Game: Sonny 2
Category: Adventure and RPG games
Description: If you already playedSonny, by now you know what it's like to be a zombie. To be hunted. To be hated. You fought to survive in a world that didn't make any sense. But now you're getting used to it. Your senses have sharpened. You finally begin to understand. Why be the prey... when you can be the predator?
* Fully Voiced Storyline
* Local PvP Mode
* Three New Classes
* Three Difficulty Settings
* Improved AI!
* Five New Zones
* Hundreds of New Items
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sonny 2
Shape Switcher
Shape Switcher
Game: Shape Switcher
Category: Puzzle games
Description: Help our shape shifting friend discover his hidden powers of color and shape changing to unlock doors and escape the maze in this Flash puzzle online game! Play all 13 interesting levels. Use the arrow keys to bounce around and land on special tiles that change your color or shape. Special doors require you to be the right color, shape or both to open, so shape shift in the right order to open the doors and reach the star tile to advance to the next level. If you get stuck, use the reset button to restart the level.
The Great Bedroom Escape walkthrough
The Great Bedroom Escape walkthrough
You might think that after escaping the kitchen only to find yourself locked in aliving room, and then a bathroom, that we would learn not to get into tight situations such as these again. But then Mateusz Skutnik sends word of yet another installment in this Escape games series and we're all lush with excitement.
1 - First of all, go to the right set of drawers and grab the EARPIECE and TELEPHONE. Then, open the top drawer and grab the PEN.
2 - Go to the left set of drawers and grab the ALARM CLOCK.
3 - Turn left, and use the PEN on the metal strip. Pick up the ADORNMENT.
4 - Turn left and grab the FANCY ROPE on the left set of curtains. Set the ALARM CLOCK on the windowsill and set it to 2:00. When the cat leaves, pick up the KEY.
5 - Turn right and use the KEY on the closet door. Pick up the SUPER GLUE on the top left shelf.
6 - Turn right once and look up. Use the TELEPHONE on the light. Look back down and use the SUPER GLUE on the EARPIECE to get a HOMEMADE SAW. Use the HOMEMADE SAW on the right bedpost to get the WOODEN LOG.
7 - Turn right and use the FANCY ROPE on the WOODEN LOG. Use the new BATTERING RAM on the hanging telephone. Mouse over the telephone to bust down the door.
Congratulations, you win!
Thanks to JayIsGames for the walkthrough
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Cannon Blaster 3
Cannon Blaster 3 is a new skill based free online Flash game.
Game: Cannon Blaster 3
Category: Puzzle and Skill games
Description: Collect every gem in a level to receive a gold medal. The number of gold medals you have received is displayed in the bottom left. To unlock a costume, you need to have the amount of gold shown next to that costume. Use the arrow keys to rotate the cannon you're in or to make it rotate faster. Then press spacebar to shoot! You can hit anywhere on a barrel to enter it.
Contest result from CafeCafeGames
CafeCafeGames just finished the first contest with real money in the prize.
It's incredible the great response from the people. In this month half a million games were played, 250 new members registered and more than 100 new online games were added.
The winner was chosen with random.org and we're trying to contact him/her both via mail and private message in the site. He/she won U$S 40,00 (forty american dollars) and we need the Paypal address to deliver the prize.
Congratulations to Aniry18 for becoming the first winner at our gaming portal. Thanks a lot to all our members and stay tuned... more contests are coming soon.
You'll be happy to know these days a lot of high quality online games were released. Featured games to play this weekend are included in every category so all of you casual gamers out there will enjoy this post.
Game: Condottiero
Category: Adventure & RPG games
Play as one of four assassins, in this highly interactive and addictive game. This game offers multiple options and exciting game play rarely seen in any online flash game. It will require skills, test your patience, but mostly... entertain you for hours! Condottiero let’s you explore the colourful characters of a small village in southern Africa, to obtain various information and to unlock safe passage into key areas of the game. Your mission will be to eliminate the corrupted Army colonel Derosiers who’s been using radical methods to attack rebels and even innocent civilians in the neighbourhood.
Game: Mytheria
Category: Strategy & Defense games
Mytheria is sort of a sci-fi take on card games like Magic the Gathering or Paranoia, with some unique mechanics. Defeat your opponents with creatures and spells, test strategies, and build your own decks.Current "Card Challenge Card Challenge" at Kongregate.
Game: 99 Bricks
Category: Puzzle & Skill games
Build the highest tower! With 99 Bricks at your disposal, how high will your tower be? Interesting physics based Tetris variant.
Current "Civil Engineering Challenge" at Kongregate.
Game: Oiligarchy
Category: Miscellaneous games
Oil Tycoon in Flash. Delicious, profitable, stinky oil! Let's get stupid rich, huh? Trash the environment, bribe the politicians and squish the little peoples. Don't feel rich enough? Then Drill, Baby, Drill!
Game: Samurai Master
Category: Action games
Many enemies stand between you and your goal. Fortunately, your samurai skills are flawless! Leave a trail of bloody bodies all the way from Kyoto to Tokyo.
Game: Stoneage Conqueror
Category: Action games
Description: Take control of the Stone Age general. Scout out your enemy, find their weakness, gather your soldiers, and march on the enemy village. Victory will require total annihilation of the enemy faction; leave no one and nothing alive in this action game.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Sniper Assassin 2
Sniper Assassin 2 Launched!
Finally! the sequel to our first Sniping Game - "Sniper Assassin" was released. Sponsored by Addicting Games, Sniper Assassin 2 was launched last friday and got over 90% approval rating and now played over 500,000 times and still growing!
Finally! the sequel to our first Sniping Game - "Sniper Assassin" was released. Sponsored by Addicting Games, Sniper Assassin 2 was launched last friday and got over 90% approval rating and now played over 500,000 times and still growing!
You can also find Sniper Assassin 2 scattered like wildfire all over different gaming portals and its been only 3 days since its launch! Awesome feedback from thousands of players, helpfull feedbacks which will be implemented on its sequel.
Story
Sniper Assassin 2 revolves around an agent who left the force after the murder of his wife which left him devastated. Slowly recovering from the pain, he starts taking "clean-up" missions again... but destiny lead him on a mission... a mission to uncover the people responsible for the death of his wife.
Game Play
Like all Sniping Games, you have to read the mission briefing first or you'll end up killing wrong targets. Computer mouse is used to control you gun, click to shoot them down. What makes this game unique from other sniping games; is the interrogation mini-game, the aim of this game mode is to make your victim speakout by whacking him senseless, youre not allowed to kill your victim though. 
Have fun torturing your victim!
Click here to play Sniper Assassin 2 and play free games.
Have fun torturing your victim!
Click here to play Sniper Assassin 2 and play free games.
Friday, August 8, 2008
1423 Escape Walkthrough
1423 Escape The Room is a Japanese (and really hard) point and click escape the room game.
Try to escape by finding and using items.
Good Luck!
Play This Game
Walkthrough
1. Click to the left of the drawers twice to get the blue ball (1).
2. Do not back out of this view yet. Click the top of the drawer where the gap and the drawer meets. See the 2nd blue ball.
3. Click near the top of the ball to move the drawers. Get blue ball (2).
4. Note the panel on the wall with 4 spherical openings.
5. Go left to the view of the kitchen table/chairs.
6. Click the right chair and get the pink key.
7. Click the right leg nearest to you and get the red 5.
8. Click the cap of the chair leg and get the blue ball (3).
9. Turn left and get the blue ball (4) from the panda's hand. (The panda only gives a blue ball when you already have 3 balls.)
10. View the ball and click it to turn it over and reveal the cyan 7.
11. Use the pink key on the pink drawer. Get the green key.
12. Use the green key on the green drawer and get the yellow key.
13. Use the yellow key on the yellow drawer and get the blue key.
14. View the yellow key and click the right side. Note the yellow 8.
15. Use the blue key on the upper right screw on the floor panel. Get the green Philips head screwdriver.
16. Go right and use the green screwdriver on the wall panel. Get the yellow flathead screwdriver.
17. Click the upper right corner of the hole where the yellow screwdriver was and get the pink 9. Flip the paper over and note the blue 4.
18. Zoom out one view and click the panel that's laying on the floor. Click the lower left corner and get the 123.
19. Get a closer view of the mirror and click the wall on the lower left side. Note the sequence 1324-.
20. Go left and click the garbage can.
21. Click inside to get the the dice (1). Click the bottom to get the 789. Click the bottom again to get the green 2.
22. Zoom out a view and click the keypad. Click to the right of the keypad and get the 654<-. You now have the order of numbers for the keypad.
23. Go back to the other panel on the wall that has the 4 circles. Insert the balls in the panel in the order that was noted on the back of the mirror frame. Insert the yellow screwdriver into the smaller hole when you're done.
24. Get the dice (2). Take a look at both die. There are colors that coordinate with the order the numbers have to go into the keypad. For example, the number 1 on the dice is red. The number that we have that is red is the number 5.
25. Now go back to the numbers on the papers as well as the numbers you found on the other items. From the papers: 2-green 4-blue 5-red 9-pink From the items: 7-cyan 8-yellow From the die you can deduce that the order of colors is red, blue, green, yellow, pink, cyan. Code for the keypad is 542897. Thanks runningwithseizures!!
26. Enter the code into the keypad and press the arrow key. Now the panda has moved. Click where he was standing and you will see a small keyhole in the wall. Exit through the keyhole and you're out!
27. Try again for different endings!
Source: Escape Games 24
1 Way
1 Way is a Russian Room Escape game.
Your goal here is to escape a school room in which you have fallen asleep. When you woken up, you realized that everybody was gone and the room’s door was locked.
