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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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50 Best Fighting Game Final Bosses from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and More

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When it isn’t about rage-quitting against your best buddy sitting next to you on the couch, or some guy playing against you across the country, fighting games are all about beating the arcade mode. Doing so means defeating the pesky final boss.

We’ve fought so many final bosses over the last 30+ years. Whether they’re godly megalomaniacs or bloodthirsty loners out to prove they’re the best, there are pleny of cheap-ass villains standing in the way of character-specific epilogue cutscenes.

So I’ve decided to rank the 50 best final bosses in fighting game history. This ranking includes both default final bosses and special secret bosses, but they have to be the last guy you fight. That means characters like Goro, Cervantes, Apocalypse, Vega, and Antonov don’t count. I’m also not counting games like Street Fighter Alpha and Vampire Savior where there’s no real set boss and different people have different final opponents, which is why Jedah isn’t on the list.

Now let’s face it straight!

50. JINPACHI MISHIMA

Tekken 5

I think this is the moment when Tekken’s story started going off the rails. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the lore of the series, but after doing a game about Heihachi vs. Kazuya vs. Jin, they decided to go further and bring in Heihachi’s dad. And he’s possessed by a demon because why the hell not.

But really, the reason he’s possessed is because otherwise he’s the one member of the bloodline who isn’t a jerk. That doesn’t make for a good boss design. In Tekken 5, he takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu and sets up a new King of the Iron Fist tournament ASAP just so somebody strong might be able to kill him before he completely loses control and wipes out all life on the planet. His ending cutscene even has him cry blood over this because he’s that hardcore.

The tragedy is that, in the end, he was killed by his great-grandson Jin, but Jin came out of it learning the wrong lesson. Jin, suffering from his own possession problems, went and took over the Mishima Zaibatsu and started a world war as part of an elaborate plan to commit suicide by putting a giant target on his back. It took two more games for him to finally get his head on straight.

49. SILBER

Buriki One

SNK shamelessly ripped off Akuma, but at least the studio did it with style. Coming from the lesser-known fighter Buriki One, Silber is a Victor Creed-looking urban legend who is obsessed with increasing his power and challenging worthy opponents. At the end of the game’s big MMA tournament, when the player is ready to face his fellow finalist, your opponents’s busted carcass is instead knocked through the entranceway like a punted football. The mysterious Silber takes their spot.

Win or lose, Silber’s response is to just quietly jump off and exit the arena. The endings are mainly about the winners being asked by the press what the hell that was even about. And if you unlock Silber and beat the game with him, he just leaves the press hanging by jumping off into the distance.

Silber also appeared as a hidden mid-boss in King of Fighters XI, but his fighting style lacks anything really bombastic. No fireballs or energy explosions or anything like that. Just brutal karate with his flashiest move being a flipping legdrop.

I do really get a kick out of how one of his King of Fighters intros has him throw a non-descript martial artist to the ground before jumping into the fight, like it’s his regular thing to kick some schmuck’s ass and take their spot in a tournament.

48. SHANG TSUNG

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat’s attract mode sold the game by going, “Yo, check out this huge claymation beast with his four arms and topknot! He will break you in half if you even blink!” But this unstoppable monster was actually second to some floating geezer. Surely, that at least had to mean that Shang Tsung was a special kind of threat in his own way.

Indeed he was. A shape-shifter was a fantastic gimmick for a final boss, especially since it jibed with his tendency to eat souls. Even though he was turning into other playable characters, the insinuation was that you were more or less fighting all the dead warriors from the years that he had absorbed into his being. Then Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa played the HELL out of him in the movie and his legendary status was solidified.

While lesser on the totem pole in later games, Shang Tsung regaining his youth made for a good trade. It’s just too bad that once games were on discs and had loading times, Shang’s tendency to morph mid-match took a powder. As one of the final bosses in Deadly Alliance, it just didn’t feel the same. He was just some guy.

47. SOUL EDGE/INFERNO

The Soul Series

As far as I’m concerned, the Inferno concept peaked in the first game. Cervantes was an evil dude, but he was still just a pawn. As shown at the end of that fantastic CGI intro that still holds up to this day, the swords were really running the show. So after taking down Cervantes, the swords came to life to fight you as a more powerful version of Cervantes with a flaming skull head.

The development of Siegfried wielding the Soul Edge and being transformed into Nightmare was a wonderful twist and selling point for the sequel’s storyline, but it made Inferno look a little redundant. The flame body was neat, but he was just Nightmare with a weaker design. Inferno never really had a personality of its own. Then Bandai Namco started having Inferno adopt random movesets, but there are like a dozen characters like that in SoulCalibur.

The concept of Inferno did translate well in SoulCalibur V where they showed that the Soul Calibur sword has its own counterpart in Elysium. It appeared in the form of a scantily-clad Sophitia in order to manipulate Sophitia’s son, Patroklos. Man, Inferno may be evil personified, but at least it didn’t try to seduce Siegfried by turning into his dad in a speedo.

46. MISS X

SNK Gal Fighters

The Neo Geo Pocket Color game SNK Gal Fighters features an all-female roster in a comedic story about a mysterious Miss X putting together a Queen of Fighters tournament, with some kind of wish-granting talisman up for grabs. When you reach the end of the game, you discover that Miss X looks an awful lot like Iori Yagami wearing a mask and a dress. While many of her opponents aren’t fooled, nobody outright says Iori’s name, and Miss X insists she isn’t who they think.

But also, please don’t tell Kyo about this.

Of course, she still fights exactly like Iori Yagami and is flanked by Iori’s former King of Fighters partners Vice, Mature, Billy Kane, and Eiji Kisaragi. Miss X is REALLY committed to the act, but it’s never really explained why she’s created this whole disguise.

Miss X made a few more appearances too, including when Dimitri performs his Midnight Bliss attack on Iori in SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos and as a DLC character in SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy.

45. SAGAT

Street Fighter

As the boss of the first Street Fighter game – which nobody really cares about – Sagat being on this list is more of a courtesy. While a difficult opponent, Sagat’s position as a final boss isn’t really that memorable. If anything, he’s defined by his defeat here. It’s why he has that cool scar on his chest, why he suddenly has a Dragon Punch knockoff in the sequel, and it’s the crux for his redemption story and frenemy relationship with Ryu.

Sagat’s spot as the original Street Fighter boss actually helps build up M. Bison and Shadaloo in general. He returns in Street Fighter II, scarred both physically and mentally, while physically stronger and more driven. Yet he is still only the penultimate boss, showing that this time he’s outranked by a big-chinned dictator.

44. ZEUS

World Heroes 2 Jet

World Heroes 2 Jet doesn’t have any character-specific endings. Instead, the endings are based around Zeus, a jacked behemoth who watches your penultimate victory from a balcony, acts jazzed about finding a worthy opponent, then makes the grandest of entrances by flexing off his suit (revealing body armor underneath), walking down some stairs, and kicking the doors off the entranceway.

A regular old pain in the ass, Zeus’ reaction to his defeat is decided by how much health the player has left. If it’s a close match, he’ll berate you until realizing that it was a fun fight. If the player has half a life bar left, he’ll threaten to kill them the next time they meet. If the player has almost all of their health, Zeus will mope as his henchman Jack tries to cheer him up. He insults the player, then cartoonishly cheeses it across the image of a map.

What makes this so golden is the iffy English translations. Here are some of Zeus’ lines from his endings:

“Why you, you, YOU… YOU CRAZY FUNSTER! To think that you were this strong!”

“YOU FILTH, YOU SLIME, YOU LAWYER! To think you had such power… But, heh, heh, heh…it was a crazy, hip time!”

“Hey, you. Still can’t walk and chew bubblegum at the same time? Oh, nooooooo!”

Classic.

43. DARK KAHN

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe felt like a joke someone made about Marvel vs. Capcom that someone else took as a serious suggestion. Quality of the game aside, the two worlds meshed well together, which is why we’ve seen the two parties meet up again a few more times. Mortal Kombat and DC, for the most part, didn’t so much match up as they complemented each other.

One pairing in particular matched up perfectly. Darkseid and Shao Kahn were both evil overlords, two peas in a pod. Rather than fight each other or team up, they did one better: they merged.

Dark Kahn isn’t exactly better than the individual characters but this modern Amalgam design still kicks ass. Darkseid’s stony flesh mixed with Shao Kahn’s skull face to create a lava beast who lives to blow up the multiverse.

Dark Kahn IS…OUTSTANDING.

42. MISTER KARATE

Art of Fighting

Just because someone is designed as comic relief doesn’t mean they can’t have their moments of serious competence. See also: Deadpool, Mankind.

Mr. Karate started as the original Akuma type. In Art of Fighting, Mr. Karate was a mysterious mob enforcer who happened to look and fight just like protagonist Ryo Sakazaki, but with a different head and more damaging attacks. In another light, Mr. Karate’s tengu mask could be seen as silly, but considering how brutal he was, it was easy to see it as a threatening symbol of martial arts dominance.

After that game, where it was established that Mr. Karate was Ryo’s father, Takuma Sakazaki, who’d forced to work for the mob, he became a secondary character. He showed up in King of Fighters regularly as just Takuma, but became something of a joke. When he appeared in the Mr. Karate mask, he acted like a total goof and everyone rolled their eyes at his lack of self-awareness. But comedic or not, there were still moments here and there that made him look tougher than the rest of his family combined.

But it was SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos that revitalized him. Depicted as Akuma’s SNK counterpart, Mr. Karate was given both a silly base version and his “serious” boss alter-ego, who reminded the world of what kind of force he was in his Art of Fighting days. Right on.

41. ASMODEUS

Mace: The Dark Age

The Nintendo 64 was lousy when it came to compiling a fighting game library, so we had to do the best with what we had. Mixed in the shallow pile was Mace: The Dark Age, which was like if the guys who made Mortal Kombat were tasked with making a SoulCalibur game. The basic story was roughly the same: an insidious, medieval weapon of ultimate power falls into the hands of evil and everyone wants a piece. The difference was that while the Soul Edge brought demonic chaos in its wake, with its wielders just wandering around destroying stuff, the Mace of Tanis brought demonic order, as its wielder used it to rule Eurasia and its corrupt council.

This created a conflict where everyone wanted a shot at holding the Mace. Not just the heroes, but also conniving members of the Council of Seven because they’re evil and power hungry. And wielding the Mace of Tanis? None other than Asmodeus. His name popped up in exposition dumps but he didn’t even have a pre-fight profile image. You didn’t get to see him until you actually faced him in the final battle and, all in all, he met the hype.

For all of the limitations of the Nintendo 64’s graphics, Asmodeus looked amazing. He appeared as a gigantic, reptilian demon so big that only his upper half was peaking out of a portal. His offense wasn’t much to talk about, as it was mostly just swiping attacks and pounding at his prey, but damn if he didn’t look like how a final boss should look.

40. MUKAI

King of Fighters 2003

The 10th and 11th King of Fighters games released in the final days of the franchise’s classic art style, and included some great designs, like Oswald. But while the bosses in these games looked and moved exceptionally, they were mostly really lame otherwise.

Mukai from King of Fighters 2003 provided a great balance, though. He didn’t have much going on besides being the harbinger for lesser villains, but he looked totally sweet and his stone-based motif led to a fun boss fight that wasn’t too hard to figure out. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for the glowing lava design usually reserved for rock creatures, but making that classic design monochrome feels fresh and absolutely badass.

Too bad he died like a punk in a random cutscene several games later.

39. KULL THE DESPOILER

Way of the Warrior

It’s disappointing to me when a ridiculous and/or stupid fighting game doesn’t have that final boss that just pushes it further into hilarity. I’d love to discuss ClayFighter here, but it’s not like N. Boss or Dr. Kiln were anything to write home about. Tattoo Assassins is a total trip, but there’s not much to say about its big bad Koldan. Death from Time Killers is just lame and ugly to look at.

Way of the Warrior is an extreme piece of garbage and sweet Jesus does that translate to its final boss, Kull the Despoiler.

This 3DO classic is one of several Mortal Kombat knockoffs that tried to cash in on digitized graphics and bloody violence. Other features included a White Zombie soundtrack, hideous backgrounds, a character who just a regular guy’s sprite but enlarged to look like a giant, and a couple boss characters brought to life by mid-‘90s CGI.

After the player has gone through the main cast and a CGI dinosaur named High Abbott (with another CGI dinosaur watching from a throne in the background), we take a trip to the citadel graveyard stage. There’s a memorial statue of the great warrior Kull that suddenly breaks apart to reveal that his living, 8-foot-tall skeleton is inside.

“Not even death shall keep my name from the Book of Warriors!”

You must fight this silly skeleton warrior, who is armed with a bloody hammer and iffy voice-acting, all while the guy who made Devil’s Rejects is singing. A fitting finale for such a game.

38. HEIHACHI MISHIMA

Tekken Series

In terms of pure power, Heihachi is one of the weakest boss characters in relation to his series. He’s played the final boss a few times in the Tekken series, but these fights are always less about him being the ultimate force of destructive evil and more about his importance to the story as a scheming bastard with the occasional redeemable moment as a human being.

It’s also about how he measures up to his son, Kazuya, the would-be protagonist who is ultimately more evil than Heihachi. The first game’s plot focuses on Kazuya as a vindictive monster who smiles at his father’s assumed murder, and Tekken 4 finally brings the three-way generational conflict between Heihachi, Kazuya, and Jin to a head for the first time. Then in Tekken 7’s story mode, Heihachi gets his final battle with Kazuya in a war that’s been ravaging the whole world.

Despite being hilariously unkillable in the past, Heihachi appears to be dead for real now and it’s solidified his true purpose as a final boss: to pass the torch to his son, who is both stronger and straight-up worse as a human being.

37. ATHENA

SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos

If there’s anything resembling a story in SNK vs. Capcom: Chaos (not counting the completely bonkers Hong Kong comic adaptation), it’s that all the street fighting going on in the world has caused havoc on time and space. Beings from the past and future have ended up in the present. By the end, it gets so out of control that by defeating Shin Akuma or Serious Mr. Karate, you create a rift that sends your character to Heaven or Hell.

(Let’s rock!)

If you’re in Hell, you fight Capcom representative Red Arremer from Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins. If you go to Heaven, it’s SNK’s Athena, but not the annoying pop star from the Psycho Soldiers team in King of Fighters. It’s the original SNK Athena from the sidescroller where she’s a bikini-clad goddess. Funny enough, despite there being pre-fight dialogue specific to each pairing, none of the King of Fighters crew pay any lip service to this.

Rather than annoying you with constant screams of, “PSYCHO BAAAWWWWW!!!” this Athena uses lots of summoning and shapeshifting powers to get the better of you. If King of Fighters Athena brought out a giant baby chick to destroy her opponents, I’d probably choose her more often.

