The Most Revolutionary Gameplay Aspects to Fighting Games

The most basic form of any fighting game ever made is the concept of two fighters pitted against each other, using similar tools at their disposal, battling for victory. This basic concept can be compared to another game like chess, where the skill of the players, not the tools, decides who is the victor and who suffers defeat. Over the course of time, the different abilities and moves that are available to players stepping into the ring have changed and evolved. Now in this generation, there are many more options to use then the traditional punches and kicks that were first utilized in the fighting game genre.

Although not in any particular order, here is a look at some of the most revolutionary characteristics, additions, and changes to come to fighting games that helped mold the genre into what we know about it today. Each of the following helped add and/or changed the way we played fighting games up to this generation.

Special Moves/Supers-----

The very first fighting games created were basically comprised of sprites on screen that had very similar actions at the disposal of the players. The main point was to punch and kick your opponent, a basic direction towards victory. In those times, there were not many games that had their characters exhibit any sort of personality that could stand out among the roster of fighters offered. With the creation of the Original Street Fighter (SF1), character sprites were able to display their own style of fighting with the use of Special Moves. A special move is an action that is unique to a specific character that requires a series of inputs (commands) to execute. A special move may have different properties, such as damage or priority, then most of the basic moves all characters have in the game. SF1 allowed players a few special moves for each character to allow players to change up their strategies when taking on an opponent, it added ways for players to utilize a “mix-up game” to pave a way to victory.

This new concept of special moves carried over to Street Fighter 2 and most of it’s following iterations. With the release of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo (SSF2T), the addition of Supers changed the way the game was played. Supers are moves that require more then a special input to use. For a Super to be available, a player most fight and perform moves in order to build up momentum in a “super meter”. Once the meter is full, a much more advance input then a normal special move must be performed to execute the super. Momentum is a big part of fighting games, as that it can change during a fight quickly and without warning. The addition of Supers allowed players to build up momentum with an overly aggressive or defensive play-style that can be used to change the tide of battle. Ever since then, Supers have been a staple for all fighting games following it’s first use in SSF2T.

Parrying-----

Being defensive has always been a type of strategy in any fighting game. When one person is on the offensive, there must be someone they are attacking that is on the defensive. Usually, being defensive meant that someone was blocking an attack and waiting for an opportunity to counter attack. This was the norm for many generations of fighting games created from all types of game developers. It wasn’t until SNK released the King of Fighter’s (KOF) series in which some characters were able to use special moves that automatically blocked and countered incoming attacks. This action is called Parrying. This means that when someone attacks, the defending player can execute an action that cancels out an incoming attack and be able to counter attack afterwards.

At first, this was only available to some characters in games like KOF or The Art of Fighting series, and not a basic game play element available to an entire roster. When Street Fighter 3 New Generation (SF3) was released, it allowed all characters to perform a parry with a simple command input. This was done by tapping towards, rather then away from, an opponent the moment their attack collides. The defender would flash, cancel out the attack, and have a window of opportunity to counter-attack for extra damage. In SF3, every attack could be parried one way or another; this included basic moves, special moves, and even Supers. The only major difference between each one would be the timing against each type of move to parry. This changed up the whole defensive game for the fighting game genre, in that now even someone who is getting dominated in a fight can have options available to turn a match around. Since SF3‘s release, the idea of a Parry has appeared in many fighting games in one form or another.

Assists/Support Characters------

Fighting games for many years have always been about two combatants duking it out for victory. It was always the common belief that you could not have more then two characters on screen at a time during a match. Many fighting games released followed this practice, and some even still do today. However, this principle was first challenged when King of Fighters 95 was released. The concept of team play was new, in which now as opposed to one character, a player can choose a group of up to three fighters and be able to control each one during a match. Now while each fighter fought one at a time, being able to have your play style change after each round was a vastly new, never-before-been concept.

It was not until King of Fighters 99 where things started to get hectic with a whole new concept that rocked the fighting game world. It that game, you can now select one character as a “Striker”, who’s job is to jump in the middle of a fight and attack an opponent once. Jumping in the middle of a fight was unheard of at the time, so being able to call for back up when in trouble was fresh and added a whole new formula to matches. Now as opposed to just two fighters on screen, there could be a possible four fighting at the same time. This was still limited though to a super meter, as that players could not constantly call in a partner for help, and could only do so if they had the right amount of momentum built up within a super meter.

This premise was completely shattered with the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (MvC2). In that game, players were now allowed to choose up to three characters to control, each with their own health meters and sharing one super meter between the three. There would be one active character fighting, which now had the ability to call in both other support characters at the same time. Both players were able to do this, for a possible six characters on screen fighting each other simultaneously. Back then, it was a crazy idea that ended up becoming a hugely popular gameplay mechanic that has been emulated and explored by many other fighting games following MvC2‘s release.

Fighting games are part of a genre that has come a long way since the first batch of games created back in the early 1980s. Throughout the years, there have been changes, additions, and revisions that have challenged the traditional formula to what constitutes a fighting game. As the video game industry grows and matures, the fighting game genre, as with all video game genres, will continue to grow, evolve, and bring new fun ways of fighting our friends and rivals. One can only wait and see what new tools will be brought to our arsenal, and what effects they may have on how we play a game.