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Any child of the seventies or eighties (who is now the average age of a gamer) most likely received their gaming middle school education standing in front of a fighting game. After Donkey Kong but before the Playstation 2 we spent hundreds of hours and an equal or greater number of dollars in front of Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat. As a result the fighting genre has retained something of a nostalgic charm for gamers, evidenced by the fact both the previous mentioned franchises are still releasing (and re-releasing) versions of their games today. Although late to the party the no less popular Soul Calibur series saw its fourth appearance on the PS3 and Xbox 360 this year and quickly garnered some very positive reviews. People loved it and rightly so; graphically it was a benchmark for the series.

Shortly after buying the latest Soul Calibur and as I was being roundly thrashed by my nine year old I couldn’t help but recall the dozens of fighting games that littered my memory and feel a great big thorny piece of disappointment. What was really, fundamentally, different between this and Soul Calibur III, or even II? Bar cosmetic changes, the core gameplay and level structures have remained the same throughout the life of the series going back to when it was called Soul Blade. Likewise its sister game Tekken is hitting its sixth instalment on consoles this year and brings with it some new characters, new moves for existing characters and new costumes. But essentially the game is identical at its core to every previous Tekken game. This year also sees the release of Street Fighter IV, a game that developers Capcom proudly proclaim is almost identical to their decades old classic Street Fighter II; only rendered in 3D. Well allow me a sarcastic whoopee-do.

The decline of the fighter genre’s popularity isn’t news. Here’s a quick severely amended history lesson. Once upon a time there was Karate Champ and it was good. Then several years later a big box appeared in an arcade called Street Fighter 2 which was much prettier than Karate Champ (or the several games between them including the original Street Fighter) but otherwise had only one really important addition, a versus mode. Much later another box called Virtua Fighter was wheeled in that featured characters built of 3D models who looked like they were made of Lego, but the gameplay was essentially the same. Then this year Soul Calibur IV appeared and proceeded to wow everyone. But other than a lot of bling how much had the Fighting genre evolved between Karate Champ and Soul Calibur IV. I would argue not a whole damn lot and if you want proof the decline in the popularity of the genre seems like a pretty big elephant in the room knocking over your lampshade.

In comparison, other long established gaming genres have evolved considerably. Shooters, platformers, strategy games; all these genres seem to be keen on doing something new whether it’s the artistic storytelling of the latest Prince of Persia or the voice control focus of Endwar. They evolve, they try new things, they explore advanced graphics and processing power to deliver a new experience, rather than just a prettier experience. Consider the difference between Doom and Portal. Even the other arcade darling of the nineties, the racing game, is vastly different today than it was the first time you played Daytona or Sega Rally.

Sure you could make the argument that if the formula isn’t actually broke, don’t fix it. But riddle me this, why is Koei, the company behind Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors, routinely criticised and panned in most reviews for churning out a nearly identical game every year or two? The gameplay is the same from year to year with an increase in the number of characters, new costumes and an improvement in graphics. Does this formula sound familiar? While Koei are grilled over recycling their games Namco seems to get something of a free ride with their fighting franchises. But why is that? Perhaps the aforementioned nostalgia for when you had to queue up in the smoky foul smelling arcade plays a part.

It just seems criminal that the genre has so much potential, so much room to grow, but doesn’t. If only someone would realise that a good fighting game just needs to step in a new direction. The best way to do something exciting in a genre is to bend or even break the very rules in which that genre operates. So with that in mind heres a few pretty reasonable suggestions I came up with on a train ride when my PSP’s battery went flat to reinvigorate the genre.

