Versus fighting game
This article describes fighting games in which opponents face off in a showdown battle. Side-scrolling fighting games are described in the Beat 'em up article.In
versus, or
competitive fighting games, two players (sometimes more) each choose a character, and then fight against each other over several rounds. The winner of a round either knocks out his opponent (usually by depleting an energy indication bar to zero), comes closest to knocking him out, or (in some 3D titles) sends him out of the ring.
In contrast to side-scrolling fighting games, most versus fighting games are competitive rather than co-operative. Some offer players the chance to battle as teams (two-on-two or three-on-three being most common) instead of one-on-one. The characters can be alternated in either a
tag team (characters can be switched out in the middle of the round) or
elimination mode (team whose members lose the individual rounds loses the match). In a few of these team versus games, players can opt to play on the same team, usually in a tag team fashion. Because of their competitive nature, versus fighting games are conducive to
tournament play.
One of the main attractions of this game type is the large number of characters each game has, all of whom usually have a distinct appearance and fighting style. For example, the characters of the
Street Fighter series come from around the world; characters of
The King of Fighters series have very well defined personalities and backstories, as well as distinct and differing abilities; those of
Eternal Champions were taken from distinct historical periods; the cast of the
Guilty Gear series simply seem to differ wildly from one another; and characters from the
Mortal Kombat series range from criminals to
Shaolin monks to
gods. Depending on their discipline, characters may be unarmed or armed with
mêlée weapons (
swords, sticks,
nunchaku, etc.).
Due to the fall in popularity of scrolling fighting games, the terms
fighting game and
fighter are generally taken to refer to versus fighting games.
The 2D/3D difference
At present, versus fighting games can either be
two-dimensional (2D) or
three-dimensional (3D). Characters in 2D fighting games (
Street Fighter,
The King of Fighters, early
Mortal Kombat,
Guilty Gear,
Killer Instinct) are hand-drawn/
digitized and animated
sprites, and can move left and right and duck and jump, but in many games they can't sidestep or move 'closer to the screen'. Games where the player can slightly take adventage of depth of the fighting arena include many of those in the
Fatal Fury series. The player's viewpoint scrolls in various directions but stays at a fixed angle. The 2D fighter's characteristic gameplay mechanics are exaggerated jumps, projectile attacks, and an "air/ground/low" attack/block system. Since there is a lack of depth, two-dimensional titles usually involve extensive moves that take advantage of the height of the screen, as jump attacks are essential moves. Two dimensional games stem from long-established fighting systems that have been greatly refined over the years, resulting in most modern 2D fighters having more possible standard techniques than 3D fighters.
Guilty Gear X2, for example, has instant-kills, opponent-launching moves, and a complex system of counter attacks and escapes.
Two-dimensional fighters also have a greater number of
mashup fighters: games where
several characters from various other games are merged into one title. These games typically have a very large amount of
playable characters, sometimes numbering over 64. Mashup fighters tend to be tag matches; the player chooses several characters, can switch between them during rounds, and utilize team-up attacks. Additionally, these games tend to have several different fighting systems to choose from, incorporating the fighting system from each originating game. Mashup fighters include
Capcom's Versus series (
Marvel vs. Capcom,
Capcom vs. SNK et al),
SNK's
King of Fighters series, and
Sega's
Fighters Megamix.
In 3D titles (
Virtua Fighter,
Soul Calibur,
Tekken,
Dead or Alive, later
Mortal Kombat games), the characters and stages are 3D
polygon-based models. The camera's viewpoint is not fixed and can rotate and move in any direction, and the characters can sidestep as well as duck and jump. In contrast with the gameplay of 2D titles, jumping and projectile attacks are typically minor elements. Often blocking and attacking are more complex, featuring high, mid, and low attacks and blocks. Thus, the gameplay in 3D fighters is generally two-dimensional as well, although in the XY dimensions instead of XZ; however, there are exceptions such as
Power Stone and
Tobal No. 1. 3D fighting games usually have slower attack speeds than their 2D counterparts, because instead of a punch being represented by a two-frame animation, a 3D game usually has a longer sequence (often created using
motion capture) which is allowed to play fully, causing the overall attack to be slower but more realistic.
Three-dimensional games usually have much larger fighting arenas, which can have multiple sub-sections/paths (most notably in the
Dead or Alive series). There is a tendency for a number of environmental hazards that can be utilized against the opponent, such as knocking a player off a cliff or into an
electric fence. Many three-dimensional fighters have two win conditions; standard health depletion or ring-out. A ring-out is accompilshed by forcing the player out of the fighting arena either with an attack or just pressure. Thus, rounds in three-dimensional fighting games can end much sooner than in their 2D counterparts. Some 3D fighting games have gameplay that closely mimics 2D fighters, incorporating three-dimensional depth as a method of escaping attacks rather than an essential part of the fighting system. Notable examples of this include
Capcom's
Rival Schools and
Star Gladiator series and Midway's
Biofreaks.
Various concepts and vocabulary have developed in the genre over the past decades. Examples include a 'perfect', where the player manages to defeat all enemies without losing
health, 'one hit K.O.' (K.O. abbreviating 'Knock Out'), where a player defeats an enemy with only one action and more. Examples like these are often accompanied by a voice over declaring the event and benefits for the player.
*
List of fighting games*
List of fighting game developers*
List of characters in fighting games*
Fighting game terms on
Wiktionary*
Fighting games at
MobyGames*
Shoryuken Fighting Game Wiki
