Fighting Games |OT| Creamy MUGEN filled center; Leggo My EVO

A fighting game is a video game genre in which the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent, which can be either an AI or controlled by another player. The fight matches typically consist of several rounds and take place in an arena, while each character has widely differing abilities but each is relatively viable to choose. Players must master techniques such as blocking, counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into "combos". Since the early 1990s, most fighting games allow the player to execute special attacks by performing specific input combinations. The fighting game genre is related to but distinct from beat 'em ups, which involve large numbers of enemies against the human player.

The first video game to feature fist fighting was arcade game Heavyweight Champ in 1976, but it was Karate Champ which popularized one-on-one martial arts games in arcades in 1984. In 1985, Yie Ar Kung-Fu featured antagonists with differing fighting styles, while The Way of the Exploding Fist further popularized the genre on home systems. In 1987, Street Fighter introduced hidden special attacks. In 1991, Capcom's highly successful Street Fighter II refined and popularized many of the conventions of the genre. The fighting game subsequently became the preeminent genre for competitive video gaming in the early to mid-1990s, particularly in arcades. This period spawned dozens of other popular fighting games, including successful and long running franchises like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, The King of Fighters, Virtua Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom, Guilty Gear, Killer Instinct, Dead or Alive and SoulCalibur.

Casual Fighting Games: Popularized in Arcades around the world. Fighting games can now be found on every gaming platform imaginable.

Competitive Fighting. The Evolution Championship Series (EVO or Evo) is an annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournament is a completely open tournament and uses the double elimination format.[1] As with Super Battle Opera, contestants travel from all over the world to participate, most notably from Japan. The first Evolution was originally held as a Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Street Fighter Alpha 2 tournament called the Battle by the Bay. It changed its name to Evo in 2002. Every successive tournament has seen an increase of attendees. It has been held at various venues across the Las Vegas Valley since 2005. http://evo.shoryuken.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2F1_I8H7Qk

Homebrew Games: There are many examples but the most popular of which is M.U.G.E.N. M.U.G.E.N (also written as Mugen, MUGEN and M.U.G.E.N.) is a freeware 2D fighting game engine designed by Elecbyte. Content is created by the community, and thousands of fighters, both original and from popular fiction, have been created. It is written in C and originally used the Allegro library. The latest versions of the engine now use the SDL library. This one has to be seen to be believed.

To get started with M.U.G.E.N. check out the Wiki http://mugen.wikia.com
M.U.G.E.N. boasts several thousand user created characters with hundreds of stages available to users.
Examples characters include:
Marvel
Capcom
DC Universe
Simpsons
Dragonball
Mortal Kombat
Cartoon Characters
Sesame Street
Mascots (i.e. Ronald McDonald/Barney)

This is a discussion for all things fighting game related. Feel free to discuss no matter your interest level. I'm and casual and homebrew player myself.