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Greg Kasavin Executive Editor, PC Games |
Now Playing: Command & Conquer Renegade, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Warcraft III (beta) Most Wanted: Soldier of Fortune II, Virtua Fighter 4, Warcraft III (final) All-Time Favorite Fighting Games: Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyperfighting, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Samurai Shodown, Samurai Shodown II, The King of Fighters '98, Virtua Fighter II, Tekken II, Tekken III, Soul Calibur |
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Worth Fighting For
There were traces of evidence all along. I've been drawn to games all my life, since I was about four or so. I was born the year Star Wars came out in theaters, so shooting little fast-moving space ships is in my blood. I always gravitated to games such as Space Invaders, Galaga, and Gyruss, even before I was old enough to know what I was doing. But as much as I was drawn to space shooters, even way back then, there was nothing I relished in gaming quite as much as feeding some virtual thug a virtual knuckle sandwich. That's right--for as long as I've been playing games, I've enjoyed beating people up.
 |  The grandfather of all fighting games has aged elegantly. |
Some of my early favorites are now considered classics. In 1984, I was introduced to what's certainly the grandfather of all fighting games: Karate Champ. Featuring a mind-bending control system involving two joysticks and no buttons, Karate Champ was far more complex than the typical arcade game of the time. Truth be told, I never was much of any good at it, though it fascinated me. If only GameFAQs were around at the time. Another arcade game was released that year, called Kung-Fu Master, in which you punch people in the face and they fall off rooftops, presumably to their deaths. That was a lot of fun too, though at my young and impressionable age, I felt vaguely uncomfortable about those purple-shirted thugs just running up and grabbing me. That was just wrong.
|  Games whose plots can be summarized in a ransom note are all good in my book. |
A year later was when I officially got into fighting games. I loved Yie-Ar Kung Fu. I played the hell out of that game, and it's still great. Though I started playing games at arcades before ever playing them at home, perhaps it was the fighting game that got me playing games on the computer. When I started playing Apple II games some time around 1986, you'd best believe that much of my time was spent playing Karateka, an awesome game by the designer of the classic Prince of Persia.
All that was child's play compared with what happened to me in 1987: Double Dragon. I can't really express how much I enjoyed that game. All I know is, when I wasn't playing it, I was thinking about it. Double Dragon became my all-time favorite arcade game, superseding even my previous favorite, Space Harrier. Double Dragon made me feel like a hero--here I was, fighting with my bare hands against ridiculous odds, just to get the girl back. OK, so that's the plot of almost every other game I've mentioned thus far. But Double Dragon was real. You felt like you were hot on the bad guys' trail the whole time. Oh, and Double Dragon also let you beat the crap out of people along with a friend. This brand of two-player simultaneous play would later inspire Final Fight, another personal favorite of mine.
|  See you in hell, Abobo! |
Double Dragon remained the object of my affection for quite a while, though in the following years, I spent a lot of time and money on several other similar games. These include the 1987 arcade games Bad Dudes and Street Fighter, both of which I played a lot but ultimately didn't like as much as Double Dragon. It wasn't until 1989 that I discovered the true successors to Double Dragon: Capcom's Final Fight, which I mentioned before, as well as Sega's Golden Axe. I just loved both of these games. In particular, Golden Axe seemed like a real departure since it featured weapon-based combat, though it otherwise played just like Double Dragon. Between Final Fight and Golden Axe, I suddenly couldn't decide what I liked better--punching people or stabbing them. Either way, clearly, I'm a model citizen.
Two happy years went by--happy when I was playing Final Fight or Golden Axe. Then in 1991, everything I thought I knew turned out to be wrong. A friend of mine gave me a phone call. He and I were both big into all these games I've been talking about. He was telling me there was a Street Fighter II that had just been released. He was telling me Ryu didn't have red hair anymore and that player one could be Ken and player two could be Ryu--or vice versa! He was even telling me there were six other characters to choose from and that one of them was this giant green monster and another a fat sumo wrestler. I was calling him a dirty liar right about then. So he took me to go see it.
|  This is the greatest game of all time. |
The next several years of my life revolved around Street Fighter II. Never before had I played anything like it. High school is an important experience in most people's lives--it has things such as proms and first loves to look back on. I have Street Fighter II.
