A Revolution In The Fighting Genre: Where Have The Past Eight Years Gone?

Chun Li is bringing sexy back’¦

With the gorgeous Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix coming out on Tuesday, I thought now would be a good time to look at the fighting game genre and see where it’s headed. This year saw the release of Arcana Heart, Soul Calibur 4, and Battle Fantasia. These three fighting games have a very different appeal. Soul Calibur 4 sold well, and had appeal to both hardcore and casual fighting fans as well as Star Wars fans. Arcana Heart is a hardcore fighting game through and through. While the cast consisting completely of cute anime girl stereotypes certainly didn’t hurt sales to casual players, it also may have caused some fighting fans to overlook it. Battle Fantasia was the newest release from Arc System Works (the developer behind the amazing Guilty Gear series) and while it did alright critically, hardcore fighting game fans couldn’t help but be disappointed by the direction the game had taken.

Arguably the last great fighting game to come out was Street Fighter 3rd Strike. That was in 2000. Why don’t we take a look at what the fighting genre has become in the past eight years? The largest number of fighting games to come out in the past eight years star two people, Naruto and Goku. The Dragonball Z series has released thirteen fighting games since 2002. Naruto comes in a close second with eleven fighting games, but taking into account that they started being released in 2006 the winner of the most milked franchise definitely goes to the young ninja.

Thanks for the money…

Have the last eight years really just been one big orgy of Shonen Jump characters clawing at each other? Well, not exactly. Who could forget the Mortal Kombat series? If there’s one series that gets progressively worse with every release, it’s Mortal Kombat. From multiple fighting styles for each character to zombie Liu Kang, it just doesn’t get much worse than the Mortal Kombat series. Mortal Kombat Armageddon was sold on the idea of being the culmination of the franchise but ended up being sixty different character skins for five unique characters. I suspect the next release will be a fashion contest between Outworld and Earthrealm.

There’s no doubt that the past eight years have offered up very little for the hardcore fighting fan. I can hear some people slamming their hands on their desk, pointing a finger at Virtua Fighter 5 or Dead or Alive 4 and saying ‘œWhat about that game?’ Well, what about that game? Do you think the combined sales of Virtua Fighter 5 and Dead or Alive 4 can even compare to the profit that came from the twenty-four anime fighting games that have come out? Why would a developer put a great amount of effort into a title to balance character’s move sets and pinpoint the controls when they can just slap Naruto’s orange jacket on some character model and instantly profit?

Things have been grim for fighting fans recently. The good news is that Capcom is leading the charge in changing that come 2009. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix is just the beginning. Next year Capcom, SNK, and Arc System Works are looking to bring the fighting genre back to its glory days. Two sequels and one brand new franchise are set to come out next year and the integrity of fighting games is riding on their success. While these titles are all exciting, importers have a chance to get back into the groove of things this December with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

Look at all that blue’¦

The release of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom less than a month away and looks like it will do a great job of keeping fighting fans busy until February. Unfortunately, the fact that Tatsunoko’s character licenses in the U.S. are held by different companies all but guarantees that this game won’t see a stateside release. Still, for those who aren’t afraid to import, this game has all of the extremely satisfying technical gameplay that Capcom fighters are known for. The new characters like Karas, Casshern, and Viewtiful Joe combined with the beautiful graphics make this is a great game to pass the time until Street Fighter 4 comes out. It’s also a torturous reminder of just how amazing Marvel vs. Capcom 3 could be on current-gen hardware.

Of course, Capcom can’t support the fighter genre all on its own and there has always been a company that made fighting games that were just as impressive. That company is SNK and next year they are releasing King of Fighters XII. They have been relatively quiet on the game so far but those who have seen the game in motion can attest to the fact that the artwork is absolutely stunning. The debut gameplay video was a rough reminder to Street Fighter fans of what Street Fighter 4 could have looked like with hand drawn HD sprites. What’s done is done and the beautiful sprites really help to set KOF apart from its Capcom competition.

Does Noel uh’¦remind you of anyone?

Speaking of beautifully hand drawn HD sprites, Arc System Works looks to be returning to form with the amazingly smooth and colorful BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. It was released a few days ago in U.S. arcades and while I can’t personally find a cabinet to play, the opinion of hardcore fighting fans seems to be that it’s just as good if not better than Guilty Gear. No word on a console release date yet but I highly doubt that we’ll go through another year of gaming without BlazBlue spinning in our disc drives.

How many muscles are in the human back?

Admittedly I prefer 2D fighters. I prefer the look and feel of them and my personal opinion is that the animation is smoother in 2D fighters. Having said all that, it is impossible to talk about hardcore fighting games and not mention Tekken. Tekken proved that 3D fighting games can be just as technical as 2D fighters and has steadily gained popularity on consoles and arcades with each new release. The announcement that Tekken 6 will be available on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 is great news for fighting fans on both consoles and will hopefully lead to Tekken gaining new fans on the Xbox 360.

There’s no doubt that 2009 will be the best year in recent memory for fighting fans and could potentially lead to the genre gaining back some of the rampant popularity it used to enjoy. Capcom is leading the charge with HD Remix and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom this year and following it up with Street Fighter 4 in February. It’s obvious that Capcom has a handle on the fighting game software, but what about hardware? Come back later this week to find out how Capcom is bringing the arcade experience home for both PS3 and 360 users. You won’t be disappointed.