If you want to learn how to play fighting video games like Street Fighter you've come to the right place!

Welcome to 1980s Japan: you are a salaryman coming home from a long day of work, but before you return home, you stop by the cultural haven of the entertainment industry at the time: the arcade. Arcades, and in particular, fighting games, have always been a pillar of Japanese culture and media. From references in pop culture to a vast esports scene surrounding the genre, the modest origin of fighting games in arcades has evolved into a global phenomenon uniting community, competition, and culture all through the unlikely medium of games. Although the genre of fighting games has always been infamous for being a difficult genre of video games due to its seemingly higher levels of execution, in this course, we are aiming to help bring beginners to a mid-level of play with guided assistance to offer the smoothest introduction to the world of fighting games. This class is designed to be an introduction to fighting games, geared towards people with less than 100 hours in the genre. Additionally, we will also explore beyond the game itself, and spend some time focusing on the community, history, and impact of fighting games on Japanese culture. Besides just fighting game skill and knowledge, this course is also designed to serve as a gateway to understanding modern Japanese culture and will offer students a way to interact with Japanese history and even the Japanese language. By the end of this course, you will be more proficient in the fundamentals of a fighting game and be more knowledgeable about the genre overall, on top of having a more informed understanding of how modern-day Japan’s media culture came to be.

Attendance: All in-person meetings on Tuesdays 5 - 6:30 pm and Thursdays 5 - 6:30 pm.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites. Extra experience in gaming would be helpful to have, but not necessary. The only thing you do need is a willingness to learn and fail! The course will not be graded on how well you perform in the game but on your eagerness, commitment to improvement, and effort in the course assignments.

Please fill out this Google Form by Wednesday 1/24 11:59 pm to be considered for this course. If you do not show up to the first meeting, you may be dropped.