Fun Fact: Tiertex are named that as the previous company that occupied their offices was a ceiling painting company that had gone bankrupt, and they thought it be cheaper to change their company name than to buy a new sign for the front door. (That's Not a joke BTW)
@@rcarfang2 I wouldn't know. I never used him in combat because his glitchyness infects your entire team. His ability to duplicate rare candy and master balls is super useful though!
@@lauriepenner350 I have. his attack stat is 350 , but his other states are : defense 23, special 18, speed 20. So if he attacks first, he can usually ko the other pokemon. but if the opponent pokemon attacks him, he loses a ton of hp due to his low df and low special if hit by a special attack. I use the item duplication for TMs, rare candies, and master balls.
That makes me wonder what other things in that timeline changed. Were those other changes amazing to counter the garbage that was that timeline's SF2? Were those changes so bad that sent that whole timeline into despair? We will never know.
What if that timeline was perfect? A bastion of peace and hope where everyone was prosperous, there's just that one thing.... This is your street fighter II
Games like HKM are why I love early computer gaming so much. Yeah, the game is flamebroiled asscheeks, but I'm endlessly tickled by them just boldly pushing their game as a sequel to Street Fighter. Imagine that happening nowadays, Grove Street Games could shit out "Crime Guy Madness" and say that it's the true GTA 6.
I'd guess it was added when a world tournament was still the explicit (as opposed to implied) plot? I like to think that if this ended up SFII as was originally intended, we'd have Ryu with JAPAN on his pant legs.
We're reaching the point where bad fighting games are ending up on the same tier as Criticom, but never dethroning it. Criticom really had something special to make it the King of Shite, huh?
I feel like everything else that's landed in the top tier is in the same pig sty of awfulness, but had at least SOME kind of redeeming quality. Brutal: Paws of Fury and MK:A were "saved" by their presentation actually being worth talking about. HKM here has a bit of a wild history, some insane ideas, and gets a little bit of leeway because of its release date. Criticom had... absolutely nothing.
You Should See The Masters Fighter (Yes Really), It's a Conversion of a Korean Street Fighter Clone with Sprites Ripped from Street fighter, Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown
I mean we can say "oh the technology just wasn't there" all we want for the Amiga 500, but a year later Turrican was released on the same platform and just. Look it up and see the difference. THE DIFFARANCE
I got excited AS a kid when I found it at a store. The bargain bin price that I could afford with h my pocket money should have given it away... I wasn't a smart kid.
Street Fighter was Capcom's attempt to mix Karate Champ with Yie Ar Kung-Fu, then with Street Fighter 2 they created the game that would define fighting games. Human Killing Machine just wanted to be Street Fighter as viewed by someone who never learned how to do the special moves.
I'm so happy to see Matt make it to the "wonderful" world of computer fighting games for this series - the forbidden door has been opened! lol. Stuff like Tongue of the Fatman, Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport, Popeye 3: Wrestlecrazy, Ultimate Body Blows, Expect No Mercy, Sango Fighter, Battle Beast, Pray for Death, Savage Warriors, X-Tec's Real Fighter... just so many weird & janky games on various computers _begging_ to take on Criticom. _*chef's kiss_
I've covered it a couple of times on my channel in the past. British companies pitching sequels to famous arcade games was not uncommon. A Sequel to Ghosts n Goblins turned into a ThunderCats game when Capcom said no at one point!
Even before I made the request, I made peace with the fact that literally nobody except me and like seven people are going to give a crap about this video 🤣
I can hear the torture in your voice of just having to *talk* about this game, and as sorry as I am, I think I feel the same perverse pleasure you got from playing it. Bold and self-harming choice on the Amiga version too, at least all of the stages and sprites "work" on the Atari ST version 😅 Thanks for that, Matt, and for dealing with my still obvious enthusiasm. That was great!!
I'll also note that the Atari ST was the core development platform for the game, and technically that version looks better than the Amiga one - the Amiga version is a direct and even lazier coded port, which is why the sprites bug out so bad.
@@Sh0tgunJust1ce For sure, especially because later Amiga titles showed that the system was capable of so much better. Sure it was six years later, but Elfmania is a legitimately competent fighter that somehow made a single button work, and it looks *outstanding*.
I had an Atari ST growing up. It came with tons of games, sadly(?) HKM wasn't one them. Outside of one small store that specifically sold Atari ST products, finding other games was hard to come by. I did get a copy of that Strider 2 port though at said aforementioned store. It was one of the few games I was able to afford as much of the other games were priced in the $60-$80 range. Fun fact: My Atari ST stopped working on January 1, 2000. The calendar went from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 1000. Afterwards, the OS just crashed and it wouldn't even turn on. Thanks Y2K.
I'm actually shocked that they used a dog instead of a bear for a Soviet Russian's pet. Tiertex not using that stereotype is surprising, considering the Spanish and Dutch ones that were used.
