by SupaSlick

(Note: This is the second part of a 3 part series. To see part 1 click HERE.)


A lot has changed in the world of fighting games since their heyday in the early to mid 90’s. The biggest difference you’ll notice today is the switch from 2d to 3d. Unfortunately, this transition hasn't worked for most of the 2d classics. The kings of the genre, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat, both had their shot and in my opinion, failed.

The Street Fighter Series failed miserably in the late 90’s with a SF EX version for the PS1. Thankfully, the creators stuck with 2d after that and continued to make some great, if not overdone, revisions. Mortal Kombat fared much better in its 3d changes, however most die-hard fans will refuse to play them, claiming that the old school versions still rule.

Fighting games today are graphic powerhouses. The eye-popping visuals and spot-on controls drastically changed what can be done in a 3d ring. Look at the Dead or Alive, Soul Calibur, and Virtua Fighter series. These three are still popular, with current versions still around.

Apparently, they're just not popular enough.
(Cue hulk-like rage!)

So what's the deal?! Why aren't you playing them? I guess the fighter just isn't good enough for you. Screw the tight controls, accurate hit detection, and awesome chainable combos! Screw the different selection of cool characters with their intricate and unique playstyles! Screw the fun of beating your buddy to a pulp in a non-stop chain of ass-kickery and getting a perfect! It's all Master Chief this and Master Chief that.... Well ya know what *explicative deleted* Master Chief! You can take a rising dragon punch right up your green armored ass!


Ok, I'm enhancing my calm.
The trouble is, as great as those series are, the excitement and popularity over them is nothing compared to 2d fighters in their prime. With more games becoming popular because of their multiplayer features, where does that leave the fighter that, by definition is built for two? The real problem is, no matter what fighter you play, the single player is short lived. You can add all the unlockables and modes you want, but the bottom line is you only want to play the computer for so long.

Going online against a friend certainly threw a spark into the mix, but in the end it’s hard to find people who still like them. I was psyched to play Street Fighter: Anniversary Edition against other people on the original Xbox, at first. (I still play it if you ever want a whoopin!) However, even though playing a stranger online is better, it’s still lacking that rush.

The best solution so far has come from Dead or Alive: Ultimate with its “quarter match” mode. This is a mode where a group of people get to talk and watch while waiting their turn to fight. I really hope VF5 has this feature. I think this is the closest a fighter can get to the “community” feel of a popular FPS. You get a couple of other decent fighter fans, good game with a good quarter mode, and maybe, just maybe, we can recapture that feeling from the good old arcade days.

So are fighting games dead? Do you still play them? Is it worth a SarcasticGamer night if there’s a good tournament mode? Tell us on the forums!

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I still play fighting games regularly. Sadly, I don't have anyone to play against as most of my friends doesn't really like them. I hope that more and more games will come with an online mode, that would solve things a bit.

The downside of online play with fighting games is that lag has a very heavy impact on how you play, button presses can quickly become inaccurate. The timing that these games require in general take a huge blow when the connection between players are less than almost perfect.
Nonetheless, I look forward to what the future will bring for us beat-em-up lovers.

fighting games haven't died, they have evolved and you guys are just too old now to awaken to the "new" fighters. you keep citing early 90's fighters games, and their offspring. sadly you forgetting killer instinct, guilty gear, and marvel vs. {capcom} Vs. SNK but that's not my point. You don't want great fighter games, you want a new version of the same thing you played when you were a kid. Grow up, or regress as the case may be.
Here are things you're ignoring while trying to bleed out some childhood nostalgia:
New fighters are anime show characters now,(since almost all fighter games were japanese manga ideas this shouldn't be a shock to you) Dragonball z has has more fighter releases in the last 6 years that street fighter ever had. Next naruto is gaining ever more popularity now, and will be huge for 360 AND the wii. Then Bleach for the wii: actual sword fighting with the remote!
boxing games have taken up more attention now, like rocky legends & fight night 3 and if you read the first part, then Fighting Spirit will be another great boxing game coming out based upon the anime.
Then there is the wrestling games: def jam, rumble roses, WCW, these games aren't MY thing but they're out there.
And the grand daddy of all fighter games, Super smash brothers. If you haven't played it you haven't gotten out of an arcade since Y2K. Its simple to play, fun for hours, hilarious, and has more tournaments held for it than any other fighter game at most gaming conventions. I Guarantee you people have wiis sitting in their homes waiting for the day that brawl comes out. I don't know why you didn't count it, probably cause you don't have to rolling the joystick constantly.
Yes arcades are dying, but you can't say fighter games are, you just don't want to spend the time to get good at the new styles of fighting.

I find some of the newer fighters out there, require, multiple upon multiple button combo's to pull off special moves, i think the joy to the 2d fighters, was they had simple(ish) controls to master, and you knew if you were close enough to land a Shoryuken (not sure of spelling, that was the dragon punch) which is much more harder to tell in the newer 3d versions.

These games should be simple, pick up and play fun, which most (if not all) of the new 3d versions lack.

On a side note, i have Street Fighter 2 on the 360, if anybody wants a game.

gamertag - BigAndiD

I find some of the newer fighters out there, require, multiple upon multiple button combo's to pull off special moves, i think the joy to the 2d fighters, was they had simple(ish) controls to master, and you knew if you were close enough to land a Shoryuken (not sure of spelling, that was the dragon punch) which is much more harder to tell in the newer 3d versions.

