As a licensed bouncer and lifelong gamer, I can tell you that none of the fights you see onscreen in video games match the ones you may encounter in real life.
For example, street fighters rarely kick—not unless their intended target is already horizontal. At the British university campus where I work as a security guard, and where alcohol, 18-year-olds, and high passions can sometimes combine explosively, the last kicker I encountered was a drunk girl attacking a parked car’s wing mirror.
In reality, hitting “continue” to keep the fight going actually takes weeks of healing, not just a single button press.
But none of that means I don’t enjoy a good brawler game. In fact, slugging my way through 1998’s Altered Beast and 1989’s River City Ransom no doubt helped shape my career choice.
That’s also why it’s been great fun watching the genre enjoy a resurgence thanks to games like Fight’N Rage or the recently-released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The wealth of details included in those games got me thinking about how all the alley-set levels and warehouse boss fights can sometimes mirror the broken bottle attacks, gang confrontations, and airborne furniture that I attend in my job.