If you lose the fight, she transforms you into an animal specific to the fighter. If you win, you get to meet God. Either way, it’s a pretty eventful day.

36. ABYSS

SoulCalibur III

I was thinking of putting Algol on this list before realizing that I have absolutely nothing to say about the guy. He was fine. Nothing especially memorable about him.

In terms of end bosses wielding both the Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, Zasalamel’s final form, Abyss, is where it’s at. Mainly because Zasalamel is one of the last great SoulCalibur characters (along with Grizzled Owl and Harley Quinn Gollum). He’s a fantastic neutral warrior who ironically uses a Grim Reaper scythe despite being cursed with immortality and wanting a permanent death.

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After Zasalamel is transformed into Abyss, you actually begin rooting for Zasalamel to come through. This is his chance to put a stop to his endless cycle of resurrection, but it’s unfortunately turned him into an uncontrollable demon.

In the end, Zasalamel comes out of it better. During the experience, he sees a vision of the future (our present), and after reverting to his normal self, he goes from, “I must use the two swords to kill myself for good!” to “I have to prevent the two swords from ever killing me because the future looks fun as hell!”

Which reminds me, where’s my Zasalamel in Tekken, Harada?!

35. ONAGA THE DRAGON KING

Mortal Kombat: Deception

After Shinnok disappointed Mortal Kombat fans, Midway decided to introduce a new final boss who was a Shao Kahnier Shao Kahn. Fortunately, Onaga worked.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance made an effort to clean the slate and start fresh, removing Liu Kang, Shao Kahn, and Goro from the board. Having Shang Tsung and Quan Chi share the final boss spot went against that attempt for freshness, but Midway made up for it by planting the seeds for the sequel.

The whole plot was about introducing the Dragon King – the most Mortal Kombat villain name possible – who ruled Outworld before Shao Kahn. They built up anticipation through the game’s lore without showing him or even outright naming him, and we just knew the heroes were on a collision course with something monstrous. Reptile’s ending, in which his body was possessed and mutated by the Dragon King’s soul, made it definite.

Deception revealed that Shang Tsung and Quan Chi defeated the heroes, but it didn’t matter. Onaga was back and he made the two look like jokes. Things were already dire after the good guys lost, but now there was also this 10-foot-tall tank covered in scales with gigantic dragon wings just sauntering around.

Unfortunately, he got stuck being archenemies with Shujinko and that dude straight-up SUUUUUCKS!

34. NECROSAN

Primal Rage 2

The holy trinity of almost-to-completely-finished fighting games that didn’t get released are Thrill Kill, Tattoo Assassins, and Primal Rage 2. Primal Rage 2 is a fascinating unreleased game that not only had action figures, but a novelization that I would love to read one of these days. It’s always crazy expensive on eBay, though.

The first Primal Rage didn’t have a final boss, but legend has it that Atari Games originally planned to introduce Necrosan in an updated version. Instead, the studio saved him for the sequel, and while the game never saw the light of day, he simply rules too much for me to ignore. Much like King Ghidorah, Necrosan is an alien invader in a world of Terran kaiju. An extremely well-animated winged dragon skeleton coated with muscle tissue, Necrosan looks metal as hell. His backstory complements his look too: he singlehandedly kicked the asses of all the beasts from the first game.

Also cool is the twist that the big meteor that caused the first game’s post-apocalyptic origin was actually an egg housing Necrosan who planned to conquer the planet for his race.

33. KRIZALID

King of Fighters ’99

After spending several years doing the Orochi storyline, King of Fighters finally moved on to something different: mad scientists. The NESTS Cartel was a neat idea in theory, but the further the story went, the more they revealed themselves as dorks. In other words, don’t expect to see Zero or Ignis on this list.

Krizalid had a great look…er, well, his first look. That coat with the fur top covering his jaw was great. The more flexible S&M garb from when he burns it away, not so much. He made for a great first threat in this new story, especially due to how the endings painted him as a tragic figure and made NESTS look like bigger dicks because of it.

For all his posturing, he’s just a deranged clone, pitied by the heroes and exterminated by his bosses at the first opportunity. Then again, maybe they were also annoyed that he got rid of the coat.

32. SHINNOSUKE KAGAMI

Last Blade

The Last Blade games are some of the most underrated titles in the SNK library. Despite only having two installments, the series features plenty of interesting moments, including a redemption arc for its initial villain, Kagami. Originally guard of a portal to evil and darkness, the high-and-mighty Kagami lost his faith in humanity and decided to use that portal to wipe out life on Earth and purge mankind completely. Using his refined swordsman skill and ability to wield flame, he killed a lot of people to help pull off his scheme.

In the end, he was defeated by the hero character Kaede and banished himself into the portal to be tormented. But was resurrected to fulfill his original role as guard of the portal as well as help take down Kouryu, a former victim of his whose reanimated body was possessed by evil from within the portal. This made Kagami second guess his role in the initial adventure, deciding that humans aren’t bound to evil after all and may even be good.

I always liked how he’d have a normal stance in the first round, but after taking a loss, he’d levitate half a foot off the ground. It’s just ominous enough without having to completely change his style.

31. SUPERMAN

Injustice: Gods Among Us

“Evil Superman” has been done to death. It can be used well, but a lot of the time you just end up with Brightburn. Injustice: Gods Among Us did a decent enough job by taking an interesting episode of the Justice League cartoon and leaning harder into it. The main difference between the two Supermen was that, while the animated version was driven, he wasn’t as mentally cracked as his video game self.

The animated Superman still had Metropolis and Lois, but Injustice Superman lost them both at the hands of the Joker. As shown in the better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be comic book tie-in, Superman began his reign of terror by killing the Joker in a fit of anger, and bitterness, time, and betrayals caused him to become obsessed with order and a world where there was no war because he said so. It didn’t help that so many of his superfriends sided with him.

Superman is so regularly pushed as the top guy at DC that it’s not that surprising he’s the final boss in a DC fighting game. In fact, the only way to beat him was to get the good version of Superman to do the job.

30. NU-13

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

When I played through BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger’s arcade mode, I made sure to use Ragna the Bloodedge last. The fact that he was the protagonist, yet very rarely appeared as an opponent for everyone else’s arcade mode path made him seem special. This ended up being the right way to play the game as his dialogue with Nu-13 hit me like a train.

BlazBlue’s plot of, “Wait, I think I understand, but… No, you lost me,” means I can’t fully explain what Nu-13’s story is but the gist of it is that she’s some kind of experiment gone wrong and she’s showing up around a portal that’s messing with the time-space continuum. Everyone comes across her in arcade mode and she usually greets them with extremely dry robot talk throughout the boss fight. When she meets with Ragna, she suddenly acts like an excited schoolgirl who has been pining for this guy and writing his initials in her diary. It’s extremely off-putting and unexpected.

As a boss, she’s a great fit for the game, which takes place about 200 years into the future, but Nu-13 is the only one truly diving headfirst into the futuristic look. Even the game’s resident cyborg Tager comes off lacking compared to all the crazy sci-fi shit Nu-13 has going for her.

29. KARNOV

Fighter’s History Series

There is a holy trinity of ’80s video game asskickers who are remembered fondly due to a mix of genuine nostalgia and internet irony: Abobo, Mike Haggar, and Karnov. The latter fighter is a fascinating bloke. Not only did he star in his self-titled platformer game, but developer Data East also decided that this dadbod adventurer should just show up in several of their games like a mascot. This is why Fighter’s History is treated as a sequel to the original Karnov game in which the bored treasure hunter holds a fighting tournament with lots of his money on the line.

Fighter’s History is such an obvious Street Fighter II clone that Capcom tried suing Data East. The game’s only real saving grace is the use of Karnov as the carrot to lead you to the end. And while the sequel/update of the game is just the same cast with the bosses playable, Karnov looks completely different. In the first game, he’s completely jacked, albeit extremely short. In the next game, he’s taller and fat with a nasty stomach scar and has moves that allow him to morph his body like Jake from Adventure Time.

I suppose if it wasn’t weird, it wouldn’t be Karnov.

28. PYRON

Darkstalkers Series

When the gimmick of your game is that all your characters are Japanese takes on classic monsters, it’s only logical that the biggest threat is extraterrestrial. Pyron is far from the best alien in a video game, but he does the job here as both Silver Surfer and Galactus wrapped in one.

Seriously, look at his ending. If he can turn as big as the sun, he probably could have saved time by leading with that. But what do I know? I’m just a human who hasn’t been murdered by a vampire with stupid hair.

Pyron gets by with his design, which looks absolutely beautiful in that mid-‘90s Capcom arcade animation. The rippling energy waves of cosmic flame almost make you forgive him for what he was like on that terrible Saturday morning cartoon show.

27. MASTER HAND

Super Smash Bros. Series

Chucking a bunch of Nintendo icons into a game and trying to make a narrative out of it is a fool’s errand. Luckily, Nintendo didn’t overthink it too much and just decided, “They’re figurines or something having an imaginary battle.” It’s Lego Movie meets Secret Wars.

And after so many dream fights like Mario vs. Link and Kirby vs. Yoshi, who would be at the top of the ladder to threaten the heroes? Bowser? Ganon? Andross? King Slender?

No. It’s a hand. Just a big, disembodied glove dead set on crushing the player. I suppose Nintendo didn’t need to have a recognizable final foe. The four-way Nintendo slugfest was enough. So why not have a big hand that can do silly big hand attacks? It’s just the bizarro icing on the cake at this point.

I love how random Master Hand is. It’s a boss fight version of the Toy Story toys revolting against Sid the bully. With every new game, Nintendo had tried to add needless context, and this has caused Master Hand to expand into transcendent final boss concepts like Crazy Hand and Tabuu. That’s just a special kind of weird. Imagine creating a giant hand as your villain and then in each sequel thinking to yourself, “How do we build on that?”

26. KRONIKA

Mortal Kombat 11

Despite rebooting the series’ winding and convoluted storyline, Mortal Kombat 9 ended on a low note. Sure, Shao Kahn was dead, but so were most of the heroes just as Shinnok was preparing to make his own move. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat X, while not having the happiest ending, culminated with most of the major threats taken off the board. Kahn was still dead, Quan Chi was dead, Shinnok was just a head, and Onaga’s resurrection was prevented. Things were looking up for once!

But in Moral Kombat 11, a cosmic Tilda Swinton appeared as not just Shinnok’s mother, but as a meta representation of video game designers at odds with the story. Kronika wants good and evil to war with each other on equal enough footing forever. The status quo doesn’t allow enough juice for what she wants, so her plans include bringing back dead characters with a hand wave, reverting characters who have developed farther than she cares for, and even rebooting the franchise itself.

Even her kind, the Titans (higher up on the chain than the Elder Gods), play into this. Scorpion’s ending shows that reality simply won’t exist without the backstory that his wife and child were killed, all because the Titans deemed it so. These games are getting dangerously close to the fourth wall.

Meta or not, Kronika is a fantastic addition to the Mortal Kombat mythos. That endless time-reverse Fatality of hers is one of the highlights of that game’s many kills.

25. ULTRON SIGMA

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite

Despite its huge roster, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 didn’t have much in terms of Capcom-based villains. Plus, the big boss was Galactus. Where do you even go from Galactus in a sequel? For Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, bringing Galactus back was a no-no due to Disney being stingy with the Fantastic Four property at the time.

But Capcom had a pretty good solution. First, introduce Sigma from Mega Man X into the world of fighters. Second, bring in box office superstar (at the time) Ultron. Third, take a page out of Dark Kahn’s book and merge the two into one being. They’re robots. Robots love that shit.

For the record, the most hyped I got for this game was the stinger on the announcement trailer where they showed a shadowy Ultron sitting on a throne with Sigma’s glowing eyes appearing on his torso.

Not only do you get each meatbag-hating robot on their own and in merged form, but then there’s the over-the-top design of their final form. Transforming into a nightmarish and gaudy final form is Sigma’s MO, so it’s nice to see Ultron just go with it.

Yeah, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite didn’t have staying power, but it did have a giant Sigma head with Ultron’s body sticking out…as well as that head-scratching plot point where Thanos made a gauntlet powered by Ryu’s inner evil for the sake of throwing fireballs at Death. See, that’s why you need arcade mode endings in games like these. Let your crossover freak flag fly.

24. VICTOR ORTEGA

Ring of Destruction

Saturday Night Slam Masters is remembered well enough, partially due to its SNES port, but few talk about its sequel Ring of Destruction, which had more of an emphasis on fighting game mechanics. Players of only the first game would still recognize Victor Ortega, as he’s the Billy Graham/Hulk Hogan guy in the intro, tearing his shirt off. Though not part of the game’s roster, his identity is revealed if you’re able to beat the game without losing a single match.

This mountain of muscle was a previous CWA champion who was so dominant in the ring that he left out of boredom. Getting the first game’s best ending has Ortega return to challenge your wrestler, ending in a cliffhanger.

The sequel is about the Capcom Wrestling Association being invaded by heels representing the Blood Wrestling Association. This situation piques Ortega’s interest, as hewants the last man standing to challenge him for the title. He proves to be a pain in the ass to take on — not only can he uppercut so hard that fireballs fly out but he was busting out jumping Yoshi Tonics all the way back in 1994!

23. ZANKURO MINAZUKI

Samurai Shodown Series

In fighting games, having a katana means getting some extra range and damage. In a series like Samurai Shodown, what does one do for an extra range advantage when everyone is armed with a sword? Easy. Create an 8-foot-tall Brock Samson samurai guy with a katana befitting of his size.

Zankuro is one of the rare examples of a character who talks about “the demon within” but isn’t actually possessed by one. Ryu is a good person despite having a magical dark force inside him threatening to turn him into a rage zombie. Zankuro is just an asshole. He slaughtered villages of people because killing people is his vice. And really, who’s got the skill to get in his way and tell him to stop?

But the outcome is inevitable. He has to die. In Samurai Shodown III, Zankuro had a fake-out death followed by a real death, just as he lamented his horrible acts. He was be sorry about his sins, but sidestepped having to live with them.

Except…he keeps getting resurrected.

22. DIO BRANDO

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

It’s kind of crazy how popular Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has become in the US in the past few years, especially when you look back at how niche it was in the late ‘90s when Capcom’s Jojo fighter hit the arcade, Dreamcast, and PlayStation. Back then, the best you could do was find some low-quality manga scans and hope that someone online could translate them. All Capcom had was the manga and a few episodes of an anime, but they still managed to turn those into a kickass video game adaptation.

