School me on forgotten fighting games. (ie: Star Gladiator, Red Earth, Primal Rage)

[Gundam]

Thanks for all the great examples. Some classics I had heard of and others I never knew existed.

Here's one - a Taiwanese game actually - called Martial Masters that I watched some videos of a while back. I really love the old Once Upon a Time in China setting. It apparently got a localized Arcade release but was never on home consoles.

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Oh shit I was trying to remember the name of this so I could post it but I'm so glad someone else knows what this is

 

[Syril]

WeaponLord is the best obscure fighting game. I'd elaborate more, but I'm on mobile and short on time at the moment. Google it or find clips on YouTube to see what I'm talking about. The game was way ahead of its time in terms of mechanics.

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It's crying out for a cool reboot like Killer Instinct, but it's owned by Namco so the best chance of anything happening would probably be a guest spot in Soul Calibur. On the other hand, that would be amazing in itself.

 

[Pixel Grotto]

All those mentioning WeaponLord - I did see the Fisticuffs episode on it and the mechanics were insane. I like the rumor (?) that Namco was influenced a little by the game when designing Soul Edge/Blade, especially Rock.

This art for an updated reboot was done a while back.

Some more along with mockups here.

 

[KhandoleezzaRice]

NES Fighting games always fascinated me.

Yie-Ar Kung Fu is the earliest one I can remember.


The more impressive ones that I can think of are bootlegs which maybe not exactly what you mean, but I do have a physical copy of World Heroes for my bootleg NES.


Of course there's also the classic Street Fighter II bootleg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hQjFpGB6_k which I think I also have a physical copy of somewhere.

 

[Pixel Grotto]

NES Fighting games always fascinated me.

Yie-Ar Kung Fu is the earliest one I can remember.


The more impressive ones that I can think of are bootlegs which maybe not exactly what you mean, but I do have a physical copy of World Heroes for my bootleg NES.


Of course there's also the classic Street Fighter II bootleg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hQjFpGB6_k which I think I also have a physical copy of somewhere.

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You reminded me of this gem. Pretty good for an NES fighting game.

 

[Deleted member 34132]

Mace The Dark Age

Don't know if this is a good fighting game, but as a kid I had a lot of fun. Knights, Monks, Assassins, Ninjas... all with weapons and fatalities.

Bio Freaks

This one was mostly known for it's gory gameplay. You can cut of limbs of your opponents and affect the gameplay. As you see in the screenshot the character has no arms. This means you can only do kicks for the rest of the round.

Fighter's Destiny

This was a bit of a new approach to fighting games. You didn't necessarily need to fight until the health bar is down and you won two rounds. You had to win all the stars below the health bar. For different actions you got a different amount of stars. For example you got stars for kicking an opponent out of the ring or you got stars for doing some kind of grab and take you opponent down.

 

[Olengie]

Ugh.

I love Primal Rage so much.

 

[SinkFla]

I can't believe I haven't seen the greatest fighting game of all time mentioned yet. I got this gem as a child from toys r us back when you picked up a slip at the cabinet and had to have your parent check out at the register for you! That's right, I'm talking the Queen sponsored... The one and only...

*Crickets*

 

[Deleted member 12790]

This game was way more fun than it should have been. It had a pretty cool KI-inspired combo system, great graphics for the time, full announcer commentary, and the undertaker had a fatality in the PSX version.

Great game. I had the MS DOS version which was arcade perfect and played the shit out of it with my gravis gamepad.

EDIT: from the team behind Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

Brutal: Paws Of Fury

It was on SNES and Genesis as well, but I used to play it as a kid on PC. It was actually kind of fun, in hindsight it wasn't exactly Street Fighter material, but the lack of depth was hidden behind some really cool designs. All characters felt drastically different in moves and style, really mimicking the kind of behaviour you expected from the animals they depicted. Well, besides some bonkers shit like the lion being a rocker and all.

By the way, on PC the game is abandonware, so you can just download it from somewhere and give it a shot.

 

[petran79]

Budokan Martial Spirit was also a sophisticated martial arts fighting game for its time

Primal Rage was just as popular as Killer Instinct, if not more. Problem was it did not have very faithfull ports and it invested more on the popularity of Atari Jaguar and Panasonic 3DO. Big mistake in the long run.
I had the DOS version which was perhaps the best port in comparison, regarding gfx at least. Currently best way to play it is through Midway Arcade Treasures.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Currently best way to play it is through Midway Arcade Treasures.

