Old-School Fighting Games: Martial Masters

This Taiwanese fighting game is inspired by Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China film franchise.

If you’re into old-school Kung-Fu action flicks, you may have watched Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China film series (in which Jet Li played Wong Fei-Hung in four of the six films). Can you envision the story being adapted into a video game, let alone a fighting game title? If you can, then look no further than Martial Masters.

IGS, a Taiwanese game company, created the PolyGame Master (PGM) arcade system board to compete with the Neo Geo MVS by Japan’s SNK. Two years later, in 1999, IGS releases Martial Masters to arcades across Taiwan. It would reach Japanese arcades in 2000 and North American arcades (though I had never seen the game at the arcades I had been to) in 2001.

I learned of the game when I was doing research for a crossover story I published on FanFiction.net a long time ago in the early 2000s.

The game is heavily inspired by Once Upon a Time in China (the main influence of the game) and other old-school Hong Kong martial arts films.

Martial Masters takes place in the early 20th century, a couple of years before World War I when the Qing Dynasty (the Manchus) had ended. The actions of Chiang Kai-Shek of the KMT led to overthrowing of the Qing Dynasty BUT left China fragmented and controlled by foreign influences such as Japan, France, and more.

The division of the country had left it in a weakened state, which made it easy for the Imperial Japanese Empire to occupy it during World War II.

Historically, this would be one of the factors leading China to choose Communism.

In the story of Martial Masters, the government’s in a pathetically weakened state, and the people turned to religion for hope. The White Lotus Sect seizes the opportunity and preys upon the despair of the people, which gives members the “mandate” to destroy anything that…