This was going to be my next post on the “Less is More in Fighting Games” thread but it was closed. I was just checking out the charts to see if my theory was close, and I think it speaks for itself.
Source:
SNES:
Street Fighter 2 (also the best selling fighting game of all consoles)
Sega Genesis:
Mortal Kombat 2
Sega Saturn:
Virtua Fighter
Sega Dreamcast:
Soul Calibur
Playstation:
Tekken 3
Playstation 2:
Tekken Tag Tournament tied with Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
Xbox:
Dead or Alive 3 (also sold more copies in Japan than any other Xbox game)
Source:
Xbox 360:
Dead or Alive 4
The reason for looking at the numbers is because my original argument was that overall, less is more in fighting games and the games that put too much into it are only appealing to the true hardcore crowd. This is proved by the numbers.
As you can see from my original list, I wasn’t too far off. I had said Street Fighter 2 series, best game is arguably all except the Anniversary Edition which added too much. I said Tekken Tag/Tekken 3 overall for Tekken Series. I said Mortal Kombat 2. And I said Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Although Street Fighter Alpha 3 sold more units on PSX than Alpha 2, so I was off on that one).
All in all, there is nothing wrong with having the hardcore crowd liking MCV2 or Street Fighter 3 over other fighters, but facts are facts. The average gamer doesn’t want so many features in their fighting games, and I think most gamers here would agree that Street Fighter 2, Tekken Tag, and DOA have been some of the best fighting games overall.
I don’t think you can say that those games would have been better or more appealing if they had 52-Hit Super Combos, Multiple ISM’s, Infinite Air Juggles, or 50 Playable Characters.
So there is the proof to support my argument.