Chapter 363 Chapter : Old Boy, Set Sail Again (Part )
(I still haven't come up with a satisfactory idea for the main storyline, and Street Fighter hasn't been written yet, so I'll just treat it as a side story)

"muscle!"

"The muscles are glowing!"

"Full force! Full force!"

On the big screen, a tall and mighty old Russian with scars all over his body and a big beard pointed his hands to the sky, and his muscular body shone with a unique beauty under the spotlight of the ring.

With one punch, he knocked the yellow-robed drunkard, his opponent, to the ground and carried him on his shoulder.

He jumped high, spun, and smashed down heavily, and the drunkard's health bar, which was originally nearly half, was emptied in an instant.

"Zangief Win!"

This powerful blow also caused exclamations from the players who were watching the demonstration outside the screen.

"What the hell is this damage? If you get hit, half of the tube will go down!"

"It's awesome, it's in exchange for speed and output."

"I think it's very suitable for elderly people like me. I'll train Lao Sang when the game comes out!"

"I have to say this picture is really good... much better than the King of Fighters... worthy of the original team!"

……

After Honor announced its demise, not everyone was sighing and missing it.

For example, StarCraft players are opening champagne.

You guys are finally alike!

StarCraft players, who have been suppressed by Honor of Kings for who knows how many years, now see that their own game is still being updated relatively stably, and it is said that a new Western fantasy RTS game by Heavy Rain Studio is also under excellent development.

Although the competition does not have a stable league like those major events, at least various cup competitions and tours are still in full swing.

All we can say is that the outlook is stable and improving.

Compared to the glory of Bao Si next door...don't blame the StarCraft players for being so arrogant.

But it was also suppressed by Honor of Kings for many years, and in some ways, because its game type was a little bit similar, it was even suppressed more severely.
Fighting games, or rather, players of King of Fighters, have no time to care about the development of Honor of Kings.

All they care about is when they can play games.

Compared to StarCraft, which received funding and technical support from Tencent early on, StarCraft completed the rebirth of the game and community smoothly.
During the glory period, "The King of Fighters", which was barely as famous as StarCraft in the e-sports circle, has had a much more bumpy experience these days.

In other words, fighting games are destined to go through many ups and downs and hardships in this era that does not belong to them.

As a game genre that has been popular since the 1990s, the golden age of fighting games has long ended with the decline of the arcade era.

In the new era of gaming, the complex operation and extremely high threshold of this game category have destined it to be impossible for this game category to remain stable and popular without an arcade environment.

As early as the online game era before the release of Honor of Kings, the development of fighting games on the PC side was not very smooth, but the arcade industry was still hot at that time, so fighting games could continue to flourish for a while.

Therefore, fighting game players themselves are very open-minded and do not attribute the poor development of their own game communities to the suppression of Honor of Kings.

It’s good enough to have games to play, who else do you need a bicycle for?

Therefore, fighting games, especially in this world, the only leader of fighting games, the Fighting King, has been honestly guarding his own little piece of land for more than ten years of glorious rule.

Every few years, a new work is released, and some creative innovations are made in the mechanism and system, and the old players will buy into it.

Anyway, as for fighting, the most glorious old works of the King of Fighters, such as kof97 and kof98, are still played by many people today, not to mention the new works.

This peaceful situation began until the original creative team of "The King of Fighters" announced their resignation.

There is no way a bug like Kodick would give up a project like King of Fighters that makes money without doing anything.

At the beginning, he only invested in acquiring the development studio of King of Fighters and let them work for him.

Later, because he was dissatisfied that they were not making money fast enough, he decisively chose to use a trick to replace the original employees and cleared out the original studio.

That day, Kotick ordered a large group of "security guards" to break into the office area of ​​the Fighting King studio.

Under the pretext of "maintaining emotional stability among employees," they occupied the place and seized documents used by the creators for private communication.

Then, they used these documents as "evidence" to justifiably fire several main creators of King of Fighters.

