In 1991 there was a turning point in the arcade scene. Street Fighter II was introduced to the world, focusing all the attention on the arcades and determining the future of the console war. It also, of course, set the trend for fighting games to be released.
Somewhat similar to the effect Doom had on the first-person shooter genre, Street Fighter 2 was followed, cloned and cross-dressed by a number of games from rival companies seeking to replicate Capcom’s unprecedented success. Some developers knew how to find their place in the history of video games, for example Midway with its Mortal Kombat, but most failed at mere copying.
But there are also exceptions, companies that brought to the fighting genre a series of innovative and original ideas that would set new trends and revitalize the genre. Good fighting games that unfortunately have been relegated to oblivion over the years.
The titles on this list are just a few of the forgotten games that would be spawned from Capcom’s fighting masterpiece. They showcase many different styles and sub-genres of the 2D fighter, while also showcasing different art styles, controls, and techniques within the genre. It’s highly likely that fighting fans will find at least one title on this list worth checking out, and though this list is forty titles long, it is by no means definitive.
In some cases other titles have been referenced, or series mentioned; these are also worth exploring for the fighter fan who wants to find something new to play, or those just interested in what the genre has to offer. And there are many quality games beyond that.
Intro and Outro Music
Aries Beats “Synthwave Dreams 2020” is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license …
Source:
Games Featured
0:00 Intro
0:13 1993 Monster Maulers
0:49 1994 Kaiser Knuckle
1:58 1994 Aggressors of Dark Kombat
2:44 1995 Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness
3:20 1995 Dragoon Might
4:06 1995 Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors
4:47 1995 Metamoqester
5:34 1995 Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty
6:05 1996 Waku Waku 7
7:03 1996 Touki Denshou: Angel Eyes
8:17 1996 Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle
9:10 1996 Ninja Master’s: Haou Ninpou-ko
9:59 1996 Red Earth
11:17 1997 Rabbit
11:57 1997 Groove on Fight: Gouketsuji Ichizoku 3
12:28 1997 The Last Blade
13:02 1998 The Killing Blade
14:09 1998 Asura Blade: Sword of Dynasty
14:59 1998 JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future
15:45 1999 Martial Masters
16:39 Outro
⚠️ All gameplay recording, game curation and opinions included in this video, as well as editing is completely done by me
Bits & Beats creates videos about the history of video games. In this channel you’ll find comparisons, retrospectives, technical analysis, but, mostly, game curations with the idea of having an important task of preserving video games, and make them relevant to society at large.
Curation isn’t just about digging up neat games, but it’s also about preservation, interpretation, and using one’s knowledge to make it relevant to people. With my videos I want older gamers to look back and remember the influence of video games on their lives, and new gamers to understand the larger context of the series they’re playing for the first time today.
I put significant time and creative effort into each one of my videos, including research, digging into archives, playing video games and recording hours of footage, selecting specific clips, writing reviews for each title, and making a very careful video editing in the way to transmit both educational and entertaining values to my audience. Every video takes a lot of hours to produce, because I strive to give my audience a consistent, high-quality content.
Fidelity and preservation of the video games is essential in Bits & Beats, so the recordings are made with the highest bitrate quality. It is done this way to preserve original game look and sound through modern footage, with no superfluous additions. I recommend you watch the video at 4K and 60 frames per second to get the best possible viewing experience.
I hope you enjoy my videos and find them useful!
#BITSANDBEATS #arcade #fightinggames
Fernando Fernandez
27.05.2023Guys, maybe some of you can help me out. There is this old 2d fighting game, might be as far back as 1993. I don't remember the title (obviously) or any of the fighters' names, the only thing I recall is one of them being an old woman, with one of her special attacks being "kissing" her opponent and transforming into a younger woman with improved moves. Does any of this sound familiar to anybody?
3Rayfire
27.05.2023I remember ADK got roasted in EGM back in the day.
3Rayfire
27.05.2023Nobody really cared about Cyberbots until Jin "Blodia" Saotome showed up in MvC1.
PoeticallyLucky
27.05.2023How blessed I am to have played 10 of these games growing up
Sander Kaalverink
27.05.2023Sadly am missing Far East of Eden: Kabuki Clash on this list from SNK
wblstudios
27.05.2023Proud to say I've played every single one of these.
Noid
27.05.2023In the 90s there were several arcades in my city but none of them carried any of these obscure games except for Last Blade 1 & 2. It’s a shame though a lot of people never got to play these fighting gems growing up.
Sanguis
27.05.2023The Music for Touki Denshou is good
Nobody Important
27.05.2023The Aggressors of dark kombat ninja looks like fuma from world heroes.
Who?
27.05.2023Red Earth is overlooked for a reason. It's just that bad. Pretty sprites but the gameplay sucks.
ripplecutter
25.05.2023cyberbots is my fave in this list
partybarge
25.05.2023No Breakers Revenge?!
sidearmsalpha
25.05.2023Monster Maulers seems to have the same issue as Konami's beat em up Violent Storm with the really bright graphics that are washed out. Not sure if this is an emulation problem or if both games were really like this.
rhyen610
25.05.2023Oni ninja master could be a predecessor to Red Earth
V Vendetta
25.05.2023I want martial masters to come back.
