rollback is. Glad to see Thorgi having his own opinion and standing on it based on his experience here. Good stuff
1:58:00 As Thorgi was prepping for the big reveal, I jokingly whisper-screamed “Barack Obama” in the Epic Rap Battles of History voice. Imagine my shock and horror at the reveal
I was an early-90s baby, kid of the mid-90s-early 2000s, and teen of the mid/late 2000s, from the USA, and was finishing high school when Street Fighter IV came out. Many of my friends at the time were pretty clueless about fighting games. Too many even considered FPS like CoD series "fighting games..." I started my interest in fighting games as an elementary school kid as the arcade boom was coming to a close, and had many cousins who played and showed me, and that entire time I played them on the consoles and PC throughout the 2000s, and I went super fanboy excited every time I went near a favorite cabinet and could play it. This video is so relavent to me.
2:03:05 actually, Ingrid was seen again....just not in Street Fighter. She was in Project X Zone 2 for the 3DS where she joins a group of Namco, Capcom and Sega characters....and Lucina and Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening and Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles to cvase down Bison and other villains. Near the end of the game she along with Ryu, Ken, Kiryu and Majima from the Yakuza games and the main protagonist of Shenmue, (I can't remember his name at all) team up to square off against Bison. ... ... I swear to God I'm not making this up.
Would love to see a video on the “Dark Age of Fighting Games”. Also maybe a collab with Matt McMuscles on “What Happened with Street Fighter the Movie”.
15:56 Oh man that tweet is INSANELY true. I was born in 96 so by the time I was 5 or 6 & started actually playing games, my main fighting game experience was playing Mortal Kombat Deception with my brother because that was ONE OF THE ONLY FIGHTING GAMES WE OWNED (& my mom learned that MK of all things had a gore toggle so we were forced to have stage gimmicks off since stage fatalities are part of that) & then just playing Melee with him & friends every so often.
So glad to have finally finished this part! SFIV has a lot of meaning for me, as it helped me get back into the franchise for the long haul after my days with SF2, Alpha 1&2, MSvSF, and TvC! SFIV is also the game that would get my partner into SF in general, as they'd play the game a bit with their brother and myself! This felt like homecoming for me right next to your video discussing the Alpha games, so thank you very much for this, Thorgi! I hope you someday do a Dead or Alive retrospective, perhaps bending the "fighting game retrospective" rules a bit and discussing the Ninja Gaiden franchise alongside it! Heck, even just discussing the likes of Tomonobu Itagaki could probably fill out a decently-long video all by himself!
1:42:12 Juri was so popular she basically stole Abel's spot as the main character of SF4. Like, I'm pretty sure in-canon Juri's the one who took him out, and when Seth returned in SF5 he had a new body that resembled Juri and basically became her new rival even though he was supposed to be Abel's nemesis since they were literally Cain and Abel. It's also funny that Juri went from menacing villain in SF4 to a pajama-wearing gremlin who's obsessed with shitposting on social media in SF6. And that seems to have made her even more popular.
![KEN Gameplay | ROAD TO MASTER - Highlights [Part 6] - STREET FIGHTER 6](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SKxhvoB9D2Y/mqdefault.jpg)
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
New Akuma trailer, New Slayer trailer, Kendrick drops his disstrack, more Sparking Zero footage, and now a new Thorgi Street Fighter Video!
What a strange, glorious Tuesday!
Who's Kendrick?
@@erdood3235Kendrick Lamar. Rapper.
@@Kade_Kapes thanks
Had to click out the video to just check out the Kendrick diss. It’s was good lol
As much shit as Ono got over V I gotta give him his due respect for getting us 4. Dude clearly loves SF and is extremely passionate about it, something I relate to wholeheartedly. I'm almost 42 now and I still love, live and breathe Street Fighter as a whole. It's an absolutely massive part of my life and until the day I die I'll always cherish the memories I made in the arcades in the 90's. That game, 2 in particular, helped a kid from the ghetto in LA during some rough times stay off the streets and was one of the only things I was genuinely passionate about. I made friends and enemies, spent countless hours playing not only that but KoF, World Heroes, MK, MvC, the list goes on and on. Love these in depth videos so very much, they really are something special to me just like Street Fighter, and fighting games as a whole.
This is such a cool story, hearing about how fighting games have positively influenced peoples lives always makes me so happy
I’m around the same age and yeah…Street Fighter made a big impact on me growing up
Yup!
