Fighting game in the context of Player characters

A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs). The actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the game itself in video games, or according to rules followed by a gamemaster refereeing tabletop role-playing games. The player character functions as a fictional, alternate body for the player controlling the character.

Video games typically have one player character for each person playing the game. Some games, such as multiplayer online battle arena, hero shooter, and fighting games, offer a group of player characters for the player to choose from, allowing the player to control one of them at a time. Where more than one player character is available, the characters may have distinctive abilities and differing styles of play.

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is a 1991 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for arcades. It is the second installment in the Street Fighter series and the sequel to 1987's Street Fighter. Designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and Akira Yasuda, who had previously worked on the game Final Fight, it is the fourteenth game to use Capcom's CP System arcade system board. Street Fighter II vastly improved many of the concepts introduced in the first game, including the use of special command-based moves, a combo system, a six-button configuration, and a wider selection of playable characters, each with a unique fighting style.

Street Fighter II became the best-selling game since the golden age of arcade video games. By 1994, it had been played by an estimated 25 million people in the United States alone. More than 200,000 arcade cabinets and 15 million software units of every version of Street Fighter II have been sold worldwide, earning an estimated $10 billion in total revenue, making it one of the top three highest-grossing video games of all time as of 2017 and the best-selling fighting game until 2019. More than 6.3 million SNES cartridges of Street Fighter II were sold, making it Capcom's best-selling single software game for the next two decades, its best-selling game on a single platform, and the highest-selling third-party game on the SNES.

Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting game developed and published by Midway for arcades. It is the first main installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise, and was subsequently released by Acclaim Entertainment for nearly every home platform of the time. The game presents a martial arts tournament in which ten characters (including a choice of seven player characters) contend with the fate of Earth at stake. It introduced many key aspects of the Mortal Kombat series, including the unique five-button control scheme and gory finishing moves called Fatalities.

Mortal Kombat is considered by critics to be one of the greatest video games ever made. It spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs, beginning with Mortal Kombat II in 1993. Both games were the subject of a film adaptation in 1995. However, it also sparked much controversy for its depiction of extreme violence and gore using realistic digitized graphics and, along with the home releases of Night Trap and Lethal Enforcers, prompted the formation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), a U.S. government-backed organization that set descriptor ratings for video games.

A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, as well as fighting-based video games. A full knockout is considered any legal strike or combination thereof that renders an opponent unable to continue fighting.

The term is often associated with a sudden traumatic loss of consciousness caused by a physical blow. Single powerful blows to the head (particularly the jawline and temple) can produce a cerebral concussion or a carotid sinus reflex with syncope and cause a sudden, dramatic KO. Body blows, particularly the liver punch, can cause progressive, debilitating pain that can also result in a KO.

In computers, lag is delay (latency) between the action of the user (input) and the reaction of the server supporting the task, which has to be sent back to the client.

The player's ability to tolerate lag depends on the type of game being played. For instance, a strategy game or a turn-based game with a slow pace may have a high threshold or even be mostly unaffected by high lag. A game with twitch gameplay such as a first-person shooter or a fighting game with a considerably faster pace may require a significantly lower lag to provide satisfying gameplay.

An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, rhythm games and platform games. Multiplayer online battle arena and some real-time strategy games are also considered action games.

In an action game, the player typically controls a character often in the form of a protagonist or avatar. This player character must navigate a level, collecting objects, avoiding obstacles, and battling enemies with their natural skills as well as weapons and other tools at their disposal. At the end of a level or group of levels, the player must often defeat a boss enemy that is more challenging and often a major antagonist in the game's story. Enemy attacks and obstacles deplete the player character's health and lives, and the player receives a game over when they run out of lives.

Street Fighter is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by the other six main games in the series, various spin-offs and crossovers, and numerous appearances in other media. Its best-selling 1991 release, Street Fighter II, established many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre.

Street Fighter is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time and one of Capcom's flagship series, with total sales of 56 million units worldwide as of March 2025. It is also one of the highest-grossing media franchises and is the longest-running fighting game franchise.

Tekken (鉄拳) is a 1994 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It was originally released on arcades, then ported to the PlayStation home console in 1995. One of the earliest 3D polygon-based games of the genre, Tekken was Namco's answer to Virtua Fighter and was designed by Seiichi Ishii, who himself was also Virtua Fighter's designer when he worked at Sega previously. The game was developed on the purpose-built low-cost System 11 board, based on PlayStation hardware.

Tekken was innovative in that it featured multiple game modes for a fighting game, which was not limited to the fighting game genre but also displayed Galaga on the loading screen. Plotwise, the game revolves around a tournament set up by Heihachi Mishima, who attempts to prove his power to his revenge-seeking son and protagonist, Kazuya. Tekken initially divided opinion regarding its presentation, character designs and unusual control system, which consisted of one button per limb. However, following its home console port originally released in March 1995 — only the third 3D console fighter following Virtua Fighter and Battle Arena Toshinden — it quickly rose in popularity and eventually became a PlayStation best seller based on copies sold, even quickly surpassing its two fighting game rivals. It started the Tekken series, with a sequel, Tekken 2, coming later in 1995.

