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.

Versus fighter

In the versus, or competitive, type of fighter two players (sometimes more, but quite infrequently) each choose a character, then fight against each other over several rounds, usually three. The winner of a round either knocks out his opponent, comes closest to knocking him out, or (in some 3D fighters) sends him out of the ring.

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In contrast to side scrolling fighters, most versus fighters are competitive rather than cooperative. Some versus fighters offer players the chance to battle as teams (2v2 or 3v3 being most common) instead of one-on-one. The characters can be alternated in either a tag team mode (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 fighters are conducive to tournament play.

Related Topics:
Tag team - Elimination - Tournament

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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, while 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 melee weapons (swords, sticks, nunchaku, etc.).

Related Topics:
Street Fighter - Eternal Champions - Guilty Gear - Mortal Kombat - Shaolin - Weapons - Sword - Nunchaku

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Due to the fall in popularity of scrolling fighters, the term fighter, when applied to a game, almost exclusively refers to versus fighters.

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The 2D/3D difference

Fighters are either two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D).

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Characters in 2D fighters (Street Fighter, 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'. 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.

Related Topics:
Killer Instinct - Digitized - Sprites

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In 3D fighters (Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Tekken, Dead or Alive, later Mortal Kombat games), the characters and stages are 3D polygon-based models. The player'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 fighters, jumping is a minor element, there are few if any projectile attacks, and a "high/mid/low" attack/block system is used. Thus, the gameplay in 3D fighters is generally two-dimensional as well, although in the XZ dimensions instead of XY. Power Stone and Tobal No. 1 are exceptions to this generalization. These games usually have slower attack speeds than two dimesional fighting games, because instead of a punch being represented by a two frame animation, a 3D game usually has a motion captured punch animation which is allowed to play fully, causing the overall attack to be slower-but more realistic looking. Another notable exception is the Soul Calibur series where well-timed sidestepping in the Y-axis is major factor. Step-guard (stepping and immediately guarding) became such a potent defensive and offensive tool in Soul Calibur II that it became wide regarded as destroying the balance of the game.

Related Topics:
Virtua Fighter - Soul Calibur - Tekken - Dead or Alive - Polygon - Power Stone - Tobal No. 1 - Soul Calibur II

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