Fighters you can legally play 

CORRECTION: Tekken 5 Dark resurrection still appears to be on the PS3 store as of now. You certainly have to do some digging since its kinda tucked away in the PS3 store (Which seems to be on life support by how slow its running) But overall im happy to be wrong about this since i highly recommend getting this version if you have a PS3. Still a shame its not on anything modern now but well take what we can get. Also MK Vs DC is availble to play on Xbox one through backwards compatability! You might roll your eyes but i think the story mode is worth it alone if you want a good laugh. Thank you to those who kindly pointed this out to me 😊

I’m loving that this channel is dedicated to everything about fighters except the actual fighting. Keep it up!

I’m convinced guest characters are gonna fuck up our ability to play any fighters 10 years from now

It's great you talked about this subject since a lot of good games from certain series don't get re-release. Especially Tekken 4. I do believe preservation for these games should be very important and accessibility is greatly appreciated for those who want to learn why we love these games a lot!

I am so glad you said Tekken 4 is your favorite of all time. It's one of my favorites too and it deserves more love. It's SO much fun, so unique, and it's directly because of the gameplay that gets little to no love from the community. But as to this channel, fighting games is more than just the actual fighting in a goofy sense.

Excellent video. Thanks for mentioning DOA. DOA5LR still has a competitive scene and the playstation lobby mode still works fantastically 10 years later.

You're definitely right about Mortal Kombat being the worst offender of bad video game preservation. You can pretty much only play the games on the consoles they released in, with the small exception being MK11 which is playable in both PS4 and PS5, but it barely counts because it's the newest game in the series and it came out a year before a new console (game came out in 2019, PS5 came out in 2020). The PS2 games for example, which are some of the most beloved in the franchise btw, are unavailable outside of original hardware. It sucks, you have to emulate everything.

Guilty Gear being one of the better preserved fighting game franchises is crazy, the only games missing are the spinoffs Petit 1&2, Dust Strikers and Vastedge

I think I remember Harada tweeting around the time the PS1 Classic got revealed that Gon wasn't and has never an obstacle in re-releasing Tekken 3. Don't know if he was being truthful or not, but I can't think of any reason he'd be yanking people's chain about it. Great video!

I think the reason Capcom only releases arcade versions isn't ease of porting, but rather a holdover from the PS1-Dreamcast era of Arcade Ports. At that time, the most impressive mark for a Home console release was Arcade accuracy. People specifically were looking for a more affordable way to play the game compared to an arcade, so a perfect 1-to-1 replica was the most desirable. And as arcades waned in popularity, there was still the demand for arcade accurate emulation for competition, with complete remakes or unfaithful ports being unpopular in the competitive FGC. Arcade Accurate ports are often harder than porting home releases, which made lots of people see home re-releases as a cop out. Even today, the FGC mostly plays on arcade accurate versions of the games if they can, so the Home console versions would be a neat addition but not the main seller in Capcom's eyes. That's my 2 cents anyways, I'd love if Capcom kept the Home releases like how Sonic collections have the Game Gear games.

WE DOING CRIMES THIS EPISODE?

Fantastic video! As someone who loves game history, and is always worried about preservation, I’m glad you were able to make a detailed and succinct video to showcase how little curation fighting games get. Whether it be small things like Yoshimitsu’s T6 preorder costume, or whole characters like Mai Shiranui in DOA5, so much content has been lost to time already, and sadly, no one can possibly snag everything before it’s delisted. So I find it great that videos like this can help people find current content before it disappears. Thank you for your effort!

Having MvC2 in my possession is such a joy. Love the breakdown and coverage of how we have loss some very good crossovers. Never really know what we have, until we lose it. (S/O to Bloody Roar)

One thing im amazed you didnt mentioned being Persona 4 Arena, Guilty Gear, and Blazblue. But i understood since only recently they gotten popular and later went underground. I can give you a quick rundown on their statuses. Guilty Gear: GG1 is preserved, last i checked. Its on the Switch as well. GGX is a mess and story mode is Japanese exclusive. GGXX is also a nightmare, and in a weird way a similar case of SF4 and USF4 with 2 halves of the story mode (Best bet is 360 with X2 #Reload and XXAC+). GG2 is not a fIghting game but its on PC instead of just being 360 exclusive, so thats good. Xrd Sign, Rev and Rev2 are on PS3 and PS4(BC on PS5) so its safe. Blazblue: all 4 games are stuck on PS3. Last 2 games are on PS4 weirdly enough. Xbox owners have the first 2 on 360 and 3rd game on One. PC has all four games. Persona 4 Arena: PS3/360 for both games. Only first game is BC on Xbox One. I heard both games got re-release on Switch so thats good? Yea, fighting games can be hard to play legally and preserve.

Tekken 4 is not disliked by the community, it is beloved for the unique atmosphere, character design and stages

Feels like everyone secretly loves Tekken 4, truly the most fun Tekken game ever made

Good run through. Game preservation needs to be a continuing discussion as there are going to be many lost to time. I have a complete Street Fighter PAL Playstation collection, but it also means I have to keep most of the old consoles too. Some of the consoles are getting harder to find in good condition and prices are going up. This is problematic for when the hardware does eventually fail. I even recently picked up a PS Vita TV so that I could use it to play Alpha 3 Max.

