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.