Dio was a major part of this. His moves and animation set him up as someone who could be cold and collected one moment and a slinking psychopath the next. The way he’d jump off-screen, return with a steamroller, and smash you with it while laughingly clawing at the vehicle defined what kind of series-carrying villain he really was.

The biggest mark against him is that regular boss Dio is not nearly as cool as his faceless counterpart Shadow Dio, based on the stretch of the manga when nobody knew what Dio’s powers actually were but understood that he was scary as hell.

21. WOLFGANG KRAUSER

Fatal Fury Series

SNK did Krauser dirty. His appearances in Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special made him the most epic boss fight of the era. First off, the dude was so jacked that he was able to burst out of his chest armor with a mere flex. Second, he got this epic line:“I’ll chisel your gravestone! Sleep well!” Most importantly, his background music was only a version of “Dies Irae” but it was played by own personal orchestra during that fight!

Dude wasn’t even up to no good. He was just an intense man who wanted a good fight. Even in defeat, he stood back up to dramatically yell, “You were perfect! I have met…my match…” before collapsing. Legendary presentation.

Unfortunately, then we got the second Fatal Fury anime, where SNK inexplicably got rid of Krauser’s amazing purple mustache. Why would you do such a thing? That mustache never did anything wrong.

He was almost completely forgotten by the time King of Fighters rolled around. He appeared in King of Fighters ’96 with a lanky redesign that made it look like he had a swimmer build, but everyone knows that Krauser needs to look like 2003 Triple H.

Oh, well. At least they didn’t get Ray Park to play him in a movie.

20. FERNANDEZ

Waku Waku 7

Waku Waku 7 is one of the liveliest and enjoyable fighting games that nobody has ever heard of. With one installment to its name, this Sunsoft creation has a handful of anime archetypes and knockoffs fight to free a magical fairy and earn a wish. In order to release the fairy, they have to grow into a giant and take on the kaiju known as Fernandez.

Known as Fernandeath in Japan, Fernandez is a large, black ball with a smiley face, bat wings, ball-shaped limbs, and a glowing aura. The giggling beast seems cute at first, but the more time you spend with it, the creepier and more malevolent it becomes. Its eyes turn red, it sometimes has pointy teeth, and at times it’ll turn full-on demonic.

There are some silly move animations thrown in there, but getting devoured and then shot out of its butt like a cannon can’t be the most enjoyable experience out there.

19. JUSTICE

Guilty Gear

Guilty Gear gets a lot of flack for its confusing plot and ridiculous titles, but the gist of the story is unique and surprisingly simple: Once upon a time, humanity took part in a devastating war called the Crusades, where they fought against robo-mutants (a cross between SkyNet and the Age of Apocalypse) and barely survived. Now, with the world reaching borderline utopia, it’s constantly threatened by the possibility of going back to the bad old days. In other words, we missed out on seeing the exciting, explosive, action-packed era of this fictional world, but we absolutely have to prevent that from happening again.

Adding to the terror is that Justice was never fully destroyed in that war. She was simply sealed away for all eternity, which never lasts in fiction. In the first Guilty Gear, losing to this lizard mech meant endless death and destruction. But through her defeat at the hands of Sol Badguy, we not only got a tragic origin story for our main hero that explained what the hell a “Guilty Gear” is, but Justice opened up this world to the possibility that the Crusades could return in various ways despite her death.

18. BRAINIAC

Injustice 2

When your first game is all about Batman taking down an evil Superman, where do you go for the sequel? Easy. You figure out a threat so huge that both Batman and Superman have to put their feud on hold in order to save Earth. The logical choice is Darkseid, but NetherRealm went in a smarter direction with Brainiac. Even though he’s an established character in other continuities, Brainiac had yet to show up in any form in Injustice canon, so the studio could treat him as a brand new threat.

He was the perfect fit, too. Since he was the one responsible for blowing up Krypton, the game used this backstory to also introduce Supergirl and gave us a villain that Superman would hate just as much as the Joker. Even in defeat, Brainiac’s plan created another violent moral argument between Batman and the murderous Superman.

Above all else, Brainiac felt like a big deal. His moves during the boss fight made him seem like an even more advanced take on Doc Ock. The inside of his space ship added to his cyber nightmare aesthetic, too. Last but not least, he was voiced by Jeffrey Combs, whose chilling delivery made him sound like the most menacing threat in the universe.

Sorry, Darkseid.

17. THE GENERAL

Kaiser Knuckle

Kaiser Knuckle is your average Street Fighter II knockoff from the early days of fighting games, and there’s only one reason anyone remembers it at all. That reason is the General.

At first glance, he’s little more than a blatant ripoff of M. Bison. Then you fight him. Without a doubt, the General is the absolute hardest boss in fighting game history. He’s unbelievable. Not only are his attacks unfair variations of Bison’s offense, but he has a move where he releases Green Lantern construct projections of himself in various directions.

He’s an afront to God and when he wins the round and calls himself a perfect soldier, it’s hard to argue.

16. RYO SAKAZAKI

Fatal Fury Special

Some time after Mortal Kombat gave us Reptile and mere months before Street Fighter gave us Akuma, Fatal Fury Special introduced a very special hidden boss: Ryo Sakazaki. Sure, King of Fighters ’94 would be released within a year, but this was our first time seeing a major SNK fighting game crossover. This was the first Terry vs. Ryo matchup.

One of the reasons this debut hits so hard for me is that Ryo and the Art of Fighting crew never seemed to be too prominent in the King of Fighters games. There are two main continuities when it comes to SNK’s fighters. King of Fighters puts everything together and says it all coexists in the same era. Meanwhile, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Buriki One, and Savage Reign are on a staggered timeline. With Art of Fighting taking place in the ‘70s, it means that the Ryo in Fatal Fury games and Buriki One is a hardened, middle-aged legend and not just another young upstart like he is in King of Fighters.

In other words, Ryo showing up in Fatal Fury Special isn’t just an early crossover, but a passing of the torch.

15. EYEDOL

Killer Instinct

Killer Instinct always valued character designs first and everything after. Ninja, robot, dinosaur, T&A secret agent, boxer, Native American, skeleton, werewolf, ice creature, and fire guy. Then came the story.

To that effect, Eyedol, much like Spinal, is a tribute to the stop-motion fantasy movie monsters of the old days. Specifically, he’s a two-headed version of the cyclops from the 7th Voyage of Sinbad. He made for a memorable final battle, thanks in part to the cheap-ass healing ability that he’d spam while the other fighter recovered in between rounds.

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Eyedol was the last classic character released for the Killer Instinct reboot, and they redesigned the HELL out of him. Depicted as a holy chosen champion turned demonic and ogre-like due to his own ego, Eyedol’s two-headed cyclops look was explained as the result of having his head cleaved in half down the middle, then being resurrected. The wound is healed, but not undone, resulting in some gnarly body horror.

Much respect to his old ending, which was not only a parody of Blanka’s Street Fighter II ending, but by having his would-be mother refer to him as “Billy,” it becomes both a sly reference to Double Dragon (Billy and Jimmy) and musician Billy Idol.

Get it?

14. GILL

Street Fighter III

Following up on M. Bison was never going to be easy. For a long time, he was the poster boy for fighting game final bosses. For the third major installment, Capcom needed to introduce someone who felt different but also as big a threat as his predecessor. Rather than introducing “M. Bison’s boss” or “M. Bison’s dad,” the studio instead went in a completely original direction with Gill. Was he powerful? Yes. Did he use street fighting tournaments as a front for some kind of maniacal scheme? Yes again. Was he the ultimate evil? Well…I guess that depends on your thoughts on organized religion.

Rather than a villain delusional enough to call himself a god, Gill might as well BE a god. And he both wants to be virtuous, but he’s also an egomaniac about it. It’s definitely a fresh take on the mustache-twirling monsters in these games. Even Alex, the main character of Street Fighter III, only wants to fight him to get revenge after for his mentor, who Gill beat so bad in a street fight they had to send him to the hospital. Alex doesn’t seem to really care about the whole new world order cult gimmick.

With Street Fighter III being such a beautiful-looking sequel, Gill also brought the novelty of an asymmetric 2D character who wasn’t just mirrored when he looked in the opposite direction (i.e. Sagat’s eyepatch switching eyes depending on where he’s facing). That fit well with Gill’s mastery over fire and ice.

Screw him for that cheap resurrection power, though.

13. KING LEO/TRUE KING LION

Savage Reign

A lot of times in fiction, futuristic designs are based on the decade when they were conceived. That’s how we got King Leo, a villainous champion in the future of the Fatal Fury/Art of Fighting timeline, who looks hilariously try-hard ‘90s. The angular mask/boots/codpiece combo, the boxing gloves with sword, the ridiculous flat-top mullet, the cap, the ab window, etc. He has it all. He is pure extreme.

In both Savage Reign and its sequel Kizuna Encounter, he’s playable but not really. King Lion is selectable from the beginning, but it becomes apparent that he and the final boss are two different entities. Playable King Lion is an impostor meant to test the challengers, while King Leo is the far more powerful real deal.

Even when Jyazu appears in Kizuna Encounter as the actual final boss by impaling King Leo with his giant sword, King Leo is still able to later shrug off that major wound in a post-credits sequence. God, I wish that game had a follow-up.

12. GALACTUS

Marvel vs. Capcom 3

I’m surprised it took Capcom so long to bring in Galactus. The studio had the giant boss thing going in its Marvel games with Apocalypse, Onslaught, and whatever the hell Abyss was, and probably should have gone with Galactus for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but I guess Capcom wanted to do multiple forms for the battle and that’s what Abyss brought to the table. Fortunately, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 finally brought in the Eater of Worlds.

Galactus isn’t the kind of guy who is supposed to get taken down by Ryu and Wolverine, but considering Capcom made a Marvel fighter where Spider-Man can take down an omnipotent Thanos, and that there’s an in-story reason that Galactus isn’t at 100%, one can give this story a pass. He still fights like Galactus should with cosmic energy beams flying all over the place.

Probably the best thing about him is his silly appearances in various endings, like being put on trial with Phoenix Wright as his defense lawyer or an annoyed Wolverine telling X-23 to get Galactus’ defeated body off his lawn.

11. MARIE KORBEL

Skullgirls

The Skull Heart from Skullgirls is terrifying and interesting enough to build a fighting game story around. It’s a demonic relic powerful enough to grant you any wish you’d like, but it will possess you in time. How fast it possesses you depends on how selfish your wish is, but the sad fact is that no matter how altruistic or heroic your actions are, every wish is selfish on some level. To use the Skull Heart is to damn yourself and doom everyone else.

That’s the tragedy of Bloody Marie. She grew up an orphan, abused and treated as a slave. Her thirst for vengeance was justified, but it didn’t make a difference. As the all-powerful Skullgirl, it was only a matter of time before she lost herself completely and slaughtered everyone. This struggle translated to her appearance, which seemed normal enough…until you notice the glowing, bare ribs peeking out the side.

Marie has several forms, and each one depicts her as being less in control until she’s just scraps of bone being manipulated by the Skull Heart. Defeating her not only means wiping out a young girl who really doesn’t deserve it, but for some of her challengers, it means they’re walking towards their own tragedy with the Skull Heart.

10. ONSLAUGHT

Marvel vs. Capcom

Capcom pulled off a miracle when it made Onslaught cool.

In general, Onslaught is like the Star Wars prequels. A solid idea in bullet points, but terrible in practice. The idea of an insane Xavier/Magneto/Juggernaut hybrid commandeering all the Sentinels and becoming such a threat to the Marvel heroes that the only way to stop him is to send a purified version of the Hulk after him sounds so awesome, but…well, ‘90s comics are ‘90s comics.

Marvel vs. Capcom’s Onslaught makes for such a sweet boss fight and is a big improvement over Apocalypse, who bypassed the normal-sized battle for the sake of immediately turning giant. Onslaught is Magneto on steroids, who turns into Apocalypse on steroids, and works because ‘90s Capcom was so damn untouchable.

We’re at a point in pop culture where War Machine is a mainstream superhero and “Lethal Protector” Venom made more in the box office than the Justice League. Onslaught is still considered a very specific time capsule that’s yet to be redeemed, which makes Capcom’s use of him here that much more impressive.

9. OGRE

Tekken 3

Tekken is like WWE where it’s so much better when isn’t focusing on the old man running things and his shitty family. When the bosses aren’t part of the Mishima bloodline, they’re usually some kind of unearthly being. You have your Egyptian demigod, you have your goth lady wearing sludge overalls, and you have your Aztec God of Fighting.

Ogre is the one Tekken boss who doesn’t directly tie into the Mishima family. It’s refreshing and makes the whole world feel bigger. He’s a completely unrelated force who reveals himself by beating the crap out of different mainstays in between Tekken 2 and 3. Granted, it was more impressive early on because Ogre got credit for wiping out so much of the early cast. But those guys returned in later games, and it seems Ogre only really killed the first King and MAYBE Jun, who sucks so good for Ogre.

Outside of non-canon stuff, Ogre didn’t last long in the Tekken series, but his death brought forth the rivalry between Heihachi and Jin, springboarding the Mishima war into a new direction. It was also explained that the Ancient Ogre form was defeated by Paul Phoenix, which is sadly one of the last times that character was treated like an actual threat.

8. OROCHI

King of Fighters ’97

Nailing the landing on a long-running story isn’t easy, and it’s truly impressive when a franchise pulls it off. Fans of Avengers: Endgame know that feeling well.

While the first King of Fighters game was all about Rugal, his return in King of Fighters ’95 built on the idea that he was tapped into a greater power that dwarfed him. Then King of Fighters ’96 continued that by showing us Goenitz, who was also a player in Orochi’s game. Even Iori Yagami – an antihero who wanted nothing to do with the evil god – was powerless to be anything but its bloodthirsty pawn.

King of Fighters ’97 not only acted as the climax to this whole saga, but it really felt like the peak of the whole franchise. There were great King of Fighters games afterwards, but this was where everything really felt like it lined up. And so, after all this build up, we got a team of Orochi worshippers, two insane pawns slaughtering in his name, and one guy so insane and bloodthirsty to start with that he shrugged off the magical need to go feral. Then by the time you got to Orochi, he felt like a true final boss that they spent several years building towards. He was the right level of malevolent celestial being and, while challenging, was never too hard compared to other SNK bosses.

As the exclamation point, most endings in the game warned that he’d be back someday. The only way to truly do away with him was to beat the game with a very specific trio of fighters, which happened to trigger one of the coolest endings in the series. The following arcs of King of Fighters would try to build towards other masterminds, but none of them held a candle to Orochi.

