Bang the Machine

I dunno whether to place this in the evo thread or here. So anyway, they showed Bang the Machine at evo, and here’s my two cents.

I thought the documentary, while entertaining for people who are already part of the scene, is not very accessible to outsiders who don’t know about fighting games. For example, it starts off with Mr Wizard taking the bus to the arcade. It doesn’t explain who Mr Wizard is, or that he is actually going to the arcade (it shows some people playing mini golf before cutting to someone else’s house). A lot of the time, it will show people talking, but have no explanation who these people are. Only someone who played fighting games would be able to follow what was going on. A narrator would have helped here.

King of Kong, Fist full of quarters, is another competitive gaming documentary, that talks about the scene for classic arcade games. It focuses on a Donkey Kong rivalry. I thought it did a great job of showing what they were all about, how intense and serious it was, and later on, in the scene where the protagonist is crying, the audience feels empathy. No one would ask “why the fuck is this guy crying” because at that point they’d understand it was about way more than just a game. Imo, a documentary about gaming should show a layperson that has never gamed before that its more than just some childish video game. Bang the Machine did kind of mention the 1 on 1 direct competition aspect of street fighter that was completely different from previous types of games, but it didn’t go deep enough into it. Maybe if they had S-kill narrate some of his passages from his Domination 101 series articles (I’m thinking of this one in particular)

I don’t think Bang the Machine accomplished this nearly as well as King of Kong did. I thought the scene between Mike Watson and Eddie Lee was intense, but the audience at that point (if they didnt follow fighting games), would not have had the kind of emotional investment they would have had with the protagonist in King of kong.

It also didn’t show very many of the matches. King of Kong showed just enough of the difficult parts of Donkey Kong (and explained very well why it was difficult) to be effective. I thought the documentary could have benefited greatly from more match footage. It captured the facial expressions and intensity of the players well, but I wish it had shown what was going on as well.

anyway, discuss.

I wasn’t at evo so I didn’t get to see it but while you were cockblocking airthrow at hooters I was here at DSP’s backyard

For the record I can dp on stick jie and got witnesses:rofl:

Bet you still can’t pick O.Sagat.

I thought that video didn’t exist

The Evo directors have a print of it, and they show it at each Evo (with a couple of exceptions).

Will it ever has a public release?

Petition? http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?p=5435843&posted=1#post5435843

As for the comparisons of the documentary’s I’m closer to the fighting game community because of the players that I live with and know like Justin Wong, Sanford, Xecutioner, Matrix, Ricky, Yipes, Erik, Dark Geese and more. Although I’m more related to the KOK games because those are the games that I play competitively, ultimately games are a medium that connects us to other people and because of that I go with Bang the Machine. KOK is “VERY ClOSE” 2nd though and because of KOK I now know Walter, Billy, Todd Rogers, Brian Kuh and more. Perhaps in time I will get to know them more than the FGC and then my decision will change. We’ll see in the future.