Play 1Way
Walkthrough:
n the first scene get the nail from the bench on the left.
Get the empty match box from underneath the desk on the right.
Move left.
Focus in on the plant at the back of the classroom and get the rope.
5. Get the key from the flower pot.
6. Get the pencil from the other plant on the window sill.
7. Move left, use the yellow key on the locked cupboard and get the glass pot.
8. Move left twice, turn the tap on and fill up the pot.
9. Move right twice, use the nail to open the vent in the upper part of the wall.
10. Quickly use the pot of water to put the fire out.
11. Get the scissors and the red key from the vent.
12. Move left twice. Use the red key on the locker above the sink.
13. Press the colored buttons in the sequence shown to open the locker.
14. Collect the soda and the vinegar.
15. Move right to the piano, focus in on it and find the key that doesn’t play a note. Use the nail on it to lift it and get a blue key.
16. Move right and use the blue key on the cupboard with the keypad lock.
17. OK the combination for the key pad is the formula that is written on the blackboard. It’s quite complicated and you need to substitute the values of the day and hour as per when you’re playing the game. If you want to make life easier for yourself, set your computer clock to 00:00 hours and then the answer to the combination is ‘0′.
18. Get the calculator and the match.
19. Move right, use the nail (again) on the mark on the floor, this will reveal a code. I needed to use the window’s magnifier to see what this code was but even then it’s not clear. Anyway the code is actually ‘6593′
20. Focus in on the calculator and enter the code, you should see a secret opening open.
21. Get the piece of paper in the opening which is the recipe for a bomb.
22. Use the scissors on the pencil to make some graphite and then on the flowers to get a bloom.
23. Fill up the pot with water again and then add the flower (red color), the soda, the vinegar and the graphite.
24. Put the bubbling pot by the door.
25. Add the rope as a fuse and the light the match (on the matchbox) and light the fuse. The bomb goes off and… it was just a dream!
Source: Free Games News
Cow Room Escape Walkthrough
Cow Room Escape is a new Japanese point and click escape the room game from Sakura.
You are trapped in a room and you need to escape by finding items and solving some puzzles.
Good Luck!
Play Cow Room Escape
Cow Room Escape Walkthrough:get towel on right side of white cabinet and wet with water
look under sink and pick up key
go left and dump glass in plant and take dirty yellow coin
look on top of brown cabinet and use key to get screwdriver
go left and use screwdriver on outlet left of desk to get red coin
look under desk and there is yellow coin towards the left at the back
also under desk is yellow square
use wet towel on it see the orange arrow so click up and get purple coin
zoom in on clock above and notice design on center of it
zoom out and click on blue box and make the same design then press center of design for blue coin
go left and click on top left of entertainment center to get the remote
use the remote on tv and click the arrow to go to the back of the tv for the green coin
now go back to the tv and at the top of the screen is a movable black panel just put in in the center of the screen and you can make out the numbers 257412
go left to sink and wash the dirty yellow coin
go left 2 more times and looks at the picture with the dots on it
notice how many red, blue, etc. and match them with the numbers from the tv
go to the door and place the coins in the spots (yellow, blue, red, green, purple and yellow) then press the dot at the end. The dot turns red and click the door to get out
for perfect end
go back to the tv and click on it to see the cow then go out the door
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Shooter game
Shooter games are a subgenre of action game. Because "shooters make up the majority of action games", it is a fairly wide subgenre. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon".
Characteristics of shooters
There are many criteria to determine the type of shooter; listed below are some of the major divisions. Using the following, it is possible to categorize almost all shooters developed.
Perspective
The player usually views the events from behind the eyes of the character (a first-person shooter) or from a camera that follows the character, usually a few feet behind (a third-person shooter). It is also possible, though infrequently used in this genre, for a game to have a fixed camera.
There are many criteria to determine the type of shooter; listed below are some of the major divisions. Using the following, it is possible to categorize almost all shooters developed.
Perspective
The player usually views the events from behind the eyes of the character (a first-person shooter) or from a camera that follows the character, usually a few feet behind (a third-person shooter). It is also possible, though infrequently used in this genre, for a game to have a fixed camera.
Realism
Games that attempt to emulate life-like ballistics and character damage include tactical shooters and artillery games. Those that use a more lenient model of physics are generally referred to as arcade shooters... There is no clear distinction between these two game types, and shooters tend to exist on a spectrum between them.
Number of characters
While most shooters are played as solo ventures, several offer the players the opportunity to control a squad of characters, usually directly controlling one, and giving orders to computer-controlled allies. Games which feature non-player characters fighting alongside the player, but which are not directly controllable (either by switching player control, or issuing orders to the character) are not considered squad-based games.
Multiplayer
If a shooter game is available online, there are several other sharp divisions it can take. Team games are where players are assigned to one of two (sometimes more, but very infrequently) factions which are competing for some goal. Co-Op games have several players on the same faction playing through either the single player or custom missions against computer-simulated enemies. Individual(often called Deathmatch) has all players competing with each other. Many times a game will offer differing modes which allow players to choose from among these various types.
Focus
This is often an optional way to categorize a shooter, but in some cases it's needed to help distinguish it. A game may quite often heavily rely on stealth as opposed to direct action. Others might have large horror elements to them.
Sub-genres
Shoot 'em up
Gradius, a pioneering shoot 'em up.- ©1985 Konami
Shoot 'em ups are a very specific sub-genre of shooters, wherein the player has limited control over their movement; if done with 2D gameplay, an example being Ikaruga, this means that a moving background continually pushes the player forward, though they may move up and down and left and right around the screen, typically firing straight forward. Types include fixed shooters, scrolling shooters, tube shooters, and multidirectional shooters.
Rail shooter
Rez, a rail shooter. ©2001 Sega/UGA
The term rail shooter traditionally describes games where the player cannot control their own movement, as if their path travels along a fixed 'rail'. The gameplay is limited to aiming from a third or first-person perspective. Many light gun games fall into the rail shooter genre, where a player is taken along a set path as targets appear. On occasion, a game mode similar to a rail shooter may appear in a game of a different genre.
In some 3D shooters, such as Space Harrier, the player travels forward within a square "tube", and may move throughout the 2D plane perpendicular to the player's movement. Although often called rail shooters, these games have more in common with scrolling shooters. Players face less enemies than in their 2D counterparts, as the added dimension complicates aiming and dodging.
Run-and-gun shooter
A run-and-gun shooter is a combination platform game and scrolling shooter, this type of game involves a character running along a plane while shooting enemies in multiple directions, as in games like Contra and Metal Slug.
Shooting gallery
Often interchangeable with light gun games, although many could also be played using a regular joypad and an on-screen cursor to signify where the bullets are being aimed. When these debuted, they were typically played from a first-person perspective, with enemy fire that occurred anywhere on the screen damaging or killing the player. As they evolved away from the use of light guns, the player came to be represented by an on-screen avatar, usually someone on the bottom of the screen, who could move and avoid enemy attacks while returning fire. These sorts of shooters almost always utilize horizontal scrolling to the right to indicate level progression, with enemies appearing in waves from predestined locations in the background or from the sides.
As light gun games became more prevalent and started to make use of fully 3D backgrounds (such as the Time Crisis or House of the Dead series), these sorts of games fell out of popular production, but many (like NAM-1975) still have their fanbase today.
Example shooting galleries — Blood Bros., Cabal, Laser Invasion, NAM-1975, Operation Wolf
Light gun shooter
Screenshot of Duck Hunt, a NES light gun game.Light gun shooters use a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games. The first light guns appeared in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes. It was not long before the technology began appearing in arcade shooting games, beginning with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite in 1936. These early light gun games used small targets (usually moving) onto which a light-sensing tube was mounted; the player used a gun (usually a rifle) that emitted a beam of light when the trigger was pulled. If the beam struck the target, a "hit" was scored. Modern screen-based light guns work on the opposite principle -- the sensor is built into the gun itself, and the on-screen target(s) emit light rather than the gun. The first light gun of this type was used on the MIT Whirlwind computer. Like rail shooters, movement is typically limited in light-gun games.
Notable games of this category include Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, the Virtua Cop, the Time Crisis series and House of the Dead series, along with Duck Hunt for the NES.
First-person shooters
Doom, one of the games that defined the first-person shooter genre.
First-person shooter is characterized by an on-screen view that simulates the in-game character's point of view. Notable examples of the genre include Doom, Quake, Half-Life, GoldenEye 007, Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Halo.
Third-person shooters
Third-person shooters are characterized by a third-person camera view that fully displays the player character in his/her surroundings. Notable examples of the genre include Rare's Jet Force Gemini, the Max Payne (series), Gears of War, the Hitman series and the Grand Theft Auto series.
Hybrid shooters
Additionally, shooters can quite easily be combined with other major game genres, most often role-playing or strategy. Notable example is Urban Assault which is an combination of first-person shooter and real-time strategy.
Top-down shooters
Top-down shooter is another type of shooter sub-genre in which the action is in an 'overhead' view.
Tactical shooters
Tactical shooter is a shooter that generally simulates realistic, squad-based or man-to-man skirmishes.
Hybrid shooters
Additionally, shooters can quite easily be combined with other major game genres, most often role-playing or strategy. Notable example is Urban Assault which is an combination of first-person shooter and real-time strategy.
Top-down shooters
Top-down shooter is another type of shooter sub-genre in which the action is in an 'overhead' view.
Tactical shooters
Tactical shooter is a shooter that generally simulates realistic, squad-based or man-to-man skirmishes.
