Every Nintendo Fighting Game That Isn’t Smash Bros, Ranked

With Street Fighter 6 upcoming, gamers have been chatting incessantly about fighting games. There have been tons of great games released in the past year, like Guilty Gear Strive, King of Fighters XV, and the upcoming Multiversus, based on Nintendo’s famous Super Smash Bros series. However, that wasn’t Nintendo’s only attempt to make a fighter.

The studio has experimented with the genre as far back as the 80s. While Smash is their most successful, creating the sub-genre of Platform Fighters, Nintendo hasn’t given up. They’ve actually released fighting games on the Switch. Some of these games are true forgotten gems and deserve a look.

10 Urban Champion (NES, 1984)

Urban Champion wasn’t just Nintendo’s earliest experiment with fighting games, but an early fighting game in general. The game debuted years before Street Fighter 1 hit the arcades, making it an important entry in the genre’s history. Although players both at the time and nowadays were rather underwhelmed by it.

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The game is a street fight between two generic thugs in front of a storefront. There is no health bar, rather one wins by knocking their opponent into a manhole at the opposite end of the screen. There are no elaborate moves, only two types of punches and a block. It’s a fun curiosity to look back on, but not one of the NES’s best offerings.

9 Joy Mech Fight (Famicom, 1993)

Joy Mech Fight is a much more substantial fighting game outing. This game was released on the Japanese counterpart of the NES, the Famicom, as one of the last games for the system. It was never released stateside, but people who played it love it for its surprising complexity. The game stars a cavalcade of limbless robots in a fighting tournament, each with its own gimmick.

The game has a total of thirty-six characters. That’s a huge amount for the time, but the biggest star is the main character, Sukapon, a pink robot who used to be a comedian before being retooled into a fighting robot. This character ended up being so beloved that he appeared as an assist character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

8 Killer Instinct (SNES, 1995)

Killer Instinct was initially released in arcades through Midway. However, due to Nintendo’s strong ties with the developer Rare, they ended up publishing the SNES console port, and while Xbox owns the franchise nowadays, this was still a major release for Nintendo. Killer Instinct has some of the most iconic characters in 90s fighting games, after all.

Killer Instinct features digitized 3D model graphics, much like Rare’s Donkey Kong Country. This allowed for a lot of visually unique characters, like Eyedol and Spinal. Every character has basic combo systems, but also a “combo breaker” that allows counterattacks when being attacked. The game also introduced the “two life bar” system that would be used in games like Injustice.

7 Killer Instinct Gold (Nintendo 64, 1996)

Killer Instinct was a big hit for both Rare and Nintendo. The sequel, Killer Instinct 2, also proved to be a success in arcades. Rare began work on a port for Super Nintendo. However, Nintendo has a vested interest in promoting their new console, the Nintendo 64. As such, the 2 port was scrapped and Killer Instinct Gold, an enhanced version on N64 hardware, began development.

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Unfortunately, Gold was not as well received as other fighters at the time. While it featured enhanced sprites compared to the arcade release, it was criticized for removing the CG cutscenes and some voice acting. That’s not to say that Gold is a miss, though. It added a training mode and better camera, which wouldn’t be included in 2 until its Xbox rerelease.

6 Punch-Out!! (Wii, 2009)

Punch-Out!! is perhaps the first thing people think of when they think of a “Nintendo fighting game that isn’t Smash Bros.” However, the arcade and NES originals are entirely single-player, excluding them from the fighting genre. However, the 2009 reboot isn’t just one of the best games for the Wii, but also multiplayer.

Some adjustments did have to be made to make the multiplayer work, though. In the main game, player attacks come out near instantly, whereas here they’re given a delay to allow for opponent counters. There’s also a meter that builds up to let Little Mac turn into a giant form. Combine that with an excellent campaign for an absolute blast of a game.

5 Photo Dojo (DSi, 2010)

Nintendo has always been one for oddball choices. Photo Dojo definitely fits that mold. It used the Nintendo DSi’s camera in order to create its different characters. Players would take pictures of themselves or their friends and those would become the game’s graphics.

The game featured two modes; a traditional fighter and a beat-em-up. The beat-em-up saw the player lambasted by several of their created fighters all at once but weakened so they went down in one hit. The traditional fighter only had a few attacks and a desperation attack. Altogether, the package was very simple, but very novel as well.

4 Kirby Battle Royale (3DS, 2017)

This is another fighter from the DS family of handhelds. Unlike Photo Dojo, Kirby Battle Royale is actually an arena fighter focussing on open arena-based combat. Also fitting for the pink puff, it has tons of party game elements like random items and stage hazards.

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The game features twenty different playable characters and seventeen of them are different Kirby copy abilities, with the final two being voted on by fans. The game is notable for being Kirby’s first fully 3D game, likely serving as a template for Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Other than that, though, critics found it somewhat middling.

3 ARMS (Nintendo Switch, 2017)

ARMS is another arena fighter made by Nintendo. Developed by the same team as Mario Kart, it quickly became one of the best family games on the Nintendo Switch. The game concerns a bunch of fighters with stretchy arms that can hit people from across a room. While that sounds silly, it also has surprising depth.

Every character has a unique ability that allows for creative movement. In addition, there are tons of different weapons that can be switched out between rounds based on needs. The game saw frequent updates and even a character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. However, other projects like a comic were canceled, leaving the series’ future uncertain.

2 Pokken Tournament / Pokemon Tournament DX ( Wii U/Switch, 2015/2017)

The idea of a Pokémon fighting game makes a lot of sense given the abundance of fighting-type Pokémon. However, this game takes Pokémon from every type and imagines them in a 3D fighter with an emphasis on switching between close quarters and ranged combat. Its good design is to be expected given it was developed by the team behind Tekken.

Pokken Tournament originally debuted in arcades before going to the Wii U and later got ported to the Switch. The Wii U version had sixteen characters, with the Switch version bringing it up to twenty-three. This is in addition to a plethora of assist Pokémon which can be used to control your opponent’s position or buff player Pokémon. It never had the biggest player base but those who liked it found a unique and interesting 3D fighter.

1 Kirby Fighters 2 (Switch, 2020)

The original Kirby Fighters was a bonus mini-game in the 3DS title Kirby Triple Deluxe. It got an updated eShop downloadable release later, but Kirby Fighters 2 for Switch is where the gameplay finally shined. It uses the core Kirby platformer gameplay as a basis for a unique party fighter with an emphasis on heavy spacing, and features twenty-two characters, including the new Kirby ability Wrestler.

The game also has a pretty good online, which is rare for a Nintendo game. It does however not have a built-in one-on-one system for online, which partially stifled online competitive scenes. Still, the game is quite a fun time with every character having a variety of fun moves, there being a lot of fun items that bring chaos, a full campaign with unique bosses, and stages packed full of references for old-school fans. It might not be the deepest fighter, but there’s a lot of fun to be had here.

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Author: James Potvin