Fighting game

This article is about competitive fighting games in which opponents face off in a battle. For scrolling fighting games in which players face off against groups of opponents, see Beat 'em up.

A fighting game (also referred as a versus fighting game, competitive fighting game, tournament fighting game or head-to-head fighting game) is a sub-genre of action games and is one of the major video game genres. In a fighting game, players face off against each other or against computer-controlled characters in close combat. The main distinction between this genre and the beat 'em up genre is that players are of roughly equal power to their opponents, and fights are self-contained matches involving a limited number of characters. While not defining traits of the genre, the vast majority of fighting games involve life bars, fights that last an odd number of rounds, and are viewed in profile.

Gameplay

There are several concepts common to many fighting games. The most common element is health, usually in the form of a rectangular "life bar". Combos, in which several attacks are chained together using basic 'punch' and 'kick' attacks, are a feature common to 2D fighting games since they were introduced in Streetfighter II. 2D fighters also emphasize the difference between the height of attacks, and usually have both "special moves" and "super special moves". Blocking is another basic technique in which a player defends attacks, whether in the air or the ground. Games like Capcom's Street Fighter III provide an advanced blocking technique in the genre called "parrying" while SNK's Garou: Mark of the Wolves involve "Just Defending" (both involve a well-timed directional maneuver). Throwing is a close-up attack in which a player inputs a specific command when close to the opponent; entire games and characters in normal games can be mostly grapple-based. Counterattacking (usually landing a hit on an opponent before after the opponent begins an attack) is also a common element of gameplay.

Freedom of movement

Most fighting games let players move back and forth. But some games such as Fatal Fury: King of Fighters allow players to move into the foreground or background. Even some fighting games like the original Virtua Fighter are rendered in 3D, but restrict players to back and forth movement. Games with back and forth movement tend to put a greater emphasis on ducking and jumping, since players cannot side-step around each other.

Special attacks

One of the most common features of fighting games is the presence of "special moves", also called "secret moves", employing complex combinations of button presses to perform a single particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. As an example, the Killer Instinct character Fulgore will throw three projectiles if the player presses forward, back, rolls from back to forward (hitting down-back, down, down-forward on the way), and pushes the button for weak punch. These generally vary by character, making it difficult for a player to learn all of each character's moves; some newer games will feature dozens of special moves per character. Many games adopt what are known as fighting styles, where the player may choose from a smaller number of particular universal sets of special moves rather than having to learn a much larger number of button combinations. In older games, special moves might have been listed in the manual, in player guides, or kept as secrets for the player to discover; newer games often list them in-game. The non-traditional Super Smash Bros. series is notable for using extremely simple button combinations that are valid for every character.

Taunting

Taunting is a type of move first seen in the Art of Fighting series, and has been used in most games of the genre ever since. Taunting is personality-based, much like victory poses and character intros. Taunting is used to lighten the mood in most games, but in some games it can be an essential component of the gameplay. Sometimes, a character can even be famous for taunting (for example, Dan Hibiki from Street Fighter Alpha).

Victory conditions

In most fighting games, a match consists of a varying number of rounds. In a one-on-one match, it is usually determined by winning two out of three rounds (though the exact number can depend on the game).

Knockout (K.O.)

A player usually wins a mark upon depleting an opponent's health, performing a knockout (K.O.). In general, this is the most commonly employed mechanic of victory in a fighting game as it is the simplest and most obvious objective of any such game. Many games will reward a "perfect", where the player manages to defeat an enemy without losing any health whatsoever, or a "one hit K.O.", where a player defeats an enemy with only one action. Moreover, should both characters simultaneously reduce each other's hit points to zero, a Double K.O. may be declared. K.O.'s and special K.O.'s are often accompanied by a voiceover declaring the type of victory.

