List of fighting game companies

Part of a series on:

Action video games

Sub-genres Action-adventure game Action role-playing game Stealth game Survival horror game Beat 'em up Fighting game Platform game Shooter game First-person shooter Light gun shooter Shoot 'em up Tactical shooter Third-person shooter Rhythm game

Topics Capture the flag First-person shooter engine Free look WASD keys

Lists List of beat 'em ups List of fighting game companies List of fighting games List of first-person shooters List of free first-person shooters List of light gun games List of maze video games List of platform games

v • d • e

This article is list of developers and publishers that produce fighting games.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

0–9

• 8ing/Raizing along with Q Entertainment developed Battle Stadium D.O.N for the PS2 and GCN (featuring characters from Shōnen Jump franchises Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, and Naruto). They are also responsible for the PSP-exclusive series based on Bleach, Bleach: Heat the Soul, as well as the crossover 2.5D fighting game, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

A

• Accolade published Ballz, a 3D fighting game that only uses sprites, which was developed by PF Magic for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, the Super NES (SNES) and the 3DO.
• ADK created Neo Geo fighting games Aggressors of Dark Kombat, Ninja Master's, and the World Heroes series.
• "Angel" developed many games in the Sailor Moon video game series. Half of them were 2D fighting games made for the SNES and Playstation.
• Arc System Works are responsible for the Guilty Gear series, renowned for its strange character designs and unique gameplay. Their games also feature 2D graphics of higher resolution than found in most fighting games. Arc also developed Fist of the North Star, a 2005 2D arcade fighting game based on the Fist of the North Star anime/manga series.
• Atari developed Pit Fighter, which was notable for its early use of digitized live actors. Atari also developed Fight for Life, and published Kasumi Ninja exclusively for their final (short-lived) home console, the Atari Jaguar, and Primal Rage as an answer to Midway's Mortal Kombat series, as well as Tenth Degree, as an answer to Sega's Virtua Fighter. Atari is also the U.S. publisher for most of the Budokai fighting game series (developed by Dimps in Japan), and the Budokai Tenkaichi series (developed by Spike in Japan).
• Atlus created the Power Instinct series and the 3D fighting game, Heaven's Gate.

B

• Bandai developed and published the Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden fighting game series and Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension for the SNES, and developed Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout for the PSX. Bandai also developed and published the only DBZ game for the Sega Genesis, Dragon Ball Z: Buyū Retsuden. Besides Dragon Ball-based games, they also developed arcade and home fighting games based on other anime/manga franchises, such as the Sailor Moon series, the Mobile Suit Gundam series and the Ultra Series.

C

• Capcom is best known for the Street Fighter series, whose largely innovative second incarnation (Street Fighter II in 1991) virtually invented the modern fighting game. They have since released a plethora of sequels, spin-offs, remakes, movie tie-ins and other fighting games (often with the same six-button layout). They are also the creators of the Darkstalkers series and beat 'em up games like the Final Fight series. Their most recent significant contributions to the genre are Capcom vs. SNK 2,Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter IV and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Capcom is also the creator of Onimusha Blade Warriors, building upon the Onimusha series.
• Contrail is the developer of the hybrid fighting/role-playing game, Legend of Legaia, for the PSX. The sequel, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, was developed by Prokion.
• Culture Brain created fighting games based on their Hiryu no Ken and Super Chinese franchises.
• CyberConnect2 developed the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, exclusive to the PS2 and PSP. Namco Bandai is the publisher for the series.