Soul Edge is a 1996 fighting game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It is the first installment in the Soulcalibur series. Introduced at the JAMMA trade show in November 1995, the full arcade game was released on February 20, 1996 (Soul Edge) and May 16, 1996 (Soul Edge Ver. II) on System 11 hardware, the same board used by Tekken and Tekken 2. Later in December, an upgraded and expanded version of the game was ported to the PlayStation; this version was renamed Soul Blade outside Japan and released in 1997.

Soul Edge is a 3D fighting game and was the second such game to be based on weapons, following Battle Arena Toshinden (itself preceded by the 2D Samurai Shodown series). The plot centers upon the eponymous sword, rumored to offer unlimited power to anyone who can find and wield it, leading to nine warriors attempting to pursue the tenth who is rumored to have the sword. The game was a commercial and critical success, with praise given to graphics, gameplay and characters. It was followed up with Soulcalibur in July 1998.

Jump Force is a 2019 crossover fighting game developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It features characters from various manga series featured in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump anthology in celebration of the magazine's 50th anniversary. The game was released on February 14, 2019 in Japan for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and the following day worldwide in addition to Windows. A Nintendo Switch port was released worldwide on August 28, 2020.

The game received mixed reviews from critics, with criticism being directed towards its story, gameplay, and failure to deliver its promises upon launch. The game was delisted from all digital storefronts on February 8, 2022, with its online services shutting down on August 24, 2022.

Power Stone is a 1999 arcade fighting game developed and published by Capcom, released on the Sega NAOMI arcade board and ported to the Dreamcast home console. It consists of battles in three-dimensional environments and contains objects that could be picked up and used. A sequel, Power Stone 2, was released a year later, and manga and anime adaptations have also been made. Both games were later ported to the PlayStation Portable as Power Stone Collection in 2006, known in Japan as Power Stone Portable. Both were also ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows in 2025 as part of Capcom Fighting Collection 2.

Heavyweight Champ is a series of boxing video games from Sega. The original arcade video game was released in 1976. The game uses black-and-white graphics and critics have since identified it as the first video game to feature hand-to-hand fighting. It was a commercial success in Japan, where it was the third highest-grossing arcade video game of 1976. However, it is now considered a lost video game.

Sega released a remake to arcades in 1987, changing the side perspective of the original game to a third-person viewpoint from behind the boxer. Both games feature unique controls that simulate throwing actual punches. The 1987 remake was Japan's fifth highest-grossing arcade video game of 1988 and received positive reviews from critics.

Karate Champ, originally known as Karate, is a 1984 fighting game released by Data East for arcades. The player utilizes dual-joystick controls to input various moves, in order to defeat enemies in a best-of-three matches format. The game was commercially successful, especially in the United States where it was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1985 and the best-selling home computer game up until 1989. It established and popularized the one-on-one fighting game genre, for which it is considered one of the most influential games of all time. Karate Champ has been identified as being developed by Technōs Japan, though an employee who worked at Data East argued that the developer of the game was neither Technos or Data East.

An updated version that allows two players the option to compete against each other was released in 1984 under the title Karate Champ — Player vs Player (対戦空手道 美少女青春編, Taisen Karate Dō: Bishōjo Seishun Hen; "The Competitive Way of the Empty Hand: Pretty Maiden Edition"), featuring a multiplayer mode and more varied gameplay. It was released for the arcades shortly after the original during the same year, also published by Data East. This version was released internationally as Karate Champ (the original single-player version was exclusive to Japan), and would serve as the basis for the home versions of Karate Champ.

Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Chinese: 一二功夫; pinyin: yī èr gōngfū; lit. 'One Two Kung-Fu') is a fighting game developed and published by Konami for arcades. It first had a limited Japanese release in October 1984, before having a wide release nationwide in January 1985 and then internationally in March. Along with Data East's Karate Champ (1984), which influenced Yie-Ar Kung Fu, it is one of the games that established the basis for modern fighting games.

The game was inspired by Bruce Lee's Hong Kong martial arts films, with the main player character Oolong modelled after Lee (like Bruceploitation films). In contrast to the grounded realism of Karate Champ, Yie Ar Kung-Fu moved the genre towards more fantastical, fast-paced action, with various different characters having a variety of special moves and high jumps, establishing the template for subsequent fighting games. It also introduced the health meter system to the genre, in contrast to the point-scoring system of Karate Champ.

The Way of the Exploding Fist is a 1985 fighting game developed by Beam Software and published by Melbourne House for the Commodore 64. It was later ported to Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and Commodore 16. It is based on Japanese martial arts. The development team consisted of Gregg Barnett, Bruce Bayley, Neil Brennan and David Johnston.

Street Fighter is a 1987 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for arcades. It is the first competitive fighting game produced by the company and the first installment in the Street Fighter series. It was a commercial success in arcades and introduced special attacks and some of the conventions made standard in later fighting games, such as the six-button controls and the use of command-based special moves.

Street Fighter was directed by Takashi Nishiyama, who conceived it by adapting the boss battles of his earlier beat 'em up game Kung-Fu Master (1984), for a one-on-one fighting game, and by drawing influence from popular Japanese shōnen manga. A port for the TurboGrafx-CD was released as Fighting Street in 1988, and was re-released via emulation for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2009.

Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992.

The original Mortal Kombat arcade game spawned a franchise consisting of action-adventure games, a comic book series, a card game, films, an animated TV series, and a live-action tour. Mortal Kombat has become the best-selling fighting game franchise worldwide with over 100 million copies and one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.