 Ssssssssss... That's drunk! When it comes to 16-bit fighting game, you can usually look at them on a scale of somewhere between Street Fighter 2 and how badly a game rips off Street Fighter 2. Data East went one further with Fighters History, which was originally made for the arcades in early 1993, before sending the game to Super Nintendo in the summer of 1994. And this one is such a rip-off that Capcom actually sued Data East for copyright infringement. It's pretty funny to read about the case, just to hear stuffy law types discuss special moves and inputs and stuff like that, and plus it led to a few interesting results. One is that Capcom lost the case, with Judge William Oric of the Northern District of California saying that courts will not extend copyright protection if it leads to an eventual monopoly over an idea, saying that there's over 650 moves in Street Fighter II, many of which just lead to commonplace punches and kicks, and aren't worthy of copyright protection. So what he ended up ruling is that Fighter's history is too generic to be compared directly to Street Fighter II, which nearly made me laugh out loud when I first read about it. Data East had to be happy that they didn't have to pay a settlement or anything, but jeez, what a backhanded result that is. But Data East did get the last laugh here, saying that their arcade game Karate Champ predates Street Fighter II by two years, despite the fact that the latter game is a great transcendent title, while Karate Champ, uh, kinda isn't. The thing is though, people that were familiar not just with video games, but with Street Fighter II, the cart result ultimately isn't gonna matter to them, because I mean, just look at this. Does that look and sound a little familiar to anyone? Wait, this guy's name is Matlock? Of all the names you can pick from, you're rolling with an elderly lawyer played by Andy Griffith. Well, at least Grandpa Simpson would be happy with this game. Is he wearing his pants backwards? Maybe that actually is Matlock. As far as the actual game goes, if you've played a 16-bit one-on-one fighting game that rips off Street Fighter II to the point that there's a lawsuit, then you've played this game. It's a six-button setup, weak, medium, and strong punches and kicks, quarter-circle forward, quarter-circle back, plus a punch or a kick will do some kind of special move, depending on the character or whatever. Whether that's the Balanced Ryu rip-off, or the Faster Chun-Li rip-off, or the Slow Rezang-Gi rip-off, or friggin' Matlock. At least their Dalsim rip-off isn't as on the nose, he's kind of like a cross between Dalsim and Sagat, throwing in the Muay Thai kind of vibe. Believe it or not, there is one thing about the combat here that's a bit different. Fighter's history has a weak point system, where if you hit a certain part of your opponent off and enough, it'll start to flash, and at that point, if you hit that area again, it'll make them dazed, allowing you to hit your strongest attack. Each fighter can only be dazed once per round though, so it's not something you can abuse. But hey, at least it's something that's slightly different. Now, I don't want to be too hard on Fighter's history here, because as an arcade port, it's fine. In fact, it cuts a surprisingly quick pace. This isn't Rise of the Robots type garbage. This is solidly okay, I guess. As far as Shameless Street Fighter II clones go, there's nine playable characters, which is nice. Plus, there's a code, so you can play as the two boss characters. Fighter's history got a follow-up that stayed in Japan called Fighter's History Mizuguchi Kikin Ipatsu, and it's, you know, more of the same. The direct sequel went to arcades via Neo Geo called Karnav's Revenge, which was later released as Fighter's History Dynamite for the home system. So yeah, I don't really mean to be that hard on Fighter's History. I just think it's a funny story how a game got sued for being too much like another game, only for that game to win the lawsuit because the court determined the game to be too generic to be compared to something better. The thing is, though, Fighter's History does a lot right. The backgrounds are great for one thing. It's great to see moving characters living their lives back there. The music is fine. The controls are consistent. And the game looks good overall. It's just so, so derivative. And there's no way you're missing anything if you skip this one. It's just a neat story, if nothing else. All right, I want to thank you for watching. And I hope you have a great rest of your day.