This episode was worth the wait. Love how Keiji Inafune has become a villain in this Street Fighter story only for him to be the one who brought back Nishiyama and as a result Dimps, that is some documentary level stuff right there
Inufuna has a bad reputation nowadays because of M#9 but people forget that at Capcom, if he supported a project then he went all out. That level of dedication is worthy of respect.
Inafune almost ruined multiple franchises to chase the Yankee crowd.
@@FeiFongWang Personally, the theory is good, but he ignored two key things: 1. His vision of "Western Audiences" in that era was founded on a concept of "0% Weebs" and...no, dude. You GOTTA pump that number closer to 25-30%. And that might STILL be lowballing it, at least a little. 2. Even if you aren't, the stink of hollow, plastic, art doesn't really sell ANYONE on ANYTHING. At BEST, with an active IP quickly getting plastic, you get short term gain, long term loss. At worst...Bionic Commando 2009.
Kokonoe: Tager, what are you doing?
Tager: Using our new multiverse device to make money as a fight announcer.
"We will not get Ultra Street Fighter 4."
I've left a jug of milk next to a furnace for about a week and it aged better than this quote.
To be fair, Ono talked probably as his own ambition. He wanted to move from SF4 to Darkstalkers 4.
Then he took (or, let's be honest, shoved himself) a SFxTK in the knee.
It was also stated that there would not be a 'Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition'.
Anyone else mad at how easy it used to be to get a job. Jim Shooter was 14 years old when he reached out to DC about Legion of Super Heroes and they just hired him. They didn't know he was 14, but they hired him and he became a writer and they didn't know for at least another couple of years. You could literally just say "I'm a fan, here's some stuff" and you'd get into a major company of the thing you love. Does that happen anymore?
Considering how much high quality fan content you can find online now, it kinda 'devalues' all of it. If there're thousands of people who could get hired like your examples, then none of them stand out anymore. You can't hire all of them. So the only way to choose one is to wait for them to apply professionally (aka get lucky enough to pass through automated resume management systems) or to hire someone you know and goes above everyone else, which gets harder the more skilled fans you can see.
@@grimpthemeltedchimp4705in addition to this, I think these industries have just gotten more professional as time has passed. Things inevitably become less driven my a small group of novice creatives and more so business-minded people and seasoned professionals who have higher standards now.
@@thedapperdolphin1590 I mean, depends on what you mean by higher standards. Cause there are lots of extremely talented fans that could work for companies like Capcom and have their work for right in. But I do agree that game companies have gotten more corporate, along with budgets ballooning and microtransactions flourishing. They've helped give themselves more stakes per each project, so they have more reasons to avoid taking chances on fans, even if their work is incredible. Besides, if you just ignore the fans and let them publish their work online, that's free promotion. Capcom could hire Thorgie to make fully featured, official Street Fighter retrospectives (just as an example), but why bother when people like him do this work for free (from the company's perspective). All Capcom would do in this example, is raise production quality and advertisements. And the video isn't hurting in those departments on its own.
I'm currently trying to get hired for a job during summer. It's a pain.
Shooter submitted scripts on spec, he didn't just reach out
I have to admit, i teared up during this episode.
I was a HUGE Fighting Game fan back in the Nineties and after the arcades died, I thought Fighting Games were just a dead genre.
But seeing that SF4 trailer again put me back in that glorious time when FIGHTING GAMES WERE BACK!! And everybody loved them again!
SF4 lead to Mortal Kombat 9, the first ever Mortal Kombat to make the big stage at EVO, and KOF XIV, which brought SNK back from the dead!
The Fighting Game genre has been going strong for the last fifteen years now!
And while I miss the feeling of striding up to a machine at an arcade or a bowling alley or a 7-11 and challenging whoever, we're experiencing it in a new way now!
THE RUMBLE FISH
(the rumble fish)
THE RUMBLE FISH (the rumble fish)
(the rumble fishhhh)
the rumble fish!
THE RUMBLE FISH
To this day, I can't see Guy, even if he's absolutely mopping a round up, without immediately going, "Profound Sadness!"
1:05:40 - That might be the first time I've ever seen a fighting game round intro used as a censor.
And it's perfect.
It's funny how fans complained about a lack of street fighter 3 characters in street fighter 4 back then and now we have that same problem today in sf6 lol
Capcom keeps thinking every new SF game needs to be a return to SF2, then remembers the other games have their fans too later down the road.
Yup. There is still not a single SF3 representative character in SF6, and I don't really know why. We have a rep for SF4 (Juri) and SF5 (Rashid & Ed), but we couldn't reserve one spot for 3rd Strike.
