The first recognized fighting game was the 1979 arcade game, Warrior. This game used simple monochrome vector graphics projected over the top of printed backgrounds. It was over a decade later that fighting games would establish themselves as a major genre and player versus player combat become popular.•

Modern versus fighting games can either be two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D). Characters in 2D fighting games (Street Fighter, The King of Fighters, early Mortal Kombat, Guilty Gear, Killer Instinct) are hand-drawn/digitized and animated sprites, and can move left and right and duck and jump, but in many games they can't sidestep or move closer to the screen. Games where the player can slightly take advantage of depth of the fighting arena include many of those in the Fatal Fury series. The player's viewpoint scrolls in various directions but stays at a fixed angle. The 2D fighter's characteristic gameplay mechanics are exaggerated jumps, projectile attacks, and an "air/ground/low" attack/block system. Since there is a lack of depth, two-dimensional titles usually involve extensive moves that take advantage of the height of the screen, as jump attacks are essential moves. Two dimensional games stem from long-established fighting systems that have been greatly refined over the years, resulting in most modern 2D fighters having more possible standard techniques than 3D fighters. Guilty Gear X2, for example, has instant-kills, opponent-launching moves, and a complex system of counter attacks and escapes.

Two-dimensional fighters also have a greater number of crossovers: games where several characters from various other games are merged into one title. These games typically have a very large amount of playable characters, sometimes numbering over 64. Mashup fighters tend to be tag matches; the player chooses several characters, can switch between them during rounds, and utilize team-up attacks. Additionally, these games tend to have several different fighting systems to choose from, incorporating the fighting system from each originating game. Crossovers include Capcom's Versus series (Marvel vs. Capcom, Capcom vs. SNK et al), SNK's King of Fighters series, and Sega's Fighters Megamix.


In 3D titles (Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Tekken, Dead or Alive, later Mortal Kombat games), the characters and stages are 3D polygon-based models. The camera's viewpoint is not fixed and can rotate and move in any direction, and the characters can sidestep as well as duck and jump. In contrast with the gameplay of 2D titles, jumping and projectile attacks are typically minor elements. Often blocking and attacking are more complex, featuring high, mid, and low attacks and blocks. Thus, the gameplay in 3D fighters is generally two-dimensional as well, although in the XY dimensions instead of XZ; however, there are exceptions such as Power Stone and Tobal No. 1. 3D fighting games usually have slower attack speeds than their 2D counterparts, because instead of a punch being represented by a two-frame animation, a 3D game usually has a longer sequence (often created using motion capture) which is allowed to play fully, causing the overall attack to be slower but more realistic.

Three-dimensional games usually have much larger fighting arenas, which can have multiple sub-sections/paths (most notably in the Dead or Alive series). There is a tendency for a number of environmental hazards that can be utilized against the opponent, such as knocking a player off a cliff or into an electric fence. Many three-dimensional fighters have two win conditions; standard health depletion or ring-out. A ring-out is accomplished by forcing the player out of the fighting arena either with an attack or just pressure. Some 3D fighting games have gameplay that closely mimics 2D fighters, incorporating three-dimensional depth as a method of escaping attacks rather than an essential part of the fighting system. Notable examples of this include Capcom's Rival Schools and Star Gladiator series and Midway's Biofreaks.