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Fighting Games Online History

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Fighting games find their origin in boxing games but evolved towards battles between characters with fantastic abilities and complex special maneuvers.[41] Sega's black and white boxing game Heavyweight Champ, which was released in 1976, is considered the first video game to feature fist fighting.[42] 1979's Warrior is another title sometimes credited as one of the first fighting games.[19] In contrast to Heavyweight Champ and most later titles, Warrior was based on sword fighting duels and used a bird's eye view.[3] In 1983, Sega released another boxing game Champion Boxing,[43] which was Yu Suzuki's debut title at Sega.[44][45] However, Data East and its related developer Technōs Japan's Karate Champ from 1984 is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre.[46] In it, a variety of moves could be performed using the dual-joystick controls, it used a best-of-three matches format like later fighting games, and it featured training bonus stages. It went on to influence Konami's 1985 release Yie Ar Kung Fu,[46] which expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style.[46][47] The player could also perform up to sixteen different moves,[48] including projectile attacks.[49] Also released in 1985, martial arts game The Way of the Exploding Fist achieved critical success and subsequently afforded the burgeoning genre further popularity.[8][50] Numerous other game developers tried to imitate the financial successes of Karate Champ, Yie Ar Kung-Fu and The Way of the Exploding Fist with similar games; Data East took unsuccessful legal action against Epyx over the computer game International Karate.[51]

Both Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu later provided a template for Capcom's Street Fighter in 1987.[4] Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world,[4] partially because many arcade game developers in the 1980s focused more on producing beat-em-ups and shoot 'em ups.[52] Part of the game's appeal was the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls, which created a sense of mystique and invited players to practice the game,[53] although similar controller motions used for grappling maneuvers in the earlier Brian Jacks Uchi Mata were deemed too difficult.[8] Following Street Fighter's lead, the use of command-based hidden moves began to pervade other games in the rising fighting game genre.[53] Street Fighter also introduced other staples of the genre, including the blocking technique as well as the ability for a challenger to jump in and initiate a match against a player at any time. The game also introduced pressure-sensitive controls that determine the strength of an attack, though due to causing damaged arcade cabinets, Capcom replaced it soon after with a six-button control scheme offering light, medium and hard punches and kicks, which became another staple of the genre.[54] Meanwhile, home game consoles largely ignored the genre. Budokan: The Martial Spirit was one of few releases for the Sega Genesis but was not as popular as games in other genres.[52] Technical challenges limited the popularity of early fighting games. Programmers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize the fast motions of a joystick, and so players had difficulty executing special moves with any accuracy.[4][52]

Early 1990s[edit]

The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is often considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. Yoshiki Okamoto's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine in the genre thus far. This allowed players to reliably execute multi-button special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The game was also highly successful because its graphics took advantage of Capcom's CPS arcade chipset, with highly detailed characters and stages. Whereas previous games allowed players to combat a variety of computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other. The popularity of Street Fighter II surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand.[4] Street Fighter II was also responsible for popularizing the combo mechanic, which came about when skilled players learned that they could combine several attacks that left no time for the opponent to recover if they timed them correctly.[55][56][57]

SNK released Fatal Fury a few months before Street Fighter II.[12] It was designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the creator of the original Street Fighter, which it was envisioned as a spiritual successor to.[58] Fatal Fury placed more emphasis on storytelling and the timing of special moves,[58] and added a two-plane system where characters could step into the foreground or background. Meanwhile, Sega experimented with Dark Edge, an early attempt at a 3D fighting game where characters could move in all directions. Sega however, never released the game outside of Japan because it felt that "unrestrained" 3D fighting games were unenjoyable.[52] Sega also attempted to introduced 3-D holographic technology to the genre with Holosseum in 1992, though it was unsuccessful.[59] Several fighting games achieved greater commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown as well as Sega's Eternal Champions. Nevertheless, Street Fighter II remained the most popular,[52] spawning a special Champion Edition that improved game balance and allowed players to use additional characters.[4] The popularity of Street Fighter II led it to be released for home game consoles and allowed it to define the template for fighting games.[4][52]

Many American developers tried to capitalize on the template established by Street Fighter II,[4] but it was Chicago's Midway Games who achieved unprecedented notoriety when they released Mortal Kombat in 1992. The game featured digital characters drawn from real actors, numerous secrets,[52][60] and a "fatality" system of finishing maneuvers with which the player's character kills their opponent. The game earned a reputation for its gratuitous violence,[60] and was eventually adapted for home game consoles.[52] The home version of Mortal Kombat was released on September 13, 1993, a day that was promoted as "Mortal Monday". The advertising resulted in line-ups to purchase the game and a subsequent backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence.[60] The Mortal Kombat franchise would ultimately achieve iconic status similar to that of Street Fighter with several sequels as well as movies, television series, and extensive merchandising.[27][61] Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat's financial success with similar games; Capcom USA took unsuccessful legal action against Data East Corp. over the 1993 arcade game Fighter's History.[16] Data East's largest objection in court was that their 1984 arcade game Karate Champ was the true originator of the competitive fighting game genre, which predated the original Street Fighter by three years.[62]

Virtua Fighter is rendered in 3D, but is typical of most fighting games in that most action takes place in a 2D plane of motion. Here, one player ducks the other's attack.

