Ding Ding Ding – Fight!!

I've mentioned before that I love certain genres, but I really suck at playing them. Today's post will be all about one of those. Fighting Games. How bout a list: Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Dead or Alive, Guilty Gear, Soul Caliber, Dark Stalkers, Xmen, Primal Rage, Killer Instinct, Eternal Champions, Clay Fighter, Godzilla, King Of Fighters, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, World Heroes, Samurai Showdown, Cyberbots.

Whew, quite a list, and it isn't by any means comprehensive. And today that is what is being discussed – the games where you spend you time beating up on the guy across the screen from you with flesh, weapons, ch'i, any old thing that seems appropriate. Be warned, this isn't an analytical piece, it is a love affair with the genre.

I love these things. If I can get past level 4 without it being on Easy, it is amazing, but I love them anyway. Some of them are button mashers, other have a very deep and intricate game play. Some are 2d some are 3d.

First some words on the game that started it all. Street Fighter II. And all the little add ons with extra character. It originally had 8 characters, then 12 then more, and new and different characters came out. Then things like Rage Meters, and super combos. And Capcom kept coming out with other – Dark Stalkers, X-men, Marvel Supers, Marvel Vs Capcom, Cyberbots (A personal favorite).

The other leader was SNK games which ended up in the NeoGeo arcade and home machines. Many fighting series, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, World Heroes, Samurai Showdown. And as they became well known for the genre, they instituted their King of Fighters series, taking characters from their other fighting games and pitting them against each other.

Then the unthinkable happened. The two biggest 2-D fighting game companies worked together with the Capcom vs SNK, and the SNK vs Capcom. Each one had characters from each company stable fighting each other. And one used a very Capcom like fighting engine and controls, and the other used SNKs. Great Games.

There were the home games that didn't move around the arcade – Weaponlord, Clay Fighter, Eternal Champion (and man were those sprites big for the era). And the Mortal Kombat series which gave us Fatalities and their variations, and the idea of photo instead of animation.

We also had a 3-d Revolution. Tekken and Virtua Fighter. This led to a slew of 3-d fighters, Dead Or Alive, Soul Caliber, and even 3-d versions of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

And the games did usually have some similarities but that was due to trying to reach the largest number of players. You had one big lumbering guy who did lots of damage. You had a light fighter that was swifter than the wind (my usually choice), some all around good fighters (usually the character the stories were built around).

Ah stories. Yes these games had stories, usually pretty thin ones, just enough of a plot to justify these characters coming together to beat each other's brains in. The biggest part of the stories were in the character background, why they come to the tournament, and who they are after. Some of the home games have a challenge or story mode that has you run through a number of fights, with small little cut scenes dealing with the characters backstory.

Now back to games - running around a 3-d maze killing monsters and collecting crystals and hearing "Valkyrie needs food badly"

Games played since last post
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (360)
Bards Tale (PS2)
Soul Caliber 2 (PS2)
Space Invaders remake (PS1)
Spyro the Dragon (PS1)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
Pinball Hall of Fame - Gottlieb Collection (PS2)
Defender (Arcade through Mame)
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (PS2)
Conan (360)