Fughting Games

Screenshot of Kung Fu Master (1984, Irem). Screenshot of Kung Fu Master (1984, Irem).

Fighting games or fighters are video games in which players fight each other or computer-controlled enemies, usually employing some variation of the martial arts. Along with fixed shoot 'em ups, they are traditionally at home in the arcades, and are considered separate from sports games such as wrestling, boxing and "ultimate fighting" games.

The term beat 'em up is commonly used to specifically describe games in the scrolling fighting game sub-genre. However, among some players (particularly those from the UK), the phrase can refer to versus fighting games.

Scrolling fighting game

Screenshot of Double Dragon (1987, Technos). Screenshot of Double Dragon (1987, Technos).

In this type of fighting game, typically known as a brawler or beat 'em up, one or more players (most often two, but sometimes as many as six) each choose a unique character, and team up to punch, kick, throw and slash their way through a horde of computer-controlled enemies. The fighting occurs in a series of side-scrolling stages, some with a powerful boss enemy at the end. In the most common variation, players can move away and toward the screen as well as left and right, although earlier scrolling fighting games such as Kung Fu were more likely to allow only single-dimensional or linear movement, plus jumping. This style is sometimes referred to as a walk and punch game.

There are two main variations on the style of gameplay: a fisticuffs and martial arts emphasized, or weapons emphasized. Fisticuff emphasized games focus on primarily fighting opponents with hand to hand combat. On occasion these games will have weapons which the player can find lying around in the game world, or can take from opponents holding them(e.g. knocking down an opponent holding a bat in Double Dragon and Final Fight makes the opponent drop the bat). Since the primary focus of gameplay is hand-to-hand combat, it is common in this type of game for weapons to disappear relatively shortly after a player acquires them. This typically happens whenever a player is knocked down, uses the weapon more than specified number of times, or heads to another stage. Example of games with martial arts emphasized include the Streets of Rage series, River City Ransom, Final Fight, and the Double Dragon series.

Weapons-emphasized games have a plethora of martial-arts weapons (such as nunchaku and shuriken) as well as other types of weapons that are already at the player's disposal or can be found as the player progresses through the game. While some of these games do have hand-to-hand combat moves, like being to throw a close-standing opponent, the focus is on m?? or ranged weapon combat. Because the player is armed, these games typically have more opponents attacking a player at one time than games where the emphasis is on martial arts. Examples of games with weapons emphasized include the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Alien vs. Predator, Ninja Gaiden series, Devil May Cry series, Captain Commando, Dynamite Cop, Golden Axe series and Magic Sword.

Golden age of scrolling fighting games

Screenshot of Final Fight (1989, Capcom). Screenshot of Final Fight (1989, Capcom).

Starting in the mid 1980s, particularly with Double Dragon, the ability to move sideways via perspective was added. Two major milestones, which utilize this perspective approach are Double Dragon and Final Fight; both of these games spawned franchises that still survive today, while some of the most popular scrolling fighting games from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s utilized the same gameplay approach. At its height, the side scroller was one of the most popular kinds of arcade games, but they have since fallen out of fashion. Capcom was known for producing several popular scrolling fighting games, ranging from original titles such as Captain Commando and the Final Fight series to licenced works such as Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, Knights of the Round and Alien vs. Predator Capcom's most recent scrolling fighting game is Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance, which incorporates RPG-like gameplay.

Video game consoles also had some very popular scrolling fighting games, particularly River City Ransom for the NES, and the Streets of Rage series for the Sega Genesis.

Modern scrolling fighting games

While a few 3D scrolling fighting games exist (notably Sega's Die Hard Arcade and Spikeout, Squaresoft's The Bouncer and Konami's remake of 1989's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), they are much more a niche genre than the 2D iterations were. They are mostly attempts to captialize on popular franchises on previous video game consoles. The major innovation that in the modern games is the introduction of combo, and versus fighting game style moves to execute various attacks. In a combo system, the player can execute a certain series of moves to prevent the opponent from being able to counter attack and possibly receive bonuses for the number of consecutive hits. These gameplay extensions in part due to the expansion of the amount of buttons on modern controller interfaces, but also to add depth in what has been historically very simplistic gameplay (with some exceptions, such as the fighting system in the Kunio Kun games.

However, modern scrolling fighting games have increasingly taken traditional gameplay elements created new hybrid gameplay with other genres. These games are charterized by an added depth accomplished by presenting variety of missions, much more gunplay (and fighting abilities that involve guns such as disarming moves), and slow-down/"berserk mode" abilities. Essentially, the 3d scrolling fighting game has been merged with the third-person shooter genre. Games that take this unified approach include BloodRayne, The Warriors, and Dead to Rights.

Versus fighting game

Screenshot of Street Fighter II (1991, Capcom). Screenshot of Street Fighter II (1991, Capcom).

