Looking for a list of popular fighting games.

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Kind of an odd question.

I miss the entire arcade/ fighting era of games when I was growing up so I am really a bit lost.
I hope someone who grew up with these fighter can chime in.

So my 1st solution was to ask the arcade techs for a list of popular fighting games that we should have over at museum of pinball at banning ca. I got a great response and promises of list of games we should have in the collection.

So what my problem? It has been months and still no list. I would like to expand the row of fighter games but I don't know which ones I should chase after. Don't ask me to ask sellers or vendors cause every game they sell are rare and thus expensive laughs.

Thanks for the help..
 
I believe the two big ones ( and pretty common ) are street fighter 2 and mortal combat 2 . After that more games from those Franchises plus killer instinct , teken , marvel / capcom ,
Etc ...
 
Generally Street Fighter 2 was the king at its heyday. Now there are quite a few versions of it, championship edition, hyper etc. You probably would want one of those over the original release.

After that is Mortal Kombat 1 & 2. Mortal Kombat 3 is a bit divisive and comes in 2 versions.

Then after that it gets a bit tricky as you go into later and 3D games. The Tekken games were popular, however they are a bit iterative. A lot of the successful 3D ones were. So for instance instead of Tekken 1 you should go with Tekken 3 or later. Virtua Fighter is much the same with the later ones being better than the first. Dead or Alive and the Soul games as well. However I'm not sure that the arcade versions of DOA/Soul were as popular as say Tekken.

You could also go with a Neo Geo 4 slot and go with a Samurai Showdown or King of Fighters/Fatal Fury game. However there are a lot of those and popularity is to be debated.
 
Here are what I would consider some of the big ones:


Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition or Hyper Fighting
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Killer Instinct
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Capcom vs SNK 2
Street Fighter Alpha 2 or 3
Primal Rage

Neo Geo MVS
King of Fighters (pick a year)
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Samurai Shodown II


Namco 3d:
Soul Calibur II or III
Tekken Tag Tournament
Tekken 4 / Tekken 5


I would probably have a Naomi cabinet, CPS1 Cabinet, CPS2 Cabinet, Neo Geo Cabinet, CPS III cabinet, Mortal Kombat Cabinet, Tekken Namco style cabinet and just swap games out since the majority of the good games can be covered just with those and swapping games or running multi systems in most of those is pretty easy.
 
So is this for yourself or a business.... How much do you want to spend? What cabinet are you looking at? If you really want to get into fighters, here is what I suggest:

1. Street Fighter II Turbo edition
2. King of Fighters 98 for the Neo Geo.

These two will satisfy most itches, but there are many more available from Capcom and SNK. I suggest the Darksoft Kit for the CPS2 and get the Terraonion Multi-Cart for the Neo Geo. As for a cabinet, you can't go wrong with a Sega Astro City or Blast City.

I can't really talk about Mortal Combat, but I live in Japan currently (10 years) and I have never seen the game here in the wild. The Japanese are crazy about their fighters so I guess MK doesn't interest them (maybe because its not produced by a Japanese company). Here is one of mine:

 
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Everyone always skips over Street Fighter II The World Warrior - The Granddaddy of all fighting games, but to me it's a must have. Not having one is kind of like not having Pac Man.

:D
 
Fighting games were my jam back in the day. Here's my personal list.

Games people still play:
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Street Fighter' Hyper Fighting/ Turbo
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
King of the Fighters 98 (or another year, doesn't matter, lol)

Personal Favorites:
Capcom vs SNK 2
Samurai Shodown 2
Mortal Kombat 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Tekken Tag Tournament

Wouldn't hurt:
Mortal Kombat
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Killer Instinct

Other stuff to consider:
Garou Mark of the Wolves
Last Blade 2
Fatal Fury 2/Special
Tekken 3
Tekken 2
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel vs Capcom
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Primal Rage
Street Fighter Champion Edition or World Warrior (probably don't need both)
Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game
 
aramis1 and Vinsanity pretty much have it covered.

