A multi-layered series that looks back to the formative years of Ryu and Ken as they live a traditional warrior’s life in secluded Japan. The boys are, unknowingly, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as “Ansatsuken” (Assassin’s Fist). The series follows them as they learn about the mysterious past of their master, Goken, and the tragic, dark legacy of the Ansatsuken style. Can their destiny be changed, or will history repeat itself?

Well, time for our first on demand/youtube review and what a doozey of a review aswell…
Season 1 of Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, the follow on to the Youtube short from 2010, Streetfighter: Legacy, which showed a night time fight between Ryu and Ken and got the whole of Street Fighter fandom around the world salivating for a real live action Street Fighter spectacle (especially after the travesty that was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li)

This is very much a prequel to the First Street Fighter: World Warriors game/story and the years of Ryu (Mike Moh) and Ken Master (Christian Howard) training, aswell as the young life and training of their Sensei Goken (Akira Koieyama) and his brother Goki (Gaku Space), and his betrayal of Gotetsu (Togo Igawa) to become Akuma (Joey Ansah), the Demon of the No Hado!

The first thing that strikes straight away is the choreography of the training and fight scenes.  The training is utterly wonderful to watch and the fight scenes, especially the CGI added for the ingame moves, like the Hadouken and ShoRyuKen look cool.

Filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria, the locations are stunning too, the perfect backdrop for the training of two young world warriors into the video game characters we’ve been knocking heads with for nearly 30 years now

What I WASN’T expecting, yet supremely surprised about was the introduction of Ken’s father (Mark Killeen) in Episode 4: A Rough Night,  a boxer, who spends a day training with Ryu and Ken and showing them a few of his moves.  What really stood out most in this episode was the bond and training these actors and fighters have, the moves and dialect is fluid and warm and the fighting/training is quick and beautiful to watch aswell.

But they also get a taste of street fighting at a local bar against some American GI’s (and leave them in a mess of course) in this episode, of course we see Ken in full flow offering large bets, while Ryu looks out of his depth and uncomfortable being thrown into the ring.  Everything we know about these characters is there and real.

The real stand out throughout the series though is Goken, more than just their teacher, he’s a father figure and one that is respected and loved by both teenagers, and the flashbacks to his own training and trials with his brother Goki under the training of Gotetsu is part of the Street Fighter legacy that hasn’t been deeply looked into before now and it was good to get to know.

Goki’s transformation into Akuma is good to watch aswell, almost a rocky level montage of his body falling apart under the power of the No Hado and his transformation into the demon Akuma is great to watch.

The one thing that I don’t get with this series is why its even a series.  All 12 episodes were released right away and at 9/10 minutes an episode, I have to ask why…   If this was released on DVD/BluRay as a feature length episode, like  , Then I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Here’s hoping Machinima see sense to release it as a movie.

Now, to get back into the dojo myself, this gave me a definite recharge to my No Hado!

~9.5/10  Utterly Amazing!

It may seem hard to believe, but as of tomorrow (15th May 2014), Diablo 3 will be two years old. Cake and singing songs just isn’t in the style of the popular dungeon-based Hack-and-Slasher, however. Nor is a single day of celebration enough. No, Blizzard has something better in mind.

To celebrate the game’s second anniversary and the community that made it all possible, Starting tomorrow and running until May 22, players who log in to defend Sanctuary will receive double Rift Fragments as well as a +100% boost to their chance to find Legendary items.

While the buffs will apply to all characters; and will stack with other buffs a Player may have to add further bonuses to their drop rate etc, those with a console version of the game are unfortunately excluded – this event is for PC & Mac only. However, as Console releases already have better drop rates than the PC equivalent, this is hardly a big loss. What MIGHT be a big loss is the timing, as many Diablo 3 players are complaining the week-long event falls into a period where many students are completing major exams – thus limiting the time they have to take advantage. However, the most hardcore of Diablo 3 players are already clearing their schedule to make room for a whole week of non-stop action.

Whether you’re a casual or hardcore Diablo 3 player, looks like Diablo’s demons better prepare for a lot more bloodshed than usual.

Call of Duty being the unstoppable juggernaut of a franchise it is, it was only a matter of time before its first new-gen iteration was revealed. Using the tagline “A New Era”, Call of Duty’s official Facebook page has for several weeks been touting a worldwide announcement for the next Call of Duty title, which we now know to be called Advanced Warfare, for modern generation consoles such as XBox One and PS4.

That Global Reveal was scheduled yesterday for the 4th of May; and the intention was for the company to reveal the game’s title and trailers for each region on the day. Unfortunately, one of those trailers got leaked on Facebook a little too early – the UK Trailer was discovered earlier today and was confirmed by Call of Duty as legitimate, with this message posted on their Facebook page:

This was scheduled for Sunday but it just leaked, so why wait? Here’s the first look at Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. #ANewEra begins now!

The Trailer consists of what is claimed to be footage of XBox One gameplay, and shows off the new gen graphics; details some possible actions; and offers an insight into the game’s story via select FMV sequences. I’m sure you’re waiting to see it yourself – so check the Trailer below, courtesy their official YouTube channel:

Bungie and Activision earlier today released a series of 35-second trailers that offer brief glimpses into the character classes in their upcoming first-person futuristic action game, Destiny. The videos – posted on the Destiny official website – actually reveal very little: It was pretty much a given already that Titans are going to be the tank-like fighters, Hunters the quick, stealthy rogues and Warlocks are going to have some sort of special powers to screw around with enemies or the environment; and there’s little else to go on from what we see here. But they’re still pretty cool videos nonetheless.

While we’d love to show you the videos right here like we always do, unfortunately YouTube is currently suffering technical issues that are stopping the videos from embedding properly, so they aren’t currently showing up. Meanwhile, the official website age-restricts the videos. So until we find a solution, if you’d like to see the trailers, head on over to Destiny’s website and to the page, Guardian Classes – but stay tuned to Sanitarium.FM for more news while it’s hot!