History

The first recognized fighting game is the 1979 arcade game Warrior. This game used simple monochrome vector graphics projected over the top of printed backgrounds. It was over a decade later that fighting games would establish themselves as a major genre and player versus player combat would become popular.

The arcade game Karate Champ, released in 1984, and Way of the Exploding Fist, published in 1985, are two of the earliest fighting games. In Fist, the player progresses through a series of one-on-one karate tournament fights. Although the health bars found in modern fighting games were not present (instead, rounds end when any strike connects with the opponent), they are regarded as the games that established this genre.

Modern fighting games can either be two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D). Characters in 2D fighting games (e.g. Street Fighter, The King of Fighters, early Mortal Kombat) are hand-drawn or digitized animated sprites with some exceptions (e.g. Street Fighter IV, Battle Fantasia). They can move left, move right, duck, and jump, but in many games they can't sidestep or move closer to the screen. Games where the player can slightly take advantage of depth of the fighting arena include many of those in the Fatal Fury series. The camera scrolls in various directions but observes the match from the same angle. The 2D fighter's characteristic gameplay mechanics are jumps that nearly always go over opponents, projectile attacks, and an attacking/blocking system that differentiates between air, ground, and crouching attacks. Since there is a lack of 3D depth, two-dimensional titles usually involve extensive moves that take advantage of the height of the screen; attacks in the air are essential moves. The controlling of space is a very important aspect of most 2D fighters. Projectiles are most instrumental for controlling space. Two dimensional games stem from long-established fighting systems that have been greatly refined over the years, so most modern 2D fighters have more techniques involved than 3D fighters.

Two-dimensional fighters also have a greater number of crossovers: games where several characters from various other games are merged into one title (refer to "Gaming crossovers"). These games typically have a very large amount of playable characters. Because of this, these "mashup fighters" tend to be tag-team matches; the player chooses several characters, can switch between them during rounds, and can utilize team-up attacks. Additionally, these games tend to have several different fighting systems to choose from, incorporating the fighting system from the originating game games. Notable crossovers include Capcom's "Vs" series (i.e., both MvC and SvC), SNK's King of Fighters series, and Sega's Fighters Megamix.