Since they burst onto the arcade scene in the 1990s, fighting games and the genre they created, have been a staple of the video game industry. There are now numerous fighting game franchises that are household names, but the genre didn’t get where it is today overnight.
Across the genre’s history, there have been numerous games that laid the groundwork for every game to follow, while making various innovations. Which one of these game-changing fighting games in the history of gaming helped shape the genre the most?
10 X-Men Vs. Street Fighter
Guest characters and crossovers within fighting games are currently incredibly common with franchises like Mortal Kombat and SoulCalibur including numerous guest characters with regularity. However, this wasn’t commonplace until the Capcom Vs. series was kicked off with X-Men vs. Street Fighter in 1996. Reusing assets from Street Fighter Alpha and X-Men: Children of the Atom, the game broke laid the groundwork for not just the Capcom Vs series, but numerous crossover games that would later follow.
9 Guilty Gear XX
Anime-based Japanese fighting games tend to have a reputation for having some of the deepest yet most complicated mechanics in the genre, this was fully cemented with the release of Guilty Gear XX. A sprite-based 2D fighter, the game built upon previously established conventions when it came to what players could do with their combos.
Additionally, Guilty Gear popularized a trend that is rather common in anime fighters in which certain characters on the roster will have access to their own unique mechanics, sometimes possessing their own special meters.
8 Art Of Fighting
Speaking of meters, Art of Fighting is a fighter released by SNK in 1993 and is the first game to introduce a mechanic that has since become a staple synonymous with the genre: a meter and special super moves. Super moves and meter are now in nearly every major fighting game franchise from Street Fighter, to Mortal Kombat, to even in Super Smash Bros.
7 Tekken 3
While 3D fighting games existed prior to Tekken 3, the game set the standard for every other 3D fighting game that followed after it. Completely reimagining how movement functions within a 3D space, the game allows players to sidestep and move in the 3D space in a much more natural and intuitive way, adding additional depth to the genre.
All of this while further fine-tuning nearly every element of gameplay and it’s easy to see why Tekken 3 is one of the most fondly remembered entries in the series.
6 Marvel Vs Capcom 2
Many of the fighting games that are synonymous with hype are fast-paced, combo-heavy, team fighting games. While it wasn’t the first team fighting game of this nature, Marvel Vs Campcom 2 revolutionized and redefined team fighting games with one word: excess. The game featured a massive cast of characters, huge and impactful super moves, teams of three characters, and a combo system that allowed more than half the cast to feel broken in their own special way.
5 Super Smash Bros.
Released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999, no fighting game franchise is as accessible to newcomers as Super Smash Bros. A platform fighting game that shares many qualities with platformers like Super Mario Bros. and Kirby, rather than try to deplete an opponent’s health bar, player’s aim to knock their opponents out of bounds. Including numerous iconic Nintendo characters, the game popularized the idea of platform fighting games and in addition to leading to numerous sequels such a Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the game inspired other platform fighters such as Rivals of Aether.
4 Virtua Fighter
When players choose what fighting game they want to play, they are immediately presented with a major choice: do they want to play a 2D fighter or a 3D fighter? Released by Sega in 1993, Virtua Fighter was the first 3D fighting game of all time, starting a major breakthrough in fighting game design, inspiring numerous other 3D fighting game franchises such as Tekken and Dead or Alive.
3 Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is by and large one of the most easily recognizable names in fighting games. Following its original release in 1992, the market was saturated with imitators and knock-offs that were trying to be Mortal Kombat for one important reason: fatalities. Prior to its release, no fighting game featured as much explicit violence and gore, something that the franchise is now known for. Through its heavy use of violence, the release of Mortal Kombat is one of the games primarily cited for the ESRB rating system that is still used to this day.
2 Street Fighter
While the very first entry in the Street Fighter franchise was a very bare-bones experience in which players could only control two characters with the exact same abilities in Ryu and Ken, it crafted many innovations that would become staples in the genre. Most notably, the first Street Fighter was the game to introduce motion inputs to fighting games such as the iconic quarter-circle motion that allows Ryu and Ken to throw Hakoukens.
1 Street Fighter II
Released in 1991, Street Fighter II has the distinction of being the first modern fighting game to be made. Every other fighting game to be released since has been influenced by Street Fighter II to some extent. Using the same special motion inputs created in the previous entry in the series, Street Fighter II was the first fighter to allow players to choose their character from a selection of numerous unique fighters with different attacks and abilities.
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