games

My first time in a Japanese arcade I made a beeline to the Street Fighter III cabinets. I start playing, thinking I'm hot shit and waiting for someone to sit down across from me. For anyone who doesn't know, Japanese arcades are set up so you don't see your opponent. The cabinets have their backs against one another, with players on opposite sides. It's not like the US where you both play on the same cabinet.

So I get a challenger. Oh, it's just someone playing Ryu. I'm a Makoto main. Maybe it's just someone who plays kinda casually, since it's just some standard Ryu player with the super shoryuken move. I get absolutely destroyed, this player's on a level I've never seen before. Frame perfect combos. They don't even block. Everything I do gets parried or punished. I'm able to win one round, but after that it's like they absorbed my style and I couldn't keep up.

So I take a peek around to the other lane to see who this is. I'm thinking it's gotta be the coolest person I'll ever meet since this is by far the most talented Third Strike player I've ever encountered. I did't know what to expect. And it's just some bored looking middle aged office lady with a blank expression and half a cigarette.