7. DIZZY

Guilty Gear X

As I said earlier, the true conflict of the Guilty Gear series is that shit was bad long ago, and the heroes have to keep the world from unwinding back into that chaos. When it came to the villainous Justice, things were pretty cut and dry. Justice had been released from her prison, cloned, and even resurrected at times. But Dizzy was a deeper take on the idea. She is the daughter of Sol Badguy and/or Justice and is an omega-level threat who could very well relaunch the war between humans and Gears.

It just so happens that she’s also an innocent, young woman who just wants a peaceful existence, someone who just wants to be left alone where she can’t hurt anyone. Despite being possibly the most powerful character in the series (give her Instant Kill attack in Guilty Gear Xrd a look), Dizzy is left alone in the end. She ends up finding friends, love, and even has a son.

6. THANOS

Marvel Super Heroes

Marvel Super Heroes is a very loose adaptation of Infinity Gauntlet, and that’s part of the reason the final battle with Thanos work so well. You spend all game accumulating Infinity Gems, adding more power-up options to each fight. Then Thanos steals them away and you have to take on a fully-Gauntleted Mad Titan in front of a backdrop very reminiscent of the big heroes vs. Thanos fight from Infinity Gauntlet.

Now, for those of you who haven’t read the comic that inspired Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos got the Infinity Gauntlet and became omnipotent. A bunch of heroes dogpiled him, and Thanos even gave himself a handicap to make it the slightest bit challenging, but the heroes still lost BADLY.

So here you are, playing as Spider-Man or Iron Man or whoever, having to have a kickass one-on-one brawl with Thanos and having to do alone what almost 20 superheroes couldn’t do in the comics. But because fighting games exist in a reality where everyone can win (and not just Jim Starlin’s Jim darlings), everyone — from Psylocke to Juggernaut — stands a chance at dethroning Thanos and truly earning the Infinity Gauntlet.

5. RUGAL BERNSTEIN

King of Fighters Series

I’m a huge fan of this character despite his tendency to be a bullshit SNK boss. Fighting him in King of Fighters ’94 should be banned by the Geneva Convention. It’s just that…man, the dude has so much swagger and radiates such coolness that I can’t hate him. He’s Rugal Goddamn Bernstein and we’re better for knowing him.

As with most early villains of fighting games, Rugal is overshadowed by his replacements. Shang Tsung works for Shao Kahn. Sagat works for M. Bison. Heihachi is the son of Jinpachi. Eyedol is the rival of Gargos. Geese is the weaker brother to Krauser. Rugal got the ball rolling in his own way as a way to build to the Orochi storyline, which practically defined all the following King of Fighters storylines. Yet in the end, despite being the first step in the saga and being killed for good during the second entry, Rugal has solidified himself as THE villain of King of Fighters. Dream match games and non-canon adventures tend to just go with Rugal as the final boss by default, usually with some extra bell and whistle, my favorite being God Rugal from Capcom vs. SNK 2. A coked up Rugal with Akuma gimmicks is my kind of boss battle.

Rugal is mostly a collection of awesome motifs and special attacks, but I also love that he’s just as defined by his number one weakness. Yes, he’s good enough to crush a team of three like nobody’s business, but he has his physical limits and his downfall is that he doesn’t see that. In canon and as God Rugal, he loses because he absorbs and uses up too much power for his body to handle. It’s nice when a villain is done in by their inability to leave well enough alone.

4. SHAO KAHN

Mortal Kombat Series

The worst thing I can say about Shao Kahn is that, while I dig the way his latter appearances lean into his “painted on the side of your van” metal design, he will never be as completely rad as he was in Mortal Kombat 2 and 3. Probably because loud growling doesn’t hold a candle to his eerie whisper and proud laughter.

Kahn is more intimidating than most bosses. The attract sequence in Mortal Kombat 2 showed a silhouette of Kahn reading Shang Tsung the riot act followed by a more direct look at his appearance, and it was immediately clear that this guy was absolute trouble. The first game tried to make Goro seem terrifying, but we knew that he was still second to Shang Tsung. Shao Kahn was THE boss, and we knew that, even if we climbed up that ladder (with Kahn STANDING ON TOP A MOUNTAIN), Kahn would be the end of us.

And a lot of the time he was. He would beat you with a war hammer, kick you across the room, and taunt you and you’d love him for it. He was so perfect as a boss that Midway simply had to bring him back for the next game.

Even after taking a backseat in the subsequent games, Mortal Kombat Armageddon’s story revitalized him by making him the winner of what was essentially the Mortal Kombat Royal Rumble. It was such a tragic turn of events that Raiden had to go back in time to stop it. Even with nearly all the good guys dead, it was all deemed worth it just because Kahn was killed. At least for a few years.

3. M. BISON

Street Fighter Series

As a kid, I was always confused about why this bus driver was running his own fighting tournament, but that feeling was replaced by my rage at his damn slide kick and arm-hook throw combo. You have fire-hand powers. You don’t need to be that smooth, dude.

Bison isn’t as deep a character as Sagat or as hardcore as Akuma or as naked as Gill, but he is possibly the hammiest final boss in the history of fighting games. All the various actors who have portrayed the character seem to be taken by the infectious fun that comes with playing him, whether it’s Raul Julia in the first live-action movie, Gerald C. Rivers and Kenji Utsumi in the games, Richard Newman on the cartoon, and, hell, even Neal McDonough had his moments in that crappy Chun-Li movie.

As the first final boss that anyone ever cared about, Bison is a wonderful pile of escalating craziness. Over time, he’s become a comedically-jacked guy with a constant smile whose plots involve Buddha statues with laser faces, running over Ryu with a bigass truck, shoving his soul into gender-swapped clones, and dropping satellites onto civilization for the sake of causing chaos. Capcom can try to write him out of the series, but he’s just too iconic to destroy for good.

2. AKUMA

Street Fighter Series

It’s crazy to think how Electronic Gaming Monthly did an April Fools’ joke about there being an enhanced version of Ryu as a secret final boss in Street Fighter II and Capcom decided, yes, that’ll do. That’s how one of the most iconic fighting game characters ever was born.

“Ryu but darker and more powerful” could have ended badly, but Akuma’s always shined as the X-factor of Street Fighter’s roster. He’s more than just an evil final boss. He’s a malevolent force that is somehow neither good nor evil…which is for the best, considering Capcom eventually labeled M. Bison as literal pure evil.

What’s funny to me is how Mortal Kombat introduced the idea of the hidden boss fight with Reptile, then gradually turned him into the biggest jobber in Mortal Kombat lore. Akuma showed up, wiped out M. Bison with his so-powerful-we-can’t-even-show-you super move, gave you a nigh-impossible boss fight, and then Capcom made sure to keep him going as the guy who will make you shit your pants every time he shows up. When SNK made its SNK vs. Capcom crossover game, the team even put an ending in there where a bored Akuma challenged God to a fight.

1. GEESE HOWARD

Fatal Fury Series

As fighting games are ensemble pieces, so are their storylines most of the time. Fatal Fury, not so much. Fatal Fury is really the story of Terry Bogard vs. Geese Howard with a bunch of supporting characters. Even Andy Bogard, who has just as much a reason to be the protagonist as Terry, is relegated to being “the guy who is reluctant to sleep with his hot girlfriend.” Fatal Fury is really about Terry and Geese and everyone else is, at best, an extension of the two of them.

Geese is everything you could ever want in a final boss, unless you’re looking for a giant shooting lasers out his eyes. He’s slick as oil and tougher than brick, with a moveset that’s based around throwing you like a ragdoll or blasting you into the stratosphere. He’s the right balance of difficult enough to make you curse, but not cheap enough to make you throw the controller through your screen.

Not only is he unique in battle, but he just has so much personality. His cockiness is on another level. His every gesture makes him look like he knows he’s superior to everyone else in every way, but kicking their ass is a better use of his time than whatever else he has planned. Even his counter moves (“PREDICTABLE!”) make him seem untouchable.

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His canon death scene in the Fatal Fury games is also second to none. Hanging off a tower rooftop, he sees Terry reach his hand out. Rather than be saved and maybe even forgiven by Terry, Geese chooses to smack it away, let go, and fall to his death while looking up at the winner and laughing maniacally at him. What a boss way to go.

The post 50 Best Fighting Game Final Bosses from Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.

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raeyvies · 7 years ago

Note

Hiiii!! Request open? If yes could you please write a Headcanon about a pregnant mc who suddenly disappeared and the boys are desperate as crazy? Thank you! Hope you have a nice day!!

RFA boys + Saeran reacting to pregnant MC who disappears suddenly

I actually haven’t done headcanons before but I really liked writing this one last night. Legit went to sleep at 2 am to finish this. I REALLY liked writing this and made the headcanons long af xD I got way too into it and I really hope you like it c: There’s a mix of angst and fluff in here for variety!

Also, I have more than enough time on my hands now so feel free to request headcanons ^^

Yoosung

You kept your pregnancy a secret from Yoosung to surprise him at first but your plans (more like your baby’s plans) changed

Luckily you were one of the few whose belly didn’t start showing until later so you were able to extend your surprise for him however, your doctor found that your baby had a condition now that you were 4 months in

The baby’s condition could be treated, but just not in Korea

While yoosung was at work you packed up your things

You ended up being a little unorthodox and just took the earliest flight possible to Germany

Saeyoung and Jumin were the only ones who knew about your situation so they helped you out

Jumin helped with all the expenses

(as much as you didn’t want to, he insisted)

And Saeyoung fabricated evidence to show that you were selected to be on a psychology committee for the next year all to convince yoosung

after all you were a psychology graduate

You kind of left one detail out and that was to tell Yoosung that you were leaving

You were so distracted by everything going on with your baby, it wasn’t until a week later that you contacted yoosung

In that week, Yoosung dialed your mom, your dad, your siblings

He spammed the messenger every single night hoping the you would answer but you never did

At night he hardly slept thinking of every possible thing that could have happened to you

Nobody could have kidnapped you right…?

HE was legit pulling his hair out at night

Yoosung was just paranoid out of his mind

Some nights he may have imagined that you returned even

It wasn’t until he received a call after coming out from work that he was able to calm down

Given, he asked you every single question to exist in the first minute when he picked up

You told him that you couldn’t use your international minutes too much to explain and that he can ask Saeyoung to explain

The boy fell for it. The whole lie. Thank God. He didn’t need to worry about a baby just yet.

He finally calmed down and counted down the days until your returned

What he didn’t expect was to see you at the airport with a baby boy in a stroller

WHO HAD HIS PURPLE EYES

“Sungjae, you finally get to meet your daddy,” you greeted Yoosung with the happiest expression ever

OMG CUTEST REUNION EVER

Jumin

Jumin left early the morning when you found out you were pregnant

Apparently you had been pregnant already a month and 3 weeks without knowing.

You had forgotten to take two birth control pills at some point because you were so overwhelmed with work

You stayed in the bathroom for at least 2 hours staring at your pregnancy test

You felt you were too young to have a baby

You were enjoying life, your job, your husband

Neither of you had plans for a baby any time soon either though Jumin would have welcomed him or her just fine

This wasn’t something you could just talk to anyone about so you went to Jaehee who was in Jumin’s office while he was in a meeting

You broke down in front of her and she comforted you

You decided to get an abortion but wanted to make sure you were a distance away from Jumin so that he wouldn’t be able to stop you

By the afternoon you took a train to a very reliable abortion clinic where you had made an appointment that was for the next day b/c you were Jumin’s wife

It was like 400 miles away

When Jumin got home and saw you weren’t there, he called you assuming that you stayed late at work

You didn’t answer any of his calls

Okay now he was anxious

You always answered his calls

He tried to suppress his emotions and stay rational but THIS IS HIS WIFE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

And well he is who he is

There were so many reasons why you could disappear just because you’re his wife

So he literally dispatched all his security to search for you

This was an emergency and that was enough to even have his intelligence unit hack into all cameras around the city and beyond to find you

He got absolutely no sleep. He paced around in his office waiting for a phone call

He demanded that every ten minutes he’d be given a status report

He wanted to sleep so desperately but he couldn’t. He wasn’t going to until you were found

Around 7 in the morning, security found you again walking into the abortion clinic through surveillance cameras

Jumin was confused why you were there of all places until he put two and two together

Within an hour he was at the clinic (he took his private jet duh)

You were already mid procedure so Jumin was not allowed to disturb

But he was there when you were finished and moved out from the procedure room

Your heart dropped when you saw him

He wasn’t mad or anything, he was just relieved to know you’re okay

You didn’t have the guts to tell him what you just did and why until he asked you if there was something he should know

You tell him all about how you’re too young to have a baby yet and breakdown

He says that it’s okay.

Jumin accepts your decision (I mean what’s done is done right?) and six years later you have your first baby

It’s a girl and her name is Han Juyi !

Zen

You were both already aware of your pregnancy

HE was the one who was super stoked to have a child. At first he thought it would be a little bump in his career but he’s okay with it

His career already lifted off and he could afford having a child

Zen had to tame his beast with you now Oh lord he was so protective of you

You were glad he wasn’t overbearing

He was already making a list of names in his head and well you were too

You stayed up to date with your prenatal vitamins and took very good care of yourself while he was working.

This was where working from home had all its perks

When you started showing a belly you just upsized your clothes

After all it was just a fashion trend lately to wear oversized clothing

You were a firm believer in that pregnancy should be a private matter so the few times you went out in public, you made sure to cover up as well as you could

The last thing you wanted was for the paparazzi to catch a glimpse of your baby bump.

When you saw another famous actor/non-actor couple on the news talking about their unexpected pregnancy, you immediately felt a knot in your stomach

The paparazzi was getting much more clever these days and honestly you didn’t want to risk them finding out your pregnancy

You didn’t want the added stress to affect your pregnancy

So you call your mom who lives in the countryside and asked if you could stay until the baby arrived

That night was one of Zen’s performances and you never miss one. You always have a front row seat reserved so that Zen can always catch a glimpse of you

However, you left to the countryside before the show started. Zen saw that you weren’t there and assumed you were a bit late

But halfway through the show, you never arrived and that threw him off. He was sweating under his costume more than usual because he was nervous

His mind was racing.

He thought maybe you fell sick and stayed home

Or it could be something worse

At a scene change, he ran backstage and dialed your number as quick as possible

You didn’t answer any calls and he began to lose it

He was breathing really hard and was just lost. He couldn’t focus on anything because he was trying to figure out why you disappeared

Zen yelled out and told his understudy to take his place for the rest of the musical

Today that understudy was being a lazy prick but Zen was not having any of it

Oooohhhhh shit

He grabbed his understudy by his shirt and growled at him

“You’re taking my place right now or so help me I’ll make sure you never get a role in anything again. Got it?”

Having made his point he left and took his motorcycle back home only to find that you left.

You left a lot of your stuff there because your mom already had what you needed

He called you once again, this time tears are already about to fall

But he hears your voice when you pick up the phone and is so relieved

You explain with you left without notice and he says you should’ve at least told him

For the next 5 months until you give birth, you two video chat and you send him copies of your baby’s ultrasound

When the gender is revealed, you two spend an entire night thinking of names over video call and by morning when you’re too tired, you finally decide a name

He’s there for you the night you give birth and he is literally the happiest person in the world

While you’re in recovery, he fills out the baby’s registration

Gender: Male

Name: Ryu Hyuk

Seven

Lately he’s been pulling off so many pranks on you

You just never have an idea that can beat his out

His latest prank actually resulted in the two of you having some ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) time in his office full of computers and cameras recording everything

He claims it was an “accident” but he does nothing to delete the video

Lowkey he even threatens you in a joking way that he’ll send it out to everyone

One night you try to delete it but can’t figure out how to, but you at least manage to get a copy of it on a flash drive

You actually found a use for it later

A few weeks later when you miss your period you know that you’re pregnant

And you know exactly why

You think of what way to tell him you’re pregnant

And then a light bulb goes off

You’re going to pull of the best prank to tell him you’re expecting.

With the help of Vanderwood, you manage to get a surveillance recording of you being “captured” in Seven’s garage

One of Vanderwood’s old friends, who Seven doesn’t know, joins in and helps film a few ransom video that even you would believe was real

Seven comes home and like always goes to his computers to continue hacking. He’s totally oblivious to what’s going to happen next

A recording of your screams goes off and God Seven is literally bolting upstairs to where the scream came from

He runs to your shared room on the third floor and you’re not there. He searches the rest of the bunker only to have his alarm go off and he goes to the computers

(thanks to Vanderwood who knows the workings of the bunker)

The video of you being captured in the garage appears on his computer screen followed by the ransom video

Seven’s heart was beating so fast out of fear that he was sure he was about to faint.

He knew it. One day you would pay the price for being around him

He yells out for Vanderwood, his voice cracking and they both run out to the garage where they expect to find MC

Another video appears on his phone, telling him to go to the roof

Vanderwood is legit laughing his ass off b/c finally got him good

On the roof, there’s a chair right in the middle. A video is prepared and it’s an unfamiliar face.

“There is one more thing you must do besides handing over the money. There is a confidential video in your possession that must be deleted. And then we will return MC unharmed.”

Seven is willing to delete his life at this point just to get you back

And then yours and Seven’s ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) video starts playing

Next thing Seven knows is that you are driving up in a children’s battery powered car from Toys r US with blue and pink balloons attached to the back of it

“Babe, I think we’re going to need another parking space. Preferably sized for this car”

Seven legit couldn’t be happier to know you’re expecting.

But he’s also so salty that you gave him a heart attack

He gave you the silent treatment for all of ten minutes while you and Vanderwood were laughing so hard and high fiving

You let him play with the miniature car and he forgave you immediately

This child I swear

8 months later just before giving birth, you ended up buying another toy car

One was pink and one was blue

The pink one had the name Choi Saeyeon written

The blue one had the name Choi Youngjae on it

V (forgive me this one is so much angst T_T):

When V found out you were pregnant, he took it upon himself to make all the announcements

He decided to call this collection of photos “Family”

You both were so happy

V was just so overwhelmed by emotions of happiness, love, and anticipation

Too emotional at that so he started crying

This is what true happiness is and what love is

The collage you both made became the announcement that you sent out to everyone close to them.

It also showed a picture of V and you holding blue daffodils to show that the baby will be a boy

V insisted on sending Rika an announcement as well much to your dislike.

You were just being cautious but he convinced you that it was his way of showing that he moved on and that there is hope for her to find love just as he did

Rika legit went crazy and had an episode upon seeing

She tore up the card and became heated.

She waited patiently, having Ray monitor the expecting couple until the The due date was near

Around the eight month mark, Rika decided to strike and had her believers (or at least what remained of them) kidnap you from your home

You couldn’t fight back because you were already so exhausted from the extra weight you’re carrying

You breath in from a rag they placed over your mouth and nose and next thing you know you’re in darkness.

V comes home to an empty house and calls out for you. He told you not to leave the house unless necessary since you’re in your last month

You’re not upstairs or in the basement, not outside either or in the bathroom

He tries to keep himself calm but when he sees a note on the bed with a logo that’s all too familiar he just freaks

He starts sweating and his hands shake.

It’s all his fault he keeps telling himself

I mean it kinda is though

He yells at nothing

He kicks things from the ground

And when he’s had it, he punches a mirror, it breaks and his hand is bleeding

There’s only one person who can help him and of course it’s Saeyoung

He has him track down the new location of Mint Eye

And he actually yells at him to hurry up

That’s so unlike V to yell at Saeyoung but like its your life on the line so he’s right to be pissed

With the new location found, he grabs Saeyoung’s car keys and tells him to get in the car now

Legit is driving like 120 mph

When you come to your senses, you’re laid on a surprisingly comfortable bed.

Rika is there sitting on the bedside stroking your hair

“Let’s make sure we save this baby when he comes to our world. We’ll save him I promise”

You try to refuse the elixirs that she gives you but Rika gets tired of you fighting back and just injects you with it instead. Proven to be just as effective

You become delirious because of the drug

Your head spins and next thing you know you’re falling in and out of consciousness.

You’re mumbling words that don’t make sense as you hear V’s voice again.

When V finds you he literally pushed Rika aside and takes you back

Saeyoung right behind him made sure that Rika didn’t get in the way

V was literally seething with rage but he couldn’t focus on his emotions when you’re a drugged mess in his arms.

Going to the hospital is the first thing in his mind because he had no idea what the drug is doing to you and the baby

By the time you, V, and Saeyoung reach the hospital, you’ve gone into labor

The doctors say that the drug affected your body in such a way that premature labor was induced

You were put under anesthesia for an emergency c-section. The baby was the priority

After that procedure, they tried to detoxify your blood stream from whatever drug Rika put in your body.

After waking up from anesthesia, you were in so much pain.

You didn’t know a c-section would hurt so much you couldn’t even move

V was right by your side the entire time with his son in his arms

“Say hi to your mommy, Jiwook. She’s the one you got your looks from.”

Saeran:

Saeran still had to go to therapy a few times a month but his therapist finally said he’s made so much progress you wouldn’t even think he’s mentally ill.

On the day he was finally cleared and no longer had to go to therapy, you two decided to celebrate

You went out for ice cream and movies and arcade games

When you came home you were both really joyful and playful

Then you both played a little game of chase in your apartment because let’s be real Saeran is deep deep down fluff.

One thing led to the other and next thing you knew you were pinned beneath Saeran

On your bed

The next morning you woke up with hickies all over and well that glow that can only come from really good sex

A few weeks later you missed your period.

Admittedly, you felt you weren’t ready for a baby and neither was Saeran.

He’s scared that he might lose control of himself and hurt the kid. Or even hurt you

You trust him enough that he won’t revert back to violence. He’s so mature.

That night you tell him over dinner that you’re pregnant

Saeran drops his spoon on the plate and he’s kind of at a lost of words

“it’s okay if you’re not ready to talk about it Saeran. We can talk about it another time”

Another time never really comes

You’re already 3 months in but you’re still doubting that you and Saeran can raise a child

Considering that he’s never even made a mention about the baby you just conclude that he feels he’s not ready for the responsibility

You leave the apartment without calling him that you be home for a few hours and go to an adoption center

In all honesty, you kind of want Saeran to say that he wants to start a family but you don’t want to force it on him

When Saeran comes home, he’s carrying a few bags with baby stuffs

He actually did so much research and this was his way of telling you that he wanted to start a family.

He dropped the bags when he found out you weren’t in the apartment

You were always here at this time. There’s never been a day you’re not home when he comes back

He calls out your name with a normal voice but soon enough his voice starts cracking.

His head starts spinning.

He thinks you ran away or abandoned him because he didn’t ever mention to you about the baby.

“Don’t leave me please. Everyone leaves but please not you, I wanted to start a family with you”

He forgot to think and then realized he could just track your phone from his phone

this child I swear

He finds out you’re just a few blocks away from the apartment complex and he dashes all the way to where you are

He notices it’s an adoption center and when he spots you, he hugs you so tight repeating over and over that he loves you and he wants to start a family with you

Literally makes a scene at the adoption center

A few weeks later you both go to find out the gender of the baby and…

It’s a girl!

“Uhm, MC, i don’t like the color pink. We are not painting our daughter’s room pink”

“then what color do you want to use?”

“Magenta?”

You literally facepalm

“Magenta is literally pink, Saeran”

………

You still go with that color and paint your daughter’s room

Time flies and next thing you know, you’ve already given birth to your daughter

Turns out it was two daughters. Fraternal twins!

Saeran literally ate an ice cream cone while you were in labor

Both you and Saeran couldn’t decide between two names for a daughter

Now you got to use both names instead of choosing

Hyeran was born ten minutes before Saejung

~Raenai

#mystic messenger #mysme #mysme spoliers #headcanon #mysme scenarios #mystic messenger scenario #mystic messenger angst #mystic messenger headcanon

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guidedbygunpla · 4 years ago

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Gundam Sports Story Chapter 1

It is the year 0086 of the Universal Century. Nearly an entire century has passed since Earth began moving its burgeoning population into gigantic orbiting space colonies. A new home for mankind, where people are born and raised. And die. 5 years ago, the cluster of colonies furthest from the Earth, called Side 3, proclaimed itself the Duchy of Zeon and launched a war of independence against the Earth Federation. Initial fighting lasted over one month and saw both sides lose half their respective populations. People were horrified by the indescribable atrocities that had been committed in the name of independence. Eight months had passed since the rebellion began. They were at a stalemate. Then thanks to the brave men and women of the Earths Federation, Zeon was beaten back, their hold on the earth, and the colonies surrounding it, shrunk, and grew smaller every day. Until finally, the Archduke of Zeon, died in a surprise attack he was not aware of, leaving his own son Gihren Zabi in charge of the duchy. He too fell in battle. Within days after Gihrens death, an armistice was signed, and peace was established in the earths sphere. however. The weapons that won this war, the mobile suits, had proliferated far and wide, their powerful helium fusion engines were capable of great things, some retrofitted to power full factories, and ships that flew further and further out into the stars. However, as at the end of the last great war, when Britain and its allies had trained thousands of men to fly, there was suddenly a love of flying, now here in the universal century there too arose a love, a love of mobile suits. Thus sport leagues grew up near and far, as derelict mobile suits, and military surplus found their way onto the civilian market. Everything from racing, boxing, and even great feats of acrobatics soon found themselves being proformed by giant, metallic bodies. One such league was the MSMMAA, the mobile suit mixed martial arts association. Every year, there is a great tournament where countries vie for glory, honor, and the right to claim that they can produce the best mobile suit pilots in the earths sphere. This tournament is called the MSMMAA Earths Sphere Grand Prix.

______________________________________________________________

A great Scramjet flies high above the clouds, a Japanese flag and the Canon logo emblazoned on its side. Inside we see a woman, her hair cut short, reddish brown in color, wearing a red sport jacket, with a Canon logo on the right chest pocket. Beside her is another woman, older, reading off statistics. “so last weeks match only netted us 76 million viewers, we can do better than that, and the sponsors are counting on us to pump those numbers up, we don’t need to worry about repair costs, Canons contract with us promises they will cover repairs, planet side transport, and basic salaries, but we are relying on gatoraid and Yamaha to pay for any hotel fees, colonial transport, and any increase in the staffs bottom line.” “okay, so what do you suggest we do Milly? We tried feigning issues with the suit and stalling for time until later in the night when more colonial viewers are watching last year, and neither tactic worked….and before you suggest it, I wont do what the EU team did to Maya last year, having her come out in some skimpy form fitting normal suit. Just embarrassing.” The woman in the Canon jacket sighed, taking a sip from a blue bottle of gatoraid as she did so.

“well whats something that makes you unique, maybe we could capitalize on it in battle, your Newtype abilities maybe? I know we usually don’t try to showcase those too much because you say it can be quite draining in combat, but perhaps?” Milly said jotting down the idea on her yellow office pad

“well…..its not the worst idea, stage some real close calls, pull out at the last second….it will be really exhausting but we only have a handful of matches left of qualifying, and then 2 weeks off before the tournament actually begins, for me to recover…Im not a huge fan of it long term, but maybe something like that could secure more viewers before then…not bad Milly” “well, Cat, that’s why you pay me the big bucks” Milly said as she folded her note pad up and walked out of that room of the Scramjet, as she walked through the door, Cats husband Ryu was just walking in. Ryu was a nice man, a bit younger than Cat, she had just turned 30 a month ago in March, and Ryu was just about to turn 27. He was well kept, a bit portly thanks to the lavish life style his wife had brought him these last few years, and soft spoken. “I just got Ohm to bed, he never wants to settle down when we’re on these things” he said as he sat beside her, grabbing her drink and taking a swig of it. “I swear to you, they change the flavoring or something to that every time we fly, it tastes so gross up here” he said handing it back to her. Cat lauged “its bitter, its just because we’re so high up and travelling so fast, the blood in our tounge isn’t where it usually is….stuff tastes different” she said taking another drink

“I bet you taste the same” Ryu joked leaning in to kiss her the world rushed by behind them

The scramjet was travelling at 95,000 feet, at nearly mach 4. They were flying home to Tonosho, a town in Kagawa Japan. Cat, short for Catalyst had emigrated to earth just after the war. She was born on Side 4’s Moore Colony, and was working as an accountant there when Zeons forces attacked. She said she didn’t remember how she survived, just that during the commotion a federation saberfish fighter jet crash landed near her, and the pilot blew the hatch before falling out of it, she doesn’t remember why but she jumped inside and sealed the hatch. She says that day is when she realized her abilities weren’t just good luck and good intuition like she had always believed. She felt someone elses movements in her head, she saw someone turning the ship back on, and piloting it out of the colony. She let the sensation take over, and she escaped the colony unscaithed. The image of the giant pink monoeye of the zakus haunted her nightmares for months after that. after piloting the ship out of side 4, she was picked up in the thunderbolt debris field by the battleship Halifax, and after they looked her over and listened to what she said happened, she was shipped back to jaburo. They did scans of her brain, and put her through days and days of psychological evaluations. They told her she was going to be conscripted into a prototype Newtype Combat Corps that the federation was putting together, along side the famous Operation V Gun Fighters who had lead the federation vanguard in so many battles during the war. Luckily for her, the week before she was to be shipped out, jaburo was attacked, and she fled in the chaos. She eventually found herself in Coqueiral, and fell in with another group of deserters, one of which was Ryu, who had been working as a data analyst for the federation, when after the siege of jaburo he was to be conscripted as a soldier as well, said they were going to put him in a Ball, and throw him at the enemy if need be. He wasn’t ready for that, and he ran, like so many others from the underground bunker.

