“Street Fighter: Resurrection” First impressions – “The New Challenger”

Has it really been almost two whole years since “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist” aired already? Time does fly, certainly with all things “Street Fighter”! With the newest installment of the games, “Street Fighter V” having hit video game shelves late last month and “Street Fighter: World Warrior” the highly anticipated sequel to “Assassin’s Fist”, still being developed, we now come to the newest chapter in the series “Street Fighter: Resurrection”!

Episodes are set to drop on go90 every Tuesday through to the mini-series’ completion, and really, what better day of the week to release something in the “Street Fighter” universe than Tuesday? As we race headlong into “Resurrection”, let’s take a quick glimpse at episode one, “The New Challenger”!

It’s a lot to take in in just eight minutes, but it feels very much on the quality level of “Assassin’s Fist”. Timelines have always been quite a winding road in the “Street Fighter” universe, but we quickly learn that “Resurrection” takes place after the upcoming “World Warrior”. Given that it serves as both a follow-up to “Assassin’s Fist” and a narrative prequel to “Street Fighter V”, we’re treated to the introduction one of the newest characters in the franchise, and my personal favorite new character introduced in “Street Fighter V”, Laura Matsuda, played by Natascha Hopkins, who becomes the titular new challenger for Ken Masters and his close friend Ryu, played by “Assassin’s Fist” leads Christian Howard and Mike Moh.

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They’ve stuffed quite a bit of action into the first episode, with two solid fight sequences finished and one just getting started by the end. The latter is of course, our intro to the resurrected Charlie Nash, played by the talented and powerful Alain Moussi of the upcoming “Kickboxer: Vengeance”. He’s literally sonic booming his way into the series and putting to bed the notion that you could never get his hair right in live action!

“Resurrection” really hits the ground running in its first episode, and we haven’t even seen what Charlie’s beef with our heroes is all about yet, but overall, it feels like it’ll be up to par with “Assassin’s Fist” when all’s said and done. The look of the characters, their fighting styles, and their special moves, it all feels like “Street Fighter”, and getting to see Amy Johnston kicking butt is always a plus. Overall, this gives a promising impression of “Street Fighter: Resurrection”!