First-person shooter
A first-person shooter (FPS) is an action video game from the shooter game subgenre. Like all shooters, they involve "an avatar, one or more ranged weapons, and a varying number of enemies". FPSs are distinguished by a first person perspective, that renders the game world from the visual perspective of the player character. The character is nominally a literal person; humanoid movement is expected. Games that primarily involve piloting vehicles are more correctly classified as vehicle simulation games.
In the modern era of video games, FPS was one of the first genres to use key technologies such as 3D graphics, online play, and modding. Enhanced realism combined with graphic violence has also made FPS a common topic in ongoing controversies over video games.
In the modern era of video games, FPS was one of the first genres to use key technologies such as 3D graphics, online play, and modding. Enhanced realism combined with graphic violence has also made FPS a common topic in ongoing controversies over video games.
Overview
The first-person shooter is a sub-genre of shooter games. Many other shooter genres, such as on-rails shooters, are viewed from a first-person perspective, while flight simulators frequently involve the use of weapons; however, these are not considered FPSs. In the early 1990s, the term came to define a more specific type of game with a first-person view, where the main character's gun and part of his/her hand is shown, almost always centered around the act of aiming and shooting hand-held weapons, usually with limited ammunition. The focus is generally on the aiming of one's own guns and the avoidance of enemy attacks, but the player is given more control over their movement than in on-rails shooters and most light gun games.
Many third-person shooters (where the player sees the game world from a viewpoint above and behind the main character) are commonly treated as first-person shooters, due to similarities in gameplay. In some cases, it is possible to toggle the game between viewpoints and play the entire game from either perspective.
More frequently, a first-person view will be adopted in a third-person game only for brief periods for certain situations when it is advantageous. Since a first-person view usually allows more precise refinement of a player's aim than most third-person aiming systems, many third-person shooters allow the player to switch to their avatar's viewpoint in order to fire a weapon; sometimes this may only be done when specific weapons (a sniper rifle, for example) are equipped. In addition, certain third-person shooters let the player switch to a first-person perspective in order to observe their surroundings, but do not allow them to shoot any weapons while using it.Some first-person games switch by default to a third-person view when a melee weapon, such as a sword or a lightsaber, is selected on the theory that a wider perspective makes those weapons easier to manage.
The term first-person shooter has also been applied to games that take advantage of the first-person view and allow for free movement by the player, but are not heavily dependent on the use of fired weapons but instead focus on melee attacks or even a different form of gameplay altogether, such as the action/puzzle game Portal.
The first-person shooter is a sub-genre of shooter games. Many other shooter genres, such as on-rails shooters, are viewed from a first-person perspective, while flight simulators frequently involve the use of weapons; however, these are not considered FPSs. In the early 1990s, the term came to define a more specific type of game with a first-person view, where the main character's gun and part of his/her hand is shown, almost always centered around the act of aiming and shooting hand-held weapons, usually with limited ammunition. The focus is generally on the aiming of one's own guns and the avoidance of enemy attacks, but the player is given more control over their movement than in on-rails shooters and most light gun games.
Many third-person shooters (where the player sees the game world from a viewpoint above and behind the main character) are commonly treated as first-person shooters, due to similarities in gameplay. In some cases, it is possible to toggle the game between viewpoints and play the entire game from either perspective.
More frequently, a first-person view will be adopted in a third-person game only for brief periods for certain situations when it is advantageous. Since a first-person view usually allows more precise refinement of a player's aim than most third-person aiming systems, many third-person shooters allow the player to switch to their avatar's viewpoint in order to fire a weapon; sometimes this may only be done when specific weapons (a sniper rifle, for example) are equipped. In addition, certain third-person shooters let the player switch to a first-person perspective in order to observe their surroundings, but do not allow them to shoot any weapons while using it.Some first-person games switch by default to a third-person view when a melee weapon, such as a sword or a lightsaber, is selected on the theory that a wider perspective makes those weapons easier to manage.
The term first-person shooter has also been applied to games that take advantage of the first-person view and allow for free movement by the player, but are not heavily dependent on the use of fired weapons but instead focus on melee attacks or even a different form of gameplay altogether, such as the action/puzzle game Portal.
Gameplay
All FPSs feature the core gameplay elements of movement and shooting, but many variations exist, with different titles emphasizing certain aspects of the gameplay. The lines between sub-genres are not distinct; some games include stealth elements in addition to action-packed sequences more typical of a "run and gun" FPS.Realism.
Settings may vary from accurate recreations of historical periods to fantasy sci-fi depictions of the distant future. Damage to the player and enemies may be modeled fairly realistically, with the possibility of dying by a single shot (such as Rainbow Six), or wounds to different body parts having a visible effect on the gameplay (such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl). A very common simplification of the main character's overall condition is to represent it as two sets of hit points: a base "health" meter representing the "naked" character's vitality, and another gauge measuring external protection provided by body armor or shields.
The type of weaponry found in an FPS, and the realism of guns' accuracy and power, is usually appropriate to that game's setting. Frequently, the most recently-found gun will be the most powerful, and players will retain every weapon they have discovered, ending the game carrying an unrealistically massive arsenal of guns and ammunition. However, developers have also attempted to improve the realism of their games by placing a limit on the number of weapons players may carry. Counter-Strike and Halo popularized restricting the player to two firearms, and this has been heavily adopted by other games, particularly the Call of Duty games. This sometimes takes the form of a primary weapon (such as a rifle or shotgun) as well as a sidearm; these games will usually also allow you to carry grenades or other devices. Alternatively, some in-game explanation of how the character is able to carry this vast arsenal is decided, such as in the Star Trek: Elite Force games, where it is explained through the use of that universe's transporter system.
Some FPS games strive to increase visual realism while retaining unrealistic gameplay. As a result, in many games the player character demonstrates exaggerated physical capabilities and resiliency, such as absorbing many hits from small arms fire, surviving a direct hit from a tank shell, jumping an entire body length into the air, or falling several stories without sustaining injury. This gameplay element is seen in such popular series as Quake, Halo, and Unreal Tournament. This gameplay style is more suited to "run-and-gun" type of combat and for "death match"-like multiplayer.
Structure
Most FPSs employ the videogame convention of being split into distinct levels separated in time and space, each set in a specific environment such as a warehouse, desert, laboratory, or castle. The most common style in earlier days of FPS gaming was the "level" system; however, Half-Life popularized a progressive system where the point-of-view never leaves the character and the entire game is a single continual campaign with no breaks in time. Both styles are now utilized extensively. The linearity of FPSs also varies, with some leading the player as directly as possible through the game through as many gunfights as possible, while others give the player numerous options regarding how they tackle each section. More recent titles, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Crysis, have allowed the player to wander around large sandbox environments.
Environment interaction
Different FPSs allow different types and amount of environment interaction. The most common are simple doors which can be opened (either by pressing a specific "use" button or automatically) and the health and ammo packs and new weapons that can be collected (the player character gets the effect simply by walking over them). Buttons in the game environment allow a bit more interaction: they can open a door, start or shut down some machinery in the game environment which do a certain task (create a lethal trap for enemies, lower a bridge over a chasm) or whatever the programmers have scripted. These have been used in FPS games since Doom, although the variations have slightly increased.
More recently these games in general, but especially FPSs, have provided a more realistic environment to be interacted with. An old addition was the use of blood splatters and bullet holes as a graphical decal that are displayed on top of texture. Barriers and specific objects that can be destroyed are now a norm, while the walls and such are still immovable and indestructible (although some games such as Black have attempted to include a more mutable environments as a means to distinguish themselves). More realistic physics have allowed for more objects (tables, cars, garbage bins) to be interacted with; for example Half-Life 2 incorporated the manipulation of environment (to a small degree) as an important part of the game. Crysis has implemented the most extensive use of physics and environmental interaction yet seen in an FPS game. Nearly everything that could be interacted with in real-life can respond to the character's actions. Although, Environment interaction has made great strides lately, as there is a game coming out in summer 2008 called Battlefield: Bad Company. In it, you can destroy everything and anything around you. When shot, trees splinter realisticly ,and when buildings are shot, they can blow apart brick by brick.
Combat and pacing
Many FPSs maintain a focus on "run and gun" gameplay, with quick movement and near constant combat. Other titles adopt a slower pace, with the emphasis on puzzle-solving, or interaction with characters in ways other than combat. Stealth is a common feature of FPSs — firefights in some FPSs are extremely risky and require the player to avoid detection. These games also retain much more of a focus on melee weapons. But even in games that feature numerous shootouts, sneaking up on an unaware opponent is an advantageous technique.
Strategy and planning are emphasized in tactical shooters and military simulations. These often allow the player to fight alongside and issue commands to squads made up of AI-controlled companions or human teammates. There have also been games that blend real-time strategy gameplay to FPSs. In these games, the player appears on the field as a single unit, but is able to give commands to other units, construct new units, and control the overall strategy.[specify] Some RTS/FPS hybrids use teamplay approach where one player is the commanding officer, responsible for the strategy part, and the other team members are ordinary soldiers.
Multiplayer
Almost every FPS contains a multiplayer component, and it was the first genre to make extensive use of and popularize multiplayer gaming (beginning as far back as Doom). Many games have almost entirely eliminated the single-player component, restricting single-player game to combat against bots (or rarely eliminating it altogether) and keeping the focus almost entirely on the multiplayer component. The Quake games were the first popular games that were almost exclusively multiplayer. The Unreal Championship and Battlefield series are other popular series that were designed almost exclusively for multiplayer play. The MMOFPS genre (including Planetside) combines first-person shooter gameplay with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet, but has struggled to gain prominence in a field dominated by MMORPGs.