When the news came out, almost all the veteran players of fighting games were in mourning.

Because of the slight similarity between Honor of Kings and fighting games, the fighting game industry has only had one game left today, King of Fighters, and now the main creative team is gone.

Could it be... that fighting games are really going to be over?
What happened later confirmed the players' concerns.

Almost a year after the main creators were kicked out of the old team, the studio, which was completely controlled by Kotick, launched the sequel to The King of Fighters, The King of Fighters 15.

How to describe the quality of the game...it's a bit hard to describe.

The picture looks like it's been ten years, the characters' movements are extremely incoherent, and there are a lot of scattered problems...

Although most fighting game players still bought the game and started playing it based on the principle of "remember to buy it after you've criticized it",

However, the pessimistic statement that "fighting games are over" is still quietly spreading among this group of players.

Until Teng Hai rebuilt the studio that produced King of Fighters with those fired main creators as the core team.

When this news was released, the original intention was just to disgust Kodick and accelerate his downfall.

Who knew that once the news got out, countless middle-aged people, no longer young, would burst into tears all over the world.

Tenghai finally set their sights on this game type that has completely become unpopular, and the players finally got their salvation.

Considering the glorious record of Tenghai in the past when any game of any type became popular, these old-timers from the arcade era have every reason to believe that:
Fighting games... there is hope...

Sure enough, not long after, the much-anticipated new fighting game project was officially released, but it was not the familiar fighting king, but a strange, seemingly plain name:

Street Fighter.

……

"The feeling... is indeed very different from KOF." The bearded man watched the actual gameplay demonstration of the character "Zangief" on the screen while savoring the flavor.

“Indeed, in addition to the absolute technical advantages, the design ideas and style of the characters have also changed a lot, but I still feel quite comfortable with it, especially with this picture.”

Being pushed to his side by the crowd, I looked at a handsome man in his early thirties, speaking Cantonese, and smiled as he continued. The Street Fighter project is getting closer to its official release, and Tenghai's promotion is naturally also being carried out simultaneously.

One of the important nodes is the offline trial session that is currently being held.

This was the first time that the company attempted to break through the mature system that the King of Fighters had explored over more than 20 years and try a new project. The development team that had just joined Tenghai did not dare to neglect it and arranged multiple insurances early on.

Offline trial play is one of the key steps, which is mainly to determine whether the old players can adapt well to the many innovations and changes in feel of the new game.

But even though the studio had prepared for this demo with the utmost care, a big problem still occurred on site -

They underestimated the enthusiasm of their own players.

When people learned that such an early access trial was going to be held, countless people around the world put down their work without hesitation, booked the nearest flight and rushed to the venue.

Even though the authorities urgently extended the duration of the event and diverted the players, the venue was still crowded with people.

The feelings accumulated after twenty years of companionship are beyond anyone's imagination.

It is estimated that most people can only gather behind the machines provided by the authorities and watch the lucky ones who get the chance to try out the game to experience it first.

It is not much different from the atmosphere of the original arcade.

"Hey, man, you seem to be an expert. What do you think are the differences in the gaming feel of this new Street Fighter compared to the original King of Fighters?" the bearded man suddenly asked curiously.

This guy is one of the few non-core players in this trial session. He only came into contact with fighting games by chance in recent years and then tried to play them. He knows far less than these real veterans who have more than ten years of experience.

This time, I heard that the original team of "The King of Fighters" is preparing to create a new work with the support of Tencent, a beacon in the industry, so I came to join in the fun.

"There are still quite a few differences." The man who spoke Cantonese recalled the actual machine demonstrations he had just seen on the scene.

"First of all, it's the character design style... I feel that Street Fighter's design is more realistic, and King of Fighters is more beautiful."

Compared to the King of Fighters games I played in the past, which had all kinds of handsome men and beautiful women, the characters in Street Fighter do not have that two-dimensional beauty, but their characteristics are more distinct and the design sense is also very good.

