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Competitive gaming communities often develop their own lore and legends centered around top players within their communities. Community Lore intends to look into some of these legends and break them down for you to understand, starting with the Fighting Game Community.
Who are the Five Gods of Fighting Games
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The title “God of Fighting Games” is an honorific title commonly applied to five Japanese fighting game players who have shown to be highly skilled in multiple fighting games. Their performances have spoken for themselves, and all five of them have continued to be active in the fighting game community. If you’ve been involved in the fighting game community, you’ve almost certainly heard of some of them. The Five Gods of Fighting Games are:
Daigo Umehara
Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi
Naoto “Sakonoko” Sako
Tatsuya Haitani
Shinya “Nuki” Onuki
Daigo Umehara
Daigo is arguably the most famous fighting game player in history. Daigo has a book, a manga, multiple documentaries, is the focus of the single most famous event in fighting game history (seen below), and in addition to being considered one of the Five Gods of Fighting Games he also goes by the moniker of “The Beast.”
To call him a legend would be underselling it, Daigo Umehara effectively defined an era of Street Fighter. For almost the entire lifespan of Street Fighter IV the best players were compared to Daigo in order to estimate how skilled they were. Could they take a round off of him? A match? Maybe even a set?
Daigo may not have the most tournament wins of the five gods, but his skill often meant that he would almost always be found in the top eight of any tournament no matter how big it was.
Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi
Tokido’s career stretches across more games than any of the other Gods of Fighting Games. Competing at a top level in games as varied as Street Fighter, Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom 3, Blazblue, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Soul Caliber. For a long time, it seemed like no matter what game you played you could count on Tokido placing highly at its competitive events.
His intense focus and concentration at these games would even elevate him to meme status within the fighting game community. This has led to him earning another moniker, in this case being referred to as “Murderface Tokido.”
Compared to some players, Tokido seems to be more comfortable being an entertainer, often playing into and exaggerating his persona for the benefit of the crowd.
Naoto “Sakonoko” Sako
Like all the Gods of Fighting Games, Sako has also developed a certain degree of legendary status. For Sako, his stand-out trait was his incredibly high skilled execution at the game. For many of the games he played, difficult combos would be referred to as “Sako combos,” implying that Sako was the only player who you could expect to pull off that combo in a competitive setting.
Therefore, it is no surprise that Sako tended to gravitate towards games with a high execution barrier, although mostly within the Street Fighter brand. Hyper Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Guilty Gear XX, and Street Fighter IV were all places he excelled. When Street Fighter lowered its execution barrier with Street Fighter V, Sako still made sure to pick characters which would allow him to use his skills.
Sako is also the oldest of the five gods, showing that age doesn’t stop you from being one of the best.
Tatsuya Haitani
Haitani is another player known for his skill in the Street Fighter series of games. Although still active in Street Fighter V, his biggest achievement was being one of the best Makoto players in Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
Despite having the God title, Haitani is known for not being quite as public as the others, and likely prefers to let his gameplay speak for him. He is known for being able to rapidly switch between slow and methodical gameplay and oppressive controlled aggression, a skill which he uses to limit his opponent’s options.
He used this to great effect during the first years of Street Fighter V’s competitive life.
Shinya “Nuki” Onuki
Nuki is one of a few players who can claim to have won the EVO tournament three times, and one of the only ones did so in a single game. Nuki took the world’s largest fighting game tournament for Street Fighter III: Third Strike in 2005, 2007, and 2008, earning him the most consistent first place career of any of the Five Gods of Fighting Games.
Nuki is still active in Street Fighter V, however he has stopped attending international events and has reduced his activity the most so far.
Fighting Game Lore
Very rarely can a single individual come to define a competitive sport. Every one of the Five Gods of Fighting Games is good enough to do so, and each has rightfully earned their place in fighting game legend.
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