I would have replaced E-Honda, but Capcom has a tradition of always bringing back the World Warriors.
SF2 is the Kanto of Street Fighter. And that’s not a compliment.
@@101YoufailAs a hardcore Pokémon fan... You're absolutely right 😔
@@101Youfailits concerning how many franchises have this sort of problem. Even outside of the gaming space you have series like transformers and power rangers that keep defaulting back to their original/most popular versions. Those being generation one and mighty morphin
Considering the original pitch for Street Fighter 4 with Flashback and the fact that the original Final Fight was called Street Fighter '89, you can say the story went full circle with the genre swap
FF and SF were destined to be one franchise.
"Just focus on the money makers like Onimusha!" Yeah Capcom, PLEASE focus some more on Onimusha!
Ironic and sad that things are now reversed.
@@sollato0293 Good news, Capcom is making a new action game called Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, it kinda looks like Onimusha.
@@sollato0293
Seriously, Capcom has done a complete 180 in its focus. They were pushing Onimusha and Mega Man all over the place. Nowadays, they get literally the greatest selling Mega Man games of all time and still ignore the Blue Bomber; who used to be their flagship character.
Guess they heard you lmao
Pre release: This video is probably gonna be 4 hours, all of which I will enjoy.
Post release: This is amazing! It’s a good couple of days for fighting game fans
More than 2 and half hours of fun!
For Thorgi it took a few months, for us it was just a Tuesday.
You know, I have to thank this channel for making me rethink my views on Yoshinori Ono and Keiji Inafune. Didn't know that they single-handedly created, revived and almost destroyed Mega Man and Street Fighter, until I found the retrospectives.
Yoshinori Ono will always have my respect for fighting SO HARD to bring back Street Fighter!
And he TRIED to bring back Darkstalkers, okay?
He tried so hard...
@@Dracobyteand got so far
Same. Plus hey, he embraced the goofiness of SF much like I embrace the goofiness of the animated series. He just went too far which is subjective IMO.
@@lom1991But in the end...
@@m4yr4i It didn't even matter...
I'd love to see El Fuerte return. His post time-skip power up could be he learned to cook.
Or that his cooking skill became so unique that made him famous (or infamous).
@@Dracobyte He had a TV show where people compete to make a worst dish then him.
Casual player here: I love unlockable characters.
Just give us a *real* progression and (multiple) unlockables.
Change the core gameplay from time-to-time, not just "fight, now fight again."
Just make Fighting Games fun! Give us a reason to play from start to finish, not just "Go Online, bro! The Offline are *always* barebones."
Racing Games (usually) get this right, so what's going on to Fighting Games?
Heck, you know a Fighting Game story mode *SUCKS* when the side survival mode has more to do than the main mode...
Same along with stages. I prefer unlocking characters (preferably a number that take up 30% of the roster) especially if it forces you to try out certain modes and characters.
I once deleted my Smash 3DS data JUST so I could unlock the entire cast again through shit like Smash run. And I LOVED playing smash run it was worth it.
I'd never do it again tho lol
i do too(which street fighter 6 & other recent fighting games that aren't super smash bros. should really lean more towards again instead of characters that should've been in base being dlc.)
Sir, the CIA is always the villain. C. Viper switched villains.
Love these videos! Thanks, Aaron!
I didn't love El Fuerte because of the stupid cooking stuff, but his extreme mobility was fun to watch when played at a high level.
The entire southern American continent agrees with this statement
@@BradPrichard hated the char at first but was fun to mess with against other players. And in pro tournaments i remember a few players going nuts with him. Was always fun to see!
Honestly, the way you described fighting games in the 2000’s is less of a dark age, and more of a console age. Where many franchises thrived or died based on their ability to master the console market.
Well considering fighting games at that time primarily lived in the arcades, I'd say the 'dark age' descriptor fits perfectly for that genre.
It's weird because the same thing can be said about RPGs.
Bethesda + Bioware won the era by making god damn great console games, but marketing them AS console games.
I really think like Thorgi said in the video, another major factor is that it was the time general audience and company assumed that 2d=the past. (or handheld game) and everything had to be 3d. Notably, the franchises that thrives at the time Like Tekken, Soul Calibur where the 3d one.
Sure, there where still 2d games like Guilty Gear on PS2, and KoF games kept coming out despite SnK reccuring troubles, but overall 2d versus fighting went from the biggest genre in gaming to something played by fans of 2d fighting games.
