5 Really Weird Fighting Games

Fun Fact: I actually watched the cartoon series that this game was based on, as well as collected the figures that were in stores for a very short period of time. In my defense, I'd watch any action cartoon trying to get my Spider-Man The Animated Series fix. The toys were also easy to collect as they were always on clearance.

The idea that the show would get a video game made perfect sense at the time as Tradewest, the publisher with the Double Dragon license, was involved with the show. What doesn't make sense is that the decided to create a fighting game from the ground up for what has always been a side-scrolling beat 'em up.

The fighting couldn't hold a candle to Street Fighter II and the game failed to connect with anyone. Hell, did you know that the game featured some really brutal and bloody fatalities? I owned the damn game and didn't even know that until researching it for this list. Makes sense that parents never complained about decapitations for a game based on a G-rated cartoon, but nobody played the damn thing for longer than a rental.

What's strange to me is that Super Double Dragon was already on the SNES, so Tradewest could have easily told a studio to simply re-skin the game to better match the cartoon look, replace some bosses and tack together some new stages and the story from some random episode. We know this is possible as that's exactly what they did when they released the retro Double Dragon IV recently.

Rise of the Robots was a big deal. There was a couple of years there in the '90s where you couldn't open up a gaming magazine and not get a feature or advertisement for Rise of the Robots. This was supposed to be the next massive fighting game franchise that was prepped to take the gaming world by storm.

Then release date after release date was missed and the original idea was heavily scaled back because the tiny five man team promised far more than they could ever offer. The game was supposed to release in arcades, every single home and portable console and all form of home computers.

The games single programmer tried to create an advanced artificial intelligence system that would adapt to the player always keep them on their toes and from relying on a single move or pattern to win the day. It didn't work and you could beat the game with a trusty jump kick.

The graphics were bleeding edge at the time and each robot fighter required two months each to render out because of how complex and detailed they were. It's a shame the gameplay was bland and sluggish negating any visuals the game presented.

Rise of the Robots did manage to eek out a sequel that was much better but only because the years of marketing blitz ensured that gamers picked up the games on release. Nobody bought the sequel and most people don't even know one was released.

There was a time during the PlayStation 2 era of video games where gaming was exploding and becoming for artistic in nature, but also a time when anything with a license was pumped onto store shelves for a quick buck to take advantage of a trend.

Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers is the latter and took advantage of the newer 3D fighting game trend that took after Power Stone and Smash Brothers. The most notable thing about the game has nothing to do with the bland gameplay but with the fantastic voice acting several members of the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The game garnered a Teen rating, something really wild for a title designed to be sold to children thanks to the cartoon cast of combatants. Unfortunately, this higher rating didn't amount to much as the game felt really empty and, well, plain. All the weapons and environmental disasters just felt really lackluster.

Tom and Jerry: War of the Whiskers is really just a game without an audience. Teens of the day didn't care for investing time into the boring title while kids couldn't buy the game without the help of an adult. And there's nothing worse than a video game without an audience.

Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate is a 3D fighting game based on the hit television series. Again, what's with these developers going the fighting game route for licensed games? I suppose before the days of EVO and the fighting game community you could get away with something like this.

Because of this the game looked great but played blandly, something that seems to come with the territory. The graphics and textures looked great for the time which makes sense as a team doesn't have to crate huge worlds and loads of enemies like a traditional action-adventure game.

The game was praised for the graphics but everything else was sort of borked. Sound liked to cut in and out at times and the games manual didn't match up to what the game asked of you. No big deal now but back before the Internet was in everyones pocket this meant the messed up manual made getting into the game harder.

Gameplay is (as has become the case with this list) is really basic with combo chains being able to be executed by mashing a single button. One cool feature is is that, thanks to the N64, you could play against four people. But if two people or CPU team up o you the match is essentially over. Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate isn't great but would make for a fun party fighter.

Video games based on Dungeons & Dragons have been around as long at video game consoles have existed, with a game even gracing the Intellivision in 1981. And this makes sense as translating the pen and paper game into a dungeon crawler was, and still is, a great idea. What isn't a great idea is taking every that makes Dungeons & Dragoon, well, Dungeons & Dragon and removing it.

What we are left with is a fighting game based on the Ravenloft campaign of the RPG. The problem with this should be pretty clear. There aren't many heroes in D&D that are well known or long lasting as the whole idea if for you to create the party and be the hero of your own adventure.

This means that the characters here, while a ton of them, only filled a role from the D&D world. Orc dude, elf chick, ranger guy and so on. Gameplay wise, Iron and Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft was pretty jank with poor animations and funky camera angles that made actually hitting your opponent a chore.

What really annoyed most people was the games soundtrack. For a game based on a medieval setting of swords and sorcery you'd expect something epic along the lines of Game of Thrones. Instead, gamers were treated to techno music that made no damn sense. The game is now mostly forgotten which is probably for the best.