Terrific Fighting Games That Deserve A Comeback

EVO 2017 is happening this weekend, and it’s the home to some of the best fighting competitors – not to mention some of the best games. We’re talking Street Fighter V, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Killer Instinct, Injustice 2 and more.

But it’s also the home of debuting other fighting games that will be making the rounds soon, as Nintendo will be bringing Pokken Tournament DX; Bandai Namco will have plenty of Dragon Ball FighterZ to go around; and SNK will have plenty of Samurai Shodown V Special to soak in.

And that got us thinking. There are some great fighting games on the market, but there have also been quite a few that have been forgotten about over the years, which is a shame because they were really something in the height of their popularity. And we can’t help but think a comeback is due, if only because they would certainly earn their keep in the fighting market, but with professionals and casual fans alike.

So here are five fighting franchises that we’d love to see pop up again, if only because we missed what they had to offer – and feel like kicking ass with them again!

SoulCalibur

Tekken isn’t the only franchise that made Bandai Namco some serious bank. SoulCalibur did wonders when it launched on the Sega Dreamcast, remaining the best game in its library. And the subsequent sequels were great as well, thanks to guest appearances from Star Wars characters, as well as Heihachi, Todd McFarlane’s Spawn and Link from The Legend of Zelda.

We haven’t seen a new SC game since Bandai Namco tried to take the free-to-play route with its oddball entry on PS3 (the weird Lost Swords), so it’s about time that we get a full-fledged sequel with old and new combatants alike, along with online play, tournament options, and more guest appearances. Oh, and bring back Voldo!

Capcom vs. SNK

Crossover series continue to be quite effective in today’s market, especially with fans looking forward to Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite in just a few months. And it got us thinking – whatever happened to that other crossover series that Capcom made great for many years? The Capcom vs. SNK games were stylish and a whole lot of fun, and made use of a number of great characters from both universes. We can’t help but think that it’s just about time to bring this series back, and combine forces from the Capcom and SNK universes to create one of the most stellar fighters ever. We’d be down for more of this tournament.

Project Justice

Another series that Capcom hasn’t touched in years is Project Justice, which features a variety of students fighting from major universities, showing off their skills in a number of ways in a neat-little 3D brawler. The last game did great on the arcade scene and on the Dreamcast, so we can’t help but wonder why Capcom forgot all about it. Hopefully, we’ll see the team wise up and start us off with an HD remaster to remind everyone how great this game is, and then lead into the sequel with even more students and crazy fighting antics. This series deserves proper Justice!

Power Stone

And speaking of underrated Capcom franchises that haven’t seen the light of day in a little while, this four-player based smash-a-thon didn’t get much exposure outside of the debut games on Dreamcast and a PSP collection. And we can’t help but wonder why. A Power Stone collection would do wonders on Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and a Switch version certainly wouldn’t hurt either. But it has us thinking about all the possibilities if Capcom learned to count to “three” with this series, and the many new combatants it could throw into the mix – not to mention the crazy new stages it could introduce. C’mon, do it for the chef!

Samurai Shodown

We know that SNK is releasing Samurai Shodown V Special for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita soon, and that’s a good thing. But outside of Samurai Shodown Sen (which, by the way, was painfully average), when’s the last time we got a meaty entry in this series? I mean the full-fledged 2D combat with brilliant swordplay, cool special moves (like Earthquake’s fart) and stellar traditional Japanese themes and design. A new version with 2D visuals would be absolutely unbeatable, and throwing in a few online options – especially tournament-related – wouldn’t be a bad thing either.

Bloody Roar

Oh, man, Bloody Roar was as bizarre a fighting game series as you can get, featuring fighters that transformed into hybrid animals that give them even more abilities. But in the height of games like Tekken and Soul Blade, Roar found a genuine audience, and gave Hudson Soft quite a following with its debut on the PlayStation front. A sequel followed, but we haven’t heard too much from this series since. We know that Konami has the rights somewhere, and if it were smart, it would put them to good use and give us a new Bloody Roar that we would definitely howl for.

Primal Rage

Last but certainly not least, if a series like Mortal Kombat can survive for such a long period of time, why can’t Primal Rage? It’s true, the dinosaur beat-em-up didn’t exactly win over audiences with its lamely developed sequel, which was so bad that it never really saw the light of day in terms of distribution. But with the right developers (y’busy, NetherRealm?), the dinos could easily mount a comeback in a fast and fluid Primal Rage for the ages. Plus, imagine how crazy the fatalities can get in this day and age. Forget peeing on an opponent – we’re farting on them and lighting it.