Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist

When I was a kid, Street Fighter II was my game. Apparently, it also was Joey Ansah's, and Christian Howard's, as well as Mike Moh's!

All Street Fighter fans who loved the lore and the martial arts of the game were disappointed never to be given a rich, powerful representation of Ryu and Ken on screen, except for some great anime versions.

After a long wait (about 16 years for me), Joey and Christian announced that they wanted to make a live action adaptation, and after another year and a half, with hyped up expectations, their team unleashed Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist onto the world. It is truly phenomenal. As a fan, and one with extremely high expectations, I was amazed at how these were blown out of the water with the great story given us with SFAF.

Do they actually Tatsumaki? Yes. Do they Hadouken? Yes. Do they Shoryuken? Yes! (No spoilers here, they show it in the trailer)

And the story is indeed great: it is intricate, starts in medias res with very interesting developments throughout. The friendship between Ryu and Ken is endearing. It is for fans (with lots of little references to various elements of SF lore) as for people who have never heard of the game, and it's not just for male audiences, girls have really enjoyed it too! (And not just because of Christian Howard being topless a lot in it.)

On such a small budget, it is AMAZING what they have done. The dialogues are good, the characters are well developed, the fights are fantastic. The ending makes me cry, but also leaves me wanting more! More of Gouken, Akuma, Ken and a lot more of Ryu, knowing where the story can take us from here!

The most imposing actors in the movie for me were Igawa (no surprise there) but also Akira Koieyama, who can be very impressive and compelling. But you can also see that there is room for growth in the characters of Christian and Mike, who did a great job and will look even better is a sequel.

Regarding the cinematography, wow. The shots are great, with fantastic views and angles. The image gives off a warm vibe, a strength of colours which just feels good to me as a viewer.

I truly hope that Joey, Christian and their team will get the proper funding for many more features and will continue (soon!) to produce more of this great story on screen for us!

In the meantime, I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH JOEY, Christian, JACQUELINE, MIKE, TOGO, AKIRA, PATRICK, and all the others for the amazing work done on the show, and EVERYBODY, WATCH THIS MOVIE!!! It's available online on the Machinima website!!!

From the actors chosen to the music and the setting of the short films, this rendition of Street Fighter is better than all of the movies made in Hollywood. It was great to see the story as the focus and the history instead of just the fighters. Everyone needs to watch this and help these guys get the recognition they deserve for just loving the game and franchise as we all do! Hearing the Japanese was amazing and I hope they do a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th season. Storyline 10/10 - They stayed true to the Street Fighter Story. Visual effects 10/10 - The graphics and animations used were very accurate and didn't cheapen the films at all. Actors 10/10 - the choice of actors used were very good and the actors really held true to a real life rendition of these characters. Music 10/10 - The music was amazing and held true to the franchise.

This move is by far not the most exciting movie that I´ve ever seen. But it serves great fan service for lovers of the Street Fighter game franchise. You can find many details in this movie that remind you of the games - especially Street Fighter 4. So a definitely must see for all true Street Fighter lovers.

Mortal Kombat? Not quite.

Silent Hill? Sure, it was a spectacle to behold, but most fans of the series agree that, apart from the city itself, the plot was not much in line with the game's. You could argue that a movie doesn't necessarily need conform to its source material, but I would say that if you're talking about the "best" VG adaptation, then staying true to the roots is very important. SF: Assassin's Fist does that and then some.

I don't feel like I need to go into the details. If you watched it and left a comment, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that you can cut and paste your review into mine. We're synonymous: Assassin's Fist was pure gold. My buddy calls it The Dark Knight of video game movies. Considering the budget, I have to agree.

I look forward to the next installment!

The people behind this project left us all salivating for the better part of a year waiting for this series and I was worried it would be a let down. The SF Legacy short film was alright but kind of cheesy with moments of greatness sprinkled in. I knew they had a decent budget this time(considering) and a lot more time to actually tell a story that SF fans all love. They nailed it! I didn't have high expectations going in but this series actually gave me goose bumps several times. The cinematography, music and acting(mostly) was fantastic. The writing was also top notch with just enough hum our to keep the pacing from getting stale. What they were able to do with a couple million dollars is really exceptional and I loved the series as a whole. The Asian man from across the lake was absolutely hilarious! The only thing keeping this from getting a 9 or even a 10 was Christian Howards acting. Most scenes where there was dialog were fine but there were a few where he just didn't seem believable. He absolutely nailed the look of Ken Masters however and better than anyone on earth potentially. The rest of the cast were fantastic though especially Gaku Space who played Goki and Hyunri who played Sayaka.

Overall this was a fantastic series and I will patiently wait the next chapter in the series no matter how long it takes!