So how did they both get here, flying on a corporate scramjet, millionaires, in a mobile suit fighting league? Well it all started in Japan in the summer of 0082

Chapter 1 – the summer of 82

Catalyst and Ryu were able to take advantage of the chaos on earth that followed zeons surrender at A baeu qu and bribed their way onto an international flight to japan out of Peru. Some of Ryus family still lived there, those who hadn’t immigrated to Side 7 back in the 70s. His Aunt and Uncle were able to find them a small apartment in Tokyo. They gave them a tiny bit of money to get a start, but they were still deserters from the federation military, and even though the federation government had largely allowed most of the surviving countries on earth to try to rebuild by themselves if they wanted to, there still were federation military bases all over, and though the Republic of Japans government had tried its best to keep the federation out, they were still present here and there. So finding jobs was proving very difficult. Soon however, as the heat of the Japanese summer made itself known, Catalyst and Ryu found themselves pregnant, and the idea of trying to raise a child on the run, with no money, and no future, proved too much for them to bare. Catalyst decided that she would go to the Japanese government and see if there was any way they could help them. She figured the worst they would do is threaten contact the federation and have them deported, at which point they would just start the running and hiding process again. While there they asked why she deported, the Japanese weren’t big fans of the federation, and didn’t want to give them over if there was no reason too. Handing over a pregnant woman to the federation to be executed for desertion wouldn’t sit well with any moral person. She explained she didn’t want her newtype gifts to be taken advantage of, she didn’t want to kill, she didn’t believe the zeon were totally wrong, that though their actions were vile, their goal of spacenoid independence was valiant, and that the actions of the federation were no better, though the Federation had never launched a colony at Australia like Zeon did, they did destroy dozens of side 3 colonies during the early days of the war, and during the final weeks after A beau qu, ultimately driving the Duchy out of their home on Munzo, and to a colony out by Mars known as Axial.

The man she spoke to, was a senator for the Tokyo arm of the Social Democratic party, he had served in the 210th airborn division and fought in the battle of Newyork. He agreed with her that the actions he had seen during those days didn’t paint the federation or zeon in the best light, bombing their own people to prevent the zeon from capturing strategic targets, flooding the subways, to prevent their use as bomb shelters by the zeon, even though hundreds of thousands of people, of federation people were using them as bomb shelters when the flood waters came. He offered her an out. The Japanese government had recently signed onto the MSMMAA, and needed a pilot. The pilots who represent their countries bypass many federation laws, and cannot be persecuted by any government save their own. A rule put in place to prevent jailing a fighter to avoid the outcome of a match. They didn’t have the financial resources of places like Brazil, the Greater European Union, China or the Kievan Federation, let alone sides that had been untouched by the war like side 1 or side 6. Japan needed a leg up, an ace up its sleeve, and a newtype with nothing left to lose seemed like just the ticket.

So she joined the Republic of Japans Mobile Suit Team. She signed on as the fighter for the Canon team, Canon, thanks to the backing of the government, were able to purchase a decent starter suit for her, a RGM-79GS GM Space Command Type. It had been used in the defense of side 6 during the tail end of the war and its right arm had been torn off by a Gelgoog. Canon was able to purchase replacement parts and have it shipped to japan for de-armament and modification per the MSMMAA regulations.

The MSMMAA had strict regulations for what could and could not compete in the tournaments, the suit had to be salvaged, or army surplus. Its VIN number must indicate it was produced before June 15th 0081 Earth Standard. The reactor in the suit, cannot exceed +200KW of the primary suits requirements for 1G standard operation thus an acguy is limited to a max of 2069kw and a 1st gen GM cannot exceed 1449kw. The primary suit is defined as a suit which makes up at least 30% of the parts of any one mobile suit, if a suit is made up of so much scrap that its parent suit cannot be determined it will be limited by the most common suit in its weight class. All guns must be removed from the suit in such a way as to prevent them from ever functioning again, and beam weaponry must have their I field generator removed and capped. Additionally, Minovski scrubbers must be put in place to prevent pollution of minovski particles on earth, the moon or any other body designated as a special combat location per MSMMAA guidelines.

The Gm commander arrived in Tokyo bay on july 15th of 0082 and Catalyst and Ryu were there to greet it, along with a team of 10 who in the coming months and years would become some of her best friends. There were her body guards Ballet and Fyo, former night club bouncers. Milly, Catalysts marketing liaison, Dyrik Masters, the head of mechanical engineering and fabrication, and his team of 5 Linos, Kai, Rita, Suzette and Sanchez, and lastly, Her coach Lt. Tenneth Jung, the federations Ace of Aces, who had left the force at the end of the war, and had decided to move into mobile suit combat training as it paid substantially better. As soon as the GM was floated off its barge and onto the Samson mobile suit carrier, Dyrik and his team went to work looking over it. It turns out that who ever Canon hired out to replace the arm had done an awful job, and most of the joints were going to need replaced, and to fix any balancing issue with the other arm, they would have to replace the balancers on the other arm just to compensate, the legs were in good shape, but the joints in them were in bad shape, hadn’t been oiled in at least a year, and the space use oils they had used hadn’t been switched out once coming earthside and were largely clogged with sand and salt, resulting on fairly heavy corrosion all around.

Upon getting the suit back to their headquarters, a mobile suit hanger that Canon had purchased, they strung the suit up to see just what all was going to need to be done. Tenneth had her and Ryu follow him to the pilot lift. And lifted all three of them right up to the cockpit of the GM.

“so tell me, Catalyst, do you have experience piloting mobile suits at all? From what I read of your record it seems like you’ve only flown saberfish and a few commercial planes here earthside.” She nodded “it’s Cat by the way, only my parents and police call me catalyst” she leaned into the cockpit, a feeling of ice shot through her mind, as she felt hands moving around the cockpit, the pedals moving in tandem, the arms lifting and dropping, menus racing past. “it shouldn’t matter too much, im a real quick learner, haven’t really ever had to read a manual or have someone show me how to do much of anything in life” she said as she lifted herself up over the railing to the pilot lift, and jumped into the cockpit, Ryu reaching out after her as she did so. “ah yes, there was that in your notes too….very strong newtype abilities, rivalling that of the great Terra Stormrider the Gundam Ace and Char Aznable the red comet.” He said as he leaned across so that his upper body rested just above the main control panel “but newtype abilities can only get you so far, a lot of piloting these things is knowing what they can do, knowing when you can use the weight from one part to swing another ya know.” Cat nodded again as she flipped a few switches on the main control panel to turn the GM on, put into service mode so she could look over a few things while the mechanic team went about tearing into the GM’s guts and fixing the damage that the machine had sustained thus far in its life. “I respect your point of view on Newtypes Mr. Jung, our abilities are hard to understand. The main abilities that I have been able to manifest are foreknowledge and a physical 6th sense, I can feel something is about to happen before it happens, and when I see something new, I can usually feel someone else moving through it, and learn how to operate it by following those sensations. I think you being here is how I can comprehend what all of this does. I probably should actually get a manual on how to operate all of this, probably isn’t going to be as easy as Book keeping.” She laughed as she slid her finger across the touch screen display on the main console, the GMs readout scrolled past, a lot of the sensors were reading null or error. “well Cat, I’m sure we can find some old manual here for you, though I think this suit is going to end up pretty heavily tailored towards what you’re comfortable with before all said and done. This cockpit has to be modified if memory serves, padding and what not added…guess athletes need a bit more protection than some flyboy like yours truly. Then, we needa figure out what sorta fighting style you’ll be wanting it to conform to, if youre wanting to fight with swords, axes, just the fists etc. MSMMAA doesn’t have ton of rules about what weapons can and cant be used as long as their temp doesn’t exceed 3000 degrees F, and aren’t beam or bullets….we’ll get you sorted out Cat, with your Newtype abilities, and my know how of these dang GM’s we’ll win you that championship belt.

#gundam #chapter 1 #fanfic

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attract-mode-collective · 7 years ago

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It’s Still (Pixelated) Hot Dog Legs Season

Fall should officially be in full swing by now, yet here in NYC (and many other parts of the US), it still feels like summer. Which I’m not thrilled about, though at the very least, I don’t feel so bad for sharing the above (by Robert Penney) so late into September.

On that note, time for a way overdue game culture round up! It’s been a while, and a LOT been going on. And not to be a downer, but the chaotic weather has been in the news, obviously.

Here’s a pic from Gamer Geek Nation on Facebook, who shared the aftermath of the Hurricane Harvey, along with: “… This is a time when we collectors need to remind ourselves that ultimately, this is just stuff, and our lives are more important. And make sure your collection is insured properly.”

Elsewhere in the world, the Tokyo Game Show just wrapped up, and not to repeat the obvious, but yes… the biggest, most exciting news was the Sonic X Hooters collab…

Though the one between Hello Kitty and Game Center CX is far, far better (photo courtesy of Kotaku)…

You also have this comically large Rockman doll, which apparently was available on Amazon but is now out of stock…

Though I mostly wished I had been there to pick up some primo looking attire, like this Mega Drive track jacket that miki800 gave the heads up on before show time (there was also a Dreamcast hoodie that I personally don’t think looks as nice, hence why I’m skipping it)…

I also really like this Pac-Man shirt…

This Galaga shirt as well…

Also taking place in Japan was an exhibition held by the JARGA (Japan Retro Game Association); miki800 was there and captured some interesting bits of hardware, with the highlight being (IMHO) this Mega Drive clone that resembles a perfect mix of the model 1 MD and the original Wondermega…

There’s no preview of the music yet, though may as well share the recently unveiled cover to the third (and final) installment of 8 BIT MUSIC POWER…

Meanwhile, according to Original Sound Version, Mitch Murder has released yet another soundtrack to another game that never existed. In this it didn’t come out for the Mega CD and doesn’t involve mecha…

Remember that Jet Set Radio figure I showed a while ago? Well, it's finally available for pre-order! Alas, it's not cheap, at least over at Big Bad Toy Store...

BTW, videogamesdensetsu shares with us what Beat looks like, sans-cel shading…

Sticking with VCD for a tad bit; here’s what Pulseman looked originally looked like, and he sure was cute!

Whereas NiGHTS looked goofier… as well as more menacing….

Am confident most people will not give a rat’s ass about seeing hand drawn Virtua Racing track designs, but as a massive fan of the series, oh man, oh man, oh man...

Two never before seen Saturn prototypes that must be: “[taken] with a grain of salt!”

Apparently Looney Tunes X The Matrix was actually a thing? Somehow this does not surprise me…

The work of Hideaki Kodama was recently highlighted, which was also recently auctioned; I wonder how much this painting of various PC Engine hardware went for?

Yet another Kickstarter mention? Yup. And this one is Jed Henry's third crowdfunding campaign: this particular variant of the Ukiyo-e Heroes concentrates on boss battles, with perhaps my fave piece being his depiction from The Breath of the Wild...

Am particularly fond of this image from the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary art book that grease-howard spotted, of old Chun Li chumming it up with her younger self...

Any and all BoJack Horseman fans out there may want to pick up this piece by Jude Buffum...

legendofnes reminds of that time Batman visited New Donk City…

It's just a bunch of cyber kids, all just hanging around, by sanigo...

Speaking of the gang, here we have the kids from Persona 5, by @aranciart…

Apparently, if Jedah (from Darkstalkers) ran a juice stand, it wouldn’t be the best, according to dreaminerryday…

The individual who runs SPLENDID LAND describes SLN-003 Gacha Man as a: "vendor robot who dispenses toys. even he doesn’t know what’s inside the capsules, so he always gets excited to find out"...

Meanwhile, here’s official artwork of Mario and Peach, courtesy of the thevideogameartarchive’s catalogue of the Mario Golf N64 manual; am pretty sure I’ve seen images of Mario looking distressed, though never to this degree…

The above is something Super Mario Broth would normally deliver, and speaking of, may as well share some recent faves on that end! Like these photos from a promotional campaign with a Japanese sports drink when promoting Mario Sports Superstars…

Instructions found on the arcade cabinet for Vs. Super Mario Bros (which I remember so distinctly, and fondly)…

From some Japanese video guide for the same game (am assuming the home Famicom version this time)…

A greeting card (am assuming a Valentine’s)...

Mario without his hat, as he appears in a Game Boy controller test cart that Nintendo service reps used to calibrate buttons on a the handheld…

And he we have a shortcut in SMB3 that I had no idea existed, and it’s a safe bet that most don’t either: “In Super Mario Bros. 3, the rock between the path to the first fortress in World 4 and the Spade Panel can be destroyed with a Hammer item, allowing the player to bypass the fortress. There is no obvious indication that this rock is destructible, as it is surrounded by decorative rocks. In fact, many guides for Super Mario Bros. 3 do not mention this shortcut.”

As for Super Mario Broth’s counterpart, Sonic the Hedgeblog has seen plenty of action as well… largely pinpointing all the obscure references found in Sonic Mania, So head over for that if that sounds like fun to you! Otherwise, there’s also the Mario Bros having a Sonic Panic…

A reminder of how Sonic looked at one point as he was being prepped for the Dreamcast; it would appear that at a certain point, in Sonic Adventure, he was going to look a lot more realistic…

And this issue with EGM featuring a sneak preview of Sonic 2 is the very first video game magazine that I ever picked up!

Meanwhile, oldgamemags recently posted a page from an issue of GamePro, circa 2000, on a peripheral that allowed the Game Boy to play mp3s. Am sharing it cuz I really want a GB-looking mp3 player…

So someone on Twitter (who has since protected his account, so I’ll have to refer to nintendolife they snagged the pic before it was locked down) cracked open a electrocardiogram measurement instrument and found... a GBA? It’s theorized: “perhaps earlier revisions of the unit had different screens, and once the supply chain dried up MiE was forced to source the next best thing?”

vice-s-assistant sez: "OK Guys, I’m ready to hack."

According to bunney: "i was working at a convention arcade this weekend and some guy cosplaying ryu was playing street fighter with a blunt in his mouth"...

Can anyone tell what's being played here? At the very least, it's a nice shot (via rekall)...

Much like Arcade Crusade, I have no idea what’s going on, and I agree that whatever it is, it looks intense...

If you’ve ever wanted an artist’s rendering of the Raspberry Pi, then look no further than the work of retronator…

rasec-wizzlbang states: “those square cross sections of the human skin layers you always see in biology books but as like, a minecraft block”…

Courtesy of Arcade Crusade once again comes a very tender moment…

Is it just me or does this promo image for Food Fight sure does look like a Norman Rockwell painting? As seen on thedoteaters...

