The American Genesis 2 will be launching on October 27th, 2022 and, like the foreign Mega Drive incarnation, will include 50 fresh classic titles (23 of which have been announced so far) and will include both original Genesis games as well as some from the Sega CD catalog.

Differentiating 2019’s Genesis Mini from the Mini 2 at a glance will be a non-affair given that the latter is shaped like a miniature Model 2 console and will come standard with the 6-button controller rather than the original package’s 3-button.  Note, however, that the Genesis 2 will only include a single controller compared to the original package’s pair.

Sega says that both controllers will be compatible with either system.

In addition, Sega has said that the Genesis Mini 2 will be powered by an entirely new system-on-ship (SoC); one which will include additional flash storage and greater processing power needed to properly emulate the Sega CD hardware.

The 23 games announced for the Western Genesis Mini 2 thus far:

• After Burner II
• Alien Soldier (Japanese)
• Bonanza Bros.
• Fantasy Zone 
• Lightening Force
• Mansion of Hidden Sls. (CD)
• Night Striker  (CD/ Japanese)
• The Ninjawarriors  (CD/ Japanese)
• The Ooze
• OutRun
• OutRunners
• Rainbow Islands Extra
• Rolling Thunder 2
• Shining Force CD  (CD)
• Shining in the Darkness
• Silpheed  (CD)
• Sonic 3D Blast
• Sonic CD  (CD)
• Splatterhouse 2
• Star Mobile (previously unreleased)
• Super Hang-On
• Vectorman 2
• Virtua Racing

While Amazon is taking preorders for the North American unit already, strangely an international shipping charge of nearly $22 takes the $80 system to just over $100 total.  Whether or not Amazon USA will begin taking preorders for the console without the international transportation rate tacked on is yet to be determined.

To learn more, Sega of Japan now has an official North American Genesis Mini 2 site.

The post North American Genesis 2 Becomes Official appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

That’s a surprisingly good question but the answer may disappoint.  What we classify as the first console hardware generation (the Pong systems) actually predate the idea of bits altogether.   Why?  Well because bits typically refers to the data bus between the processor, the RAM and the GPU (graphics processor), the original Pong systems contained none of this.

Rather than process information like a modern computer, early hardware made use of transistors, like computers were doing as far back as 1954 (before that computers used vacuum tubes).  In essence, a transistor is a physical binary switch that can be in one of two states (off or on), very much like the binary bit the microprocessor would do a little later on.

A very interesting look as to how these early games worked can be found in this article and proves that even a game as simple as pong would have required several bits of memory to function.

As for the home consoles that followed, even the second generation (Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision etc.) were in fact powered by 8-bit processors.  There are often rumors that they were 4-bit and doubled to 8 upon the 3rd generation but these are untrue.  No 4-bit system ever existed (though it should be noted 4-bit processors did exist and were used in many calculators and even early simple handhelds).   The reason NES and Sega MS games look so superior to the graphics of the prior generation has all to do with the amount of RAM dedicated to graphics.

Q) I was wondering what language was used to program games for the NES and SNES? Could anyone write a game for these systems on today’s personal computers?

Let’s start with the last part of your question first.  Yes. Coding a game can be very easily done on today’s technology using any one of a variety of readily available options.  To mimic the resources available to developers at the time or to just get a better understanding of how systems like the NES process information across their data registries, using an emulator is a very convenient way of starting fresh or deconstructing the code of an existing game to see what does what.

That’s not the only means, however.  We live in a time where developing a game for nearly any platform (even modern hardware) can be accomplished using powerful preexisting engines (like Unity and Unreal).  Anyone with an internet connection has access to the same exact tools and resources as the best developers in the industry.  The myriad of options, customizations and controls of these engines can be extremely intimidating to beginners, however, so there are much simpler tools out there (Game Salad, GDevelop etc.) that all but eliminate the need to know how to code to make a game.

If you want to develop a game using pre-existing tools that can even be saved to a cartridge for play on original NES hardware, have a look at NESmaker.

Now as for the beginning of your question, most games were originally developed for the NES using 6502 assembly language and 65c816 assembly language for the SNES.

If you’re not familiar with assembly, it’s a low-level language that controls memory resources directly through the processor’s registries (6502 is, of course, the NES’ CPU).  This was critical as memory was so limited, working in a higher language would have been too taxing on system resources to run quickly and smoothly.

On the NES, writing game code in assembly was essential, but by the time the 16-bit era came around, some developers began writing in C and using the assembler just for the base code.  By the N64 era, programmers could develop games entirely in a higher-level language like C, though even then MIPS R4K assembly was still vital for maximizing the hardware configuration’s resources directly.

These days C++, C# and Python are popular languages for developers who prefer to do their own coding over using premade toolsets.

Q) Help settle a bet – was Purina’s Chase the Chuk Wagon or Mattel’s Kool-Aid Man the earliest known cross-promo in video gaming?

The answer is neither as both were released in 1983. Midway had an arcade racing game that served as a video game promotion for the Datsun 280-Z (called 280-ZZZAP) all the way back in 1976.

The post RETROSPECTIVE Mail Bag: Q&A Time appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

We’ve certainly had our fair share of Arcade games mentioned on Indie Retro News this year so far, from Tapper, to Puzzle Bobble, and yes even Space Invaders. But another game has just caught our attention and worthy of a mention on IRN, and it’s LC-Games latest homage to the 1980’s ‘Bagman’ called ‘Bagman Comes Back’; a C64 game that’s available to download through the itch.io website as a version that is made up of 8 completely new stages. (LINK)

The excess team behind international karate’s ultimate, lemmings and speedball ultimate, with code by Knight Rider, graphics by Domingo(Almighty God), Zsolt(zscs), Ste’86 and idea and direction from Alex(der Retroluzzer) are behind this awesome release. As Supremacy Enhanced features not just a number of handy trainers, but this version of the game also features mouse support, an animated pixelated intro from the Amiga version, pixelated armor from the training screen thanks to the coding of Domingo, pixelated Starbase animation and space ships from the shop screen, as well as the weapons from the training screen thanks to Zsolt, improvements to the battle screen and much much more you’ll just have to experience for yourselves. (LINK)

Briley Witch from Sarah Jane Avory is a game that I’m sure many of you owning a C64 or emulator will enjoy. Not only can you mix potions in your very own cauldron, but you can talk to people, watch cutscenes, spend lots of time with your pet cat, fight in a turn based combat system, traverse through hours and hours worth of gameplay and immersive yourself in a Japanese inspired RPG from such a talented game developer . So if this sounds like your sort of RPG fun, then head on over to the website below and check it out. (LINK)

