G4TV

ORIGINALLY AIRED: 1/20/2005

Fighting Games

Episode #320

Anyone old enough to have fond memories playing games in an arcade will probably tell you of the days when Street Fighter II reigned as king of the arcade games, attracting gamers of all ages and abilities and opening the floodgates for waves of new fighting games sporting names you may recognize: Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, Final Fight, Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Samurai Shodown. 

However, the birth of fighting games came long before Capcom's juggernaut sequel landed in arcades in 1991.  In fact, the first one-on-one fighting game is considered to be Victronics' Warrior (1979), which featured vector graphics of two knights fighting over an overlay with a top-down perspective.  The next fighting game wouldn't appear for a long time due to the decline faced by video games in the early eighties, but made a huge comeback when Karate Champ is released by Data East in 1984.  Karate Champ was the first true two-player fighting game, featuring two joysticks for controls.  Thanks to the versus mode, gamers flocked to arcades to challenge their friends, and arcade operators were thankful for the added revenue.  Following on the heels of Karate Champ was Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu, which debuted in 1985 with impressive graphics (for the time) that featured detailed backgrounds in an arena setting.  Set on releasing their own fighting game for the arcade, Japanese arcade manufacturer Capcom begins on planning on their own game featuring the best elements of both Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung-Fu.  In 1987, the world gets to play as Ryu and Ken for the very first time in Street Fighter, which drew crowds thanks to the flashy super moves and a wide variety of characters to challenge.

Though the first Street Fighter title was huge, Capcom's arcade franchise really caught the attention of gamers the world over when they released Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991.  Featuring a slew of improvements over the original including accurate gameplay reading, a wide selection of characters each with a unique set of moves and outstanding graphics, the game becomes ubiquitous and brings people back to the arcade in droves.  Inspired by Capcom's multimillion dollar success, other companies attempt to cash in on the 2D fighting craze, including SNK, who introduced their highly popular King of Fighters series in 1994 using characters from their also popular Final Fight games, and Sunsoft, who released their World Heroes in 1992. 

Games that presented unique gameplay or style concepts flourished, while others that merely tried to copy the Street Fighter formula often fizzled out.  Once series that truly made a name for itself during this time was Midway's Mortal Kombat series, which used digitized images of real models hacking and slashing each other with gory gusto to produce the most shocking game that most people had yet seen.  Mortal Kombat became one of the most popular series of all time, but it was partly due to its controversial presentation of blood and gore in such a casual manner.  The complaints against the game spawned the formation of the Electronics Software Ratings Board in 1994 to rate games and prevent minors from being able to purchase copies of M-rated console games such as Mortal Kombat from game retailers. 

Meanwhile, game developers, namely Sega's Yu Suzuki, decided to develop a new way for gamers to fight each other... in 3D.  Sega releases Virtua Fighter in 1993, and is well received due to its unique format and attention to authenticity.   However, the emergence of 3D games does not signal the death of the previously huge 2D fighting genre; gamers continue to play more seamless and detailed versions of Street Fighter II and other 2D games in addition to the new 3D options.  Though 3D fighters did not replace 2D games initially, the influx of new and better games and series such as the story-oriented Tekken series and the Dead or Alive series, which debuted with all its bouncy joy in the arcade in 1996.   To entice gamers bored with traditional games in the Street Fighter II vein, game companies also introduce series with different gameplay styles, such as incorporating the use of weapon-based martial arts as in Soul Calibur, characters from other genres such as in Marvel vs. Capcom, and games of other genres using fighting game characters (Super Puzzle Fighter).

However, as the decade neared a close, gamers were beginning to grow tired of arcade games and their increasingly complicated button combinations and increasingly expensive costs.  Arcade attendance began to dwindle and gamers increasingly bought their arcade favorites as console versions once the quality of console games began to equal and surpass the quality of gameplay and graphics found at the arcade.  Eventually, game developers such as Tecmo's Tomonobu Itagaki (Dead or Alive) began to develop fighting games with the console in mind rather than the arcade.  This trend continued as arcades began to suffer from a lack of new games, becoming places where only the truly hardcore or the truly desperate came to test their skills. 

Walking through most arcades today, it would seem that the fighting genre is dead, but in fact, it has only moved location and is very much alive.  Even the dominance of 3D gaming hasn't killed the enthusiasm still held by many for 2D games, as is evidenced by the popularity of the Guilty Gear series, which has the look of anime as a fighting game.  Today, gamers across the country challenge each other in Mortal Kombat: Deception over the internet or in Dead or Alive: Ultimate over Xbox Live, ensuring that gamers will be challenging each other in fighting games for years to come.