The History of Fighting Games: Part 2
Chapter 1: In the beginning, Part 2
In the first of part of "In the beginning" we looked at the father of fighting games, Karate Champ, the intitial blueprint which all future fighters would follow. The original release of Karate Champ was a single player game, two player versus didn't come about till slighty later. However in 1985, a few other companies took a stab at the fighting game genre based on the original of Karate Champ, Shanghai Kid and the more popular Yie Ar Kung Fu. Both Single player games.
Shanghai kid was similar to Karate champ in alot of ways, but quite different at the same time. First major difference is that there is only 1 joystick, used for movement and blocking. And 2 buttons for attacks. While the attack commands become alot simplier, blocking became much more complicated. Most of us are accustomed to only blocking high/mid and low attacks in fighting games, but in Shanghai Kid you had 3 areas to block, head, high/mid and low areas. When playing through the game you would face opponents of increasing difficulty, but the thing which set it apart here is that you was told by red circles on your enemy where you should at attack for that moment. If you attacked elsewhere there was a good chance you would get countered and lose some of your health. Which reminds me, the point scoring system employed by Karate Champ is now gone. In its place a small life bar which would deplete if you was hit, much more familiar.
Many of you have probably at least heard of Yie Ar Kung Fu. A single player fighting game which makes use of the same controls are Shanhai kid, a joystick and a punch and kick button. Now what makes this game stand out is are the enemies you face. You control Oolong and with your deadly kung fu attacks you take on many different opponents each weilding a different weapon and with each boss brings a new challenge, each requiring a different strategy. Yie Ar Kung Fu also brought greatly improved graphics to the fighters (well compared to Karate Champ and Shanghai kid). All the characters look very unique and theres even two different backgrounds/stages to the game, awesome.
Next on the List is Galactic Warriors. It allowed for 2 players to fight eachother, nothing new there (karate champ already did this), it allowed for a choice of characters. Granted there was only three, but three is better than one. Galactic warriors also introduced the the projectile, not bad for a game made in 1985. Granted they were little more than rockets, activated by only a push of a button (not the motions we are used to today), but it did add a new playing experience to fighting games, now you didn't have to be right next to your opponent to do damage. Also of note is that the character sprites where much larger and alot more detailed than the previous games. This would soon become standard among fighting games.
It would be two years before another fighting game appeared in the arcade, but it would be one of the most important fighting games in history. Next time on the history of fighters, "The Birth of Special Moves"
In the first of part of "In the beginning" we looked at the father of fighting games, Karate Champ, the intitial blueprint which all future fighters would follow. The original release of Karate Champ was a single player game, two player versus didn't come about till slighty later. However in 1985, a few other companies took a stab at the fighting game genre based on the original of Karate Champ, Shanghai Kid and the more popular Yie Ar Kung Fu. Both Single player games.
Shanghai kid was similar to Karate champ in alot of ways, but quite different at the same time. First major difference is that there is only 1 joystick, used for movement and blocking. And 2 buttons for attacks. While the attack commands become alot simplier, blocking became much more complicated. Most of us are accustomed to only blocking high/mid and low attacks in fighting games, but in Shanghai Kid you had 3 areas to block, head, high/mid and low areas. When playing through the game you would face opponents of increasing difficulty, but the thing which set it apart here is that you was told by red circles on your enemy where you should at attack for that moment. If you attacked elsewhere there was a good chance you would get countered and lose some of your health. Which reminds me, the point scoring system employed by Karate Champ is now gone. In its place a small life bar which would deplete if you was hit, much more familiar.
Many of you have probably at least heard of Yie Ar Kung Fu. A single player fighting game which makes use of the same controls are Shanhai kid, a joystick and a punch and kick button. Now what makes this game stand out is are the enemies you face. You control Oolong and with your deadly kung fu attacks you take on many different opponents each weilding a different weapon and with each boss brings a new challenge, each requiring a different strategy. Yie Ar Kung Fu also brought greatly improved graphics to the fighters (well compared to Karate Champ and Shanghai kid). All the characters look very unique and theres even two different backgrounds/stages to the game, awesome.
Next on the List is Galactic Warriors. It allowed for 2 players to fight eachother, nothing new there (karate champ already did this), it allowed for a choice of characters. Granted there was only three, but three is better than one. Galactic warriors also introduced the the projectile, not bad for a game made in 1985. Granted they were little more than rockets, activated by only a push of a button (not the motions we are used to today), but it did add a new playing experience to fighting games, now you didn't have to be right next to your opponent to do damage. Also of note is that the character sprites where much larger and alot more detailed than the previous games. This would soon become standard among fighting games.
It would be two years before another fighting game appeared in the arcade, but it would be one of the most important fighting games in history. Next time on the history of fighters, "The Birth of Special Moves"
posted by r3ko at 1:17 PM
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