That's the main reason I'm sad he picked the Amiga version over the Atari ST one. I tried to push it but I honestly think most people from the US/Canada see "Atari" and their brain shuts down with images of Atari 2600 visuals
It's pretty wild to think what could have been for Street Fighter: Final Fight as SF89, HKM as SF2, The Movie: The Game as SF3, Flashback for SF4, and Capcom's early Tekken-esque build for 5, not to mention Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting being spiritual successors.
I'm so thankful you reviewed this trainwreck. I honestly don't think there are any fighting games worse than this one. Dangerous Streets, Catfight or Slaughter Sport are better, which is saying something.
The only other game I can think of that might be a worse attempt is another one I've owned myself, and I'll be surprised if somebody else doesn't request it before I can eventually afford it again... Shadow: War of Succession.
Ah, I realize now that I've actually played a Tiertex game - the immortal "Men in Black: The Series" for the Game Boy Color. It wasn't quite as good as you'd think.
Criticom vs. Human Killing Machine?! Based on my previous watches of Fact Hunt. I think Criticom might ACTUALLY be in danger of losing their throne this episode. Edit: Damn Curve of Time
I'll defend and die on the hill that Street Fighter 1, for its time, was a solid arcade game and judging it by the standards its sequel created is just unfair. I can't defend its ports though. And yeah... HKM is just bizarre in its badness.
I stand with you on that hill. That kind of judgement is so bafflingly inane that it's not even funny. With that typed, I also agree with Anton, here. This game is one that practically hollers for an update, especially considering the undeserved ridicule that it's received, based on the aforementioned judgement, but Capcom just keeps opting to update Street Fighter II. As much as I like that game, it didn't need as many updates as it has gotten, and, hopefully, Ultra will be its last, as its subtitle implies. "The Final Challengers" in that update should have been characters from other games in the series, even some who have never been playable before, like the remainder of the unplayable Street Fighter 1 characters, rather than just alternate versions of two characters already in the roster.
Add one more vote in support of arcade!Street Fighter. It got plenty of my quarters when I was in high school, because I loved it even though I totally sucked at it (my issue, not the game's). Even later arcade fighting games got bad PC/console ports, so judging Street Fighter needs to be done using arcade emulation nowadays and looking at what was/could be done at the time.
Counterpoint: you could say the same thing about id Software's work on first person shooters, being a mix of Pac-Man and Battlezone. Hovertank 3D is a far, far, better game than Street Fighter 1.
God, I know this game! Ashens did a review of it ages ago. When I saw you were playing this I thought to myself, "Welp. Journey's over. He found the worst one." What a terrible old game you've probably never hear of.
Street Fighter 1 on the Amiga actually had a 'secret' two player mode (you had to press 2 - or maybe it was F2 - in the title screen and there was no mention of it either in game or in the manual, I found out by chance months after purchase). Unfortunately iirc Ken was nothing more than a pink Ryu palette swap there.
Fun fact: Kwon can translate to fist in Korean, similar to Ken translates to fist in Japanese. So Kwon was basically Ryu and Ken combined, with a side of kimchi and soju.
I played this back in the day on my Spectrum. Even back then, pretty terrible. Had no idea about its convoluted development history, more interesting than the thing itself!
I realize there are a lot of bad fighting games out there, but Rise Of The Robots still deserves a place in this series. Near the top. A lesser-known one worth covering would be Metal & Lace: Battle Of The Robo Babes.
I didn't come here to be punched in the face, but finding out that Tiertex made that awful Toy Story 2 GBC game just did it. I have so many memories of that game... and suddenly they all make so much sense...
I have a vague memory of a N64 fighting game that was fully 3D, and had either a stat boosting system over time, or had the ability to customize specific moves. I cant for the life remember what it was though.
4:30 - Considering the original arcade/Genesis Strider is my favorite video game of all time, no Matt, I have not forgotten about the existence of Journey Into Darkness. I truly wish I COULD forget it though. *long disgusted sigh*
More great reading on HKM can be found on the Bad Game Hall of Fame, which has tons of other great articles! www.badgamehalloffame.com/human-killing-machine/
What about Rise of Robots, or maybe Rise of the Robots, I think on SNES... Or a PlayStation stinky, Iron Blood. Which maybe Iron and Blood, I seem to recall seeing both titles on that one. May be called something else, honestly.
This video was done multiple times and you take on it is the worst one. Here is one on this game from 7 years ago ua-cam.com/video/5zUkK14bHDk/v-deo.html ... You're not funny or interesting or even original.
Money!, they did a copy of their own port of SF 1, and somehow they thought 'yes they will allow it to have the official name' because they got scot free on the first game.
Considering the quality of ports back then, and the fact they added one new element that no one else would seriously add in until Tekken, I can understand their hubris.