Galaxian has appeared on Indie Retro News a few times over the years, especially as it is one particular Arcade classic that homebrew developers love making clones of with special effects and bonus power ups added. Well this time we are going back to the original hit from 1979, as Arlasoft has yanked the retro shoot em up classic over to the C64 with all the nostalgia intact such as the sound effects and animated enemy waves. (LINK)

Another great heads up for our Indie Retro News readers, as we’ve recently been told by Saberman that the previously released game of ‘ Night Knight ‘ which was created for the MSX by Juan J. Martinez, is now available for all to enjoy as a digital download for the C64 by Aris Kavalos. This game of which we have featured a number of times before, is a very enjoyable arcade platformer that has been ported over to the C64 much to the delight of the retro community. (LINK)

With the amount of platformers and shoot ’em ups we’ve featured on Indie Retro News, you’d probably think this game would be another one to add to a long list of games following that typical genre. But worry not C64 owners! As thanks to a heads up via Saberman, we’ve been told drmortalwombat has released the rather interesting game of Gates of the Ancient; a fully polygon 3D explorational game with battles and looting on your trusty old C64….. Elite anyone? (LINK)

As we said before, in August of last year we mentioned the rather enjoyable game ‘Freaky Fish DX’; A game that was an enhanced version of the 2018 game, which was noted as a deluxe update of the 2018 14th place Reset64 4k Craptastic competition version. It featured a completely rewritten game engine, new graphics, bonus levels, original music and more all designed by Design Chaos. Well we’ve got some great news for today, as Chris Page@chrx has contacted us to tell you all that Freaky Fish DX Ultimate Digital Edition has been released for the C64. (LINK)

Welcome to Donkey Kong Junior, originally released in 1982 for Arcades and later released for home systems such as the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit , ColecoVision, Coleco Adam, Intellivision, NES and BBC Micro, with a C64 overhauled version released by Mr Sid at the end 2014. In this game you play as Donkey Kong Junior and must rescue your father Donkey Kong who has been imprisoned by Mario in his only appearance as an antagonist in a video game. A sequel to the hit classic, you can now play Sputnik World’s version, which is a C64 recreation of the Panorama Game & Watch originally released in 1983. (LINK)

Designed and coded by Emiliano Paglia, graphics, music and sound by Saul Cross, with box art by Ten Chu, Don’t Break The Balls is an up to 2 player game, in which controlling a fan, you need to blow the bubbles up and prevent them from bursting while also keeping an eye on your energy levels or the fan will stop working and you wont be able to blow those bubbles! The main game features 30 levels of great two player duel and co-op fun, with full joystick and paddle support via Cartridge, Floppy or Digital Download through Double Sided Games! (LINK)

Coded by Anthony Savva, Art and Concept by Andy Johns, Music and SFX by Kamil Wolnikowski and John Blythe for the original Speccy loading screen. Nixy the Glade Sprite is sure to be a great game on the C64, as if it’s anything like the Speccy version, will have great animation, comfortable controls, fantastic level design, dangerous enemies and much much more. So yes if you really want to play this fine release, either check out the digital download below or the collectors edition which is available as a pre-order. (LINK)

And that’s just a small selection of great games we’ve been able to play throughout 2021, but as for what game you think should win the C64 Game of the Year Award for 2021, make sure to hit the link below and vote! – Good luck to the entries, it’s going to be a tough one to call

• 1) Because of the amount of games released, I’ve added many games that I feel are worthy of a vote. If I’ve missed any please reply below and I’ll add them. Developers reply below if you want your game added to the vote
• 2) Any new games released in December can be added to the poll. And the Poll can be relinked again under the new game article
• 3) As the game list is so big, and will probably rise, I’ve increased the amount of games that can be voted for to 5 instead of 3. Also a spam limit has been placed in to be fair to all enteries
• 4) You can change your poll vote at any time

1) POLL LINK  2) AMIGA POLL

The post Indie Retro News – C64 Game of The Year Award 2021 – VOTE NOW! (Winner announced 1st Jan 2022) appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Super Sprint was an incredibly enjoyable game that featured non stop racing fun as you tried to beat your opponents to the finish line while also avoiding the odd appearing Tornado. In terms of Turbo Sprint however which has all of the core gameplay kept intact, this version was built from the ground up for the fans of the original Arcade game, featuring improved sound, CD32 support, optimizations, and much much more that is sure to excite many Super Sprint and Amiga fans across the globe. (LINK)

 

Tinyus is not only a faithful Amiga OCS port of the Arcade Gradius/Nemesis videogame, but it was  created by Fade1/aBYSs who has done the graphics, Pink/ABYSs who has done the music and code, Bartman/aBYSs who did all the reverse engineering, and all of this requiring an OCS with 512k Chip and 512k Slowmem or better! (Amiga 1200 (barebone) is recommended for fluid 50fps gameplay) (LINK)

 

Just as in the original classic, this game will once again put you in the shoes of an adventurer on a quest to collect gems while also avoiding angry mummies and other such deadly monsters! The game features not only different sound effects, but there’s plenty of fun to be had through many of the of the 16 full themed levels in M.A Software’s King’s Valley on the Amiga. For further details and development please see the link (HERE)

 

The game Crazy Columns is a simple colourful puzzle game for the Commodore A500. It offers fun and entertainment and is based on the classic from 1990 by SEGA. The hunt for the coveted places in the leaderboard can be contested alone or in pairs. The game features colorful game play for both the young and old, a choice of 1 to 2 players, multiple control methods keyboard or joystick, three different player modes to choose from, timeless music and crips sound effects, and all of this available as a hotly anticipated full version of v1.02 for the Amiga 500/OCS/512kb and above. (LINK)

 

In INCA MAN not only do you need to collect lots of diamonds to complete each of the many levels, but if you’re lucky enough to avoid the nasties, you can collect extra bonuses such as stopping time or armor to help you along the way. The game features 1 player single play, 2 player either as co-op or versus, 30 levels of Arcade fun, full music and sound effects in game, and all of this requiring a stock Amiga 500  512kb+512kb. (LINK)

 

In Bean Versus The Animator playing as a genetic cocktail of lifeforms both half man, half baked bean and set in the far future of 2010, many years after World Word 3. You must defend the Earth and its defenseless Humans from the warmongering machines and their diabolical leader, The Animator. The game features 6 frantic levels, 6 BIG BOSS fights, 12 weapons, 2 player simultaneous action, 32 colors, 8bit sfx and music, movie style intro and outro’s, Light gun or Mouse controls and finally requiring an OCS/ECS or AGA Amiga with Kickstart 2.04 and above including 1MB Chip Ram (A Stock A500+ will do it). (LINK)

And that’s just a small selection of great games we’ve been able to play throughout 2021, but as for what game you think should win the Amiga Game of the Year Award for 2021, make sure to hit the link below and vote! – Good luck to the entries, it’s going to be a tough one to call

The post Indie Retro News – AMIGA Game of The Year Award 2021 (Winner announced 1st Jan 2022) appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

That’s a good point. Bits as a unit of measurement really was more of a marketing technique than it was a true measure of hardware performance – The realities of this started showing through in the 32-bit generation when multiple processors in a single piece of hardware proved that every company was coming up with bit count by their own set of mathematics.

