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"Buriki One: World Grapple Tournament '99 in Tokyo" does not feature the stylish ranged attacks and multiple complex super meters from SNK's other fighting games. Instead, the game offers a deceptively simple idea that calls back to classic fighters like Karate Champ: flicking the stick towards your opponent executes attacks, and 2 buttons control your character spacing with respect to your opponent. On the surface, Buriki One resembles many other 3d fighting games from this era. The quick demise of the Hyper Neo Geo 64 arcade hardware and a cold reception by gamers, all but guaranteed that Buriki One would be remembered as nothing more than a fighting game with average graphics and an odd/gimicky control scheme.
On the contrary, SNK stripped all of the additional elements away that fighters of this era were known for and highlighted only the most essential elements: spacing and strategy. Not unlike Karate Champ and Karateka of old, Buriki One simply asks players to concentrate on managing spacing and when/where to strike. This was not a rejection of modern fighting games, but an attempt to refine the formula by returning to the genre's genesis.
Other games attempted to break away from the established norms of the fighting genre such as Nintendo's Smash Bros., but Buriki One did so without divorcing itself from the core of the fighting genre itself: martial arts.
Despite featuring the return of a character from Art of Fighting, Buriki One is a no ranged ki attacks, all barehanded grapple fighter. Buriki's presentation has more in common with a game holding the K-1 or UFC license rather than the heavily stylized themes that many fighters possessed at the time. That is not to say that Buriki One is without flair or surprises; rather, the game can be a refreshingly original and deep experience for those who have the opportunity to immerse themselves in its gameplay. Do not be satisfied with videos. This one should be experienced firsthand in order to appreciate its pure calculative and reflexive approach to combat.
What are your thoughts on Buriki One? Love it? Hate it? Do you think the franchise should get a 2nd shot?
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