Five 2D Fighters You'd Take With You to Your Grave

[Ack]

When I'm not busy playing FPS! And I beat Battle Blaze once. Never again...

[pierrot]

...I don't own a copy of Time Killers at the moment...

Fighting games have certainly turned into an e-sports only genre, and that doesn't really work for me, either, but I still enjoy sitting down with a lot of the older games, and making an attempt to get somewhat good. I will never be good, but I can still have some fun playing people way better than I am (most people who bother to play fighting games these days). I used to get my ass routinely handed to me all the time in arcades in Japan. Out of all the matches I had with people in Guilty Gear XX, I don't think I ever won more than a handful of rounds, and that's probably the only fighting game I've ever been even moderately good at.

Samurai Shodown II

Samurai Shodown II

This is kind of an interesting one, to me. I haven't spent much time playing any of the SamShos, but were you two playing this one in arcades? It doesn't seem like it was easily played at home until the Anthology release.

Red Earth

Holy hell, that's a deep cut. I don't really know much about Red Earth, though. I always sort of assumed it was the de facto worst game on the CPS3. I like the Jojo games, but I guess they're no great shakes, so maybe that's unfair.

VSav is great. The Vampire games can be a little too stupidly fast sometimes, though. Also, I kind of like Hunter better, at times. VSav has way better presentation--the stage on the side of the skyscraper is dope af--and I really like BB Hood from all the MvC2 I used to play, but I feel like Hunter plays a little bit more my style.

Pocket Fighter

Pocket Fighter is a really silly, fun game. It's too bad fighting games like this can probably never be made again.

EDIT: If I could take any 2d, fighting game, soundtrack to my grave, it'd probably be any of the Guilty Gear games.

Oh, yeah. Guilty Gear soundtracks are usually pretty great. For me, this might go to the Cyberbots soundtrack. It really might be my favorite soundtrack in a fighting game, although the soundtracks in Groove on Fight, and Third Strike are kind of special too.


I think my picks would have to be:

1) Street Fighter III: Third Strike - Probably the pinnacle of 2D fighting games, for me. This is one that I actually hadn't really played at all until the past decade or so. I've never really been much of a fan of the Street Fighter series. Back in the days of the 'arcade wars,' I chose team Mortal Kombat, honestly in part because I was a dumb kid, but even still, Street Fighter II isn't a game I enjoy playing that much. I knew about Alpha, but never really played it when it was relevant, and I barely even knew that there was a Street Fighter III before Street Fighter IV was released. What a terrible oversight on my part, because Third Strike does everything right. The implementation of the skill mechanics feel really good to me in here. Yeah, I can't Red Parry to save my life, but parrying in general feels really good. In some ways I kind of prefer Alpha Counters, but as a total package, I have to give the nod to Third Strike over Zero 2.

2) Guilty Gear XX - Doesn't matter to me too much which revision, although I spent the most time with the Midnight Carnival, Accent Core, and R. Somewhere along the way this series has taken a hit on my personal fighting game hierarchy. I used to be a die hard Guilty Gear fan, but now I don't really enjoy it quite as much. I have almost every release other than Slash, in one form or another, but I haven't really played any of them in a long time. I would still say, just for the manic combo-crazy, heavy metal game that it is, that I'd be clutching it tightly at the end.

3) X-Men vs Street Fighter - This and Turtles in Time are the two games I can think of that I would always drop everything to play, if I saw their arcade cabinets. It was just an amazing game that I always enjoyed playing. Playing it on the Saturn often brings back those old memories of standing in the arcade with this game that always seemed to be free for some absurd reason. It has an excellent roster, superlative tag battles, extremely fluid pace, and awesome stages. Love it.

4) Last Blade 2 - This spot's a little difficult. I feel somewhat obligated to get an SNK game in here, and I do really like Last Blade 2. It's a lot more deliberately paced, and that's pretty refreshing. I realize it has a lot of SamSho DNA in the combat, but Last Blade feels a bit more tight mechanically, to me. Also, it's an exceedingly gorgeous game. The difficulty is more in that I'm putting this here in place of Real Bout Fatal Fury Special, which is another one I really like, because it's a lot of fun, and kind of reminds me of Third Strike, but I'll give the edge to Last Blade 2.

5) Cyberbots - This is a fighting game that is just so much better than it has any right to be. I don't know if it would be the greatest game for tournament play, and it's a little awkward in terms of characters not really affecting the mechs they pilot, but damn is it a great fighting game anyway. The friggin' stage damage that occurs during fights, and all the little intricate details in the backgrounds and mechs. If you unlock Warlock, or the Gouki mech, then the game becomes kind of a cakewalk, but it still feels good to play, even with the relatively underpowered starter mechs. It's stupid, and wacky, and it's abundantly clear from the story and characters that the development team just had an unbelievable amount of fun making the game. Of course, the soundtrack is also one of my favorites in a fighting game, so that helps as well. This is one of those games for people who don't necessarily care about how serious of a fighter it is, and just want to have fun with a bunch of crazy robot death battles. Unfortunately another style of game that just can't seem to exist anymore.

[Ack]

Samurai Shodown II

Samurai Shodown II

This is kind of an interesting one, to me. I haven't spent much time playing any of the SamShos, but were you two playing this one in arcades? It doesn't seem like it was easily played at home until the Anthology release.