Ring-out

Ring-out (usually but not always found in 3D fighting games) can be a faster way of defeating an opponent than the knockout. In the event that an opponent has left or been somehow made to leave the fighting area, a "ring out" will be awarded. Ring-outs can only happen in arenas that have no intervening wall or curb (in many games with the ring-out option of victory, the boundaries of a stage can be destroyed in order make a ring-out possible in that spot). In the Super Smash Bros. series, ring-out is the primary means of victory in most modes; in all but one mode of play, characters will not faint upon sustaining damage, but will instead be knocked away further by attacks as their damage meter increases. In the realm of more traditional fighting games, the Virtua Fighter and Soul series are the most popular games that employ the ring-out condition of victory. In Virtua Fighter, fighters can remove themselves from the ring as an act of surrender but in the Soul series, although possible, it's a little harder for fighters to force themselves out. Both games also have walls on some stages that prevent this condition of victory.

Time Over

Most fighting games feature a timer that counts down to zero when a round begins. This timer serves as another condition of victory. Should the timer reach zero before a character runs out of health or is removed from the ring, the victor is determined by whoever had the most health when the timer hit zero. These timers generally force players to seek a victory before the time is up to avoid being the one with the least amount of health when the timer runs out. Usually in the event of a tie (both players end the round with an equal amount of health), draws are called (which can lead to Sudden Death, see below) or sometimes (such as Street Fighter III: Third Strike's method) the game makes a judgment call on who they believe to be the winner (usually graded on fighting effectiveness). Most fighting games for consoles include options to disable the timer so as to always have a victor by knockout or ring out (meaning actually ending the round instead of forcing an ending via time limit). This sort of ruling is somewhat similar to a technical knockout in boxing.

Fatalities

In 1992, Mortal Kombat introduced "fatalities" in which the victor finishes off a knocked-out opponent by killing him or her (usually in a highly violent and gruesome way). Later on, many other fighting games adopted this concept.

Sudden Death

In many fighting games, "sudden death" is a match which occurs after matches that end the final round in a "double K.O." or a "draw" (which usually happens when the combatants have similarly depleted health). To break the tie, one fighter must defeat the other in a sudden-death match. Sudden Death may also have different connotations depending on the series; In the Super Smash Bros. series, for example, characters with tied scores are spawned with a set amount of damage such that they may be thrown off of the stage very easily, and with moves that would not have done so with a normal amount of damage. A "Super Sudden Death" mode is also incorporated (enacted in the pre-game settings), in which a game is played with sudden death conditions from the start. Sudden Death is also a term for an advanced version of "Overkill" in the Sega CD version of Eternal Champions; other games such as BloodStorm or Guilty Gear allow players to do away with their opponents regardless of health if certain conditions are met.

Customization and modding

Custom creation, or "create-a-fighter", is a feature of some fighting games which allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. This feature has been used in wrestling games (as "Create-a-wrestler") since Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium in 1996, but Fighter Maker (in 1999) and Kakuge-Yaro: Fighting Game Creator (2000) were two of the first fighting games that worked with this concept heavily. Other fighting games such as Soulcalibur III, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 adopted this concept. Some fighting games, even those that lack this feature, allow the player to create other types of game content: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, for example, features the ability to create custom stages and Godzilla: Unleashed features the ablility to modify the gameplay, allowing different speed types and even the ability to change the size of the character.

Single player, multiplayer, and teams

Fighting games usually include a single player mode. Most games offer a single player campaign, where the player selects a character and attempts to win a tournament against other computer controlled characters. Winning the tournament sometimes unlocks special features or hidden characters, or simply reveals an ending cut scene. However, most fighting games offer a multiplayer mode where players may fight each other, sometimes by letting a second player challenge the first player at any moment in the tournament. Some games such as Super Smash Bros. even allow up to four players to fight at at the same time. This can lead to difficulties in controlling which direction your character is facing, and which character you are attacking. Newer fighting games take advantage of online gaming services, although the split-second timing involved in fighting games can make lag extremely disruptive.

Games have also experimented with game modes that involve teams of characters. For example, some games let players form tag teams where fighting is one-on-one, but a character may tag out to be replaced by a team mate. Fighting games have offered teams of two, three, or more. The entire tag team can be controlled by a single player, but many games let different players control different team members. These tag team matches may involve different victory conditions, with some game modes awarding victory to the first team to score a knock out, while other game modes require all members of a team to be eliminated. Other games allow teams to fight on the screen simultaneously, although friendly fire is usually disabled. These team-based match-ups sometimes allow special team-based maneuvers or quick assists from a team mate. Some games like Fatal Fury offer a game mode where multiple players can fight against a single opponent. Other games have offered the challenge of fighting against multiple opponents in succession, thus testing the player's endurance.