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This is actually the WORST way to play it, worse than the home ports. This is because the Midway Arcade Treasures Collection does not defeat the copy protection, they shipped a game literally broken. The game's copy protection manifests as crippleware, so certain moves will fail randomly, certain attacks will randomly take either almost no damage or 3 times as much damage, blood and fatalities and bonuses (like playing volleyball with humans) are disabled, certain moves will randomly be invincible over others, etc.

You're much better off playing the Saturn or PSX ports than the MAT version. At least those function correctly.

 

[SuzanoSho]

OMG Star Gladiator!...

Never played it, but there was this sequel that came out for the Dreamcast that I played THE shit out of...can't remember the name of it...


EDIT: PLASMA SWORD!!!!!...

Since I obviously didn't actually read the original post, let me drop off a few titles here...the "forgotten" fighting games usually tend to be my all-time favorites, but "forgotten" is a bit dishonest because most of the time they were pretty obscure...

Favorite of all time, had the most fun I've ever had in gaming just playing local multiplayer in this one. Arena combat, featured a ton of different characters and many fighting styles, reversal/dodging system (no blocking), weapons, up to four-players all at once, your standard fighting-arena modes, and two guest Tekken characters. Each fighter had stats, but after unlocking everyone, you could unlock an option to have everyone's stats maxed out to level the playing field. Also featured a weapon proficiency stat for each character, so that characters at different tiers actually would have an easier time holding on to the type of weapon they're skilled with, as well as being able to use that weapon more effectively (like having more attacks with it):

This one I played a while ago strictly for the PC. Was a freeware game that I think came along right when I was at the height of my Leiro fascination. Free for all gameplay or teams, up to 8 players, side-scrolling stages, and even had an "adventure mode" that played out like a beat-em-up game...

The best part about it, however, was the fact that you could add characters to the game kinda like a M.U.G.E.N., and there was a lot of fun to be had with the kind of characters the community made. Pretty much anyone you could think of, as well as a metric ton of original creations:

 

[lordlad]

OMG Star Gladiator!...

Never played it, but there was this sequel that came out for the Dreamcast that I played THE shit out of...can't remember the name of it...


EDIT: PLASMA SWORD!!!!!...

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Full name

Star Gladiator - Episode I: Final Crusade

Star Gladiator 2: Nightmare of Bilstein

 

[SuzanoSho]

Full name

Star Gladiator - Episode I: Final Crusade

Star Gladiator 2: Nightmare of Bilstein

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Yeah, but I only knew of the game as Plasma Sword...that's what it read on the game cover and it wasn't until a little while later that I actually learned that it was a SEQUEL to another game lol...

 

[Richter1887]

I always thought this game looked cool. This thread reminded me that I never played it.

 

[Haunted]

Fighter's Destiny

This was a bit of a new approach to fighting games. You didn't necessarily need to fight until the health bar is down and you won two rounds. You had to win all the stars below the health bar. For different actions you got a different amount of stars. For example you got stars for kicking an opponent out of the ring or you got stars for doing some kind of grab and take you opponent down.

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Very good, came in here to post that game.

Loved the point system, completely changed the approach to fighting games at the time. It was no longer about connecting damaging moves one after another, but it became a game about positioning, counters, reversals, much closer to the things you would want to think about during a (simulated) real fight instead of button combos and dumb videogame moves like jab juggling - just awesome.

Shoutout to that legendary move which cemented its legacy: the edge grab reversal. Made for some clever comebacks out of nowhere, great for parties and competitive play.

 

[Nightside]

Elfmania and shadow fighter on the Amiga.

 

[SinkFla]

Brutal: Paws Of Fury

It was on SNES and Genesis as well, but I used to play it as a kid on PC. It was actually kind of fun, in hindsight it wasn't exactly Street Fighter material, but the lack of depth was hidden behind some really cool designs. All characters felt drastically different in moves and style, really mimicking the kind of behaviour you expected from the animals they depicted. Well, besides some bonkers shit like the lion being a rocker and all.

By the way, on PC the game is abandonware, so you can just download it from somewhere and give it a shot.

Click to shrink...

Holy shit I remember wanting to play this so bad as a kid but never got to :(.

