Hello everyone and welcome back to a new GBAtemp Series by yours truly, the GBATEMP FIGHT CLUB!
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Here's how Fight Club throws down tempers and temptresses. I'm going to take either 2 franchises, 2 characters, 2 specific games, or 2 of SOMETHING gaming related, and I'm going to pit them against each other for your enjoyment. But how do we declare a victor you may ask? That's where you come in!

The way this will work is I will give a brief synopsis of the two rivaling entities, and leave it up to all of you to vote and debate which one is the better being, and why that is. A combination of the poll votes, and the arguments made in this thread, will determine the victor! I will take poll votes into account for the most part, but the supporting arguments will also heavily decide who the victor will truly be.

This will be an attempted weekly act every Monday, where a victor will be chosen and a new round will begin, so you will have one week to argue and determine who or what the better of the two is. So without further ado, let's get to our competitors this week:​

MORTAL KOMBAT VS. STREET FIGHTER

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These respective fighting games changed the landscape for the arcade fighter in numerous ways, and are probably the two most respected and competitive fighting franchises of all time.

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Mortal Kombat not only introduced insane streamlined fighting mechanics, but also established the brutality, the violence, and the most famous FATALITY of fighting games. It was also the first fighting game to use digitized sprites to represent realism, something no other game had yet attempted. Basically the reason the ESRB exists in the first place, MK took violence to an all new level, and remains one of the most competitive fighting games to date.

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Street Fighter is heralded as the beginning of the Arcade fighter, and others will tell you it is THE Arcade fighter. Beginning in 1987, Street Fighter paved the way for competitive fighting games in general, and established the meta that those games would soon follow. Street Fighter has some of the most iconic characters in fighting games, even with Ryu making hi guest appearance in Nintendo's latest Smash Bros series, and is one of the highest selling fighting franchises to date.

We have a real brawl on our hands here tempers and temptresses, and it's up to you to decide if it's victory by Shoryuken or Fatality!

If you have a suggestion for what the next fight should be, leave a post on my profile page!

 

[FAST6191]

So my vote is for Mortal Kombat. Now on the movies....

Linden Ashby was funny, a bit of a knob, but very likable. Thank goodness Van Damme turned down the Johnny Cage role, Ashby was more fitting. I think Van Damme was only considered because of the split and punch to the balls. Bridgette Wilson looked cute, she obviously didn't know how to fight, but she did her own stunts and fights, so fair play. Choreography helps. Trevor Goddard as Goro was really good, he didn't last long unfortunately. Chris Casamassa (who was just a stuntman that got a promotion based on performance) as Scorpion was really good, also didn't last long. Francois Petit as Sub-Zero, and Keith Cooke as Reptile, both great. Again, just perfect casting. Goro, is more open for nitpicking, the practical effects, a nice effort, but he looked a bit too long for me, and not as hulkish as I think he should've been. Ah well, practical over CG any day of the week.

Aw if I knew we were going long on the films then I would have joined you but it looks like you have said most of what I would have. I have not watched the films for a couple of years now but reading that I am not sure if I want to. A couple of months back I watched


In there is a line from an interview that runs "if the camera moves the actor does not know how to fight", I knew this before but gah if it has not seared itself onto my memory in recent months worse than anything else I have ever learned that spoils films/TV for me (and that includes history, encryption/computers and physics). Worst has been when I tried (and actually did) watch those new sci fi/syfy shows but it pops into my head every time. Now we are speaking of mortal kombat I think that is going to combine with the following to ruin films worse than watching one with me

 

[RustInPeace]

Aw if I knew we were going long on the films then I would have joined you but it looks like you have said most of what I would have. I have not watched the films for a couple of years now but reading that I am not sure if I want to. A couple of months back I watched

I saw that video a while ago, a few times. It's an awesome video that really shows why Jackie Chan is a god. At least to me, he's one of my film gods. Also Chan goes into it perfectly regarding the camera work in action films, and the overall fight scene in Hollywood movies being easily exposed with slow motioning the footage and such. Also lighting, Expendables 2's last 2 fight scenes with Stallone and Statham against Van Damme and Adkins, respectively, are ruined by bad lighting. Statham and Atkins was the worst.

Yeah, I'm spoiled too by watching those old martial arts films, especially Chan in the 80s. It makes watching newer movies' fight scenes and nothing too much of it. The Matrix, incredible film, but the martial arts is only good because of wire work. I'd rather no wire work, but it was used well in The Matrix.

