by Brian Lesyk | Sep 8, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
Most of us would generally agree that the 1990s represented the golden age of fighting games. The quality and quantity of fighting game titles that emerged during that decade was unprecedented, to say the very least. Of course, there were some notable duds, but in a...
by Patrick Hickey Jr. | Sep 6, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
The road of Mortal Kombat, from arcade juggernaut to iconic home console title, is a long one. The brainchild of John Tobias and Ed Boon was developed before Capcom’s Street Fighter II hit the arcade scene, so Tobias and Boon were working with a tabula rasa. Although...
by Todd Friedman | Aug 31, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
Released in 1994 by Atari Games, Primal Rage emerged during one of the most competitive eras in arcade gaming history. Fighting games dominated arcades in the early-to-mid 1990s, fueled by the massive success of titles like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. Into...
by Matthew Owen | Aug 29, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
It’s no secret that Mortal Kombat is violent by and large the most graphic fighting game series ever created. Full of blood and gore, it pushed the limits on what was acceptable for video game violence in the ‘90s, eventually leading to the formation of the ESRB...
by Noah LaPointe | Aug 27, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
It’s strange to think about now, but for a long time, nobody really knew what to make of the Super Smash Bros. series. Not regarding critical reception—the games were beloved practically from day one—but in how to classify them. Nowadays, no one bats an eye if you...
by Marcus Albers | Aug 23, 2026 | 1990s, 2000s, Magazine Preview
When Street Fighter II: The World Warrior came to arcades in 1991, it turned the 1-on-1 fighting genre on its head. It added so much to the fighting games that had come before that it became a genre unto itself. With the massive runaway success of the game, it was...