The most “Matrix” thing that could possibly happen in a game that doesn’t feature Agent Smith as a playable character happened in a recent, online Tekken 8 match as Just Frame James, a long time competitor from the West Coast, perfectly recreated Neo’s iconic first bullet dodge from the 1999 film.
This essentially required a combination of the right characters doing the right moves at exactly the right time, so for it to happen organically like this is pretty wild. Continue on to see the clip.
James is using Kuma, a bear character who looks absolutely nothing like Neo but does boast the ability to crawl and roll about on the ground. His foe is using Alisa, an android who can launch her arms at foes as missile projectiles.
Both fighters have less than 25% left in their respective health bars, so things are already fairly intense as the next hit could take the round. The onus to approach is on James as Kuma lacks far-reaching attacks and is relatively big bodied, and so the game plan is to use the aforementioned rolls to low profile the barrage of projectiles coming from his opposition.
Tekken has a built in slow motion mechanic that activates during climactic, low health exchanges that usually lead to the end of the round. Every so often, however, slow motion will activate for a sequence that does not end in a KO.
As James’ Kuma rolls in close, Alisa launches off arm rockets with the hopes that they’ll clip the bear as he sits up. James rapidly commands Kuma to lay back down at the last second, however, duping the game into a slow mo sequence that looks undeniably like Neo’s iconic Matrix dodge.
It would have been better if he recovered from this scenario and won the round, but he winds up eating two quick kicks for the loss immediately after. Still, we felt like we had to share this wonderfully dramatic piece of good-ass Tekken with you.
1am Tekken casuals
Kuma was like “oh hell naw” pic.twitter.com/osbZ89vtuD
— he who vibes (@NgObscure) September 12, 2024