Fighting

Fighting is a broad genre which encompasses various forms of gameplay revolving around combat between a limited number of set combatants.

In traditional fighting games, players are placed one-on-one in matches against a single enemy or a group of enemies one at a time. Matches consist of multiple time-sensitive rounds where the victor defeats their opponent the most number of times, often in best two-out-of-three fashion, although matches may consist of more than three rounds. They're also unique in their sideways gameplay approach, showing both combatants equally and where the player uses left and right to move backwards and forwards (which direction the controls move them in depending on which side of the screen the player is on), although these controls can be altered depending on whether or not the game is presented in a true 3D environment, such as in SoulCalibur (1998). These games are often heavily combo-based, in which chains of movements and button presses allow a myriad of special attacks, resulting in memorization-based gameplay. Some games, like those in the Marvel vs. Capcom and The King of Fighters series, use teams of characters that the player and CPU can switch between, whether it be between rounds or in the middle of combat.

Over the years of its existence, sub-genres have spawned that have tinkered with the fighting game formula, such as pro wrestling games that tend to use high up, angled camera views, and platform fighting games that are much more fast paced, allow freer movement in larger arenas, and use lives as opposed to rounds. Both of these genres allow more than two combatants all at once as well.

Fighting games, while related to them, are distinct from beat 'em ups in that they focus exclusively on single combat, whereas beat 'em ups put the player against multiple enemies at once and sometimes have more explorative action-adventure elements to them (it should be noted that it is not impossible for a fighting game to include elements of other genres, though it is rare). Another difference between the two genres is that, in beat 'em ups, enemies are often nameless henchmen, whereas is fighting games most enemies are uniquely named characters with distinct fighting styles and personalities normally taken from the game's set roster.

While one-on-one fighting games have existed all the way back to the 70s, with the first being the 1976 arcade boxing game Heavyweight Champ (1976), it wasn't until the release of Karate Champ [空手道] (1984) that the genre started gaining recognition. It was thanks to the success of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991), though, that the genre boomed in popularity during the 90s, where multiple successful series came into existence, including Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct, Guilty Gear [ギルティギア], Dead or Alive and Tekken [鉄拳].