I forgot to mention women. Street Fighter's women are more good looking, but Mortal Kombat has some fetish favored women. Sheeva? Sindel, MILF. No woman between the two franchises kicks more ass than Chun Li though.

 

[FAST6191]

Oh yeah I have seen that video several times as well, watched it again as I linked it up too and doubtless will watch it again as I am clicking around in a few weeks. I missed out on the expendables though and have not bothered to go back and watch them, they have all done various collaboration films in recent times though which I have actually enjoyed so I am a bit reluctant.

If I must go for smut in action films, and Russ Meyer's works are not what the day calls for, then we have Dead of Alive these days. It is basically the central conceit of the film and very much plays to it, much to its credit.

On the Matrix I probably would call it one of Yuen Woo-ping's lesser efforts, even among his English language ones, but having also seen the later offerings from the Wachowskis I am going to lay much of the Matrix at his feet.

 

[Prans]

Tough choice, but I'll go for MK because I have more memories of it. Still remember when my cousins would come over and play it on the fake SNES when I was still a kid. Later on we'd play it on PC and now I'm playing it in the uni cafe with my friends. It's just because of the memories but I like SSF mechanics better, too bad I don't have much memories associated with it...

 

[RustInPeace]

If I must go for smut in action films, and Russ Meyer's works are not what the day calls for, then we have Dead of Alive these days. It is basically the central conceit of the film and very much plays to it, much to its credit.

On the Matrix I probably would call it one of Yuen Woo-ping's lesser efforts, even among his English language ones, but having also seen the later offerings from the Wachowskis I am going to lay much of the Matrix at his feet.

Dead Or Alive the movie by Corey Yuen? Or the video games? I never watched the movie, nor played the games. On the movie, Robin Shou is in, so I'm considering watching it. Smut in action films, one name. Andy Sidaris. 12 films, all packaged in 3 discs, very cheap on Amazon and other places, amazing. Girls, Guns, & G-Strings, the name of the collection. From the 80s to 90s, Sidaris made these films, and starting with Hard Ticket To Hawaii, the female role took center stage. Yeah they got nude and had sex scenes, but they were stronger and smarter than the dumb men, who were also sexy in their own rights. Flipping the gender roles, utilizing Playboy and Penthouse girls. Unique movies in comparison to other female led action films. Malibu Express is kind of the black sheep because the male is the lead, and almost all the women are bimbos, but even that is awesome, and Sybil Danning occupies the strong female part. That's if you or anyone doesn't know about Andy Sidaris.

On your last comment, laying at the feet. You mean that he's more responsible for the film being good than the Wachowskis? I'd agree, the sequels, they overindulged on the mythology and stuff in the original story and it got in the way of the action. Although Revolutions in particular was just average at best action.

 

[thewarhammer]

Street Fighter easily. Mortal Kombat grew a lot with the two latest games, but Street Fighter still is the best fighter, and the main reason of competitive scene existence nowadays.

And the very reason of the creation of almost all fighting games we know until today. :v

 

[FAST6191]

For the Matrix stuff then not the film (I believe these days we are supposed to credit The Invisibles for most of that if we are dissing the Wachowskis, not that I am so inclined to do such a thing) but the action in it. If not then they forgot a lot of things as time went on.

On Dead or Alive in this case I meant the film. I played a few of the games on the original xbox but nowhere near enough to get any kind of good at them. It very very clearly had Tekken in its sights though. The film was by no means good, not really even for a computer game based film, but it knew what it wanted to be, was shot pretty well and knew what it wanted to be. If nothing else I can respect that and if you found Mortal Kombat or the live action Street Fighter enjoyable in recent times then I can definitely suggest this one for the pile.
Have a weaker fight scene from it, much of the rest is available as clips. I would have linked the trailer but it spoils something that did not really need spoiling (it is a fighting tournament, of course there is something sinister going on behind the scenes), perhaps not a perfect case study for this but not too far off and the German one, while better, was not actually a good trailer really.

 

[duwen]

ffs... mk sucks - always has, always will. But somehow I'm not surprised to see it slightly edging the votes among the GBATemp community - I guess it's OTT violence and gore and simple button mashing mechanics will always attract the masses more than a format that requires genuine dedication and practice to appreciate it's amazing depth.