Ironically, now this is kinda becoming the opposite (probably due to how expensive games major games devellopement have become). 2d fighting game are doing good, but the only 3d fighting serie still getting major attention is Tekken.
@@kyokyodisaster4842 Eh, the Dark Age for RPGs is less "the 2000s" and more 2009-April 2015. BioWare fell apart, Bethesda, already kinda white bread bland, was reaching saltine cracker levels, Atlus was mostly gone, Square Enix was going all in on Final Fantasy XIII, the New Vegas mess, and CDPR looked like just an over-ambitious rookie. The highlight RPG of that period was South Park! But now? Oh, we've got it GOOD now.
Switching well to consoles was definitely a factor, but a massive portion of them died not just due to a lack of singleplayer content but a lack of any interest in 2D. that's way more than just an adaptation issue, and it required a reformatting of everything they had in order to survive back in the day. They would become something else entirely.
Ironically, I got into fighting games during the "dark times" if the early/mid 2000's. Didn't even know it too. Played a ton of CVS2 and Nest and Ash saga KOF. It was good times for me.
I'm not going to lie, it seems that from 2000 to 2010 is the best era of fighting games (the best tekken, the best Street fighter, the best KOF, the best Virtua Fighter, the best Dead or Alive, the best Guilty Gear, the best Mortal Kombat, the best Samurai Shodown, the best SoulCalibur, the best Marvel vs Capcom, the best Capcom vs SNK, etc...) is almost ridiculous
damn Juri looks FANTASTIC in that thumbnail!
Yes she does
Drawn by Tovio Rogers, he makes great spicy art and has also worked with UDON
Implying she doesn’t look fantastic all the time
@@oreotaku4017 i mean... her SFV outfit...
We absolutely need a video on the Dark Age of Fighting Games! You hit the nail on the head that, regardless of the quality of games at the time, lack of gathering places and being largely before netplay (and before *good* netplay with most of the exceptions there) mean it's a rough time to actually want to play these games with and against *people.* But it's also a time period where lots of *weird* games came out, and the bones of a lot of modern classics were forged. It's absolutely a space worth and in need of exploring.
Thorgi, I hadn't watched your channel in months then I decided to rewatch your KOF retrospective now I have this. I have finals on Thursday for hard classes and this makes me happy thank you. SF4 was my first Street fighter
Good luck with your finals.
2:04:07 I can tell you that Sagat and Dhalsim are paired because in the Udon comics, Sim is the one that helped Sagat cope with his defeat at the hands of Ryu.
loved their moments in the udon comics(reminds me of in the street fighter anime 2v sagat telling ryu about him after trying to be taught alongside foreshadowing sagat becoming friends with ryu in 4.:3) & at least makes sense.
compared to juri/m. bison(where outside the obvious betrayal she's as much as i love her not taking bison's name in a one on one fight.),ibuki/rolento(which felt more done to put characters as outside referencing ibuki's costume in super gem fighter her with sakura,makoto or kunimitsu/yoshimitsu would've been fun to see) & definitely zangief/rufus(where it should've been r. mika instead of 2 just mean fake-outs.).
Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition for the XBOX 360 is what got me into Street Fighter in the first place. It made my childhood. Plus it introduced me to one of my top favorite female fighting game characters of all time, Juri Han.
Yes please, dark age of fighting games explained in detail with a lengthy video!
You always get me excited about fighting games. Your retrospectives are a joy
He deserves more subs!
As a capcom kid, the dark age was real for everyone that wasn't Namco 😂
Being a Capcom kid myself, I didn't feel the "Dark Age" like many others. Me and the boys would play Capcom vs. SNK 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. Don't get me wrong, we played Dead or Alive, Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat, Soulcalibur, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter as well, but Capcom games were also always in rotation.
@@thirdworldrenegade oh yeah, I was lucky too, I had a scene. I'm a third strike kid for life. 😆
Or Arc System Works.
Or Midway/Netherealm and Nintendo.
@@Dracobyte See, you didn't really listen to anyone here. Midway went bankrupt, Nintendo was barely considered FGC at the time, I didn't know any human in real life who had heard of Arksys
Ryu didn't die at the end of Street Fighter x Tekken, the box transported him to the world of Ashura's Wrath. He runs into Ashura and they get into a fight that takes them to the moon. Akuma shows up out of nowhere and Tatsus Ryu so hard that it sends Ryu back to the SF4 world
Tbf, that's just fan speculation given the setup. I've checked but I've found no confirmation that this was the case. Only thing I found was that none of this was canon and it's just fun DLC that we tried to make sense of pointlessly.
that's a similar thing i thought cause with how world breaking strong asura is/the ways he got over & controlled his anger from grief would make sense for ryu & akuma to be brought over to him though poor ken at the end not knowing what happened to his best friend/similar thing that happens to jin and xiayou.(tbh with that,the other misfortune that happens to some characters in their endings even if comical at times & eddy nearly dying to christies horror in the vita stories would say that's a more real solid reason for fans hating ingrid as the events of that game are her fault.)
