Style Select: Sumo In Fighting Games
SugarPunch Design Works
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Sumo is one of the oldest combat sports in the world. How is it represented in fighting games?
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#fightinggames #FGC #sumo
10.03.2022
Does Ganesha from Bloody Roar count as a Sumo character?
The Sumo Gangster sounds like the way Marvel comics has the Kingpin fight when he fights.
A lot of the specifics of sumo information in this video was a bit off, which I think created a bit of misrepresentation of the sport as a whole. I am not angry but I could not help but notice it
Minor Nitpick: Grabbing below the belt is allowed. Only the crotch area of the sumo belt and the topknot are off limits for grbbing.
Yeah, I definitely thought sumo was kinda boring until I read Hinomaru Zumo, then I realized just the fighting game versions of sumo are boring. It's a shame too cause they could definitely make some appealing sumo characters if they tried.
So…Why are there so few Sumo Characters
Maybe… it's due to Taylor Wily infamous MMA debut
Honda is definitely doing the least new out of the og cast
There's another Honda who does the flying headbutt from fire force and he's pretty cool
I wish the og was doing stuff like him 😂
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve never found half naked fat asses appealing.
Hinako’s pretty much the only sumo I’ll mess around with.
Taka-arashi has the best moves imo. He can actually KO the opponent by dry humping the guy into the wall (throw).
It seems like Sumo characters are kinda like Native American characters in a way- there's so much of the ancient culture and traditions surrounding the pop culture image that they never get to be anything BUT a representative/visual embodiment of a culture, as opposed to a person who comes FROM that culture.
There have been few yokozuna who aren't from Japan actually.
I understand that it is treated like a religion in Japan but I think it would be interesting to have a corrupt but strong sumo wrestler who doesn't have much respect for the tradition and uses sumo for his own gain
I like the poweful kingpin sumo idea.
I really want to see Thai Kickboxing (Muay Thai) on style select.
To answer ur question. Its cuz its not flashy
8:10 you just described Marvel's Kingpin basically. He's proficient in sumo and has matched Captain America in battle
Hinako could work, there are personalized sumo styles and small people do fight sumo, in fact one of the greatest yokozunas chiyonofuju mitsuguru was not as big as people imagine sumo wrestlers to be, also if you want justice being done to sumo read baki its im a sumo arch right now and its amazing
Once again. Great video. Love your channel
You know what would be pretty interesting? A character that not only uses sumo, but also has psychic powers. That character could not only punish their opponents with takedowns, but also use their psychic powers to follow up on those takedowns by either lifting the downed opponent up or further pushing them down into the ground with telekinesis. They could also use said telekinesis on themselves to accelerate and ram their body into their opponent as well. Their palm thrusts could also be imbued with a kind of psychic energy to give them that extra bit flash with even their normal attacks.
As for the story they might have as well as their appearance, the character would actually be an ex-Yokozuna who ultimately felt unhappy and unsatisfied with the title because of how Sumo is so rooted in tradition those that practice it can't do anything else BUT Sumo. The character loves Sumo, but at the same time they can't stand how the tradition robs them of a life outside of sumo, which causes them to abandon the ring entirely and set out on for other ventures where they can still do Sumo, but without having the conform o the traditions of Sumo. As you can see, the conflict for the character is that they love Sumo itself and they want to continue loving Sumo, but they believe that some of traditions surrounding it is holding it back from being taken seriously by the rest of the world and thus they seek to prove that there's more to being a Sumo wrestler than just being a Sumo wrestler.
I'm fully aware that the point of this character is pretty much just dunking on how highly strict Sumo culture and traditions are, right down to even the fact that they not only use their body, but also literally their mind to push their enemies, as if they feel they're above just using their PHYSICAL BODY to win. But hey, at the very least, it's at least something different and I think it's still more interesting than just being a big guy who JUST loves Sumo and Chanko. And like I said, the character loves the acts of Sumo so much and I feel like that they could still show off the best of what Sumo has to offer but with a very unique twist that breaks the mold. Besides, a Sumo wrestler that can use psychic powers sounds pretty dope to me. XD
How when some of the best japanese 2 and third strike are ehondas
Ganryu top character in 7?? Lost
"It's very similar to judo."
No. Stop. Stop talking. Sumo does not involve strangling your opponent into unconsciousness. Sumo did not top boxing in one of the first MMA matches of all time. Judo is a martial art and a means of unarmed self-defense so effective that even police have trained in its techniques. Sumo is pretentious fat men shoving each other. They are not the same.
I was not expecting to hear sengoku rance music in a fighting game video
really like your ideas for sumo wrestler characters
You could even write some crazy supernatural character who has mass and just so happens to use sumo as a style. There's a lot you could do
I'd like to see a Sumo fighting game character who focuses on the salt that Sumo wrestlers spread on the ring before a match.
