Bonus Bonus Points: -Liu Kang's rendition of Jeet Kune Do is called “Jun Fan”, a nod to Bruce’s birth name, "Lee Jun Fan". -Reiji apparently does have a one inch punch. -Reiji does a nose flick during one of his combos. -Jam apparently does have dragons. Bonus Fighters: -A lot of people are saying K' is a Bruce Lee homage, but have given me no evidence. He might qualify as an honourable mention like Jacky and Kim Wu. -One of his Shaolin Monks Fatalities is the stomp from Enter the Dragon. -John Talbain apparently counts? -Chin Wo from Eternal Champions has been brought to my attention. He certainly qualifies. -Li Long from SoulCalibur has come up. Honestly, I'm not as familiar with him as Maxi, and I didn't think there'd be much there given how quickly Maxi replaced him, but he's probably worth looking into for a future revisit of this concept. -Billy Wei from Fighters Legacy. Also, UFC isn't a fighting game. It's a sports game. They're not the same. Also, having "fight" in the title doesn't qualify or else Final Fight is a fighting game.
Hon Fu is more of a Jackie Chan homage than Bruce Le really, his hairdo, goofy fighting, matches more to Jackie than Bruce Jacky uses nunchucks in the VF anime, and you can dress him in a tracksuit & bowlcut in VF5FS if that counts Also, Mr.Jones from Rage of Dragons, jeet kune do, flying kicks, tracksuit, yells, i forgot he had one inch or not K' from Kof is also a bruce lee homage, bowl cut, idle stance, his default leather outfit resembles Lee's tracksuit, flying kicks, one inch punch, and he's shirtless in Maximum impact games or artworks
This isn’t about a fighting game, but when I revisited Cowboy Bebop, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Spike Spiegel’s ideals and fighting style was influenced by Bruce Lee. Gotta love subtle homages.🥰
@@eFrog27 Not only that, but in the English dub at least, Spike directly quotes Bruce when training Rocco in some basic fighting techniques on Venus. There's also more than one Bruce Lee advertisment in the background of several episodes, and the pair of Nunchaku that Spike considers buying on the first episode with Ein in it. He even says to the shopkeep "Way of the Dragon model?" So yeah, it ain't exactly subtle lol
@@eFrog27 I mean subtle as in at first glance, you never would’ve guessed Spike pays homage to Bruce Lee. Usually a character would bear at least a little physical resemblance to him.
Goes to show how impactful Bruce Lee was to a ridiculous amount of people. I usually gravitate towards the Bruce Lee clone in a fighting game since it's usually more fun to play as them.
Thats an understatement. If it wasn't for Bruce Lee influence, the fighting game genre would never reach the heights that it has right now. I would go onto say that without Bruce Lee influence, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, mostly any SNK game and even Dragonball Z wouldn't have the popularity it would have now.
Nice touch using Bruce’s entrance music from the ufc games. ALSO Liu Kangs fighting style “Jun Fan” is a play on words for Bruce’s birth name, Lee Jun Fan
People don't realize that Dragon from World Heroes was THE first Bruce Lee clone in fighting games. But yea this seems pretty accurate to me, Jann Lee and Fei Long always seemed the most authentic to Bruce Lee's persona and personality to me.
World Heroes was an awesome and very underrated franchise. It's FAR better than the reputation it got, as it was the game that introduced many 'firsts' to the fighting game genre: the first Bruce Lee homage, first metamorphic/transforming character (Neo Geegus), first series that had auto combos, first game to have ex moves, etc. Truly hoping to see World Heroes make a comeback soon.
Jann Lee deserves his top spot by being the Bruce Lee Clone in a world where Bruce Lee existed, effectively making him an in-universe impersonator. Fun Fact: Jann Lee's mocap animations were preformed by occasional Bruce Lee impersonator Muneki Ebinuma (credited as Ebinuma Lee) who was the planner of Super Double Dragon & Double Dragon Advance. Fun Fact 2: Mr. Jones from Rage of the Dragons (a de-canonized Double Dragon fighter) is a hybrid of Bruce Lee & Jim Kelly. Another one of my favorite homages to Bruce Lee is ironically, the least like him. K' from King Of Fighters uses more practical style of Jeet Kune Do, but there's little connecting him to "Bruce Lee" as a memetic figure. Instead of being another "Bruce Lee Clone" it makes K' stand out as his own character who just so happens to use JKD, like Jacky Bryant.
Liu Kang Is the only Bruce Lee tribute that became a protagonist and eventually evolved into an unique character, therefore Is the best one to me... I hope this becomes a full series, since theres so many fun archtypes to break down, and Snake's one of the best Fighting Game YT content creators, hands down...
