Post by eric on Oct 26, 2015 20:28:31 GMT -6
Mortal Kombat
The most notorious franchise of any genre in our youth. Cited as the major impetus for the creation of the ESRB, and was frequently banned in foreign countries, but a lot of them ban showers too so who cares what they think. Was one of the major battlegrounds of the SNES/Genesis console wars, due to Nintendo turning all the blood into sweat. Originally based off of Bloodsport (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), the franchise would produce two movies but it was Street Fighter that starred JCVD. Also produced two television series, one of which I remember as centering around f#$%ing Jax. Both series immediately flopped for some reason.
Sold only 37 million copies over 12 stand alone titles. Aside from an initial wave of copycats, it's hard to point to any lasting imprint on the modern gaming world. The original company (Midway) went bankrupt. The original premise of digitizing real people fell to the wayside by MK4. Made dozens of "new" characters by changing the color of their shirt.
Street Fighter
The thinking man's fighting game, Street Fighter introduced such novel concepts as "maybe different fighters shouldn't all throw the exact same punch" and "countering". SF II beat MK to the market by a full year and dominated the arcades, making more money than MK and MK II combined... twice over. Also produced two films and two seasons of TV (in one series that inexplicably included Akuma). If you say down, downtowards, towards punch to any gamer they're going to say Hadouken 99 times before they say Freeze Ray or whatever Mortal Kombat move it is. The Street Fighter style (damageless fighting, drawn characters) lives on in every fighting game you see that isn't Mortal Kombat.
Notorious for re-re-re-re-releasing the same game over and over again and Ryu being stupid OP. Sold only 36 million copies over 7 basic games (at least 18 titles), but its characters also exist in approximately 1000 "A vs. B" games.
Tekken
By far the best selling fighting franchise with 46 million copies sold, and that's spotting the other two a multiple year head start. Helped establish the PlayStation as a real console. Apparently has an online multiplayer mode. I literally played a Tekken game one time in my life so I don't know what much about it.
Took the 3D torch from Virtua Fighter and ran it straight into the ground. Only made one movie and no TV series. Wasn't as significant for the PS as games like Metal Gear Solid or FF7. Doesn't have near the cultural or gaming impact of the above two franchises, both of which inspired an army of clones. There would definitely be a Street Fighter without Tekken, but would there be a Tekken without Street Fighter?
The most notorious franchise of any genre in our youth. Cited as the major impetus for the creation of the ESRB, and was frequently banned in foreign countries, but a lot of them ban showers too so who cares what they think. Was one of the major battlegrounds of the SNES/Genesis console wars, due to Nintendo turning all the blood into sweat. Originally based off of Bloodsport (starring Jean-Claude Van Damme), the franchise would produce two movies but it was Street Fighter that starred JCVD. Also produced two television series, one of which I remember as centering around f#$%ing Jax. Both series immediately flopped for some reason.
Sold only 37 million copies over 12 stand alone titles. Aside from an initial wave of copycats, it's hard to point to any lasting imprint on the modern gaming world. The original company (Midway) went bankrupt. The original premise of digitizing real people fell to the wayside by MK4. Made dozens of "new" characters by changing the color of their shirt.
Street Fighter
The thinking man's fighting game, Street Fighter introduced such novel concepts as "maybe different fighters shouldn't all throw the exact same punch" and "countering". SF II beat MK to the market by a full year and dominated the arcades, making more money than MK and MK II combined... twice over. Also produced two films and two seasons of TV (in one series that inexplicably included Akuma). If you say down, downtowards, towards punch to any gamer they're going to say Hadouken 99 times before they say Freeze Ray or whatever Mortal Kombat move it is. The Street Fighter style (damageless fighting, drawn characters) lives on in every fighting game you see that isn't Mortal Kombat.
Notorious for re-re-re-re-releasing the same game over and over again and Ryu being stupid OP. Sold only 36 million copies over 7 basic games (at least 18 titles), but its characters also exist in approximately 1000 "A vs. B" games.
Tekken
By far the best selling fighting franchise with 46 million copies sold, and that's spotting the other two a multiple year head start. Helped establish the PlayStation as a real console. Apparently has an online multiplayer mode. I literally played a Tekken game one time in my life so I don't know what much about it.
Took the 3D torch from Virtua Fighter and ran it straight into the ground. Only made one movie and no TV series. Wasn't as significant for the PS as games like Metal Gear Solid or FF7. Doesn't have near the cultural or gaming impact of the above two franchises, both of which inspired an army of clones. There would definitely be a Street Fighter without Tekken, but would there be a Tekken without Street Fighter?
