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Inside the PlayStation store, gamers are still excited. "I've been waiting for this for a long time," said Julio Lopez, an office worker visiting the store on his lunch break. "The graphics are a whole lot better with the new machine."
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In the store's Try Before You Buy area, numerous PS2 machines were set up with fighting games--definitely a favorite among the fans. Gamers flocked to try out the latest versions of Street Fighter EX3 and Tekken Tag Tournament, seen here.
While some games, like the venerable Street Fighter and Tekken series, incorporate fanciful attacks like shooting fireballs or throwing lightning bolts, some fighting games pride themselves on realistic martial arts. Two such games are based upon actual martial arts tournaments: Crave Entertainment's Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Jaleco's K-1 Grand Prix.
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Crave's Ultimate Fighting Championship takes the infamous no-holds barred fighting event into the living room, allowing players to choose from multiple stars of UFCs past and present. For example, you could pit Mark Coleman against Frank Shamrock, as shown in this screen shot.
Jaleco's K-1 Grand Prix is based upon the Japanese K-1 tournament, where the K represents the various "K" martial arts: karate, kickboxing, kung fu, kenpo, and tae kwon do, and the 1 means first--this tournament crowns the victor as the "world's best" fighter.
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Although extremely popular in Japan, the K-1 events have only recently begun to gain popularity in the United States, with a televised tournament held in Las Vegas earlier this year. As with Crave's UFC game, Jaleco's K-1 allows players to choose their favorite fighting stars, including Holland's Peter Aerts (left).
Next: More Martial Arts Video Games
All content copyright © 1999-2006 James Hom
