Fighting Games: A Look Back

Written on: Mar 5 2008
Featured on: Write The Game Video Game Blog

Fighting games, if you grew up in the days where arcades or arcade machines were in abundance, you know just what I’m talking about. In the wake of the new gaming revolution, fighting games have been slow to release, making many fans somewhat disappointed in what was released. However, in 2008, fighting games are making a big comeback! With games like Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6, Soulcalibur IV, The King of Fighters XII, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and many others on their way it’s time to take a look back at the evolution of the fighting genre.

Chances are you’ve never heard of Warrior, but this is where it all started. As the first fully recognized fighting game, made way back in 1979, it featured two knights dueling with weapons. The controls were stiff, the character bases and backgrounds were bland, and the motion capture techniques used were clumsy at best. Despite all this the seed was planted for a new series of games to come.

Karate Champ was released in the midst of the 1980’s arcade crash, it was the first game to use dual joysticks. This game is credited with creating the most common view in the fighting games of today, the simple side-perspective.

While Warrior was amazingly simple and Karate Champ began building the fighting genre as we know it, Yie Ar Kung-Fu this was the last bit of inspiration for a company known simply as Capcom. The game play mechanics used in Yie Ar Kung-Fu dwarfed it’s predecessors and introduced backgrounds environments into the fighting genre. This game has gotten many ports as of late, getting released on the Xbox Live Arcade and in Konami’s “Classics Series: Arcade Hits” for the Nintendo DS.

If you haven’t played the original Street Fighter, you’re not alone, but with the release of this game brought around the rebirth of arcades. It’s graphics were incredible for it’s time (1987), introducing a somewhat storyline to the genre, and setting the standard for games to come. Street Fighter, if you didn’t already know, features Ryu as the only playable character, with the second player joining in to fight as Ken. Playing through story mode sees Ryu fighting his way around the world, eventually making it to Thailand and fighting Sagat. Who many players would recognize in Street Fighter II as he returned with a grudge against Ryu. Ironically enough, this is the only game where Ryu calls his patented moves by their English translated names (i.e. dragon punch, dragon fire/fire ball, tiger uppercut, etc).

1991 proved to be the biggest influence on the fighting game genre with the release of what many see as the grand-daddy of all fighting games, Street Fighter II. Taking everything up considerably, it featured eight playable characters with four CPU only characters as well. It is, to date, one of the most re-mixed games of all time, with a new version (Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix) on the way for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Life Arcade in Spring of 2008. Suffice it to say, when someone walked into an arcade in the 90’s, they were probably coming to play Street Fighter II. Soon after it’s release, there were nearly 600 similar style fighting games released, the most successful of those being released by SNK. This was the beginning of subdividing the fighting game genre into different styles. Weapon-based (Samurai Showdown), platform-based (Super Smash Bros), and rhythm-based (Bust A Groove) are just some of the different game play styles that were created to break new ground in the sometimes oversaturated fighting game market.

Taking fighting games from cartoon looking characters to realistic people with blood and brutal death scenes was the next step in the evolution, or so said Midway when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. While it didn’t drastically change game play, the use of digitized characters, more simple special moves, the aforementioned gore and blood, and the introduction of a “secret character” are changes still felt when playing fighting games today. Mortal Kombat is known for being one of the games that caused the ESRB rating system to be fully implemented, as it brought about controversy of children playing violent videogames.

Ultimately 2D wasn’t enough for some people, and the jump into the third dimension was inevitable. As Sega’s current president realized the popularity of the fighting game market he charged game director Yu Suzuki to create a competitor for those already on the market. Suzuki had always had a fancy for 3D animation so when he got the order he knew what he would do. Heading right into development with designer Seiichi Ishii, they created Virtua Fighter in 1993. Considered one of the most revolutionary of it’s time, Virtua Fighter’s engine was based mostly on real world fighting styles and it’s simple button configuration (utilizing just a control stick, punch, kick, and guard buttons) made it easy to pick up.

From humble beginnings to one of the most recognizable genre in gaming, fighting games have a long in-depth history spanning many console life spans. Reworking, retooling, re-releasing, all who play fighting games are more then familiar with these terms and what they really mean, similar games being released with nothing too new being implemented. While this isn’t a bad thing, a look back into the past can give us a new insight for the future, is a new fighting game evolution on the horizon?