Yeah, I suppose that is sort of a cop out. I own a 4-slot MVS, and this is one of the carts I keep in it. The others are taken up with the first Samurai Shodown, World Heroes, and Metal Slug. If you twist my arm to not allow any arcade titles, I'd then change things up and go with Capcom vs. SNK: Match of the Millennium on the NGPC, because that game is fantastic.

Nice choice on Cyberbots, by the way. I very much approve.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Good call on SFIII, Pierrot. It’s a great game, and I seriously considered it for my list. Ultimately, however, I just never got into it as much as the other games in the series. I recognize and appreciate its greatness, but It got edged out by the SF games I enjoy more.

Also, I played a ton of Sam Sho II in the arcades in my youth and again when it finally received a decent home conversion. Like SFIII, It is one of those fighting games that is deeper than the ocean. There’s just so much going on under the hood. Better, it is also tremendously fun. For some reason, however I could never get into the later games in the series.

[Jagosaurus]

Going to throw yall for a loop on 1 of my picks...

Marvel vs Capcom 2
Xmen vs Street Fighter
Street Fighter 2
SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium - NEO GEO POCKET COLOR

Those are my top 4... they fall off after that for me.

[Ack]

Going to throw yall for a loop on 1 of my picks...

Marvel vs Capcom 2
Xmen vs Street Fighter
Street Fighter 2
SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium - NEO GEO POCKET COLOR

Those are my top 4... they fall off after that for me.

Yeah, Street Fighter 2 is a weird choice. No Turbo? Come on, champ.

[Ordinary Gamer]

Red Earth

Holy hell, that's a deep cut. I don't really know much about Red Earth, though. I always sort of assumed it was the de facto worst game on the CPS3. I like the Jojo games, but I guess they're no great shakes, so maybe that's unfair.

VSav is great. The Vampire games can be a little too stupidly fast sometimes, though. Also, I kind of like Hunter better, at times. VSav has way better presentation--the stage on the side of the skyscraper is dope af--and I really like BB Hood from all the MvC2 I used to play, but I feel like Hunter plays a little bit more my style.

Pocket Fighter

Pocket Fighter is a really silly, fun game. It's too bad fighting games like this can probably never be made again.

EDIT: If I could take any 2d, fighting game, soundtrack to my grave, it'd probably be any of the Guilty Gear games.

Oh, yeah. Guilty Gear soundtracks are usually pretty great. For me, this might go to the Cyberbots soundtrack. It really might be my favorite soundtrack in a fighting game, although the soundtracks in Groove on Fight, and Third Strike are kind of special too.

Red Earth is interesting because it kind of has RPG elements to it. It's actually the rare fighter that actually is designed as a good single player experience, though it does have a versus mode too. Also, it has fatalities. I wish it could get a console port some day. Capcom has developed a renewed interest in re-releasing some of their older beat 'em ups recently, maybe they can dig up some old fighters as well and bring them to a new audience

Pocket Fighter is fun. I forgot about that one.

Those are some good soundtracks too. There's actually some great ones in Darkstalkers 3 that I really love too. I also like the sky scraper level and BB Bonnie was probably my favorite character. It was nice that they remembered her for MvC 2

[Jagosaurus]

Going to throw yall for a loop on 1 of my picks...

Marvel vs Capcom 2
Xmen vs Street Fighter
Street Fighter 2
SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium - NEO GEO POCKET COLOR

Those are my top 4... they fall off after that for me.

Yeah, Street Fighter 2 is a weird choice. No Turbo? Come on, champ.

Yup!

On that note though, we wore out SF2 on SNES... and tore up shoulder buttons . As an adult I've played much more Championship Edition on Genesis. Gotta love that 6 button controller. I also like how the color palette looks.

Match of the Millennium has amazing controls. I remember being able to pull of special moves with no issues with that clicky joystick. Need to pick up another NGPC...

[pierrot]

Yeah, I suppose that is sort of a cop out. I own a 4-slot MVS, and this is one of the carts I keep in it.

You're well within the rules, Ack. I'm just expecting to see more of the games that were easily played at home back in the day, so things like Samurai Shodown II, and Red Earth stick out to me a lot more. I'm also sort of curious about the "why" of the picks. I'm kind of assuming that a lot of them are going to be somewhat sentimental for one reason or another.

Also, I played a ton of Sam Sho II in the arcades in my youth and again when it finally received a decent home conversion. Like SFIII, It is one of those fighting games that is deeper than the ocean. There’s just so much going on under the hood. Better, it is also tremendously fun. For some reason, however I could never get into the later games in the series.

Interesting. I might have to give it a shot. The fourth installment is kind of the only one I own, though. I guess I must have it on the SNK Arcade Classics vol 1? (--Nope, just the first game. Oh well.) I might actually have it on the Wii anyway, though.

Yeah, Street Fighter 2 is a weird choice. No Turbo? Come on, champ.

That threw me a little, too. Vanilla SFII seems kind of broken by today's standards.

I wish it could get a console port some day. Capcom has developed a renewed interest in re-releasing some of their older beat 'em ups recently, maybe they can dig up some old fighters as well and bring them to a new audience

Yeah, it's kind of weird that they've included characters from the game in Pocket Fighter, and Capcom Fighting Jam, but it's still the only CPS3 game to not be ported to anything. Maybe one day.

[Bradtemple87]

Garou Mark of the Wolves
Street Fighter 3rd Strike
SF Alpha 2
CVS2
Samurai Showdown 2

All of these game have great depth to keep anyone busy for a lifetime.