Asian Influence in Gaming

Mortal Kombat, a one versus one American video game, developed by NetherRealm Studios as a whole seems to have much influence from the one versus one video game series Street Fighter made by Capcom, a Japanese video game developer. This influence is especially seen in the development of the characters of Mortal Kombat, The character Kitana (Figure 2) from Mortal Kombat displays much influence from Street Fighter’s Chun Li (Figure 1), from colors to a spin off of her clothing. Chun Li (Figure 1) has exaggerated proportions of her body that please the eye as well as Kitana (Figure 2).

Street Fighter’s popularity and success was great, and after releasing Street Fighter II ––where Chun Li (Figure 1) made her first appearance–– it was even greater. Mortal Kombat was not as popular as Street Fighter and their creation of the second Mortal Kombat with the addition of a playable female character Kitana (Figure 2), was greatly influenced by Chun Li (Figure 1). Kitana’s (Figure 2) creation with such influence from Chun Li (Figure 2) was probably to also bring the influence of a successful video game. By creating a similar character as Chun Li (Figure 1) it also gave interest to the Street Fighter fans. In adopting this influence, NetherRealm Studios accepted that the female addition to the fighting game was a smart idea and that the Asian fighting video games had became a success.

Chun Li (Figure 1) is a female character from the video game series Street Fighter depicted with a very young and pleasing appearence. Chun Li( Figure 1) was the first playable female character in the video game series of Street Fighter by Capcom; making her first appearence in Street Fighter II. Although this piece was created by Japanese artist...

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...e the idea of something foreign about her is necessary. Kitana’s (Figure 2) clothing is noticeably influenced by Asian culture, but it also is not exactly like the Asian wardrobe to give it an even more foreign design. Clothing moderations based on the Chinese qipao and the fans give a foreign air to the piece because it is not commonly seen in the western hemisphere. Another reason why excoticism is at play is because Japanese fighting games where very popular when they first arrived at arcades, this allows an assumption that because Mortal Kombat looks similar to Street Fighter it may be as good as the game Street Fighter.

Works Cited

http://mortalkombat.wikia.com/wiki/Kitana

http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/Chun-Li

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_X_Tekken