To continue celebrating the 80 years old of the “Little Dragon”, let’s find out the best 5 videogame characters based on Bruce Lee. Kung fu, cries and nunchaku are just a few mandatory elements to taken into account, but is it enough to represent the martial art movie star? Let’s see how the most popular fighting games of the moment deal with it.
Jann Lee from Dead or Alive
The “Dragon of DOA” is a declared fan of Bruce Lee. He studied accurately the Jeet Kune Do from his movies and he is a participant of the DOA tournament since its first edition. Jann Lee’s passion for the fights is so strong to challenge the protagonist of the saga Ryu Hayabusa and inspire other fighters to become martial artists like Leifang. Even if the character is based on Bruce Lee, Jann Lee has a quite different personality, so overconfident to seem arrogant and with a tireless desire of getting into trouble. Jann Lee’s Jeet Kune Do is basically imitating Bruce Lee signature moves with an open and large stance that affected his style, resulting to be a little more Kung Fu oriented than the original, but still effective.
Maxi from Soul Calibur
The fighting game Soul Calibur is particularly known for its focus on the weapons techniques, and it is no coincidence that the character who is using the nunchaku pay homage to Bruce Lee. Beyond his fighting styles and cries, Maxi does not recall Bruce Lee at all. He is known as the “Dandy of the South Seas” and there is no evidence of his Asian ethnicity. Despite being in all Soul Calibur‘s titles, his story was never central to the whole plot of the series. Regarding his fighting style, it could be one of the best representation of a nunchaku fighter in the videogames history. The moveset is pretty detailed and varied, the way he used the nunchaku is based on Bruce Lee style, but it is deepen by elaborated combos and free style moves.
Fei Long from Street Fighter
Fei Long is one of the first characters based on Bruce Lee in a fighting game, more specifically in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers of the 1993. Basically the copy of Lee, Fei Long is coming from Hong Kong and he is a star of the martial art movies, who wants to participate to the Street Fighter tournament in order to test his fighting skills. Besides the Street Fighter videogames, Fei Long is represented also in the various animated movies and series of the saga, portrayed as a bit cocky but always with the best intention on heart and ready to help the protagonists Ryu and Ken, in order to defeat the criminal organisation Shadaloo. His fighting style is essentially Bruce Lee’s one, with many signature moves.
Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat
Born as tribute to Bruce Lee, in the years he has develop his own original identity, getting the appearance of the movie star Robin Shou, who portrayed the character in Mortal Kombat movie of the 1995. Like every other character of MK, Liu Kang has a long and complex history, which involves different timelines and original game appearances. Liu Kang is essentially the “Grand Champion” of the Mortal Kombat tournaments, raising up with his friend Kung Lao in a Shaolin Temple and depicted as the chosen one by the god of thunder Raiden, in order to defeat the force of evil. Liu Kang has changed quite a lot during the various game titles, going through various fighting styles like: Jeet Kune Do, Kempo, Shaolin Quan and Choy Li Fut, and many weapons as well like the Chinese Dragon sword, chains and nunchaku. His fighting style in MK11 is a fusion of all the previous styles, with an emphasis on the nunchaku and Jeet Kune Do techniques.
Marshall Law from Tekken
Maybe the most faithful representation of the martial artist movie star Bruce Lee in terms of combat style and aesthetics. Marshall Law is an American Jeet Kune Do instructor of Chinese descent. Always represented having some financial problem with his own dojo and his Chinese restaurant, he usually participates to the Tekken tournaments in order to win the money prize and pay his bills. He was introduced already in the first Tekken tournament and sometimes replaced by his own son Forest, the younger copy of himself. Through the years he gets along with an other popular Tekken‘s character, the judoka Paul Phoenix, who became his best friend and fighting partner, participating as a duo also in other games like the fighting game Urban Reign. Marshall Law more than a Jeet Kune Do fighter is Bruce Lee himself, representing almost every move of his movies with a lot of acrobatics.
Towards the perfection
Even if the best 5 videogame characters based on Bruce Lee are essentially the most striking examples also, the videogame world is plenty of “Little Dragon” mentions. Bruce Lee with his movies inspired and continue to inspire a lot of game producers and his legacy is clearly evident in the development of the videogame fighting system. So Bruce Lee is not only character based, but also officially portrayed, here a few mentions: Bruce Lee (videogame), Bruce Lee Lives, Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon, Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Shaolin VS Wutang series and EA Sports UFC series. The trend of all these homages are getting shockingly closer and closer to the original… How far will videogames go?