One thing you didn't mention on Capcom's rejection of HKM being Street Fighter's sequel: They were already working on a sequel to Street Fighter. Now, those that are aware may be saying "Street Fighter II hadn't began development yet." I didn't say Street Fighter II, I said a sequel to Street Fighter. This was going to be Street Fighter '89; that sequel became Final Fight.
I'd like to nominate CatFight as the next worst fighting game to look at. This game is so horrific it makes Tattoo Assassin's look like Mortal Kombat 2.
What a nice name for a dog: Shepski. Short, simple, silly and yet vaguely cool. Definitely would call a dog that. I wouldn't take him to Street Fights though, worry not!
@@grindsmore By that, you mean the port known as "Slaughter Sport" or the original game for the PC? Because I remember seeing that the original has the same "WTF madness" energy that this game has, whereas the Genesis version is just a pile of pure garbage with very little of the bizarre wackiness.
Honestly, Tiertex (the people behind HKM) is just the British equivalent of those game developers that if you purchase one of their games, you know you are 100% garunteed for a bad time.
@@Talessaga2 Eh, say what you will about LJN's publishing acumen, at least they didn't develop the games in question, and they DID have the sense to put out Maximum Carnage and True Lies, among an admittedly-few other okay-to-good games.
Still find it interesting that Tattoo Assassins is in the opening of this series, but I don't think it's been covered yet. Interested to see where that falls on the list. Unless I'm stupid and forgot!
Other bad fighting games you might want to cover: - Dangerous Streets - Body Blows - X-Men (Hyperscan exclusive) - Shadow: War of Succession - Catfight - Heavy Nova
I like how this title, "Human Killing Machine" could normally be interpreted two ways. Either as a machine for killing humans or a killing machine that is human but because he fights bulls and shit it forces the second one.
So schadenfreude essentially effects the true awfulness of a given game. It's either just the worst, or so bad the aftermath of the trainwreck is just funny.
So when ARE you going to do Tattoo Assassins? I am waiting for your video to find out whether the tattoos assassinate people or it's just assassins with tattoos.
While HKM is a terrible game, some of the visual glitches shown on your video are result of emulation settings not being fully compatible with the game. You need to set your kickstart to 1.2 and run the Amiga with 512k RAM for it to run properly. When it’s working properly, you’ll get to see the boss in his entire glory, literally all 6 frames of animation for him! Looking forward to your continuation of this series, and hoping that Bikini Karate Babes 1 & 2 on the PC get featured.
Spoken of in hushed tones in only the smokiest dimly lit FGC circles... like you open the wrong door and its "This is HKM, Dewey Cox, you don't want none of this shit!"
Not the worst fighting game??? I'm sure it must be! Every display shown is of a bad knock off with broken gameplay with combat set within a rigid box screen (aka no scrolling) Oh I get it. You don't want the journey to end. This has become a trek of curiosity, even when you have a game that says 'Your search is over, for I am the worst!' you wish to keep searching. Deny all you want, but your journey will end one day, even you must accept this! (and other such dramatic rambling)
"What's wrong with your face??" - was that.... was that Mr. Regular? Either way, I love this video series, Matt. Keeps getting better/worse and I'm here for it.
The worst part is not including special moves. That’s the good part about SF 1. Actually hitting a shoryuken on that one guy that jumps around like the floor is lava
Most fun thing with home ports especially for Amiga 500 was that if a game was made by taito the port was often really good as seen with Rainbow island, new zeeland story and such. Games from capcom and sega was a real gamble tough with odds stacked against the player.
those messed-up sprites remind me of an very old Apple game i had...if i remember, it was called "swashbuckler". your character stands in the middle of a ship and fights various enemies on both sides. (at the same time) one pose of the main character was glitched.
Holy cow, at the tiertex reel at the end I saw a game I played on stream! I started the quest to play every single GBA title that released, and since I was doing them in alphabetical order Ace Lightning came pretty early. It's one of the worst gaming experience of my life, I can't even start to describe how broken bad and plain unfun the game was. Thanks for the flashback Matt!
Fun Fact: Tiertex are named that as the previous company that occupied their offices was a ceiling painting company that had gone bankrupt, and they thought it be cheaper to change their company name than to buy a new sign for the front door. (That's Not a joke BTW)
dang that means they put more effort into that than they did into this game
Obligatory “Hello you!”
That explains so much about this company's corporate ethos...
Par for the course, really.
Larry knows absolutely everything about games
When US Gold and Tiertex said they were gonna make their own Street Fighter II with blackjack and hookers... they sure werent kidding
They also weren't joking about the "In fact, forget the Street Fighter!" part.
And instead of blackjack and hookers they had crack and booze.
Franz holding a tray with wine the entire time has the same energy as Answer from Guilty Gear being on the phone for the entire battle.
