80) Tekken Tag Tournament 2 – SEBASTIAN
2012

Tekken Tag 2 has a roster of nearly every Tekken character ever and when it came time for downloadable content, they tried to fill in every gap possible. That included including Sebastian, Lili’s elderly and loyal butler. Fittingly, he fights just like her.

His ending has a neat chiaroscuro style where it’s in black and white with only whiteness for the background. All we can see are the limo, Sebastian and Lili. Lili sits in silence, obviously too annoyed for words. Sebastian drives and offers to calm her down with some music. He turns on the radio and hears a ecstatic DJ.

“The results of the last tournament are in! No one expected that this wildcard would appear from out of nowhere to claim the top prize! Yes, we’re talking about Sebastian! Who could’ve imagined this would happen? But ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a new martial arts champion!”

Sebastian begins to panic as Lili remains silently pissed. Sebastian keeps changing the radio station, but on every station, people are excitedly talking about how he won the King of Iron Fist tournament and that he’s this amazing inspiration. Growing increasingly afraid, Sebastian starts attacking the radio itself.

The radio is turned off and they reach their destination. Sebastian lets Lili out and she takes a second to begrudgingly congratulate him on his win. Sebastian, relieved, thanks her.

79) Street Fighter Alpha 3 – GUILE
1998

I touched on this last article, but one of the annoying things about the Street Fighter Alpha endings was how by being a prequel, it locks certain storytelling options. For instance, Chun-Li can defeat Bison, but then he’ll just get up and hospitalize her because he’s going to survive into Street Fighter II. The worst offender for all of this was Charlie. Charlie was known before this game as that guy who Guile had to avenge. That meant Charlie had to die.

Until the next game, where they’d bring him back because the last game no longer counted. And they’d kill him again.

The problem was that Charlie kept dying like a punk. In the first Alpha, he defeats Bison and gets on his walky-talky. This gives Bison the chance to get back up, pounce onto him and kill him. Then in Alpha 2, Charlie defeats Bison and gets gunned down by a military helicopter whose pilot was bought off by Shadaloo. Charlie falls off a cliff, presumably to his death. While X-Men vs. Street Fighter was never going to be canon, his ending is simply that he’s captured by Shadaloo and painfully tortured to death. The poor guy doesn’t even get to die with dignity.

(Yeah, yeah, I know that X-Men vs. Street Fighter one led to him becoming Shadow in the sequels, but that was retroactive context)

Guile’s storyline in Alpha 3 is that he’s sent to go find his good friend Charlie and bring him home from his mission because he’s too personally invested. There’s probably some unsaid political corruption in there too that Guile doesn’t know about. He finds Charlie and subdues him, but tells him that he still understands the importance of the mission and will help out, even if he isn’t the hero Charlie is. He defeats Bison, who slinks off to go recharge his batteries.

Guile and Charlie look around the Shadaloo base, find the room with the Psycho Drive and plant a whole bunch of bombs. Bison appears and badly wounds Charlie, laughing about how pets are worthless once they have their own free will. He flies at Guile to finish him off with the Psycho Crusher, but Charlie intercepts him.

Charlie orders him to leave before the place goes up. Guile escapes, seeing the Shadaloo base reduced to a mushroom cloud. From there, he and Chun-Li lament the loss of Charlie. Guile tries to believe that Charlie is still alive somewhere out there.

78) Marvel vs. Capcom – MEGA MAN
1998

This one’s short, but sweet. Mega Man fights against Onslaught, which is essentially the battle of good comic books vs. bad comic books. Mega Man wins and all that remains of Onslaught is a glowing ball of energy. Mega Man grabs it and teleports away. Cut to:

Slow clap, Capcom. Slow clap.

77) Injustice: Gods Among Us – BLACK ADAM
2012

Wow. Did I really go this long without a single Injustice entry? The story of Injustice is that there’s a world where Superman became a tyrant and rules the planet with fear. While many villains are pressured into joining his regime, Black Adam and Sinestro do it willfully, as they’ve also been in the same boat of using their heroic gifts to become dictators. Black Adam’s ending in the game isn’t based on him overthrowing Superman, but of how he reacts to Superman’s rule being taken apart by the insurgency.

Black Adam goes back to his home country Khandaq, where he and his queen Isis go back to ruling like loving dictators. Superman’s defeat has made Adam realize that the world would never be ready for his style of rule. Adam and Isis pool their powers to create a force field around Khandaq that separates it from the rest of the world. Khandaq exists as a realm of peace.

