Remember this?
And this?
How about this?
Well for New York based graphic designer Michael Patrick, the early Street Fighter (especially the introduction of badass female Chun Lee) and Madonna‘s in-your-face gay-is-ok attitude made a lasting impression. So naturally, he’s bringing us Ultimate Gay Fighter.
How about we take this to the next level?
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If you haven’t already guessed, Ultimate Gay Fighter features a cast of all-gay characters, and since Patrick released a trailer for it online it’s generated a fair share of backlash. From the left.
It’s clearly meant to be over-the-top, but some of the stereotypes have struck nerves. Like the black character Shawdee Killah who wields a deadly gold chain in the shape of a noose.
We’ve been hearing a lot about gays and gaming lately, and understand that for Patrick, Ultimate Gay Fighter is an irreverent nod to how he felt as an adolescent finding respite in the gaming world, a place where he could behave unconventionally without any real world consequences — even explore gender nonconformity by playing as female characters.
It’s a nostalgia that’s clearly a thing for grown-up gaymers. Especially the ones who grew up to design games themselves. Like this admittedly hot sex scene from 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins.
The animated fun starts at the 1:40 mark:
Patrick is now shooting for a higher-quality release of his game, using the hullabaloo it sparked as a way of reaching gaming partners with deeper pockets than his own.
And he isn’t going to let a little bad press get in his way. LGBT gaming is “extraordinarily new, and that’s why people are going bananas,” he said. “But it’s not stopping me. This game is going to come out.”
Here’s the trailer:
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Charlie in Charge
I think it’s great to have some fun with stereotypes in a gay ensemble cast and a fighter would be a great place for that but this game takes things to really awful conclusions. A noose necklace on a black character is pretty WTF.
darkorient
I am a big fan of fighting games. I am actually fine with stereotypes but this game looks too raw for me, can’t find the excitement that I usually feel about an upcoming game. I kinda feel guilty for saying this as I love the idea of a gay fighting game, I hope the developer can enhance the game to be better than just a token gay game.