Fighting games have always been about walking the line between simplicity and complexity. Their premise is easy to comprehend: Beat up the other guy. Two fighters--or two teams of fighters--enter, one leaves, with only a health bar standing between them. Even in 2012, these games are still largely based in 2D-style arenas, a tenet that continues to keep them reminiscent of the arcade days of yesteryear. For all the high production values, super combos, and increasingly complex controls that modern fighting games may feature, they’ll always be based on those basic principles that endeared them to players long before today’s technology.

Thus, it’s no surprise that many in the dedicated fighting game community look back at the history of fighting games fondly. And while most fans will swear by Street Fighter II as the be-all, end-all of the genre’s roots, the reality is that things are a little more complicated. So let’s take a look back at this rich--yet still straightforward--history, and see if we can parse out the knockouts from the knocked-out.

Fighting games’ beginnings aren’t exactly rooted in the kind of titles we recognize as being part of the genre today. Instead, the first instance of virtual hand-to-hand combat was in Heavyweight Champ, a 1976 arcade boxing game from Sega. It sported black-and-white graphics, the side-view perspective that would soon become the standard for all fighters--and, interestingly enough, was controlled through a pair of boxing gloves that were tethered to the arcade cabinet.

Another one of the earliest recognized fighters was Warrior, published by Vectorbeam for the arcade. Like Heavyweight Champ, Warrior wasn’t a fighting game in the traditional sense, instead featuring two swordfighters in one-on-one combat. Despite being unique for its time, Warrior was by-and-large terrible, with hideous looks and sluggish controls. Nevertheless, games like Warrior and Heavyweight Champ laid the most basic foundations for the higher-quality fighters that would follow.

Perhaps the first of those high-quality fighters was Technos Japan’s Karate Champ--a game that, while basic, can probably be considered the first fighting game (as we know them now). It featured numerous innovations that would recur in later fighters, including dual-joystick, no-button controls, extra stages, and best-of-three round matches.

It was even followed by one of the first true fighting game sequels, Karate Champ - Player vs. Player, which was released a few months after the original’s debut in 1984. But most importantly, Karate Champ helped establish martial arts as the preferred basis for fighting games in general, a characteristic which endures today.

Nintendo entered the fighting game scene shortly after Karate Champ with the forgettable Urban Champion, also released in 1984. All-in-all, it failed to live up to the high standards that Nintendo had set with its other first-party titles at the time. But that didn’t stop Urban Champion from introducing a handful of conventions that have gone on to become major staples of fighting games in general.

Chief among these was the ability to easily defend and evade; it sounds simple, but somehow hadn’t been a fundamental aspect of previous fighters. It also had a stamina bar, a simple two-player mode, and was one of the first titles to feature anything resembling what are now called “ring outs.” What Urban Champion didn’t feature, though, were seemingly obvious elements like a health bar, ducking, or jumping, all flaws which have kept Urban Champion from achieving Nintendo’s typical standards of quality.

It’s worth noting that the definition of what exactly a “fighting game” consisted of wasn’t entirely clear by the mid-eighties. While our label-centric times could easily distinguish a beat-em-up from a traditional fighter, players thirty years ago didn’t have such luxury. This led to many titles that were largely seen as fighters at the time, but probably wouldn’t be as such now.

One of the better examples of these kind-of-but-not-really fighters was 1984’s Karateka, the first title from future Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner. Originally designed for the Apple II and later ported to home consoles, Karateka had wonderful production values for its time. The plot, audio, and animations are all deserving of praise, though the game’s frustrating difficulty and repetitive combat dragged it down a bit. Karateka’s fights were primarily one-on-one karate bouts, which has led some to deem it a fighting game, but it’s probably better classified as a hybrid between that and a side-scroller.

The mid-'80s were certainly a busy time for fighting games, as even more soon-to-be genre standards continued to arise through a handful of now-lesser-known fighters. First, the Japan-exclusive Onna Sansirou: Typhoon Gal (yes, that’s the real title) was the first entry in the genre to include throws and grapples, as well as the first to feature multiple enemies to fight at the same time. Next is Shanghai Kid, which was the first fighter to feature a combo system (albeit a rather rudimentary one).

