Although their heyday may be in the past, fighting games are experiencing a bit of a renaissance of late. I enjoy these games, even though I get my ass kicked on the reg, so I was thinking; now that fighting games are coming back, what are some franchises that need a fighting game? We’ve seen some pretty bizarre ones like Pokken, a pokemon fighting game with a luchador Pickachu, so the field was open. Here’s what I came up with.
Street fighter vs TMNT
With a history of crossover games and stories backing this up, Street Fighter x TMNT seems obvious. Blanka is basically a hop skip and a blanka ball away from Beebop and Rocksteady already, and the TMNT crew already had a fighting game as well. I’m thinking we get Krang, Shredder, Donny and Co., and pit them against the likes of Ken, Ryu and the gang. Seems like a surefire hit to me.
Megaman
Another Capcom title, but lord knows they’re not doing anything with them. There were a couple Megaman fighting games in the past, but we're coming up on 20 years since the last one. For this game, I’m picturing a tag team style fighter; there are so many crazy Robot Masters that it would be super fun to have a team of them that can counter each other and swap out. Dr. Wiley and Sigma as bosses, with Dr. Light as a secret character.
Game of Thrones
This is the one that got this article started. The artist “Orkimides” created some sprites for a pixel fighter for Westeros that are incredible.
Fighting for your favorite house, recreating clashes from the stories… and of course, CLEGANEBOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!! So I will take either this, or a Fire Emblem style strategy game, please and thank you George R.R. Martin.
Harry Potter
Wizard Duels are basically a fighting game, so there is already precedent for this in the source material. This lends itself to a lot of fun sprite work to differentiate everyone, since the spells are just the spells. I’m thinking Hermione uses books to defend and attack, Hagrid is a summon character, Lupin is an up close and personal brawler… I know I’D buy this, and we can see from the success of Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts that Potterheads are craving more.
Blizzard
Blizzard created Heroes of the Storm, a MOBA that crosses all of their IP. We know they’re ready to cross universes, so why not a fighting game? Between crazy demons in Diablo, the futuristic fighters of Overwatch, the aliens of Starcraft, this would be a varied and intense fighting game. Get on it, Blizzard!
Horror icons
This is the toughest of the bunch because of all the licensing issues that would arise. That said there is a fan made game out there called Terrordrome that does a great job of mashing them all up. I don’t know the legality of downloading that game, but ignorance is bliss I guess. This game is absolutely great, and there are so many iconic horror villains/heroes that it seems insane that the film companies haven't just decided that since they’d make oodles of cash, to just make nice and create this game. But what do I know?
This character select screen doesn't look AMAZING, but trust me when I say the game is a good time. Why not check it out yourself?
Those are my initial thoughts, sound off about what franchises you think need a fighting game below!