Nowhere is that confirmed, it's just fan speculation
Special voice acting note about Seth! He not only played Lelouches Father in Code Geass, he also played Schartzvald in Big O, The Litch King in WOW and the original Vampire Hunter D! Just to name a few!!!
The "on-disk DLC" debacle is so fucking wild.
"Wait but hacking the disk is illegal."
Insanity.
Doesn't really change a thing if Capcom is still being scummy.
"Why would anyone hack the game? That's illegal!"
And, mind you, games had been getting cracked illegally for over 20 years at this point; Even arcade machines were vulnerable to getting cracked back in the 80's and 90's. The amount of ignorance and dumbassery in that statement by staff from Capcom Japan just screams "We have no goddamn clue how the gaming industry works whatsoever." They paid the price for their arrogance in the end...
@@dnmstarsi Shinji Mikami of Resident Evil fame said the reason he left Capcom is because he felt that they grown too big. Making good games isn't enough anymore, if your games doesn't meat Capcom's exceptions it's a problem.
Goodness, swear I’m addicted to this series and it helps that new Streetfighter games are coming out so you always something more to say
"Street Fighter 4" will always have a special place in my Heart, it not only got me into introducing the entire Franchise, but has Won me back into playing 2-D Fighting Games again since my KOF 99 Days.
I grew up in SoCal, more specifically Orange County. During the mid to late 00’s, streetwear had a burgeoning community especially with local brands like IMKING, Orisue, Franco Shade, Triumvir, and more famously, LRG, that would rub shoulders with the likes of The Hundreds, HUF, Black Scale, and Diamond to name a few.
One of those brands, Triumvir (stylized as Triumvir3), was based out of my hometown of Santa Ana. Out of the blue, they did a collab with Capcom for Street Fighter IV, releasing shirts with artwork from the previous entries and some original designs (the Balrog/Mike Tyson in Supreme. Still my personal favorite).
They premiered at our local skate/streetwear shop called Avenue (later named OCGS) with Street Fighter IV also set up for the public to play. It was one of, if not the very first instance of two different cultures converging. Fashion, and gaming.
These days it’s commonplace to see collaborations like this happening, but in 2008, as a kid that loved fashion and video games, this was a dream come true, especially from dudes that were from my neck of the woods.
Quick correction about sf4 3D - you totally can play the game normally, and can totally remap everything. So you could get rid of anything being on the touch pad
Or set up a one button ex spd. Dealers choice
Dhalsim and Sagat do actually have some history in the Udon comics.
not to sound like that "akshuly" guy but regarding Seth name, its a reference to Abel and Cain third brother, Seth
Yup!
Back in the day there was definitely a story doing the rounds that Seth Killian was not only a great help but also a master player of A LOT of the cast. Which impressed the devs and (as sf4 seth has facets of A LOT of the cast) that’s also why the char was named after him.
From my understanding, Seth was a reference to Killian, and the Udon comics just kind of worked that third brother bit in.
From what I heard it's both. They changed from the planed Cain to the third brother Seth as thanks to Seth Killian. it happened to fit.
That's not made up by Udon, that's the Holy Bible man. @@KigaiOkasu
This types of videos is like a nerd's wet dream. Well researched video essays with the fonts cited in the description about a very niche subject? Thorgi you are an angel for doing this for us
SFIV 3D Edition was the first Street Fighter I owned as a christmas gift for the 3DS in 2011 when I was in middle school, sorry if that made you feel old.
It was my first Street Fighter too
Although it wasn’t even mine. It used to be my younger brother’s
Waiting on that guilty gear retrospective
That is going to be a lengthy retrospective, but one that I will look forward to.
Woolie has one but it is about the lore.
Each part would be 10 hours long
@@glacierwolf2155 a lengthy retrospective!? Surely Thorgi would never do such a thing 😉. I barely played blaz blue but loved that retrospective and would surely wath a gg one as well!
I have a playlist of long videos to listen to while I work. This is immediately added.
It...kinda stings to think we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of SF4.