D

• Data East created Karate Champ, which was credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, and went on to influence Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu from 1985. Data East's next fighting games were Hippodrome, which was their last fighting game released in the 1980s, and Fighter's History, which is slightly popular in Japan, but notorious outside of Japan (especially in North America) for being the game that caused Capcom USA to sue Data East in court (and lose) because of the game's similarities to Street Fighter II, while being far superior to most Street Fighter II inspirations that weren't very successful at the time. Data East later created two sequels: Fighter's History Dynamite (known in Europe as Karnov's Revenge) and Fighter's History: Mizoguchi Kiki Ippatsu!!, which was released exclusively in Japan for the Super Famicom. The North American division of Data East and Back to the Future screenwriter, Bob Gale, joined together and created their answer to Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise, Tattoo Assassins, but it was unreleased; however, along with most other Data East stuff, G-Mode bought the rights to it after Data East's bankruptcy in 2003 and will distribute it whenever anyone pleases them. Other fighting games created by Data East before their bankruptcy were Avengers in Galactic Storm and Outlaws Of The Lost Dynasty.
• Dimps is the developer of the Rumble Fish series, noted for its distinct 2D graphics. Dimps is also the creator of Custom Beat Battle: Draglade, a 2D Fighter/RPG/rhythm based game hybrid exclusive to the Nintendo DS. Dimps also produced the DragonBall Z Budokai series
• DreamFactory developed or co-developed the Tobal games, Ehrgeiz, UFC: Tapout, and The Bouncer.

E

• Electronic Arts published Shaq Fu, a fighting game featuring professional basketball player Shaquille O'Neal as a playable character. It was developed by now-defunct Delphine Software for the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, Super Nintendo, Game Boy and Amiga platforms, which is not only considered by many to be the worst fighting game, but one of the worst video games of all time. Electronic Arts also published a fighting game developed by Aorn titled Rabbit (羅媚斗^?) for the Sega Saturn.
• Examu (formerly Yuki Enterprise) developed Samurai Shodown V, Samurai Shodown V Special (noted for its violence), and Arcana Heart (noted for its all-female cast).

F

• Fill-in-Cafe developed the Asuka 120% series for the Japanese computer FM Towns (and later appeared on the Sega Saturn and PSX). They are all published by Family Soft.
• Fuuki developed the Asura series, with installments Asura Blade and Asura Buster: Eternal Warriors.

G

• GameTek created the Brutal series, a fighting game series that features a full cast of anthropomorphic animals as selectable fighters.
• Ganbarion is the developer of Jump Super Stars and Jump Ultimate Stars for the Nintendo DS, as well as One Piece Grand Battle! Rush!, One Piece Grand Adventure and One Piece: Unlimited Adventure.

H

• Hot-B developed and published Schmeiser Robo in the arcades.
• Hudson Soft is one of the co-developers (along with 8ing/Raizing) and the publisher for the Bloody Roar series. They also created China Warrior, the first game for the PC-Engine (known outside of Japan as the TurboGrafx-16), which was a beat 'em up that has 2D versus fighting at the end of each stage, and Kabuki Klash, a Neo Geo fighting game based on their traditional RPG franchise, Far East of Eden. They also co-developed DreamMix TV World Fighters, a crossover fighting game starring characters from Hudson, Takara (now known as Takara Tomy), and Konami game franchises.

I

• International Games System (or IGS) is a Taiwan-based company that has made its own 2D fighting games: Spectral vs. Generation (featuring characters from Idea Factory games), Alien Challenge, The Killing Blade and Martial Masters.
• Interplay Entertainment published the Clay Fighter franchise, which featured claymation-style graphics that were created by photographing and digitizing actual clay models.
• Irem created Superior Soldiers (known in Japan as Perfect Soldiers) as their answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II. Several graphic designers of this and several other Irem titles later moved to SNK, and designed the graphics of the Metal Slug and The King of Fighters franchises.

J

• Jaleco created a Super NES fighting game, Tuff E Nuff (known in Japan as Dead Dance), as their answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II.

K

• Kaneko created Power Athletes (known outside of Japan for the Super NES as Power Moves and for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive as Deadly Moves) and Shogun Warriors (known in Japan as Fujiyama Buster), which both of them were their answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II. Shogun Warriors was followed by a sequel, Blood Warrior (known in Japan as Ooedo Fight), while Kaneko released a licensed fighting game, The Kung-Fu Master Jackie Chan (known in Japan as Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire), which both of them were their answer to Midway's Mortal Kombat series.
• Konami created Yie Ar Kung-Fu, which was considered by many to be the basis of modern fighting games. Konami also created Martial Champion, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters and Raging Fighter as answers to Street Fighter II, and Dragoon Might as an answer to Knuckle Heads and Samurai Shodown. Later on, Konami made the 3D games Kensei: Sacred Fist (for the PSX), Deadly Arts (for the N64) and Castlevania Judgment (for the Wii).

