This game is honestly just something else. It's an old school fighting game that is very reminiscent of Street Fighter 2, and that influence doesn't just come from the feel for the game but also a lot of the characters special moves are pretty similar, though there are some really interesting characters here as well. At first glance, the roster doesn't seem like anything special outside of Clown probably but really the characters are all pretty fun to play. Not unlike Street Fighter again the characters are mostly representatives of their respective countries and often display some sort of cultural martial art. And of course this game has a shoto and other characters with pretty recognizable movesets and gameplay that made me feel like I had played this game before even though it was my first time.

While at first I was somewhat underwhelmed I really felt like I enjoyed this game a lot more as I kept playing. First, the game looks and sounds amazing. It has a distinct SNES visual style with great backgrounds, and dynamic music. Arcade mode takes you around to every stage, fighting every character to ultimately fight the final boss Karnov atop a giant eastern temple. Along the way you will see a lot of great backdrops with a lot of destructible environment pieces that make big hits feel more impactful. Additionally, the background changes every round. Each stage has 2 forms, sometimes it can be something like changing the weather or time of day, but sometimes it can be an entirely different background, which really adds a lot to this games presentation. The characters also all have really good sounding voices for when they use special moves and win rounds that are really charming.

In terms of gameplay, this game is really simple. Basically, its Street Fighter, except there is not even a super meter. The unique mechanic for this game is how it utilizes stun. Each character has a specific clothing item that when hit enough times will fall off and result in a stun. It's usually something like a headband or mask but can also be located on a fighters legs or torso instead, so each character has a different weakpoint. I noticed while playing Clown how easily some characters could be stunned by him, as his Spin Attack would hit them in their weakpoint every time. So while this is probably not at all balanced, I still thought it was pretty funny, and was pretty rewarding. Special move inputs in this game are usually pretty standard, but there are certainly some awkward ones depending on the character you choose, though overall id say the difficulty of execution in this game for casual play is relatively low.

The games story is really nothing to write home about, but the writing for the characters endings are actually pretty good. Clown's ending was really great, after winning the prize money from the tournament, he still goes around bugging people for change, which results in the other characters in the game being so frustrated that they lost to him, literally referring to him as a menace to society. It was probably the best ending I've ever seen in a fighting game like this. There is not a single character in this game that I think is intended to be taken seriously which I think is awesome.

Overall, this game doesn't do anything special that would draw people in to play it at the arcade, and thats probably why it's not really around in any capacity anymore. That being said, if you can find a way to emulate this game, it's really worth your time just to see what it was all about. While it will probably always live in the shadow of Street Fighter, Fighter's History is a pleasant game that deserves to be remembered.