Control schemes
The control scheme for first-person shooters require allowing the player to control the direction their character is looking, the direction the character is moving, other character movements such as running, crouching, or jumping, firing and switching weapons, and other actions that specific games may need. As such, the control schemes for first-person shooter games can be extremely varied depending on the game's platform, as well as with limitations of control hardware.
For most first-person shooter games on PCs, as well as for select console games that support such input hardware, the control scheme utilizes a combination of keyboard and mouse inputs. Directional keys are typically placed on the WASD keys, with other character actions such as strafing, jumping, and the like placed on nearby keys. "Free look" or "mouse look" is controlled by moving the mouse around, weapon activation by the mouse buttons, and weapon management through the scroll wheel. Prior to the common inclusion of the scroll wheel on computer mice, the number keys or the tab key was often used to switch weapons. Keyboard and mouse control schemes are almost always customizable, allowing the player to assign various actions to other keys or mouse actions to their preference.
The controls for console games are limited by the available keys and controls on the system's control pad. Pads for early consoles such as the Mega Drive's D-pad provided only a single digital directional input and limited buttons, and early FPS console games used the directional input and another button combination for the input of additional movement commands like jumping. With control pads with a single analog stick, movement is primarily controlled by the analog stick, and additional movement and actions are performed using the other face buttons. Most modern controllers offer two direction inputs through analog sticks in addition to several more buttons than previous systems. This had led to two primary control scheme variations. In one configuration, one analog stick is used for forward and reverse motion and strafing relative to the current viewpoint, and the other thumb stick used to look around. An alternate variation provided forward and reverse movement and to look left or right on one thumb stick, and vertical aiming and lateral motion on the other thumb stick. Weapon activation is set to the control's shoulder triggers, and other functions such as jumping, reloading, or interaction with the environment is performed on other buttons on the controller. Many console-based FPSs include or offer both "lock-on" (auto-centering the aim to a target) and "auto-aim" (adjustment of the user's aim to a target when they are aiming slightly away from it) features to account for the loss of precision that a player has when aiming with the analog controls over a PC mouse.Control customization is available for console FPS titles, but is not as widely available as for PC games. Many games for both PC and consoles allow the user to invert the look axes as to allow the controls to behave more like a flight simulator joystick.
Newer controllers for the current generation of console hardware have brought additional variation to how the player interacts with an FPS game. Motion-sensitive remote controllers have allowed several FPS games to use the remote similar to a mouse to provide more accurate aiming than a typical controller and a more immersive environment as actions acted out by the player with the controller (e.g., swinging a sword) translate into those same actions taken on the screen.
History
First-person shooters came to be recognized as a genre in the early 1990s, and many of the genre's most common conventions date to this time. However, the modern genre is an extension of earlier games, particularly those involving 3D graphics. While some of these early games are not first-person shooters in the modern sense, some of them might be retroactively included in the genre, and many others contained ideas which later influenced the modern genre.
All FPSs feature the core gameplay elements of movement and shooting, but many variations exist, with different titles emphasizing certain aspects of the gameplay. The lines between sub-genres are not distinct; some games include stealth elements in addition to action-packed sequences more typical of a "run and gun" FPS.Realism.
Settings may vary from accurate recreations of historical periods to fantasy sci-fi depictions of the distant future. Damage to the player and enemies may be modeled fairly realistically, with the possibility of dying by a single shot (such as Rainbow Six), or wounds to different body parts having a visible effect on the gameplay (such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl). A very common simplification of the main character's overall condition is to represent it as two sets of hit points: a base "health" meter representing the "naked" character's vitality, and another gauge measuring external protection provided by body armor or shields.
The type of weaponry found in an FPS, and the realism of guns' accuracy and power, is usually appropriate to that game's setting. Frequently, the most recently-found gun will be the most powerful, and players will retain every weapon they have discovered, ending the game carrying an unrealistically massive arsenal of guns and ammunition. However, developers have also attempted to improve the realism of their games by placing a limit on the number of weapons players may carry. Counter-Strike and Halo popularized restricting the player to two firearms, and this has been heavily adopted by other games, particularly the Call of Duty games. This sometimes takes the form of a primary weapon (such as a rifle or shotgun) as well as a sidearm; these games will usually also allow you to carry grenades or other devices. Alternatively, some in-game explanation of how the character is able to carry this vast arsenal is decided, such as in the Star Trek: Elite Force games, where it is explained through the use of that universe's transporter system.
Some FPS games strive to increase visual realism while retaining unrealistic gameplay. As a result, in many games the player character demonstrates exaggerated physical capabilities and resiliency, such as absorbing many hits from small arms fire, surviving a direct hit from a tank shell, jumping an entire body length into the air, or falling several stories without sustaining injury. This gameplay element is seen in such popular series as Quake, Halo, and Unreal Tournament. This gameplay style is more suited to "run-and-gun" type of combat and for "death match"-like multiplayer.
Structure
Most FPSs employ the videogame convention of being split into distinct levels separated in time and space, each set in a specific environment such as a warehouse, desert, laboratory, or castle. The most common style in earlier days of FPS gaming was the "level" system; however, Half-Life popularized a progressive system where the point-of-view never leaves the character and the entire game is a single continual campaign with no breaks in time. Both styles are now utilized extensively. The linearity of FPSs also varies, with some leading the player as directly as possible through the game through as many gunfights as possible, while others give the player numerous options regarding how they tackle each section. More recent titles, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Crysis, have allowed the player to wander around large sandbox environments.
Environment interaction
Different FPSs allow different types and amount of environment interaction. The most common are simple doors which can be opened (either by pressing a specific "use" button or automatically) and the health and ammo packs and new weapons that can be collected (the player character gets the effect simply by walking over them). Buttons in the game environment allow a bit more interaction: they can open a door, start or shut down some machinery in the game environment which do a certain task (create a lethal trap for enemies, lower a bridge over a chasm) or whatever the programmers have scripted. These have been used in FPS games since Doom, although the variations have slightly increased.
More recently these games in general, but especially FPSs, have provided a more realistic environment to be interacted with. An old addition was the use of blood splatters and bullet holes as a graphical decal that are displayed on top of texture. Barriers and specific objects that can be destroyed are now a norm, while the walls and such are still immovable and indestructible (although some games such as Black have attempted to include a more mutable environments as a means to distinguish themselves). More realistic physics have allowed for more objects (tables, cars, garbage bins) to be interacted with; for example Half-Life 2 incorporated the manipulation of environment (to a small degree) as an important part of the game. Crysis has implemented the most extensive use of physics and environmental interaction yet seen in an FPS game. Nearly everything that could be interacted with in real-life can respond to the character's actions. Although, Environment interaction has made great strides lately, as there is a game coming out in summer 2008 called Battlefield: Bad Company. In it, you can destroy everything and anything around you. When shot, trees splinter realisticly ,and when buildings are shot, they can blow apart brick by brick.
Combat and pacing
Many FPSs maintain a focus on "run and gun" gameplay, with quick movement and near constant combat. Other titles adopt a slower pace, with the emphasis on puzzle-solving, or interaction with characters in ways other than combat. Stealth is a common feature of FPSs — firefights in some FPSs are extremely risky and require the player to avoid detection. These games also retain much more of a focus on melee weapons. But even in games that feature numerous shootouts, sneaking up on an unaware opponent is an advantageous technique.
Strategy and planning are emphasized in tactical shooters and military simulations. These often allow the player to fight alongside and issue commands to squads made up of AI-controlled companions or human teammates. There have also been games that blend real-time strategy gameplay to FPSs. In these games, the player appears on the field as a single unit, but is able to give commands to other units, construct new units, and control the overall strategy.[specify] Some RTS/FPS hybrids use teamplay approach where one player is the commanding officer, responsible for the strategy part, and the other team members are ordinary soldiers.
Multiplayer
Almost every FPS contains a multiplayer component, and it was the first genre to make extensive use of and popularize multiplayer gaming (beginning as far back as Doom). Many games have almost entirely eliminated the single-player component, restricting single-player game to combat against bots (or rarely eliminating it altogether) and keeping the focus almost entirely on the multiplayer component. The Quake games were the first popular games that were almost exclusively multiplayer. The Unreal Championship and Battlefield series are other popular series that were designed almost exclusively for multiplayer play. The MMOFPS genre (including Planetside) combines first-person shooter gameplay with a large number of simultaneous players over the Internet, but has struggled to gain prominence in a field dominated by MMORPGs.
Control schemes
The control scheme for first-person shooters require allowing the player to control the direction their character is looking, the direction the character is moving, other character movements such as running, crouching, or jumping, firing and switching weapons, and other actions that specific games may need. As such, the control schemes for first-person shooter games can be extremely varied depending on the game's platform, as well as with limitations of control hardware.
For most first-person shooter games on PCs, as well as for select console games that support such input hardware, the control scheme utilizes a combination of keyboard and mouse inputs. Directional keys are typically placed on the WASD keys, with other character actions such as strafing, jumping, and the like placed on nearby keys. "Free look" or "mouse look" is controlled by moving the mouse around, weapon activation by the mouse buttons, and weapon management through the scroll wheel. Prior to the common inclusion of the scroll wheel on computer mice, the number keys or the tab key was often used to switch weapons. Keyboard and mouse control schemes are almost always customizable, allowing the player to assign various actions to other keys or mouse actions to their preference.