L

• LucasArts, best known for their adventure game offerings and Star Wars video games, developed its only 3D weapon-based fighting game, Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, for the PSX.

M

• Midway sparked an incredible amount of controversy in 1992's Mortal Kombat, a 2D fighter with digitized sprites and wacky gore. Like Street Fighter II had spawned a multitude of imitations, other companies released similarly gory offerings, though they did not do as well. The more recent games in the series (Mortal Kombat 4, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, and Mortal Kombat: Deception) are in 3D. Midway also manufactured the arcade cabinets for the Killer Instinct series.
• Mindscape (formally known as The Software Toolworks) created Bruce Lee Lives for MS-DOS-operated PCs, which stars the Jeet Kune Do founder and movie actor, Bruce Lee. The game features a special AI engine that changes the difficulty level by focusing on the player's actions.

N

• Namco published a Japan-only RPG-based fighting game titled Tenkaichi Bushi Keru Nagūru, which was developed by Game Studio for the Famicom. Namco's first modern-fighting arcade game was Knuckle Heads, which was one of the first fighting games to allow up to four players to play simultaneously, as well as one of the first weapon-based modern fighting games. Namco later became better known for creating the Tekken series and the Soul series, which are arguably the most popular 3D fighting games.
• Natsume Co., Ltd. published the N64-exclusive fighting/role-playing game Flying Dragon, which was developed by Culture Brain.
• Nintendo started with Urban Champion, which was the first fighting game to feature "ring-out" elements later seen in 3D fighting games like Sega's Virtua Fighter franchise. Then came their first modern-fighting game, Joy Mech Fight, which uses limbless robot characters that make the game more efficient than most other fighting games during the time, had the smoothest animation, had the largest roster (until SNK's The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match), and was the first to have no corners before Sunsoft's Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors. Nintendo later became better known for publishing games like the Super Smash Bros. series (developed by HAL Laboratory) and Killer Instinct series (developed by Rareware).
• Noise Factory is the developer of 2D fighting games such as Rage of the Dragons and Power Instinct Matrimelee (part of the Power Instinct fighting game series originally developed by Atlus).

O

• Ocean Software published the N64-exclusive 3D fighting game series, Fighters Destiny which was developed by Imagineer. SouthPeak Interactive published the sequel, Fighter Destiny 2 (intentionally named differently).

P

• Psikyo created two fighting games: Battle K-Road and Daraku Tenshi - The Fallen Angels.

Q

• Q Entertainment developed Battle Stadium D.O.N in collaboration with 8ing/Raizing for the PS2 and GCN systems.

R

• Rareware is the developer responsible for the combo-intense Killer Instinct series, composed of Killer Instinct, Killer Instinct 2, and Killer Instinct Gold, an update to Killer Instinct 2. The entire series was published by Nintendo.

