The fighting game genre of video game involves combat between multiple characters. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into "combos". Characters generally engage hand-to-hand combat, often with martial arts. The fighting game genre is distinctly related to the beat 'em up genre, which pits many computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters.
In video games, a boss is a significantly powerful non-player character created as an opponent to players. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the players have faced up to that point in a game. Boss battles are generally seen at climax points of particular sections of games, such as at the end of a level or stage or guarding a specific objective. A miniboss is a boss weaker or less significant than the main boss in the same area or level, though usually more powerful than the standard opponents and often fought alongside them. A superboss is generally much more powerful than the bosses encountered as part of the main game's plot and is often an optional encounter. A final boss is often the main antagonist of a game's story and the defeat of that character usually provides a positive conclusion to the game. A boss rush is a stage where players face multiple previous bosses again in succession.
Akuma, known in Japan as Gouki, is a fictional character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games created by Capcom. Akuma made his debut in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a secret character and an alternative boss to the villain M. Bison. In the storyline of the Street Fighter video games, he is the younger brother of Gouken, Ryu's and Ken's master. After defeating his brother, Akuma gains interest in several fighters, most notably Ryu as he senses that the protagonist has a similar power to him known as the Satsui no Hadou. In some games, he also has an alternate version named Shin Akuma or Shin Gouki in Japanese and Oni Akuma in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.
SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron is a 1993–1994 American animated television series created by Christian and Yvon Tremblay and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. The series takes place in the fictional metropolis of Megakat City, which is populated by anthropomorphic felines, known as "kats". The SWAT Kats of the title are two vigilante pilots who possess a state-of-the-art fighter jet with an array of weaponry. Throughout the series, they face various villains as well as competition from Megakat City's militarized police force called the Enforcers.
Final Fight 3, released in Japan as Final Fight Tough, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up by Capcom originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. It is the second sequel to Final Fight released for the Super NES, following Final Fight 2, and like its predecessor, it was produced by Capcom's consumer division with no preceding arcade version released.
X-Men: Children of the Atom is an arcade game developed and published by Capcom and released on the CP System II arcade hardware in 1994 in Japan and in 1995 in North America and Europe.
Marvel Super Heroes is a fighting game developed and published by Capcom. Originally released in the arcade in 1995 on the CPS-2 arcade system, it was ported to the Sega Saturn and PlayStation in late 1997. The game, alongside Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, was also included in the Marvel vs. Capcom Origins collection, released digitally for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2012.
Double Dragon is a 1995 fighting video game spin-off of the Double Dragon series developed and published by Technōs Japan. It is based on the 1994 film, which in turn was based on the original arcade game. It was originally released for the Neo Geo and later released for the Neo Geo CD and PlayStation. The game was also made available for PlayStation Network in Japan in 2011 and in North America in 2014. It was Technōs Japan's last Double Dragon game before the company went out of business, and the fourth and final Double Dragon game released in arcades.
Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original Virtua Fighter was released in December 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential first Virtua Fighter game is widely recognized as the first 3D fighting game released. The latest mainline release was Virtua Fighter 5 in 2006; this version has since been continously updated.
Savage Reign is 1995 weapon-based versus fighting game released by SNK for their Neo Geo arcade and home platform. It was ported to the Neo Geo CD, as well as for the PlayStation 2 along with its sequel Kizuna Encounter in Japan only. This compilation was re-released in the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 4 in December 2016.
Tekken (鉄拳) is a fighting video game developed and published by Namco. It was originally released on arcades in December 1994, then ported to the PlayStation home console the following year. One of the earliest 3D polygon-based games of the genre, Tekken was Namco's answer to Virtua Fighter and was designed by Seiichi Ishii, who himself was also Virtua Fighter's designer when he worked at Sega previously. The game was developed on the purpose-built low-cost System 11 board, based on PlayStation hardware.
