Grimlock, 28/06/2008 - One of the most popular genres in videogaming, fighting games have been one of those genres that people will clamor for, whether it be solo, online, or in the arcades. Anyone from any skill level can sit down and enjoy a fighting game, whether they be a casual player or a tournament pro.
The fighting game genre is host to some remarkable games that have become timless classics and have even spawned entire franchises and spinoffs that are still being played today. So without further ado let's take a step back in time and look at some of the truly great fighting games of yesterday as well as some of the more memorable ones of modern day.
As one of the most popular games of the early 1990s, Street Fighter II, released in March 1991, and shaped the direction of arcade games for nearly a decade to follow. It is widely acknowledged as the premier fighting game of its era, due to its game balance with regard to the timing of attacks and blocks, and due to "Special Moves" in which players could execute by moving the joystick and tapping the buttons in certain combinations.
Mortal Kombat II is an arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. It improved upon the original in almost every way. It featured a larger cast of characters as well as a far more balanced overall fighting system. To this day it still remains one of the best games in the franchise.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fighting game in the Mortal Kombat series released in arcades in 1995. It is an update of Mortal Kombat 3. It added a larger cast than the original MK3 including the well deserved return of fan favorite Scorpion. Some new things added to the series were the run button and the autocombo system.
Killer Instinct is a fighting game developed by Rare and published by Midway and Nintendo. Initially released in arcades in 1994. Killer Instinct plays like many other fighting games, in which the player controls a character in order to beat an opponent in a one-on-one encounter. The game borrows the attack set of Street Fighter and is also inspired by the finishing moves from Mortal Kombat. It also featured a one of a kind auto combo system which could lead to some truly awe inspiring combo strings. The fighting engine came complete with combo breakers to make it well balanced.
Killer Instinct 2 is a 1996 arcade fighting game developed by Rare Ltd., licensed by Nintendo, and manufactured by Midway. KI2 is the sequel to Killer Instinct arcade game. The fighting engine at its core was pretty much the same. It also added super moves and manual linking to the autocombo strings.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo was the final game in the long list of remakes for Street Fighter 2. This version contained the most extensive changes introduced in the series. Four new characters were added (Fei Long, T. Hawk, Cammy, and Dee Jay). Boss characters received updated regular move sets. Boss characters received new, individual game endings. Each character could be selected with one of eight different color palettes. Some of the original eight playable characters received updated art and audio.
The speed introduced in Hyper Fighting was reduced. This was also the first Street Fighter game to feature super moves. A combo counter (a first despite combos being in the game since the original), as well as point bonuses for first attack, combos and reversals.
Following up on the extremely-enthusiastic fan reception of the first SS game, SNK rebuilt the sequel from the ground up, including almost all of its predecessor's cast, adding several new characters, and refining the overall gameplay with more responsive control and more moves. Samurai Shodown II was even better-received than the original and is commonly regarded as one of SNK's finest games ever produced.
The King of Fighters '94 is the first game in The King of Fighters series. King of Fighters '94 introduces the series' signature 3-man team system. Instead of a simple one-on-one, two round fight system, a player chooses a team of three characters, then determines the order to play them in. Each fight consists of up to 5 rounds, and each round ends when one of the two fighters is knocked out; the remaining fighter stays and faces the opponent's next character.
Street Fighter Alpha 3 was released in 1998. The gameplay received a complete overhaul with the addition of three selectable fighting styles based on Street Fighter Alpha (A-ism), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (V-ism), and Super Street Fighter II Turbo (X-ism), new stages, and for the first time since the original Street Fighter II, new music.
Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves is a 1999 fighting game produced by SNK, originally for the Neo Geo system. It is the ninth and final game in the Fatal Fury series, set ten years after the death of Geese Howard in Real Bout Fatal Fury. It is known for pushing the graphical capabilities of the Neo Geo as well as its well-balanced roster of characters and highly technical gameplay.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes is the fourth and final game in the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games. With the final installment of the series, Capcom simplified the engine so that it would be more accessible to casual players, in order to bring in new players. Changes were made to the air combo system and the button configuration was trimmed down to 4 main buttons and 2 assist buttons. The game also features 3 on 3 tag, compared to the 2 on 2 tag from previous games in the series.
In World Heroes Perfect, each character had a traditional four-button attack layout, but could also achieve stronger attacks by pushing down two respective punch or kick buttons at the same time. Every character has an ABC Special Move that can be activated by pressing the A, B, and C buttons at the same time.
In 1999, following the release of Street Fighter Alpha 3 for the arcades, Capcom released their third and final iteration of the Street Fighter III series titled Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike — Fight for the Future. 3rd Strike brought back Chun-Li from Street Fighter II, along with four new characters.
The Last Blade 2
The Last Blade series is seen as a spiritual successor to SNK's popular Samurai Shodown series, due to it being a similar 2D weapons-based fighting game. The gameplay is characterised by two selectable fighting styles, and a unique combo system along with a "deflect" system which involves pressing the D button at an opponents attack. Upon deflecting, the opponent is left open to attack.
