2023 has so far been the year of artificial intelligence and although not all of its uses have been welcome it does appear to have come up with one good thing: celebrity fighting games.
In the past few days, AI creations of two of the most popular beat-up franchises, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter have emerged on social media.
However, rather than feature classic characters like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Raiden these iterations feature exaggerated versions of famous faces from the real world.
The first of these that went viral was Celebrity Mortal Kombat which was shared by the actual creator of the original game Ed Boon but was created by the YouTube channel Interdimensional TV.
The celebrity version features: Joe Biden, Beyonce, Elvis Presley, Pope Francis, Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, LeBron James, Mark Zuckerberg, Kanye West, Xi Jinping, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, Kim Jung-Un, Jackie Chan, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Stephen Hawking, Mother Teresa, Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O’Neill, Rihanna, William Shakespeare, Marilyn Monroe, George Washington, Gordon Ramsay, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Barack Obama, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Queen Elizabeth II, Marie Curie, Taylor Swift, Mahatma Gandhi, The Rock and J Robert Oppenheimer.
If that wasn’t enough a Celebrity Mortal Kombat II video has also been made with an updated roster that Boon also shared. This one stars Will Smith, Greta Thunberg, Winston Churchill, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Steve Irwin, Mike Tyson, Nicki Minaj, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Jobs, Lionel Messi, Richard Nixon, Narendra Modi, Lizzo, Mr Rogers, Emma Watson, Kim Kardashian, Ellen Degeneres, Sylvester Stallone, Cardi B, Hunter Biden, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ice Cube, Usain Bolt, Mozart, Nicolas Cage, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee, Joe Rogan, Notorious B.I.G, PewDiePie, Leonardo DaVinci, Chris Pratt, Margaret Thatcher, Frida Khalo, Mitch McConnell, Tesla, Justin Trudeau, Manny Pacquiao, Josef Stalin, Morgan Freeman and Chuck Norris.
However, if you are more of a Street Fighter player then fear not as your interests have also been catered for. Many of the same faces from the Mortal Kombat game reappear but there are a few new characters such as Peter Dinklage, Miley Cyrus, Chris Farley and Johnny Depp.
Sadly it doesn’t look like we’ll get to play these games anytime soon but we’ll be first in line at the arcade should they become available.
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