The Rise & Fall & Rise of fighting games: Your thoughts?

[sephi22]

The early 1990s were some of the best years to be a fighting game fan, and much of that is credited to one game - Street Fighter II. The 90s had some of the greatest fighting game releases - including SFII, MKII, UMKIII, MvC2, and others. American and Japanese arcades were making cash like crazy. But as the arcade seen died and online gaming became prominent, fighting games started waning in popularity.

New SSFIV/Tekken 6 recruits may not know this, but a major part of the last decade had a major drought of fighting games. There were more than a few articles and videos that mentioned 'Fighting games are dead', much like 'PC gaming is dead' articles we read nowadays.

Believe it or not, the Street Fighter brand had started to look irrelevant. To put things into perspective, in EVO2008, the US's biggest tournament, the two biggest tournaments were for SFIII:Third Strike and Capcom VS SNK 2 - two games that came out in 1999 and 2001 respectively.

Fighting games were very niche at the time - a genre for the most hardcore of gamers. Technically, there was never a total absence of fighting games between 2000-2008, its just that these fighters were either super niche, or not competitive enough to matter (3D Mortal Kombat games / Bloody Roar sequels).

Post-SFIII:TS, Capcom had dropped the ball when it came to new fighting game releases. Capcom concentrated their efforts in porting their past successes (SFII, Alpha 3, SFIII) to any platform or compilation they could. Their only new 2D fighting game release (Capcom Fighting Jam) bombed both critically and commercially. The prospect of a new, true Street Fighter game seemed impossible.

One developer that stayed dedicated to its fans was Namco, who released 6 major releases during this period, which can perhaps be credited to the relative newness of both the Tekken and Soul Calibur brands. In 2008, Capcom went back to its roots, and released Street Fighter IV. SFIII wasn't as commercially successful as SFII was, mainly due to its added complexity. Hence, Capcom decided to create SFIV around the core mechanics of SFII. In doing so, Capcom inadvertently did the impossible. Much like how SFII started the first age of fighting games, SFIV started their resurgence. And now, for the first time since the early 90s, is the best time to be a fighting gamer.

For reference, I'm posting major competitive fighting game releases by year. (Console Versions). I'm sure I'm going to miss some.

2000:
Capcom VS SNK
Marvel VS Capcom 2
Tekken Tag Tournament

2001:
Capcom VS SNK 2
Dead or Alive 3

2002:
Tekken 4
Virtua Fighter 4
Guilty Gear XX

2003:
Soul Calibur II
Guilty Gear XX #Reload

2005:
Tekken 5
Dead or Alive 4
Soul Calibur III
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core

2007:
Virtual Fighter 5

2008:
The return of Street Fighter?
Soul Calibur IV
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Street Fighter IV Turbo HD Remix

2009:
Welcome to the Resurgence!
Street Fighter IV
Blazblue: Calamity Trigger
Tekken 6
King of Fighters XII
Marvel VS Capcom 2 (PSN/XBLA)

2010:
Alive and Kickin'
SUPER Street Fighter IV
Blazblue: Continuum Shift

2011/2012
What is this I don't even ...
Street Fighter X Tekken
Tekken X Street Fighter
MvC3 Fate of Two Worlds
Mortal Kombat (W/Possible HD Collection)
3rd Strike for Matching Service
King of Fighters XIII
Arcana Heart 3
Virtua Fighter Final Showdown
DOA Dimensions
BlazeBluE Continuum Shift II
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Super Street Fighter IV 3DS

It suddenly feels like the 90s again. However, I can't help but feel that all these game companies are trying to milk whatever they can of the spotlight shining on fighting games right now thanks to Street Fighter. I'm afraid the general public will undergo fighting game fatigue and fighting games will become relatively extinct for another decade or more. Thoughts?

 

[Radical]

I am not too much into fighting games but i really enjoyed playing SF 2. It was awesome! I tried to get it on all the platforms i played games on , enjoyed the SF HD remix as well..didn't like the third strike too much though...I think Capcom is doing the same with SF 4, they are releasing it on different platforms, which is good. SF 4 on the move(iPHONE, 3DS etc.), SF 4 @ home on consoles, SF 4 in arcades xD so it's all good imo, didn't play the other games at all or played them rarely like Tekken & KOF for example...looking forward to both the SF X Tekken games.

I' ll be playing SF games mostly in the future so fatigue is not an issue for me as i am not at all interested in the Marvel vs Capcom series, soul calibur & some others you mentioned, don't like such games =/

I don't think these games will go extinct (SF & Tekken atleast) in the coming years it will only go forward from here, especially when the new HD consoles (PS4 etc.) hit the market!The more the merrier i say (sm1)

 

[Omyakha]

That was a pretty good read, you summed everything up quite nicely
I've never been a fighting games fan but when a game gets you to rise up and take notice like Street Fighter 4 did, you know there's something there.
I'd say if fighting games are to continue the way they are right now, they're constantly going to have to change it up and with that Street Fighter x Tekken announcement, I'd say fight fans are set for the next two years or so

 

[manigamer]

hmm nice stuff u put up there sephi ! good job !

 

[DietyDevil]

The best Fighting Games there ever were for me are SF Zero 3, SF EX Alpha 3, Bloody Roar 1,2,3,4, Tekken tag and Tekken 5. I think these games were Best in all Fighting games history. At first i wasnt much into strategies, Techniques and skills, but after Playing Tekken tag, i knew the true meaning of fighting games. Tekken 4 was quite good but still fans werent much satisfied, the game frames were decreased and was made unbalanced with little glictches. they did excellent job removing the Zig zag stages from Tekken as it was ruining the true shape of tekken. SF4 after 10 years made me hype , but i was quite pissed after seeing that instead of adding new moves, they faded most of them. for example Akuma Air Super Fireball, Ground Fireball. same goes for Ryu Ken and others. but still the game played more than Tekken 6. 2011 and 2012 are gonna be fighting games year, i think the boom will end after that. It will take time.

 

[sephi22]

I loved Bloody Roar 2. It was my favorite 3D fighter on the PSX. However, I was dissapointed by the sequels. Loved playing as Bakuryu & Long.
On topic, I think this boom will end and leave us with years without major fighting game releases. Also, fighter exhaustion plays a factor too. What are the guys at EVO going to keep in the lineup in 2012/2013? Tekken TT2? or TxSF? or SFxT? SSFIV? Blazblue? MK?
There are only limited slots for the games, and I feel like some games will be ignored.