Atari’s “64-bit” Jaguar, for example, had a 64-bit object processor and blitter, but all of the actual processing was accomplished in 32-bit increments. Meanwhile, Sega marketed its Saturn as a 32-bit machine, strictly based on its CPU, disregarding the fact that its output was the result of a dual-CPU architecture and eight processors working in unison.

These days the media, users and developers alike tend to use the teraflop (or t-flop) as a measure of hardware rendering performance, which is a unit of computing speed equal to one million, million (10 to the 12th) floating-point operations per second.

While the trillion calculations per second model seems to be a lot more scientific/ less marketing hyperbole than old bits, that too doesn’t tell much of a story.  Teraflops can be useful on paper if trying to determine which given configuration has more computing potential, but in the real world, performance is the result of so many factors working in conjunction (these days even a setup’s monitor capabilities can account for a huge portion of display potential), that a standard unit of performance measurement is really just a pipedream.

Q) Now Intellivision is trying to raise capital by pushing $80 bundles of “games” that are really just boxes of download codes for games that aren’t even finished?  Do you still think the Amico is going to come out? I’m glad I bailed on this dumpster fire when I did.

As I don’t have money tied up in its crowdfunding, I have the luxury of remaining neutral on these developments, but will confess that very little of what they have been doing of late seems very encouraging.  Endless delays, a massive price increase in hardware MSRP, and now, as you pointed out, desperate gimmicks to earn additional capital are certainly troubling signs.

I will admit that when the system with its library of modern retro titles was initially announced, I was excited.  In the time since much of that excitement is being replaced with apprehension.  I’m hopeful they’ll turn it all around soon but can definitely understand why early backers are having serious doubts.

Q) Can someone tell me why the 32-bit generation is considered the first to be 3D? I had Doom and Mario Kart on SNES. There are still 2D games being produced on the hardware of today. What determines such a distinction?

That’s a good question.  There were 3D viewpoints from the dawn of video gaming and 2D gameplay will likely never go out of style but the reason the 32/ 64-bit generation is known for the transition to 3D not so much strictly because of the hardware, but because there was a shift in the design philosophy of game creation.

If you were to go back to the 1970s and transition across the entire 8 and most of the 16-bit eras that followed, you would find that the predominant method of video game design was based around the sprite. Hardware was designed to allow for sprite layers – this, coupled with tile-based graphic storage, meant the process games were created was pretty consistent for many, many years.

3D achieved in games like Mario Kart and Doom wasn’t true 3D, so much as it was a trick to make the sprite layers appear 3D to the player.  Mario Kart, in fact, used the famous Mode 7 capabilities of the SNES to allow a simple 2D sprite layer to be tilted onto an angle and rotated around the character sprite so as to appear like an interactive track environment.

Doom, too, looked 3D to the player, but each room was in fact a stand-alone environment from the rooms next to it.

3D, in the case of PlayStation, Saturn and N64 was built upon an entirely different system – polygons (a figure made of a finite number of straight lines connected to form a closed system). Unlike the 2D sprite, polygons could move through an entire, interconnected environment. Rooms had actual relationships to other rooms in these worlds.  In essence, this is still the primary method of game development to this very day.  We just keep increasing system specs to allow for higher and higher polygon counts as the generations wear on.

The PlayStation, Saturn, N64 etc. made the method popular because they had literally been designed to handle this type of game development right from the onset.  However, as you pointed out, they were not the first to make use of the concept. What was the first game to use polygons?  Battlezone from Atari, released in 1980. Starfox was also an actual polygonal 3D title on the 16-bit SNES.

The post Mailbag Time: More Q&A appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

On account of a seemingly endless series of non-gaming related distractions (sometimes referred to as life), I’ve been regretfully slow at responding to some of the great reader questions that find me on social media.

Let’s take a look into the digital mailbag and see if we can’t rectify that situation.

Q) Regarding your coverage of 16-bit fighting games, wondering if you’re planning on continuing on with 3D titles (some of my favorites to date).  Also what was the worst fighting game you played back then?

I honestly gave consideration to carrying on with the fighting game coverage into the 3D foray when titles like Virtua Fighter and Tekken and Battle Arena Toshinden came onto the scene.  In fact, it could be argued that the transition to pseudo 3D began even earlier than these when games like Ballz 3D came to the 16-bit platforms.  The trouble, I soon discovered, was that there is no definitive point to stop.  It could very easily be argued that 3D fighting games from those days never stopped being produced and still exist today.  One of the problems of writing for a retro-centric mag is that there is no clear and concise line between what separates modern from vintage.  And if there were, it would be forever advancing as newer hardware is a very frequent cycle.

In short, this is the long way of saying that while I do remember that transition to 3D well and respected it at the time for what it was, stopping the coverage at the conclusion of the 2D era made for a good bookend.

As for the worst – that’s tough!  I had some very dubious titles in my Genesis collection while waiting for SFII; Street Smart, Fighting Masters, Slaughter Sport.  I think one of the worst though had to be the home port of Pit-Fighter.  Atari had beat Mortal Kombat to the punch (no pun intended) on the whole digital scanned characters in a one-on-one fighting game but abysmal controls and some of the choppiest animation in existence at the time made this one of those rare instances where it couldn’t go back to the rental store quickly enough!

Q) You seem to cover the Amico a lot but rarely talk about the new VCS.  Why play favorites?

I do try to treat all new retro-themed hardware equally but the VCS is a tough sale for me.  While it is admittedly nice to once again see the Atari logo on a new piece of hardware – especially one with some wood veneer face plating; the price and purpose of the new VCS really make it difficult for me to even understand what they are attempting or who it’s for.