He still the only one to be the main hero for a series though. The chosen one trope. None of the Bruce Lee clones are the main central hero character from their series. I also believe that none of the clones have won (in cannon) in any tournaments. Liu Kang won in at least 4 games.
@@ObliviousAdobo Marshall Law isn't a protagonist though. This comment is specifically talking the Bruce Lee archetype being a main character or a main focus. Marshall Law's story has never been the focal point of Tekken, he's just like everyone else. Liu Kang has actually had plot relevance in the main story of MK.
I know of one that wasn't here: Maxi isn't the only Bruce Lee in the Soul Calibur series. Li Long, the original nunchaku user in Soul Edge. Considering Bruce Lee's name in Mandarin was Li Xiao Long, it's clearly a reference.
Reiji from Kakuto Chojin does have a one inch punch in his Chojin moveset, that can be done with his Pak Sao stance. Clair Andrews from Ehrgeiz is also a Bruce Lee homage in terms of moveset, and battle cries. Lastly there's Jon Talbain from Darkstalkers who is basically werewolf Bruce Lee.
I'm so glad to see someone mention such obscure titles as Kakuto Chojin. From the biggest researcher and fan of the game around, too. (i didn't see your username before I commented, but I recognize it from your combo videos and comments on other vids that talk about the game)
@@jurtheorc8117 I was surprised Snake mentioned Kakuto Chojin considering how obscure it is. I'm a Reiji main so I can point out anything about the character. Reiji's Jeet Kune Do is well represented, outside from his weird idle stance. Something people tend to overlook is Trapping, also known as Pak Sao in Wing Chun which Bruce Lee used in his films. Jacky Bryant, and Reiji are the only Bruce Lee clones as far as I know that use trapping as part of their fighting style. Reiji's Pak Sao is more of a offensive stance that can guard break, combo, counter jabs, and if you're using his Chojin moveset can also do a unblockable one inch punch that can set up a combo. It's a pretty cool stance that isn't used in any other fighting game.
There is also one more from tekken too. Lee Chaolan was trained by Marshall Law and Paul Phoenix during his time in the USA, so he naturally shares some Bruce Lee-isms
Ya know I always thought of Maxi as some sort of fusion of Lee and Elvis. This was a pretty entertaining video and I would be down seeing something like this again. Its crazy that Bruce was so impactful that we still see it till this day in a lot of forms. Hell 9 time out of 10 you will see something Bruce like in every fighting game released.
Jann Lee was the best Fighting game Bruce Lee clone by far before they switched his voice actor after DOA4. He might not visually look the most stereotypically Bruce Lee with the haircut and all but his yells/kias are the only ones imo that sounded like they were ripped legitimately from one of Bruce’s films versus an imitation or parody, whoever did the mocap NAILED the way he moves too. From his idle animation, his overall movement and his victory screens. There are MANY VERY spot on nods and relatively accurately recreated moves from significant moments in Bruce’s films. Real ones and Bruce Lee super fans know. Jann Lee might not have the haircut but he has/had ALL of the intrinsics. DOA3 and DOA4 are like peak “they ripped Bruce right out of The Big Boss/Fist of Fury/Way of the Dragon/The Game of Death/Enter the Dragon”.
Fei Long and Liu Kang are my favorites and I would like to see Fei Long fighting with a nunchaku, and hopefully Liu Kang will keep his nunchaku in future games
Bruce Lee is a legend in the world of martial arts. It’s no wonder why so many fighting games made their own versions of him. Granted, it can get repetitive at times. But then again, Bruce was a man who many people wanted to be like.
Hitmonlee is a bruce lee homage in english only he's actually a personification of Taekwon Do and is named after a kickboxer Tadashi Sawamura as he's named in Japan Sawamular much in the same way "Hitmonchan is not a tribute to Jackie Chan but a personification of Boxing and is named Ebiwalar after Hiroyuki Ebihara
The english names made a lot of screwups. For example, they came up with 'Mr. Mime'. They were warned this wouldn't make sense when/if the creatures were given genders and that's precisely what happened.
Jam has dragons. Her flying kick has a fiery outline of a dragon head which gets more defined with each level of the special. Her Bao Saishinshou super also has a follow up depicting an eastern dragon flying past her.