Just to be sure that nobody would ever interfere with Khandaq affairs ever again, Adam proceeds to wipe out all life outside of his country. We see that on the other side of the force field is sand and ruins.

76) Tekken 4 – KUMA
2002

The plot of Tekken 4 is that Heihachi Mishima put together a new King of Iron Fist tournament where the winner gets full ownership of the Mishima Zaibatsu. This is his way of drawing out his son Kazuya and grandson Jin from the shadows. This plan backfires in Kuma’s ending, where Heihachi loses the tournament to his beloved pet bear.

This means Kuma wins the right to own the Zaibatsu and that means paperwork. Kuma doesn’t have the ability to use a pen, so Heihachi has him cover his paw in ink and stamp the papers. Kuma signs the top paper, which says that Heihachi agrees to give Kuma all of his assets and the action makes Kuma infinitely happy. Heihachi laughs with him and shows him that he has more contracts to sign. Kuma can’t believe it! THIS IS THE GREATEST MOMENT IN HIS LIFE!

The last sheet in the series of contracts says that Kuma agrees to give it all back to Heihachi. With a long windup, Kuma ends up missing the paper and nails Heihachi right in the face. Accidentally or on purpose, it’s hard to say.

75) Mortal Kombat 3 – SUB-ZERO
1995

Mortal Kombat 3 got rid of the regular human ninja characters for the sake of introducing the palette-swapped robot ninjas in Sektor, Cyrax and the new version of Smoke. Since they reintroduced Sub-Zero, they removed the ninja appearance and went with more Henry Rollins with red paint over his eye and insulated suspenders.

The explanation is that the Lin Kuei got way into the idea of turning their best ninjas into cyborgs. Sub-Zero and Smoke thought that was a terrible idea and tried to escape. Smoke was caught and became automated. Sub-Zero has denounced his ties to the ninja clan and focuses on helping the rest of Earth’s heroes fight off Shao Kahn. Unfortunately, that’s a pain in the ass for him because the three robots are after his hide.

Sub-Zero’s able to get through to his old friend Smoke, likely through yelling, “REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!” over and over again, as that always seems to work in cheesy sci-fi. Smoke joins his side and they defeat Sektor and Cyrax with their even numbers. With that dealt with, Sub-Zero goes off to fight Shao Kahn himself, with the text explaining that it took all of his inner strength and determination to do it. Saving Earthrealm and having done away with his robot attackers, Sub-Zero slinks into obscurity with only a handful of people knowing the truth of who saved all their lives.

74) Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters – BASS
1996

No, fuck it. I’m counting Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters as a goddamn fighting game. I’m putting my foot down.

The game is a sequel/update to Mega Man: The Power Battle, which is basically a fighter only with an in-match continue system (robbing it of replay value) and the ability to have two players working together. In both games, the stories are pretty generic Mega Man plots using old Robot Masters bosses from the series. The first game featured the ability to play as Mega Man, Proto Man and Bass, but the second game included Duo, who existed as a big advertisement for the then-upcoming Mega Man 8. Seriously, all of his endings literally tell you to play Mega Man 8 to find out who he is.

The four characters have their own endings, but they also have endings for each possible combination of characters. A neat gimmick, but I’m here to talk about Bass on his own. He’s a robot created to be Mega Man’s dark rival, so Dr. Wily wonders why the hell he’s interfering with his plans. Bass, egotistical as ever, says that by having plans in the first place, Wily is interfering with Bass’ efforts to kill Mega Man. Wily should just find a hole to crawl in and let Bass do the job for him.

Bass smugly tells Wily that if Wily created someone as awesome as him, it must have been by accident. Wily suddenly sparks a smile. Yes, Bass actually was an accident. In Wily’s quest to create Mega Man’s Black Adam/Vegeta/Venom/Shadow the Hedgehog, he stumbled upon the creation of a new energy called “bassnium”, which in turn powers Bass. Now he’s using Bass as a stepping stone to create THE ultimate robot killing machine, capable of taking out the likes of Mega Man, Bass and whoever else.

And you’re like, yeah, sure, Wily talks out his ass all the time. Right?

HOLY SHIT, DR. WILY CREATED ZERO!

This game predates Mega Man X4, so this is the first mention of this connection. Other than that, all we had was the ending of Mega Man X3, which gives a foreboding narration that one day Mega Man X will have to kill Zero to save the world. NOW we know why.

Bass isn’t so impressed, but Wily is very, very enthusiastic about his future plans for world domination.