The controls for console games are limited by the available keys and controls on the system's control pad. Pads for early consoles such as the Mega Drive's D-pad provided only a single digital directional input and limited buttons, and early FPS console games used the directional input and another button combination for the input of additional movement commands like jumping. With control pads with a single analog stick, movement is primarily controlled by the analog stick, and additional movement and actions are performed using the other face buttons. Most modern controllers offer two direction inputs through analog sticks in addition to several more buttons than previous systems. This had led to two primary control scheme variations. In one configuration, one analog stick is used for forward and reverse motion and strafing relative to the current viewpoint, and the other thumb stick used to look around. An alternate variation provided forward and reverse movement and to look left or right on one thumb stick, and vertical aiming and lateral motion on the other thumb stick. Weapon activation is set to the control's shoulder triggers, and other functions such as jumping, reloading, or interaction with the environment is performed on other buttons on the controller. Many console-based FPSs include or offer both "lock-on" (auto-centering the aim to a target) and "auto-aim" (adjustment of the user's aim to a target when they are aiming slightly away from it) features to account for the loss of precision that a player has when aiming with the analog controls over a PC mouse.Control customization is available for console FPS titles, but is not as widely available as for PC games. Many games for both PC and consoles allow the user to invert the look axes as to allow the controls to behave more like a flight simulator joystick.
Newer controllers for the current generation of console hardware have brought additional variation to how the player interacts with an FPS game. Motion-sensitive remote controllers have allowed several FPS games to use the remote similar to a mouse to provide more accurate aiming than a typical controller and a more immersive environment as actions acted out by the player with the controller (e.g., swinging a sword) translate into those same actions taken on the screen.
History
First-person shooters came to be recognized as a genre in the early 1990s, and many of the genre's most common conventions date to this time. However, the modern genre is an extension of earlier games, particularly those involving 3D graphics. While some of these early games are not first-person shooters in the modern sense, some of them might be retroactively included in the genre, and many others contained ideas which later influenced the modern genre.
Origins
MIDI Maze (Atari ST)
Wolfenstein 3D screenshot
It is not clear exactly when the first FPS was created. Maze War is the most likely candidate, but even its developer cannot remember exactly when it was produced.The initial development of Maze War probably occurred in the summer of 1973.In the early 1980s, the home computer market grew rapidly. While these machines were relatively low-powered, limited first-person-perspective games appeared early on. In these games, computer-controlled opponents were drawn using bitmaps. Phantom Slayer (1982) restricted the player to 90-degree turns, allowing "3D" corridors to be drawn with simple fixed-perspective techniques.
Later in the decade, the arrival of a new generation of home computers such as the Atari ST and the Amiga increased the computing power and graphical capabilities available, leading to a new wave of innovation. 1987 saw the release of MIDI Maze (aka Faceball), an important transitional game for the genre. Unlike its polygonal contemporaries, MIDI Maze used a raycasting engine to speedily draw square corridors. It also offered a networked multiplayer deathmatch (communicating via the computer's MIDI interface).
In 1991, the fledgling id Software released Catacomb 3D, which introduced the concept of showing the player's hand on-screen, strengthening the illusion that the player is viewing the world through the character's eyes. In 1992, id improved the technology by adding support for VGA graphics in Wolfenstein 3D. With these improvements over its predecessors, Wolf 3D was a hit. It would be widely imitated in the years to follow, and thus marked the beginning of many conventions in the genre, including collecting different weapons that can be switched between using the keyboard's number keys, and ammo conservation.
In the year that followed the success of Wolfenstein 3-D, many imitators quickly arose, including Ken's Labyrinth by Epic Games, and several games licensing the Wolfenstein 3-D technology like Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. Softdisk also released a series of sequels to Catacomb 3D using a modified version of id's engine, but id had no involvement with these games. Because of this sudden boom of games with a pronounced influence from id's games, the term "first-person shooter" was coined to describe the budding genre.
MIDI Maze (Atari ST)
Wolfenstein 3D screenshot
It is not clear exactly when the first FPS was created. Maze War is the most likely candidate, but even its developer cannot remember exactly when it was produced.The initial development of Maze War probably occurred in the summer of 1973.In the early 1980s, the home computer market grew rapidly. While these machines were relatively low-powered, limited first-person-perspective games appeared early on. In these games, computer-controlled opponents were drawn using bitmaps. Phantom Slayer (1982) restricted the player to 90-degree turns, allowing "3D" corridors to be drawn with simple fixed-perspective techniques.
Later in the decade, the arrival of a new generation of home computers such as the Atari ST and the Amiga increased the computing power and graphical capabilities available, leading to a new wave of innovation. 1987 saw the release of MIDI Maze (aka Faceball), an important transitional game for the genre. Unlike its polygonal contemporaries, MIDI Maze used a raycasting engine to speedily draw square corridors. It also offered a networked multiplayer deathmatch (communicating via the computer's MIDI interface).
In 1991, the fledgling id Software released Catacomb 3D, which introduced the concept of showing the player's hand on-screen, strengthening the illusion that the player is viewing the world through the character's eyes. In 1992, id improved the technology by adding support for VGA graphics in Wolfenstein 3D. With these improvements over its predecessors, Wolf 3D was a hit. It would be widely imitated in the years to follow, and thus marked the beginning of many conventions in the genre, including collecting different weapons that can be switched between using the keyboard's number keys, and ammo conservation.
In the year that followed the success of Wolfenstein 3-D, many imitators quickly arose, including Ken's Labyrinth by Epic Games, and several games licensing the Wolfenstein 3-D technology like Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. Softdisk also released a series of sequels to Catacomb 3D using a modified version of id's engine, but id had no involvement with these games. Because of this sudden boom of games with a pronounced influence from id's games, the term "first-person shooter" was coined to describe the budding genre.
Strides for realism
In 2001, Operation Flashpoint was released, creating a new level of realism in an FPS environment with extensive vehicles and aircraft, seamless indoor / outdoor environments, and view distances an order of magnitude longer than anything else released before it in the genre. Also released in 2001 was World War II Online (WWIIOL), which expanded the FPS genre to a massively multiplayer audience. Unlike most FPS games of the time, which had limits of 32 players, WWIIOL could support thousands of simultaneous players. As such, WWIIOL is recognized as the pioneer of the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) sub-genre. Placed in a WWII setting, players could compete as infantry and in realistically-modeled vehicles on a massive 1/2-scale map of Europe.Doom 3 made use of a graphics engine featuring new real-time lighting and shadows, used to create an atmosphere of fear and danger for the player. Modding
Main article: Mod (computer gaming)
Many FPS games are designed with a core game engine, separate from the graphics, game rules, and levels. This "plug-in" design allows users to add new content to games. This has contributed to the longevity both of the genre and of individual games. Many games now include the custom software that the designers themselves used in the game's production. Some of the skills displayed by individual modders are of such high quality that FPS companies regularly hire new talent from the modding community.
Platforms and hardware development
The primary platform for modern FPSs has traditionally been the PC, though there have been notable games on other platforms, and the number of releases on consoles are increasing steadily. The dominance of the PC for FPS games also partially stems from the difficulty of creating mods and level creators on consoles. Although successful games such as GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Perfect Dark (2000) had been created on consoles previously, it was the game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) on the Xbox that showed that successful, franchise-defining FPS games could be developed on consoles.
FPS are among the most demanding programs for computing resources, persuading many users to upgrade computers that are still suitable for more mundane tasks, such as online browsing and office work. According to IDC analyst Roger Kay, high-end games serve as a catalyst for the mainstream personal computer market. FPS games can stretch the capabilities of CPUs and the graphics cards . The rise of the genre has been a significant driver in the market for consumer graphics cards, particularly with regard to support for hardware acceleration of 3D graphics. Recently, consumer HMDs have been introduced which should further drive developments in virtual reality technology and better gameplay by providing a more immersive experience.
Controversy
Main article: Video game controversy
Critics argue that the first-person perspective adds a level of imitable realism to the act of killing, and that FPS desensitizes gamers to this sort of behavior. The most widely publicized link between FPS and real-world violence is the Columbine High School massacre. Both of the shooters were fans of Doom, and Eric Harris had actually published a set of Doom levels on his website; the levels are now known as the "Harris levels".
Fighting game
fighting game (also referred as a versus fighting game, competitive fighting game, tournament fighting game or head-to-head fighting game) is a sub-genre of action games and is one of the major video game genres. In a fighting game, players face off against each other or against computer-controlled characters in close combat. The main distinction between this genre and the beat 'em up genre is that players are of roughly equal power to their opponents, and fights are self-contained matches involving a limited number of characters. While not defining traits of the genre, the vast majority of fighting games involve life bars, fights that last an odd number of rounds, and are viewed in profile.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.
Screenshot of Way of the Exploding Fist (1985)
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. 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.
In 3D titles (e.g. Virtua Fighter, Soulcalibur, Tekken, Dead or Alive, later Mortal Kombat games), the characters and stages are three-dimensional polygon-based models. The camera's viewing angle is not always fixed and it can rotate and move in any direction. Because of the extra dimension, the characters can sidestep as well as duck and jump. In contrast with the gameplay of 2D titles, jumping and projectile attacks are typically minor elements. Usually, blocking and attacking are more complex, featuring high, mid, and low attacks and blocks. Thus, the gameplay in 3D fighters is generally two-dimensional as well, although more on the ground's plane instead of the screen's; however, there are exceptions (like Power Stone and Tobal No. 1). 3D fighting games usually have slower attack speeds than their 2D counterparts, because attacks will generally be timed more realistically (they are often created using motion capture instead of the laws of animation; even with a quick attack, the whole maneuver will be carried out instead of using the starting and ending frames to emphasize speed).