 

[Deleted member 2254]

This one I played a while ago strictly for the PC. Was a freeware game that I think came along right when I was at the height of my Leiro fascination. Free for all gameplay or teams, up to 8 players, side-scrolling stages, and even had an "adventure mode" that played out like a beat-em-up game...

The best part about it, however, was the fact that you could add characters to the game kinda like a M.U.G.E.N., and there was a lot of fun to be had with the kind of characters the community made. Pretty much anyone you could think of, as well as a metric ton of original creations:

Click to shrink...

Damn, I remember playing that one around 12 years ago. It was really fun, tons of characters and content too. I completely forgot about this game until today, yet I look at the character designs and realize I remember a lot of them. Fun times.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

This one I played a while ago strictly for the PC. Was a freeware game that I think came along right when I was at the height of my Leiro fascination. Free for all gameplay or teams, up to 8 players, side-scrolling stages, and even had an "adventure mode" that played out like a beat-em-up game...

The best part about it, however, was the fact that you could add characters to the game kinda like a M.U.G.E.N., and there was a lot of fun to be had with the kind of characters the community made. Pretty much anyone you could think of, as well as a metric ton of original creations:

Click to shrink...

This game fucking ruled. I used to organize matches with friends online. I loved how the fire dude and ice dude could fuse into the best player in the game, but it'd take two online players coordinating to pull it off. And once he was fused, both players controller the character at the same time.

Really, really fun game.

 

[Morbak]

If you speak french I recommend you the Ken Bogard's "coffre à versus" playlist.
A shit ton of old versus fighting games explained by a professional commentator.
Here's the full list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gBwC6mrf2u0p_LXFAeXy6QP3ovSRCGimiwghmg5X7zs/edit#gid=5741719

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Elfmania and shadow fighter on the Amiga.

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Shadow Fighter is legitimately the second best Amiga fighting game, and it has stuff like Mortal Kombat II. Even though it's a one-button fighter and some weird looking art, it's way better than most of the slop on the system.

This is straight up the best, though:

This straight up looks like a Neo Geo game, and it's the only Amiga fighting game I know of that is compatible with the 6 button CD32 pad (meaning it controls like a normal fighting game instead of a one-button fighter). Great game. The intro is cheesy as fuck:

 

[Deleted member 26535]

Masters of Combat - Master System

Even today I like to play it.

 

[MrLuchador]

Good lord. I used to love Primal Rage back in the day on the SNES. I've never been a huge fighting game fan, but for some reason Primal Rage and Super Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES were all I needed.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

Joy Mech Fight is Nintendo's first fighting game:

It is also by far the very best fighting game on the Famicom. It gets around the limitations of the system by using floating sprites to create huge characters with really smooth motions that wind up looking quite a bit better in motion than anything else on the famicom:

It looks pretty poor in pictures, but it looks terrific in motion and, more importantly, plays great:

 

[Onilink]

Search Rival School.
Leave disappointed.

 

[ScOULaris]

Gonna also give Bloody Roar (PS1) and Fighting Vipers (Arcade/Saturn) a shout-out in here. Two very solid and underrated 3D fighters from the 90s.

 

[JCH!]

Anyone remember Dual Heroes for N64? It was... terrible.

 

[Lux86]

Primal Rage was amazing, it was one of my favourite games on snes.

I'll suggest something i used to play on pc (1995):

Amazing game that imho still olds up today. The characters were some pets that could transform in mecha beasts. You could shoot, punch, tail swipe, kick and the art style is great. Also, before the fight you have to reach the arena and if you were able to get there before your enemy you could unlock some secrets in the arena itself (by hitting something in the stage for example).
Gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlZDuxrPy48

 

[DarkPrince]

The Rumble Fish is one of those fighters I usually bring up that gets me blank looks, it's a really fun game with some cool characters and even got a sequel.

 

[petran79]

This is actually the WORST way to play it, worse than the home ports. This is because the Midway Arcade Treasures Collection does not defeat the copy protection, they shipped a game literally broken. The game's copy protection manifests as crippleware, so certain moves will fail randomly, certain attacks will randomly take either almost no damage or 3 times as much damage, blood and fatalities and bonuses (like playing volleyball with humans) are disabled, certain moves will randomly be invincible over others, etc.

