NOC Interview: ‘Street Fighter 6’ Soundtrack Producer Koyo Sonae

March 5, 2024 Dominic Mah

I got to chat with the executive producer of the Street Fighter 6 Original Soundtrack, Koyo Sonae. We talked about his musical background, the ongoing legacy of Street Fighter, and various topics related to the music of video games. The SF6 Collector’s Edition Vinyl Set is now available wherever you get your awesome collector’s edition vinyl soundtracks guaranteeing that you will be the coolest music nerd in your whole zip code.

Gaming, Video Games

‘Street Fighter V’ Teams Up with Breast Cancer Research Foundation for New Costumes

October 12, 2021October 13, 2021 Jamal Michel

It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and in an effort to bring much needed attention to the ongoing battle patients and researchers have had with the disease, Street Fighter V has teamed up with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The foundation is also the largest private funders of breast cancer research in the world, and Capcom have partnered with them on the newest cosmetics coming to the game.

Gaming, Interview, Video Games

Fighting Game Legend Justin Wong Talks Gaming, Fatherhood, and More

July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 Jamal Michel

When I happened upon Street Fighter IV on the Xbox 360 in 2009, it came years after playing Super Street Fighter II on the Super Nintendo and falling victim to the cheap tactics of my cousin’s Dhalsim. I had zero knowledge of fighting game mechanics like footsies, whiff punishing, or zoning, but in 2009 I was consumed by everything Street Fighter. Justin Wong was among some of my earliest impressions of the fighting game community’s most prolific figures, clashing with FGC rivals and icons Daigo Umehara, Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzalez, and Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi throughout the early 2010s.

Martial Arts, Television, Video Games3 Comments

Street Fighter Assassin’s Fist: This Hadoken Is Finally a K.O.

July 10, 2014July 14, 2014 Eric S.B.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. That means something to millions of a certain age range. It is a deity on the pantheon of video games and keeps evolving to the present day. It isn’t the primary reason I got into training in the martial arts, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was one of them.

After years of playing Street Fighter II — hell, I remember playing the elusive Street Fighter in the arcade in Brazil — Hollywood and Capcom were ready with their big feature film in 1994 with Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile. And… it was shit. Stinky, smelly, nasty, horrible shit. Perhaps the greatest actor ever to come from Puerto Rico — Raúl Julia, who played Bison — passed away shortly after the film’s release, making Street Fighter his final film. I couldn’t help wanting to erase it from his filmography just to let it end in acting gold with The Burning Season. In 2009, there was another Hollywood Street Fighter film featuring Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li. Haven’t seen it; I’m told not to see it.

A year later in 2010, a fan film called Street Fighter Legacy popped up online. No real budget, quite short, plenty of things that could be better (those eyebrows yikes!), but there was an essence that finally someone had gotten it right.

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Misc4 Comments

Elsewhere Around the Internet

March 17, 2014March 9, 2016 Keith Chow

Last week, while we were a little preoccupied with the idea of casting an Asian American actor as Iron Fist, Hollywood — as if on cue — once again proved cross-racial casting is really a one-way street and announced Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star Rooney Mara will be playing Tiger Lily in Warner Brothers’ upcoming live action Peter Pan adaptation.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Video Games1 Comment

Calling for a Jerk-Free Video Game Community

March 7, 2014March 20, 2014 The Nerds of Color

On today’s show, Nelson (@aarisings) switches places with Keith and welcomes an exciting panel of gamers to tackle this week’s topic: the diversity of

Joining Nelson are fellow NOCs N’Jaila Rhee (@BlasianBytch) and MashfestNYC’s Jon Haehnle (@SONICBOOMB0X). Other special panelists include actor Tasi Alabastro (host of the KreenPananas YouTube channel) and Shoryuken.com‘s Patrick Miller (@pattheflip).

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Video Games5 Comments

The Terror of the Game Over Screen

February 18, 2014September 17, 2014 Diego

Originally posted at The Space Between Two Worlds

I had a lot of fears back when I was a kid. Most of them were typical for my age like being scared of the dark, the dentist, or getting lost somewhere. However, I think game overs had to be one of the weirder fears. Or was it? As a kid who loved playing video games, it was only natural that I’d be seeing tons of game over screens. Back in the day, most were pretty simple; a black screen with the words “Game Over” with sad music playing. No biggie.

However, there were some that scared the shit out of me.

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Gone Too Soon, Video Games4 Comments

Nintendo Nostalgia: The Passing of Hiroshi Yamauchi

September 20, 2013February 26, 2014 The Nerds of Color

If names like Donkey Kong, Mario, Power Pad, or Gameboy mean anything to you, then you may shed a tear for this news: Hiroshi Yamauchi, the Japanese businessman who took the Nintendo franchise from a trading card company to video game royalty, passed away yesterday from complications of pneumonia. Yamauchi, who was named the president of Nintendo in 1949 when he was only 22 years old, claimed that he knew nothing about video games, but he obviously knew enough to turn Nintendo into one of the most recognized — and successful — video game companies in history (you may be a Nintendo nerd if you recognize these games). For those of us who grew up watching Mario and Luigi destroy Koopa Troopas and rooted for Link to rescue Princess Zelda, it has been a sad time in the NOC offices.

To honor the man who gave us a reason to stay up past our bedtime playing video games instead of doing homework, a few of the Nerds reflected on our favorite Nintendo memories:

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Origins4 Comments

A Series of Carefully Selected Moments Over the Course of 35 Years

September 12, 2013November 18, 2014 Robert S.

In all sincerity, I actually attempted to construct this in a more conventional narrative form, with the initial phase being the following series of roughly dated bullets. Upon completion, I realized the bullets actually covered my “nerdom coming-of-age” origin tale better than any formal composition.

So yeah, in all it’s abstract glory, here you go:

1980s… My Saturday Morning line-up for a decade was (in no particular order): Spidey and his Amazing Friends, Captain N: The Game Master, The Get-Along Gang, Pole Position, Fraggle Rock, The Gummi Bears, Danger Mouse, Inspector Gadget, Mighty Mouse (The New Adventures), Garfield and Friends, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, ReBoot…