Fighting game

Fighting games are video games in which players fight each other or computer enemies, usually employing some variation of the martial arts. Along with fixed shooters, they are traditionally at home in the arcades, and are considered separate from sports games such as wrestling, boxing and "ultimate fighting" games.

Scrolling fighter

In this type of fighting game, usually known as a beat 'em up (or occasionally brawler), one or more players (most often two, but sometimes as many as six) each choose a unique character, and team up to punch, kick, throw and slash their way through a horde of computer-controlled enemies. The fighting happens in a series of side-scrolling stages, some with a powerful boss enemy at the end. In the most common variation, players can move away and toward the screen as well as left and right, although earlier scrolling fighters such as Kung Fu were more likely to allow only one-dimensional movement plus jumping.

Related Topics:
Boss - Kung Fu

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Typically these games are side scrollers with players generally moving from left to right, but there have been some three-dimensional versions which allow relatively free movement throughout a level and the ability to face in all directions.

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Two major milestones in this genre are Double Dragon and Final Fight. Some of the most popular games from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s followed suit. At its height, the side-scroller was one of the most popular kinds of arcade games, but they have since fallen out of fashion. Capcom was known for making seveal scrolling fighters, ranging from original games such as Captain Commando and the Final Fight series, to lisenced works such as ', Knights of the Round, and Alien vs. Predator, and SNK's Sengoku 3, made in 2001 and incorporating several elements from Final Fight and the use of swords and ninja weapons. Their most recent brawler is ', which incorporates beat 'em up-style gameplay, while incorporating RPG-like gameplay.

Related Topics:
Double Dragon - Final Fight - 1980s - 1990s - Capcom - Captain Commando - Knights of the Round - Alien vs. Predator - SNK's - Sengoku 3 - 2001 - Ninja - RPG

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While a few 3D scrolling fighters exist (notably Sega's Die Hard Arcade and Spikeout, Squaresoft's The Bouncer and Konami's remake of 1989's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), they are much more a niche genre than the 2D iteration had been.

Related Topics:
3D - Sega's - Die Hard Arcade - Squaresoft's - The Bouncer - Konami's - 1989 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 2D

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