73) Tekken 3 – JIN KAZAMA
1998

It made sense that Heihachi and Kazuya were always at each other’s throats. They’re both bastards. Tekken 3 throws in a bit of a curveball by introducing Jin, who seeks out his grandfather Heihachi and trains under him for several years so that he can get revenge on the demon that killed his mother.

Heihachi has a new member of the family who shows a sense of loyalty and even does exactly what Heihachi wanted in killing True Ogre. So even for Heihachi, it’s pretty shocking and rotten when he has his Tekken Force riddle Jin with bullets before shooting him in the head himself.

Heihachi walks away and one of his soldiers is thrown into a stone wall. Heihachi turns around to see that Jin has transformed into his Devil form and has taken apart the entire squadron of soldiers. Then Devil Jin gets his hand on his dear grandfather.

After spiking Heihachi into the ground, Devil Jin flies off into the night. Heihachi just sits up and looks off, knowing that this is bad news.

72) Samura Shodown II – NEINHALT SIEGER
1994

As far as I’m concerned, Neinhalt Sieger is the manliest man to be in any fighting game. A Prussian knight, Sieger fights bare-chested with his lone weapon being a giant, black gauntlet that can create explosions in the shape of naked ladies. According to his profile, he spends his spare time brewing his own beer.

Sieger goes off to take out the threat of Mizuki Rashojin for his king and succeeds. He returns to his homeland to tell his king that the deed is done, but he finds that the kingdom is under siege by Mizuki’s army of monsters. The king, protecting his daughter, holds up a sword against three zombie knights and prepares to lay his life down for his people. Instead, Sieger busts into the scene and tells him to hang back. He blows up two zombies with his gauntlet and tells the third that, yes, he is Neinhalt Sieger, the one who had slain the creature’s master. Sieger jumps up and body splashes onto the zombie while his own body is on fire. He makes sure that everyone is safe and the princess is rightfully swooning over what just transpired.

Cut to the wedding between the two, where Sieger wears a badass cape. Charlotte, Galford, Poppy and Sieger’s scalp buddy Wan-Fu appear to bear witness. Afterward, Sieger stands on top a mountain cliff with his bride, where he screams into the heavens and three doves fly off.

SO. MANLY.

71) Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – RYU
2011

In Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ryu’s ending is pretty boss. He decides to investigate this Marvel world further and takes part in a fighting tournament in Madripoor. There, he finds himself facing Iron Fist. Which is game writer Frank Tieri’s way of saying, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if Iron Fist was in this game?” Meanwhle, there’s a sign in the background that says that the next fight will be Ken Masters vs. Mr. X. Of course it is. For those who don’t know, Mr. X is Tieri’s pet character who he likes to push just a little too hard sometimes.

Iron Fist is in the Ultimate revision, so keeping Ryu’s ending as is makes little sense. Instead, Ryu is shown about to put on his headband. After years of endings where Ryu goes, “Nope, I haven’t mastered fighting yet. The path continues,” Ryu is finally content with his abilities. He’s conquered the darkness within and has successfully walked a righteous path thanks to his new learnings. Akuma is angry to hear this and challenges Ryu.

Ryu has become the new Iron Fist, chest tattoo and all! With a cry of, “IRON SHORYUKEN!” Ryu fells his once-unbeatable rival.

70) Capcom vs. SNK – GENERIC ENDING
2000

The big crossover game Capcom vs. SNK really came off as an unfinished version of its sequel. One letdown of the game was that there were no character-specific endings. Only three endings. One based on fighting M. Bison in his secret Shadaloo volcano base, one based on fighting Geese Howard at his tower in South Town and one based on Akuma slaughtering M. Bison and you have to fight him instead. Defeating Bison or Geese brings you a cutscene of the villain doing a monologue, seemingly dying and then his headquarters blowing up.

Afterwards, a news broadcast covers the end result of the Millennium Fight tournament. The winners are none other than the team of Joe Higashi and Dan Hibiki!

Yes, see, while you and your team were busy saving the world from martial arts supervillains, these two jokers won the tournament virtually unopposed. There’s also a brief news story about either Geese Tower exploding or the massive earthquakes caused from Bison’s base going up. Either way, it isn’t seen as being linked to the tournament happenings.

69) Mortal Kombat – RAIDEN
1992

In the first game, Boon and Tobias hadn’t figured out what to do with Raiden. He would go on to become the mentor character of the series, but that wouldn’t happen until the second game. Here, he’s just a god that Shang Tsung invited into the tournament because he’s the biggest idiot ever. This is literal hubris right here. Shang Tsung had to win just one more tournament and he asked an actual god to join in.