Three-dimensional games usually have much larger fighting arenas, which can have multiple sub-sections and paths (most notably in the Dead or Alive series). There are often a number of environmental hazards that can be utilized against the opponent, such as a cliff or an electric fence. Many three-dimensional fighters have two win conditions: the normal health depletion or the ring-out. A ring-out is accomplished by forcing the player out of the fighting arena with either an attack or mere pressure. In some games, such as the Super Smash Bros. series, the ring-out is the primary (sometimes only) method of victory. Some 3D fighting games have gameplay that closely mimics 2D fighters, incorporating three-dimensional depth as a method of escaping attacks rather than an essential part of the fighting system. Notable examples of this include Capcom's Rival Schools and Street Fighter EX series, SNK's KOF: Maximum Impact, and Midway's Biofreaks.
Elements of fighting games
There are several concepts common to many fighting games. The most common element is health, usually in the form of a rectangular "life bar". Combos, in which several attacks are chained together using basic 'punch' and 'kick' attacks, are a feature common to 2D fighting games since they were introduced in Streetfighter II.2D fighters also emphasize the difference between the height of attacks, and usually have both "special moves" and "super special moves". Blocking is another basic technique in which a player defends attacks, whether in the air or the ground. Games like Capcom's Street Fighter III provide an advanced blocking technique in the genre called "parrying" while SNK's Garou: Mark of the Wolves involve "Just Defending" (both involve a well-timed directional maneuver). Throwing is a close-up attack in which a player inputs a specific command when close to the opponent; entire games and characters in normal games can be mostly grapple-based. Counterattacking (usually landing a hit on an opponent before after the opponent begins an attack) is also a common element of gameplay.
Special moves
One of the most common features of fighting games is the presence of "special moves", also called "secret moves", employing complex combinations of button presses to perform a single particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. As an example, the Killer Instinct character Fulgore will throw three projectiles if the player presses forward, back, rolls from back to forward (hitting down-back, down, down-forward on the way), and pushes the button for weak punch. These generally vary by character, making it difficult for a player to learn all of each character's moves; some newer games will feature dozens of special moves per character. Many games adopt what are known as fighting styles, where the player may choose from a smaller number of particular universal sets of special moves rather than having to learn a much larger number of button combinations. In older games, special moves might have been listed in the manual, in player guides, or kept as secrets for the player to discover; newer games often list them in-game. The non-traditional Super Smash Bros. series is notable for using extremely simple button combinations that are valid for every character.
Taunting
Taunting is a type of move first seen in the Art of Fighting series, and has been used in most games of the genre ever since.Taunting is personality-based, much like victory poses and character intros. Taunting is used to lighten the mood in most games, but in some games it can be an essential component of the gameplay. Sometimes, a character can even be famous for taunting (for example, Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter Alpha series has many aggressive, excessive, and humorous taunts). The amount of taunting allowed can vary from game to game (in most SNK fighters and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, players can taunt incessantly, whereas all characters except Dan in the Street Fighter Alpha series may only taunt once in a round). In certain cases, a taunt can even inflict some damage, like Chun-Li's slap taunt in the Street Fighter Alpha series and Luigi's kicking motion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Victory conditions
In most fighting games, a match consists of a varying number of rounds. In a one-on-one match, it is usually determined by winning two out of three rounds (though the exact number can depend on the game).
Knockout (K.O.)
Street Fighter III
A player usually wins a mark upon depleting an opponent's health, performing a knockout (K.O.). In general, this is the most commonly employed mechanic of victory in a fighting game as it is the simplest and most obvious objective of any such game. Many games will reward a "perfect", where the player manages to defeat an enemy without losing any health whatsoever, or a "one hit K.O.", where a player defeats an enemy with only one action. Moreover, should both characters simultaneously reduce each other's hit points to zero, a Double K.O. may be declared. K.O.'s and special K.O.'s are often accompanied by a voiceover declaring the type of victory.
Ring-out
Ring-out (usually but not always found in 3D fighting games) can be a faster way of defeating an opponent than the knockout. In the event that an opponent has left or been somehow made to leave the fighting area, a "ring out" will be awarded. Ring-outs can only happen in arenas that have no intervening wall or curb (in many games with the ring-out option of victory, the boundaries of a stage can be destroyed in order make a ring-out possible in that spot). In the Super Smash Bros. series, ring-out is the primary means of victory in most modes; in all but one mode of play, characters will not faint upon sustaining damage, but will instead be knocked away further by attacks as their damage meter increases. In the realm of more traditional fighting games, the Virtua Fighter and Soul series are the most popular games that employ the ring-out condition of victory. In Virtua Fighter, fighters can remove themselves from the ring as an act of surrender but in the Soul series they must be forced out. Both games also have walls on some stages that prevent this condition of victory.
Fatalities
In 1992, Mortal Kombat introduced "fatalities" in which the victor finishes off a knocked-out opponent by killing him or her (usually in a highly violent and gruesome way). Later on, many other fighting games adopted this concept.
Sudden Death
In many fighting games, "sudden death" is a match which occurs after matches that end the final round in a "double K.O." or a "draw" (which usually happens when the combatants have similarly depleted health). To break the tie, one fighter must defeat the other in a sudden-death match. Sudden Death may also have different connotations depending on the series; In the Super Smash Bros. series, for example, characters with tied scores are spawned with enough damage that they may be thrown out of the ring with moves that would not do so otherwise. A "Super Sudden Death" mode is also incorporated, where a normal game is played with suden death conditions (among others) from the start. Sudden Death is also a term for an advanced version of "Overkill" in the Sega CD version of Eternal Champions; other games (such as BloodStorm or Guilty Gear) allow players to do away with their opponents regardless of health if certain conditions are met.
Number of players
Single player
Fighting games usually include a single-player mode. Most fighting games follow the story of the particular fighter the player selects. Some titles expand on this, including various modes of play relative to the character, and an intricate plot interwoven into the experience. Occasionally, single-player mode is used to unlock secret characters and such in the game as well. On an arcade machine, it is usually possible for another human player to join in the fight at any time during the single player mode.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer participation in fighting games comes in a variety of ways.
One-on-one
In many fighting games, one-on-one matches are the most common style for fighting games. One player controls one character while the other player controls the other; however, if characters form teams, there is usually either a succession or a means to tag out, with the occasional team-up move.
Four-way simultaneous
In some fighting games (like the Super Smash Bros. series and War of the Monsters), there are matches in which four fighters fight each other all at once. There is also usually a way to form either impromptu or official teams (eliminating "friendly fire") when this mode of battle is available. The number of combatants isn't necessarily restricted to four (and sometimes there aren't enough players to fill all four available positions), but it is a convenient number in terms of what can easily be tracked on a screen. This style of gameplay can prove troublesome to execute properly in games where one-on-one battles are standard. This is due to the game mechanics being built around the concept of combatants turning around whenever they switch sides with their opponents; the developers must add an "about-face" move, or allow the player to turn around with the D-pad, which can create problems for combination attacks.
Online match
Newer online gaming services such as Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection have brought more fighting games to cyberspace. Games such as Dead or Alive 4, the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5, the PSN version of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl feature competitive gaming online. However, lag is an obstacle for many online fighting games due to the fast-paced nature and the often split-second timing required; the number of players that can be matched up can often prove to slow down timing as well. Some PC fighting games such as Kwonho, and (the upcoming as of 2007) Dead or Alive Online feature heavily on the online component.
Team-based fighting
Fighting games started out always being 1-on-1 battles. However, starting in the mid-1990s, cooperative-style team fighting has gained some prevalence.
Simultaneous Team
In Fatal Fury, two human players could fight together against the computer opponent; this was the first fighting game to allow this. As a secret mode in Street Fighter Alpha and in its sequels as an optional mode, a cooperative style of fighting called "Dramatic Battle" lets players play with two characters at once against another opponent. However, unlike "Dramatic Battle", Marvel Vs. Capcom adopts and features this kind of fighting as a super attack, known as the "Duo attack", during matches. When activated, this kind of attack lets the player perform "Dramatic Battle"-style attacks, along with performing unlimited super special moves for a brief period. Simultaneous team battles can also be chosen in the Super Smash Bros. series via choosing a team on the character select screen.
Tag Team
In 1996, Capcom's X-Men vs. Street Fighter and SNK's Kizuna Encounter introduced "tag-teamimg" to the genre, while Marvel vs. Capcom 2 became the first game with "trio" tag teaming. The King of Fighters 2003 revised the previous rules for the KOF series to allow players to switch between their three characters, while Tekken Tag Tournament and the Dead or Alive series featured tag-teaming as well. The rules vary from game to game on how matches are won. In most tag-team games, each fighter on the team has to be defeated to win. In some others, only one fighter needs to be knocked out to win a tag-team round.
Assisting
Assisting is another type of 'team-based' fighting game technique in the genre. In games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom, assists are used to call on (non-playable) characters, whereas in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, assisting is done by calling on the player's teammates. Other fighting games such as KOF '99 use what is called the "striker" system in the series (where playable characters are called on, and characters on a team are set aside for this exclusive task). Other games have other mechanisms, such as in the Super Smash Bros. series, where fighters can use the Poké ball to enlist the aid of Pokémon and Assist Trophies to enlist the aid of other Nintendo Characters (as well as characters from third-party series, such as characters from Konami's Metal Gear series, and characters from SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog series).
