Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist

Machinima has been hosted many unique online series where fanboys can get their little fixes of their favourite, popular video games, but their recent series has peaked interest in Street Fighter fans worldwide, much in the same way Mortal Kombat: Legacy did a few years earlier.

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist is a unique live-action web series that follows the story of Ryu and Ken as they learn to master the secret art of the Ansatsuken, whilst unearthing truths about their master’s past. Capcom was so impressed with writer / director / fight choreographer Christian Howard concept, that when he did a teaser for the film, Capcom gave their blessing for it to be made. The series is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube, but is set to be released with extras on DVD as a full length feature on October 27th.

And despite video game-movies not having the best of reputations, what Howard managed to do with SF:AF is provide a beautiful attempt to tell the story of two brothers. But being a web series, it does tend to feel more conceptual than concrete at times, episode feeling more like snippets truncated from a wider narrative arc. It really starts to get good in Episode 3 onwards so definitely worth the watch. And in the end, it’s better than a lot of video-game movies I have seen… brings spine-shuddering chills every time I remember watching that other Street Fighter film that had a way bigger budget than this web series. Sorry Van Damme. But that was whore-ree-bull. Or that Legend of Zelda independent film… yeesh.

Watch Episode 0 and the series below: