PowerStone 2. 4-player full-freedom game. Think Super Smash meets WWE games, but with pulp adventure theming (including a kinda stereotypical T-Hawk-style indigenous dude) and a vaguely Tezuka retro-anime art style. That and Virtual On Oratio Tangram (which is like if Armored Core was a fighting game) were reasons to own a Dreamcast for innovative fighting games.
I love most of these but one I don’t think anyone knows about is Bloody Roar on PS1. Typical fighter but each character could also transform into a different beast mode with a new move set. Tons of fun although I don’t think it’s aged well at all.
That was BR2. BR1 was kinda distinct because instead of the bat lady it had a heavyset middle-aged warthog woman - most anime-styled fighting games only include female characters for T&A (like the bat lady).
Eternal Champions. Such a cool concept, a great cast of characters, and great graphics for the time. Spent so many hours playing it with my brothers growing up. Xavier was the fucking best.
Capcom vs SNK 2 ate more of my fighting game hours than any other game, with the possible exception of SF2/Turbo/Super combined. It had everything I could ever want at the time.
Classic it may not be, but every few years I fire up a copy of Oni, turn up my playlist of mid 90s mega-hits, and lay some smackdown on some terrorists.
Basically it’s the spatial exploration of a first person shooter with the fighting dynamics of something like Virtua Fighter.
I’ll never forget the day when the movie theater I used to work at got a brand new Soul Calibur arcade cabinet. Me and my coworkers put more money into that game than the customers ever did.
Voldo was great. Total nightmare fuel. I think there’s a strong cast of characters. Yoshimitsu was one of my favourites to play for the sword-pogo stick move.
Zero Divide
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Bloody Roar 2
Rival Schools
Soul Edge/Soul Blade
Tekken 3
Guilty Gear XX (^Core+R is the most recent one, there are like 6 different versions)
Ehrgeiz (this one have several minigames and an action RPG mode that involves a lot of dungeon crawling)
WWE 2007 smackdown vs raw! My custom character was as tall and buff as can be, had red skin, had the skill set of ray mysterio and loved hell in the cell matches.
You really should get Saturn emulation running, because as far as fighting games went, the sheer variety of games on the Saturn were STUNNING.
Battle Arena Toshinden Remix
Dead or Alive
Fighters Megamix
King of Fighters ('95 and '97)
Last Bronx
Marvel Super Heroes
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge
Samurai Showdown IV
A bunch of Street Fighter games
Toshinden S
Toshinden Ultimate Revenge Attack
Virtua Fighter
Virtua Fighter Remix
Virtua Fighter 2
Virtua Fighter Kids
Virtual On
Fighters Megamix is a classic. I love the weird old games with big rosters and a cheerful vibe. I don’t think any other game lets you pit a Daytona car against a giant mascot sculpture.
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