That game was revolutionary. Never before was there such a thrilling game--one that was so deep, as well as inspiring so much competitive spirit between two people. Karate Champ might be the grandfather, but no one can refute the fact that Street Fighter II is still the definitive fighting game, more than 10 years later. As I was playing Street Fighter II in its heyday, I remember scoffing at several would-be contenders--games such as Fighters' History, Fatal Fury, and World Heroes. Pathetic clones!
The first game that managed to take any of my attention away from Street Fighter II was Mortal Kombat, which came out in '92. Its graphic violence at least made it look distinct. A lot of Street Fighter fans like to rag on Mortal Kombat, under the assumption that it was all flash and no substance. But Mortal Kombat deserves a lot more credit than that. It was a deep game, and it played nothing like Street Fighter II.
|  Mortal Kombat got a bad rap--the first two games in the series were excellent. |
The following year was huge. Mortal Kombat II was released, and for my money, it's one of the best fighting games ever made. But that year, another game--which I like even more-- was released: SNK's Samurai Shodown. It's possible that I like Samurai Shodown even more than Street Fighter II. Samurai Shodown was the first fighting game with some real style.
I couldn't believe Samurai Shodown was running on the NeoGeo, that loathsome system that produced sorry attempts such as Fatal Fury and World Heroes. Samurai Shodown made me come around, though. Suddenly I liked Fatal Fury. Suddenly I liked World Heroes. Funny how that happens. I'm now one of the world's biggest NeoGeo fans. I loved Art of Fighting II. I was first in line for The King of Fighters '94, and I played the hell out of every game in that series. In particular, I played the hell out of '97 and '98, two of the best fighting games of all time.
|  Samurai Shodown and its sequel are two of my all-time favorite games. |
I'm getting way ahead of myself. So many great fighting games in the '90s. I played a ton of Killer Instinct and mastered its crazy combo system. I played a ton of the underrated Primal Rage and mastered its crazy combo system too. I played a ton of the original Virtua Fighter, which blew me away with its 3D graphics. I played a ton of the original Tekken, which was eventually one of the reasons I imported a Japanese PlayStation. I played all the Tekken and Virtua Fighter sequels religiously. I played Dead or Alive and Fighting Vipers, which weren't as good. I played FX Fighter, One Must Fall, and Cyber Gladiators for the PC. I played plenty of Star Gladiator and Soul Edge, which had weapons but weren't as good as those in Samurai Shodown. I played that awful, awful game called Time Killers. I played fighting games designed exclusively for consoles, such as Eternal Champions, Clay Fighter, and Weapon Lord. I was first in line for Soul Calibur at the arcades and first in line to import it for my Dreamcast. Good thing I'd already imported a Dreamcast for Virtua Fighter 3tb. I played plenty of Marvel Super Heroes and every game in Capcom's kooky "vs." series. I played the hell out of every Darkstalkers game and grudgingly played every Street Fighter Alpha game. I played the hell out of Street Fighter III, as well as Second Impact, as well as Third Strike, all grudgingly because all those games combined with all the Alpha games still don't measure up to any of the versions of the original Street Fighter II, besides Super Street Fighter II, which sucked.
I'm pretty sure I've played every fighting game ever made.
|  Fighting games still have a future if Virtua Fighter 4 has anything to say about it. |
Since Samurai Shodown, I've loved my NeoGeo most of all. Samurai Shodown, and later its equally astonishing sequel, are two of my all-time favorite games. Several of the King of Fighters games also rank high on my list.
There hasn't been a truly great fighting game since Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast. But Virtua Fighter 4 is already out in Japan and just weeks away from release here, and judging by the Japanese version, it's going to be outstanding. I hope I've managed to suggest just how excited I am at the prospect of playing another really good fighting game. I play and review lots of different types of games--first-person shooters, real-time strategy games, role-playing games, and so on. And while I love games in general, across all platforms and all throughout my life, I always admit without hesitation that fighting games are my favorite.
Special thanks to The Killer List of Video Games and MobyGames for select images.
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