So many ways to revive a game, and yet, so little fighting games brought back to life.
The history of fighting games is as varied as the methods used to preserve it, a tyranny of choice that impacts which games and even how these games see new life. Video game preservation is a common talking point with the growth of digital marketplaces, but fighting games specifically struggle with proper methodology in preserving their history. Games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter have already punched through the glass ceiling into mainstream acceptance, but the genre’s true history lies in the bright lights of the arcades rather than Hollywood. As fighting games grow, that history is scattered in some places and left behind in others, leaving us with an incomplete picture of various revisions and re-releases. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
When video games are more available than ever through backward-compatibility and digital marketplaces, fighting games don’t get the same consideration. Older fighting games are typically survived by players who got to enjoy them at their prime and hold onto those memories. So, what happens if a new game doesn’t “connect”? What do players do if the newest title fails to replace their old flame?
Through the years, we’ve seen plenty of remasters, re-releases, and remakes for games in almost every genre. When it comes to fighting games, that love for retro is turned more toward emulation with a lot of games not seeing a modern release. This leads to genre-defining games like Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution being lost to history due to a lack of availability rather than remaining on your shelf like a book within reach. Unlike other scenes, the fighting game community (FGC) doesn’t simply abandon an older game just because a sequel was released, and that preservation of fighting game culture is a backbone to the community.
In 2006, Tony Cannon began development on GGPO, a netcode protocol using rollback technology, in response to a need for better ways to play Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting online after the Xbox 360 port was released. This laid the groundwork for Pau Oliva’s work on Fightcade, an architecture developed for more consistent uptime when GGPO’s servers went down. Games like The King of Fighters 2002, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves continue to thrive in Fightcade because it keeps their aging scenes alive to this day.
But Fightcade has its issues. It uses third-party emulation alongside GGPO’s netcode. As is often the case, the FGC relies on emulation for its retro fix on older games that can’t be played on modern hardware. Tekken 8’s disastrous Season 2 patch has led to an exodus of players looking to revisit retro Tekken games, but the only other Tekken game available on modern platforms is Tekken 7. For anyone who doesn’t want to set up any emulation software, this means Tekken before the days of Final Fantasy guest characters remains unavailable.
So, as a Tekken fan, where do you go from here? If you wanted a break from the Heat System, you could only get it after configuring an emulator, figuring out how to connect online to play the game, and then finding a community for that game. The Virtua Fighter community experienced this exact problem with VF5 before players like PsychoFingers, Harpooneer, and CatgirlPrincess helped lay a foundation for emulation communities.
Since VF5 Final Showdown wasn’t available on a modern platform with decent netcode, Parsec became the best solution. By emulating the game and running it on a middleman server, Parsec allowed the VF Community to continue playing even when the COVID-19 Pandemic wrecked the local scene. This dedication kept the game alive and helped it see renewed life until it received a modern remake in 2022, and to this day, other games like Soulcalibur VI and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 have loyal communities through Parsec.
Game devs and publishers both have seen an increasing desire for game preservation from two sides. On one hand, you have the older audience who want to replay their favorite titles. On the other, there’s the new blood wanting to experience a title they missed in its prime. But not all re-releases are created equal.
I’ve often used the term “museum” to describe Digital Eclipse’s Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection. With a vast gallery of artwork, an impressive jukebox, and even videos chronicling a bit of history, both collections are a gaming historian’s dream. However, their games are much less satisfying to play. For the SF 30th Anniversary, Digital Eclipse used the Version 1.00 arcade ROMs of every title, leaving out any bug fixes and additional content.
Coupled with missing quality-of-life improvements and modes from home ports, mediocre netcode, and how only four games have online play and a practice mode, it’s hard to make a case for the collection as a solid way to play these games. But without resorting to emulation, it’s the only way most people can. Digital Eclipse helming the newly-announced Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection and its willingness to make changes like easy access to hidden characters and removing MK Trilogy’s abysmal load times is a promising change in direction.