That glitched-out last fighter though. It's like if Missingno was the canon final boss of Pokemon.
Good thing too. Missing No. is a Glass Cannon, highest attack but the worst df and worst hp. He has two water guns though XD
@@rcarfang2 I wouldn't know. I never used him in combat because his glitchyness infects your entire team. His ability to duplicate rare candy and master balls is super useful though!
@@lauriepenner350 I have. his attack stat is 350 , but his other states are : defense 23, special 18, speed 20. So if he attacks first, he can usually ko the other pokemon. but if the opponent pokemon attacks him, he loses a ton of hp due to his low df and low special if hit by a special attack. I use the item duplication for TMs, rare candies, and master balls.
@@rcarfang2So pretty much if a Pokémon has a higher speed stat, then MissingNo will likely just die in one-two hits?
@@brawler5760iirc it's base defense stat is literally 0, so yeah.
The lack of a two player mode means we were all robbed of a dream Dog v Bull match.
What if they stopped fighting and got together? Then we would have a bulldog.
@@deathsyth8888 don't make me imagine them doing a DBZ fusion dance
@@karotconcarne3325 The fusion be like: * Bull body with a dog face with bull horns and has claws and paws *
So in some even more cursed alternate timeline, *THIS* was Street Fighter II...
I...can't come up with the words...
That makes me wonder what other things in that timeline changed. Were those other changes amazing to counter the garbage that was that timeline's SF2? Were those changes so bad that sent that whole timeline into despair? We will never know.
I'd want to imagine that at least Strider is still an active series in that timeline.
What if that timeline was perfect? A bastion of peace and hope where everyone was prosperous, there's just that one thing....
This is your street fighter II
I'm just imagining that timeline has a movie release as well.
@@worldofthought8352 Tim Curry as Helga.
Legit surprised Matt didn't make a Rocky Horror joke.
Games like HKM are why I love early computer gaming so much. Yeah, the game is flamebroiled asscheeks, but I'm endlessly tickled by them just boldly pushing their game as a sequel to Street Fighter. Imagine that happening nowadays, Grove Street Games could shit out "Crime Guy Madness" and say that it's the true GTA 6.
Back 4 Blood says hello
@@MizunoKetsuban shout-outs to crowbcat
Crime Guy Madness 🤣
Stealy Wheely Automobiley
@@MizunoKetsuban Outer Worlds, too
Are we not going to talk about how the protagonist wrote the name of his country on his leg just in case he forgot?
I'd guess it was added when a world tournament was still the explicit (as opposed to implied) plot?
I like to think that if this ended up SFII as was originally intended, we'd have Ryu with JAPAN on his pant legs.
I'm so glad Heavy Weapons Guy managed to get himself cleaned up and get his act together by the time Team Fortress 2 came out.
Can't blame him, getting your ass kicked by a washed up drunk who knows the art of deadly combat is humiliating.
he had plenty of time lolol, what a great character
@@foughtthelol He just needed to find his true love. Then the rest followed naturally.
@@aweirdredtoad3637 Yes.
And now he's getting blown up by washed up drunk who's also a demolitions expert.
This was before he discovered the importance of Pootis.
Kwon's face tells me he doesn't have the faintest of what's happening nor what he is doing.
We're reaching the point where bad fighting games are ending up on the same tier as Criticom, but never dethroning it. Criticom really had something special to make it the King of Shite, huh?
It's hard to state just how awful Criticom is.
I feel like everything else that's landed in the top tier is in the same pig sty of awfulness, but had at least SOME kind of redeeming quality. Brutal: Paws of Fury and MK:A were "saved" by their presentation actually being worth talking about. HKM here has a bit of a wild history, some insane ideas, and gets a little bit of leeway because of its release date.
Criticom had... absolutely nothing.
You Should See The Masters Fighter (Yes Really), It's a Conversion of a Korean Street Fighter Clone with Sprites Ripped from Street fighter, Fatal Fury and Samurai Showdown
Shadow: War of Succession for the 3DO could easily dethrone it.
I mean we can say "oh the technology just wasn't there" all we want for the Amiga 500, but a year later Turrican was released on the same platform and just. Look it up and see the difference. THE DIFFARANCE
Still one of the greatest game series ever made.
I feel sorry for kid that got this from their parents instead of street fighter. "We got street fighter at home" type energy
I got excited AS a kid when I found it at a store. The bargain bin price that I could afford with h my pocket money should have given it away... I wasn't a smart kid.
@@tolindaniel lol thats a shame. To be fair we don't make the best choices as kids
@@fefyfona4318 Hey at least it led to this video... ? Gotta make light of it somehow
Lol.
street fighter wasn't very good itself
Street Fighter was Capcom's attempt to mix Karate Champ with Yie Ar Kung-Fu, then with Street Fighter 2 they created the game that would define fighting games. Human Killing Machine just wanted to be Street Fighter as viewed by someone who never learned how to do the special moves.