I wouldn't even bother with the original Mortal Kombat 3, just go straight to UMK3.

I'd also throw in the Dark Stalkers series as an honorable mention.

And Killer Instinct 2, although I prefer 1 (and own both).
 
This list is not everything a museum should have, but based on my own history growing up in the 90's, I wouldn't consider a museum of fighting games complete if it didn't have these:

Street Fighter 2: World Warrior
Super Street fighter 2 Turbo
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Mortal Kombat
Mortak Kombat II
Ultimate Mortal Kombat III
Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct 2
Marvel vs Capcom
Marvel vs Capcom 2

I'm less familiar with Neo Geo King of Fighters versions, but at least one of them should be in this list.
 
Brentradio said:
Everyone always skips over Street Fighter II The World Warrior - The Granddaddy of all fighting games, but to me it's a must have. Not having one is kind of like not having Pac Man.

:D
Click to expand...

Every fighting game fan should have a WW at home, but it doesn't hold up in an arcade these days. Too slow, can't fight against the same player, etc.

And, add in the cheap game freezing / resetting glitches like the magic throw, handcuffs, etc. and you'll either be resetting it all the time or breaking up real fistfights...


To add one to the ongoing list I haven't seen mentioned yet, I'd add:
Neo-Geo MVS: Art of Fighting

And, whatever you do, DON'T get:
Martial Champion
Fighter's History
Time Killers
 
Last edited:
codeX said:
This list is not everything a museum should have, but based on my own history growing up in the 90's, I wouldn't consider a museum of fighting games complete if it didn't have these:

Street Fighter 2: World Warrior
Super Street fighter 2 Turbo
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Mortal Kombat
Mortak Kombat II
Ultimate Mortal Kombat III
Killer Instinct
Killer Instinct 2
Marvel vs Capcom
Marvel vs Capcom 2

I'm less familiar with Neo Geo King of Fighters versions, but at least one of them should be in this list.
Click to expand...


My opinion: strike alpha 3 for 2
Drop mk1
Add tekken 3
 
EDIT: WOOPS! This is for a museum? Criteria might be different then. LOL! I'm gonna just leave what I said anyways for anyone interested ...


For putting Capcom fighters, and Street Fighter II in particular, in an establishment I always advise starting with at least one Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting machine.

Hyper Fighting is the rare Street Fighter game that will get quarters dropped into it from both Joe "7-11 champion" Blow, and Timmy "I went to EVO" Esports. Joe Blow wants Championship Edition, because that's what he vaguely remembers from BITD, and Hyper Fighting is everything they remember about Championship Edition, but better, without adding anything to complicate the formula (bonus that the Hyper Fighting marquee says, "Champion Edition").

Timmy Esports won't pass Hyper Fighting up as easily as Championship Edition, because, to keep a long story short, its in competition with Super Street Fighter II Turbo for best of the SF2 series. Its competitive scene is also seeing a slight uptick.

If you want to put in a Marvel game, I'd lean towards Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Same reasons as Hyper Fighting. People who remember the Marvel series can mostly get into it, hardcore players LOOOOVE MvC2. It was a watershed title for the series.

Everything else is an experiment on what your local group of players are into.
 
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Surprised there's no mention of Virtua Fighter I and II. Both are great fighting games.
 
Karate Champ was the first fighting game, correct? You would have to have one of those.

Id say for sure:

Karate Champ
Mortal Kombat
SSF2
Virtual Fighter
Killer Instinct
Marvel vs Capcom
 
aramis said:
Every fighting game fan should have a WW at home, but it doesn't hold up in an arcade these days. Too slow, can't fight against the same player, etc.

And, add in the cheap game freezing / resetting glitches like the magic throw, handcuffs, etc. and you'll either be resetting it all the time or breaking up real fistfights...
Click to expand...