I think you mean the 10th anniversary of USF4. Vanilla SF4 came out in 2009, USF4 in 2014. Vanilla SF4's 20th anniversary would be 2029.
1:34:58 I still remember being surprised by that since Microsoft has always been a "We don't give a fuck about Japanese dev'ed games. Hell, it took us until 2024 to give a shit about the Persona series."
Thank you for giving a much more in depth explanation on the "Dark Age of Fighting Games" era, because everytime I heard someone else explain it all they would say is "no Street Fighters", it really helped shed a light on what was going on in that time of fighting games.
It really had to do with brand recognition. People were definitely familiar with Tekken and Soul Calibur, albeit the majority were casual fans, but Street Fighter was almost as household a name as Nintendo or Kleenex, and it was gone. There's a reason why Street Fighter is a pillar of Evo, and it's not because of whatever support Capcom gives it.
It's unfair, but fact is while there were a lot of fantastic games out there, people just weren't aware of them. Hell, I wasn't aware of Guilty Gear XX until a cousin came to visit us, and my mom wanted to buy us both a game to commemorate it (I got CvS2).
Consider this a vote for "dark ages of a fighting games"!
Funny that the DLC for Street Fighter x Tekken is still available to purchase on Steam yet the game itself is delisted
Oh boy is it Juri time? I think it’s Juri time
Let's go!
Crazy girl time!
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy! I love the channel and the content and I was super sad that no new videos regarding retrospectives were uploaded
Thank you so much t.
Dude, I don't know how you don't have any more subs than you do. You put a lot of heart into these, they are very informative and your humor is spot on. Keep up the good work, I look forward to more videos!
The Street Fighter IV times were wild, I can still remember how SFxT dominated the videogames news when it was about to release... and only for the bad reasons.
Also, Juri is goated.
Personal story: SF4 came out around the time I was getting back into the series. I had played SF2 in the arcades before and it was one of my favorite games, and when I got my PS1 I would get my hands on MVC and CVS but I wasn't that into Street Fighter at that time. Then one day, my step-father got me the Street Fighter Alpha Anthology on the PS2, and I became obssesed with Street Fighter. Then I got the Street Fighter 2 Annyversary Collection, played the hell out of that, and soon after that Capcom was like "YO! STREET FIGHTER 4 IS COMING!" and my brain exploded! Lol
I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how much I appreciate this long form meticulously researched and presented content, it is always appreciated when you upload Thorgi. Thank you!
Outstanding video as always. This video was worth the wait. Thank you for being a awesome man of culture and keep doing what you do.
Honestly every time Primal Rage can be mentioned in a video my childhood gets to live again for a brief moment.
I got into fighting games because of sf4. I randomly played a rented version of ultra street fighter 4, and I ended up buying the 3ds version. I learned fighting games with the 3ds circle pad. You totally can do specials with motion inputs, the touch screen had 4 slots you could customize for each character to have basically any move including supers, ultras, specials, normals, and even focus attack. I learned motion inputs so that I can change the moves on my touchscreen to harder moves. It felt like I was genuinley learning to do each special move, and with each one I learned I unlocked another new move. I have such fond memories of that game, and it’s funny that I learned to love fighting games on possibly the worst controller besides the WiiMote.
Such a blessed thumbnail keep it up thorgi!!!
I didn't know we weren't done lol. WHAT A TREAT.
I’d love to see you talk about the dark age of fighting games.
> No one had done a 2.5D fighter before
> Super Smash Bros. (1999)
While Thorgi Mean Traditional Fighting Game...Yes Super Smash Bros was one of the First Plataformer 2.5D Fighting Game.
what about Street Fighter EX?
@@joshuarovere2459Expecting Capcom to remember something they helped make, is like expecting a bird not to fly.
@@nicksrandomreviews lol for real
Street fighter 4 is a game that personally holds a bit of a special place in my heart. I never played vanilla 4 but I will never forget that really really dope as hell opening that was used in the promotional opening for the game and when I did play super street fighter 4 I had a lot of fun with it. Though I will say that there are plenty things I do remember street fighter 4 also for and they are:
The final time capcom at this point stopped with the let's sell you the same version of the game again but with only a few new characters strategy.
Now Ryu is voiced by Gohan, Ken is voiced by Dante, Chun Li is now Keiko from Yu Yu Hakusho, Guile is Roy Mustang, Cammy is Winry but Brtish and finally thanks to Juri, Everyone now loves their psycho chicks in fighting games to the point where nearly every new one has to add them in. But at the very least the game did bring back the fighting game genre to the point where it's at right now and I will always appreciate it for that. Great job Throgi and man, I will miss......
