The Complete 2d Fighting Game Video List

Max Gallagher games has developed a growingly complete list of two dimensional fighting games. The following list does not include long map side scrollers like Nintendo’s Kung Fu Fighter. Rather, one on one fighting games in the spirit of the classic Street Fighter series.

Street Fighter

My first time playing Street Fighter was in a pizza place. I fell in love with it immediately, and sought it out for a 286 PC in about 1989. It was the most dissapointing experience I’d dealt with up to that point. Then Street Fighter 2 came out, and word on the street was the Super Nintendo would get it. I bought the SNES, and Street Fighter 2 the day it came out. 4,300 hours later, I became bored. Lucky for me Championship edition was on it’s way…

Street Fighter 2

The official champion of all side scrolling one on one 2d fighting games. Period. I believe this game alone boosted Super Nintendo sales by almost 19%.

Marvel VS Capcom

The Street Fighter series continued…Yes, I left a few out. Championship edition, etc… I see this as the next and most important change in the Street Fighter series. Super attacks, tag teaming, and just crazily fast game play. Truly the leader of the genre at the time of it’s release. A hard to find game on the PS2, Warwell has secured several copies which are currently available at around $100 each.

Ultra Vortek

This game is available for the Atari Jaguar. When it cameout in 1995, I bought the Jaguar solely for this game! What interested me was the very last character, as he was the largest sized character I had seen in a home based platform at that time. Rivaled only by the Turbo Graphix 16 kung fu game.

Pit Fighter

The first 2d fightger to incorporate photography into sprite based gaming. The people on the outside of the pit would kick and punch you back into the fight. 2 human players could play against 2 computer opponents at the same time, enabling a 4 person bout.

Killer Instinct

Killer instinct may be the father of combinations in a video game. The idea of move linking allowed for up to 120 hit combinations if the player moved in the correct manner and the opponent missed crucial blocks. Creative and inventive in the use of combinations, they were immitative in the idea of finishing moves, made famous by the Mortal Combat series.

Guardians of the Hood

This game came after Pit Fighter, bu before Mortal Combat. Another game utilizing digital photography for game play. It left a lot to be desired, but was worth a few quarters at the time it came out.

Eye of the Beholder

Ahh, the 3d0. Created by Phillips, I believe. I kind of lump the 3d0 into the category of Neo-Geo, Atari Jaguar, and Turbo Graphix 16 - all systems that couldn’t get a real following. Well, the TG16 did to a degree, but NEC dropped it. It did have some good games though - like the Kung Fu one that was mentioned earlier. Will have to track that down… Eye of the beholder was decent, maybe one of the first side scrolling fighting games to utilize zooming.

Fatal Fury

The original opportunity for SNK to flex it’s 2d fighter muscles. I was impressed! This quickly became an arcade favorite and had fans wanting a Neo Geo! At around $800 in 1990, the system was just out of reach for most tennagers I knew at the time. Fatal Fury was to later bundle it’s and a few other games’ characters into the King of Fighters series, debuting in 1993.

Samurai Showdown

Great Neo Geo/SNK side scroller. Maybe one of the first to incorporate weapons. And why not? A quazi-bighter, with many characters mirroring Street Fighters (The Freak, the Strong man, etc…) but they did incorporate a ninja, which was cool. A great game, now up to version 4.

Mortal Combat

This game is available for most consoles. Bally-Midway took the gaming world by storm with real digital photography. Famous for fatalities, this gaming franchise brought finishing moves to the 2d fighting genre. This technology was used earlier by Pit Fighter, by Atari games.