Fighting games are experiencing a sort of renaissance thanks to the hype around upcoming games like Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8. While no longer the dominant force they were in the '90s, fighting games remain a respected pioneer of Esports.
Even at its peak, however, fighting games had a few weird phases. The '90s were a very experimental time, but not every experiment worked out for the best. Still, as forgotten as they are now, it’s important to remember them and learn some lessons on how not to make a fighting game.
ClayFighter
The '90s are widely considered the Renaissance era of animation. After decades of being hamstrung by low budgets and lack of artistic vision, and general softness, the '90s gave the animation industry a kick. It was during this time that the wacky ClayFighter made its debut.
With stop-motion animation and cartoonishly ugly character design, ClayFighter made its immature mark on the world. Unfortunately, the series failed to capitalize on the first entry’s hype, with mediocre games and even worse animation in later entries. Come from clay, return to clay, as they say.
Bio F.R.E.A.K.S.
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
After Mortal Kombat 4 and War Gods received mixed reviews, Midway was struggling to find a new successful franchise for their quickly stagnating company. Their idea was the much-maligned Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., a culmination of all of Midway’s best and worst sensibilities.
A far cry from Mortal Kombat’s powerful cast of characters, this game had absurdly edgy character designs, weird gimmicks, and incredibly clunky gameplay. Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. may not have been universally panned, but it was far from the savior that Midway hoped it would be. Soon, the Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. returned to the primordial ooze that they came from, never to be seen again.
Street Fighter: The Movie
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
There was no doubt that Street Fighter was the king of competitive fighting games at the time, and for most of the '90s, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat would be in a constant tug of war for popularity and fanbase. Mortal Kombat was always the populist fighting game, and when Street Fighter tried to muscle in on that niche, it did not go well.
Street Fighter: The Movie shamelessly copied Mortal Kombat’s use of real actors as sprites, as well as its hilariously imbalanced gameplay. The result was a game that neither attracted Mortal Kombat fans nor make Street Fighter fans happy. Much like the movie, it’s based on, it’s perhaps better left forgotten.
Wu-Tang Shaolin Style
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
The Wu-Tang clan was one of the biggest music acts of the '90s. One of their most charming traits was that alongside being genuinely amazing hip-hop artists, they also happened to be massive nerds. So, it comes as no surprise that they hopped on the chance to put their name on a fighting game.
Wu-Tang Shaolin Style was a very flawed game, but it did have a lot of love put behind it. Wu-Tang clan provided voice work and music for the game. It even had a very impressive four-player mode, a rarity in fighting games at the time. A solid game but, unlike its namesake, it was not remembered through the passage of time.
Jackie Chan: The Kung-Fu Master
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
People love Mortal Kombat. They also love Jackie Chan. The intrepid video game developers at Kaneko wondered what would happen if they combined the two. The result was the shockingly competent Jackie Chan: The Kung Fu Master. The game famously features digitized sprites, blood, and three different versions of Jackie Chan
Now, many people might be wondering how Jackie Chan’s image was affected by being a gory Mortal Kombat clone. The answer was by avoiding it altogether. If Jackie Chan is on-screen, there is no blood or gore at all, despite Chan's real-life tendency towards brutal injuries. Despite this strange limitation, the few people who have played it consider it a very fun time.
Super Fighter
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Street Fighter II was a massive hit in the '90s and is credited for starting the fighting game boom. It was inevitable that many devs would try to evoke the hype that Street Fighter II did. Super Fighter didn’t just evoke the hype, it flat-out stole the blueprints from Capcom HQ, as it is literally a blatant copy of the iconic game, down to its sprite animations and sound design.
Super Fighter is the type of game that someone’s grandma would mistakenly think was Street Fighter II, buying it as a present for their grandchildren under the false assumption it was one of those video games they loved. Hilariously, the franchise shockingly got official re-releases as late as 2013, presumably for all twelve Super Fighter fans out there.
Warpath: Jurassic Park
When one thinks of a Jurassic Park video game, many would assume it would either be a survival horror (ala Dino Crisis) or a hunting simulator (ala Cabela’s Big Game Hunt). However, the folks at Dreamworks Interactive got much more creative, developing Jurassic Park into a dinosaur fighting game.
The '90s had its fair share of weird fighting games, but Warpath: Jurassic Park was a beautiful mix of awesome and awful. Solid gameplay plus dinosaurs are always a mix for good times. Sadly, despite the success of the franchise right now, there is yet to be a sequel to this dinosaur throwdown classic.
Tattoo Assassins
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Tattoo Assassins is a hard one to talk about because it’s hard to call something forgotten when it never technically came out. It only exists as vaporware leaked by the devs who wanted the world to see how bad of an idea the game was. Trying to bank on the success of their pinball competitor Midway’s Mortal Kombat, Data East started development on Tattoo Assassins.
Tattoo Assasins was essentially a much worse version of the game it was trying to rip off, only with far more toilet humor than the average Bo Rai Cho match. The game tested so poorly that Data East pulled the plug. As it is, Tattoo Assasins’ biggest fatality was its own release.
Tobal No. 1
A fighting game developed by Squaresoft with character designs and stories from Akira Toriyama of Dragonball Z fame sounds like a slam dunk. After all, these are two titans of the 90s in their respective niches. While the game was received positively and even topped the sales charts, there’s one little caveat.
The reason for much of its success was Squaresoft including a demo disc for the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII. Tobal No. 1 itself never reached the heights that its competitor Tekken did, and is largely forgotten today. Still, there’s a great fighting game in there for fans of Toriyama’s style to enjoy. Its sequel famously holds one of the largest rosters in fighting games with over 200 characters as well.
Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring
-1.png?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
There was once a time when people clamored for Cloud to be included in the Super Smash Bros franchise. When he eventually did make his grand debut, much rejoicing was had. However, what many might now know was that this was Cloud’s second fighting game appearance. His very first was in the relatively obscure Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring.
Capitalizing off the success of Final Fantasy VII, SquareSoft decided to add much of that game’s cast as guest fighters for Ehrgeiz, in an attempt to boost sales. Surprisingly it worked. It certainly helped that the game was actually half-decent if a bit simplistic. Nowadays, the game is best known through fun facts like these that reveal Smash wasn’t Cloud’s fighting game debut.