Round 1: Other Fighting Games

[bulbasaur]

Back in the day, there were really only two dominant fighting games, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.  Things haven't changed much.  Despite this, there have actually been quite a lot of fighters.  Some good.  Some bad.  Some popular but bad.  Some unpopular but good.  Some were just a novelty.  Here is my ongoing list of other fighting games.  Let's start this list with a good ol' classic....

1. Samurai Showdown

SNK made some people want to buy a Neo Geo.  For the those who didn't have a Neo Geo, the arcade was our access.  The game was awesome.  The zooming of the camera just made the fighting dramatic.  I know that sounds silly compared to today's games (where even Mario games zoom), but it was special then.  The characters were cliche but yet unique.  The fighting system was quite good. 

The series would have some sequels.  SS2 was even better.  However, the series kinda took a downward spin after that.  SS3 and SS4 were okay, but I wasn't really into it anymore.  At this point, Street Fighter was my fighting game of choice, and I wasn't even playing that much anymore.  Learning a different game just wasn't in me. 

I haven't played the other Samurai Showdown games.  However, I do own the Samurai Showdown Anthology. 

Here is some artwork.

[bulbasaur]

2. Fatal Fury

It's no secret that SNK was going after Capcom for best publisher of fighting games.  SNK's answer to Street Fighter was Fatal Fury.  Strangely enough, the first Fatal Fury game was also labeled King of Fighters.  It was probably a stab at Capcom, but the title eventually became the title of SNK's best fighting game series. 

Fatal Fury had a different feel than Street Fighter, and it was fun.  Fatal Fury will always be known for giving us Mai.  I stopped playing around Fatal Fury Special, but there were many other sequels. 

A pic of Mai.

[bulbasaur]

3. Tekken

There have been many copycat 2D fighters of Street Fighter.  However, there were a few fighters that went in a different direction, and that direction was 3D.  Tekken was one of the early games to explore 3D fighting.  The first Tekken game had unrealistic high jumps similar to street fighter.  The graphics were "blocky."  However, by Tekken 3, it looked quite good and played quite well.  Tekken Tag was even more fun because you could choose 2 characters and do team combos.  To this day, Tekken is still one of the most popular fighting games.  It might be up there with SF and MK. It has a decent showing at EVO.

Oh, and the story was actually somewhat interesting. 

I didn't play the first 2, but I played 3.  I kinda stopped playing video games after that, but I do own the latest Tekken games for the PS3.  I don't play them, but I like to have them in my collection. 

[bulbasaur]

4. Battle Arena Toshinden

If you remember the release the of the PS1, then you probably remember this fun game.  The graphics don't match up today, but they were pretty exciting then.  The coolest feature of this game: the sidestep.  This game eventually led to another popular 3D sword fighting game.  You might have heard of it.  I'll talk about it later. 

I was never good at this game, but I enjoyed playing it at a friend's house. 

[bulbasaur]

5. Killer Instinct

Fighting games were all the rage, and of course, Nintendo wanted in on the action.  Nintendo, Rare, and Midway were hot stuff at the time, and this was their collaborative effort. 

My first glimpse of KI was on the DKC VHS promo.  If you watched after the credits, you saw a glimpse of the game being played on an arcade cabinet. 

KI was a lot fun because it was different from MK and SF.  It had unique features for its time.  Double energy bars.  C-c-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker.  90+ hit combo...ULTRA! 

I was never good at the game, but I enjoyed playing it.  There is a new one out for this gen.  It looks good. 

[Sifu]

KOF series is one of the best 2D fighting series.  So many characters with their own move sets and combos.  Not as much repetition as the Shoto or charge characters but Id say it was more innovative than Capcom's games.
Roll, hop (HOP!), short/long jump, super combo, ultimate combo (red health), initiating power charges, blocking break, combo cancel, air blocking, tagging, Mai Bounce.

The Samurai Showdown series isn't bad.  The 2nd is the best with the third behind it.  It's also the only game where I can only beat (the 2nd one) with one character.  The boss and extra hidden boss are stupid tough.

I really need to invest in a proper fighting stick.

[bulbasaur]

6. Art of Fighting

Who needs Ryu when you got Ryo?  This series was fun in the fact that it sorta had a story.  It was a prequel to Fatal Fury.  AoF is also cool because it kinda inspired one of the features in the MK game today.  In MK, the fighters would get bloodier as the fight goes on.  AoF did this way back in the sprite era.  Cool. 

AoF would live on in KoF.