If you watch that and understand it, there's no way on earth you'll ever vote MK.

 

[Terenigma]

Snes era = Street fighter
Playstation/Xbox era = Street fighter
Now = Mortal Kombat

It pains me to say this but Street fighter has been better overall. UMK3 and MK9 are on par with the best street fighter games but its no contest overall.

 

[FAST6191]

ffs... mk sucks - always has, always will. But somehow I'm not surprised to see it slightly edging the votes among the GBATemp community - I guess it's OTT violence and gore and simple button mashing mechanics will always attract the masses more than a format that requires genuine dedication and practice to appreciate it's amazing depth.

If you watch that and understand it, there's no way on earth you'll ever vote MK.

I can appreciate a meal cooked to perfection with a bunch of spices all doing what they do (ones that I have had to train my tongue to identify individually, much less in combination), presented magnificently and consumed under a moonlit night as I am serenaded by an orchestra. That is not to say I can not equally enjoy a fried egg dripping out of a steak baguette in a mess hall, having just dragged myself out of a tent though.

 

[duwen]

I can appreciate a meal cooked to perfection with a bunch of spices all doing what they do (ones that I have had to train my tongue to identify individually, much less in combination), presented magnificently and consumed under a moonlit night as I am serenaded by an orchestra. That is not to say I can not equally enjoy a fried egg dripping out of a steak baguette in a mess hall, having just dragged myself out of a tent though.

Good analogy; Class vs Trash... the trash is winning the vote

edit
Ooh, SF's just edged ahead! There is a God!

 

[cvskid]

IMO Street fighter is better then Mortal kombat overall but mk9 and mkx are better then sf4. Both series can be button mash friendly, mainly sf4 though with it's input shortcuts. Mashing jab and dragon punches on wakeup and in between block strings.

 

[Taleweaver]

Street fighter. I'm not much of a fighting game player, but in MK all the characters felt sorta alike save for the special moves (which they probably were). SF had more beautiful graphics and different characters, while I always felt MK was relying on it being gore-y (I'd point out that MK1 was just about it being gore, but it's not like SF1 was that much better ).

Keep in mind that there are two points in which MK really trumps. Fast already mentioned these:

Oh and best films. Mortal Kombat, though Street Fighter did provide some amusement.

Best theme tune... does anybody even remember any of Street Fighter's?

I don't care what critics say: Mortal Kombat was an actually good video game->movie adaptation (though they should've stopped after one), while street fighter...no. Just...no. And that theme song is indeed one of the best video game soundtrack thingies...

...but neither are the actual game. And thus I don't take them into the equation.

 

[Issac]

Going by pure nostalgia here, and I enjoyed UMK3 a lot at a friends house. And I have MK2 on gameboy. When playing Street Fighter games, it's just "hadouken! hadouken! hadouken!" and then I die.

So MK for me.

 

[duwen]

IMO Street fighter is better then Mortal kombat overall but mk9 and mkx are better then sf4. Both series can be button mash friendly, mainly sf4 though with it's input shortcuts. Mashing jab and dragon punches on wakeup and in between block strings.

I always thought that they should've had separate lobbies for the lame players that used input shortcuts... tbh, I don't know why they even implemented the shortcuts at all.

 

[chavosaur]

Wow, dead even at the moment. I was hoping this would be a good one, and it's delivering so far!

 

[Tigroid]

Mortal Kombat, I grew up with it, and I love the character's intros and backstories.

 

[duwen]

Wow, dead even at the moment. I was hoping this would be a good one, and it's delivering so far!

Should've made it MK vs SSB, or SF vs KoF. They're better pairings imo.

 

[FAST6191]

Should've made it MK vs SSB, or SF vs KoF. They're better pairings imo.

Maybe on a fighting game website and/or as a discussion of mechanics, though there I would debate choice of smash brothers vs mortal kombat for a face off. King of Fighters though has barely made it out of Japan and frequently did not come to Europe, or indeed might have only come to Europe in some iterations. At some level it might be a slightly different fandom but around here it is wise to at least pick games with a similar level of popularity. Mind you I am curious to see how Smash Brothers would have played out around here; quite often we some nice toasty flamewars when various members question the merits of smash, especially the farce that is most smash brothers competition.

 

[Yumi]

King of Fighters, duhhh!!!

but because this is MK vs SF,
I go with SF because I found it a bit more fun than MK.