RETRO REBOOT!! Fighter's History (SNES)

The term knock-off generally carries negative connotations and is met with eye rolling reactions. Throughout the early 90's, the golden period of fighting games brought along its many copycats. I fathom to think about the literal dozens of that one guy who has to own that ONE game who rushed out to buy an Atari Jaguar just to say he owns and plays Kasumi Ninja, a game that tried hopelessly to cash in on Mortal Kombat's ultra violence, but minus and of the charm or effort that makes the series playable, much less memorable. Street Fighter II, the most influential fighting game of its era with a blueprint worth emulating, had its share of copycats that fared much better.

Fighter's History was produced by Data East and released in arcades in 1993, two years after Street Fighter II. The home port would make its way to the Super Nintendo and Super Famicom in 1994. The very second you turn it on, the color palette, the sprites, the animation, it IMMEDIATELY puts you in mind of Capcom's fighter. The mechanics and philosophies feel very similar, Fighter's History features a six button attack layout with three punches and kicks of various strengths and speeds. Pushback on projectile blocking, slow moving, but hard-hitting grapplers. A roster of diverse characters of different regions of the globe and fighting styles. If I were to get petty, a yellow health bar that depletes red when taking damage. This game looked very much like Street Fighter II, that Capcom didn't take too kindly to this games similarities and attempted to sue Data East over infringement. The judge certainly agreed in the strong resemblance of the two games (Feilin being a "Chun Li clone"), Capcom eventually lost the suit. Essentially stating that "fighting game is gonna hafta fighting game, yo. You got no ownership of projectiles or people in karate pajamas hitting each other".

 

Fighter's History may not be as good as other 16-bit fighting juggernauts like Street Fighter or Fatal Fury Special, but it's more than solid. A little on the dry side, and not quite as fast as its competitors, but it's pretty polished, aged well, and has satisfying overall mechanics. Try almost anything you may have tinkered with in literally any other fighter, quarter circle forward and punch/kick, you may shoot a fireball. Charge back or down, press the opposite direction and attack, something is bound to happen. The one thing unique to Fighter's History is each character has a weak point. A part on their body will flash (like a headband or belt), aim for that general area and it will lead to stunning opponents much easier. 

Fighter's History is also connected to the Karnov universe. Yeah, Karnov, that bald wacky Eastern Russian-ish strongman looking bald dude that breathed fire from the platform game, who kinda serves as one of Data East's mascots. He's the final boss of this game and later appears in the updated rerelease Fighter's History Dynamite and sequel Karnov's Revenge. There's something rad about that, if you follow random video game trivia. Like Earthworm Jim appearing in Battle Arena Toshinden.

Going back and revisiting this one is always entertaining. It may not play like anything special with the passage of time, but Fighter's History is a satisfying tournament fighter from the golden era of fighting games. It becoming synonymous with being a Street Fighter rip-off does it little favors, but I think it deserved a little more credit. Data East was one of the arcade juggernauts from the time period.

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