It is essentially a very pricy Linux box with an included 2600 emulator.  Already there are instructional videos appearing online on how to get the UI to work on any PC.  Worse still, at $300 without a controller, and the fact that titles purchased outside of their Vault system aren’t cheap, it’s really encroaching on next gen prices to play some titles that are available just about anywhere else these days (for considerably less).

Again, no bias intended but unless the hardware cost comes down substantially or they begin to get some exclusive killer apps, the Flashback 9 Gold with its 110 titles, two controllers and 720P output that I picked up for $50 will probably retain its entertainment center location.

Q) What is your feeling on this Next Generation madness?

I am usually a sucker for the latest and greatest hardware but have bowed way out of the mess that has been the Playstation 5 and XBox Series X launch.  Sony and Microsoft did consumers no favors when releasing (just before the holidays, no less) hardware that they knew couldn’t keep up with consumer demand.  It’s no industry secret that Covid has severely limited raw material production and stymied shipping times and, as predicted, resulted in a situation where demand severely outweighed supply.

This isn’t the first time we’re seeing this and it surely won’t be the last (a very famous example of this technique being used to manufacturer extreme demand would be Nintendo with the NES Classic Edition) but it feels like the public in general is extra antsy of late – due, in no small part I’m sure, to political unrest, Covid-induced isolation stir craziness and the arrival of government stimulus checks.  It’s all adding up to a fever pitch where product is being purchased up by scalpers who are demanding (and getting) exuberant money for the hardware.

The worst part about this all is that this is possibly the most unnecessary hardware generation in the history of home gaming – the reality is that 85% of consumers don’t even own displays powerful enough to capitalize on the hardware’s increased video output and there is no exclusive “next gen” software slated to be released for the next two years.  In short, waiting on this one makes a lot of sense.

Q)  Why hasn’t Nintendo released an N64 Mini yet?  What do you think will be the next retro console to get a mini?

As to why Nintendo hasn’t released an N64 Mini, I can only speculate.  The most likely answer is that Nintendo, being Nintendo, marches to the beat of its own drum.  They don’t seem overly concerned with what’s going on in the industry at a given moment, instead opting to release products that no one sees coming.  Another way of saying it is they generally like to be trend setters, not followers of trends (even the ones they create).

Aside from that, Nintendo is in a strange position.  Unlike many of the other retro minis being produced, Nintendo is still a very active company in the current console and handheld generations.  They still manage to make millions upon millions in selling their retro games across all of their platforms (both physically and in their e-shops).  Often times their biggest competition on these things is themselves.  So while no one doubts an N64 Mini would sell extraordinarily well, it’s very possible Nintendo doesn’t see the need to open a factory to manufacturer the new hardware when they still have many of the titles available from the system’s library available for purchase already.

As far as what will be the next retro mini – this logic is the opposite of my answer above.  Companies that are not currently active in the industry have a great opportunity to capitalize on licenses and hardware that has been lying dormant for decades right now.  If you were a rights-holder to something like 3DO or CD-i or Amiga CD32, this would be a gold mine opportunity.  Strike while the iron is hot.

If you wanted my prediction, I’d take the easy way out (since it was already confirmed) and say it’ll be another from Sega.  Which one, however, that’s a bit tougher.  Most are hopeful it will be a Dreamcast Mini but I’m not so sure they would leapfrog to the very last piece of hardware they manufactured.  I would hope they would do a Saturn Mini next with plans to follow that one up with the Dreamcast a couple years after.

The post The RETROSPECTIVE Mailbag appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

As the Street Fighter II phenomena grew in arcades and then again when ports of the popular games came to home consoles, nearly every company in the industry suddenly found themselves in a position to capitalize on the frenzy. A complete list of the 2D one-on-one fighting games that resulted in the subsequent years surpasses 112 entries; many of these proving little more than flash in the pan titles, never to be heard from again once the craze quieted.

However, there were a few titles that managed to sell in decent numbers, establish a loyal following and, in many cases, spawn sequels – some leading to genuine franchises. Street Fighter II (and its dozens of iterations that followed) and Mortal Kombat (with its direct sequels) may have been the undisputed leaders of the pack at the time, but the following titles managed to share in the limelight:

 Killer Instinct

Created by Rare and released by Midway in arcades and Nintendo for the SNES in 1994, Killer Instinct was one of the more successful one-on-ones to come on the scene post SF2 and MK.

It borrows the basic move set and player controls from the SF2 school of play but emphasizes finishing moves like in MK. Unique to Killer Instinct was the concept of double energy bars: Rather than winning two rounds out of three, each player begins with two bars of energy. If a character finishes with his or her opponent’s first life bar, the fight stops and resumes, similar to a round, but the winning character still keeps whatever amount of energy he or she had at the time. The player who depletes their opponent’s second life bar wins the match and advances. 

Also, while combos were all the rage at the later stage of the trend when Killer Instinct came on the scene, KI was unique in that it offered players the opportunity to input combo breakers to stymie an opponent’s offensive charge. This meant equal emphasis on mastering button combinations on both the offensive and defensive side of the coin.

Finishing moves here are known as No Mercies and each character boasts a pair of these violent enders in the grand tradition of MK’s Fatalities though considerably less gory. Another twist on the formula is the Humiliation – or the combination finisher when your opponent is still on their first life bar which, rather than end them, causes them to dance.

It would perhaps become best known for its roster of fantastical fighters (there are, for example, a skeleton, velociraptor, android ninja, and werewolf on the list to mention a few), the game actually began development as a much more grounded Mortal Kombat style title known at the time as Brute Force.

Interestingly, the full motion video and audio clips were so data intensive at the time that every custom arcade cabinet actually contained a hard disk drive (HDD) strictly containing that information.

The game’s unique visuals were accomplished using early motion capture technology coupled to prerendered character models. Backgrounds, in the arcade, were treated like fully rendered movie files and thus boasted a nonstationary camera that scaled, zoomed, rotated and moved about the play areas.

The SNES version, due to memory limitations, was forced to do away with the fancy camera angles but maintained a lot of the arcade’s appeal with the prerendered characters, accurately depicted backgrounds and port-perfect combos and moves.

