For some time now, fighting games were built on a very simple concept: you punch digital opponents in the face—be they human- or CPU-controlled rivals—until their health bars empty.
If you played a single-player mode, the goal was to best every challenger—typically in 2-out-of-3 round bouts—until you reached a congratulations screen at the end of your character's relatively brief journey. If you played a multiplayer mode, you mixed it up with friends and frenemies for bragging rights, and to hone your skills against human opponents.
Or, in the case of the Geek.com and PCMag staff, you fight for a nebulous championship belt that's defended whenever its creator remembers its existence and/or wants to brag about a cheap victory others have long forgotten.
The genre has evolved a lot in the 25 years since the Street Fighter II craze, with publishers matching the increasingly complex mechanics with robust modes that make the games even more desirable to those willing to plop down $59.99 for the experience. The competition birthed in the recent fighting game renaissance has given rise to a new fighting game standard, one that boasts AAA production quality and the accompanying status that rivals the latest Far Cry or Uncharted title in terms of mainstream audience mindshare.
Journey Into the Nether Realms
The Ed Boon-fronted NetherRealm Studios is, unquestionably, at the forefront of this movement. The replacement for Midway Games and WB Chicago, NetherRealm Studios gave its 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot a complex, single-player story in which you play as multiple characters, as well as tag team fighting and a Challenge Tower.
Mortal Kombat was a plump fighter for its time, one that would lay the groundwork for the Mortal Kombat X sequel and DC Comic-based Injustice: Gods Among Us, games that added to the successful formula in interesting ways. Stage transitions, environmental interactions, multiplayer guilds, quick-time events, and, of course, stellar fighting action led to NetherRealm Studios titles that sat atop the video game sales charts and received critical acclaim from the fighting game community and casual players.
The latest in the company's catalog is the recently released Injustice 2, a fighter with a character-customizing Gear System that improves your fighter's stats, and a Multiverse mode that recalls DC Comics' classic Crisis on Infinite Earths.
In it, you travel from planet to planet, tackling challenges and collecting loot. Multiverse is a truly meaty purchase that leans into RPG territory more so than any other fighting game, and keeps you playing for a long time to come—and that's not even factoring in the $39.99 season pass, which will add nine new characters, skins, and graphics shaders. In addition, Injustice 2 is a beautiful, moody game, one in which the lighting and shadows dance in a manner that makes the brawlers look as though they are truly battling within the exquisitely designed environments.
Iron Fist Strong
Likewise, Tekken 7, Bandai Namco's excellent 3D fighter, is also a member of this AAA fighting game club. The newest installment in the Mishima clan's father-son drama—the best parent-child schism outside of the Metal Gear Solid series—offers the expected new moves and characters, but also a new tournament mode, practice mode, and Treasure Battle mode.
Treasure Battle is one of the standout new game modes, as it lets you unlock new clothing and accessories for characters under numerous gameplay conditions. Some fights see the characters dealing double their normal damage, while others crank up the speed. The gear doesn't offer Injustice 2-like stat boosts, but outfitting your fighters various body parts gives a slick level of personalization that many fighters lack. After all, how often has Ryu or Sol Badguy gained radically different digs?
Tekken 7 also boasts the Mishima Saga story mode, a single-player tale that brings you up to speed with Tekken's insane backstory, while adding to the legacy of demon-children and mega-corporations run amok.
That said, my favorite new Tekken feature is the slow-motion sequences that kick in when both fighters' health bars are in the red. It elevates close-range melee exchanges into cinematic affairs that recall old-school kung-fu flicks. There's also dynamic stages that boast weather, music, and level changes during the course of the fight. And Jukebox mode, a PlayStation 4 exclusive, lets you swap Tekken 7 tunes for any of the dozens of tracks that have appeared in past Tekken games. You can even create playlists! Simply put, Tekken 7 has a ridiculous amount of love on display.
The Field
Other fighting games include some of these elements, but none combine the various parts into stellar packages like Injustice 2 and Tekken 7.
The King of Fighters XIV has an impressive 54-character roster, but lacks many of the Big Two's accoutrements. Killer Instinct, which is neck-deep into its third season, has a few neat tricks, such as Shadows (AI versions of your characters that are similar to Forza Horizon's Drivatars that people can fight when you're not playing) and Shadow Lords (a team-based, single-player experience that has some roguelike and RPG elements).
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And we all know of Street Fighter V's troubled, bare-bones beginnings. To be fair, Capcom's fighter has grown by leaps and bounds, adding a Cinematic Story Mode and Environmental Stage KOs, but it hasn't inflamed passions (in a positive manner) as much as its competition.
The Fight for the Future
The fighting game bar is raised. It's will be difficult for a publisher to release a fighter in 2017 (and beyond), and not have it compared to either Injustice or Tekken 7. Unfair? Maybe. But this is a good thing.
In the same manner that Street Fighter II influenced its rivals, Injustice 2 and Tekken 7 will influence its peers. Not every publisher will devote the necessary funds to match or succeed what NetherRealm Studios and Bandai Namco have done; for some, it's not economically feasible. But the twin titans will force creators to ponder how they can nudge the genre forward to prevent their titles from being perceived as relics of the the past—regardless of the games' fighting soundness.