THE RUMBLE FISH!!!
Now you're gonna make me sad every time you're not gonna reference it ever again lol.
SF4 has such a special place in my heart. It came out around the last times my friends from high school still hung out together.
I already had reputation as the Street Fighter guy among my friends and then cemented that by "out Seth'ing Seth" with El Fuerte in an attempt to unlock all the characters.
The Awesomeness of Thorgi is back!
Yeah!
It has taken me a couple days to get through it in parts, but loved it. Thanks for putting together these amazing retrospectives. Bringing back old memories and learning new things along the way. Great work!
2:14:21 "the Mega Fans were Mega Mad" was right there Thorgi
Mega Mad is being upset that Bad Box Art got in over X and others (first). Mega Pissed is all of that while dealing with Mega's canned games.
As a Mega Man fan who suffered from the dark age of the Blue Bomber, I genuinely love that Mega Doofus. Seriously, he's my main in SFxT even though there's still issues and I wish he came back since I think he was a victim of poor timing.
Also fun fact: Ken's current VA was also the Red Carranger (which became the Red Turbo Power Ranger) in Super Sentai so even before Battle for the Grid and MvC3, Ryu was fighting Power Rangers.
1:26:57 DANM how the hell did I appear in your video thorgi,good fight we had
Honestly, you can make a whole series of the fighting game dark age and just pick out like one game an episode. I'd watch that for hours literally just realized that I just described this whole series
Could be it's own sub-series on the channel.
Consistently blown away by how in depth you manage to make these without making it feel like a slog. I’m going to be sad when this series is over, you have so much to be proud of
10:18 movie studios have that mindset to this day
59:40 Seth is also Adam and Eve’s 3rd child
OMG I CANT WAIT!!! I've been waiting for over 4months!!!
Love these videos and the work you put into them shows. Thanks for all you do!
SF4 was the game that evened the floor between my dad, and my brother and I. Finally i could do some crazy stuff.
*_I CAN FEEL IT COMING OVER ME,_*
*_I FEEL IT ALL AROUND ME!_*
*_I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT ALL MY LIFE,_*
*_IT'S MY DESTINY!_*
I thought we were friends. You almost didn't mention the Cammy & Charlie 3d shooter I missed and NO ONE told me about. I'm getting this game right now. Where has the been all m life. So many Dreamcast I have come across in my lifetime and never this
Canon Spike? The Dreamcast version also have Mega Man and BB Hood from Darkstalkers.
I was LITERALLY just rewatching one of the parts of this series just for the Chun li clip and the last part for the legendary movie
Yes I would love to see a video on the dark age of fighting games. As somebody introduced to the FGC just this past year, this has quickly become one of my favourite channels ever. Thanks for all the work you already put out my friend
While I honestly like 6 and 5 way more than 4 nowadays, I can’t deny the release of 4 was something magical, I still remember being in high school and being super excited for it, I remember ditching school early with a buddy and riding our bikes to GameStop to pick up our copies. People in my class were talking about it.
Lengthy Restrospective on the Dark Ages of Fighting Games?!
YES please!
I've been a fighting games enthusiast since SF2 first hit the scene. I was 9 in 91' but in 2000, when I graduated high school to 2009, when SF4 came out, the only fighting games I really played were Tekken and MK. Most of my favorites have been on the Dreamcast only, and when mine broke, that was the end of that. When SF4 came out I was instantly thrown back into the FGC, but I had a limited income, two jobs and a wife and kid,so...... for years I had saw games like Blaze blue and Guilty Gear in Gamestop but never knew what they even were. Outside of the top 8 or 9 franchises SF, MK, Tekken, SC, VF, KI and DoA, I had no clue so many fighting games existed still. I remember stuff like Pit Fighter, Eternal Champions, Shaq-Fu, Clay fighters, and Primal Rage, but I didn't learn about stuff like Skull Girls until 2022!
Also MvC2 is STILL my favorite game of all time ...of any genre!
As someone who got into fighting games when they were in a place where everything gets competitive play, I can't help but look back at The Dark Age like how Patrick reacted to Sandy's Treedome. Like, it was going on when I was alive, but it feels almost alien.
