The following post originally appeared on attractmo.de, on August 10, 2012.
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It’s Friday, fairly late in the afternoon on my end. And because the weekend is almost upon us, it’s time to make plans.
And cuz I’m in New York, I plan on checking out the NYC leg of the Street Fighter 25h Anniversary Tournament. Not to complete (I pretty much suck at all fighting games), but to watch.
Though I wish I was in Toronto, to witness Super Street Fire! Was given the heads up, courtesy of Attract Mode’s fine friends in the Great White North, The Hand Eye Society. They (somewhat) explain:
In the style of Street Fighter 2, Super Street Fire pits two opponents against each other for up to three rounds of fiery combat. Wearing specially designed motion sensing gloves, every punch you throw will send a wave of flame towards your opponent. Will your opponent retaliate or succumb to fiery damage? We invite you to come down to Amsterdam Brewery on Saturday, August 11, 2012 to find out.
Yes, it involves punching fire. And yes, YOU can throw the punches. Any questions?
After a decent amount of research, I have yet to understand how this all works. Which is part of the appeal!
UPDATE: Just stumbled across the following, which does shed some light:
What I like best about Super Street Fire is how it reminds me of Tekken Torture Tournament, which I caught way back in 2003.
Basically, two people, head to head via Tekken 3, on a modded PlayStation. One that had electrodes hooked up to both players; get punched in the game, get shocked in real life.
For years there was virtually no info online, other than this lone webpage. Though last year, Eddo Stern, who collaborated on the project, posted this:
I almost participated, but you had to sign a release form that said anyone with any type of heart condition was strongly advised not to walk away. Which I have. So I didn’t play.