Sega AM2's first attempt in the genre was the 1993 anime-style arcade game Burning Rival,[63] but began to attract attention with the release of Virtua Fighter for the same platform the same year. It was the first fighting game with 3D polygon graphics and a viewpoint that zoomed and rotated with the action. Despite the graphics, players were confined to back and forth motion as seen in other fighting games. With only three buttons, it was easier to learn than Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, having six and five buttons respectively. By the time the game was released for the Sega Saturn in Japan, the game and system were selling at almost a one-to-one ratio.[52] Meanwhile, the 1993 title Mortal Kombat II captivated American audiences, and was considered the best Mortal Kombat game in retrospect during a 2008 review.[64]

The 1994 PlayStation launch title Battle Arena Toshinden is credited for taking the genre into "true 3-D" due to its introduction of the sidestep maneuver, which IGN described as "one little move" that "changed the fighter forever."[65] The same year, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one.[66] Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter II, including Super Street Fighter II and Super Street Fighter II Turbo. These games featured more characters and new moves, some of which were a response to people who had hacked the original Street Fighter II game to add new features themselves. However, criticism of these updates grew as players demanded a true sequel. By 1995, the dominant franchises were the Mortal Kombat series in America and Virtua Fighter series in Japan, with Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams unable to match the popularity of Street Fighter II.[4] Throughout this period, the fighting game was the dominant genre in competitive video gaming, with enthusiasts popularly attending arcades in order to find human opponents.[27]

Late 1990s[edit]

In the latter part of the 1990s, the fighting game genre began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty. Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the excess of fighting games the "Most Appalling Trend" award of 1995.[67] Although the release of Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series and continued the success of Street Fighter II and Street Fighter Alpha,[68][69][70] the Street Fighter: The Movie arcade game was regarded as a failure. Street Fighter: The Movie used digitized images from the Street Fighter film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.[4] While a home video game also titled Street Fighter: The Movie was released for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, it is not a port but a separately produced game based on the same premise.[71] Capcom later released Street Fighter III in 1997 which featured improved visuals and character depth, but was also unable to match the impact of Street Fighter II.[4] Despite excitement in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades, the limited hardware capabilities of the Sega Saturn led Sega to delay a console release.[52] Sega eventually released the game for its Dreamcast console,[72] but the company became unprofitable and was forced to discontinue the console.[73] Meanwhile, SNK released several fighting games on their Neo-Geo platform, including Samurai Shodown II in 1994, Real Bout Fatal Fury in 1995, The Last Blade in 1997, and annual updates to their The King of Fighters franchise.[74] Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves from 1999 was considered one of SNK's last great games,[75] and the company announced that it would close its doors in 2001.[76]

In retrospect, multiple developers attribute the decline of the fighting genre to its increasing complexity and specialization. This complexity shut out casual players, and the market for fighting games became smaller and more specialized.[77][78] Furthermore, arcades gradually became less profitable throughout the 1990s due to the increased technical power and popularity of home consoles.[16][74] Even as popularity dwindled, the fighting game genre continued to evolve; several strong 3D fighting games also emerged in the late 1990s. Namco's Tekken (released in arcades in 1994 and on the PlayStation in 1995) proved critical to the PlayStation's early success, with its sequels also becoming some of the console's most important titles.[79] The Soul series of weapon-based fighting games also achieved considerable critical success, beginning with 1997's Soul Edge (known as Soul Blade outside of Japan) to Soulcalibur V in 2012.[80][81] Tecmo released Dead or Alive (in 1996 in Japanese arcades and 1998 on the PlayStation). It spawned a long running franchise, known for its fast paced control system and innovative counterattacks. The series again included titles important to the success of their respective consoles, the last released installment being Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360.[28][82][83] In 1998, Bushido Blade, published by Square, introduced a realistic fighting engine that featured three-dimensional environments while abandoning time limits and health bars in favour of an innovative Body Damage System, where a sword strike to a certain body part can amputate a limb or decapitate the head.[84]

Video game enthusiasts took an interest in gaming crossovers which feature characters from multiple franchises in a particular game.[85] An early example of this type of fighting game was the 1998 arcade release Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, featuring comic book superheroes as well as Street Fighter characters.[4] In 1999, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allowed match-ups such as Pikachu versus Mario.[85]

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