Law has more moves you didnt count. The ball breaker side grab, stomp, headlock kick, new move in tekken 7 -low stance mid kick and forest has a taunt like bruces in tag 2
I don’t remember what it’s called but I’ve played so much Law in my day I remember the input, his down 4,3 which is reminiscent of the low kick high kick Bruce uses on Chuck Norris
One lesser-known Bruce Lee homage is Jon Talbain/Gallon from Capcom’s Darkstalkers series. He likely won’t have as many points to upset the standings much, but he has a surprising number of them to consider. He fights primarily shirtless (destroying his shirt in his transformation at the start of a match). His physique is very Lee-like (especially when reverting to human form although his wolf-form more or less has the same physique). He utilizes nunchaku in his Million Flicker move. Surprisingly he does have dragon references in his Dragon Cannon super, channeling his chi into a fiery blast consisting of a giant fiery dragon head to burn his opponent. He also does the finger wag as either a taunt or a win pose animation. His wolf howl he has in almost all his super moves sounds like Bruce’s signature cry. He wears a traditional Kung-Fu outfit like Bruce wears in the opening of Enter the Dragon (before ripping it to shreds in his transformation). Lastly, reverting back to human form in some win poses gives him a Bruce-like pose. Those are the definitives, but there may be a few more, depending on your point of view: supposedly his fighting style is based on Jeet Kun Do but I haven’t found an official source to verify that. His Dark Force move Mirage Body gives him an after-image effect that COULD be seen as homaging the Fists of Fury hand pose, though it’s a move similar in look and design to Wolverine’s Berserker Charge. His jumping kicks looks very much like the popular flying kick, but they don’t fly straight across like other characters. So that’s at least 7-8 points in Jon Talbain’s favor, making him a surprisingly good and unconventional Bruce Lee homage.
@@garuelx8627 I learned that he was THISCLOSE to being included in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 but cut due to a shortened production schedule courtesy of the 2011 tsunami. Heartbreaking for a Talbain fan, cuz having him and Iron Fist be Kung-Fu teammates would have been amazing. I appreciate Amaterasu having a Talbain alt-costume but it just isn’t the same.
I would say Lee from Tekken is also a bit of a bruce homage, sharing his surname and fighting style. But he was originally law's mirror character in Tekken 1 which explains why he's not made to resemble Bruce but still fight like him. so he's obviously not as direct an homage as Law, but still shares the Bruce Lee roots
If Jackie from Virtua Fighter can be up for consideration, then I feel like K' from the King of Fighters should be too, he canonically uses Jeet Kune Do as his fighting style and uses a one-inch punch and flying kicks and his typical fighting stance appears to be the phone fingers. K' also has a shirtless costume in the KOF Maximum series which is the only way to see his physique outside of how much his jacket is open and the summer wear in KOF All Stars. Also Hon-Fu uses a flying kick in his and Yamazaki's Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 endings so he has one more point. Love the video and would love to see more.
I want to see Fei Long again in Street Fighter 6 I miss him so much since Ultra Street Fighter 4 I want to see the Yellow Jumpsuit from Game of Death Bruce Lee Wears for Fei Long in Street Fighter 6 He was my Favourite Street Fighter Bruce Lee Character since Super Street Fighter 2 The New Challengers and I hope Fei Long will return in Street Fighter 6
I always saw Hon Fu as more of a homage to Jackie Chan than Bruce Lee, since his design looks closer to Chan than Lee, is a police officer ala. Police Story films and similar cop roles Jackie played and has a more comedic flair in his fights.
I would really like to see more videos like this. And about your ranking, I already knew by the title, that Jann Lee would be 1st place. And that only because my father - who was a extremely big Bruce Lee fan - picked Jann Lee as his Main character in DoA3 (yes my father played FGs with me) only because out of one reason: "This is the best version of Jeet Kune Do in a video game"
I love using Bruce Lee homages cause Jun Fan “Bruce” Lee actually inspired me to learn martial arts, it's my way of paying respect to the man who inspired me to work hard on my fists and legs.
I LOVED Bruce Lee as a kid, so watching this video was really cool for me. Plus, you did a really good job producing this! Since you mentioned it, I would really like to see that luchador concept come to fruition as well 👀
You forgot about K' from the KOF series He uses Jeet Kune Do with his flames And he definitely has a one inch punch And it states that Bruce Lee loved Black Leather clothing and sunglasses so I count that as a bonus
I always liked Jacky Bryant's version of Jeet Kune Do. Yeah he's not a Bruce Lee homage exactly but his Jeet Kune Do is fully utilized for his lighting quick and powerful style.
@@orlanzo2621 VF is such an under appreciated series because some of those characters are true fighting game works of art. From Jacky Jeet Kune Do, Akira relentless Bajiquan force, and Gohs "thug" judo style. I hope Sega gives VF6 a budget...if they ever make it 🙏...
@@mikeg4490 Man i absolutely love the series, it's my favorite 3-D fighter of all time and one of my top 3 fighting games period. I fell in love with it when i went to an arcade at the mall and just stumbled across VF1 back in like 1994, my 8 year old mind was blown away by what i saw on the screen, been hooked ever since. We NEED a VF6, hopefully it happens sooner than later. SEGA better go all out on it too and give it the budget and care that it deserves.
