Taekwondo match turns into IRL Tekken with health bar and sound effects

A South Korean martial arts match became an impressive real life fighting game with both competitors have their very own health bar.

Highlights of the match were posted by the YouTube channel TKDNEWS and shows off the two combatants duking it out with flurries of kicks, punches and blocks. But it’s the background that steals the show.

Behind the fighters, a large screen displays photos of the two on the left and right sides along with what can only be described as health bars. When a fighter is hit, their green health is chipped away at. When they are low on health, just like in fighting games, it appears red indicating they are critical.

The screen also features a timer in-between the bars indicating how many minutes remain and what round the two are currently in.

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It also appears the screen shows exactly how many points of “health” had been subtracted with each blow. Additionally, a siren of sorts starts sounding whenever a player does something that results in a penalty.

One of the best parts of the video, oddly enough, is its opening which features a combatant coming out to the Rage Against the Machine song “Wake Up.”

“Korea is experimenting with changing taekwondo scoring from simply giving points on contact with valid areas to giving points based on the actual force applied to those areas,” Twitter user AMurderOfBears pointed out.

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According to WimpLoTweets, this particular format “has been around since the advent of the 20/20 Armor System that was inspired by fighting games.”

20/20 Armor is a company that makes electronic scoring vests that incorporate video game elements. The end result is a match that is much easier to understand.

It’s cool to see how much of an impact fighting games have had on the world and even traditional Olympic sports.