Finally, there’s Konami’s Galactic Warriors. Somehow under-recognized after all these years, Galactic Warriors was the first mech fighting game. It also featured a ton of seminal mechanics: being able to play as more than one character, projectiles, the ability to block and attack multiple times in midair, character-specific move sets, attacks that varied in power, and a more traditional health bar. Yes, this game brought a lot to the table--but its slow-moving combat and occasionally absurd difficulty may be what kept it from being remembered as one of the greats.

Fighting games as a whole continued to expand and improve upon themselves up through 1985, when a couple of highly influential fighters were released. One of those, Konami’s Yie Ar Kung-Fu, took the solid fundamentals of Karate Champ and the innovations of games like Galactic Warrior, combined the two, and came away as what many consider to be a genuine kick off point for all of fighting games. It had multiple unique opponents that each had their own specific fighting style, a complete and relatively coherent plot, and an extensive--for its time--combo system that utilized joystick movements, button presses, and your character’s fighting stance.

That same year saw the launch of The Way of the Exploding Fist. It didn’t control as tightly as Yie Ar Kung-Fu, but wound up being one of the most popular fighting games ever released. It was so popular, in fact, that it’s largely known today for basically being copied by various games that followed its launch. It had plenty of redeeming qualities, though (especially in the graphical department), and even spawned a couple follow-ups later on.

The majority of post-1985 fighting games were too busy trying to duplicate the successes of Karate Champ, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, and The Way of the Exploding Fist instead of actually trying to improve the quality of their releases. Thus, the next couple of years were riddled with substandard fighters, which even included the original Street Fighter, released in 1987. While that game did feature six-button controls and special moves, it has generally been all but forgotten. Its sequel, however, just may be the most important game in the genre’s history.

Released in 1991, Street Fighter II refined all the previously invented innovations and conventions that came before it, making it a huge hit with arcade-goers all over the world. Besides looking fantastic, SF II played like a dream, and featured enough variety in its move sets and characters to keep players coming back for weeks. SF II also changed the face of competitive gaming, by localizing versus play. Members of the fighting game community may have existed before Street Fighter II, but the sequel brought them all together en masse for the first time.

It’s easy to go overboard and look back at the influence of Street Fighter II through rose-colored glasses, but the majority of fighters that followed SF II once again had a knack for trying to copy the champ rather than beat it. One of the few exceptions to this stagnancy, though, was Fatal Fury, the first fighting game from longtime genre stalwart SNK.

Released for the Neo Geo, it marked the beginning of not only the Fatal Fury franchise, but the later King of Fighters series too, since the game’s plot revolved around the “King of Fighters” tournament. It sported a deeper narrative, spectacular special moves, and the ability to move from the background to the foreground while fighting. Though it wasn’t nearly as successful as Street Fighter II, SNK would have later success with the likes of Samurai Showdown and Art of Fighting.

Street Fighter II would remain the clear top dog until late 1992, when Midway released the first Mortal Kombat, a game which was, let’s say, controversial in its day. Featuring ultraviolent finishers known as “Fatalities,” digital character models, the ability to “juggle” characters in midair, and quirky “Test Your Might” minigames, Mortal Kombat was, surprisingly, very accessible to those who were old enough to play it.

MK controlled fairly simply, was goofy and gratuitously gory enough to be endearing, and had enough government legislators citing it as the spawn of Satan to give it that extra boost of popularity. Put all that together and it isn’t surprising to hear that Mortal Kombat was just the first in a long franchise of media that continues on as one of the world’s premier fighting game series today.

While the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat were just beginning their battle for 2D fighting game supremacy, Sega had been mostly unsuccessful in trying to carve out a name for itself within the genre. Titles like Holosseum and Dark Edge didn’t prove popular, and while Eternal Champions sold well, it didn’t set a new standard. It wasn’t until the release of Virtua Fighter in 1993 that the Japanese publishing giant saw its greatest gains.

