I downloaded the intro to MotW off of IGN DC the other night, and have rewatched it over and over, despite Edgar’s reluctance to play movies very well these days. The thing is directly emulated off of the Neo-Geo cartridge, and knowing this, the real-time (as such; sprite-based as opposed to being a movie file) intro is especially impressive. For eleven-year-old hardware, that system really can still hold its own. All of those people who actually bought one back in 1990 must have gotten their money’s worth by now. I wouldn’t at all mind having a Neo-Geo around, but I could probably buy the moon if I had that kind of money sitting within reach.

I played the file over and over, for nearly an hour. As much of a dork as I felt, I found myself giggling wildly, unable to control my glee, each time the movie ended. For the first several times I played it, my eyes even began to mist up a bit toward the end. I’m not sure why; it’s not like I was ever really very big into the Fatal Fury series until just very recently. But it felt similarly to my seeing the intro to Sonic Adventure for the first time, or watching that original “You’re not the only Hero” trailer for PSO — only even more so! Even stranger, I now get a similar sort of feeling every time I hear ESAKA played.

Why is this? Why did SNK’s series make such a huge impression on me, so quickly? It seems odd that my brain would be making as big a deal about this as if I were watching the intro to a new Streets of Rage.