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Sifu grabbed me with both hands and didn't let go when I first played it earlier this year. It slapped me about, left me for dead, and, by way of its unique aging mechanic, demanded that I immediately get back onto my feet and go again. What began with me shuffling off this mortal coil at the age of 75, battered and bruised, halfway through its nightclub second level, ended with me whipping the final boss's ass in its fifth and final stage as a late 30-something-year-old Chinese martial arts expert. Fighting its hordes of faceless baddies, five charismatic end-of-zone champions, and, of course, the merciless hands of time in Sifu is addictive. And while I've since managed to pry myself from Sloclap's alluring action fighter, I'm now ready to return as a direct result of its newest feature: hats.
Anyone familiar with Sifu's busy modding scene will already know it's brimming with unofficial cosmetic overhauls, but this one is different. By choosing to equip a hat before battle, the player will hold onto their headgear until they sustain their first hit. Once they get hit, it falls off in a move that's a visual badge for only the most skilled of fighters – simple, yet effective; a playful rebuttal of Git Gud culture, while simultaneously embracing it.
"We knew we had the technology to lose items when you get hit, because we already had enemies doing this," says the game's producer Edward Sananikone. "So from there, everything just fell into place. Technically, it's a little bit harder to implement, but, ostensibly, the creative director was inspired to add hats in this way by one of their favorite video games, we realized it was possible, and then added the feature into the game."
Hats off to you
Sifu is a game that's underpinned by fast reactions, masterful combat, and technical prowess – all traits that are fundamental to its Chinese martial arts source material. With your guard up and your chest puffed, you learn both by doing and by failing (and failing and failing again), until you're skilled enough to survive a boss battle. Then an entire level. Then the game in its entirety. Unless you've finished Sifu from start to finish without aging past its starting age of 20, there's always more to do and brag about to lesser players. You finished the game in your mid-40s? Pah, I was only 27. And then it's back to the drawing board via the dojo as you strive to drive your finishing age lower and lower still.
I can't fathom finishing Sifu without losing a single life – my hands were in actual cramp when I finally made the credits roll at 39 – but I do love the idea of testing myself in standalone stages without dropping my cap. Sifu's new modifiers can "push your skills to the absolute limit, or let you beat on enemies stress-free", we learned ahead of its latest now-live bumper update, and if you've somehow finished the game without succumbing to death even one, then the addition of hats surely marks your newest challenge.
Again, the whole thing is simple yet brilliant – an idea born from a cult classic PS2 action fighter that was directed by Resident Evil mastermind, Shinji Mikami. "Our creative director is a big fan of the old action beat 'em game, God Hand," Sananikone explains. "In this game, you start things off with a sheet of paper stuck to your back that says 'Kick Me' on it. You lose this piece of paper after taking your first hit. This was our little reference to that, our homage to something that was really cool from God Hand, but styled in our own way."
In a game that wears its influences firmly on its bloodied sleeve – from ancient books to classic cinema, and, clearly, old school video games – this neat little nod to God Hand seems fitting. I suspect from here, Sifu players will continue to show off their skills on social media in mouthwatering bouts of one-upmanship, now with new headwear firmly fixed to their heads. Back in its heyday, the best God Hand players undertook KMS Runs – no-hit challenge runs where the goal was to complete the entire game with the aforementioned 'Kick Me' sign fastened to protagonist Gene's back. Popularized in recent years by the likes of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, I fully expect Sifu players to endure similar no-hit hat runs from hereon.
The question is: have the hats turned up the heat in SloClap's headquarters? Sananikone laughs, before saying: "We obviously need to balance everything that we add in, so that means getting the whole team to try out new features as we roll them out. We try not to get too competitive behind the scenes, but it's inevitable that there's some competition when we're all having fun with a feature like this one. Ultimately, we treat ourselves as players, and when it comes to balancing, we try to give players the tools to succeed and leave the rest to them."
Sifu's latest update – which adds hats, a library of modifiers, and slow-motion effects among other things – is out now. Check out our 4.5 star Sifu review for extra reading if you're yet to give SloClap's follow-up to Absolver it a try.
