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Crazy New Fad: Reenacting Street Fighter’s Car Crusher Stage

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Street Fighter's Car Crusher Stage bonus Ryu wreck vehicle video game

Is our contender up to the challenge?
Photo: VS Fighter TV

Kids, do not try this at home.

Or, at least if you do, make sure you post it on YouTube so we can all have a laugh.

Street Fighter II‘s “Car Crusher” bonus round was a way for world warriors who defeated tournament challengers to show off their strength and rack up extra points. But destroying a car with your bare hands in real life does not show off your strength or score you any actual points (right, ladies?). What it does is provide us with a ridiculously entertaining spectacle.

Two videos have circulated recently which feature men dressed as Ryu giving cheaply-made cars a beating.

Street fighter 2's Car Crusher stage destroy Ryu

Street Fighter’s Car Crusher Performed by a Martial Artist

Street Fighter's Car Crusher Stage bonus Ryu wreck vehicle video game

Best use of a weak old car…just needs more fireballs
Photo: Paul “The Kicking Machine” Wordsworth

The first live-action reenactment of the Street Fighter II video game’s bonus round features martial artist Paul “The Kicking Machine” Wordsworth, whose YouTube channel offers some of his best moves.

The clip opens with footage of the original Car Crusher stage (in case you haven’t played it a hundred times), segueing into “The Kicking Machine’s” fury being unleashed on a small red compact car. The brand badge was removed from the car, but it’d be appropriate if it was a (E.) Honda.

Wordsworth lunges fist-first against the front of the car, aggressively punching and kicking it before he resorts to peeling off plastic parts and smashing in windows (as the score counter at the top keeps arbitrarily increasing). He does some decent damage to the car, but it might be less a show of strength and more a testament to the cheaply-made car.

Street Fighter’s Car Crusher Performed by a Big Fan on TV

Street Fighter's Car Crusher Stage bonus Ryu wreck vehicle video game

There’s a reason Ryu didn’t try this move in the game…
Photo: VS Fighter TV

The second reenactment of the “Car Crusher” bonus round is from a bizarre Korean variety show (is there any other kind?), in which a super-fan of Street Fighter attempts to demolish a small grey compact car (also with its identification badge removed).

Street fighter 2's car crusher ryu giant head korean

Make sure you look for this inexplicable giant head at 0:25 (because..it’s Korean TV, so…why not?)

This “Ryu’s” approach is a bit different, starting tepidly by opening the hood and pulling out the plastic grille. He cheats by wedging bricks under the hood to lift it up (not that it helps). We see some slow-motion instant replays of him peeling off the headlights, punctuated by the astonished reactions of onlookers.

Eventually, the Ryu-dressed man takes some wild chances like lunge-kicking at the car while wailing. Many thanks to Versus Fighting TV for providing this entertainment.

Overall, both men had a much longer time limit than in the game and didn’t use enough Hadoken and Shoryuken. Still, this is a lot more entertaining than watching either of the live action Street Fighter films. Why couldn’t they have worked this stunt into those?