3-on-3 Elimination
In 1994, The King of Fighters '94 introduced 3-on-3 elimination-style matches in fighting games. After selecting a trio team of characters and choosing their order, the same rules apply as in the normal one-on-one round matches. The difference, however, is that instead of earning marks upon victory, the next opponent on the other team must be faced, often with a little health given back to the victor (depending on how well or fast the fight was won). This goes on until all members of one team have been defeated. While this is the signature style of the KOF series up until KOF 2003, this kind of fighting has been adopted as an optional mode into other fighting games such as the Dead or Alive series, the Tekken series, and many others. In Capcom's contributions to the Capcom vs. SNK series, characters are selected using a "ratio" system, in which characters are "worth" a certain amount when it comes time to form teams (this acts as a regulatory system between teams that add weight to a characters' attack and defense properties are judged against the standardized ratio levels 1 through 4, also taking into account a character's unique damage and endurance properties).
Survival
Unlike traditional round matches, "survival" modes let the player face a multitude of successive opponents while attempting to keep the character's life bar from running out of health. When winning matches, the life bar may replenish depending on the time left on the timer and the game being played. Survival is often featured as a mode in home versions of fighting games. In Super Smash Bros., Survival is the coin name for stock matches, where players determine the amount of lives each character begins the match with. When all lives are depleted, that player is "defeated" and cannot continue the match.
Custom creation
Custom creation, or "create-a-fighter", is a feature of some fighting games which allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. This feature has been used in wrestling games (as "Create-a-wrestler") since Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium in 1996, but Fighter Maker (in 1999) and Kakuge-Yaro: Fighting Game Creator (2000) were two of the first fighting games that worked with this concept heavily.Other fighting games such as Soulcalibur III,[8] Mortal Kombat Armageddonand Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 adopted this concept. Some fighting games, even those that lack this feature, allow the player to create other types of game content: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, for example, features the ability to create custom stages.
Sub-genres
While most fighting games feature hand-to-hand combat, there are sub-genres that involve different methods for damage.
Weapon-based fighting
Weapon-based fighting games feature characters that duel almost exclusively with melee weapons instead of hand-to-hand combat. Since weapons have more range and blocking with a weapon does not usually exhaust the character, most of the focus lies on reaction time and weapon placement (as opposed to torrential combos and special moves). The Samurai Shodown and Soul series characterize this style of fighting game.
Platform-based fighting
Platform-based fighting games feature matches that take place on platforms, and often involve maneuvers typical of platform games as well as fighting games. Usually, more emphasis is placed on moving around accurately and forcibly repositioning opponents than on achieving a knockout. Games such as DreamMix TV World Fighters, Battle Stadium D.O.N, Rave Master: Special Attack Force, and the Super Smash Bros. series characterize this sub-genre; the graphics are usually 3D whereas the gameplay is usually 2D, but this is probably owing to the relative recency of these games; there is no compelling reason 3D gameplay or 2D graphics could not be employed: both the Power Stone series and Ehrgeiz feature a fusion of traditional fighting game elements and 3D platforming elements.
Rhythm-based fighting
This sub-genre of fighting takes the traditional fighting game elements and mixes it with rhythm, a musical element to create music. Custom Beat Battle: Draglade for the Nintendo DS and Bust a Groove (Bust a Move in Japan), and its sequel both for the PSX, are examples of this rare sub-genre
Realistic fighting
Realistic fighting in fighting games mirrors 'real world' fighting, whether hand-to-hand or weapon based. Bushido Blade for the PlayStation features a system that does not rely on traditional features such as health bars, guard crush meters, stun meters, and super meters like in traditional fighters. For example, the moment one hits or slashes the opponent, he or she may die instantly, depending on where he or she was hit. If the opponent was sliced in the leg or the arm, he or she would be unable to walk or swing his sword as effectively.
Sports-based fighting
Sports-based fighting is a sub-genre that mixes fighting game elements into sports games such as Boxing, mixed martial arts and Wrestling. The WWE SmackDown! vs RAW series is the most popular franchise of this type.
Fighting role-playing game
The Legend of Legaia series, in a sense, defines the "fighting RPG" sub-genre. Legaia's battle system mixes the turn-based battle systems seen in most traditional RPG's and the traditional gameplay formula for traditional fighting games into what is called the "Tactical Arts System". However, other games such as the Tobal series feature a mode that focuses on dungeon crawling combined with the traditional fighting game elements, and Virtua Quest which is more "action RPG"-style in its battle system.
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.
Screenshot of Way of the Exploding Fist (1985)
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. 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.
In 3D titles (e.g. Virtua Fighter, Soulcalibur, Tekken, Dead or Alive, later Mortal Kombat games), the characters and stages are three-dimensional polygon-based models. The camera's viewing angle is not always fixed and it can rotate and move in any direction. Because of the extra dimension, the characters can sidestep as well as duck and jump. In contrast with the gameplay of 2D titles, jumping and projectile attacks are typically minor elements. Usually, blocking and attacking are more complex, featuring high, mid, and low attacks and blocks. Thus, the gameplay in 3D fighters is generally two-dimensional as well, although more on the ground's plane instead of the screen's; however, there are exceptions (like Power Stone and Tobal No. 1). 3D fighting games usually have slower attack speeds than their 2D counterparts, because attacks will generally be timed more realistically (they are often created using motion capture instead of the laws of animation; even with a quick attack, the whole maneuver will be carried out instead of using the starting and ending frames to emphasize speed).
Three-dimensional games usually have much larger fighting arenas, which can have multiple sub-sections and paths (most notably in the Dead or Alive series). There are often a number of environmental hazards that can be utilized against the opponent, such as a cliff or an electric fence. Many three-dimensional fighters have two win conditions: the normal health depletion or the ring-out. A ring-out is accomplished by forcing the player out of the fighting arena with either an attack or mere pressure. In some games, such as the Super Smash Bros. series, the ring-out is the primary (sometimes only) method of victory. Some 3D fighting games have gameplay that closely mimics 2D fighters, incorporating three-dimensional depth as a method of escaping attacks rather than an essential part of the fighting system. Notable examples of this include Capcom's Rival Schools and Street Fighter EX series, SNK's KOF: Maximum Impact, and Midway's Biofreaks.
Elements of fighting games
There are several concepts common to many fighting games. The most common element is health, usually in the form of a rectangular "life bar". Combos, in which several attacks are chained together using basic 'punch' and 'kick' attacks, are a feature common to 2D fighting games since they were introduced in Streetfighter II.2D fighters also emphasize the difference between the height of attacks, and usually have both "special moves" and "super special moves". Blocking is another basic technique in which a player defends attacks, whether in the air or the ground. Games like Capcom's Street Fighter III provide an advanced blocking technique in the genre called "parrying" while SNK's Garou: Mark of the Wolves involve "Just Defending" (both involve a well-timed directional maneuver). Throwing is a close-up attack in which a player inputs a specific command when close to the opponent; entire games and characters in normal games can be mostly grapple-based. Counterattacking (usually landing a hit on an opponent before after the opponent begins an attack) is also a common element of gameplay.
Special moves
One of the most common features of fighting games is the presence of "special moves", also called "secret moves", employing complex combinations of button presses to perform a single particular move beyond basic punching and kicking. As an example, the Killer Instinct character Fulgore will throw three projectiles if the player presses forward, back, rolls from back to forward (hitting down-back, down, down-forward on the way), and pushes the button for weak punch. These generally vary by character, making it difficult for a player to learn all of each character's moves; some newer games will feature dozens of special moves per character. Many games adopt what are known as fighting styles, where the player may choose from a smaller number of particular universal sets of special moves rather than having to learn a much larger number of button combinations. In older games, special moves might have been listed in the manual, in player guides, or kept as secrets for the player to discover; newer games often list them in-game. The non-traditional Super Smash Bros. series is notable for using extremely simple button combinations that are valid for every character.
Taunting
Taunting is a type of move first seen in the Art of Fighting series, and has been used in most games of the genre ever since.Taunting is personality-based, much like victory poses and character intros. Taunting is used to lighten the mood in most games, but in some games it can be an essential component of the gameplay. Sometimes, a character can even be famous for taunting (for example, Dan Hibiki from the Street Fighter Alpha series has many aggressive, excessive, and humorous taunts). The amount of taunting allowed can vary from game to game (in most SNK fighters and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, players can taunt incessantly, whereas all characters except Dan in the Street Fighter Alpha series may only taunt once in a round). In certain cases, a taunt can even inflict some damage, like Chun-Li's slap taunt in the Street Fighter Alpha series and Luigi's kicking motion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Victory conditions
In most fighting games, a match consists of a varying number of rounds. In a one-on-one match, it is usually determined by winning two out of three rounds (though the exact number can depend on the game).
Knockout (K.O.)
Street Fighter III
A player usually wins a mark upon depleting an opponent's health, performing a knockout (K.O.). In general, this is the most commonly employed mechanic of victory in a fighting game as it is the simplest and most obvious objective of any such game. Many games will reward a "perfect", where the player manages to defeat an enemy without losing any health whatsoever, or a "one hit K.O.", where a player defeats an enemy with only one action. Moreover, should both characters simultaneously reduce each other's hit points to zero, a Double K.O. may be declared. K.O.'s and special K.O.'s are often accompanied by a voiceover declaring the type of victory.