The SamSho NeoGeo Collection is worse off. It shares the netcode problem, and while every game here has online play, not a single one has a practice mode. This folds into its handling of SamShoV Special, the definitive SamSho for its competitive scene. A better version of it developed by Code Mystics already exists on modern platforms with better netcode and a practice mode. In fact, the Code Mystics releases of SSVSP, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and The Last Blade 2 are the best ways to play those games officially: with one caveat. Their lack of online lobbies or spectating makes them unsuitable for events, which gives Fightcade the edge over the official releases. Despite that, their netcode is more than capable of holding its own, allowing me to play people from Chile and Japan all the way from New York with almost no problems.
Code Mystics later worked on the modern re-release of SvC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom. Originally released on the PS2 and Xbox in 2003, it was the game’s arcade version that saw release during EVO 2024. A few quirks of the arcade version were limited continues, faster text speed on in-game dialogue, and an incredibly short timer on the character select screen. These were non-existent in the home versions, so anyone looking forward to playing were stymied with an inferior version. Code Mystics responded with a tweet, and two months later, a patch was released to address the feedback they received as well as introduce some new QoL changes, creating what is considered a definitive way to play a once-abandoned game.
Patching and updating a retro game release for QoL purposes is peculiar, but it lets devs do some interesting things with an older title. For example, the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection has received updates to allow different ROM versions of certain games and even bring back a glitch that allowed Juggernaut to be a more viable threat in MvC2. Capcom’s other collections have gotten similar updates. Capcom Fighting Collection receives updates to this day for QoL changes and small tweaks, and CFC2 received an update bringing the Alpha 3 MAX character roster and battle mode select to its version of Alpha 3 Upper, creating the most competitively complete edition of the game and including the GBA and PSP rosters for the first time on a console.
Developers taking the opportunity to try to create a “definitive” release of an older fighting game is a laudable effort. Iron Galaxy managed this in 2011 in a way few developers have since with its release of Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition, a version that retains the balance of Third Strike’s latest revision while cleaning up the crunchy audio of its arcade version and loading it with a plethora of additional gallery items, colors, and music. You were even able to upload match replays directly to YouTube in an era before this was built into the console itself. Taking a beloved classic in Third Strike and elevating it is no easy feat by any stretch. Unfortunately, the most readily available version today is still the barebones release in SF 30th Anniversary Collection.
Not every attempt at a “definitive” release was met with the same sentiment. In 2008, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, a remake of the original Super SF II Turbo, was released on PSN and Xbox Live to a more mixed reception. While the online netcode was well-received for being one of the earliest official examples of GGPO, the fanbase found itself split over its changes. The new art direction, soundtrack remixes, and complete rebalancing of the characters proved that you can mess around too much with a classic formula and alienate older fans. However, the ones who do prefer the remake have no easy way of accessing the title beyond emulation as SSF2THDR remains locked on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
This demand isn’t exclusive to all-time classics either. Sometimes, even a lesser known or more poorly received game is requested for a re-release. Take Capcom Fighting Collection 2 and its eclectic mix of certified hits, more obscure titles and an experimental game in Capcom Fighting Evolution. CFE went through a development cycle from hell from a company that was attempting to find some footing with a hit 3D fighter, only to shift back to an uncertain 2D fighting game landscape. At release, CFE was reviled for its hodgepodge mash of sprites spanning a near-decade of Capcom’s catalog, unbalanced gameplay, and an undesirable, bare-bones aesthetic.
As a result of CFC2, CFE now gets a new lease on life on two fronts. Its scant few, older fans have a means to play the game now in order to document data on its systems with new features like visible hitboxes, and first-time players get to see it through a retrospective lens with a tempered point-of-view. Even reviving an ill-received video game can spark new life in its once-abandoned sarcophagus. So… why do so many fighting games slip through the cracks?
Different studios have handled fighting game preservation in various ways through the years, with each manner providing their own pros and cons. A Version 1.00 re-release can serve as a memorial of what a game once was, yet it provides its most unplayable, unstable form. A simple port of its latest version often doesn’t do enough beyond making the game “playable.” A definitive-styled release can sometimes go too far in its revisions and turn away older fans. When we discuss remasters, there’s an almost-understood notion of a game simply being “improved upon,” but with fighting games, this misses the point. What does “improved upon” mean? What is “good enough”?
