They felt Muay Thai was the strongest martial art
While the original Street Fighter likely had an obscure brick breaking electro-mechanical arcade game to thank for its creation, in terms of the series’ iconic moves, you can thank real life martial arts for inspiring the franchise, just with some visual changes to make the moves more appealing.
The designer for the 1987 release of Street Fighter, Hiroshi Matsumoto, had collected a lot of martial arts materials through the years before he designed the first game in the iconic franchise.
Matsumoto was asked back in 1987 at a JAMMA Show if the attacks the enemies use in the first Street Fighter game actually exist.
“It’s more like they’re in the spirit of real moves. We based them on these research materials I have, and though they don’t exist in reality, they’re based on actual moves that we studied closely and then altered to look more visually impressive,” said Matsumoto.
When it was noted that the final match in Street Fighter takes place in Thailand, against Sagat, the designer noted it’s because they felt that was the best martial art back then.
“It was our way of saying Muay Thai is the strongest,” Matsumoto stated.
Takashi Nishiyama, the director for the game said that everyone came up with their own stories about Sagat and some other characters as well.
“Yeah, people imagined all kind of backstory for the characters. Like, ‘Mike is actually a good person, but his sister got sick so he became a Street Fighter to save money for her medical treatment.’,” Nishiyama said.
Next up, the interviewer noticed that a couple of characters were named after terms in golf, which Matsumoto confirmed to be Birdie and Eagle.
Lastly, Nishiyama was asked where the idea for the iconic hadouken came from.
“The basic idea was mine, but Matsumoto took it and fleshed it out further,” said Nishiyama.
You can find more about the original Street Fighter game in the interview that was recently translated by Shmuplations.
Also, check out how Terry Bogard’s origin actually came from the first Street Fighter, not Fatal Fury.
Source: Event Hubs