Killer Instinct did just about everything right, offering a unique character roster, deep combo and move sets, and, rare for the genre, a surprisingly deep backstory with individual character development. The downside was that it tended to fall in on the difficult side against the AI and demanded ridiculously precise timing to keep from being decimated (some combos could go on for as many as 80-consecutive hits, effectively ending a match in one sequence). However, it was timing, mostly, that prevented it from achieving the “legendary” status of its predecessors SFII and MK. By the time it came home in 1995, the 2D fighting game hype had tampered considerably; especially considering the move to full 3D gaming indicative of the 5th console generation was already well underway. Even still, Rare managed to move 3.2-million copies of the cart and has since developed a franchise out of the material spanning several areas of media, cementing its place as arguably the third most successful 2D fighting title behind the Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat empires.

A 1996 sequel was released to arcades that would be ported to the N64 as “Killer Instinct Gold” and a series reboot found its way to Xbox One in 2013, Windows 10 in 2016 then Steam in 2017.

Eternal Champions

If Killer Instinct was the Super Nintendo’s exclusive one-on-one killer app, then Eternal Champion’s was Sega’s. The Genesis and SNES shared 98% of the fighting games on the market, as developers were quick to port arcade smashes to both competing systems for maximum market reach. However, there were a couple of titles exclusive to each platform. In the case of Eternal Champions, not only was it a Genesis exclusive, it was developed from the ground up for the Sega home market; one of very few one-on-ones not to have originated in arcades.

Released in December of 1993, Eternal Champions came on the scene when the fighting game genre was red hot and Sega still wasn’t taking chances when it came to promoting their new golden child. A Slurpee flavor entitled “Eternal Champions Cherry” arrived to 7-Eleven stores throughout the United States that came in cups with character art on them and a temporary tattoo on the bottom. There was also a special cash and rebate promotion in July 1993 featured on MTV in a time where they still aired music videos. Electronic Gaming Monthly sponsored Eternal Champions tournaments in the United States as part of a roaming video game show. In short, you had to have been living under a fairly decent sized rock to have missed the launch of Eternal Champions.

The game featured a surprisingly rich story for a fighter. In it an omniscient being known as the Eternal Champion predicts that mankind’s reign is faltering due to the untimely and unjust deaths of key individuals throughout human history. Seeking to restore balance to humanity, the Eternal Champion gathers these individuals from the fabric of time moments before their death to participate in a fighting tournament. The victor would bring balance to the universe, whilst the losers would be returned to the instant they were taken to live out their deaths just as history intended.

Among those chosen – a bounty hunter from the future, a prehistoric caveman, a 1920s gangster, an Atlantean gladiator, an enigmatic alchemist etc. The story structured so that space and time were not factors allows Eternal Champions to experiment with an intriguing roster of combatants from many eras and periods. All told the games boasts nine playable characters and an end boss coming in the form of the Eternal Champion himself.

As is mandated for consideration in the genre, there are combo moves aplenty in Eternal Champions though saying they captured the joystick fluidity of Street Fighter II’s dynamics is certainly a bit of a stretch. It seems as though emphasis was deliberately placed upon charge attacks here, possibly to distinguish it from the hoards of competition. Additionally, Mortal Kombat’s Fatalities had all but dominated the scene by this point in time so it stood to reason Eternal Champions would be sure to include some variant of the concept. What it offers is something called Overkills whereby a button combination must be entered in the final moments of a match and the opponent standing in a specific spot of the screen. Like a Fatality, this results in a spectacular, if oft violent, demise of the opponent but often integrating the stage’s background into the process.

Visually the game is a bit of a mixed bag – it boasts nice large sprites and backgrounds with an impressive amount of activity taking place. However, because of the Genesis’ limited color pallet and relatively restrictive memory, the graphics seem plagued with a grainy, washed out aesthetic. Sound and music, however, were masterful and made wonderful use of the 16-bit hardware.

Sales numbers are all but impossible to track down but the game was popular enough to warrant both a sequel on the Sega CD platform in 1995 (Challenge from the Darkside) and a pair of spin-off games, Eternal Champions’ ultimate fate was to fade into oblivion when Sega of Japan decided it was unwise to split their resources promoting two first party one-on-one fighting games and opted to focus its energy exclusively on the Virtua Fighter franchise.

Primal Rage

Atari knew that arcades in the mid-90s were chock full of quarter-carrying kids looking to show off their skills in a one-on-one fighting game and threw their proverbial hat into the arena with Primal Rage in 1994. The concept was certainly nothing unique: A one-on-one best two out of three match format tournament fighter complete with combo moves and finishers ala MK – but what made Primal Rage stand out against the hordes of similar fighters was the character roster. Each of the seven selectable characters was a monster of sorts; with characters designs mimicking dinosaurs, reptiles and primates.

Set in an alternate universe where a massive meteor strike devastated the planet, human civilization finds itself regressed into essentially tribes of Stone Age dwellers. The planet is now primitively referred to as “Urth” by the survivors of the cataclysms. Seven fearsome creatures emerge from their slumber deep within the Urth’s crust, worshiped by the primitive humans, who form segregated clans beneath the ones they follow, the battle for supremacy can only be determined by a winner-takes-all battle royale’.

The visuals were accomplished by using moldable armatures cast and airbrushed then filmed using stop motion animation. As a result, the end result is neither a pixel art graphic (Street Fighter II) nor a motion capped human actor (Mortal Kombat) but rather something in between.

Perhaps the game’s lasting notoriety is that it was ported to nearly every console imaginable at the time. After making rounds in the arcade, it was brought to the 3DO, SNES, Genesis, Amiga, MS-DOS, Game Gear, Game Boy, Jaguar CD, PlayStation, and Saturn. In short, if you had a console at the time, you could play Primal Rage on it.

Combos were a big part of the game’s appeal and depth but Primal Rage moved further away from the fluid joystick rolls with button presses that Capcom made popular and opted to instead focus on combinations that required multiple button holds with stick movements jammed in at the end. This worked decent enough in the arcade but proved terribly tricky for many of the home ports depending upon the platform in question’s button layout.

Stringing together hit combos in battle is a good means of getting puny humans to gather to watch the carnage and the player is free to squash, throw or eat them accordingly. This gimmick alone proved surprisingly amusing. And of course the gore between combatants is maxed out as well. Finishers in particular can be violent, bloody and occasionally humorous (one character literally urinates all over its fallen opponent).

Difficulty, as had been the trend by then in the genre, borders on ridiculous. To beat the game, the player has to beat all seven playable characters before taking on all of them again back to back on a single health bar.

The graphics vary wildly, as expected, given the sheer number of platforms that received a port with the “next generation” hardware at the time coming closest to matching the large characters and crisp backgrounds of the arcade.

