#khushnood butt

[bison2winquote]

Marco Rodriguez, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (SNK)

[jaerockyaoi]

happy anniversary garou: mark of the wolves!! it's been like 4 years now since i got into it :') i love this game sooo much it's very dear to me

^ they didn't know they were gonna be swimming..

[therosiestofrubys]

I need this faceless twink obliterated

[demifiendrsa]

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves｜Marco Rodrigues character trailer

Japanese version

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves will launch in early 2025 for unannounced platforms.

Screenshots

Character overview

Marco Rodrigues, assistant instructor of Kyokugen Karate, will be announced as a playable character in the highly-anticipated fighter FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves. Marco spirited nature has earned him a reputation for being a beast in battle. With his dojo sign stolen by forces unknown, he has no choice but to hone his karate skills elsewhere in the interim—namely, at Yuri’s fitness club. Upon learning of a new KOF tournament on the horizon, Marco steels himself for what lies ahead: an opportunity to spread word about his beloved dojo, a chance to get its sign back, and (of course) a turbulent test of his Kyokugen Karate might.

[devileaterjaek]

Garou: Mark of the Wolves

Attract mode

[hotarufutaba]

planning on making redesigns for the garou guys bc. garou 2 will be real :)

[pinfildiarts]

Khushnood Butt, aka Marco Rodriguez

Collab with Alan Carvalho (Alan.Ilustra on Insta!)

Traditional by Alan Carvalho

Lineart & Colors by Me (Procreate)

[lordmo]

random fighting game stuff I’ve picked up over the years PART 2: WILLIE WILLIAMS

That’s right, it’s been FAR too long since I posted Part 1 (which, if we’re being honest, could barely be considered contiguous at this point) but I felt it was appropriate to post an homage to a man that MOST of you fighting game nerds out there probably appreciate in one form or another, even if you’ve never heard his name.

Namely, this part of my punch-obsessed brain dwells on the topic of THIS man, Karateka “Bear Killer” Willie Williams (on the right):

(image taken from North Carolina’s Roanoke Daily Herald)

The reason that Willie Williams gets an article to himself is that his influence is felt throughout fighting game history to a frankly ridiculous extent. To understand why and how, let’s talk about who Willie Williams is.

Willie Williams (b. 1951) is an American kyokushin karateka who was mostly active in the mid to late ‘70s. He was a formidable and highly-devoted fighter who tried his damndest to follow in the path of legendary Kyokushin Karate founder, Mas Oyama. To this effect, Williams made the pilgrimage to Japan to continue his training, compete with the best and, ultimately, train with Oyama himself. In competition, Williams was dominant enough to earn a spot in the 1975 World Kyokushin Karate Tournament, where he supposedly gave a good performance, but failed to place in the final 8*.

(*note: I believe this might be from the 1984 tournament)

What would make Williams famous, though, was a popular documentary about the tournament itself. World’s Strongest Karate Part 2 (better known in English as Fighting Black Kings) was a film produced and directed by Ikki Kajiwara (author and creator of legendary manga series Ashita no Joe and Tiger Mask) focusing on the lives of several combatants as they trained for the karate world open.

Even though the film was heavily slanted in favor of the Japanese contestants, Willie Williams’ segments became legendary in their own right. In the sparring and fighting clips, Williams towered over his opponents and moved with impressive speed and ferocity for his size. In the training clips, he trained outdoors, preferring the solitude of the wilderness. In his interview segments, Williams discussed his intention to follow in the footsteps of the grandmaster, the legendary “Ox Killer” Mas Oyama, and to this extent he fought a fucking bear.

...  Yeah, sorry for not leading with that.

... This, of course, also being why Willie Williams carries the nickname “Bear Killer”.

After that, Willie Williams continued to train karate and fight in tournaments, eventually getting expelled from the Kyokushin committee for violating Oyama’s rules and accepting a worked (read: predetermined) “Wrestling vs. Karate” match with legendary Japanese pro wrestler, Antonio Inoki.

(image taken without permission from the Kansai Kyokushin Association website)

After retiring for several years, he returned to the Japanese mainstream in 1992 with Akira Maeda’s wildly-popular MMA/Shoot-Style Wrestling (predetermined/cooperative MMA) league, Fighting Network RINGS, which is where this .gif comes from:

... Looking familiar yet?

So, those of you who’ve stuck with me have probably noticed a few things so far! To show you what I mean, here are Jeffry McWild from Virtua Fighter, Zazie Muhaba from Fighter’s History/Karnov’s Revenge, and Marco Rodriguez (Khushnood Butt if you’re naughty) from Garou: Mark of the Wolves:

Besides the obvious visual similarities (in the first two, at least), all three have a very strong connection with nature and have stages set in the wilderness. Rodriguez is also portrayed as a karate pilgrim and devoted student of the Kyokugen (not to be confused with KyokuSHIN, of course. Of course...) school of Karate. Hell, Rodriguez’s stage even came with a bear in the background.

Hey, even Tekken got in on the fun, with Paul Phoenix and his rivalry with Kuma, the bear:

(from the Tekken 2 manual, thanks to @evilcleveroctopus for pointing it out and scanning it in)

Speaking of bears, even lesser-known games like Battle K-Road managed to represent:

(I stole this one from VGMuseum because I was too lazy to fire up MAME and get my own screenshot)

So, to recap, Willie Williams was a tall African-American Karateka, dedicated to finding the true path of karate and living his art to the fullest, and who also loved wilderness and fought a fucking bear. If you love fighting games, chances are… You love Willie Williams, even if you didn’t know it. So, let’s hear it for the Bear Killer! He’s probably as important to Japanese fighting games as Hulk Hogan, just in a less obvious (to western audiences) way.