Everyone talks about Street Fighter or Tekken, but let's hear it for the weirder, unique, underrated, or forgotten fighting games out there.
My favorite is a Gundam game. Federation Vs. Zeon and it's sequel, Gundam vs Zeta Gundam, made by Capcom. The original games in the Gundam Versus franchise of games. imo the series was at it's best when it was handled by Capcom.
The game was called injustice: Gods Among Us, and I was good at it. Never made top 8 so I don't want to oversell my accomplishments and pretend like I'm Sonic Fox, but getting 13th at a major maining a shit tier bottom 5 character like Green Arrow is still something 99% of people who play it would never be able to do....also for what its worth (not much) I was consistently in the top 10 in the leaderboards for most of its prime and the only Arrow main in the top 100.
Why do I love it? Well full honesty I got into it because I'm a DC comics nerd who had always been a casual fan of fighting games, but that was the first game I've ever seriously trained in and practiced and learned shit like frame traps, okezeme, etc. I also think that its got some of the most interesting character designs (in terms of mechanics, definitely not art) ever put into a fighting game that really (for the most part) captures the essence of who the character is. I actually think this game and its traits are a much better version of what Street Figther V was trying to do with its V-Shift system.
Superman? No complex combos and no crazy gimicks. Dude is essentially the Ryu. He just has incredibly powerful (fucking broken at launch lol) tools and footsies. His trait is basically the Kaioken attack. Batman? Gimicks for days! His bat trait lets him always have a contingency plan in place and sort of make up his own frames with tons of combos and creativity available. Solomon Grundy is one of the most unique takes on a grappler architype I've ever seen with his super armor and the way he can give himself buffs. Watching high level flash play makes you feel like you don't even know how to play the game. They made Aquaman scary long before Jason Mamoa got the part. And Batgirl....man.....FUCK BATGIRL!!!!
The game definitely has its share of jank. A lot of its mechanics were sort of a proof of concept idea and were ultimately better realized in the sequel that I sadly never got to play competitively due to real life drama. Shit like the clash system or the slower walk speed turned a lot of people off. Also: while the game was maybe passable in its original release it looks like DOG SHIT now more than ever. NRS has always had mediocre fine artists and so their character designs are a mixed bag and entire youtube channels have been built around how awful their animators are.
But still...for all its flaws....I love it so and think fondly back to it often. My arcade stick to this day is still some fan art I made for the game and the community.
Some sick highlights from the game's heyday:
Here is KDZ versus Sonic Fox at Summer Jam 8 grand finals. This one is pretty significant because this match was basically right on the cusp of Sonic Fox becoming the absolute dominating force of fighting games they are today. I guess a lot of people today think of them as a DBZF player or something, but they got their start in Mortal Kombat and Injustice is where they really started their reign of terror. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI9ymTJD2x0
Theo versus Tyrant at NEC. One of the most absolutely insane endings I've ever seen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGzx3OJRqZI
Digit Versus Warchild. This one's kinda a beating but Digit was the number 1 Shazam player and he plays him like he's El Fuerte from Street Fighter IV or something. You don't see many people playing the character but super entertaining to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYUZMrGxYgk
Dab versus Jupiter. Shit quality....but man it has one of the hypest comebacks ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDbsziuocFU
Jupiter Versus Theo. This was the east coast v west coast fight we spent months building up to. The kings of lame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vGbsLm5Ilw&t=503s
Pig of the hut versus Sonic Fox in winners finals. Their grand finals match was sadly a complete blowup...but man....for a brief moment....the fox bled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjCUB8ipEI8
And of course I can't not post this one in a higlight real. Revolver versus relaxed state in Lex luthor v zod which is hands down the worst matchup in the game. You think you've seen bad matchups? You aint seen shit. Absolutely broken....but still kinda wild and fun to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2EQbHIoyu4
Does Nidhogg count? Both of them. I love those games so much and it feels like other than around the launch of the first Nidhogg, I don't hear people talking about Nidhogg enough. It was my friend group's drunk party game for a while.
