The Five Most Important Fighting Games
Written By: Roger Taylor

After being a huge fan of the arcade game, I finally picked up Soul Calibur for Dreamcast a few days back and, after drooling all over my controller at the mind-numbingly beautiful graphics (even though the game is nearly two years old), I got to thinking: there are really just a few titles in the history of fighting games that changed and shaped the genre. In this edition of The List, I will examine them.

5. Marvel vs. Capcom

In these days of Dead or Alive, Tekken and other 3D fighters, it seemed unthinkable that a 2D fighter could not only do well in the arcades, but also do well enough to justify a home version and a sequel. Not to mention a huge cult following. It proved once and for all that 2D fighters could not only survive, but thrive in this modern gaming world.

4. Mortal Kombat

Before Mortal Kombat all fighting games were referred to as "Street Fighter" clones. Mortal Kombat was the first post-Ryu fighting game to make an impact in its own right. Admittedly, it managed to do that by ticking off parents and attracting young men thirsty for blood, and not for its actual gameplay. But apart from the over-the-top use of blood, it was a realistic game. It brought a gritty-quality to a genre seemingly destined for a future based on the cartoonish characters of Street Fighter.

3. Soul Calibur

I tried not to let my love of this game interfere with this writing, and I think I have managed to do just that by only putting this game at number 3. Sure, Soul Calibur was nothing new. After all, it was just a sequel. It wasn’t the first weapons-based fighter. It wasn’t the first 3D fighter. But Soul Calibur was important for raising the bar and for attracting more mainstream attention to a seemingly dying genre. Before Soul Calibur, it seemed like there was nothing that could rejuvenate fighting games. After all, everything had been done already. What more could be thrown in to a two-person ring? Well, Namco stopped asking that question and instead decided to do everything that had been done before, only better than it had been done before. Soul Calibur was and is the most graphically intricate and complex fighting game ever crafted. It will be tougher from now on to sell a crappy fighting game.

2. Virtua Fighter

Virtua Fighter brought fighting games to the third dimension. The 2D fighting genre seemed to be taken as far as it could go after the Street Fighter series had been exhausted (note to Capcom, this happened more than five years ago and SF is still plodding along). Sega decided that instead of throwing in more blood and some different characters, they would revolutionize fighting game by bringing them to the next generation. Without Virtua Fighter there would be no Tekken. There would be no Soul Calibur. There would be no gratuitous use of bouncing breasts in Dead or Alive. Because, you guessed it, there would be no Dead or Alive either. Fighting games would have turned 3D at some point anyway, but props to everyone who made it happen as early as it did.

1. Street Fighter 2

Street Fighter 2 changed everything. Seemingly overnight a once unheard of genre turned into the biggest arcade phenomenon in years. That phenomenon soon found its way to home consoles where it transcended fad and became a part of our culture. Street Fighter 2 was not the first fighting game. And those who remember Karate on the Atari 7800 will back me up on that. But Street Fighter was the first game to really do everything right. Previous attempts at this kind of game failed for a reason. Street Fighter was the first game to provide good graphics (for its time), alongside complex, addicting gameplay and tight controls. So everyone say thank you to Capcom for making all of this possible. Now please Capcom let the series die with whatever dignity it has left. Never mind; too late.

Feel free to write me at jonas42@vgf.com. I’m always willing to listen to the incoherent ramblings of gaming freaks and, that’s right ladies (all one of you), I am single.

Posted: 7-26-01