VF was the first arcade fighter to feature fully 3D graphics--although those would come to look outdated just a short while later--and its controls were basic enough that anyone could pick up and play. This accessibility was key, as it almost single-handedly sold the Sega Saturn console to millions of fighting fans around the globe when it was ported to that system a year later.

Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Virtua Fighter were big enough to keep fighting games afloat by themselves at the time, but the mid-'90s saw the genre start a decline in popularity that would largely last for the next decade-and-a-half. Yes, there were quality franchises launched during this timeframe--games like Tekken, Dead or Alive, the Soul series, Guilty Gear, Marvel vs. Capcom, and others. But for the most part, those series never reached the heights previous fighting games had attained.

The people behind these fighting games seemed to have lost sight of what made games like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat popular in the first place: their accessibility. An enormous part of the previous games’ appeal was that anyone, from grizzled FGC vets to lowly newbies, could enjoy a round or two. As time passed, though, fighting games became more and more specialized. They pandered too much to the hardest of the hardcore, and as a result, became too complex and convoluted for their own good. Soon enough, the fighting game market became sequel-ridden and too unoriginal to reignite the kind of passion it had in the past.

This lull mostly maintained with few exceptions until the end of the decade. But in 1999, Nintendo--of all companies--released their crossover blockbuster Super Smash Bros. on the N64. It not only pitted the Big N’s iconic characters against each other for the first time, but also spawned the kind of loving, large-scale community around it that hadn’t been seen in years. Super Smash Bros. wasn’t exactly a fighting game in the traditional sense, what with its larger-than-average environments, lack of life bars, and emphasis on ring outs over traditional KOs.

What SSB did have, though, was that all-important pick-up-and-play factor, especially in multiplayer. But even though it was instantly accessible, SSB also managed to develop a deeply dedicated competitive scene around its large cast of characters. For the first time in a while, a major fighting game had manage to capture that spark between people who’ll spend hours learning its nuance--and people who just want to punch Jigglypuff for a couple matches. The fact that it’s probably being played in any given college dorm hall at this very moment is a testament to its everlasting success.

We decided to fast-forward a decade here because, well, there weren’t too many significant landmarks in the fighting game scene in the early-to-mid 2000s. Again, the genre had hit a kind of lull, highlighted by a few excellent new titles--BlazBlue, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Third Strike--but marked by overall decreased enthusiasm and a deathly case of sequel-itis. Thankfully, though, there would soon be signs of life again in fighting games, with a familiar brand leading the charge.

That brand, of course, was Street Fighter. Its fourth core installment, released in 2009, began something of a renaissance for the genre as a whole. Its new online modes, revised controls, spectacular production values, and general commitment to bringing the SF franchise into modernity endeared it with critics and fans alike. There was, and continues to be, a distinct nostalgic streak in many gamers these days--so when Street Fighter came back with its mix of classic gameplay and sexy looks, most players welcomed it with open arms. It was just the right mix of old and new, released at just the right time in a market saturated with big-budget shooters.

As previously mentioned, Street Fighter IV can be seen as the kickoff point for a revitalized modern interest in fighting games. If the last three years are indication, there’s a definite demand for more fighters, as a multitude of strong titles have been released. These include improved sequels--like Tekken 6, Tekken Tag Tournament, Soulcalibur V, and the rebooted Mortal Kombat--as well as relatively newer titles, like Persona 4: Arena and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

On the whole, fighting games could stand to have a little more originality, but it would seem like we’re in the midst of a fighting game renaissance. For those who have been a part of the fighting game community since the days of Karate Champ or Yie Ar Kung-Fu, these days couldn’t be any brighter.

As always, running through the complete history of an entire genre would be just too much for one feature. So, if there’s anything important that you think we snubbed, let us know in the comments below.

And for more thoughts on fighting games, check out our Top 7s of the best fighting game characters and companies that deserve their own fighting game, as well as our list of 29 obscure fighters that deserve HD remakes.