To each their own, but I consider World Warrior superior to Turbo/Hyper Fighting and Super, just because of the simplicity of it. I think WW is actually the perfect speed...but then again, I was obsessed with WW and Champion Edition. Moved on to MK1 when Turbo hit the scene and did not care for how fast it was. And, I know a lot of people like Super SFII, but at THAT point, I was seriously just wanting them to make a SFIII and not just keep adding on to SFII. Though, I guess Super SF is more of a SF 2.5.

But, as you said, in a current arcade, I could see leaving WW out. However, since this is a museum, I would say WW definitely has a place in there. And I would be the one guy who would gravitate toward WW over Turbo or Super! :D
 
Vinsanity said:
Fighting games were my jam back in the day. Here's my personal list.

Games people still play:
Street Fighter II The World Warrior
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Street Fighter' Hyper Fighting/ Turbo
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
King of the Fighters 98 (or another year, doesn't matter, lol)

Personal Favorites:
Capcom vs SNK 2
Samurai Shodown 2
Mortal Kombat 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Tekken Tag Tournament

Wouldn't hurt:
Mortal Kombat
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Killer Instinct

Other stuff to consider:
Garou Mark of the Wolves
Last Blade 2
Fatal Fury 2/Special
Tekken 3
Tekken 2
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel vs Capcom
X-Men vs Street Fighter
Primal Rage
Street Fighter Champion Edition or World Warrior (probably don't need both)
Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game
Click to expand...

Awesome list!

But I fixed it for you...

:D
 
A special thanks to NevadaMac, Onyx Jaguar, aramis1, Samelak, Brentradio, Vinsanity, purbeast, codeX, DuffCon, sosage, StilgarISCA, Smart Bomb and Sumer for posting a response to my question.

I am creating a shopping list for the Musem of Pinball (MOP) in Banning CA.

MOP does have some fighters. In the past the figthers were limited to a small section that holds about 15 games. I created space for two more pods of games in the arcade. A pod of games typically averages 50 games.

I would Like to create a good group of fighters.

So here the list so far excuse me if I miss a game or two. Just let me know and I am more than happy to add to the list.

Street Figher series.
=========================
Street fighter 2
Street fighter 2 champion edition
Street fighter 2 hyper fighting edition
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Street Fighter II The World Warrior
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting

Mortal kombat series
==================
Mortal kombat 1
Mortal kombat 2
Mortal kombat 3 (two versions)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Killer instinct 1
Killer instinct 2

Karate Fighter
Primal Rage

teken 1
teken 2
teken 3
Tekken Tag Tournament

Marvel vs Capcom 1
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Marvel Super Heroes
X-Men vs Street Fighter


Virtua Fighter 1
Virtua Fighter 2

Dead or Alive

Last Blade 2
Fatal Fury 2/Special

Dark Stalkers series

Neo Geo MVS
============
Samurai Showdown
Samurai Showdown 2
King of Fighters 98
Fatal Fury
Garou: Mark of the Wolves
Samurai Shodown II
Art of Fighting

Namco 3d:
=============
Soul Calibur II
Soul Calibur III
Tekken Tag Tournament
Tekken 4
Tekken 5

Cabinet style
============
Naomi cabinet
CPS1 Cabinet
CPS2 Cabinet
Neo Geo Cabinet
CPS III cabinet
Mortal Kombat Cabinet
Tekken Namco style cabinet
Sega Astro City
Blast City

DON'T get list:
Martial Champion
Fighter's History
Time Killers
 
Quick note on Darkstalkers series: Vampire Savior (AKA Darkstalkers 3) is considered the money title of the series. It definitely made an impact on some contemporary Japanese fighting game developers.


Quick game art nerd out: Darkstalkers 1 was Capcom's art department being let loose and going ham. It took their sprite and character design work to a whole other level compared to the Street Fighter II series, and you can see it in every fighting title they put out afterwards during the CPS2/3 era. The entire series is beautiful to look at. :)
 
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