Ah yes, "Kwon's Bizarre Adventure" complete with buff ladies and animal abuse.
Still vividly remember seeing Ashen's cover this in 2007... *Has it really been 14 years??*
This year it’ll be 15
The final words on that video "a fitting punishment" still live rent-free on my head to this day
Good old Ashens. He’s one of the few OG’s left.
Time flies...
*withers into dust*
I'm so happy to see Matt make it to the "wonderful" world of computer fighting games for this series - the forbidden door has been opened! lol. Stuff like Tongue of the Fatman, Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport, Popeye 3: Wrestlecrazy, Ultimate Body Blows, Expect No Mercy, Sango Fighter, Battle Beast, Pray for Death, Savage Warriors, X-Tec's Real Fighter... just so many weird & janky games on various computers _begging_ to take on Criticom. _*chef's kiss_
Wait, so is it a human who is a killing machine, a machine that kills humans, or a human who is killing a machine?
Yes
Pepsi
Coca cola
dr pepper
The world may never know or care.
8:40 I was thinking it looks like a King of the Hill parody of Street fighter.
That boy can't fight.
@@Stevie-J Pro*PAIN!*
I honestly never once heard of HKM before this. Not knowing this existed, I had no way of knowing how lucky that made me.
I've covered it a couple of times on my channel in the past. British companies pitching sequels to famous arcade games was not uncommon. A Sequel to Ghosts n Goblins turned into a ThunderCats game when Capcom said no at one point!
This person is cool and wants to save time That's why he calls it HKM
Wow, what a terrible old game that people probably haven't heard of.
Even before I made the request, I made peace with the fact that literally nobody except me and like seven people are going to give a crap about this video 🤣
Doot doot. Doot doot. Doot doot. HELLO!
Six more to go.
I am number 5
Fourth, and first learned of it through Ashens so very, very long ago. lol
Props for redoing "Ren's these hands". From Ren and Stimpy
I remember Ashens reviewing this back in the day. Also I can't say I've ever heard anyone say "son of a snake" outside of the 1993 Mario movie.
I can hear the torture in your voice of just having to *talk* about this game, and as sorry as I am, I think I feel the same perverse pleasure you got from playing it. Bold and self-harming choice on the Amiga version too, at least all of the stages and sprites "work" on the Atari ST version 😅
Thanks for that, Matt, and for dealing with my still obvious enthusiasm. That was great!!
I'll also note that the Atari ST was the core development platform for the game, and technically that version looks better than the Amiga one - the Amiga version is a direct and even lazier coded port, which is why the sprites bug out so bad.
i had this game as a kid and thought it was good, however I had never played sf2 at this point
I was requesting this game for a long time, really thankful you requested it too. Honestly, I don't think there's anything worse that I know of.
@@Sh0tgunJust1ce For sure, especially because later Amiga titles showed that the system was capable of so much better. Sure it was six years later, but Elfmania is a legitimately competent fighter that somehow made a single button work, and it looks *outstanding*.
I had an Atari ST growing up. It came with tons of games, sadly(?) HKM wasn't one them. Outside of one small store that specifically sold Atari ST products, finding other games was hard to come by. I did get a copy of that Strider 2 port though at said aforementioned store. It was one of the few games I was able to afford as much of the other games were priced in the $60-$80 range.
Fun fact: My Atari ST stopped working on January 1, 2000. The calendar went from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 1000. Afterwards, the OS just crashed and it wouldn't even turn on. Thanks Y2K.
I'm actually shocked that they used a dog instead of a bear for a Soviet Russian's pet. Tiertex not using that stereotype is surprising, considering the Spanish and Dutch ones that were used.
I guess they couldn't resist the pun with the dog's name.
I was going to say the Battle Theme seems like pretty solid synthwave to me, but oooof, no I couldn't tolerate it being the only track in a game.
Yeah, it's kinda a banger, but would be grating after a half hour tops
Shout out to Merkava's 7 frames of existing.
6 frames. Why did I think he had 7?
That's the main reason I'm sad he picked the Amiga version over the Atari ST one. I tried to push it but I honestly think most people from the US/Canada see "Atari" and their brain shuts down with images of Atari 2600 visuals
Ashens introduced me to this game ages ago ^-^ and it's story deserves to be told. Thank you Teirtex
It's pretty wild to think what could have been for Street Fighter: Final Fight as SF89, HKM as SF2, The Movie: The Game as SF3, Flashback for SF4, and Capcom's early Tekken-esque build for 5, not to mention Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting being spiritual successors.
Only one of those i didn't know about is Flashback. I just googled what it was, thanks for the info!
