The fighter is the character that resolves all their issues with their fists, feet or a melee weapon. Its an archetype that had a split evolution first appearing in 1976 with the arcade classic Heavyweight Champ, a game that actually employed boxing glove style controllers to simulate punching. It wasnt until the 80s that the character started to define themselves with the appearance of games like Karate Champ, which set out and standardised the model for the fighting genre. At is basic level this actually remains the standard model for all the Street Fighters, Mortal Kombats, Tekkens and pretty much any other fighting game up until today, relying on one-on-one combat, in a usually best of three environment. But the fighter as a character wasnt contained to this genre around the same time in the early eighties the emergence of beat 'em ups like Kung-Fu Master took the fighter and placed them in side scrollers, that took the same principle (win by fist, feet, melee), but gave it more freedom to progress through varying environments and multiple threats. This side of the fighter had a much larger evolution, going from early games like Streets Of Rage , Double Dragon, Final Fight and Golden Axe games and evolving into much larger, action-oriented games, like the Devil May Cry series or 2014's Bayonetta 2. Still, when people think of the fighter archetype, they look back to the classics such as Ryu, Cody or Sonya Blade, whose whole purpose is to win whichever way they can.