S

• Sammy Corporation (now merged with Sega as Sega Sammy Holdings) started with Battle Blaze. They later worked with another company, Sekarabe, in creating their answer to Midway's Mortal Kombat series, Survival Arts; however, the gameplay resembles Capcom's Street Fighter II more. They also published the Guilty Gear franchise developed by Arc System Works.
• Sega's first attempts after the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II were Dark Edge, a sprite-based fighting game in a 3D environment, and Holosseum, a holographic fighting game that was the second and last game for Sega's hi-tech hologram theater cabinet after Time Traveler. Sega's AM2 team started with Burning Rival, a 2D versus fighter that uses anime-style graphics, but later became better known as the developer of their Virtua Fighter series (Virtua Fighter, in 1993, is widely regarded as the first 3D fighting game with polygons instead of sprites). Fighting Vipers was a similar game by AM2 with a glam rock theme, but did poorly in the U.S. and Europe. Sonic the Fighters and Virtual On also did very poorly in U.S. sales. Sega-AM2 also created Fighters Megamix, a cross-over of the Virtua Fighter series and Fighting Vipers, as well as several other characters from Sega-AM2's works. Sega also developed various fighting games based on the popular Bleach series for Nintendo consoles. Sega's other original sprite-based 2D fighting games were the Eternal Champions series, which is Sega's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II with environmental finishing moves similar to the "Fatalities" from Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise; and Golden Axe: The Duel, a 2D versus fighting game spin-off of the Golden Axe series.
• SNK started with Street Smart, but later became better known as the makers of the long-running King of Fighters series for the Neo Geo consoles and arcade machines they manufactured. They were also notable for producing the Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and Last Blade series starting in the early 1990s; many other companies followed suit in producing fighting games for the Neo Geo.
• Squaresoft (now merged with Enix as Square-Enix) published the PSX-exclusive samurai-based Bushido Blade series, developed by Light Weight. The two games in the series play much more realistically than other weapon-based fighting games, and do not feature meters of any kind.
• Sunsoft created Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors and Waku Waku 7 for the Neo Geo, as well as an airborne-based fighting game in the arcades, Astra Super Stars.

T

• Taito Corporation created the Violence Fight series, Global Champion (known in Japan as Kaiser Knuckle) and the Psychic Force series: Psychic Force and Psychic Force 2012. The Psychic Force games can be considered precursors to the Dragon Ball Z Budokai games. Taito also developed the 3D games Fighter's Impact, and its sequel Fighter's Impact A.
• Takara ported numerous Neo Geo fighting games to certain home consoles, such as some games in SNK's Fatal Fury franchise and ADK's World Heroes franchise. Takara also created a Japan-only Sony PlayStation title based on Tatsunoko's animes, Tatsunoko Fight.
• Tamsoft created the Battle Arena Toshinden series.
• Tatsumi created Cycle Warriors and Big Fight: Big Trouble in the Atlantic Ocean as arcade-exclusives.
• Technōs Japan made the popular Double Dragon series, which included one fighting game for the Neo Geo, titled Double Dragon. Technos also supported Data East in developing Karate Champ. Their last fighting game before bankruptcy was Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer for the Neo Geo.
• Tecmo's division Team Ninja has developed every instance of the Dead or Alive series. The creation of the Dead or Alive franchise most likely saved Tecmo from both financial and business collapse. Tecmo's only sprite-based 2D fighting game was Tōkidenshō Angel Eyes. They also published Astra Super Stars developed by Sunsoft.
• Tomy, along with 8ing/Raizing, are co-developers of the Naruto: Clash of Ninja series.
• Treasure Co. Ltd. is the sole developer of Bleach: The Blade of Fate and Bleach DS 2nd for the Nintendo DS.
• Tribeca Interactive, a computer game production company owned by actor Robert DeNiro, developed the 3DO title, Shadow: War of Succession.
• Type-Moon created (along with French-Bread) the dōjin soft 2D fighter Melty Blood. Its general success (including arcade and PS2 versions) made Type-Moon less of a dōjin soft organization and more of a company.

U

• Universal Interactive published Way of the Warrior for the 3DO, which was their answer to Midway's Mortal Kombat series. It was developed by Naughty Dog and its soundtrack consisted of music from the 1992 White Zombie album La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1.
• Unotechnology (formally known as Viccom), a Korean-based company created Fight Fever for the Neo Geo, and its spiritual successor, The Eye of Typhoon for the 3DO and PC. Later, Unotechnology joined with Dec Company to develop The King of Fighters Online (tentatively titled as KOF World), a 3D online fighting game part of SNK's The King of Fighters series, but soon became canceled.

V

• Vic Tokai published Dark Rift worldwide, a 3D fighting game developed by Kronos Digital Entertainment.
• Video System created Tao Taido, a fighting game that is more about charging up attacks than sending combos.
• Virgin Interactive developed Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Super NES and Atari Jaguar, which was based on the film of the same name.
• Visco Corporation created Breakers and its enhanced version, Breakers Revenge, which became Visco's fighting game franchise for the Neo Geo MVS.

W

X

Y

Z