Since the early days of the video game arcade, fighting games have become a staple in nearly every gamer’s diet at one time or another. There have been a ton of them from the earliest Street Fighter games to Smash Bros. and all points in, around and beyond. With the imminent stinker that is Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure on the horizon, we thought it only fitting that we would count down ten of our favorite fighting games to try and lessen the blow of the fowl wind blowing this way. Without further ado, let’s do this.
The Way of The Exploding Fist
This game was released in 1985 on the Commodore 64 computer platform and borrowed heavily from Karate Champ by Data East. The toss-up is that both Karate Champ and Exploding Fist have both been touted as being the genesis of one-on-one fighting games as we know it, but Exploding Fist was the first to bring it home. Karate Champ was an arcade title that later came to home-based platforms after the success of Exploding Fist . So really, you could argue that either was the first. But we are calling it Exploding Fist .
Virtua Fighter
By the time Virtua Fighter came out, I was already eyeballs deep in the fighting game genre. I had played everything that had come out to that point and gotten really, really good at them. But until I played this game, all the fighting games I had played were either strict side-scrollers or general movement games like King of the Monsters . So when Virtua Fighter hit in 1993, I was blown away at its 3D stylings. Sadly, over the years the franchise hasn’t really gained any speed, but it has sure affected the development of the genre. The inclusion of 3D movement quickly became a very important part of fighting video games.
Battle Arena Toshinden
Another innovator in the genre, Toshinden is widely considered to be the first true 3D fighting experience. It was he first franchise to use completely rendered, polygonal characters as well as introducing a little technique called the side-step. Those two innovations alone have secured Toshinden a spot on our list. Without these things, most of the fighting games we play now would either not have happened at all or would have been seriously lame. So truth be told, we owe a lot more than a slot on our countdown to Battle Arena Toshinden .
Samurai Shodown
This was the very first one-on-one fighting game to include weapons within its combat structure. Up until this point, gamers were treated only to bare-knuckle brawling, but Samurai Shodown brought that concept to a whole new level. For the very first time, you could hack and slash your opponent into a corner and drain every last ounce of blood out of them in this 18th century samurai duel. It was one of the first titles since Art of Fighting to use a camera zoom to increase the intensity of the fight as it came to a climax. Unfortunately this franchise would only last a few more years and spawn marginally successful sequels. But because of its innovation, it is still one of our favorites.
Soul Edge
Back in 1995, the second game to incorporate weapons in a one-on-one fighting game came along from a then fledgling developer named Project Soul. Soul Edge was also the first 3D fighter to incorporate all of the technologies, innovations and controls up to that time. The game included weapons, side-stepping, true 3D modelling of characters, fully rendered backgrounds and intense controls with a high learning curve if you wanted to be the best. It was also one of the first (but not THE first) to use an active blocking system where you actually had to push a button to block an oncoming attack. And the most important thing to come out of this game? It was the precursor to Soul Caliber .
King of The Monsters
What fighting game list would be complete without at least one monster title? We figured that this game had to be added to the list in order for us to be true to ourselves. Even though Rampage was technically the first of this kind, KotM took everything that made the Godzilla movies awesome and then mixed it with a healthy dose of Ultraman and then took a nod from the World Wrestling Federation. Then they mixed all those awesome things together and suddenly, there was KotM . This game took you and a competitor on a smash and crash brawl all across Japan. The idea was to not only pin your opponent for a three-count, but to wreak as much havoc as possible while you were doing it.
Soul Calibur
Taking a nod from its predecessor, Soul Calibur literally came out swinging and was met with a great response from gamers. After the success of Soul Edge , the teams at Project Soul and NAMCO wanted to ensure that they continued on the path of innovation for the fighting game genre. And they succeeded. They took all of the great things from Soul Edge and then took it one step further with the eight-way run techniques. Never before had gamers been able to not only run in eight different directions from their standing point, they were also able to launch into combos and dodges from these running points. Then you add into that some of the more memorable characters in fighting games as well as a cool, albeit brief, story and you have the makings of a great franchise.
Tekken
There aren’t many other fighting titles that have enjoyed the amount of success that the Tekken franchise has had worldwide. It had been a staple at gaming tournaments the world over and has spawned more sequels and franchises than most other video games ever do. Originally released in 1995, Tekken was met with rave reviews. Ed Boon, of Mortal Kombat fame, has even cited Tekken as his favorite game series among MK ’s competitors. There have been six entries into the canon of Tekken games, but there have also been two animated feature films, one live action film and five print adaptations of the Tekken franchise as well as a few spin-off titles. It’s safe to say that this is one of our all-time favorites.
Street Fighter
I still remember the first time I saw this game. It was a battle at an arcade between two friends of mine. One was playing as Blanka and the other was playing as Guile. I remembered thinking that this was something unlike anything I had seen before. It was kind of like Double Dragon , except it was just the two fighters battling to the death. I remembered thinking that a game like that just couldn’t be fun enough to warrant the line that was amassing for that arcade cabinet, but I was wrong. Since that day I have logged in countless hours on every title in the franchise and it has become one of my personal favorite franchises ever. Though it’s not my favorite fighting game of all time, it is definitely one that needs to be mentioned. Its stylized bloody-knuckled goodness has fueled gaming tournaments for over two decades now.
Mortal Kombat
This game was the one that really pushed one-on-one fighters to the next level. With the exception of terrible entries like Pit Fighter , Mortal Kombat brought a level of brutality and blood-and-guts that had not really ever been seen before in video gaming, and for Midway Games the gamble paid off…big time. It was also one of the first video games in the fighting genre to include ‘Easter Eggs’ and ‘Secret Characters’ that only added to the amount of replay to the titles. They have also had a truckload of spin-off games as well as films, comics and have even crossed over with the heroes and villains of DC comics. Mortal Kombat has become one of the premier fighting franchises in gaming and at one point even dwarfed its closest rival, the Street Fighter series, as the highest grossing fighting franchise ever. So to us, at least, Mortal Kombat stands above all the other fighting titles and secures our top spot on this list.