Like so many games of the era, multimedia tie-ins were plentiful with Primal Rage toys, comics and novels finding their way to store shelves. The game, however, would remain the only entry in the franchise as development for a 1996 sequel was ultimately cancelled when Atari feared the industry had moved away from the genre enough to where profitability potential would be slim.

Fighter’s History

It is very possible Data East’s foray into the hottest genre at the time would have been little more than a flash in the pan like so many of the other entries on this list except for one little detail. Of all the one-on-one fighting games that flooded the market post-Street Fighter II, Fighter’s History was the one Capcom deemed the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back and decided to seek legal retribution.

Fighter’s History arrived to arcades in March of 1993 and was then ported to the SNES in May of 1994.

The game uses a six-button control configuration similar to Street Fighter II and its iterations; three punch buttons and three kick buttons, each with different strength levels (light, medium, and heavy).

This one offers a total of nine playable characters from around the globe, as well as two non-playable bosses at the end of the single-player tournament. The final boss and sponsor of the game’s tournament is revealed to be none other than bald, mustachioed Karnov; lead character of the older Data East action game of the same name.

One unique feature Fighter’s History brought to the genre was the concept of character weak points; or a single region targeted enough to where landing a hit causes dizziness and continued contact there results in greater damage to the life bar.

In terms of style, control, look and feel, the game does mimic Capcom’s Street Fighter II, perhaps more so than many of the rival titles being released around the time. So on March 16th, 1994, Capcom sought a preliminary injunction in California court to prevent Data East from producing, marketing or selling Fighter’s History anywhere in the world, alleging that the game infringed Capcom’s copyright in Street Fighter II.

Capcom alleged that Data East copied the distinctive fighting styles, appearances, special moves and joystick/ button combination attacks of many of Street Fighter II’s characters. Data East rebutted by saying that there was nothing unique about Street Fighter II aside from its immense popularity and that similarities between the two games were the result of both companies drawing upon the public domain of stereotyped characters (martial artists, pro wrestlers, gymnasts etc.)

In order for Capcom to get the injunction to proceed, they would have to prove that their copyrighted material itself had been stolen by Data East – in this case it would have been actual source code or game development assets.

Because Data East had developed its own game from the ground up, Capcom was quite unable to prove any such claims and the courts saw things in Data East’s favor. Sure, the games looked and felt similar but, the court reasoned, neither Capcom nor Street Fighter II invented the genre of the one-on-one fighting game. Even if they had, it’s not possible to copyright something so broad as a category of video game or control scheme (think about how many games mimicked Space Invaders’ style of play and control in the early 1980s).

Data East was free and clear to continue both in manufacturing and distribution of Fighter’s History and, what otherwise would have been yet another SFII clone in a time chock full of them, a piece of legal history was made in the process.

Two different sequels were produced: Fighter’s History Dynamite for the Neo Geo in 1994, followed by Fighter’s History: Mizoguchi’s Moment of Crisis (which never left Japan) for the Super Famicom in 1995.

Power Instinct

Atlus wanted in on the craze but needed something to stand out from the crowd. When they released Power Instinct to arcades in early 1993, the gimmick they settled on would be humor. The story is straight forward enough: You play as a member of the Gōketsuji clan, who are battling to determine who will replace 78-year-old Oume Gōketsuji as head of the clan.

It offers eight selectable characters and one unplayable boss character, Oume Gōketsuji herself. It’s not every game that has you battling it out fisticuffs style with a 78-year-old lady as the end boss but hey, Atlus wanted to stand out from the competition and this was as good a way as any to do it. Additionally it introduced a unique transformation feature: several of the characters can change their outward appearance and even their fighting style by executing certain moves.

In terms of style and gameplay, this one leaned more toward the Street Fighter school of design than it did the Mortal Kombat with fairly large sprites and bright pixel art. Visually perhaps its closest comparison would be to some of SNK’s contemporary efforts with the responsiveness of control usually associated with Capcom.

Additionally, further separating itself from the hordes of SF clones was the ability of characters to double jump (which makes the screen scroll upward) and run. Run attacks were also possible for the entire roster. Also particularly neat is the fact that most stages’ initial borders are in fact smashable and extend the background in either direction should you crash your way through them. What you won’t find here, though, are Fatalities or finishers of any kind or over the top goriness.

For the most part Power Instinct strayed little from the proven Street Fighter II formula but managed to introduce some genuine charm into the fold (the old lady’s slightly younger sister Octane is a playable character and one of her attacks involves throwing her dentures at opponents). It sounds zany and silly on paper but the play experience is surprisingly solid.

A fairly faithful arcade port was brought to the SNES in late 1993 by Atlas and while the game was also ported to Sega’s 16-bit hardware, the Genesis incarnation never left Japan.

While it was relatively successful in both arcades and on the SNES here in the west, Power Instinct has become a staple franchise in Japan where it spans 6 games, novels, soundtracks, calendars etc.

Shaq-Fu

It almost seems hard to believe now as few, if any, present day athletes are quite as multimedia friendly as Shaquille O’Neil was in the early 90s but here we had a basketball player turned actor turned rapper turned video game hero. And this was well before his Icy Hot commercials.

In corporate America’s defence, they did realize that forcing a manufactured “phenomenon” down society’s proverbial throat would be much easier if done so on the grounds of something that we were already obsessed with… And thus was born Shaq-Fu.

Electronic Arts and developer Delphine Software needed only look at the trending numbers to realize the one-on-one fighting game scene was red hot and while they surely wanted a piece of the arcade pot, the world would instead receive a pair of 16-bit home titles in late October of 1994.

What passes for a story here is that Shaquille O’Neal happens upon a dojo while heading to a charity basketball game in Tokyo, Japan. After speaking with Leotsu, a martial arts master, Shaq is convinced to travel to an alternate dimension, the Second World, where he must rescue a young boy named Nezu from the clutches of an evil mummy.

No major concern there, fighting games rarely rise or fall on the merits of backstory alone; this one would need fluid controls and strong gameplay mechanics to compete with the industry leaders. Did it deliver? Well let’s just say there was once a website called shaqfu.com that was dedicated to the cause of rounding up as many copies of the cart for decimation as possible.

So it’s THAT bad then? Actually, no. There are far worse one-on-one fighting games on the consoles floating about. Slaughter Sport on the Genesis and Rise of the Robots on SNES spring to mind to mention a few. Shaq-Fu’s biggest weakness is clunky, slightly delayed control but it contains all of the trappings for which the genre is known: A decent roster of playable characters, combination induced special attacks, even finishers and a blood code for the SNES version!