First a simple but effective suggestion would be to add something they’ve never really had before: a real plot. It doesn’t have to be a great plot, but something a little bit above a Jean Claude Damme film would be nice. Think about Dead or Alive, Tekken and Street Fighter 2, they basically all have the same story line, which they all initially ripped of the film Bloodsport to begin with. Imagine a ladder battle where each fight had weight and meaning, each loss or win impacted your character in some manner that felt a little more real than whether or not you saw the continue screen. Before I receive lots of hate email, yes I know that Chun Li’s father disappeared investigating M. Bison (who really should be Vega) and that Kazuya was angry at his father Heihachi who tossed him of a cliff so he tossed his father into a volcano and was then paradoxically tossed in himself by Jin, his son by Jun. But these aren’t narratives, more often they’re just rough explanations for nifty cut scenes; book ends after and before a ladder battle and a boss defeat. Even Mortal Kombat and Soul Calibur, the games that come closest to some sort of reasonable canon narrative, make very little sense plot wise. If something as fascinating and carefully played out as the plot of Bioshock can be used as the justification to shoot a lot of people, surely a similar level of care can be taken with a plot based around punching the crap out of people.

A second feature that could move the fight genre ahead is to play around with the structure of levels. Why can’t we have interactive environments in fighting games? Pillars to duck around, cars to leap over, objects to pick up and strike with, almost all these types of features make either small or no appearance in existing games. The majority of them are minor diversions such as levels where you can be knocked down to a lower level, but after the nice little cinematic players are right back to their familiar five by five arenas. I want a bar fight in a bar, complete with heads slammed in doors, broken bottles, chair bashing. How can we have had almost twenty years of fighting games without these features being implemented before? It boggles the mind.

Thirdly, injuries that make a mark. It’s a game world so it’s acceptable that characters can take a flaming dragon punch on the chin and spring back to their feet but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect a bit of bruising. Mortal Kombat, ever the gorehounds series of choice, was more than happy to have the characters gush blood and even have their faces swell and bruise. But even the horrific injuries of Mortal Kombat don’t seem to slow characters down at all; impaling a sword in your opponents guts doesn’t stop them leaping and weaving around. A concussion or an arm break should force players to change tactics, go on the defensive and adjust their play. Imagine a fight that evolves as it happens with the winner being the guy or girl who took his opponent down piece by piece, playing to their weaknesses. Don’t even get me started on weapons either, if someone swings a sword you block or get out of the way, otherwise you should be severely injured or dead. Bushido Blade on the Playstation was a great example of an attempt to do something different. No health bars, sword versus sword and a critical hit to the head or body was the end. In Bushido Blade a fight could last five seconds or ten minutes depending on the skill of the players.

Last suggestion, just add choice. The single player component of every fighting game is the same. You fight a group of mostly random characters before a boss battle, if you’re beaten its game over. Why not have the choice of who you will fight and when and the necessity to earn money to buy into bigger fights or even bet on yourself. Here’s an idea, instead of a menu why not just have an apartment or a dojo, perhaps a temple, where your character can move around to train or check the local listings to see what fights are coming up. A career mode similar to the one introduced in Tony Hawk games would do wonders for the genre. Players can start with fights in carparks and bars and work up to wealthier events. A loss doesn’t mean game over, it does mean a few new scars, shame and humiliation and a hit to your wallet. Obviously you can throw in an arcade mode to jump right in with a friend and choose from a selection of fighters, but a well rounded single player career mode could really bring the genre back from the coma it seems to be suffering from. Racing games have evolved along similar lines such as Test Drive Unlimited allowing you to cruise around in your selection of cars between races.

I broached this subject with some friends and family members recently (Including my brothers with whom Fighting game competitions very often devolved into real fighting between us) and almost all of them described a variation of the suggestions I’ve made. It’s a small test group but it makes me pretty confident that fighting games should be more than they are.

There are probably a hundred other things the fighting genre could do to be more accessible and popular but these seem like good places to start. Given the technology available today it shouldn’t be hard to create a game that does all that and still looks as good as Tekken 6. I don’t hate Namco’s games, in fact I own every one of them and have even shamelessly downloaded all the content packs for Soul Calibur IV. Likewise I will definitely be buying Street Fighter IV in February. But every time I button mash my way through the single player ladder I can’t help but think that the game could be so much more, am I wrong?