You're much better off playing the Saturn or PSX ports than the MAT version. At least those function correctly.

Click to shrink...

I thought Midway Arcade Treasures version was the best because for that instance the developers actually removed the copy protection. On Shoryuken forum a poster claimed this was the best version.

Eg compared to MAME emulation it felt better, eg characters would not stand in the middle of the screen.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

I thought Midway Arcade Treasures version was the best because for that instance the developers actually removed the copy protection. On Shoryuken forum a poster claimed this was the best version.

Eg compared to MAME emulation it felt better, eg characters would not stand in the middle of the screen.

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No, they didn't remove the protection. The MAT version is infamous for not having the protection removed.
Someone on SRK can consider it the best version, I just disagree because it's hyper buggy by nature. I'd prefer the console ports that at least function as intended. Then again, I actually went out and got the real JAMMA board because I was fed up with every version being off.

 

[petran79]

No, they didn't remove the protection. The MAT version is infamous for not having the protection removed.
Someone on SRK can consider it the best version, I just disagree because it's hyper buggy by nature. I'd prefer the console ports that at least function as intended. Then again, I actually went out and got the real JAMMA board because I was fed up with every version being off.

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I still have the MS-DOS version CD I got in the 90s. It is bundled with other games like Psycho Pinball, Thunderscape, Battle Beast etc
Though I havent tried Dosbox yet for that game

 

[Deleted member 12790]

I still have the MS-DOS version CD I got in the 90s. It is bundled with other games like Psycho Pinball, Thunderscape, Battle Beast etc
Though I havent tried Dosbox yet for that game

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Oh man I was thinking about Battle Beast the other day.

 

[langgi]

A quick reminder that this game exists:

Now please forget it again.

 

[Thadeus]

https://imgur.com/gallery/ldImR

Gundam Battle Assault.was one of my favorites back in the day, had a blast playing with friends.

 

[Deleted member 30569]

Mace The Dark Age

Don't know if this is a good fighting game, but as a kid I had a lot of fun. Knights, Monks, Assassins, Ninjas... all with weapons

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Came in for this. My favorite characters to play as were Al' Rashid and Executioner. I actually enjoyed the game enough on the arcades that I thought of getting an N64 just for it, but I disliked enough things about the N64 (as a console) that I never went through with it.

I remember the game being very fun, but that's probably selective memory talking. It was a sort of "Mortal Kombat meets Soul Edge" kind of game, it even had fatalities. It also had a bizarre sense of humor, I remember a chicken-ish character appropriately named "Pojo."

 

[Jimnymebob]

I always thought this game looked cool. This thread reminded me that I never played it.

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It was pretty cool. I always found it really complicated to get in to though.
My main memory of it is dying because someone stabbed me in my side, and I did a sort of spinning backstep to get away, but it just caused the sword to slice all around my body and kill me lol.

The story mode was fun. It played like a 3rd person action game, but then you'd go into the 1v1 fights. I preferred the former more.

 

[mao2]

Japan PS Store has a nice selection of PS One/PS2 Classics fighting games, many of which are lesser known or exclusive to Japan.
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/grid/PN.CH.JP-PN.CH.MIXED.JP-ARCHIVESFIGHTING/1

If you still have a PS3/PSV/PSP, you should check these out, including Star Gladiator which you mentioned.

Star Gladiator - Episode 1: The Final Crusade
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0102-NPJJ00508_00-0000000000000001

Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0102-NPJJ00510_00-0000000000000001

Shiritsu Justice Gakuen: Nekketsu Seisyun Nikki 2 (Rival Schools 2)
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0102-NPJJ00732_00-0000000000000001

Slap Happy Rhythm Busters
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0017-NPJJ00558_00-0000000000000001

Advanced V.G. 2
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0741-NPJJ00761_00-0000000000000001

Asuka 120% Final Burning Fest
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0212-NPJJ00548_00-0000000000000001

Zero Divide 2: The Secret Wish
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0207-NPJJ00376_00-0000000000000001



BTW Zero Divide plays similarly to Virtua Fighter, just with robots.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

Power Stone 1 & 2. I feel like its more of a well known cult game but that's my pick. It's more of an Arena Fighter than a Fighter straight up though. Capcom hasn't mentioned the series since that PSP port so it's fallen out of obscurity

 

[FloatOn]

anyone remember clay fighter?

