Brandon nodded and gave up his seat to Ethan.
"Ethan, I recorded so many motion reference clips. Why did you only include these few?"
From what he had just experienced, Fei Long's moveset felt very limited. Aside from the punches and kicks mapped to the four buttons, there were only the most basic actions like crouching attacks and jumping attacks.
Although there were subtle differences in animations and frame data compared to Guile, overall the characters still felt heavily homogenized.
Ethan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he calmly selected his character and signaled for Sam to begin. Sam looked extremely excited.
During the earlier playtests, he had already discovered just how powerful a turtling projectile strategy was, and had become completely addicted to it.
Even when he'd played against Ethan before, he had managed to keep Ethan pinned down with this exact tactic.
Naturally, he intended to do the same thing this match.
Flashy moves? Thrilling back and forth combat?
Sorry.
I want to win.
Hehe.
Ethan immediately executed a perfectly timed jump-in, slipping through the gap between Guile's Sonic Boom projectiles and closing the distance right into Guile's face.
The moment he got in close, he landed a command throw.
Sam hadn't expected Ethan to actually bypass his relentless barrage of projectiles. He immediately lost his composure.
Ethan pressed the advantage relentlessly, unleashing several flashy combo strings in succession before finishing with Fei Long's spectacular Rekkashingeki, smashing Sam's Guile, who knew nothing but throwing projectiles, straight into the wall.
"Good game."
After all, Ethan had been raised on modern fighting games. Against someone like Sam, who had only just started learning the genre, it really did feel a bit like bullying a child.
"Wait! How did you do that just now?"
Brandon stared blankly at the dazzling techniques Fei Long had performed. It looked like a completely different character from the one he had just been playing.
Arnold had opened his mouth in shock the moment he saw Guile perform a Sonic Boom.
"If you're interested in advanced moves, take a look at this."
Ethan reached over and picked up a neatly printed document. Several tables were listed across the pages.
"What's this?"
Arnold accepted the document and skimmed through it, looking utterly confused.
Each section was filled with all sorts of strange symbols—joystick icons, letters like HP and LP, and other unfamiliar notations.
"I call it a move list. You can also think of it as this game's instruction manual."
Brandon and Arnold exchanged glances before carefully reading through its contents.
It didn't take long before they found the move they recognized best, Guile's Sonic Boom.
"Hold the joystick backward to charge, then push it forward and press Punch?"
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Arnold looked completely bewildered, but he tried following the listed inputs anyway.
"Sonic Boom!"
Guile's voice or more accurately, his own recorded voice rang clearly through the speakers. He had actually thrown a Sonic Boom.
At that moment, both men finally realized that this game was nowhere near as simple as they had first assumed.
Every character possessed a completely different fighting style and move list. As a result, choosing a different character meant experiencing an entirely different game.
Even the same player would struggle to produce two identical matches.
Unlike Contra, where you could memorize every stage and steadily improve by practicing fixed patterns, your opponent in Street Fighter was another human being.
There was no greater joy than battling another person.
Both Brandon and Arnold had become completely immersed.
As a defensive character, Guile relied on his unique strengths to fight Fei Long on even footing.
Only after Brandon beautifully punished a whiff with precise spacing and landed a Flame Kick did the match finally end with a score of 2–1.
At the same time, Ethan heard the familiar system notification in his mind. Twenty points were instantly added to all his attributes.
Several techniques he had only recently learned immediately fused into instinctive mastery, even giving birth to new techniques in the process.
However, Ethan's attention wasn't on that. It was on the mission's Bonus Objective.
Convince Brandon Lee's mother.
Bruce Lee's widow, Linda.
...
Brandon was clearly a man who kept his promises.
Now that he had completely acknowledged this work, which had far exceeded his expectations, he naturally had no intention of going back on his word.
That very evening, he went to his mother's house and told her everything.
Throughout the entire two month development process, Linda hadn't known a thing about it.
After hearing Brandon's explanation, the atmosphere in the room instantly turned icy. With a loud smack, she threw a document onto the table.
Brandon glanced at it and immediately froze. It was a draft lawsuit against Konami, apparently seeking legal action over certain inappropriate elements in Kung-Fu.
"Not a single one of these game companies is any good."
She frowned and glared at Brandon.
"And you actually went to help them make those money grabbing video games?"
Earlier that day, she had met with the head of Konami's American branch and had also seen the game they were porting, Kung-Fu.
At first, she had approached it with an open mind. She wanted to see it for herself before passing judgment.
Linda had expected to witness something resembling the spectacular martial arts action of Enter the Dragon.
Instead, what they showed her was nothing more than an ordinary side scrolling beat-'em-up that crudely exploited Bruce Lee's legacy.
Perhaps it was considered a high-quality game by gaming standards.
But in Linda's eyes, it wasn't nearly enough.
Brandon hadn't expected his mother's reaction to be so intense, and for a moment he didn't know what to do.
"Ethan is different. He really is."
All he could do was offer a weak defense of Ethan.
"You've completely lost your mind..."
Disappointment filled Linda's voice.
"Your focus should be on your acting career, not helping make video games."
Brandon swallowed hard. Convincing his stubborn mother was proving far more difficult than he had imagined.
But when he remembered the incredible experience of Street Fighter, his determination returned.
There was one method that was certain to work. He simply had to let his mother see it and play that revolutionary game herself.
"I played the role of 'Bruce Lee' in Street Fighter."
"...?"
Linda suddenly felt as though she couldn't catch her breath. She came dangerously close to fainting from anger at her son.
Well, wasn't that just wonderful. She had spent days running around trying to defend Bruce Lee's rights.
Not only had she made no progress, she'd even been ridiculed by Konami. She had finally returned home hoping to get a little rest, only for her own son to drop this bombshell on her.
She was just about to scold him when a clear female voice suddenly came from behind her.
"Mom, let's just go take a look."
Startled, Linda turned around. The bedroom door had somehow been opened.
Shannon Lee stood in the doorway, having overheard their entire conversation.
"I believe my brother."