Whenever the Smash Bros. community interacts with other fighting game communities, it inevitably leads to comments that Smash Bros. is not a fighting game. More often than not, these comments are trolls meant to rile Smash fans and belittle the games they’ve spent so much time on, but I’ve also seen people argue this point in earnest, and I want to discuss some of the points that tend to get brought up, if only to make people aware that the category of “fighting game” isn’t all that sacred.
The first assertion that gets thrown out is that the Smash Bros. series is simply not good enough to be considered a fighting game. Either it’s too simplistic or it doesn’t reward competition enough, and so fails to qualify for the fighting game pantheon. But since when has competitive viability and depth of gameplay actually defined fighting games? For every fighting game that is remotely competitive, I can name twice as many that fall apart under scrutiny and are just plain bad. So why is it that a game like Rise of the Robots is allowed to be called a fighting game, while something like Smash Bros. isn’t?
The second assertion is that Smash Bros. does not qualify for the genre because it does not fulfill supposedly “fundamental” aspects of fighting games. Over the years, I’ve seen people say everything from the fact that the game doesn’t have traditional life bars to the fact that it’s four-player to the fact that items exist in the game to the presence of stage hazards. More recently, people have been saying that it’s not a fighting game, but rather a “party game,” a “platformer,” a “beat-em-up,” or any combination of those categories.
But in bringing up those genres, it must be said that there are fighting games that fall under those categories that aren’t Smash Bros. As I show examples of each, keep in mind that I am not defining the fighting game genre based on how “good” the games are, and you shouldn’t either. “Balance” is a non-issue here.
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Fighting Vipers
Non-Traditional Life Bars
Fighting Vipers has kids dressed in armor beating each other up in a closed arena. The game has life bars, but it also has an armor system wherein shattering pieces of armor makes the opponent more vulnerable to attacks. You can see it in action at 00:52.
World Heroes 2
Non-Traditional Life Bars/Stage Hazards
A game where warriors from throughout history engage in 1-on-1 combat, while the regular gameplay in World Heroes 2 is about as conventional as it gets, there is also a special “Death Match” mode. Rather than having two distinct life bars, one large bar is shared by both players in a sort of tug-of-war battle. Also note the buzz saws and electrified ropes.
Aggressors of Dark Kombat
Beat-em-up
Aggressors of Dark Kombat actually features gameplay where characters can move up and down the stage field, reminiscent of Final Fight or Double Dragon. It is literally a beat-em-up fighting game. The female character, Kisarah Westfield, made her return in Neo-Geo Battle Coliseum.
King of the Monsters
Beat-em-up/Items/Stage Hazards
King of the Monsters also possibly qualifies for the “wrestling game” genre, and as a result, also possibly the “Non-Traditional Life Bar” because of how you need to win by pinning. Incidentally, a lot of the beat-em-up fighting games are made by SNK, though this is the only one featuring giant monsters destroying a city in the process.
The Outfoxies
Platformer/Items/Stage Hazards
Featuring assassins trying to kill each other with swords, guns, and bazookas, The Outfoxies is probably the game closest to Smash Bros. in feel and style, especially in the platformer-esque gameplay. By the way, there actually exists an Outfoxies tournament, and the game can get pretty amazing. Again though, that doesn’t really matter.
Power Stone 2
Platformer/Beat-em-up/4-Player/Items/Stage Hazards
Power Stone 2 is probably the example that best features almost all of the “not really a fighting game” categories in an actual fighting game. Like so many games in the genre, it features warriors from around the world.
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So there we go. If you don’t consider the above examples to be fighting games either, then there really isn’t anything I can say.
By the way, I’d better not seeing any Melee vs. Brawl in the comments.
OGIUE MANIAX 
I have played games like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat for years and i enjoyed the original Smash bros when it came out. I also enjoyed the 2 sequels later on as well. I agree that that the term fighting game is pretty loose especially in the case of Power Stone (proud owner). I have no problem with calling the Smash Bros series “fighting games”.
I just think that all the frustration is directed toward the tournament scene. Even though games like SF, MK, Tekken, Soulcalibur, etc have different gameplay the end result is still the same. The one thing I’ve always believed is that the better the core gameplay is the less you have to remove in order to be “competitive”. The above games barely have anything that they remove/ban, not always though but still pretty rare. Where as with all Tournament Smash Bros you HAVE to make it 1on1 or occasionally 2on2 (never 1v1v1v1), eliminate all items, eliminate 3/4 of the stage selection in order to be “serious”. You get the idea. I would appreciate it more if tournaments just kept the game the way it is. Or at least have it run along the watered down tournament. Either way they’re all games and they’re all fun and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter to me what they’re called.
I don’t think I worded that as perfectly as I could have, but I’m tired and I felt like getting that off my chest.
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your axiom isn’t really true at all, because you fail to take into account things like all those other games being arcade games that need to have simpler choices, while smash is a game made for consoles that gives you a bunch of options.
because of that, you have to make smash 1v1 or 2v2 because 1v1v1v1 is simply impossible to take seriously. similarly, the items are banned because they get people killed or give people crazy and unstoppable advantages completely out of nowhere. and, yes, most of the stages are banned because they can get people randomly killed, or because they give unstoppable advantages if you just camp a certain corner all day, or simply because they’re so huge that 99% of matches would go to draws/sudden death from time out… often all three.
if tournaments kept smash “like it is” (which goes against the *entire point* as it really doesn’t have defaults), the game would be completely unplayable and completely unwatchable. having all this crap left in is what really makes the game “watered down”. if smash was an arcade game (and i don’t mean outfoxies), it wouldn’t have quite as much choice, and/or either all of these bans would still happen or the game would be ignored as a gimmicky mess.
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Capcom’s Marvel super heroes could also fit on this list because of the souls gems which grant increased speed, health bonuses, etc.
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i don’t really see what that has to do with any of the above, as the game is otherwise stereotypical and gems just give you boosts to your stereotypical “fighting game” abilities. that’s like saying mk isn’t “traditional” because everyone has the same normals and the use of a block button.
i don’t entirely understand why fighting vipers is on this list either, as this armor doesn’t completely change the way the game is meant to be played like these other games do. in fact, there are games people actually play that already have a similar system: fighter’s history dynamite has weak points that cause instant dizzies, and soulcalibur iv uses a system just like fighting vipers (as well as the soul gauge which can lead to instant wins, similar to hokuto no ken). then you have games like soul edge and samurai spirits zero with their weapon strength bars, which are just weapon strength bars.
none of these things make you rethink how you have to approach the game, they just change a few details (and can fall into the “gimmick” zone if not handled properly).
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Also dissidia final fantasy
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I’m a little late to the party, but I’d like to mention my personal favorites: the two Bushido Blade games, whose focus on realistic weapon combat and one-hit kills make them the perfect antidote to traditional fighting games. Sure, both games have their share of issues—the first game is rather obtuse, with an astounding amount of complexity well-hidden beneath hideous character designs (for the story mode, at least) and an apparently-limited roster (the secret being that the numerous weapons are the real stars here); the second expands the roster while removing a bit of depth form the combat, though it plays more intuitively.
I’ve never heard anyone deny Bushido Blade proper fighting game status, though I have heard a large number of people actively voice their hatred for the series.
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really, “traditional” just means “descended from sf2 (and vf by some technicality)”, which is pretty meaningless. if you think about it, virtua fighter is pretty non-traditional due to using a completely different kind of fighting system. all those pre-sf2 games that noone wants to care about anymore are also being neglected, as well as the fact that sf2 was meant to be one of these games in the first place.
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