O.K. we're in pre-SFII territory: now we wait for the Tongue of the Fatman episode.
I'm so thankful you reviewed this trainwreck. I honestly don't think there are any fighting games worse than this one. Dangerous Streets, Catfight or Slaughter Sport are better, which is saying something.
The only other game I can think of that might be a worse attempt is another one I've owned myself, and I'll be surprised if somebody else doesn't request it before I can eventually afford it again... Shadow: War of Succession.
@@tolindaniel Shadow War of Succession is hilarious and incompetent, but I think it's probably better than HKM.
I dunno, it legit made people angry to play in my old weekly fighter group when we tried it 🤣
Expect No Mercy: "I HAVE SEEN THE AMATEUR-"
This being Street Fighter 2....now that is a universe I'm glad we aren't in!
We must be grateful to be born in the correct timeline God intended us to be in.
Ah, I realize now that I've actually played a Tiertex game - the immortal "Men in Black: The Series" for the Game Boy Color. It wasn't quite as good as you'd think.
Tiertex are like one of the most infamous game developers of the 90's, they just didn't give a shit most of the time.
Its a licensed game for a handheld console, I'd be more surprised if it turned out good.
@@travisjordan3853 And it plumbs new depths beneath even those expectations, hence the joke.
Criticom vs. Human Killing Machine?!
Based on my previous watches of Fact Hunt. I think Criticom might ACTUALLY be in danger of losing their throne this episode.
Edit: Damn Curve of Time
I honestly think it didn't make it because Matt just found the game too old and obscure. HKM just wasn't interesting enough 🤣
I'll defend and die on the hill that Street Fighter 1, for its time, was a solid arcade game and judging it by the standards its sequel created is just unfair.
I can't defend its ports though. And yeah... HKM is just bizarre in its badness.
i still find it funny all the updates to sf2 but none for the sf game that could have used a update the most
I stand with you on that hill. That kind of judgement is so bafflingly inane that it's not even funny.
With that typed, I also agree with Anton, here. This game is one that practically hollers for an update, especially considering the undeserved ridicule that it's received, based on the aforementioned judgement, but Capcom just keeps opting to update Street Fighter II. As much as I like that game, it didn't need as many updates as it has gotten, and, hopefully, Ultra will be its last, as its subtitle implies. "The Final Challengers" in that update should have been characters from other games in the series, even some who have never been playable before, like the remainder of the unplayable Street Fighter 1 characters, rather than just alternate versions of two characters already in the roster.
Add one more vote in support of arcade!Street Fighter. It got plenty of my quarters when I was in high school, because I loved it even though I totally sucked at it (my issue, not the game's). Even later arcade fighting games got bad PC/console ports, so judging Street Fighter needs to be done using arcade emulation nowadays and looking at what was/could be done at the time.
Bold take.
Counterpoint: you could say the same thing about id Software's work on first person shooters, being a mix of Pac-Man and Battlezone.
Hovertank 3D is a far, far, better game than Street Fighter 1.
To quote Ashens, "KWON IS CRAP
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH"
...Still waiting on Fight for Life.
I remember owning HKM on my ZX Spectrum and buying it as it was advertised as Street Fighter 2. My god HKM sucked so badly.
God, I know this game! Ashens did a review of it ages ago. When I saw you were playing this I thought to myself, "Welp. Journey's over. He found the worst one."
What a terrible old game you've probably never hear of.
18:34 A fitting punishment.
Street Fighter 1 on the Amiga actually had a 'secret' two player mode (you had to press 2 - or maybe it was F2 - in the title screen and there was no mention of it either in game or in the manual, I found out by chance months after purchase). Unfortunately iirc Ken was nothing more than a pink Ryu palette swap there.
Fun fact: Kwon can translate to fist in Korean, similar to Ken translates to fist in Japanese. So Kwon was basically Ryu and Ken combined, with a side of kimchi and soju.
Seing Kwon yell "Wow!" To the main antag is one of the more subtle hilaraties of this shite-show😃
First Thoughts: This looks as bad as the DOS version of Street Fighter that I bought back in the day.
Two Minutes Later: Oh.
I played this back in the day on my Spectrum. Even back then, pretty terrible.
Had no idea about its convoluted development history, more interesting than the thing itself!
If US Gold had released "home-computer Street Fighter 2", Fatal Fury could've easily won over that piece of crap
I realize there are a lot of bad fighting games out there, but Rise Of The Robots still deserves a place in this series. Near the top.
A lesser-known one worth covering would be Metal & Lace: Battle Of The Robo Babes.
Rise Of The Robots - yes 100%
WELL HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU
@@megahedgehog2039 Haha, yep. Saw that.
I didn't come here to be punched in the face, but finding out that Tiertex made that awful Toy Story 2 GBC game just did it. I have so many memories of that game... and suddenly they all make so much sense...
