

Game design Īlthough Street Fighter II was not the first fighting game, it popularized and established the gameplay conventions of the genreįighting games involve combat between pairs of fighters using highly exaggerated martial arts moves. As such, boxing games, mixed martial arts games, and wrestling games are often described as distinct genres, without comparison to fighting games, and belong more in the sports game genre. Serious boxing games belong more to the sports game genre than the action game genre, as they aim for a more realistic model of boxing techniques, whereas moves in fighting games tend to be either highly exaggerated or outright fantastical models of Asian martial arts techniques. Sports-based combat games are games that feature boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA), or wrestling. With hindsight, critics have argued that the two types of game gradually became dichotomous as they evolved, though the two terms may still be conflated. Fighting games were still being called "beat 'em up" games in video game magazines up until the end of the 1990s. During the 1980s to 1990s, publications used the terms "fighting game" and "beat 'em up" interchangeably, along with other terms such as " martial arts simulation" (or more specific terms such as " judo simulator") and "punch-kick" games. However, beat 'em ups generally do not feature combat divided into separate "rounds". Beat 'em ups, like traditional fighting games, display player and enemy health in a bar, generally located at the top of the screen. This genre is related but distinct from beat 'em ups, another action genre involving combat, where the player character must fight many enemies at the same time. Fighting games typically involve hand-to-hand combat, though many games also feature characters with melee weapons. Street Fighter II, though not the first fighting game, is considered to have standardized the genre, and similar games released prior to Street Fighter II have since been more explicitly classified as fighting games. Games traditionally show fighters from a side-view, even as the genre has progressed from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) graphics. These games typically feature special moves that are triggered using rapid sequences of carefully timed button presses and joystick movements.

The first video game to feature fist fighting was Heavyweight Champ in 1976, but it was Karate Champ that popularized the one-on-one fighting game genre in arcades in 1984.

Some games, such as Tekken, also allow limited movement in 3D space. Characters can navigate this plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. The fighting game genre is related to, but distinct from, the beat 'em up genre, which pits large numbers of computer-controlled enemies against one or more player characters.īattles in fighting games usually take place in a fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane, to which the characters' movement is restricted. Characters generally engage in battle using hand-to-hand combat-often some form of martial arts. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into " combos". A fighting game (also known as versus fighting game) is a video game genre that involves combat between two or more players.