Ring-out
Ring-out (usually but not always found in 3D fighting games) can be a faster way of defeating an opponent than the knockout. In the event that an opponent has left or been somehow made to leave the fighting area, a "ring out" will be awarded. Ring-outs can only happen in arenas that have no intervening wall or curb (in many games with the ring-out option of victory, the boundaries of a stage can be destroyed in order make a ring-out possible in that spot). In the Super Smash Bros. series, ring-out is the primary means of victory in most modes; in all but one mode of play, characters will not faint upon sustaining damage, but will instead be knocked away further by attacks as their damage meter increases. In the realm of more traditional fighting games, the Virtua Fighter and Soul series are the most popular games that employ the ring-out condition of victory. In Virtua Fighter, fighters can remove themselves from the ring as an act of surrender but in the Soul series they must be forced out. Both games also have walls on some stages that prevent this condition of victory.
Fatalities
In 1992, Mortal Kombat introduced "fatalities" in which the victor finishes off a knocked-out opponent by killing him or her (usually in a highly violent and gruesome way). Later on, many other fighting games adopted this concept.
Sudden Death
In many fighting games, "sudden death" is a match which occurs after matches that end the final round in a "double K.O." or a "draw" (which usually happens when the combatants have similarly depleted health). To break the tie, one fighter must defeat the other in a sudden-death match. Sudden Death may also have different connotations depending on the series; In the Super Smash Bros. series, for example, characters with tied scores are spawned with enough damage that they may be thrown out of the ring with moves that would not do so otherwise. A "Super Sudden Death" mode is also incorporated, where a normal game is played with suden death conditions (among others) from the start. Sudden Death is also a term for an advanced version of "Overkill" in the Sega CD version of Eternal Champions; other games (such as BloodStorm or Guilty Gear) allow players to do away with their opponents regardless of health if certain conditions are met.
Number of players
Single player
Fighting games usually include a single-player mode. Most fighting games follow the story of the particular fighter the player selects. Some titles expand on this, including various modes of play relative to the character, and an intricate plot interwoven into the experience. Occasionally, single-player mode is used to unlock secret characters and such in the game as well. On an arcade machine, it is usually possible for another human player to join in the fight at any time during the single player mode.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer participation in fighting games comes in a variety of ways.
One-on-one
In many fighting games, one-on-one matches are the most common style for fighting games. One player controls one character while the other player controls the other; however, if characters form teams, there is usually either a succession or a means to tag out, with the occasional team-up move.
Four-way simultaneous
In some fighting games (like the Super Smash Bros. series and War of the Monsters), there are matches in which four fighters fight each other all at once. There is also usually a way to form either impromptu or official teams (eliminating "friendly fire") when this mode of battle is available. The number of combatants isn't necessarily restricted to four (and sometimes there aren't enough players to fill all four available positions), but it is a convenient number in terms of what can easily be tracked on a screen. This style of gameplay can prove troublesome to execute properly in games where one-on-one battles are standard. This is due to the game mechanics being built around the concept of combatants turning around whenever they switch sides with their opponents; the developers must add an "about-face" move, or allow the player to turn around with the D-pad, which can create problems for combination attacks.
Online match
Newer online gaming services such as Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network, and the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection have brought more fighting games to cyberspace. Games such as Dead or Alive 4, the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5, the PSN version of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl feature competitive gaming online. However, lag is an obstacle for many online fighting games due to the fast-paced nature and the often split-second timing required; the number of players that can be matched up can often prove to slow down timing as well. Some PC fighting games such as Kwonho, and (the upcoming as of 2007) Dead or Alive Online feature heavily on the online component.
Team-based fighting
Fighting games started out always being 1-on-1 battles. However, starting in the mid-1990s, cooperative-style team fighting has gained some prevalence.
Simultaneous Team
In Fatal Fury, two human players could fight together against the computer opponent; this was the first fighting game to allow this. As a secret mode in Street Fighter Alpha and in its sequels as an optional mode, a cooperative style of fighting called "Dramatic Battle" lets players play with two characters at once against another opponent. However, unlike "Dramatic Battle", Marvel Vs. Capcom adopts and features this kind of fighting as a super attack, known as the "Duo attack", during matches. When activated, this kind of attack lets the player perform "Dramatic Battle"-style attacks, along with performing unlimited super special moves for a brief period. Simultaneous team battles can also be chosen in the Super Smash Bros. series via choosing a team on the character select screen.
Tag Team
In 1996, Capcom's X-Men vs. Street Fighter and SNK's Kizuna Encounter introduced "tag-teamimg" to the genre, while Marvel vs. Capcom 2 became the first game with "trio" tag teaming. The King of Fighters 2003 revised the previous rules for the KOF series to allow players to switch between their three characters, while Tekken Tag Tournament and the Dead or Alive series featured tag-teaming as well. The rules vary from game to game on how matches are won. In most tag-team games, each fighter on the team has to be defeated to win. In some others, only one fighter needs to be knocked out to win a tag-team round.
Assisting
Assisting is another type of 'team-based' fighting game technique in the genre. In games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom, assists are used to call on (non-playable) characters, whereas in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, assisting is done by calling on the player's teammates. Other fighting games such as KOF '99 use what is called the "striker" system in the series (where playable characters are called on, and characters on a team are set aside for this exclusive task). Other games have other mechanisms, such as in the Super Smash Bros. series, where fighters can use the Poké ball to enlist the aid of Pokémon and Assist Trophies to enlist the aid of other Nintendo Characters (as well as characters from third-party series, such as characters from Konami's Metal Gear series, and characters from SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog series).
3-on-3 Elimination
In 1994, The King of Fighters '94 introduced 3-on-3 elimination-style matches in fighting games. After selecting a trio team of characters and choosing their order, the same rules apply as in the normal one-on-one round matches. The difference, however, is that instead of earning marks upon victory, the next opponent on the other team must be faced, often with a little health given back to the victor (depending on how well or fast the fight was won). This goes on until all members of one team have been defeated. While this is the signature style of the KOF series up until KOF 2003, this kind of fighting has been adopted as an optional mode into other fighting games such as the Dead or Alive series, the Tekken series, and many others. In Capcom's contributions to the Capcom vs. SNK series, characters are selected using a "ratio" system, in which characters are "worth" a certain amount when it comes time to form teams (this acts as a regulatory system between teams that add weight to a characters' attack and defense properties are judged against the standardized ratio levels 1 through 4, also taking into account a character's unique damage and endurance properties).
Survival
Unlike traditional round matches, "survival" modes let the player face a multitude of successive opponents while attempting to keep the character's life bar from running out of health. When winning matches, the life bar may replenish depending on the time left on the timer and the game being played. Survival is often featured as a mode in home versions of fighting games. In Super Smash Bros., Survival is the coin name for stock matches, where players determine the amount of lives each character begins the match with. When all lives are depleted, that player is "defeated" and cannot continue the match.
Custom creation
Custom creation, or "create-a-fighter", is a feature of some fighting games which allows a player to customize the appearance and move set of their own character. This feature has been used in wrestling games (as "Create-a-wrestler") since Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium in 1996, but Fighter Maker (in 1999) and Kakuge-Yaro: Fighting Game Creator (2000) were two of the first fighting games that worked with this concept heavily.Other fighting games such as Soulcalibur III,[8] Mortal Kombat Armageddonand Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 adopted this concept. Some fighting games, even those that lack this feature, allow the player to create other types of game content: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, for example, features the ability to create custom stages.
Sub-genres
While most fighting games feature hand-to-hand combat, there are sub-genres that involve different methods for damage.
Weapon-based fighting
Weapon-based fighting games feature characters that duel almost exclusively with melee weapons instead of hand-to-hand combat. Since weapons have more range and blocking with a weapon does not usually exhaust the character, most of the focus lies on reaction time and weapon placement (as opposed to torrential combos and special moves). The Samurai Shodown and Soul series characterize this style of fighting game.
Platform-based fighting
Platform-based fighting games feature matches that take place on platforms, and often involve maneuvers typical of platform games as well as fighting games. Usually, more emphasis is placed on moving around accurately and forcibly repositioning opponents than on achieving a knockout. Games such as DreamMix TV World Fighters, Battle Stadium D.O.N, Rave Master: Special Attack Force, and the Super Smash Bros. series characterize this sub-genre; the graphics are usually 3D whereas the gameplay is usually 2D, but this is probably owing to the relative recency of these games; there is no compelling reason 3D gameplay or 2D graphics could not be employed: both the Power Stone series and Ehrgeiz feature a fusion of traditional fighting game elements and 3D platforming elements.
Rhythm-based fighting
This sub-genre of fighting takes the traditional fighting game elements and mixes it with rhythm, a musical element to create music. Custom Beat Battle: Draglade for the Nintendo DS and Bust a Groove (Bust a Move in Japan), and its sequel both for the PSX, are examples of this rare sub-genre
Realistic fighting
Realistic fighting in fighting games mirrors 'real world' fighting, whether hand-to-hand or weapon based. Bushido Blade for the PlayStation features a system that does not rely on traditional features such as health bars, guard crush meters, stun meters, and super meters like in traditional fighters. For example, the moment one hits or slashes the opponent, he or she may die instantly, depending on where he or she was hit. If the opponent was sliced in the leg or the arm, he or she would be unable to walk or swing his sword as effectively.
Sports-based fighting
Sports-based fighting is a sub-genre that mixes fighting game elements into sports games such as Boxing, mixed martial arts and Wrestling. The WWE SmackDown! vs RAW series is the most popular franchise of this type.
Fighting role-playing game
The Legend of Legaia series, in a sense, defines the "fighting RPG" sub-genre. Legaia's battle system mixes the turn-based battle systems seen in most traditional RPG's and the traditional gameplay formula for traditional fighting games into what is called the "Tactical Arts System". However, other games such as the Tobal series feature a mode that focuses on dungeon crawling combined with the traditional fighting game elements, and Virtua Quest which is more "action RPG"-style in its battle system.
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