These games should be simple, pick up and play fun, which most (if not all) of the new 3d versions lack.

On a side note, i have Street Fighter 2 on the 360, if anybody wants a game.

gamertag - BigAndiD

yeah the simplicity in the control scheme was great

fighting games haven't died, they have evolved and you guys are just too old now to awaken to the "new" fighters. you keep citing early 90's fighters games, and their offspring. sadly you forgetting killer instinct, guilty gear, and marvel vs. {capcom} Vs. SNK but that's not my point. You don't want great fighter games, you want a new version of the same thing you played when you were a kid. Grow up, or regress as the case may be.
Here are things you're ignoring while trying to bleed out some childhood nostalgia:
New fighters are anime show characters now,(since almost all fighter games were japanese manga ideas this shouldn't be a shock to you) Dragonball z has has more fighter releases in the last 6 years that street fighter ever had. Next naruto is gaining ever more popularity now, and will be huge for 360 AND the wii. Then Bleach for the wii: actual sword fighting with the remote!
boxing games have taken up more attention now, like rocky legends & fight night 3 and if you read the first part, then Fighting Spirit will be another great boxing game coming out based upon the anime.
Then there is the wrestling games: def jam, rumble roses, WCW, these games aren't MY thing but they're out there.
And the grand daddy of all fighter games, Super smash brothers. If you haven't played it you haven't gotten out of an arcade since Y2K. Its simple to play, fun for hours, hilarious, and has more tournaments held for it than any other fighter game at most gaming conventions. I Guarantee you people have wiis sitting in their homes waiting for the day that brawl comes out. I don't know why you didn't count it, probably cause you don't have to rolling the joystick constantly.
Yes arcades are dying, but you can't say fighter games are, you just don't want to spend the time to get good at the new styles of fighting.

Thanks for your input!

Actually I am a fan of lot of the games you mentioned, but I could only mention so much in the article. I loved Guilty Gear, MvC 2 on the Dreamcast and Smash Brothers as well. Also, I love that fighting games are still around. My point is that as great as these games are, the number of people who play them is still dwarfed by the bigger multiplayer FPS. I don't know about you, but it's been quite difficult for me to find a group of people who all like fighting games.

In my opinion it all comes down to video game progression over the years. The reason fighting games were so huge back in the day is because of what games they were competing with in the arcade. Most video games were very primitive back in the early 90s, but since fighting games were such a simple concept and the graphics could outshine most other games because of the little amount of level that had to be drawn, they were able to stand out among the rest of the arcade games. Not only that but fighting games in the arcade were pretty much the beginning of versus play style. Being able to beat down on somebody and brag about it was an extremely new concept and could only be achieved by playing fighting games, which as we have all come to find out from playing the frat boys and 13 year olds on Halo 2, is a huge draw for gamers.

When you look at how fighting games have progressed over time compared to FPS's and other genres then it's easy to see why they've lost interest from gamers. Most genres have made leaps and bounds in innovation while fighters have pretty much stayed the same with graphical enhancements. I personally think the problem is that most gamers these days have such a short attention span that if something cool and new isn't happening every 5 minutes while playing a game, then they just lose interest.

I do miss some of the classic fighting games but at the same time I think they've done a pretty good job of progressing the fighting genre. Dead or Alive and Smash Bros are a testament to that. I personally can't wait for the new Smash Bros. It is by far the game I want to play most, even more so than Halo 3. I think when that game is released we'll see quite a revival in the number of people playing fighting games.:)

In my opinion it all comes down to video game progression over the years. The reason fighting games were so huge back in the day is because of what games they were competing with in the arcade. Most video games were very primitive back in the early 90s, but since fighting games were such a simple concept and the graphics could outshine most other games because of the little amount of level that had to be drawn, they were able to stand out among the rest of the arcade games. Not only that but fighting games in the arcade were pretty much the beginning of versus play style. Being able to beat down on somebody and brag about it was an extremely new concept and could only be achieved by playing fighting games, which as we have all come to find out from playing the frat boys and 13 year olds on Halo 2, is a huge draw for gamers.

When you look at how fighting games have progressed over time compared to FPS's and other genres then it's easy to see why they've lost interest from gamers. Most genres have made leaps and bounds in innovation while fighters have pretty much stayed the same with graphical enhancements. I personally think the problem is that most gamers these days have such a short attention span that if something cool and new isn't happening every 5 minutes while playing a game, then they just lose interest.

I do miss some of the classic fighting games but at the same time I think they've done a pretty good job of progressing the fighting genre. Dead or Alive and Smash Bros are a testament to that. I personally can't wait for the new Smash Bros. It is by far the game I want to play most, even more so than Halo 3. I think when that game is released we'll see quite a revival in the number of people playing fighting games.:)

Well said, and I hope you're right!

good points yousty, I think fighter games brought ideas like vs people to the gaming arena, which was innovative, but now vs. has drastically expanded to all realms of gaming. I think the online arena isn't designed with one on one in mind, at least not exclusively. Add to the fact that Xbox online doesn't support most of the current fighter games out, I could understand how you'd feel you can't find people to verse online. Hopefully wii will dramatically upgrade thier online ability for smash brothers, or sony will actually make some fighter games, aside from PSP. Until then, If you want to fight someone, you have to find them.

If you want to fight someone, you have to find them.

Yeah, that was one of the reasons why I started the articles, it would be cool if we can get a group of fighting fans together. How do you feel about VF5?