 

[Katsyo]

One Must Fall 2097 is another old goodie. The one good PC exclusive fighter from the time before the PC really got fighting games. Something of a hybrid of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and has a unique feature where you pick a giant robot (moveset) and pilot (stats) separately. It also has one of the most robust single player modes of fighting history; you go through tournaments with increasingly powerful opponents and earn money to upgrade your robot. Your score increases the money you earn, fatalities not only give you a big cash bonus but can also activate secret opponents who may have move upgrades for you to take.

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One Must Fall was really great, played the demo to death which only had the first tournament with Raven as the final fight. I thought he was damn cool and one of the arch nemesis of mine in the early gaming years. Only got the full version a bit later but still it was one of the best fighting games I remember playing and had an interesting progression system in it as well.

I think it is freeware these days? Need to see if I can get it and get it to work properly.

As a slight OT, I still haven't seen Real Steel and am wondering if it is worth a watch. At least by the general premise it sounds pretty similar to OMF but haven't yet had the courage to check it out if it blows.

 

[FloatOn]

One Must Fall was really great, played the demo to death which only had the first tournament with Raven as the final fight. I thought he was damn cool and one of the arch nemesis of mine in the early gaming years. Only got the full version a bit later but still it was one of the best fighting games I remember playing and had an interesting progression system in it as well.

I think it is freeware these days? Need to see if I can get it and get it to work properly.

As a slight OT, I still haven't seen Real Steel and am wondering if it is worth a watch. At least by the general premise it sounds pretty similar to OMF but haven't yet had the courage to check it out if it blows.

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I actually really enjoyed Real Steel.

 

[MikeProtagonist]

Of the slightly more obscure older games, I have a bunch of favourites:

Galaxy Fight - I always liked the design of this and it had some cool ideas. I've ended up owning it on a ton of systems including Neo-Geo. It's on the new Neo-Geo releases, I believe.
New Power Instinct: Matrimelee - there's a bunch of different translations of this game, which is a really solid comedy fighter building on the weird Power Instinct games (which also include Groove-On Fight). Matrimelee was a Neo-Geo release to begin with, then had a PS2 version which is basically a new edition with new characters, and then there was an arcade exclusive sequel with a couple more characters. Very hard to find.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - obviously, the best use of the IP yet and one of Capcom's best fighters, although it's unbalanced as hell. If you missed out on the PS3/360 version, sucks to be you.
Advanced VG 2 - a mostly sanitized version of the original ecchi fighter, with good characters and a surprisingly good gameplay. It's a shame that the series devolved into pure visual novel porn after that. As mentioned, it's on JP PS4.

Some newer games that are maybe already forgotten are:

Arcana Heart 3 - despite the moe cast, there's some really good fighting here. It has Marvel type juggling and assists from your Arcana, but it feels more accessible to me.
Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late - ridiculous title, pretty solid gameplay.
There's also a ton of other recent anime fighters like Blade Arcus, Aquapazza, Chaos Code, Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax and Nitroplus Blasterz, but I didn't really enjoy them too much. Except from Blade Arcus, they're all solid enough but pretty much interchangable.

 

[L Thammy]

There's a Gameboy fighting game called Power Quest that I didn't spent a ton of time with, but seemed pretty cool. The setting is like Medabots; kids have robot toys that fight each other and you're one of them.

I don't remember too much of how it works. I know that your characters are just different models that you buy. I think you buy special moves as well. There are some other upgrades but I don't know if they're items you use in battle or something else.

 

[harz-marz]

Cosmic Carnage on 32X. I was impressed back in the day, but really it sucked.

Does Eternal Champions count as obscure? Probably not lol

 

[lazyguy deluxe]

most of the fighter I would have mentioned are here. So all's good.
Cyberbots, Waku Waku 7, Galaxy fight and more.
Good to see Resetera also knows it's shit.

 

[lupinko]

Red Earth has never been ported, although star gladiator is on Dreamcast.

Tech Romancer is one of my favorite Dreamcast fighters. Nobody knows how it got localized at the end of life, as it's a 3D giant mecha fighting game that is anime through and through.and pure awesome

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Plasma Sword, the sequel is on Dreamcast. The original Star Gladiator was a PS1 game.

 

[Orioto]

I loved Dead Dance when i was a kid!