When arcade releases were more commonplace, console versions were often seen as a “definitive” release with new modes for home playability, new characters, fixed glitches, and some slight balance tweaks. Re-released versions today are often centered around the arcade versions despite that. The PSP version of Street Fighter Alpha 3, released as Alpha 3 MAX, is one of the most feature-rich fighting games to date, but every Alpha 3 re-release tends to be based on one of its arcade versions. Alpha 3 MAX’s modes haven’t seen the light of day since 2006. Fighting game preservation suffers from two large problems as a result.
The first is that we don’t see enough titles being brought forward, especially as it relates to the realm of 3D fighting games. Almost every example mentioned here has been a 2D remaster. Very few 3D fighting re-releases find their way into modern platforms. Secondly, if a fighting game does get re-released, there are just so many ways to handle the process that it can lead to trepidation at the onset. All of that relies on if a company is willing to move past preserving the original ROM for the sake of accessibility. At the end of the day, hasn’t that always been an intrinsic part of the DNA of fighting games?
Version updates, revisions, and re-releases have normally upended a game’s original form, with very few fighting games holding tournaments and events on the original Version 1.00 arcade ROM. If revisions and “definitive editions” in the form of updates and console releases have always been readily accepted as part of a fighting game’s life, why do re-releases in the modern era stick closer to the basics rather than providing a more robust, perhaps re-balanced version similar to older console editions? Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R stands out for going above and beyond with a rebalance, rollback netcode with lobbies, and all of the modes from the PS2 version while allowing the option to revisit the prior balance revision.
It is neat from the historical side to preserve the original version of a classic title, but if the game has grown with newer renditions that are more well-received, it’s a disservice to the entire effort of reviving it to ignore those. A simple port with online play may be “serviceable,” but historically, fighting games have grown from their previous versions in an effort to give more. Not taking the opportunity to provide a definitive version ignores how fighting games have grown within the genre itself. Titles that redefined and elevated “fighting games” have remained unreleased in decades, so if the game came back in a bare-bones format, what would be the point? It’d be nice to see the game return, but it just wouldn’t be the same.
Digital Eclipse is now helming the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection which is looking to be a prime example of preservation efforts done right with a minor hiccup. While it is amazing to have so many versions of the original 2D Era Mortal Kombat games readily playable alongside MK4, the exclusion of other versions such as MK Gold or the Genesis/Saturn versions of Ultimate MK3 can be seen as a miss for one reason or another. However, being able to rewind your gameplay, the inclusion of rollback netcode across the Kollection, the addition of practice modes, and even fixing MK Trilogy’s abysmal load times from the PS1 version are all pretty strong improvements alongside DE’s museum-like approach to its archival games. Couple that with the long-lost WaveNet version of UMK3 finally being widely playable, and this go-around by DE is looking to be a strong step-up from the SF30th Anniversary and SamSho NeoGeo Collection releases. While I don’t expect a CFE-styled appreciation by any means, games like MK Advance and Special Forces being included are great for preservation even if they themselves are beyond saving. [Ed note: This article was written before MKLK was released, so issues with the software at launch were not a factor at the time, but their presence does reinforce the spirit of the piece either way.]
As companies navigate the waters of video game preservation, fighting game developers are stuck with two questions: “Do we bring this game back, and if so, how?” The risk of disappointing or upsetting one set of fans over the other weighs in alongside the ease of preserving a game in its original state compared to its other versions. As we see more fighting games on modern platforms, chances to revive the best versions are often passed up for their original, more flawed versions. Historical preservation starts to become a priority over providing the best experience of a game which, if you think about it, often goes against how a lot of fighting games iterate on themselves.
The tyranny of choice in the ways to revive a fighting game could mean that we may never see a return of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution with its robust tutorial, Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX with its game modes fully intact, or even King of Fighters: Maximum Impact as a curiosity of SNK’s experimenting with 3D fighting. The best versions of the best titles are often unavailable to a modern audience while riskier titles aren’t given a newer lens and perspective. While the tales may not be “eternally retold” as intended, the fighting game community will turn back time and find a way to experience older fighting games, and that grassroots approach, in its own right, is a preservation of fighting game history.