Amazingly enough, while the presentation of the material is pretty similar in both versions, the Genesis version comes out on top with more selectable characters (12 vs 7) and three additional stages. It is also credited for boasting the better music while the SNES benefits from a larger color pallet/ crisper visuals, especially in the background art.

Though the game doesn’t resemble Mortal Kombat in execution, the process of creating it was surprisingly similar. Delphine applied the same rotoscoping techniques as their 1992 title Flashback: The Quest for Identity, whereby human actors were filmed against a Blue Screen in studio before being digitized and drawn upon by artists using a Silicon Graphics SGI workstation.

In this instance the actors were used more as reference points for rotoscoping animated images than MK’s approach of simply animating the actual actors as the final result.

In practice the game is simply average – the biggest complaints coming in the form of laggy controls, inconsistent special attacks and computer controlled opponents attacking with precision nearly impossible to match by controller inputs. Additionally many players attest that the only strategy that seems to work for victory is to settle upon a single move (like Shaq’s forward lunge kick) and to simply spam that button until the opponent’s life bar is depleted.

Despite mediocre reviews at the time of release, this one has achieved absolute infamy as one of the worst video games ever created since. Game Gear, Game Boy, and Amiga did receive ports shortly after the 16-bit versions made their rounds.A direct one-on-one sequel was in development for release in early 96 for the SNES and Genesis but ended up on the cutting room floor on account of mixed reaction to the first one. A sequel, titled Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn, would eventually be developed and was released in 2018.

Power Athlete

For reasons entirely unknown, Power Athlete just may boast the highest number of official names of any game on our list. Developed by System Vision and published by Kaneko in 1992, Power Athlete was released to the SNES as Power Moves and Genesis as Deadly Moves. The differences, as was so often the case then, had all to do with what Nintendo deemed too violent for its audience while Sega presented a more unfiltered version of the material. However, unlike games like Mortal Kombat and even, to lesser degree Shaq-Fu, the differences here are nearly entirely relegated to things like the game’s title and boxart.

Gameplay is virtually identical on either platform and, unlike a majority of the fighters at the time, doesn’t allow the player to select from a roster of characters in story mode. Rather, the only option here is to use a generic martial artist named Joe and to take him across the globe in a series of one-on-one/ best two out of three match battles.

Fortunately the entire cast of warriors (exception- the final boss, Ranker) are available in the 2-player versus mode, each coming with a unique set of moves, strengths and weaknesses.

One unique feature to Power Athlete is that points accrued during matches could then be applied to upgrade character attributes.

Control is fairly decent with a single caveat – Power Athlete was one of the rare 2D fighters that allowed for movement on the z-axis (foreground and back), meaning pressing up and down on the directional pad moves the character further back or forward rather than jump and duck. This also means that jumping is relegated to a button on the controller. While it doesn’t make playing the game particularly difficult per se, it does take some adjusting for individuals accustomed to the plug & play control scheme of most of the top entries in the genre.

Also absent here are finishing moves of any kind. Violence and special moves are comparable to Street Fighter II and, in fact, more than a few could have been copied and pasted directly. The music, unfortunately, isn’t near as memorable.

All in all Power Athlete/ Power Moves/ Deadly Moves is a largely forgettable experience from an era crowded with forgettable experiences. It received only a single release in North America but was successful enough in its native Japan to warrant a trilogy – followed there by Battle Master and Ragnagard.

Weaponlord

When Weaponlord came out in 1995, already the one-on-one fighting game genre had splintered into several subsets, weapons based titles being one of these. Games like Time Killers in the arcade and SNK’s Samurai Showdown had come before and demonstrated the appeal of weaponry rather than strictly fisticuffs. Developed by Visual Concepts and published by Namco, Waponlord took the concept and brought it to both the Super Nintendo and Genesis platforms.

Project leads James Goddard and Dave Winstead, former Street Fighter alum at Capcom, left with plans to design a title for true enthusiasts of the fighting game genre. What resulted was a gritty, norse-themed weapon fighter with a ridiculously deep move-set designed to demand precision inputs rather than button mashing.

In fact, the game introduced a unique system whereby thrust-blocking, a combination input, was crucial for breaking up opponent combos. Additionally Deflect moves, essentially counterattack maneuvers were implemented here. Certain special moves, known as “Take Downs”, knock opponents onto their back with the potential for additional attacks while their foe is still on the ground.

Also unique, certain attacks could be performed on an opponent in mid-swing, cutting off a piece of clothing or hair in the process. Of course a game with this complex a move-set is going to offer Fatalities for maximum gore and closure to a match. They are known as Death Combos here.

Weaponlord’s characters possess between 9 and 12 special moves each and a password system meant returning to story mode at a later opportunity.

The biggest downside to this one is that the 7-playable characters were hardly memorable compared to the rosters of your Street Fighters and Mortal Kombats; and sprite animations were a bit stiff and slow to account for the game’s ambition of being compatible with early online play.

Visually the game is a very unique blend of traits with hand drawn background scans placed behind massive character sprites. And the soundtrack is appropriately epic.

All in all Weaponlord is a largely overlooked gem with a very steep learning curve and enough depth to satisfy even the most diehard fans of the genre.

Tuff E Nuff

Tuff E Nuff (known in Japan as Dead Dance) is a 2D fighting game developed and published by Jaleco for the SNES in September 1993.

Set in the post-apocalyptic future after the Great War of 2151, the story follows four champions as they fight in a large coliseum to determine who enters the great Tower of the Fighting King and defeat his six minions (before taking on the Fighting King himself). This plays out across ten stages in story mode.

As the story suggests, the game’s roster of playable characters is thin. The game starts off with only four characters, but implementation of a code can unlock the other seven characters.

The fighting system is based on four buttons: two for kicks and two for punches (light and fierce, respectively) and all characters have at least two special attacks.

The four main characters’ skills evolve over story mode, featuring an RPG-like element, special moves becoming slightly larger and more powerful after each group of opponents are defeated.

ClayFighter

ClayFighter proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all fighting games had to take themselves seriously to be fun.

It was released for the Super Nintendo in November 1993 and later ported to Sega Genesis in June 1994. Developed by Visual Concepts and published by Interplay Productions, ClayFighter would go on to become a franchise unto itself.

From a creation standpoint, the game’s design wasn’t all that different from the Mortal Kombat school of design only rather than photographing and animating human actors, clay models were photographed and animated into positions for the onscreen action.