History

Early fighting games

Two of the earliest fighting games were Data East's Karate Champ from 1984, and Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu from 1985. While Karate Champ involved fights between generic characters, Yie Ar Kung Fu pitted the player against a variety of characters with a unique appearance and fighting style. The game mechanics were relatively simple compared to modern fighting games. Players could only execute a few different kicks and punches, and could not jump. The player had a few health boxes which would be depleted upon taking a hit. Another early arcade fighting game was Data East's Shanghai Kid from 1985, which featured a basic combo system and a two-button special move. In the same year, Konami's Galactic Warriors was the first fighting game to let players choose from multiple characters with different move sets. It also featured projectile attacks and a health bar, as opposed to a health meter comprised of discrete boxes and notches. Meanwhile, The Way of the Exploding Fist borrowed heavily from Karate Champ, which itself spawned several imitators.

Both Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu were studied by Capcom, which led them to release Street Fighter in 1987. Street Fighter found its own niche in the gaming world, partially because many arcade game developers in the 1980s were more focused on producing beat-em-ups and shoot 'em ups. Some of Street Fighter's appeal was the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls, creating a sense of mystique, and inviting players to learn and master the game. Although these advanced controller motions were first used for grappling maneuvers in Brian Jack's Uchi Mata one year earlier, this feature began to pervade other games in the rising fighting game genre. The modest popularity of Street Fighter inspired SNK to release Street Smart in 1989, which featured relatively detailed graphics, and a combo system where players could string together several normal attacks. Pit-Fighter from 1990 was a unique but simple fighting game which featured digitized graphics of real-life actors, that was one of the most well-known fighting games at its time. 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. The popularity of early fighting games was limited by technical challenges. Game developers had difficulty producing a game that could recognize the fast motions of a joystick, and so players had a hard time executing special moves with any accuracy.

Rise and peak

The release of Street Fighter II in 1991 is often considered a revolutionary moment in the fighting game genre. One key reason is that it took advantage of Capcom's CPS arcade chipset, allowing the development team to produce graphically detailed characters and stages. Whereas previous games allowed players to combat a variety of computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter 2 allowed players to play against each other. Another reason for the game's success was that Yoshiki Okamoto's team developed the most accurate joystick and button scanning routine thus far. For example, players could hold the joystick back for two seconds and then press it forward with a punch button or roll the joystick from down to back with a kick button. This allowed players to reliably execute special moves, which had previously required an element of luck. The game also featured six different buttons for six different attacks. The popularity of Street Fighter 2 surprised the gaming industry, as arcade owners bought more machines to keep up with demand. Street Fighter 2 established a new template for fighting games, and it was not long before other developers tried to capitalize on this formula.

SNK's fighting game, Fatal Fury, which was in developed at the same time as Street Fighter II, came out before the end of 1991. It 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. But the game was never released out of Japan, because Sega felt that unrestrained 3D fighting games were just not fun. Several fighting games achieved greater commercial success, including SNK's Art of Fighting and Samurai Shodown, as well as Sega's Eternal Champions. However, Street Fighter II remained the most popular, releasing a special Champion Edition with improved game balance and allowing players to use the four final boss characters. The first American developer to learn from the template established by Street Fighter II was Midway Games. The release of Mortal Kombat in 1992 featured digitized characters drawn from real actors, and was packed with secrets. The game was notable for its violence, incorporating a fatality system of finishing maneuvers where the player kills their opponent. The popularity of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat led them to be adapted for home game consoles. Mortal Kombat promoted its release on September 13, 1993, aka Mortal Monday, which resulted in line-ups to purchase the game, and a backlash from politicians concerned about the game's violence. Numerous other game developers tried to imitate Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat's financial success with games like Data East's Fighter's History, and while the most 2D fighting games were made in the early 90's, very few of them were successful.

