Martial arts action movies are some of the most difficult to successfully translate to the video game format. While countless attempts have been made over the last few decades, games very rarely make the player feel like they’re an all-knowing, all-powerful martial arts master as opposed to just someone mashing buttons to perform the same three combos over and over again. But that’s howSifumade its mark on the gaming landscape last year, managing to finally deliver a game that put thathigh-octane martial arts actiondirectly in the hands of players.
Though its unforgivable nature turned away many, those that stuck atSifuquickly discovered one of the most fluid and satisfying hand-to-hand combat systems in all of gaming, allowing players to pull off a bevy of moves that look as though they’d been ripped straight out of a kung fu action movie. It was clear thatSifuwas heavily inspired by classic martial arts movies of both the past and present, and in the game’s recentArenasupdate, those inspirations are much clearer.
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Sifu’s Arena Mode Pays Homage to Some of Cinema’s Greatest Action Hits
Sifu’s base game is littered with references to its cinematic inspirations. Even justSifu’s opening mission, The Squats, has at least two references to iconic action movies. While the player makes their way through an apartment building enemies start pouring out of doorways to assault them. The way the camera moves during this sequence and the behavior of the enemies is extremely reminiscent of the 2011 instant classicThe Raid. Later on in the same mission, the player will find themselves fighting their way through a corridor filled with foes, all while the camera stays on a fixed sideways perspective, a clear reference to 2003’sOldboy.
These Easter eggs and references run throughoutSifu’s campaign, but for the most part, they remain fairly subtle. Unless fans were going in expecting a reference, they probably wouldn’t notice it was there. But whileSifu’s base game kept its references subtle,Sifu’s brand-newArenasmode decides to do away with the facade completely, and give fans missions directly based on iconic action cinema fight scenes.
ThoughSifuhas received several updates over the last year, theArenasupdate overshadows them all. Along with some additional outfits, some new enemy visual designs, some new tutorials, and a handful of new modifiers,Sifu’sArenasupdateadds a fresh challenge mode to the game. This titular challenge mode sees players fight their way through hordes of enemies across nine different maps. Each map has five designated challenges, meaning that there are 45 challenges inSifu’sArenasupdate. While most of these challenges' objectives are simply to survive a few waves of enemies, some challenges have unique modifiers that can drastically change the parameters of the fight, and some of these modifiers are direct references to action cinema.
The final mission in the first set ofArenaschallenges is called “I Know Kung Fu,” and anyone in the know about pop-culture will immediately recognize the reference to the incredibly influentialThe Matrix. Upon starting the level, players will come face to face with a group of identical henchmen, each wearing a suit and glasses, a clear reference to Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith. The player is wearing a black leather trench coat similar to Neo’s, and the fight takes place in a rainy alleyway, akin to the final fight scene ofThe Matrix Revolutions. To top it all off, a modifier is in play, activating a slow-motion effect when the player blocks, imitatingThe Matrix’s famed bullet-time. And that’s not the only reference inSifu’sArenasmode, with clothing that referencesDrive, more sequences ripped straight out ofThe Raid, and much more. It’s clear thatSifu’s developers have a deep passion for action cinema, andSifu’sArenasmode finally lets them unleash all of that in a series of missions that act like love letters to the genre.
Sifuis available on PC, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