KK
25.05.2023Which game is featured in the intro?
Roy Arkon
25.05.2023Red Earth is easily the best of the bunch. This game should get a sequel or a remake.
Dr Moscow DVDBOX360
25.05.20235:25 that monster look like it belong in sekiro
makkuraazul
25.05.2023My goodness so much to play this video is a Gem of knowledge thanks a lot for it
Ishiwishy
25.05.2023Martial Masters has the SF3 vibes.
Ishiwishy
24.05.2023So Breakers Revenge is already overrated.
Paulo Junior
24.05.2023Kizuna Encounter is a better Art of Fighting than AoF. One that I never see mentioned and it's very interesting is Asura Buster, the better sequel to Asura Blade.
teh1archon
24.05.2023Hot damn, I thought I was familiar with all the fighters but I really never heard of more than half of the games on this list. Really worth checking'em out since none of them seems like a poverty fighters.
Jordan Jackson
24.05.2023I have Angel Eyes on PS1 where it is much more mind blowing.
Mario Wario
24.05.2023Fighting games with destructible environments are my favortie
35TheDarkknight
24.05.2023Wow i never seen almost all of this before
SwuadeTV
24.05.2023I feel like the guyver should've had a fighting game
Roninforlife
24.05.2023First five…either not available anywhere or shit. List made by a ZOOMER lmfao. fail.
AR
24.05.2023All these games suffer from the same problem, little to no advertising of their existence. If they made them known,some of these games would be almost as popular. Especially if they're made aware that these games are made by the same gaming companies that made SF and MK
Vx403
24.05.2023I had JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures on Dreamcast. Still one of my favorite games.
assaf shmueli
22.05.2023all these games look and play the same and all woman there look like hookers
Monsuta Man
22.05.2023Galaxy Fight has some nice A$$ sprites for 1995
And Metamoquestor looks interesting.
Hell Tantrumbull
22.05.2023Some of these games actually get played a lot these days on fightcade. might even see some pop up from time to time on the arcade channels that are on youtube that do live streams all the time.
A.J. G.
22.05.2023This is why I love digging around for new games to learn about. You never know what kinds of hidden gems you're gonna find. Special mention to Martial Masters for their character sprites' fluid animations.
PHNTM STUDIOS©️™️
22.05.2023Martial Masters = Street Fighter 3 double impact and 3rd strike
Samurai Reflection
22.05.2023i love fighting games, how do i get these -_-
DerMetzger
22.05.20237:18 – … naked
Sir Kinsella98
22.05.2023How about Power Stone (either 1 or 2) and/or Rival Schools or Project Justice?
resident rump
22.05.2023Nice! Lots of games listed here I've never heard of
Terry Snepp
22.05.2023Anybody know what overlay is featured here? Is it a RetroArch overlay?
RareEnigma™
21.05.2023Thank you for taking the time to share. Good to see a lot of intriguing games I am not familiar with while also seeing games that I enjoy like Red Earth.
l0stndamned
21.05.2023Interesting selection.
Glad to see Monster Maulers get a mention.
Pedro Santos
21.05.2023I simply love your work! You have a great sense of style! Waku Waku 7 has a special place in my heart. Just like Metal Slug, Super Side Kicks and Sega Rally. Great memories!
Jalen Ikezeue
21.05.2023Oh yeah aggressors Of Dark Kombat 🐉 Is awesome ⭐ Joe is my favourite character ⭐
Bruno de Oliveira
21.05.2023These are some nice jewels! Thanks for sharing!
Khinh Phu
21.05.2023kizuna counter, breaker revenge, kaiser knuckle never release in australia and neglected
David Freeman
21.05.2023https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWfNdB-N5SU What about Saturday Night Slam Masters II: Ring of Destruction (Or Muscle Bomber 2 in Japan)? It's in the Street Fighter Shared Universe, several across the roster were considered for Street Fighter III and Street Fighter the Movie the game. And yes, that is Mike Haggar he's battling. Until SFIV's Fighting chef, this was where they put all their masked wrestlers. I'd love to see THAT Black Widow fighting Street Fighter's Ryu AND MK's Scorpion. She was the inspiration for Sakura, she was.
Kalonji Rivers
21.05.2023Martial Masters, Kizuna Encounter, Last Blade, Ninja Master's, Asura Blade, JoJo Bizarre Adventure and Waku Waku 7 are my games of choice for this video right here. The rest of these games, I have yet to try out-like Groove On Fight and the Killing Blade. Man, I want to play those two games so bad! The others like Galaxy Fight, Kaiser knuckle and Aggressors Of Dark Kombat, I played them, but they are so jank. And those games that are jank are known to be junk!😁
Jeremy Smith
21.05.2023I never seen any of these games in any arcade growing up in the 90’s and I know partly that was due to NC not having a big arcade scene at least not in my area but how many of these arcade games actually got an American release? I’d love to play them now though cause they seem awesome, hate I never knew about them.
Bits & Beats
21.05.2023If you liked the video and are looking forward to more fantastic arcade games, here's 18 Licensed Arcade Games Based on 80s and 90s Movie Blockbusters 👉 https://youtu.be/oIk6VnBg8h0