The ending is one of the most memorable as Raiden turns the tournament into Immortal Kombat, where all the gods can fight each other for supremacy. The battles spread and escalate, eventually engulfing the world in absolute destruction and ending all life.

The iconic final line: “Have a nice day.”

68) Fighter’s History – MATLOK JADE
1993

Fighter’s History is known for being that game that was such a Street Fighter II knockoff that Capcom unsuccessfully sued Data East. Also, in a move that still bewilders me, they chose to make Karnov the final boss. Karnov being the title character of an NES game about a shirtless, fat Russian man with a Fu-Manchu mustache and the ability to spit fire. Not only is he the final boss and reigning champion, but he’s the man who put together the Great Grapple tournament.

One of the tournament’s entrants is Matlok Jade, a punk rocker who has trained to be the best fighter in the world due to rumors of something Karnov keeps in his vault. He becomes the first man to outfight Karnov and demands his prize.

That prize is a golden electric guitar.

Sweet.

67) Tekken Tag Tournament 2 – SERGEI DRAGUNOV
2012

Despite being such a cold and serious dude, Dragunov has one of the funniest endings in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. He quietly walks into his office to find a box from Dr. Bosconovitch’s lab. Opening it, he sees pieces of Alisa Bosconovitch ready to be assembled with a set of directions that appear easy enough that a child can do it.

What follows is your average guy’s attempt at putting together Ikea furniture, only done by a man who doesn’t speak nor show any emotion whatsoever. Alisa’s torso falls off, so he chooses to simply put her head onto her hips. From there, it keeps getting worse.

During this misadventure, a panel opens up in Alisa’s leg, showing a red button. Dragunov checks the directions to see what it is, doesn’t seem to understand very well and just presses it. His office explodes.

66) Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha – ZANGIEF
1997

I mentioned this game before and how its endings are mostly dreadful. 20 seconds of porn music with no other sound and usually nothing of note happening with a couple exceptions. Zangief is one of those exceptions. His ending is him dancing around the world. Just the big Russian doing his Russian dance in various locales. It ends with him dancing while pulling a train!

65) Last Blade 2 – NAOE SHIGEN
1998

Shigen is a rather large warrior who, along with a set of others, is charged with defending a portal to Hell and making sure nobody opens it up and dooms mankind. Shigen was sealed away for ten years and upon coming back, acted completely out of rage. When he regained himself, he recalled that he had a daughter. A daughter he had essentially abandoned due to his imprisonment. He seeks out the young girl Kotetsu and makes up for his disappearance by spending as much time with her as possible and training with her in the mountains. When the game’s threat becomes known, Shigen leaves her behind once again to go take care of it, not realizing that Kotetsu is secretly following him at a distance.

Shigen finds himself fighting his old friend Gaisei, who has become possessed by demons. Gaisei becomes lucid for a moment, compliments Shigen and has the main characters of Last Blade seal him away before he can do anymore damage. The sealing process creates a large explosion of light. Shigen realizes that Kotetsu is nearby, so he shields her with his gigantic body.

Once it dies down, Kotetsu looks up to her father and wonders why he isn’t saying anything. He’s just sitting there. Asshole villain-turned-anti-hero Kagami stands behind her, thinking Shigen an idiot for sacrificing himself to save his daughter. Kotetsu starts to realize that her father’s dead and Kagami tells her to simmer down. Don’t just grieve his death. She must give his sacrifice meaning.

Kotetsu stares at the glowing beads that Shigen kept around his wrist. She removes them and places them around her neck. She understands her destiny.

64) Tatsunoku vs. Capcom (Japan) – SAKI OMOKANE
2008

The Capcom side of Tatsunoku vs. Capcom is incredibly diverse. Even being a fighting game, there are only three Street Fighter characters, one Darkstalker and one Rival Schools student. The rest are pretty miscellaneous, especially the inclusion of Saki Omokane. Saki’s best known as that red-wearing assist character in Marvel vs. Capcom with the electric rifle. She’s actually from Quiz Nanairo Dreams, a quiz-based dating game from Japan.

For the most part, you can turn the mechanics of a fighting game into a story. They aren’t always good stories, but the idea of two guys fighting until one loses all of his strength is pretty basic and understandable. Saki’s world isn’t quite the same.

In her ending, she enjoys some girl time with the other female characters from the game. Chun-Li, Jun, Roll and even Morrigan are dressed down and casual… though Doronjo is still clad in her over-the-top villain garb. Chun-Li finds out that Saki has a boyfriend and asks about how they met.

