Hiya!

Did you know it’s been more than 3 decades since Capcom released Street Fighter II into arcades and started the first fighting game boom? Even without counting the first ever Street Fighter game, this franchise is a good few years older than me!

I mention how long-lived the fighting games industry is because, if you look back at its more humble beginnings and compared those early entries to today’s fighting games, you’d be surprised at how many things have changed! Although Capcom and Street Fighter created the basic template most fighting games today follow, other developers added little sprinkles of flavor to it to make what modern fighting games look like nowadays. So, let’s look back at these contributions which have accumulated throughout those 30 years!

Combos (Street Fighter II, 1991)

Yes, we all know the story by now. Capcom wanted to make executing special moves less restrictive for Street Fighter II. in order to do so, they allowed the system to read the special move inputs with a lot more leniency than the first Street Fighter. This created a glitch which allowed some normal inputs to be cancelled into special attacks. This meant a player could link or “combo” their normals into a special move in an unblockable sequence as long as the first move hit clean.

The combo has since become a fighting game staple with the game actually counting how many clean hits in succession a players made. Nowadays, fighting game developers even plan out which move can be cancelled into another one and even take into account frame data to allow even normal attacks to link into one another.

Story Mode (Fatal Fury, 1991)

You could say fighting games already had some kind of story mode as each fighter ends the arcade ladder with his or her own specialized ending. However, this is more of you watching the ending scene and then filling in all the blanks before it. SNK‘s Fatal Fury was different as the arcade ladder would have these little cutscenes showing Geese Howard showing more and more interest with your chosen character. He would then send in his bigger heavies to stop you to no avail. This culminates with you kicking Geese off his very tower to his death.

Fatal Fury’s arcade ladder didn’t just show you the ending. It told you an actual story in-between your battles, allowing you to follow along what was happening. This didn’t exactly take off until NetherRealms Studios took this basic idea of showing you a fully developed story and creating Mortal Kombat’s cinematic story mode, complete with cutscenes and intertwining storylines. While it was simplistic, Fatal Fury was still the first to do this.

Super Meter, Taunts and Desperation Moves (Art of Fighting, 1992)

It’s kind of funny to think executing a special move was super difficult but super rewarding. In the first Street Fighter, connecting with a single projectile would take off a third off your opponent’s lifebar. As it became much easier to do these kinds of things, the damage reward was toned down. Well, SNK remembered it well so, in Art of Fighting, they brought it back… sort of. In Art of Fighting, the amount of damage your special moves do is dependent on his or hers “spirit meter.” The more “spirit meter” you have, the more powerful your special move is. Art of Fighting also had a dedicated taunt button. This wasn’t just for show as taunting your opponent will decrease their spirit meter. While this does leave you wide open, this also ensures their special moves don’t do as much damage.

However, you can also use a secret special move which uses up almost all of your “spirit meter.” It does a ton of damage but, in return, does leave you in a weakened state. Each character also has a hidden special move which only becomes available to you when your character’s lifebar is flashing. This

Other developers soon copied the idea, changing the “spirit meter” to a dedicated gauge called a Super Meter. When this is filled up, your character can then perform their Super Combo, which is essentially the Desperation Attack. Taunting was also added but, unlike Art of Fighting, it doesn’t really do anything but, well, taunt your opponent.

Crossovers (Fatal Fury Special, 1993)

One of the most important thing about a fighting game would be its roster of characters. They can make or break a fighting game. Of course, some characters become icons and get snuck into the backgrounds in other games, making them little Easter Eggs for fans to find. However, in the past, they were just stuck to their own franchise. They weren’t allowed to participate in other games, let alone another fighting game.

That all changed with Fatal Fury Special. SNK owned both the Fatal Fury and the Art of Fighting franchises so they decided to insert a little Easter Egg in Fatal Fury Special by adding Ryo Sakazaki, the protagonist of the Art of Fighting games, as a hidden boss in the game. This “Dream Match” can only be attained by winning all matches without losing a single round.

This was officially the first crossover and SNK dove headfirst into the concept. Soon after, they made the King of Fighters series, which mashed together various SNK franchises into one glorious fighting game. This also became the precursor for games like Super Smash Bros. as well as adding Akuma as a hidden character to X-Men: Children of the Atom. This in turn led to Capcom’s Vs. Series wherein they would mash together Marvel superheroes with their own franchise characters. Even rival companies such as Capcom and SNK would set aside their differences to make games like the Capcom vs. SNK series.

EX Special Moves (Darkstalkers, 1994)

Although Street Fighter was their biggest fighting game, Capcom dabbled in creating other fighting game franchises for a while. One of them was the Darkstalkers series. Featuring a more anime inspired art style and featuring classic monsters, the games had a much more fantastical setting, allowing Capcom to experiment a little bit more with the mechanics.

By this time, Capcom added the Super Meter to some of their games, such as Super Street Fighter II: Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha. They also added the Super Meter concept to Darkstalkers but they realized they could use this for more than just performing a Super Combo. In Darkstalkers, you can power up your special moves for the cost on your entire Super Meter. These are called Extra Special or ES Moves. While that does sound expensive, ES Moves are much easier to connect with in the middle of a combo and they do much more damage than your regular special attacks.

Eventually, the concept got refined later on in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. Instead of burning your entire meter, a small portion of it would be consumed when performing these newly christened EX Moves. Other games soon copied the concept, balancing out the choice between saving your Super Meter for one big Super Combo or using it up for an EX Special.

Throw Escapes (Super Street Fighter II Turbo, 1994 and X-Men: Children of the Atom, 1994)

During the early days of fighting games, throws were a huge problem as they were unblockable and did a lot of damage. Developers did tone down the amount of damage throws did but they were still a point of contention as there was no way to escape them. Capcom did try to alleviate the issue in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as you can soften the damage done by a throw if you do the throw motion at virtually the same time.

Capcom improved on this idea in X-Men: Children of the Atom. Instead of simply softening the blow of a throw, X-Men: Children of the Atom allowed for a variety of ways to break throws, depending on the character. While they all required Super Meter, at least there was now a way to break a throw attempt.

Thankfully, the meter requirement to break throws were removed by other developers who copied the concept. Now, while it can still be frustrating to get thrown, most fighting games give you a chance to get out of the grapple as long as your very aware of it.

Byee!

What other old-school fighting game innovations became modern fighting game mechanic staples can you think of? Let me know in the comments section below!