The game features eight playable characters and one boss. Circus themed, bright and playful, it was a nice diversion in a particularly dark time in the genre. However, especially in hindsight, gameplay was stiff, slow and very uninspired. The first entry in particular is a rare case of large sprites working against the game as colliding hit boxes are all but inevitable so rather than develop offensive and defensive strategies, it’s usually a situation of button mashing to get more hits in than the opponent.

ClayFighter was followed by the Tournament Edition update in 1994. Two sequels were also produced: ClayFighter 2: Judgment Clay for the SNES in 1995 and ClayFighter 63⅓ for the Nintendo 64 in 1997. The latter of which had its own special edition with ClayFighter: Sculptor’s Cut in 1998. ClayFighter sold 200,000 copies by the end of 1994.

Brutal: Paws of Fury

Another entry to the genre of the more light-hearted variety came to us from GameTek back in 1994 in the form of Brutal: Paws of Fury

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This one used 2D cell shaded graphics for a cartoony look and consisted entirely of a tournament for anthropomorphic animal combatants.

While it followed most of the trapping associated with the genre, Brutal was unique in that players begin with only ‘basic’ moveset (movement, three attack types, grapple), and have to ‘learn’ new moves during the single player story mode. Upon defeating two opponents, it’s off to a tutorial stage to learn a new technique (the first is a taunt that recovers their character’s health, followed by a special move or kata in subsequent revisits). By the time the player has fought all the way to the final boss, they would have unlocked their character’s full repertoire of moves.

Interestingly, this game was originally a Sega CD exclusive title that was then ported to other systems after the fact. It began with a roster of 10 playable characters that had to be scaled back to 8 for the 16-bit incarnations.

Brutal: Paws of Fury was released for the Sega CD, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, PC, Amiga, and Amiga CD32. An enhanced version, Brutal Unleashed: Above the Claw, was released for MS-DOS and Sega 32X in 1995.

Game play was, comparatively speaking, slower and less fluid than many of its contemporaries, though it could be argued that the game wasn’t looking so much to emulate the feel of the Street Fighter phenomenon so much as forge its own path with gorgeous cartoony visuals and a character leveling gimmick to add depth to the formula.

Sadly, by 1995 the popularity of the one-on-one fighting game had largely run its course, due in no small part to the transition into 3D capable console territory with the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and soon-to-be-released Nintendo 64.  As such, Brutal was largely ignored for having arrived late to the party.

The post RETROSPECTIVE: The Best of the Rest appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

My nephew is 11 years old.  He has just about every modern console known to man, a gaming PC, a powerhouse iPad and iPhone and the other day, in casual video gaming conversation, he happens to mention Street Fighter II.

I paused immediately, asking him how in the world he knows the original Capcom classic in a time when Street Fighter V is, itself, considered archaic with its release coming back in 2016.

“Uncle Jay,” he told me in a tone of mockery laced with sympathy, “everyone knows that Street Fighter II is the greatest fighting game ever made.” 

Huh!  I suppose I should explain that back when the original Street Fighter II rose in popularity in arcades, I was only a little older than said nephew is now.  In fact, I was of high school age at the time and spent weekends with my friends at the malls in the arcades. I can remember very clearly the first time my cousin and I encountered the cabinet.  We had both studied the moves lists in the pages of EGM prior in preparation of the inevitable day so that tossing a fireball at my unsuspecting opponent as Ryu would turn the tides in my favor. My cousin, similarly inspired but a bit lazier, decided Blanka would be his warrior of choice.  His logic? Tapping the punch button was all it would take to charge up electrically. Victory would be ours over a sea of imaginary opponents who were not aware of these advanced abilities. Or so we told ourselves.

Suffice to say – we both learned immediate lessons in humility that day.  Our one-trick-pony combo moves were seen, countered then used against us both by fellow human players and AI controlled opponents alike.  However, we didn’t leave that day defeated, in fact – quite the opposite. We were inspired. Inspired to come back again better prepared.  We would study up on all of our characters given move sets. The desire to play again, to practice against the computer, became an obsession in the months to follow.

Shortly thereafter, the first official home port came to the SNES and, both Sega Genesis supporters at the time (this was an era where most individuals working part time jobs and going to school could afford to support one system at most), the only way we could get our fix was to rent the Super Nintendo and the Street Fighter II cart from the local video store.  We did this every chance we could. There were occasional weekends where SFII was out so we’d come back with the system and Final Fight (which, sadly, ditched the two player co-op ability) in a funk of disappointment. We tried renting lesser game experiences – Pit Fighter, wrestling, boxing. None came close to duplicating the rush we were after.

That year’s birthday witnessed the depths of my SFII desperation when I picked up Fighting Masters for my Genesis.  My nephew may think he has a grip on the best fighting game ever made, but I’m sure I can enlighten him on several of the worst. 

Ultimately I caved and worked my way up to the SNES and Street Fighter II – in fact having purchased the cart even before getting the system.  The logic here being if we rented the console in the meantime, there would be no fears of the game being out for the weekend.

And as it would turn out – right when our skills had matured enough to be able to hold our own in the arcades, a new game, this one from Midway, appeared and began luring the masses over to its cabinet instead.  This one was called Mortal Kombat and while it played largely the same, it did away with the pixel art graphics in favor of actual scanned actors and, while the combo moves were certainly retained, this one introduced a concept that would forever change the one-on-one landscape:  Fatalities.

Gory and over the top finishing moves accomplished by button and stick combinations at the end of the bouts certainly had earned the attention of the masses.  A new rivalry was born immediately. And with no home ports on the immediate horizon, it was looking like heading to the arcades, moves lists memorized to the best of one’s abilities, and a pocketful of quarters was the only way to learn this new entry.

While all of this was going on, a strange multi-game cabinet from SNK was garnering more and more attention from its place in the corner.  Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat may have been getting all of the attention but these guys, the ones we remembered making games like Ikari Warriors and Alpha Mission on the NES, seemed to be taking this new one-on-one fighting game thing seriously too.

To many, it looked like they were trying to capitalize on the success of Street Fighter II’s popularity.  That incorrect assumption has lasted for many, many years. In a truly strange and fascinating tale, the real Street Fighter II was in fact an SNK arcade game.  In next month’s column we’ll take a look at how many of the staples of the genre are miscredited as SFII innovations and how Capcom tried to go after others for copying what was not, in fact, exclusively theirs in the first place.

The post RETROSPECTIVE: A Tale of Street Fighters appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.