Here we have a flyer for a really old SNK arcade game (we’re talking really old; almost a decade before the Neo Geo was a thing) that looks like it was made with today’s sensibilities, doesn’t it?

Also via obscurevideogames is a moment of pathos from Hacchake Ayayo-san 4 - Sexy Olympics - Ayayo’s Live Affection. It’s… pretty obscure alright…

Yup, that's Hieronymus Bosch-styled Tetris all right (via freeindiega.me)...

crashcarnival presents: "true facts of the Ice Age"...

Hey, it’s the Ninja Turtles playing Pong (via rewind01)…

Behold, Fighters Megamix version 2017 (via lonelyfrontier)…

Yup, that is definitely a Chu Chu Rocket skirt (via radicalhelmet)...

For those who have ever wondered what their Sonic character’s political leanings are, in relation to the rest of the crew (and can’t be bothered to sift through DeviantArt; via erratticusfinch)…

Face to face (via futureisfailed)…

It’s been out for a while, though it’s not too late to pick up this Xenogears tribute zine, right?

Just a friendly reminder of how bat-sh*t insane Sin & Punishment is (via n64thstreet)...

Zimmerit.moe has everything you need to know about a game by Square involving mecha that you’ve probably never heard of. And no, am not talking about Thexder; it’s even more obscure than that (am talking about Cruise Chaser Blassty BTW/FYI)...

Meanwhile, Michael “Kayin” O’Reilly discusses the “Barrel Distortion” look that emulators use to recreate the look of playing something on a CRT display and why it’s total crap…

And… that’s it! You’ve made it to the end! Enjoy a cool, refreshing drink with Pac-Man (on the behalf of arcade-crusade)...

Don’t forget: Attract Mode is now on Medium! There you can subscribe to keep up to date, as well as enjoy some “best of” content you might have missed the first time around, plus be spared of the technical issues that’s starting to overtake Tumblr.

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christinesumpmg1 · 7 years ago

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Aikido vs TaeKwonDo

Aikido vs TaeKwonDo aikido vs taekwondo real fight aikido vs taekwondo tournament aikido vs taekwondo vs karate aikido vs taekwondo fight aikido vs taekwondo \u2013 awesome street fight 2015 steven seagal aikido vs jun lee taekwondo wtf aikido master vs taekwondo master aikido vs taekwondo real fight aikido vs taekwondo vs karate aikido vs taekwondo fight aikido vs taekwondo youtube aikido vs taekwondo videos combat aikido vs taekwondo taekwondo itf vs aikido steven seagal (aikido) vs jun lee (taekwondo wtf) aikido vs taekwondo, aikido, mma, martial arts, martial, karate, taekwondo, judo, aikido (martial art), arts, wing, martial arts (sport), steven seagal, kung fu, bruce lee, submission, action, boxing, wing chun, master, kata, combat, form, training, sports, mixed martial, sensei, demonstration, championship, kicks, aikido vs mma, forms, mixed, fight, kick, fights, bruce, tournament, belt, self, dojo, ryu, wrestling, ninja, grandmaster, jet, kendo, defence, weapons, sword, techniques, self defense, jeet kune do, sambo, real aikido sparring, real aikido vs aikido, real aikido masters, real aikido self defense, real aikido techniques, real aikido women, real aikido sanja, real aikido azerbaijan, real aikido in action, real aikido fariz abdullayev, real aikido agression, real aikido bercy, aikido vs boxing real fight, aikido vs boxeo real, real aikido combat, aikido combate real, aikido real callejero, film, tai chi, morihei ueshiba, mark staniszewski, mark stan, bjj, brazilian jiu-jitsu, joe moreira, ibjjf, long island pride, olympic, massapequa, long island, team combat, serra, renzo, drama, island, joe rogan, combative concepts, rogue warriors, lenny sly, tenshin aikido, aikido vs karate, chuck norris, cage, vale, aikido vs tae kwon do, aikido vs kung fu, total, jujitsu vs aikido, open, joe rogan vs aikido guy, episode, korea, aikidoflow, championships, entertainment, rhode, competition, real martial arts, total drama, street, duncan, jean claude van damme, kids+跆拳道+合氣道+格鬥+詠春+thierry, real aikido, chun, tae, kwon, do, real combat, land, of, the, kami, aikido is bullshit, take, down, kote, gaeshi, shoalin, monk, jujitsu, and, aikido1, mixed martial arts (martial art), tae kwon do, 11758, bas rutten (martial artist), pancrase, defense, 15102011001, pro fighter vs aikido master, judo shotokan hapkido taekwondo kyokushin karate aikido, bruce lee jeet kune do jet li beijing wushu sports kung fu shaolin, jackie chan donnie yen yip ip man wing chun chinese boxing, joe rogan versus vs steven seagal martial arts fight fights fighting, enter the way dragon fists of fury game death under seige perfect weapon, rare secret training workout motivation mjw jcvd chuck norris scott adkins, panda, traditional, china, dummy, chen, leung, ufc mma full film 4k uncut unrated tribute 2017 new, internal, mantis, okinawa, donnie, hapkido, wooden, crane, chang, stick, seminar, kicking, butchdabulldog, nguyen tua, taekwondo (martial art), martial arts-training-fight-movies-tricking, martial arts defense, here comes the boom bas rutten, udjasjnascdncu4562jhash, 合気道, テコンドー, martialarts, punch, mixedmartialarts, 異種格闘技, kickboxing, technique, joint, wakayama, 韓国, 日本, 反日, 空手, 少林寺拳法, 柔術, 柔道, 護身術, 武道, 武術, judoka, masahiko kimura, the best technique, aikibudo, aiki ju jutsu, budo, real aikido demonstration, fighting, master class, martial ats, jun fan kung fu, lessons, tutorials, skills, kali, dan innosanto, kick boxing, jkd, close combat, kravmaga, systema, fighting tips, vale tudo, linda, family, father, friend, rare, photo, raymond, chow, story, jeet, real fight, leg kick, ufc, mma vs aikido, aikido vs, aikido bullshido, aikido combat, aikido doesn't work, aikido exposed, aikido effectiveness, aikido fake, aikido fail, aikido fantasy vs reality, aikido gets owned, aikido gets destroyed, aikido in reality, aikido is fake, aikido in ufc, aikido is garbage, aikido joe rogan, aikido not effective, aikido practical application, aikido real truth, aikido sparring, aikido useless, aikido vs reality, arti marziali, sport, samurai, giappone, one direction, tokyo, japan, martial art, trainig, extreme, saito, iwama ryu, aikikai, takemusu aikido, paolo corallini, morihiro, marco santucci, katana, boxe, doshu, ueshiba, ju jitsu, muay tai, warriors, vs, aikido vs taekwondo real fight, aikido vs taekwondo tournament, aikido vs taekwondo vs karate, aikido vs taekwondo fight, aikido vs taekwondo \u2013 awesome street fight 2015, steven seagal aikido vs jun lee taekwondo wtf, aikido master vs taekwondo master, aikido vs taekwondo real fight, aikido vs taekwondo vs karate, aikido vs taekwondo fight, aikido vs taekwondo youtube, aikido vs taekwondo videos, combat aikido vs taekwondo, taekwondo itf vs aikido, steven seagal (aikido) vs jun lee (taekwondo wtf), aikido vs taekwondo 合気道とテコンドーで闘ってみました https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTA7FDXwDrk

#Aikido vs TaeKwonDo

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gabrielokun · 3 years ago

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#My Mate Match #โหวตให้หน่อยผมไม่ค่อยกล้าเลือก #asianLGBTQdramas #Match #Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit #Mix #Jame Kasama Khanjanawattana #Ryu #ThaiBL #Big Thanakorn Kuljarassombat #Thai BL #Thai series #Thai Drama #BL Drama #BL series #mine edit #Gabriel makes stuff

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dothewrite · 8 years ago

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Your suit hcs just killed everyone, so I was thinking.... what if you made formal wear hcs for the girls? Would that be possible? My gay ass is thirsty. Completely okay if you don't want to, though, or if you just can't imagine it. Just an idea. :)

Ladies clothing is a whoooole new can of worms. May you quench your thirst. ;D

Original Suit Headcanons here, part 2 and 3 respectively.

Kiyoko. [Elie Saab]

Long, plum velvet that falls to slightly below her ankles. The dress is a long, thigh high split dress with a staggering deep-v neckline that resembles two pieces of fabric falling forwards and being belted around her slim waist with an elegant twist of the cloth. Splits both below and above, this dress is reminiscent of a toga-style, bare backed and embellished with large crystal brooches the shape of bird feathers and other sequins and diamonds clustered around her left shoulder and her right hip. A pair of bare, strappy metallic sandals of around four inches complete her look.

This look is all Kiyoko. Her style, her choice and her favourite colour, this dress, although baring a lot, covers without fear any part that isn’t commonly seen. It glides around her like waves due to the reflectiveness of dark velvet, and the cutting wraps around her making her as slim and mysterious as willow.

By far, this isn’t the only thing she thought of wearing. Because of her milky skin and slim figure, she can almost wear anything at all and bring it to its potential.

However, for an evening affair and among such close friends, she chose fashion and elegance over making a statement or being too eye-catching. Perfect for her personality.

Her black hair is left in waves behind her back. Slightly curled and not too long, they cascade past her shoulders and swirl around the base of her neck, adding to her striking profile.

Truth be told, she rather dislikes having her hair up. With her jet black hair and stern expression, people usually assume that she’d wear something austere, but she much prefers to let loose.

There is minimal product in her hair, except for the heat curling and a setting spray. It looks far too shiny for anything else to tamper with the smoothness of her hair tonight.

She doesn’t touch the dance floor at all, despite being asked multiple times by multiple men, she declines them all politely. Preferring to spend time with her team and catch up with other managers that she’s become friends with, she nurses a single martini for the whole evening and enjoys the relatively relaxing mood of the jazz band.

Saeko. [Balmain]

One piece of cloth becoming the whole dress, this gown is a long reaching cloak that touches the floor and only held together with several hidden buttons around the waist and covered with an elegant knot. This dress is a bright magenta, a touch on the darker side, and the sleeves flare out like a kimono to mid-lower arm. The bottom being naturally wide open up till thigh level, the front also dips down almost to waist level with lapels much wider than, but similar to, a suit. The lapels are connected above to soft, dark brown leather shoulder pads that are slim and embroidered into the natural fabric itself. The accompanying shoes are a strappy stiletto with a crimson base, orange toe, and a turquoise ankle strap.

A vision of feminine empowerment, this is a statement piece through and through. The wide contrast of colours across her feet and the large splash of red that is dark enough to be elegant, yet bright enough to spark gossip, this is a dress best worn with her hands on her hips and a proud expression.

No other accessories accompany this look, except for Saeko’s confident smirk and cheerful grin that brightens up the shock-factor of her outfit.

It fits her completely, from her personality to her fashion forward choices (never shying from the risque), she blossoms underneath everyone’s slack-jawed stare of admiration.

Her hair colour is the finishing touch to her look. Bright, blonde and short, not only does this elevate a simple piece of fabric from ‘simple’ to ‘modern’, it shortens the line of sight so people focus on her torso and legs, rather than the stretch of her neck.

Like Kiyoko, there is little adjustment to her hair. No products whatsoever other than a shower and a blow-dry to make it stick straight and framing her face with a natural ease.

Honestly, she’s never worn something like this before in her life. Usually she goes for the edgy, yet practical look with a mix and match of clothing items, but once she caught sight of this in a store, there was no going back.

She’s also definitely going to be drunk by the end of the party. Going through every drink that all the men flocking around her hands her, she’s a good sport to give everyone a quick chat and dance, and Ryu has to drag her home by the end- not because she’s too drunk to walk, but because her feet hurt too much.

Yachi. [Valentino]

In a modern twist of a twenties look, this creamy dress is slim and straight, although not figure hugging, this dress leaves very little room for error. Falling into a very deep v-neck, almost down to her abdomen, this sleeveless dress falls straight down with silver and gold embroidery in petal-shapes, more frequently above the waist and tapering down into looser knit patterns lower down. Highlighted with small crystals, the dress falls past her feet, and is covered with a soft, transparent fabric that puffs up around her like a second dress, like a wedding veil over her body. Beginning from her neck, this fabric circles her wrists like balloon sleeves and drapes downwards like a light curtain. This look is completed with nude strappy stilettos with a wooden platform.

Yachi was never going to go for anything excessively bright, and this dress has enough lightness yet softness that doesn’t outshine her. A mixture of cream and light nude, it gives her an impression of effortless beauty that highlights her own face and figure rather than a physical representation of her personality.

Luckily, this does fit her nature, and with each movement the shimmering waves of her dress makes her look all the more otherworldly.

It also makes her far taller than she actually is, but nobody needs to know that.

Her hair is curled into a gentle, loose bun behind her hair, with wisps and the sides falling in front in light curls that frame her face. It doesn’t make it slimmer, but it makes it fuller and richer, and a dress like this doesn’t deserve to be covered by long hair, no matter how blonde.

It’s deceptively soft, actually. She’d never admit to how much hairspray and how much help she needed to make it stay, and by the time she’s done, she’s sweated so much that she had to do her makeup all over again.

This outfit in fact, does more than just match her- it brings her to life. This is nothing like what she would wear normally (this is her only formal dress, even though her mother had been encouraging her to keep buying more), because she doesn’t believe that she’d match up to anything fancy, but this gives her a surprising amount of courage.

This makes her grown up, she feels comfortable in her skin for once, and she’s not afraid to show off the way she walks or the way her head tilts, in contrast to her usual anxiousness. This is the first time she feels utterly powerful and in control of herself, despite the gentle picture she paints.

She’s definitely asked on endless amounts of dances (all which they discover she’s actually pretty terrible at, but she smiles so sheepishly that one can’t help but forgive her), and she has to be physically rescued by Hinata from all the guys asking for some of her time.

Natsu. [Hiromi Asai]

This outfit is indeed tailored for her vibrant hair. Wearing a kimono, this is made of dark navy fabric in one single swath, detailed embroidery of browns, pale lilacs, gold and white carefully placed on her left shoulder and tangling around the right folds of her kimono past her waist. There is a splattering of lighter decoration throughout the dress, and in the slight left, past her knee, there is a large embroidery of a white chrysanthemum among brown leaves and stems. A bold stripe of dark green cuts through the solid navy down the middle-right of the dress. The kimono is held together with a golden obi over a golden fabric base, orange, yellow and more gold swipes of a brush illustrate the obi and bring to life the brightness of the dress.

Nobody can call Natsu a lady-like or even calm girl, but there is an intensity in her eyes that burns just like her brother. Slightly less round yet more concentrated, Natsu’s hair burns like a bonfire at midnight against the dark of her kimono.

