How Jackie Chan has affected the world of gaming

Jackie Chan is one of the most familiar faces of kung fu movies, known for bringing a fun and comedic tone to a traditionally serious genre.

He does all this while maintaining a level of professional skill and dedication to exciting stunts, which have helped him stand apart from other action stars.

It would be a challenge to find anyone who has watched more than a few kung fu movies who doesn’t know about Jackie Chan. His movies and on-screen persona has inspired millions all over the world to enter into the world of stunts, film, action movies, fighting games, martial arts, and so much more.

The legacy of Jackie Chan

It’s honestly a little difficult to say for certain whether or not Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee has been more influential to the world of martial arts and adjacent communities.

Arguably, they are both part of the same trend of taking traditional Hong Kong action movies and exporting them to the wider world. Jackie Chan even got his big break by getting beat up by Bruce Lee, a moment which was captured on camera for the essential kung fu film, Enter the Dragon.

Bruce Lee’s life was tragically cut short, and during the ensuing turmoil, many movie studios began searching for the “next Bruce Lee.” But there was and will only ever be one Bruce Lee, and instead they found the “first Jackie Chan.”

In honor of the master @EyeOfJackieChan's birthday, check out him talking about one of the most insane stunts he ever did in Police Story! pic.twitter.com/5sAWXHSob3

— IGN (@IGN) April 8, 2019

Chan led films like Drunken Master, Wheels on Meals, Police Story, and Rumble in the Bronx, each one characterized by impressive stunts, comedy, and believable fight scenes that often feature Chan himself taking a few punches too.

Chan was able to break into the US markets in the ‘90s, but he reportedly didn’t even learn his lines in English until Rush Hour in 1998. Chan often remarked that the language was his greatest challenge, something which is all the more impressive considering the amount of bones he has broken throughout his career doing dangerous stunts.

Jackie Chan and the rise of gaming

Like Bruce Lee before him, Jackie Chan inspired game designers who were eager to create new characters and concepts. While almost every fighting game features at least some reference to Bruce Lee, fewer incorporated references to Jackie Chan. It’s likely this discrepancy has to do with the fact that Jackie Chan was, and is, still alive at the time many of these games were being made.

While including an homage to a long missed legendary martial arts figure is often acceptable, recreating still living people can occasionally cause problems if the recreation can be considered too close to the living person’s persona.

Though strange to think about it this way, Jackie Chan essentially sells his image and skills every time he acts in a movie, and mimicking those elements of Jackie Chan could be a legal quagmire.

@Harada_TEKKEN @TEKKEN Lei Wulong and Jackie Chan 😊 pic.twitter.com/FdA0g8IdGg

— Ussi11 (@Ussi111) August 20, 2018

Nevertheless, the Tekken series has long included the character of Lei Wulong in their games as a direct homage, and near clone, of Jackie Chan’s on screen personality. Lei Wulong looks like a younger Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kong cop like many of Chan’s characters, and incorporates the use of a drunken fist fighting style like Chan’s character from Drunken Master.

Other fighting games have been careful to use this aspect to represent Chan in their fighting games without having a character made in his likeness. These include Shun Di in Virtua Fighter, Brad Wong from Dead or Alive, Bo’ Rai Cho from Mortal Kombat, and Chin Gentsai from King of Fighters.

Recently rewatched the church scene in Kingsmen and was reminded of how great Brad Allen is.As a former Jackie Chan Stunt Team member, he snuck this cheeky homage to Drunken Master II into @edgarwright's The World's End. pic.twitter.com/lRTDbRh9W7

— QualityChimp (@QualityChimp) July 17, 2020

It’s certainly fair to say that Chan’s own legacy has stuck closer to the world of film and martial arts than it has ever gotten in the world of gaming. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is curious when compared to how significant his predecessor’s own influence on gaming has been.