All of these are gameplay references, however.
Like, just because you know 'FINISH HIM!!!' 'FATALITY' doesn't mean you have the slightest idea who Liu Kang is, either.
edited 5th Feb '17 8:00:48 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Not necessarily. I've played Street Fighter IV before yet I know basically nothing in regards to the lore.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!Mortal Kombat excepted, fighting games aren't always that accessible in regards to their story. A lot of it takes place in supplemental materials, game manuals, character biographies, etc. rather than in the gameplay itself.
And Mortal Kombat is only a recent exception. They used to be just as bad.
For instance, the Shun Goku Satsu. It's that move Ryu used on Perfect Cell at the end of the video. The screen goes black, a bunch of strikes are seen in the darkness, and then it ends with Akuma/Dark Ryu standing over the defeated body of the foe. IIRC, it's a one-hit kill if it lands.
But what you don't know unless you actually read into the lore is that the reason it's a one-hit kill is that it murders the recipient by unleashing the karmic balance of their sins upon them. It doesn't matter how powerful you are, because the move is powered by your own evil. It's kinda like the Devilmite Beam in that regard.
However, it can be rendered completely ineffective by clearing one's mind of one's burden of guilt. It doesn't work against artificial lifeforms. It can and has been beaten by a regenerator. There are plenty of reasons for Cell to withstand the Shun Goku Satsu and come out victorious.
They used none of these, opting for "LOL CELL WINS JUST 'CAUSE."
edited 5th Feb '17 8:33:31 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
x3 To be fair, it's not something you can easily explain while trying to be funny. Seems like a cute Inside Joke if anything.
Technically, as we saw in Asura's Wrath and the Akuma DLC for Street Fighter V, the Shun Goku Satsu is less that, and more just you pummeling the shit out of your opponent upwards to 30 times as of V; it's just that those blows are also striking your soul as well as your body, so using it is the equivalent of beating the shit out of a person's very soul.
Let's see if you can get past my Beelzemon. Mephiles, WARP SHINKA!The point isn't whether it can be explained but the complete lack of f*cks given about it. It's reduced to a brief visual gag based on role-reversing Cell and Dark Ryu's positions in the special move, because the entire video is a completely shallow parody based purely on gameplay.
In short, there was absolutely no effort put into writing it and it shows, especially in contrast to the YYH and Yu-Gi-Oh clips.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Because if you're making a series parodying the characters, you should know who the characters you're parodying are. Otherwise you end up with flat jokes that don't work.
The lore of SF isn't that obscure. They could've certainly done better than having Ryu talk in nothing but exaggerated catchphrases, for instance.
It's especially noticeable for Team Four Star, because they're known for being the exact opposite of complacent. Heck, the application of obscure tournament rules from over a decade ago was an actual gag in the Yu Gi Oh video.
edited 5th Feb '17 9:56:42 PM by KnownUnknown
I honestly don't think most people would care. Like, stuff like that can be nice little bonus for people who do, but it really shouldn't be the main draw of a little bit like this.
The Yu Yu Hakusho and Yu Gi Oh stuff works whether your intimately familiar with them or not because memes or the point trying to get across is obvious.
Even if I weren't a fan of SF, I would've thought this was a step back.
Again, the big problem with this one is that it's one gag with little other developed humor to back it up - because they don't know what it is they're parodying, so they couldn't back it up with the kind of snappy character humor that they did with YGH and YYH.
The problem is in no way shape or form simply that there aren't any SF lore in-jokes, it's that there isn't much to the short in general and the humor is surprisingly poor for TFS' caliber.
Knowing the lore of SF was introduced as way of fixing that, because it's... well... it really is the most reliable way of fixing it. You don't adequately parody something if you don't bother to put in the legwork to know what it is. Even if the audience doesn't know what it is either. Hell, especially if the audience doesn't know what it is either.
Ironically, it's what keeps a parody from being niche. A good humorist knows what's funny about the source, why the average non-familiar person would find that funny as well, and knows how to introduce the joke to that person. It's one of the reasons why DBZA is so popular.
This, on the other hand, is actually less comprehensible if you know less about Street Fighter, because it's so focused on the surface details and gameplay and not the stuff with substance that if you, say, haven't seen the SGS before you wouldn't understand the final joke at all.
edited 5th Feb '17 10:11:22 PM by KnownUnknown
I think they're reliably funny - this just wasn't one that clicked, for a couple reasons. Hopefully any others they make are better.
Oh God! Natural light!

Got a perfect avatar.
what do you mean I didn't win, I ate more wet t-shirts than anyone else