The point of navy is to make sure her best physical aspects pop out. If it were any other colour, green, for example, to match her down to earth nature, it would eclipse her hair and skin and instead place the focus on the dress. This dress serves only as a platform to show off her milky skin and ruthless hair.

She’s by no means a conservative person, but there is something that ties her to tradition, to elegance only found in traditional clothing, and a kimono traps and slims her figure into a sleek streamline, ending finally with a pair of wooden getas.

It doesn’t trap her spirit, oh no. Instead of her energy flowing sideways and outwards in any direction at all, this piece focuses her tension and bubbling energy into her posture and the way her face animates in the evening light. Especially at a party and not a festival, this dark toned kimono gives her enough gravitas to hold her own among western evening dresses.

Her hair is untouched. Decorum does state that hair should be tied up in a neat bun with a hair pin when it comes to kimonos, but her orange hair is wild, curling chaotically around the licks of her throat, the arch of her cheekbones and brushing the back of her shoulders like liquid fire.

She looks like a spirit of night, wrathful and glorious in her rage, but when she smiles, all falls away and everyone can only stare at the brightness that exudes from an evening piece.

#shimizu kiyoko #tanaka saeko #yachi hitoka #hinata natsu #headcanon #suits #sfw #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagines #haikyuu #i writes the haikyuu

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barbosaasouza · 6 years ago

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E3 2018: Everything We Know About Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

On Tuesday morning, Nintendo revealed a copious amount of details about its next Super Smash Bros. game. Now titled Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the game appears to be more than just an update for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. It looks to be a collection of everything from the series to date.

Having said all of that, there are some major key points to consider when looking at this new Super Smash Bros. game. Shacknews is here to break down everything a Smash Bros. fan should know going into one of the Nintendo Switch's cornerstone holiday releases.

Everybody is Here! Yes, Everybody!

Everybody? Yes, everybody means everbody from the Super Smash Bros. games up to this point. That includes even the most obscure characters from the first games in the series, like Young Link and Pichu. It also includes many surprise return characters, like Snake and Ice Climbers.

Shacknews has the full roster detailed, so check out our full character roster write-up.

All Stages Appear to be Back and Updated

Beyond characters, most (if not all) of the past stages in the Super Smash Bros. series look to be back. It's a little early to say that every old stage is back. After all, where are the Poke Floats, right?

But it should be noted that many of the series' stages are back and they look better than ever. For example, classic Melee stages like Big Blue, Princess Peach's Castle, and Great Bay have been visually upgraded with higher-resolution graphics and effects. They now fit in with the new-school Smash Bros. visual aesthetic.

On top of that, every single stage in the game now has its own Omega form, for those that love playing on Final Destination-style stages. For those who love playing on the simplistic, yet multi-platformed Battlefield stages, every single stage in the game now also has a Battlefield variant, which leads into the next point...

Certain Elements Have Been Refined for Competitive Play/Esports

The Omega/Battlefield design choice is a huge deal for anyone who loves to play the Smash Bros. games competitively. Beyond the "No items, Final Destination only" crowd, it also offers up an overture to the esports circles, a group Nintendo has been hesistant to reach out to in the past.

One other minor change that's going to mean a lot for competitive play is the decision to scale damage between four-player free-for-alls and one-on-one battles. Smash 4 was heavily criticized by competitive players and spectators for being a slow game, compared to its predecessors. Damage scaling and faster overall movement is a response to these grievances. It's still not as fast as Melee (which will likely mean that scene will still carry on, despite everything) but it could also mean that esports sessions won't be restricted to two-stock games.

On top of that, movement mechanics look to be much more fluid. Dashes can be canceled by Smash attacks, for example. Another big change is that directional air dodges have been improved substantially, allowing for greater air dodges and better recovery. Short hops also offer quicker combat options, similar to Melee.

But most of all, Nintendo is aiming to eliminate a lot of the janky elements of the past games. Ice Climbers have had all of their cheesy elements removed, like the wobbling glitch and many of the combos associated with using both characters as a tandem. That's receiving mixed reactions from Ice Climber mains in the Melee scene.

There's also a certain something else that Nintendo may be looking to rein in very soon.

Bayonetta's Reign of Terror May be Ending Soon

Newer-school players are going to be happy to hear that Nintendo may be more receptive to reining in certain characters who have been crazy out-of-control in these last days of Smash 4's esports run. And yes, a character who still appeared to be broken in this version of Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Just saw father Sakuria see the BnB off the top from Bayonetta and shake his head. It's not the final build yet...#SmashBrosUltimate

— Bear @ #E32018 (@BearUNLV) June 12, 2018

BAYONETTA IS GETTING NERFED

— Larry Lurr (@LarryLurr) June 12, 2018

Bayonetta can fly more than Ridley... and this guy has wings.

— Alax (@RelaxAlax) June 12, 2018

MKLEO JUST GOT BAYONETTA NERFED 100%

— Omni (@InfernoOmni) June 12, 2018

What exactly are these folks referring to? Well, Leonardo "MkLeo" Perez did God's work during Tuesday's E3 Smash Bros. Invitational and showed just how broken Bayonetta still is. Look at this!

twitch_clip

Sakurai witnessed this carnage firsthand and heard boos rain down at the Invitational. And judging by this good-natured quip after the tournament was over, it looks like he's fully aware of the problem at hand.

twitch_clip

Bayonetta has been a scourge in not only the competitive Smash 4 scene, but is also a terror in the hands of a marginally good player against casual crowds. She's needed to be brought down a notch for a while and it looks like her time is finally coming.

Final Smashes Are Faster

In the name of picking up the pace, it appears that Final Smashes in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have been made faster. The flashier finishers appear to have their animations noticeably sped up and many of the finishers that involve manual player control appear to have been overhauled.

The idea appears to be to make everyone's Final Smash a quick, yet elaborate, sequence in order to keep the game going at a quicker pace and also to feel satisfying. One of the bigger examples is the change to Giga Bowser, which no longer has the Bowser player roaming around the stage while opponents flee in terror. Now he goes in the background and just punches everyone from there.

The refined Final Smashes are likely going to elicit some mixed feelings, as they still turn the tide of games, but now feel a lot more automatic, compared to the old system.

A lot of fighters have had their Final Smashes adjusted, which leads to the next point...

A Majority of Fighters Have Undergone Changes

Many individual characters have undergone changes. They range from cosmetic changes, visual changes, Final Smash changes, or even mechanical changes. Here are the changes that were detailed during the Nintendo Direct:

Mario: Mario now dons Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey and has new alternate outfits that include his wedding outfit from that game, as well as his builder outfit from Super Mario Maker.

Link: Link's default outfit is now his Champion's Tunic from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. His moves now reflect certain mechanics from Breath of the Wild, such as his bombs now becoming the Remote Bomb Rune from last year's game. Link's Final Smash has also been changed to the Ancient Bow and Arrow, making his new move closer to Zelda's old move.

Ice Climbers: As mentioned, certain cheesy combos with Nana are no more.

Ike: Ike players can now choose between his Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn outfits. Each outfit contains slightly different voices for the character.

Pikachu: Pikachu can now be either male or female. Females have a heart-shaped tail. The Pikachu Libre outfit from Pokken Tournament has also been added.

Fox: Fox's default look has been updated to that of Star Fox Zero. His Final Smash change is among the biggest, as the Landmaster has been retired in favor of a more theatrical attack that sees Team Star Fox attack in their Arwings.

Falco: See Fox, but Falco's Final Smash sees the Arwings fly in a slightly different formation.

Ryu: Ryu undergoes one of the bigget mechanical changes out of everyone, as he now automatically faces his opponent in one-on-one fights, just like in Street Fighter. So watch your inputs carefully.

Samus: Samus can now charge up her Charged Shot in mid-air. Similar charging moves on other characters can also be built up in mid-air. These charges can be jump-canceled, but at the cost of leaving your fighter vulnerable.

Marth: Marth's Dancing Blade has been sped up and made simpler, allowing players to connect with more powerful combos. But the biggest change is that he will now have an English voiceover. No more taunting players in Japanese.

Roy: See Marth, although it's unknown whether he also has English voiceovers.

King Dedede: King Dedede has a new Final Smash that takes opponents into a steel cage, where the gluttonous monarch will unleash missiles and a jet hammer attack.

Zelda: Zelda's look has been updated to reflect her look in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Her new Final Smash seals her foes inside the Triforce of Wisdom before launching them into the skies.

Sonic: The big blue hedgehog's Super Sonic Final Smash has been sped up significantly to reflect the fact that he's Sonic the Hedgehog.

Pac-Man: Pac-Man's Final Smash has also been sped up significantly, not unlike certain arcade cabinets that are running at turbo speed. He can also loop around the stage during this move.

Pokemon Trainer: Individual Pokemon no longer suffer fatigue, which frees up Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard to play out entire games, if the player so desires. There's also a female Pokemon Trainer available.

Captain Falcon: Land the Falcon Punch at just the right moment and it'll trigger a dramatic slow-motion effect.

Cloud: Cloud's Limit is now displayed over his character icon at all times.

Robin: Robin's magic meter is now displayed over his character icon at all times.

Villager: Villager players can now look at their character icon to see what item Villager has pocketed. There are also eight different Villager character models to choose from.

Bowser: Bowser has a new Final Smash, one mentioned earlier. Now he goes Giga Bowser and stands in the background, punching any hapless player directly into the screen.

Mr. Game & Watch: G&W's character model has been updated... which sounds strange to say. What that means is, he now resembles his look from his various games whenever he performs his attacks. His Octopus Final Smash now moves faster.

Wolf: Wolf's outfit has been updated to reflect his look in Star Fox Zero. His moves have also received a visual overhaul.

Shulk: Shulk players can now select their desired Monado Art by using the style switch button like a weapon wheel. His Final Smash has been updated to also feature Fiora.

Ganondorf: Ganondorf's look has gone old-school, returning to his look from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. His Final Smash now sees him become the Demon King, Ganon from that game's final battle.

Mii Fighters: The proportions on all three Mii Fighters have been adjusted, with multiple voice options available. They will not be available to play online at launch.

Pit: Pit's Final Smash has been updated to the Lightning Chariot from Kid Icarus Uprising.

Zero Suit Samus: Zero Suit Samus' new Final Smash calls upon her gunship, where she'll suit up and fire off a powerful laser.

Olimar: Olimar's helmet will now get cracked whenever he takes damage, though it gets fixed almost immediately.

Bayonetta: The sound effects on Bayonetta's guns will differ depending on whether she's using her Bayonetta or Bayonetta 2 outfits.

Wario: Wario's Final Smash has also changed. He's still Wario-Man, but now he automatically pounds his opponents in a comical auto sequence.

Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong has shelved his bongos for his new Final Smash, in which he unleashes rapid-fire punches, something players of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze should be familiar with.

Little Mac: Mac's new Final Smash is more focused, as he'll only unleash Giga Mac on whichever opponent he lands the first blow on.

Ness: PK Starstorm has been upgraded, with Paula and Poo now offering an assist.

Lucas: His PK Starstorm has also been upgraded, as he gets help from Kumatora and Boney.

Wii Fit Trainer: At the request of the Wii Fit developers (and make of that information what you will), the Wii Fit character model now has upgraded facial features.

Mega Man: Mega Man's Final Smash still calls upon generations of Mega Men, but they'll now be joined by Proto Man and Bass.

Palutena: Palutena's Down+B is now significantly stronger, as it acts as both a physical counter move and as a projectile reflector.

R.O.B.: R.O.B. has a new visual indicator on his chest that indicates how much more he can hover.

New Assist Trophies/Pokemon/Items

There are new Assist Trophies, Pokemon, and items joining the fun. The difference with the Assist Trophies this time around is that certain ones can now be KO'd and that KO will count in a Timed battle. Here are the new Assist Trophies debuting in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:

Rodin (from the Bayonetta series): Attacks with his own fists in a similar fashion to Bayonetta.

Squid Sisters (from the Splatoon series): The Squid Sisters put on a concert in the background, which the camera will zoom in on as it continues. The KO window will shrink the more the camera zooms in.

Bomberman (from the Bomberman series): Bomberman will drop giant bombs that explode in four directions.

Burrowing Snagret (from the Pikmin series): This creature will burrow in from underground and peck at anything that gets too close.

Sukapon (from Joy Mecha Fight): He dances around and puts up a fight against anyone who gets too close.

There are also new Pokemon contained in Poke Balls. Here are the new Pokemon joining the battle so far:

Bewear (#760)

Solgaleo (#791)

And lastly, here are the new items:

Healing Field (from Arms): Heals fighters inside its radius.

Black Hole (from Star Fox): A remnant of a stage from the original Star Fox, this will suck in all nearby fighters and leave them floating in mid-air.

Launch Star (from Super Mario Galaxy): Launches fighters to a different area.

Fake Smash Ball: It's like a real Smash Ball, in that it behaves the same and activates when hit enough times. Except this Fake Smash Ball explodes.

New Fighters/DLC Aren't Ruled Out, But Ridley May Be The End

"We've made including every single fighter ever our number one goal," Sakurai said during Tuesday's Nintendo Direct. "So we're kind of hoping you aren't expecting too many new challengers."

The implication here is that with a roster of 65 fighters, further additions to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster don't feel all that necessary. New reveals and DLC don't appear to be in the cards for this Smash Bros. title, as it's more of a collection and celebration of everything that's come in the series to this point.

Ridley was heavily requested by fans for years and this looks to be the Smash Bros. developers filling one last popular request.

Speaking of the end...

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Likely Masahiro Sakurai's Swansong

Masahiro Sakurai's return to Super Smash Bros. was a surprise. Development on the Wii U and 3DS versions of the game had taken a physical and mental toll on him, which he had spoken about on many occasions. Development on Super Smash Bros. is not an easy thing. As he noted during the Nintendo Direct, even something as simple as Kirby's copy powers can become a major process.

So with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate acting as the ultimate collection of everything from the past Super Smash Bros. games, it may very likely spell the end for Sakurai's tenure as series director. There's a very real possibility that Sakurai could look at Ultimate as every single item under his tenure all wrapped up in a bow, leaving him free to move on from the series, once and for all.

Sakurai's status in relation to Super Smash Bros. may remain unknown for a long time, even long after Ultimate hits store shelves. But don't be surprised if the series director looks at this newest game, which packs in everything from all five of his Super Smash Bros. games (the N64 original, Melee, Brawl, 3DS, and Wii U) and decides that there are no kingdoms left to conquer in this particular world.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is set to release on Nintendo Switch on December 7.

E3 2018: Everything We Know About Super Smash Bros. Ultimate published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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