It's a lot "simpler" than most fighting games, but it's all about the push and pull with your opponent, predicting what they will do and reacting or striking before they can react. I don't know, I love it. It's probably cheap and definitely worth picking up if you want something to play with someone locally. Both games are good, but I prefer the raw simplicity of the original. The sequel might be more fun in parties, because it adds variety to the weapons.
I like Divekick.
The positioning and timing part of fighting games are the only parts I really find interesting, and Divekick is just that, so I like it.
Also I'm fucking awful at it.
There really is not enough appreciation for the fundamentals of the actual fight. I will always be salty that nidhog and divekick aren't up there with bushido blade
Some day I'd like to make a fighting game where the only buttons are jump, airdash, and fireball. I feel like there's something there.
That would basically be a seccond person shooter at that point would it not? Either way I am running money matches down at the local once it drops.
I was thinking something like Mega Man. So third person.
A second person shooter would technically be like an FPS, but you see through the eyes of whoever you're pointing the gun at.
Oh, I guess it is. I just had over the shoulder fixed in my brain as third person.
There have been a few mega man fighters over the years. You mess with any of those?
I tried to get my friend who was exceedingly good at fighting games to play that with me when it came out, but he absolutely refused to play it. So I never played it. :sadness:
i really liked Bushido Blade ( Playstation 1 - 1998 ). We were broke fools, so we only ever rented it, but it was unique in that fights were over often within a few seconds. Most (99.9%) blade hits to the torso or head were instantly fatal. Like, lights out, you're slumping to the ground. Hits to limbs would permanently disable them (limping leg, much slower movement, one arm is useless drastically reducing moveset). If both legs were disabled, you had to crawl. You could still win, because a well timed shot to the torso was fatal. It made it so every single fight always had that anxious intensity of a fight in a normal fighting game where both players' health bars were almost gone.
the fighting arenas were very large and one could run quite a distance away (like literally turn away from the fight, sheath your weapon and run), climb up on stuff, go up/down stairs, run into a bamboo thicket, turn off axis, etc. you could also pick between whatever weapon you wanted, katana, spear, other shit i don't know, etc.
you could also do cheap shit, like reach down grab sand/dirt/dust, and fling it at your opponent's face. if you chose a certain weapon (katana + some smaller blade) you could throw the small blade at your opponent from a decent distance and totally kill them in that one shot if they didn't block correctly. i was a huge fan of that one, personally.
the graphics were tragically blocky, though "ok" for the time and the story was incomprehensible as far as i recall. but as a fighting game, it was pretty excellent. i mean, it felt very real to run into some bushes and suddenly throw sand at your pursuer before fatally stabbing them in the throat in that split second where they are distracted.
or like, you made a bad block and now you're crawling on the ground as your attacker advances, but you manage to slice their belly with a timed wild swing and kill them when they come in to finish you off.
some people hated the one-hit kill aspect of it, but my friends and i thought it was amazing compared to the endless ocean of health bar bullshit and strings of repeated 18 hit acrobatic mega combos to wear down opponents.
I still play Bushido Blade to this day, it's fun as fuck.
it was. if someone took same that idea and updated it with more complex fighting locations (like furniture you could vault over or kick at/trip over) and that kind of thing, not to mention better graphics and damage complexity (bleeding out maybe?), that would be a really unique and exciting fighter.
like as funny as it was to lean down for a quick sand throw, if your enemy was ready for it they could lunge in and quick thrust their blade into your face right when you were about to fling it, which was even more hilarious.
Also both Def Jam fighting/ wrestling games for PS2. I posted about a tournament video for the second one recently.
Again, a banger soundtrack and a solid engine aped from the AKI WWE wrestling games on N64. Loved beating up on the proxy Ja Rule character again and again.