I literally never even thought of Hon Fu as a Bruce Clone, I just thought he was a straight Jackie Chan clone with a handful of Bruce-isms thrown in as a reference to Jackie Chan's early Bruceploitation film roles
For bonus points, Marshall Law also has multiple moves with "Dragon" in it (dragon combo, dragon's fire, spinning dragon blow, etc), he has a customized costume in Tekken 5 where he can wear a black mask and a chauffeur hat to make it look like Kato from Green Hornet, Bruce used to work as a waiter and has some restaurant experience the same as Marshall, and I personally believe because he has a son (Forrest Law) who followed in his footsteps just like Bruce's son (Brandon Lee)
I think Marshall Law gets an extra point for having a son who follows in his footsteps similar to Bruce and Brandon. Also you missed Forest’s “Special Throw” in Tag 2 where if you equip the chest scars he has a finisher where he does punches similar to what Bruce did to the one guy in “The Big Boss”. Side Note: I always debated with myself if Long from Bloody Roar was a soft Bruce Lee homage.. I mean, his name literally means Dragon, his running “3” is a Fly Kick and while I don’t think it started until Bloody Roar 3 he does do Bruce Lee’s battle cries, also his outfits in Bloody Roar 1 and 2 were Bruce Lee adjacent. His draw backs though are that he fights in the Kenpo style which almost the exact opposite of Jeet Kun Do, his long hair and he transforms into a freaking tiger lol.
extra bonus point for Jan Lee: he has a punish move (attack to a knocked down foe) called "Enter the Dragon", which is the move Bruce Lee landed on Bob Wall in that movie
@@danoschristianos2062 its not even just like "oh they share similar terms for game play mechanics" no lol. they ARE the same mechanics. its definitely more of a simulation but still, it has a fully developed meta and matchups. I play pretty much only career mode, and tekken mainly, but UFC games are fighters, no cap.
@@Kenlac92 I've never considered them fighting games, nor do the majority of the FGC. When people mention "Fighting games" they never include UFC games. To me they are more of "sports simulations". UFC is a sport and the games are an (obviously) realistic simulation of that sport.
And there’s the fact that Liu Kang’s first game was also a parody of Enter the Dragon. A Shaolin Monk, washed-up rich guy and, (had they gone with their original plan to introduce Jax in MK1 instead of Sonya) a black guy join a martial arts tournament held by the main villain on his private island, that is secretly being used by the villain to fulfill a secret nefarious purpose.
This is the strangest thing. I'm moving in a few days, and was just going through my Bruce Lee collection a bit not even 2 hours ago. What a strange coincidence, though of course a pleasant one. Now to see if this includes Maxi from Soul Calibur.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Long from the Bloody Roar series. He doesn't use Jeet Kune Do but he does the flying kick, and has the high pitched screams.
Marshall Law's movelist alone makes him the best Bruce Lee homage. A great amount of his moves were taken straight from Bruce Lee movies. Also you've mentioned Forest Law's scar customization in Tag 2, but you haven't mentioned the special throw he gets if you use it which feels very Bruce Lee inspired.
I think a video on Native American characters would be cool. I'm struggling to think of any evil NA characters or ones that deviate from the norm. BTW, you showed sumo wrestlers as Natives, but they're all Japanese. Great video, though.
You could certainly do a lot of these, between the wrestler/luchador characters, the female assassins who wear skintight clothing, the female ninja kunoichi, etc. There are a lot of stereotypes.
I would love to see a Fighting Game Archetypes video about luchadores next. With that said, R. Mika doesn't technically count as one but if you include her in the video, I want to see how many points she would earn toward being one.
Great video, I was surprised BlazBlue wasn't covered. "Litchi faye ling" has allot of "Bruce Lee" references. She has the flying kick, she is covered in dragon symbolism clothing, she is Chinese, etc.. oh well can't cover every fighter but still I think she should be added to the list
One aspect of the Bruce Lee homage character that I thought about is the name. When you look at a lot of the characters that are an homage to Bruce Lee they are very often referred to by their first and last name even if that's not common for the game they're in. Think, Fei Long, Jan Lee, Liu Kang, Martial Law all homages to Bruce Lee as we often call actors by their first and last name when we talk about them.
10:51 technically no, the ones who made Breakers and Breakers Revenge is a company called Visco; the thing is that SNK allowed outside companies to develop games for their Neo Geo systems, but they aren't the owners of those IPs.
My father told me about a role that Bruce played that you never see homaged in any way, and that is when he played a telephone repairman. And yeah, I want to see that now.
There is a game called "Shaolin vs Wutang" and it features famous martial artist movie characters, all characters go by style and of course Bruce Lee is also there as "Jeet Kune Do"
