Street Fighter IV: The Ties that Bind

The peace brought about by the fall of Shadaloo quickly disappears when several powerful fighters from around the world begin to vanish without a trace.  Chun Li, Guile and Cammy’s search for answers leads them to an inevitable conclusion: Ryu is the primary target of this series of abductions.  A new evil is rising to take Shadaloo’s place and Ryu’s dark powers are the key to their success.  Once more, Ryu, Ken and their allies step into the ring to test their strength against this threat.  But this is only the beginning.

Street Fighter IV: The Ties that Bind is a special bonus feature that came with Special Editions of the SFIV Video Game at launch and is meant to be an animated prequel to the games main story.  Why these couldn’t have just been integrated into the game as Anime cutscenes, I don’t know.  At the same time though, even though I haven’t played a lot of SFIV, I’m glad these aren’t in the game.  The Ties that Bind is an absolutely boring, tedious and lackluster primer for a game that just lets you get to the nitty, gritty, right away like any proper fighting game should.  Seriously, if you never got a copy of the game with this with it, you’re not missing much.
 

FIF#267-Hades Project Zeorymer

15 years ago, the Tekkoryu created eight giant robots called Hakkeshu, as instruments for their plans of world domination.  On the verge of victory, a traitor destroyed most of the Hakkeshu and stole an unfinished model: Zeorymer of the Heavens.  Now, the Tekkoryu have repaired their mechanized army and are hellbent on revenge and seeing their dreams of conquest fulfilled.  Only Masato Akitsu and Miku Himuro, stand in their way, destined to pilot the Zeorymer together in the ultimate battle for the fate of planet Earth.

 
Zeorymer seems like one of those edgy, late 80s mecha titles that would fit right at home on a Blockbuster Anime shelf with a “Not for Kids” sticker on the front cover.  Heck, the only reason I even discovered it was because I was wandering a local store and found the complete collection in the Anime section and thought “Well I haven’t bought anything new in a while and together it’s only like $20 so why not?”  It looks like a run of the mill Mecha Anime during arguably the genre’s golden age of the late 80s/early 90s, complete with all that excess and extremeness fans love to see in OVAs like this.  So, is the first episode any good? 
 

T5W#583-Top 5 Best Lines from Street Fighter 1994

Well the legends were true on this one: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li really is one of the worst video game adaptations of all time.  It’s wants people to take it way too seriously, critically miscasts usually (mostly) good actors and worst of all, it isnt fun in the slightest.  Now, the same cant be said for the 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme action classic.  Oh it’s still a terrible movie but it’s one that can truly be classified as “so bad, it’s good”.  Part of the reason for this is the dialogue.  Whether played straight or fully acknowledging the silliness of how it sounds, the 94 movie has so many quotable lines that it helps make up for the lack of faithfulness to the source material or any kind of Street Fighting.  With the new movie about to drop this weekend (the review will be up at the end of the month), today on Top 5 Wednesday, I’m cherry picking my picks for the Top 5 Best Lines from Street Fighter 1994.  How many of them will be M. Bison quotes? Read on to find out.

 

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li

After witnessing the destruction of her family at the hands of the villainous M. Bison, Martial Arts prodigy Chun Li begins a mission of revenge.  It is a journey that will take her into the heart of an international conspiracy, bring her face to face with mystic arts and legends, and see her battle ferocious enemies all looking to claim her head.  At the end of this road is Bison himself.  This is where the Legend begins.

Of all the characters in the Street Fighter pantheon, Chun Li is easily one of the most obvious to build a solo movie around.  This beautiful warrior Goddess has been one of the greatest and most recognizable gaming icons in history, beloved by gamers and non gamers worldwide.  Given her rich history and extensive combat resume, the kinds of crazy adventures and fight scenes you could pull off could be amazing.  But clearly no one was thinking about any of that when it came to Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.  They just thought, “Hey let’s use Chun Li” and that was it.  I may not be as up on my Street Fighter lore as I am Mortal Kombat but this is not how you should be handling a Chun Li led movie.  In fact it’s not how you should be handling any movie at all…like ever.
 

FIF#266-Street Fighter: The Animated Series

When the evil organization Shadaloo threatens world peace, that’s when they are called upon.  Led by the valiant Col. Guile, they are a hand picked group of the greatest fighters from across the globe.  Different fighting styles, different philosophies, same dedication to protecting the planet from the evil plans of Dictator M. Bison.  When the world is in danger, the world turns to them, the elite fighting peace keeping unit known as Street Fighter.

 
Back in the 90s, the new video game boom from NES to SNES to Sega meant that a new generation of animated series based on popular titles was a must.  Mario, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, there was no shortage of choices…and most of them weren’t great or at the bare minimum were simply shows for kids.  Case in point, today’s FIF on Street Fighter: The Animated Series which came out in the wake of the 94 movie.  You probably know this one from the famous M. Bison meme where he goes “YES!!!” But oh man, there’s so much more badness abound in the first episode alone.  There’s very good reasons why you don’t hear about this one talked about in the Street Fighter community.