Street Fighter III: Third Strike’s Elena has a small animation routine that might look familiar to old folks/Van Halen fans: it’s pretty much frame-for-frame taken from a 1985 David Lee Roth video.
deafidelity noticed it while watching the vid for Just a Gigolo, in which a backup dancer makes almost the exact same moves as Elena’s victory pose. Indeed they’re so close you can argue it was simply rotoscoped.
All video game art, whether it’s character design, environment work or in this case animation, has its inspiration somewhere. And sometimes art can stand as much on its own as it can serve as a tribute to something else.
We see that all the time in video games, just not … for an old David Lee Roth song.
And just in case you needed any further evidence that Street Fighter III was released in the late 90s, some of the game’s tributes date back even further:
also keep in mind that 3s has other references to shit, like batman asying let’s go being used as a sample for when u get enough for super.https://t.co/9PqRBcCbUT
— Good Game (@goodgamesmaybe) September 4, 2018
If you want to read a bit more on Street Fighter III’s animation—it’s one of the most beautiful pixel art games of all time—here’s a cool thread from last year on the process, with some gif examples.
Comments
6 responses to “Street Fighter Animation Dates Back To An 80s Music Video ”
“Old folks”?!?!?
…well, fine. Alright then. It’s time for my semolina anyway…
Bureau of Statistics considers 45 to be mature aged these days, at least when talking about mature aged workers. You only need to have been born in 1973 to hit that mark. Meaning you might have been 12 when Just a Gigolo came out, and considered mature aged today.
Now GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
I remember back in the day listening to Crazy From the Heat and most of the songs were the expected post-Van Halen rockers. Then I got to this track and thinking WTF is he doing. It is still catchy though, and that video. 15 year old me certainly liked it.
I knew I was getting old when I heard some guy describe the 90s as “the old days”.
That was just last week, wasn’t it?
Er it is a standard dance move, and has been for many decades before that video (which I must admit does bring back a lot of memories) came out. Go back and watch a lot of 40’s era Hollywood musicals.
That may be, but the animation lines up perfectly. If it was just coincidence or a different source there’d likely have been more points of difference. I don’t care that they copied the move, but it’s pretty obvious they did.