I have a vague memory of a N64 fighting game that was fully 3D, and had either a stat boosting system over time, or had the ability to customize specific moves. I cant for the life remember what it was though.
Sounds like Deadly Arts?
@@MattMcMuscles correct
Fighter’s destiny
@@MattMcMuscles this is it! Thanks!
Could also be Flying Dragon.
N64 had quite a few fighting games like that
4:30 - Considering the original arcade/Genesis Strider is my favorite video game of all time, no Matt, I have not forgotten about the existence of Journey Into Darkness. I truly wish I COULD forget it though.
*long disgusted sigh*
More great reading on HKM can be found on the Bad Game Hall of Fame, which has tons of other great articles! www.badgamehalloffame.com/human-killing-machine/
You must check out "Fight Fever". Is the worst fighting game for the Neo Geo!
Worth reading for the strategy guide alone.
What about Rise of Robots, or maybe Rise of the Robots, I think on SNES... Or a PlayStation stinky, Iron Blood. Which maybe Iron and Blood, I seem to recall seeing both titles on that one. May be called something else, honestly.
@@Rooktimes2 Rise of the robots. With Brian may ost. It gave me headache with just one session.
This video was done multiple times and you take on it is the worst one. Here is one on this game from 7 years ago ua-cam.com/video/5zUkK14bHDk/v-deo.html ... You're not funny or interesting or even original.
Oh dear, this is just bafflingly terrible! How! How could those people ever think that THIS deseerved to be Street Fighter II?!?! HOW!?!?
Money!, they did a copy of their own port of SF 1, and somehow they thought 'yes they will allow it to have the official name' because they got scot free on the first game.
Considering the quality of ports back then, and the fact they added one new element that no one else would seriously add in until Tekken, I can understand their hubris.
@@mindwarp42 Yeah, I mean if they had capcom still let them pull that shit, and it sold, they likely felt confident
One thing you didn't mention on Capcom's rejection of HKM being Street Fighter's sequel: They were already working on a sequel to Street Fighter.
Now, those that are aware may be saying "Street Fighter II hadn't began development yet."
I didn't say Street Fighter II, I said a sequel to Street Fighter. This was going to be Street Fighter '89; that sequel became Final Fight.
I noticed there was a "blink and you'll miss it" visual note about it, at least.
That feeling when I only know of this game due to Ashens back in the day
Okay, that's downright SPOOKY -- I saw someone post an old magazine ad for this earlier today, well before this went up.
Terrible old game I heard just once before. The great internet C-t, Ashen.
I'd like to nominate CatFight as the next worst fighting game to look at. This game is so horrific it makes Tattoo Assassin's look like Mortal Kombat 2.
Tattoo Assassins is ironically amazing
Oof, this game. I first learned of this one from Ashens YEARS ago
What a nice name for a dog: Shepski. Short, simple, silly and yet vaguely cool. Definitely would call a dog that. I wouldn't take him to Street Fights though, worry not!
My god. If this game can't dethrone criticom, I'm having a hard time imagining what can.
@@grindsmore By that, you mean the port known as "Slaughter Sport" or the original game for the PC? Because I remember seeing that the original has the same "WTF madness" energy that this game has, whereas the Genesis version is just a pile of pure garbage with very little of the bizarre wackiness.
I still think Rise of the Robots can take it.
Battle of the Eras.
This game is realy nostalgic to me. Not because of the game itself, but because of the Dr. Ashens video about it.
Honestly, Tiertex (the people behind HKM) is just the British equivalent of those game developers that if you purchase one of their games, you know you are 100% garunteed for a bad time.
so British LJN?
@@Talessaga2 nah, Tiertex is worse!
@@Talessaga2 LJN actually *tried*.
@@Talessaga2 Eh, say what you will about LJN's publishing acumen, at least they didn't develop the games in question, and they DID have the sense to put out Maximum Carnage and True Lies, among an admittedly-few other okay-to-good games.
@@YukaTakeuchiFan Guess you have a point and i did a unfair comparation.
That hand animation was really rad. Really upping the presentation game.
You might say it was... Dirty.
Capcom saw the enemy health regen and used it for inspiration making Seth in sf4
Of course Ultima slips a Pikamee cameo into this video. 😁
Well this is unfortunate.
I have been waiting for this series to return for ages.
Why does the final boss of HKM look like Heavy from Team Fortress 2?
14 years ago Ashens did a video about it. 14 years.
I still have this for the Amstrad cpc. Don't think I will ever play it again somehow.
Man, it's amazing looking at the fluid frame of animation for that bull.
...no, I didn't leave off a letter.
I forgot what this game was called and only remember the name of the protagonist (Kwon but I misspelled it as Quon) and Stewart Ashens’ review of it.
Still find it interesting that Tattoo Assassins is in the opening of this series, but I don't think it's been covered yet. Interested to see where that falls on the list.