Saki proceeds to describe her game’s batshit insane storyline, getting confused reactions from the others. She tries to explain the mechanics of a quiz-based dating game as if they’re an acceptable part of reality. Like how by successfully winning a bunch of quiz games, her boyfriend was able to defeat the Demon King’s army of monsters and win her heart.

You said it.

63) Mace: The Dark Age – MORDOS KULL
1996

Okay, last Mace entry. I promise. Mordos Kull was my favorite dude in this game because he had the morning star, which as far as I’m concerned is the best medieval weapon. Kull was adopted into an army of mercenaries working for Lord Deimos, who were impressed by his fighting skills. They trained him and fought with him for years, though over time, their numbers dwindled. Soon, Kull was the only one left and became one of the most highly-paid mercenaries in the world. A member of the Covenant of Seven has hired him to slay Asmodeus, steal the ever-powerful Mace of Tanis and give it to him.

In his ending, we learn the truth. When Mordos was a child, his family was slaughtered per orders of Covenant of Seven member Sir Dregan. He was taken in by a traveling group of gypsies and they too were slaughtered, thanks to Covenant of Seven member Lord Deimos’ mercenaries. As you can guess, Mordos HATES the Covenant of Seven and all they stand for. He impresses those mercenaries enough to convince them to induct him into their ranks and decides he’ll get his revenge from the inside. The reason that army has lost all of its members? Mordos has secretly been killing them off for years, all while making it look like a series of accidents. He gains the Covenant of Seven’s trust and uses it to get his hands on the Mace.

Mordos wields the evil weapon for the sake of good and becomes a just king. He eliminates the Covenant of Seven and leads the world into peace. As the ending states, “Heroes are indeed found in the most unlikely places.”

62) Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe – SHAO KAHN
2008

The big bad of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is Dark Kahn, the amalgam of Shao Kahn and Darkseid. Once he’s destroyed by the team-up of Superman and Raiden, everything returns to normal. Almost. Darkseid is stranded in the Mortal Kombat world while Shao Kahn is stuck in DC. Both are rendered powerless from their joint defeat. Raiden has Darkseid chained up in the pits of Hell while Superman has Shao Kahn plunged into the Phantom Zone.

A bunch of the endings in this game revolve around the characters increasing their power or standing in some way. Lex Luthor begins a partnership with Quan Chi. Batman creates an army of robots. Superman gets a belt that makes him immune to magic. Captain Marvel is able to tap into the powers of the Mortal Kombat Elder Gods. Wonder Woman gets a bunch of neat mystical weapons from the Mortal Kombat world. Catwoman can turn herself into a panther. So on and so forth.

None hold a candle to Shao Kahn.

The Phantom Zone has a reverse effect on Kahn due to his magical makeup. Rather than make him powerless, it increases his powers until making him strong enough to shatter the Phantom Zone itself and escape. With him is an endless army of Kryptonian criminals who are gladly loyal to Kahn for giving them their freedom. This unstoppable army is out to take over both universes and really, who is going to stop them?

61) Super Street Fighter II: Revival – BALROG
2001

With the countless different versions and ports of Street Fighter II, there are a handful of different endings for Balrog. This one’s easily the best, part of which is because they decided that it’s canon. In sci-fi/fantasy stories, it’s always pesky dealing with a major evil organization that’s outlived its usefulness. When Palpatine and Vader died, the Empire still existed, but was it really as exciting? Writing these organizations off is tricky sometimes.

Before Street Fighter IV bungled with continuity, the idea was that M. Bison was killed for good after Akuma eviscerated his very soul at the end of the World Warrior tournament. Obviously, Shadaloo would still exist. The question is, who takes over? Sagat cut ties with Shadaloo, so he doesn’t want it. Vega is capable, but chooses to move on. That leaves Balrog, the simple-minded goon who makes a great henchman, but a questionable leader.

Balrog is jazzed about his new position. More money and power than he could have ever imagined! Then within six months, he runs Shadaloo into the ground. The entire organization self-destructs due to his terrible leadership qualities and Balrog is left penniless and distraught, wondering how the hell this happened.

So that’s why Shadaloo is absent in the Street Fighter III games. Balrog happened.

Similar Posts:

• You Got Kahn in My Darkseid! You Got Darkseid in My Kahn!
• The Top 200 Fighting Game Endings: Part Two
• The Top 200 Fighting Game Endings: Part Six
• The Top 15 Best Fighting Game Storylines: Part 3 (5-1)
• The Top 200 Fighting Game Endings: Part One

Posted in Lists, Top 200 Fighting Game Endings, Video Games by Gavok |