The success of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, not to mention all the SNK titles, spawned a crazy amount of abominations. Developers certainly took their inspiration in… interesting directions.
With some really cool, unique Japanese arcade fighters added, we already have a nice list of weird looking fighting games.
Dark Edge
Dark Edge was Sega’s first attempt at 3D in a fighting game. They used a weird sprite scaling technique that created a semi-3D environment with 2D backgrounds.
Waku Waku 7
Sunsoft’s 1996 arcade fighter is a parody — with farting robots — of all the 2D fighters and its characters from the ’90s.
Puppet Show
We control Chinese puppets in this arcade title from 1989, which also had surprisingly advanced graphics for an 80s game.
ClayFighter
1993 SNES / Genesis fighter with ridiculous characters made of clay.
Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game
Capcom only had minor involvement in this 1995 adaptation of the 1994 movie adaptation of the Street Fighter games. I wonder why…
Xenophage: Alien Bloodsport
Barney? Is that you?
Battle Construction Vehicles
Wrecking balls and bulldozers ramming into each other. I’m pretty sure we can call Artdink’s title from 2000 a weird one.
Pit-Fighter
With a 1990 release, Pit-Fighter preceded Mortal Kombat with its digitised live action footage.
Dong Dong Never Die
DDND is a 2009 parody from China, using digitised sprites, making fun of every major fighting game in a really weird way.
Kasumi Ninja
Released in 1994 for the Atari Jaguar, Kasumi Ninja didn’t have many ninja, but this is the only game that has a badass Scottish blacksmith shooting fireballs.
Ka Ge Ki
A Taito arcade game from 1988, with characters that look more like headknocker figures than human beings.
Cho Aniki: Bakuretsu Ranto Hen
And then there’s the Japanese series of Cho Aniki, featuring probably the weirdest characters and gameplay that you can find in fighting games.
Sources: Tatsudoshi, Pikawil100, Vysethedetermined2, chonnygame, AndsyNF, McZakke, GLBrown, Arcade Museum, NickMarino
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