Casper is a series of action-adventure games based on the 1995 film of the same name. Two different games were released in 1996 and 1997 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, by different publishers, in different regions. A third game was released for the 3DO, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color, published by Interplay Productions. There was also a Game Boy game developed by Bonsai. A PC game, Casper: The Interactive Adventure, and a Game Boy Advance game, simply titled Casper, were released in 1997 and 2002 respectively serving as sequels.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is the title of four different video game adaptations of the film of the same name which were released for the Super NES, Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear. While the games are ostensibly based on the film, they also feature characters and plot elements from the second season of the original TV series. Like the previous game versions of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, none of the four versions of the movie game are ports of each other.
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, known in Japan as Vampire: The Night Warriors, is a 1994 fighting game developed and released by Capcom originally for the CPS II arcade hardware as the first game in the first title in the Darkstalkers series. It was ported to the PlayStation by Psygnosis in 1996 and was followed by Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge in 1995. Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors was ported as a part of Capcom Fighting Collection on June 24, 2022 to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls is a fighting game developed by Leland Interactive Media and published by Tradewest for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis in 1994. A port for the Atari Jaguar developed by Telegames was released the following year. It is an American-produced sequel to the Double Dragon series by Technōs Japan, who had little to no credited involvement in the development of the game outside of licensing the IP to the publisher outside Japan.
Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams, known as Street Fighter Zero in Japan, Asia, South America, and Oceania, is a 2D arcade fighting game by Capcom originally released in 1995 for the CP System II hardware. It was the first all new Street Fighter game produced by Capcom since the release of Street Fighter II in 1991. The working title for the game was Street Fighter Legends.
The 1990s was the third decade in the industry's history. It was a decade of marked innovation in video gaming. It was a decade of transition from sprite-based graphics to full-fledged 3D graphics and it gave rise to several genres of video games including, but not limited to, the first-person shooter, real-time strategy, survival horror, and MMO. Arcade games, although still very popular in the early 1990s, began to decline as home consoles became more common. The fourth and fifth generation of video game consoles went on sale, including the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color and the Sega Dreamcast. Notable games released in the 1990s included Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, Tekken 3,Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Final Fantasy VII, Unreal Tournament, Star Fox, Half-Life, Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario 64, Pokémon Red and Blue, NBA Jam,Daytona USA, GoldenEye 007, System Shock 2, Civilization,Ridge Racer, Sonic Adventure, Gran Turismo, Super Mario Kart, Pokémon Gold and Silver,Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid, Silent Hill, Dead or Alive 2, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon, Fallout, Metal Gear Solid, Diablo, Virtua Fighter, Tomb Raider,Sega Rally Championship, Wing Commander,Super Smash Bros, Secret of Mana,Thief: The Dark Project, Age of Empires, Nights into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon, Gunstar Heroes, EverQuest, Chrono Trigger, Battletoads, Worms, Myst, Micro Machines, Streets of Rage 2,Baldur's Gate,Donkey Kong Country, Wipeout, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins,Lemmings, EarthBound, StarCraft, Banjo-Kazooie, PaRappa the Rapper, Resident Evil, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Soulcalibur, Command & Conquer, and Dance Dance Revolution.
Street Fighter: The Movie is a 1995 fighting game released as an arcade game. The game is based on the 1994 live-action Street Fighter film, itself based on the Street Fighter series of fighting games, and uses digitized images of the film's cast. The game was developed by Chicago-based Incredible Technologies and distributed to the arcades by Capcom. The game was widely panned by critics.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Slayer is a fantasy first-person, dungeon crawl / action role-playing game based on the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The game was developed by Lion Entertainment and published by Strategic Simulations in 1994 for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. A Japanese version titled Lost Dungeon (ロストダンジョン) was published by T&E Soft the following year.
Ultraman Powered is a fighting game developed by Tose and published by Bandai for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. The player takes on the role of the extraterrestrial superhero Ultraman Powered, tasked with protecting the Earth from destructive aliens and monsters. Gameplay primarily consists of one-on-one battles where the player must deplete an adversary's health meter using both basic and special fighting techniques. The game also contains 3D rail shooter sections and a two-player versus option.