Unless I'm stupid and forgot!
It hasn't appeared yet.
Other bad fighting games you might want to cover:
- Dangerous Streets
- Body Blows
- X-Men (Hyperscan exclusive)
- Shadow: War of Succession
- Catfight
- Heavy Nova
Dangerous Streets could easily dethrone Criticom, so it needs to be part of this series.
@ 8:58, "What da' dog doin'?" This never gets old!!! I can't stop laughing on how this was said! LEGENDARY! 🤣🤣💀💀
Ah, brings me back to yee ole Ashens classics.
This is undoubtedly the worst one you've played yet and I know that because I've played it before.
Worse than Criticom?
@@7Jstamper Absolutely. Criticom at least has *one* interesting thing about it which is the character intros. Also it at least has two players.
I like how this title, "Human Killing Machine" could normally be interpreted two ways. Either as a machine for killing humans or a killing machine that is human but because he fights bulls and shit it forces the second one.
So schadenfreude essentially effects the true awfulness of a given game. It's either just the worst, or so bad the aftermath of the trainwreck is just funny.
Why does Miguel's idle stance look like he just finished a pelvic thrust in your general direction?
So when ARE you going to do Tattoo Assassins? I am waiting for your video to find out whether the tattoos assassinate people or it's just assassins with tattoos.
While HKM is a terrible game, some of the visual glitches shown on your video are result of emulation settings not being fully compatible with the game. You need to set your kickstart to 1.2 and run the Amiga with 512k RAM for it to run properly. When it’s working properly, you’ll get to see the boss in his entire glory, literally all 6 frames of animation for him!
Looking forward to your continuation of this series, and hoping that Bikini Karate Babes 1 & 2 on the PC get featured.
I always thought the marketing for HKM was showing the final boss: Merkeva.
It's interesting how this is possibly the first fighting game to have animal characters and a butler fighter. It's a much worse and earlier Tekken.
Cool video. What's the song used in the outro? I can only find 2 other versions of Ryu's SF2 theme with lyrics
Spoken of in hushed tones in only the smokiest dimly lit FGC circles... like you open the wrong door and its "This is HKM, Dewey Cox, you don't want none of this shit!"
HA! Merkeva looks like Jason Statham if he dressed like Rambo.
They are going to make a NFT smash ripp off and characters seems to have no animation at all, wondering when are we going to see it in this segment.
The "US Gold" logo superimposed over the "Why are you closed?!?!" guy's head killed me, had to replay that little bit a few times.
Not the worst fighting game???
I'm sure it must be! Every display shown is of a bad knock off with broken gameplay with combat set within a rigid box screen (aka no scrolling)
Oh I get it.
You don't want the journey to end.
This has become a trek of curiosity, even when you have a game that says 'Your search is over, for I am the worst!' you wish to keep searching.
Deny all you want, but your journey will end one day, even you must accept this! (and other such dramatic rambling)
"What's wrong with your face??" - was that.... was that Mr. Regular? Either way, I love this video series, Matt. Keeps getting better/worse and I'm here for it.
Oh wow I remember this! Or rather I remember Ashens doing a video about this ages ago.
10:40 "you can tell who are enemy is by the last level in a video game" - Patrice O'Neal
According to Human Killing Machine , In the Netherlands, you don't have sex with prostitutes, you beat them up. OOF!
The worst part is not including special moves. That’s the good part about SF 1. Actually hitting a shoryuken on that one guy that jumps around like the floor is lava
Most fun thing with home ports especially for Amiga 500 was that if a game was made by taito the port was often really good as seen with Rainbow island, new zeeland story and such. Games from capcom and sega was a real gamble tough with odds stacked against the player.
2:29 Never thought I'd see a VTuber cameo in a Matt McMuscles video. Long Live Pikamee Dayo!
RIP Comrade Shepski.
EDIT: I just noticed that Tiertex misspelled "Hanna" in the Hanna-Barbera copyright. Kind of a small tell about their standards.
As a native Brit I'm here to tell you, Matt, that your British accent was absolutely phenomenal.
4:26 for those who might have FORGOTTEN! I see what you did there.
Oh dang I missed that, what a great and amazingly obscure reference that Ultima snuck in there. Forgotten Worlds is dope.
those messed-up sprites remind me of an very old Apple game i had...if i remember, it was called "swashbuckler".
your character stands in the middle of a ship and fights various enemies on both sides. (at the same time)
one pose of the main character was glitched.
Holy cow, at the tiertex reel at the end I saw a game I played on stream! I started the quest to play every single GBA title that released, and since I was doing them in alphabetical order Ace Lightning came pretty early. It's one of the worst gaming experience of my life, I can't even start to describe how broken bad and plain unfun the game was.
Thanks for the flashback Matt!