For example, the powerful wrestler Lao Sang just now...and Jamie, the shaker in his hand, is a good example.

As a Chinese-style character, he ingeniously combined Chinese drunken boxing and street dance, coupled with a very catchy BGM, which left a very deep impression on him.

The unique drinking mechanism is also a game point that sounds very interesting.

After drinking four glasses of wine, his hairstyle became even more handsome.

I don’t know why, even though I haven’t actually tried it, just by watching him being persecuted by various characters in the actual demo, I subconsciously feel that—

Seems a bit weak...

"In terms of feel, I feel that the importance of the return move will be greatly increased, but the variety of combos is less than that of King of Fighters. The anti-aircraft means and damage are stronger than those of King of Fighters. I should not be able to blindly bet on small jumps like King of Fighters..."

When it came to the operation of the game, the man immediately opened up and began to talk incessantly in his Cantonese accent.

During the conversation, various professional terms popped up one after another, which stunned the bearded man who was obviously only half-baked.

He is an expert, he must be an expert. Maybe he was the tough guy who dominated the arcade in his past... the bearded man thought excitedly.

Looking at the huge crowds of people at the scene, it would probably be unlikely for him to get to play in person.

But even if you are just watching from the sidelines, watching a master perform is much more interesting than watching a passerby.

The Cantonese man talked a lot and finally felt a little tired. He took out a bottle of water and gulped down half of it.

Hu Zi quickly took advantage of the opportunity to ask, "You, the Fighting King, must be very good at it, right? What's your name, master?"

After drinking the water, the man was stunned for a moment when he heard the question from the bearded man. Then a hint of nostalgia flashed in his eyes. He smiled and replied calmly:

"I'm not an expert. I've only been playing in arcades for a few years."

"Your surname is Zeng, Mr. Zeng Zhuo."

Zeng Zhuojun? The bearded man subconsciously felt that the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was at first glance.

Just as he was about to continue asking questions, suddenly, thunderous cheers broke out at the scene.

On the big screen, new characters appeared, and this time, the figures were particularly familiar.

Although the owner and IP have been changed, it is the original team that made Fighting King that are back on track. However, Cordick is now completely decadent and can no longer control the company as before.

So the new Street Fighter project team thought about it and found the reorganized King of Fighters project team, and got some collaborative work from this already half-dead series.

And now, the leading character in this collaboration has appeared.

The iconic blonde ponytail, red baseball cap, plus that signature confident smile, and a fountain of energy rising into the sky.

Terry, come on!
The moment this super popular character from the King of Fighters arrived in Street Fighter with his Fruity Orange, he caused crazy cheers from the players on the scene.

Although he is not the most famous character in the King of Fighters like Kusanagi Kyo and Hachiman, Terry's popularity is not much less than these two!
It's back, it's all back!

At the same time, the bearded man also clearly observed that the man in front of him named Zeng Zhuojun also became excited the moment he saw Terry appear on the screen.

So much so that his hands began to tremble slightly uncontrollably.

"Brother, you must have played Terry a lot before, right?" Although the bearded man still couldn't remember who Zeng Zhuojun was, he still guessed.

"Yes, I play it quite a lot. It's considered a small trademark." Zeng Zhuojun nodded, a little absent-minded.

"Wow, there's a small sign. It seems that you are really a master! How many years have you been playing Fighting King?" The bearded man complimented quickly.

Judging from his appearance and age, he must be a veteran player for at least ten years, right?
But the fact is that he was still conservative.

"...almost thirty years." Zeng Zhuojun casually replied with a number that stunned the bearded man on the spot.

"Thirty years? Then how old are you?" The bearded man was stunned.

"About six years old." Zeng Zhuojun didn't care.

"I started playing fighting games in the arcade when I was six years old. Because I was young at the time, the people there gave me a nickname, which I still use today."

"Child."

　Updated. Today is still a day when I was stuck in a desperate situation, so I wrote a semi-extra story to make up for it.

　　Kneel down.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)