10 Biggest Missed Opportunities In Fighting Game History
How did Jump Force fail that badly? How?!
Sometimes, when work is a grind, people are demanding, and life is generally getting you down, you need a little release.
While some might read a nice book with a glass of wine in hand or soak in a big old bubble bath, there are others who find freedom by jumping into a fighting game and kicking the ever-living crap out of someone. Throw that stress ball away and chuck Guilty Gear on instead!
Fighting games are an undeniably huge part of gaming. The medium has all the hallmarks of a top-tier genre, with countless iconic IPs, a thriving Esports community, deep/dense lore archives and a massive player base. Even if you don't like jumping into the likes of Tekken, Smash Bros. or Street Fighter, you can't deny their impact on the industry. However, nothing is perfect.
While the genre is constantly going from strength-to-strength, there have been plenty of times when players have been close to receiving perfection, only to have the rug pulled out from under them.
Whether this is in botched storylines, janky gameplay, failed titles or more, it's safe to say these missed opportunities make gamers want to throw punches at the developers, rather than Raiden.
10. Saints Row: The Cooler
The gaming industry is littered with the corpses of video games that never were. The fighting genre has plenty of experience with this, as it is no stranger to a cancelled game or two. Midway's X-Fighters, Atari's Swords of Yi, and even a Lord of the Rings fighter are just a few examples. There's a never-ending barrage of titles that ceased development, but this surprising title is a very potent what-if.
The Saints Row franchise probably needs as much love as it can muster right now, especially after the embarrassment of the 2022 reboot. But, of all Volition's bombastic and wild adventures, this one could have been one of the most out there.
In 2010, THQ collaborated with developers Heavy Iron on a mission to create the first Saints Row motion-controlled game.
This title was called Saints Row: The Cooler, and it would have given gamers the chance to jump into bars and get into fights, all with the physical actions coming from you, with Microsoft Kinect and PlayStation Move.
This game would have you fight in locations seen in Saints Row 2 and had additional features like flirting with bar patrons and even *ahem* watching strippers. Would it have been good? Who knows, but finding out for yourself would have been fun.