Fighters for more than 2 players?

[vlame]

Saturn and Dreamcast versions of Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 will allow two against 1. I could be wrong, though.

saturn possibly no but dreamcast and arcade yes.

[Balasubbie]

Saturn and Dreamcast versions of Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 will allow two against 1. I could be wrong, though.

saturn possibly no but dreamcast and arcade yes.

And the PS2 Alpha Anthology games, from Alpha through to Alpha 3 Upper.

[wip3outguy7]

Saturn and Dreamcast versions of Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3 will allow two against 1. I could be wrong, though.

saturn possibly no but dreamcast and arcade yes.

It looks like the Saturn version allows for a combo of any 3 characters to fight. But this it is only 2 human VS 1 CPU.

[zerexerez]

Megadrive - Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen / Genesis - Sunset Fighters

If don't mind emulation, an xbox for old classics should be easy to setup.

[the7k]

Yeah, I know that the DC version of SFA3 allowed 2 humans vs 1 human. So, if you were cock-sure and wanted to attempt to humiliate two people at the same time...

[skate323k137]

Someone already said power stone 2 on DC, which is my favorite. I'm pretty sure dead or alive 2 on DC allows 4 player tag teams, 2 humans per team.

[mugenmidget]

Megadrive - Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen / Genesis - Sunset Fighters

Definitely seek this one out, or make use of emulation/flash carts. If you like playing on real hardware but don't want to invest in a flash cart, it seems to be commonly bootlegged. But I think unless you want to keep your games 100% legit, you should grab the Everdrive or Neo Myth MD.

But the game itself is sah-weet, it set the stage for the style of fighting in Guardian Heroes and the Bleach DS games, and I think it might be the best version of that engine. I mostly say this because of balance, because while there are still characters who shine above the rest, everyone seems to have a great set of tools that makes any choice viable.

Then again, you could probably achieve the same thing in Guardian Heroes by limiting the roster a bit (and I haven't played enough of GH to speak about its balance anyways). And it's 6 players locally (on Saturn) over the 4 you can do in Hakusho, with the XBL/PSN version promising 12 at once (with online play, hopefully System Link will be supported on XBL, otherwise it'll only be 4 players locally). The PSN version isn't necessarily guaranteed at this point, just strongly considered, but when/if it shows up I'm hoping it will support 7 players locally.

Another cool thing about Yu Yu Hakusho is that through Kega Fusion you can enjoy online play. I've enjoyed a few 4P online matches, you do have input delay to deal with in most cases, but the games are stable and still plenty of fun. One of our friends was on a horrible wireless connection and things still panned out okay, he even recorded our experience:



There's also a lot of depth to the game that hasn't been covered (in English, anyways). You can see some pretty awesome combo videos like this one on Youtube (there's many more on this guy's channel):



A lot of the sites mentioned in those videos appear to be down, but I wouldn't be surprised if the game still has a community somewhere. I'd love to learn more about what's going on in those videos, that's for sure. But even at a basic level, the game is plenty of fun and a great 4P fighter.

Beyond that game, though, I'll throw out some random 4P fighters I can remember being any fun:

-Battle Stadium D.O.N. (PS2/GCN): Poverty Smash Bros. It's a mix of Dragonball, One Piece, and Naruto characters, but I only pick the DB ones of course. Watch out for Cell's barrier!

-Xena (N64): I got this from the bargain bin, and it really has no right to be good considering the license and Titus publishing it. But it's honestly not that bad of a 4P fighter, some of the characters might induce laughter!

-Street Fighter EX 3 (PS2): It's not 4P simultaneous, but the tag mode is great. Definitely pick this one up if you can, the awesome soundtrack enhances an already fun to play game.

-Jump Ultimate Stars (DS): Another poverty Smash Bros. of sorts, but the engine here diverges more than Battle Stadium D.O.N., although the concept is similar (mash-up manga brawler, although this one features many different characters from Shonen Jump instead of just three franchises). You can enjoy a "demo" for up to 4 players with just one cartridge, but if you can get 4 copies of the game together then things will really get crazy. Plenty of options to explore as you customize your team/assists through a fun little panel system.

-WWE All Stars (PS3/360/PS2/Wii/PSP): This is an interesting title, since it does have plenty of wrestling influence (obviously) but it also ends up playing more like a fighting game. Sort of like Tekken in some regards with the juggles you can pull off, but definitely its own beast in many other ways. You should go for the PS3/360 versions if you pick this up, but the other ones are still very much playable (although they suffer from some terrible sound among other limitations). I think I'll also lump Ultimate Muscle: Legends vs. New Generation (GCN) and Def Jam: Fight for NY (PS2/GCN/Xbox) in here, because WWE All Stars draws a lot of influence from these games which also have many elements of traditional fighters in them (and are just a blast to play with 2-4 players).

I might have to come back here with more, as these kinds of games are probably my favorite. And thanks to everyone else who posted, I'll be checking out as many of these as I can!

EDIT: Just remembered that I forgot one of my favorites, although it's kind of limited as a fighter. Rushing Beat Shura or the localization The Peacekeepers for the SFC/SNES has a fun 4P brawl mode:



You don't have that many moves at your disposal, and Flynn/Dick is kind of like the ancestor of MvC3's Dark Phoenix with his "Super Saiyan" transformation, but it's still plenty enjoyable (especially the Japanese version, which has more music available). Scope it out if you get a chance!

[brunoafh]

I have a Yu Yu Hakusho Makyo Toitsusen cart, and it is indeed awesome. I was going to mention it in the other thread but the Sega area is pretty well off as it is.

[the7k]

Oh yeah, Smash clones.
Evangelion Battle Orchestra.
Dream Mix TV.

[CD AGES]

Personal favorite multiplay fighters:
-DC: Powerstone 2: its been mentioned I know but it's SOOOO good. Especially as there's versatility with match ups like 1 on 2, 3 on 1, etc. (People forget about team specific special attacks that knock out players out of Power change mode)

-DC: Marvel Vs. Capcom: The aptly named "cross fever mode" is great fun with 4 players. Its so chotic and hilarious to play with 4 guys or gals (especially when both sides activate the "Duo team attack" as it last about 3 times longer than it usually does in regular play) simply unmissable!

-DC: Dead Or Alive 2: 2 vs. 2 battles without the need of a Multitap (sorry PS2)

-DC: SF Alpha 3: Damatic battle multiplay allows up to 3 player in a 2 vs 1 format.

-Oh! Kung Fu Chaos is really fun with 4 pals on Xbox!