Sega began to make waves with the 1993 release of Virtua Fighter in arcades. 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, which each had 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. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat II from 1993 captivated American audiences, and is considered to be the best in the series in retrospect. In 1994, SNK released The King of Fighters '94 in arcades, where players choose from teams of three characters to eliminate each other one by one. Eventually, Capcom released further updates to Street Fighter 2, 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 2 game to add new features themselves. However, criticism of these upgrades 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.

Decline and shift

In the latter part of the 1990s, the fighting game genre began to decline in popularity, with specific franchises falling into difficulty. The releases of Street Fighter EX and Street Fighter: The Movie arcade games were regarded as failures. Street Fighter EX introduced 3D graphics to the series, while Street Fighter: The Movie used digitized images from the Street Fighter film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Capcom finally released Street Fighter 3 in 1997 which featured improved visuals and character depth, but it was unable to match the impact of Street Fighter 2. Despite excitement in Japan over Virtua Fighter 3 in arcades, the limited hardware capabilities of Sega Saturn led Sega to delay a console release. Eventually it was released for the Dreamcast, but dwindling sales led Sega to discontinue the console. 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, as well as annual updates to their King of Fighters franchise. But Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves from 1999 was considered one of SNK's last great games (as well as the Dreamcast's), and the company announced that it would close its doors in in 2001.

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. Also, arcades became substantially less profitable around the turn of the millennium. One such reason was the release of the Dreamcast in 1998, which marked the point when it was no longer economical to make arcade hardware substantially more powerful than inexpensive home consoles. Without the added revenue from arcade releases, fewer fighting games were fiscally feasible.

Despite this decline, core fans of fighting games took a larger interest in game crossovers, where characters from different fictional universes collide. The first franchise to promote this kind of crossover in its title was the Marvel vs. Capcom series in 1996, a Capcom game that combined characters from the Street Fighter series with characters from Marvel Comics that had been seen in X-Men: Children of the Atom. Although earlier fighting games had featured characters seen in other games (usually beat 'em ups), the success of this promotion led to several other fighting game crossovers. In 1999, just as Capcom and SNK co-operated to produce SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium, Nintendo released the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, which allows match-ups such as Pikachu versus Mario.

Even as popularity dwindled, the fighting game genre continued to evolve. Several strong 3D fighting games also emerged in the late 1990s, such as Tekken, and the Soul series of weapon-based fighting games. Other notable 3D fighters include Fighting Vipers, Dead or Alive, and Star Gladiator.

Recent history

SNK re-opened its doors, and released 3D fighting games such as the console-exclusive KOF: Maximum Impact in 2004 and its sequal.

Only a couple notable 2D fighting games came out each year in the 00's. Capcom was a strong supporter of the Sega Naomi platform, but after Capcom vs SNK 2 came out in 2001, they virtually disappeared from arcades, save for the pieced-together Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition in 2003 and Capcom Fighting Jam in 2004. SNK continued their annual updates to The King of Fighters through 2003, and released their last Neo-Geo game in 2004. They cited piracy as the main reason the Neo-Geo format was no longer viable. SNK released games for the Atomiswave board in 2004 and 2005. Arc System Works made a splash with the high-resolution sprites of Guilty Gear X in 2000, and continues to use them to this day. They also made Hokuto no Ken on Atomiswave for Sega in 2005, and Sengoku Basara X for Capcom in 2007. Dimps released The Rumble Fish, which used characters made from 2D rotating vectors, on the Atomiswave platform in 2004. Other 2D fighters from this decade are Arcana Heart from Exemu and Melty Blood. Fighting games with 3D graphics and 2D gameplay made a return with Battle Fantasia in 2007, and Tatsunoko vs Capcom and Street Fighter IV in 2008. While Capcom hasn't completely forgotten 2D sprites thanks to Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, it is a straight-to-console remake developed by the American company Backbone Entertainment. SNK plans to release King of Fighters XII in 2009. It will have all-new hand-drawn high-resolution characters, and will be their first original 2D fighting game since 2005.

In the new millennium, fighting games are less popular and plentiful than they once were in the mid 1990s, with multiplayer competition shifting towards other genres. However, Japan maintained a sizable online multiplayer fighting game community on the Dreamcast and PS2, and classic Street Fighter games have been re-released on the XBox Live Arcade in 2007.

See also

• List of fighting games
• List of fighting game companies