Today, fighting games are in the best shape since the dawn of the HD era of gaming. All major fighting games have found niche audiences, from original concepts such as street fighter to games based on popular anime like Dragon Ball FighterZ. But not every franchise from the SNES and PlayStation eras managed to stay relevant in gaming communities.
While there are plenty of great fighting game franchises around these days, the gaming world has left some gems behind. Some games were replaced as more popular fighting games were released with better graphics or smoother gameplay. Others just came out at the wrong time, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t great games. They simply disappeared into history, with developers moving on to bigger projects and players moving on to newer, more recognizable games.
10 Tobal No. 1 was one of Square’s attempts at a fighting game
Original release date: August 2, 1996
Tobal was the first time SquareSoft tried to do anything with fighting games, and they waved at the fences. Not only was it a fighter, but it also had several RPG elements, including a Quest mode. In Quest mode, players traveled to a dungeon where they had to fight against characters from the game’s roster.
Beating them meant adding them to other game modes. Meanwhile, exploring the game meant finding items that could be used in battle or affect the player’s health. While the game wasn’t nearly as good as its major competitors, nothing beats Tobal No. 1 on the market.
9 ClayFighter Parodied Popular Characters With Claymation
Original release date: November 15, 1993
The early era of fighting games was the Wild West, and most creators were just doing it with no clear direction. At the time, Interplay’s ClayFighter series was a nice diversion from the more mainstream games like street fighter and Mortal Kombat.
As the name suggests, the series focused on claymation-style fighters battling it out in 2D action. The game never took itself too seriously, so most of the characters were actually parodies of other popular characters like Santa Claus or Ichabod Crane. The series ended with Clay formation 63 1/2a parody of the console it was released on, the Nintendo 64.
Original release date: July 13, 1993
Capcom made incredible fighters in the 90s like it was nothing. Saturday Night Slam Masters was a wrestling game released in 1993 that focused on a collection of wrestlers, all focused on achieving the championship title. Just like a real wrestling business, it’s now up to the player to defend the title against challenging wrestlers.
This game is particularly noteworthy for two reasons: the character designs are from the creator of Fist of the North StarTetsuo Hara and much of the game’s universe are connected to the street fighter world, with many of the characters having direct relationships with iconic street fighter characters.
7 Power Stone was a 3D arena fighter
Original release date: February 13, 1999
Capcom has forgotten about more great fighting games than most developers will ever make. In the late 90s they released power stone for the arcade and Dreamcast, and it was one of the best games of the Dreamcast. A rare 3D game from the developer, power stone aimed at players competing against each other in arenas.
Throughout the level, different weapons were available to use on top of each other to vary the gameplay. The name of the series is based on the different bricks that players can find and absorb to get a super mode. effectively a Smash Bros. rather clone smash clones were popular, power stone was a great party game when hanging out with a group of friends.
6 Bloody Roar characters can turn into beasts
Original release date: July 7, 1997
The bloody roar series was one of the major fighting game franchises of the late 90s and early 2000s. Developed by Eighting and Hudson Soft, the series was a 3D fighter that started in arcades before moving to the PlayStation 1.
The main gimmick of the game was that all the characters could turn into animal-like “beasts” to do battle with each other. The most surprising aspect of this series was how each game actually had a compelling plot with a connecting storyline from game to game.
5 Eternal champions pulled characters from different timelines
Original release date: December 11, 1993
Older millennials get a trip down memory lane when they hear the name Eternal Champions. SEGA created the game as a way to cash in on the fighting game popularity of more established titles, but stumbled upon a pretty cool idea.
Each character was chosen from a different part of the timeline and their goal was to save humanity by ‘restoring balance’. The game kept a super meter like SNK’s games and had their own versions of Fatalities known as ‘Overkills’. It was a pretty blatant copy, but that didn’t stop players from having fun.
Original release date: October 25, 1996
A few years before Namco revolutionized 3D fighters with soulcalibur for the Dreamcast, Capcom released their own 3D fighter, Star Gladiator. A futuristic fighting game, Star Gladiator featured a pretty wild, epic story, even if no one remembers the series.
The game came to arcades and PlayStation in 1996, introducing weapon-based combat, along with the idea of knocking opponents off platforms to “ring” victories. While most people may not remember this game, fans of marvel vs. Capcom may recognize the protagonist Hayato, a star-studded bounty hunter who relies on his Plasma Sword.
3 Last Blade is a spiritual successor to Samurai Shodown
Original release date: December 5, 1997
Fans of Samurai Shodown could find the 1997 SNK title Last Knife fascinating. Last Knife takes place at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate era, during the late 1800s. Like Showdownthe series is based on gun battles, but what makes the series stand out are some truly stunning backgrounds that look stunning even today.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to keep two Japanese sword fighting series in the same company, and Samurai Shodown was the series that won. While there are only two Last Knife games, both have been released multiple times and can be obtained on Xbox, PlayStation, and even the Nintendo Switch.
2 Battle Arena Toshinden Ideas Introduced Other Games Copied
Original release date: January 1, 1995
Developer Tamsoft is best known for their work on the Senran Kagura series, a game known for its over-the-top fan service. But in the late 90s they were responsible for the first true 3D series, Battle Arena Toshinden. Toshinden allowed players to counter their opponents with side attacks, making it really feel like a 3D game.
although Toshinden had many features that set it apart from the few 3D fighters at the time, it couldn’t compete with games like soulcalibur and Tekken as time went on, and Toshinden slowly faded into the background.
1 Bushido Blade was Square’s attempt at a realistic fighting game
Original release date: March 14, 1997
Created by developer Lightweight and published by SquareSoft, Bushido Blade had the most interesting mechanics for a fighting video game. The series was a fighting game, but it featured realistic opponent damage.
It is a weapons-based combat game where the two characters fought with different weapons, but there is no health bar. Instead, if the opponent takes damage that would realistically kill them, the battle is over. Unfortunately, Square was only willing to make two of these titles and the franchise ended up on the first PlayStation. Today, some players would be quick to judge a game as “unfair” if Bushido Blade.
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