Phil from Distance NERDing saw the new Street Fighter movie and thinks the critics got it wrong. He makes the case that it plays like a fighting game's story mode, and that the people calling it disjointed are mostly the ones who stopped playing after Street Fighter II.
Episode Summary
After the spoiler warning, Phil breaks down the Ryu and Ken rivalry, Akuma's pull on Ryu through the Satsui no Hado, David Dastmalchian's unhinged Bison, and the one thing he can't forgive: Cody Rhodes' Guile fights Vega off screen. Frank, who hasn't seen it yet, pushes on whether the camp works for casual viewers and lines it up next to James Gunn's Superman.
The second half moves to Vision Quest episodes 1 and 2. Frank and Phil talk about the Jarvis moment, James Spader's return as Ultron, Tommy's two sets of memories, and who could be paying Paladin. They close on Marvel scaling back Disney+ budgets, what's coming up for Distance NERDing and its D&D actual play, and a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 campaign recommendation.
Chapters
- 0:00 Phil from Distance NERDing Joins, Is Vision Quest Rebuilding Marvel Hype?
- 1:30 Street Fighter Spoiler-Free Review: Better Than the Reviews Say
- 3:57 Street Fighter Spoilers: The 1993 Setting, Ryu, Ken, and Akuma
- 15:35 Chun-Li, Bison, Guile, and the Game-Accurate Moves
- 22:34 Embracing Camp: Street Fighter, Gunn's Superman, and Adaptations as New Runs
- 26:12 Street Fighter Verdict: Theaters or Streaming?
- 28:28 Vision Quest Episodes 1 and 2: Jarvis and James Spader's Ultron
- 41:03 Paladin, Tommy, and Who's Pulling the Strings
- 55:13 Is Marvel Pulling Back on Disney+?
- 57:45 What's Next for Distance NERDing
- 1:00:14 Recommendations: Modern Warfare 4 Campaign and a WoW Guild
Key Takeaways
- Phil argues Street Fighter is built like arcade story mode, with separate character arcs that converge on one fight. Viewers who don't know that format read it as disjointed.
- The movie pulls deep from post-Street Fighter V lore: Gouken and Gouki, Ryu and the Satsui no Hado, and Bison draining fighters to fuel his Psycho Power.
- Phil's two gripes are Guile's off-screen fight with Vega and Ken never landing the flaming Shoryuken.
- His verdict is theaters, with a crowd. Moviegoers with no attachment to the games are the most likely to bounce off it.
- Frank found Vision Quest episode 1 slow and episode 2 the payoff, while Phil was hooked from the start. Both rank James Spader's Ultron as the best thing in the show so far.
- Both hosts read Marvel's TV slowdown as a budget decision, since big-budget series didn't pull in enough new Disney+ subscribers. Frank sees Zodiac as a test run for cheaper, Arrow-style shows.
Quotes
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"The way that they did this entire movie was almost the same way that you play a fighting game." (Phil)
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"Every single character in this movie performs something that they're known for in the game." (Phil)
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"If you want the blood and gore, Mortal Kombat. If you want the dude beating up a car in the middle of the street while people cheer, Street Fighter." (Frank)
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"Could it be anybody else but Jarvis? He's just been with us since the beginning." (Frank)
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"I can listen to that dude read the dictionary." (Phil, on James Spader)
Sources
GeekFreaksPodcast.com is the source for all news discussed on the show.
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Send Us Your Questions
Did Street Fighter work for you, or did it land as disjointed? Who do you think hired Paladin? Send your reactions, questions, and topic ideas to Info@GFPods.com or drop them in the comments, and we may read them on a future episode.
