There are things that couldn’t be done today, but there was a time when practically anything went in fighting games. Do you want to include boxer Mike Tyson as a fighter? A little tweak to the name and move on. However, where artists and creatives could let loose the most was on stage. Backgrounds full of details and intrastories and, in the case of Art of Fighting, even a Hollywood superstar: neither more nor less than Tom Cruise. And beware, the game came out in 1992!
Having passed so much time since the last installment, it is relatively normal that you are not familiar with the SNK saga, but in its day it was one of the four great fighting series of the Osaka company along with Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown and The King of Fighters . What was so special about it? In essence it was a hypervitamined Street Fighter II with huge characters, super-powered special attacks and that extra power of Neo Geo arcades and consoles. In fact, many of its characters and settings were almost a carbon copy of Capcom’s success, and that’s where things get complicated.
The day Maverick sneaked into the arcades
As we advance in the game it is a matter of time before we come across John Crawley, an American soldier who gave Guile’s complete response to Street Fighter II. Maybe he didn’t have the hair of the Capcom fighter, but his combat style is very similar and the scenario in which he fights could be perfectly the same but replacing a plane with a helicopter. The emblem on the ground is almost identical and the public is also copied, except for a very, very subtle detail.
As in Guile’s scenario, when facing John Crawley you can see at least one couple of lovebirds dressed in air force uniforms witnessing each fight. They are both to the far right. sharing a lovey-dovey hug in front of some boxes. Until then everything is relatively normal and predictable. However, when you flip the image you begin to see the trick.
Believe it or not, this couple is about nothing more and less than Pete “Maverick” Mitchell by Tom Cruise and Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood by Kelly McGillis. None other than the protagonists of the film Top Gun which released in 1986. Six years before the release of the game. In fact, there will still be a decade until the first film of Mission Impossible. How can this be stated so emphatically without seeing the identification on the uniform?
The answer, basically, is that SNK traced one of the most iconic promotional images of the tape. He replaced Cruise’s jeans and dressed Kelly McGillis to look like another aviator. But their faces, their pose, and even the way they hold their glasses are exactly the same. Only, as we mentioned, the couple had been turned around so that no one would notice. Good move SNK!
Although, to be fair, Capcom had already plagiarized the film as well Top Gun a year before in one of his stages Street Fighter II. The big difference is that in his case it is literally impossible to see.
Don’t leave yet… there’s still more!
Ken’s stage theme is one of the most iconic in fighting games and possibly one of the most recognizable in all of arcade history. Yoko Shimomura synthesized the passion for the American wrestler with chords that have remained marked in our memory in a special way. And yet, we are also completely sure that before working on the game he saw it in the cinema or at home Top Gun.
Ken’s song is basically a big little plagiarism of the song Mighty Wings by the group Cheap Trick, which is one of the main songs on the soundtrack of the film starring Tom Cruise. To what extent are they similar? You can draw the conclusions yourself.
Top Gun It had its own video games, including a sequel that Konami made on the NES decades before the one starring Cruise himself, but the impact that that film had both in Japan and in the rest of the world is unquestionable. The only tributes in fighting games to Maverick are the rest of Air Idols, definitely not. But you have to admit that these two were brilliantly hidden and that makes them much more special.
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