Both because it'd be a great source of puns, and because I think it could be really interesting mechanically. A grappler-type character who can alter the properties of the ground by throwing salt on it in various ways; that has potential.
Plus there could be a throw or winpose or something where he literally applies salt to the enemy's wounds.
Yakuza Sumo who replaces the traditional salt throw with throwing salt in your eyes
If there was a sumo character in a fighting game as cool as Raiden Tameemon from Record of Ragnarock, I would be super down to main him. He's just cool!
A sumo character you may have forgotten about was robonohana from flying dragon n64
Capoeira!
Hey! You forgot one more sumo character. Aigle from Rumble Roses. It's technically Mongolian Wrestling, but it's very similar to sumo. I think this should have an honorable mentioned.
You said yourself sumo is a lifestyle you don't just dip your toes you got to be all in, and then you go on to complain about sumo characters being all in about sumo.
I'd recommend getting into Sumo. Its honestly incredible to watch
What's japan's obsessions about purity that they can't let sumo wrestlers drink orange juice from concentrate or kool aid
Edmond honda wtf his name is ernie honda
IMA HONDA MAIN !!!! * cries in the corner*
Hi! Nice vid… Everyday I get more and more baffled with how talented the FGC is!
Let me address the topic from a MK, Tekken and KoF fan standpoint.
Bo' Rai Cho has been one of my mains since his debut in "Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance". In the 3D era of MK, devs would stuff fighting styles into the characters, some of which would get reused for other characters in the future, for example, "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon". Bo' has had Mi Zong and Sumo. Those would be given later to Li Mei in MK:D and Hsu Hao in MK:A, respectively. For some reason, Scorpion has done Hapkido and Baraka, Pencak Silat at one point, so don't take these fighting styles seriously in the 3D era games. The only fighting style that Bo' has been doing in all installments is Drunken Fist, so that's the one he actually does for real.
About Tekken… Ganryu is OG, which means he's been in the franchise since the first entry, as the sub-boss for Yoshimitsu in T1. You could unlock him if you beat arcade mode with Yoshi. Came back in T2 on the base roster, then Tekken Tag Tournament in which he started to get his identity. Before, he was like a palette swap for Kuma/Panda and the Jacks. Later, came back in T5 and "Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection". This was the game that skyrocket him since he was pretty solid against high tiers and this was the game that had the most tournaments for, since it was a more balanced version from the trainwreck it was T5. An awesome game, but too unbalanced. His playstyle is very different from the rest of the roster. He's a rushdown character and a powerhouse, but for him to shine, you gotta condition the player to duck/low block, and that's when his infamous low kick, called "Kick & Pull" comes into play. It forces crouch and leaves the opponent at a frame disadvantage. He's my main, and let me tell you, there are lots of pro players who use him primarily, like Saint and Rickstah. Rickstah is actually obsessed with the character, to the point he even admits it on stream and he was super pumped up when he was revealed for season 3, running around in the venue. A lot of pros have a pocket Ganny, since he's a good tournament character. Once, Katsuhiro Harada, the executive director for Tekken at the time, shout out names for an audience to see which characters people would want to came back. When he yelled Ganryu, there was a silence in the room. For quite some time, he was the least played character online. Nowadays, he's actually second to last, but the character definitely has something else to it aside from being a Sumo Wrestler. Story-wise, everything in Tekken is pretty bad, as it is with every fighting game franchise, but he has gone through lots of stuff. Hired mercenary for Kazuya Mishima, ended up falling in love with Michelle Chang, and later with her adopted daughter, Julia Chang. He has been addicted to gambling (must be a nod to the gambling scandal real Sumo has faced a while back), and because of that, he was banned from doing bouts and a rikishi that won't ever be "Yokozuna" because of his history. Decided to help Julia get the forest rejuvenation data from the Mishima Zaibatsu with no success. He has his own dojo, and was able to overcome his troubles by opening a restaurant called "Chanko Paradise". Then, went broke again after he decided to donate all his money to Julia's reforestation program. At this point he decides to do streaming. Goofy and charismatic, his gameplay sometimes can get pretty trolly, with him sitting on his opponents, throwing his entire body at the opponents in the falling statue position, and rolling around on the ground. Despite all of this, the guy definitely knows how to Sumo wrestle and has lots of experience and skill. Here's a music video made from his grunts and animations:
https://youtu.be/vXsi_dXoPHA;
Now, onto KoF, Hinako Shijou is pretty interesting. She's a 16 year-old russian-japanese girl and her first appearance was on "The King of Fighters '00". KoF has gone through tough times in the years of 98 and 99, with both titles from each year being just a game with no story saga attached to it. SNK reinvented themselves in 2000, with the NESTS saga, which had a lot of responsibilities on its shoulders, since the Rugal and Orochi sagas were very positively received. It was tough and they only got to release a good game in 2002, which later got re-released as KoF2002 UM, a masterpiece played till this day. She was modeled after Jarinko Chie, a manga character and she wasn't very popular whatsoever. Why do I say she's the most interesting to talk about in this topic? Because she summarizes, in my opinion, why Sumo isn't so acclaimed by fighting game players. In a game like KoF 2002, in which everyone is so limber and quick, she's the complete opposite, because she has to adequate Sumo moves into this world of projectiles, footsies and quick gameplay. Her signature move is the slaps (7 hits) which take like 2.5 seconds for the animation to end. And for the Grappling, even other grapplers kinda suffer in that game, like Goro Daimon, who does Judo and Clark Still, but in their cases, they deal a lot more damage than the average and their command grabs are unbreakable, something Hinako lacks. That's why I think Sumo is kinda underrepresented… Because its grappling in general dictates a slower pace match and strikes are not that much important in real Sumo, just shoving the opponent or throwing them into the ground.