In versus, or competitive type of fighting games, two players (sometimes more) each choose a character, and then fight against each other over several rounds. The winner of a round either knocks out his opponent (usually by depleting an energy indication bar to zero), comes closest to knocking him out, or (in some 3D titles) sends him out of the ring.

In contrast to side-scrolling fighting games, most versus fighting games are competitive rather than co-operative. Some offer players the chance to battle as teams (two-on-two or three-on-three being most common) instead of one-on-one. The characters can be alternated in either a tag team (characters can be switched out in the middle of the round) or elimination mode (team whose members lose the individual rounds loses the match). In a few of these team versus games, players can opt to play on the same team, usually in a tag team fashion. Because of their competitive nature, versus fighting games are conducive to tournament play.

One of the main attractions of this game type is the large number of characters each game has, all of whom usually have a distinct appearance and fighting style. For example, the characters of the Street Fighter series come from around the world; characters of The King of Fighters series have very well defined personalities and backstories, as well as distinct and differing abilities; those of Eternal Champions were taken from distinct historical periods; the cast of the Guilty Gear series simply seem to differ wildly from one another; and characters from the Mortal Kombat series range from criminals to Shaolin monks to gods. Depending on their discipline, characters may be unarmed or armed with m?? weapons (swords, sticks, nunchaku, etc.).

Due to the fall in popularity of scrolling fighting games, the terms fighting game and fighter are generally taken to refer to versus fighting games.

The 2D/3D difference

Screenshot of Virtua Fighter (1993, Sega). Screenshot of Virtua Fighter (1993, Sega).

At present, versus fighting games can either be two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D).

Characters in 2D fighting games (Street Fighter, The King of Fighters, early Mortal Kombat, Guilty Gear, Killer Instinct) are hand-drawn/digitized and animated sprites, and can move left and right and duck and jump, but in many games they can't sidestep or move 'closer to the screen'. Games where the player can slightly take adventage of depth of the fighting arena include many of those in the Fatal Fury series. The player's viewpoint scrolls in various directions but stays at a fixed angle. The 2D fighter's characteristic gameplay mechanics are exaggerated jumps, projectile attacks, and an "air/ground/low" attack/block system. Since there is a lack of depth, two-dimensional titles usually involve extensive moves that take advantage of the height of the screen, as jump attacks are essential moves. Two dimensional games stem from long-established fighting systems that have been greatly refined over the years, resulting in most modern 2D fighters having more possible standard techniques than 3D fighters. Guilty Gear X2, for example, has instant-kills, opponent-launching moves, and a complex system of counter attacks and escapes.

Two-dimensional fighters also are have a greater number of mashup fighters: games where several characters from various other games are merged into one title. These games typically have a very large amount of playable characters, sometimes numbering over 64. Mashup fighters tend to be tag matches; the player chooses several characters, can switch between them during rounds, and utilize team-up attacks. Additionally, these games tend to have several different fighting systems to choose from, incorporating the fighting system from each originating game. Mashup fighters include Capcom's Verus series (Capcom vs. SNK et al), SNK's King of Fighters series, Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers series, and Sega's Fighters Megamix.

Screenshot of Soul Calibur II (2002/2003, Namco). Screenshot of Soul Calibur II (2002/2003, Namco).

In 3D titles (Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Tekken, Dead or Alive, later Mortal Kombat games), the characters and stages are 3D polygon-based models. The camera's viewpoint is not fixed and can rotate and move in any direction, and the characters can sidestep as well as duck and jump. In contrast with the gameplay of 2D titles, jumping and projectile attacks are typically minor elements. Often blocking and attacking are more complex, featuring high, mid, and low attacks and blocks. Thus, the gameplay in 3D fighters is generally two-dimensional as well, although in the XZ dimensions instead of XY; however, there are exceptions such as Power Stone and Tobal No. 1. 3D fighting games usually have slower attack speeds than their 2D counterparts, because instead of a punch being represented by a two-frame animation, a 3D game usually has a longer sequence (often created using motion capture) which is allowed to play fully, causing the overall attack to be slower but more realistic.

Three-dimensional games usually have much larger fighting arenas, which can have multiple sub-sections/paths (most notably in the Dead or Alive series There is a tendency for a number of environmental hazards that can be utilized against the opponent, such as knocking a player off a cliff or into an electrified fence. Many three-dimensional fighters have two win conditions; standard health depletion or ring-out. A ring-out is accompilshed by forcing the player out of the fighting arena either with an attack or just pressure. Thus, rounds in three-dimensional fighting games can end much sooner than in their 2D counterparts. Some 3D fighting games have gameplay that closely mimics 2D fighters, incorporating three-dimensional depth as a method of escaping attacks rather than an essential part of the fighting system. Notable examples of this include Capcom's Project Justice and Powersword series and Midway's Biofreaks.

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