The Super NES port of Fighter’s History was developed and published by Data East for the North American and Japanese Market in 1994. The original arcade game was developed by Data East and released in 1993.
Game description
Fighter’s History is an arcade fighting game developed and published by Data East. It was ported to the Super Nintendo in 1994 (May 27 in Japan and August in USA). The game was released during the success of Street fighter II and was famous of causing Capcom to sue Data East on copyright infringement. However, Capcom lost dues to the concept of scenes a faire. This concept states that general idea that is related to the genre of a movie or a game can’t be protected by copyright laws. As a result, the game was allowed to be released and two sequels followed.
Despite this, Fighter’s History is probably the most accurate clone of Street Fighter II. The game is set in a tournament, character are from all over the world and they are able to use special techniques as well as projectiles for some them. 6 button layout is also retained from Capcom’s game.
All the character and background, however, are unique and creative. In addition, Fighter History’s main innovation is the concept of weak point. Each character has a weak point at the head, body or legs level. When hit enough time at their weak point, they get stun and the next move or combo will deal higher damage. The character who got stun can’t be stunned again in the same match.
The instruction manual implies that “K” himself gave a personal invitation to the player in order to join the tournament to challenge him. Following this, the light storyline talks about a wealthy man of power who host a tournament out of boredom. He offers his fortune as a prize to any fighter who defeats him. This man is found to be Karnov, alias “K”, a Russian legendary hero.
9 notable fighters went into their quests to challenge him, each for their own motivation. After fighting the other contestants, the winner will challenge Clown, who is heavily implied to work for Karnov and to prevent fighters to get to him. In the Super NES port, the two bosses have their own ending as well.
Fighter History doesn’t state which ending is canon. It is also notable to be one of the very few fighting games that the final boss isn’t evil.
When starting the game, the player will fight all nine characters (including a fight against the character he/she has chosen) in a random order. Then, the player will fight Clown and Karnov. However, to get the special ending sequence, one must beat the game at the highest difficulty level.
The Super NES port is very similar to the arcade original. Many simplifications had to be done but the gameplay was preserved. The music uses different instruments but are faithful to the one in the arcade port. Every character keeps most of their unique voice clip, but many of them lack their own K.O sound.
It also allows you to play as the two bosses (which isn’t possible in the arcade original). To do so, the player must input the following input sequence on the title screen, playing a sound if it worked :
RIGHT, RIGHT, UP, UP L and R.
Fighter's History playthrough
The playthrough use the USA version of Fighter’s History. The goal is the beat the game with each character (including Clown and Karnov) without getting it at the highest difficulty level.
TAS tools were used in this playthrough.