I played Def Jam with a friend of mine once, fun game
I'm not actually a fan of standard """fighting games""" so most of my list is gonna stretch that definition lol
Bio Freaks was cool, 3D fighter with lots of freedom of movement including limited flight, certain attacks could dismember the opponent and restrict their moveset for the rest of that round
Virtual-On was an absolute blast and I've never seen anything quite like it, third-person mecha fighter where most attacks are either wide-area or homing projectiles but everyone's also fast as fuck. Had a cool arcade setup with twin joysticks and tank-style-ish movement controls
I've recently been playing Final Fantasy Dissidia which is pretty unique, Lethal League is extremely unique
I remember playing Urban Reign a lot because it was one of the only games I had for my ps2, cool gameplay.
I also played Bloody Roar 4, it's like Tekken + Mortal Kombat + furries lol, really surprising they never made more games.
The Godzilla games were a lot of fun to play, even though they were very broken and repetitive, very cool for fans of the movies.
Time Killers was hilarious. You had separate buttons for each of your character's limbs and your head. You could sever your opponent's individual limbs, rendering them unable to perform certain attacks, and decapitation was an instant KO. The lead designer described it as having been inspired by the Black Knight scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Samurai Shodown V Special: (mostly casual player but this is what I really like about the game/in comparison to other fighters)
- 4 Button fighter (A B C and D and combinations of 2-3 buttons) compared to the Light/Medium/Heavy Punch or Kick 6 Button fighters.
- 28 Characters with a variety of cool tools and playstyles, (some characters balance-wise are better than others but the differences are apparent more in matchups rather than tiers of usefulness compared to say MVC2, and even characters with not so good matchups can still play very well if you know what you're doing)
- High damage gameplay, matches resolve quickly and players can make exciting comebacks
- Less focus on extended combos (though they still are combos and links in-game) and more focus on spacing, reads and well-placed/safe hits
- MOST of the command specials are simple (Quarter Circles, Dragon Punch motions, occasional Half Circles, the rare charge command for a few characters) some of the command grabs for a few characters are kinda fucked up and require buffering which I'm sure others can do but I can't because I'm bad. [I still can't do a consistant backdash Tsubame-Gaeshi with the character Ukyo]
- Super options are unique: characters fill a rage meter that adds damage when full (the duration before it empties depends on the character) and allows for you to use a super to knock the weapon of the opponent out of their their hands forcing them to pick it up. Additionally once per match you can Rage Explosion to have an extended state of full rage meter + burst on activation to push back an opponent including during their mid-attack, or you can enter State of Nothingness and slow down the opponent drastically for 1 hit for easier mixups or heavy attacks if they aren't blocking. Using Rage Explosion or State of Nothingness locks it out for the remainder of the match when used.
I'm a big swordplay nerd and stuff so this series is one of the few that scratches that itch 😔
Also the spritework for the game is sick
When I was younger I really enjoyed the pacing of Killer Instinct: Gold (N64) and the technically superior arcade version Killer Instinct 2. It's not the best fighting game by any stretch and has its share of problems. It won't hold up compared to others from that era, like Alpha 3 or 3rd Strike, but it's fun all the same to execute the combos and I was very interested in the art style and environments. Also I think Glacius is really cool.
ayo, anyone remember Primal Rage or whatever it was called?
N64Arcade, SNES and every other platform game where you fought as a rabid gorilla and other mutant animalsI miss Power Stone
Just a weird isometric fighting game that was half Smash Bros and half Street Fighter
Only could play it at my buddy's house because he was the only human soul I knew who bought the Dreamcast
Battle Arena Toshinden on PS1.
Crummy 3dish weapons fighter with your stock characters but a fun soundtrack and soundbites I still say out loud to myself more often than I should admit
Fond memories of that game. I had it as the pack-in title with my og playstation. It was so stiff to play!
Absolver, the story was admittedly very short but I personally loved the idea of an open world multiplayer marshall arts simulator. Elbow jabs op tho.