Eternal Champions is a 2D fighting game developed by Sega, and released in 1993.
Hoping to ride this wave of success of the fighting game, bolstered by the recent successes of Street Fighter II, Fatal Fury and Mortal Kombat, Sega developed Eternal Champions for their Genesis / Mega Drive. While the game never caught on due to its limited availability, among other reasons, it did employ features well ahead of their time, including stage fatalities ("overkills"), heavier emphasis on story, reflective projectiles, force fields, training rooms filled with elaborate traps, and a novel method of executing moves.
Art of Fighting 3 was released in 1996. While no sequel has been produced since the third game, the characters have survived through their inclusion in The King of Fighters series.
The Art of Fighting series follows the conventions of the time in the sense that the player faces a variety of opponents in best two-out-of-three matches. Each of the game's characters have a unique fighting style and set of special techniques. The player has two basic attacks--punch and kick--as well as a utility button that switches between punches, kicks, and throws. A fourth button is used for taunting. Art of Fighting's contribution to the genre was the inclusion of a "spirit gauge" underneath the character's life bar. When characters perform special techniques, their spirit gauge is depleted and their special attacks become weaker. Players can also drain their opponent's spirit gauge by taunting them.
Darkstalkers is a series of 2D fighting games produced by Capcom during the late 1990s. The series is notable for its cast of characters based on well-known fictional monsters and introduced many of the concepts used in later Capcom fighting games, including the use of sixteen color animation sprites later employed in the Street Fighter Alpha and the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
Capcom vs. SNK 2 combines characters and gameplay elements from various Capcom and SNK fighting games, mainly the Street Fighter and The King of Fighters series. Other elements, most noticeably different fighting styles, incorporated elements from other games as well, such as Street Fighter III, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and the Samurai Shodown series.
SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos is a fighting game by SNK. It was released some time after Capcom developed Capcom vs. SNK 2 but has many differences regarding the game system. The game aims to bring together the best of Capcom and SNK fighting games, but unlike the two console Capcom vs. SNK games before it, SNK was the developer.
Guilty Gear X2 Reload is developed by Arc System Works and was released in 1994. In addition to Signature Instant Kill moves for each character it has thousands of moves and combos, including Psych Bursts and Overdrive Attacks.
Virtua Fighter 2 was full of many brand new gameplay elements implemented into the realistic fighting engine of the first Virtua Fighter. The Virtua Fighter series has been heralded before as the fighting game with most involving gameplay.
In Fighters Megamix, another game has been added, a game called Fighting Vipers. Fighting Vipers has drastically different gameplay than the more popular Virtua Fighter 2. Instead of being sophisticated, Fighting Vipers is simplified to appeal to a wider audience of video gamers and was meant for "casual" gamers.
Mixing a simplistic video game and a sophisticated video game must have been difficult. But Fighters Megamix manages to do so by offering many options. The most important option available is the choice of having Fighters Megamix run under the Fighting Vipers style of gameplay or the Virtua Fighter 2 style of gameplay.
Soul Calibur is the second game in the Soul series of fighting games developed and produced by Namco. Soulcalibur was ported and released for the Sega Dreamcast with improved graphics and new features and became one of the best-selling Dreamcast titles overall. The Sega Dreamcast port is often cited as the greatest fighting game of all time, and even one of the greatest games across all genres; it is ranked as the sixth-best game of all-time by review aggregator site Game Rankings.
Project Justice
Project Justice's fighting system is lifted from the original Rival Schools, with some notable changes. The game continues to be a team fighter, but has teams of three characters instead of two. This allows another Team-Up attack to be used in a fight, but also adds a new type of attack, the Party-Up, initiated by pressing any three attack buttons. The Party-Up is a three-person attack that varies based on what school the character initiating the attack is from.
Virtua Fighter 5 is the latest game in Sega's Virtua Fighter series and direct sequel to Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. The original version was released on July 12, 2006 into Japanese arcades.
All of the sought after invitations for the Fifth World Fighting Tournament have been sent and now the 17 best fighters in the world begin their final phases of preparation. They must learn from their prior mistakes and perfect every aspect of their mind, body, and soul - for there is no room for mistakes in this competition.
Dead or Alive 4 (DOA4) is a fighting game developed by Team Ninja for the Xbox 360 video game console. As the latest entry in the Dead or Alive video game series, its plot follows the events of the 2001 title Dead or Alive 3. The game features twenty-two playable characters and many multi-tiered and interactive fighting arenas.
Tekken 3 maintains the same core fighting system and concept as its predecessors, but brings many improvements, such as significantly more detailed graphics and animations, 15 new characters added to the game's roster, more modern music and faster and more fluid gameplay.
About Me - gta_cb
Hey, i own an Xbox 360 and i love it.
at the moment i am most enjoying playing games like Gears of War, Crackdown, Halo 3 Beta.
my current games include the following:
Gears of War
Crackdown
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