But, aside from everything I said, I like how Sumo is represented in fighting games. Taka-Arashi feels pretty good to play in Virtua Fighter, since one of the goals is to ring-out the opponent, so he works in that environment.
Also, women actually compete in amateur sumo wrestling. They just can't compete in the officials because tradition. That's why they're requesting Sumo to become an Olympic Sport. That way, it would be easier to change this.
Here's an interview with Yamanaka Miku, the women's world champion in the amateur division. Notice how skinny she is, but at the same time, she has so much skill she even goes toe-to-toe with male wrestlers: https://youtu.be/MWN1I3AtBKc;
9:16
Thats just Yokozuna Hakuho, the most succesfull Yokozuna of all time, born in Mongolia.
He may be mad that you copied his backstory, his last tournament was the best example, at 36 with an injured knee he cames back from surgery and goes 15-0 sweeping the whole tournament including the guy that would soon become Yokozuna and all the elders had to say that he lacked dignity as a Yokozuna.
Another option for better characters is what Mangas like Kengan Ashura and Baki have done, Sumo used to be MMA without gloves both of this series have guys go back to the origin and still keep the sumo techniques but adapt it to a street fight
I feel like Capcom tried to do this with Honda but the obvious option here is corner carry. Build a Sumo specifically designed to carry to the corner, more so than Honda, and only have real strength when they get their opponent there.
jeet kun doo
Maybe hariyama will be in the next pokken and use those exaggerated Pokémon powers
I think the Gaijin Sumo would hit too close to home moreso than the Yakuza Sumo. High-ranking sumo these days are primarily Mongolian. (Hell, at least we could get a sumo from not-Japan)
Since you mentioned Rikishi and Yokozuna, lets go pro wrestling!
I know it's not a fighting game but I really got into Sumo after watching Hinomaru Sumou a couple of years ago. The story of a high schooler who wants to make it into the professional Sumo world but him being a little bit to short according to the height standards; it's a great anime, teaches you many things about this fighting style and has some pretty amazing battles with some incredible sumo maneuvers. Also I know it's silly but I was expecting that part from the Simpsons where Bart and Homer win a fight against a sumo wrestler
Man after reading the Manga Hinomaru Sumo. which is about a dude who is to short for the minimum recs. so he focused on quick charges and heavy focus on grappling. THey had a character who was so tall he used it to poke and put them off balance with the palm strikes. Then would have longer reaching grabs. There are huge opportunities to build out characters. like the weight. maybe the physical stamina. imo if they made a sumo grappler instead of the typical weird rush down it could be fun.
Bro if the next one is Pro Wrestling I’m gonna bust
Could you talk about Paul Phoenix from Tekken? He is a very cool character but he is treated as a complete joke in the series which is a shame. Tekken 4 is the last time he was taken seriously.
I absolutely loved this video. I've always wanted a new and exciting Sumo character. An idea I had was a Masked Vigilante Hero who uses Sumo primarily alongside some generic or even silly (in a fun way) hero-esque moves and flair.
Find it interesting that im seeing this now. I can definitely agree with the premise here, on my part i only got i to watching an researching sumo cause if the current story arc in Baki Dou that talks about how ancient sumo started and ALOT more brutal similar in rules to that of ancient Prancretion and how a practitioner of ancient sumo and the reincarnation of a ancient sumo rikishi comes up against (along with some of the main cast which a particular character has the complete antithetical martial art to sumo) stacks up against the BEST Rikisbi in modern day sumo which endearingly enough some are modeled after actual current high ranking rikishi I.E. Endo the worlds smallest sumo wrestler
Sumo should just be a wrestler, other than that it's nust fluff.