Juri Han became such a phenomena since she debuted in SFIV that gone to become a main stay in the franchise of SFV & SFVI. Tho I will say despite her popularity I'm a bit dishearten that no other SF4 representitive made a return back in the main series (other than Seth in SFV but that's barely anything). I do hope soon in SF6 we get more of them with either C.Viper, Hakan, El Feurte or hell even Rufus for as obnoxious he is he was actually really good in 4 compare to FANG in 5.
Thanks!
It’s been a while since I looked up your channel but man I used to live in NYC and remember seeing you at Midtown. You were a few that stood out at that place and was always informative. :)
Ngl, as someone who grew up playing fighting games like smash bros. Soul Calibur, Tekken and Guilty Gear XX with my brother, it kind of feels weird knowing that era was called the dark age.
These retrospectives always make me cry because it just makes me remember the past. I remember living through all of this at this it was coming out and being on the forums. I feel old lol
I have never played a single match of a fighting game and I wait for these retrospectives as they were insulin shots
1:26:38, I remember when Max was playing somebody in SFIV and the dude just danced around saying the connection was good because he knew he'd get burned at the stake by his fanbase since everyone is always talking about how great rollback is.
Glad to see Thorgi having his own opinion and standing on it based on his experience here. Good stuff
1:58:00
As Thorgi was prepping for the big reveal, I jokingly whisper-screamed “Barack Obama” in the Epic Rap Battles of History voice.
Imagine my shock and horror at the reveal
How you make two and a half hours just fly by, I'll never know, but I love it all the same.
A comprehensive breakdown of the dark age of fighting games would be interesting
I was an early-90s baby, kid of the mid-90s-early 2000s, and teen of the mid/late 2000s, from the USA, and was finishing high school when Street Fighter IV came out. Many of my friends at the time were pretty clueless about fighting games. Too many even considered FPS like CoD series "fighting games..." I started my interest in fighting games as an elementary school kid as the arcade boom was coming to a close, and had many cousins who played and showed me, and that entire time I played them on the consoles and PC throughout the 2000s, and I went super fanboy excited every time I went near a favorite cabinet and could play it. This video is so relavent to me.
That Street Fighter Flashback pitch sounds like the precursor to World Tour from Street Fighter 6......
2:03:05 actually, Ingrid was seen again....just not in Street Fighter.
She was in Project X Zone 2 for the 3DS where she joins a group of Namco, Capcom and Sega characters....and Lucina and Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening and Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles to cvase down Bison and other villains.
Near the end of the game she along with Ryu, Ken, Kiryu and Majima from the Yakuza games and the main protagonist of Shenmue, (I can't remember his name at all) team up to square off against Bison.
...
...
I swear to God I'm not making this up.
Would love to see a video on the “Dark Age of Fighting Games”.
Also maybe a collab with Matt McMuscles on “What Happened with Street Fighter the Movie”.
Also a collab involving Build the Roster. Maybe work with someone who knows stuff that Thorgi doesn't know much about like the Tatsunoko company.
15:56 Oh man that tweet is INSANELY true. I was born in 96 so by the time I was 5 or 6 & started actually playing games, my main fighting game experience was playing Mortal Kombat Deception with my brother because that was ONE OF THE ONLY FIGHTING GAMES WE OWNED (& my mom learned that MK of all things had a gore toggle so we were forced to have stage gimmicks off since stage fatalities are part of that) & then just playing Melee with him & friends every so often.
So glad to have finally finished this part! SFIV has a lot of meaning for me, as it helped me get back into the franchise for the long haul after my days with SF2, Alpha 1&2, MSvSF, and TvC! SFIV is also the game that would get my partner into SF in general, as they'd play the game a bit with their brother and myself!
This felt like homecoming for me right next to your video discussing the Alpha games, so thank you very much for this, Thorgi! I hope you someday do a Dead or Alive retrospective, perhaps bending the "fighting game retrospective" rules a bit and discussing the Ninja Gaiden franchise alongside it!
Heck, even just discussing the likes of Tomonobu Itagaki could probably fill out a decently-long video all by himself!
Thanks so much for this Thorgi! You are simply the best.
1:42:12 Juri was so popular she basically stole Abel's spot as the main character of SF4. Like, I'm pretty sure in-canon Juri's the one who took him out, and when Seth returned in SF5 he had a new body that resembled Juri and basically became her new rival even though he was supposed to be Abel's nemesis since they were literally Cain and Abel.
It's also funny that Juri went from menacing villain in SF4 to a pajama-wearing gremlin who's obsessed with shitposting on social media in SF6. And that seems to have made her even more popular.
Loving this retrospective. And the Matt McMuscles reference. They should do another ep of 3xKO