26:14 : This is how i felt about Buriki One, i discovered that last year and it has an interesting control system, only to find out it was never ported to anything outside of the arcade and proper emulation for it is not completed yet great vid btw, really informative.

It always makes me happy seeing DOA brought up in vids like this 😌 Also that comment about Fightcade's imperfections is VERY relevant, because there was a DOA2 tournament that was going to happen yesterday that had to get postponed after only one match because of how finicky the game is on Flycast netplay 😫

Love the channel and absolutely loved this video! Extremely informative. Thanks for putting this together!

i didn't know i needed this video but 3 minutes in and i'm appalled and hooked, this was great tyvm!

Thanks for the shouting out some love for Tekken 4. It was an important stepping stone for the series and deserves some attention. 🥰

Thank you for speaking on *HD Remix* 🙏🙏🙏

What a fantastic vid!!! I literally was thinking about getting old fighting games … and suddenly I find this! You’re awesome!

Hell yeah the algorithm is right on the money with this! If your other videos are like this then I’ll be around for sure!

I don’t know I got this recommended to me but I love it. This video and the marvel 2 stages video are right up my alley. Also third strike is my sentimental game as I play it in memorial for my brother in law who was a top ranked Xbox 360 player.

Your video is immensely important. I hope the Big Boys running the show are listening! Thank you. ❤❤❤❤

Love it when the algorithm recommends cool videos like this. Great video, looking forward to checking out the rest of your channel!

Great video really love how you mentioned the small differences that are sometimes skipped over. As a slight addition, in addition to mk4 the dos versions of mk 1,2,3 and trilogy are also available on gog

You dropped a video and I missed it 2 days ago? Mad at myself but I'm here for it now. Love your videos ♥️

Love the history and dedicated knowledge to these treasures ❤ SUBSCRIBED

I found your channel from Thorgi’s Arcade, glad he recommended you. Excellent content, keep up the good work. I definitely had to subscribe.

Loving the traditional home background- it brings the fighting game video together with a classic feel!

I never played tekken 4 as a kid and got to experience it for the first time in 2022 and I loooove it. Those old games are a lot more then just nostalgia walks. Great video

Outstanding video!! It saddens me to see so many great games be lost to time it really sucks

This was the easiest subscription ever for me. You did a really good job on this and you nailed everything. You have a bright future ahead on RU-vid and I am here to watch your journey. Keep up the great work!

Awesome video - really cool to see someone talking about fighting games in this way too! Subbed

these are such well edited and informative videos, I've been binging them all night! I look forward to your next uploads! Instant sub!

Good video, and you know, this whole topic just makes me feel like video games really are the toughest medium to preserve, and sometimes I feel like people get a little too comfortable with the idea that if you have them physically, that magically solves everything, like physical mediam isn't frail, that consoles won't one day stop working, and that computers don't drastically change over the years (we all know how some old pc games are a pain to play on modern ones, unless they are on gog or something), and like you said at the end, it is in the interest of these companies to sell things for you again, or maybe not even that, since the big heads don't really care about art, so i'm not sure that the life of these games will never not always be on the balance.

Good work, great breakdown. There's a good amount of this that I didn't know 😎

Just a quick note about MKX, there was a rerelease of MKXL that has all the DLC included on the disc for PS4 and Xbox One which both can be played on PS5 and XBX

I really hope there is more of a push for game preservation in general. Physical hardware breaks down over time, discs get scratched, cartridge batteries for saves run out, and servers for downloads will eventually go offline. There are games I traded in as a kid for certain releases that I really wish I hadn't due to the sheer price of those games now due to a lack of availability. This is a really important discussion to be had for the historical and artistic value of video games as a medium.

Great informational video! Would like to see more

Love the channel and the dope MK t-shirt

Enjoyed the video, and you have great taste in fighting game music!

Another excellent, well researched video

Excellent video. Need more coverage on games availability and version differences. More aware playerbase means more demand for better preservation.

Great video, just wanted to mention MK Armageddon’s Special Edition also had a port of UMK3

What a great video. Very well done and researched.

This was a really nice and informative video! It really is a shame how many of these games haven't been rereleased, even though it just seems like easy money for these studios lol. Just discovered your channel but already a fan now

This was excellent. Subbed.

The fact that you showed Rival Schools made me press like. One of my favs.

NOICE!!! Also u looking good, little bit of echo in the background tho.

Soothing voice and very unique content you make on top of being quite a looker yourself. Subbed and eager for more interesting vids 👍

Love this video! Can you do one about the DOA series? Preservation, history, future?.

This is the reason people play on emulator, because devs don't care about their early entries, while us players care. I'm not ashamed to say I'm a heavy emulator player

Woow, this was you !!! First time I see you in your video ! :) Anyway, keep on with the Evo moment 37 and I totally agree about SFA3 MAX only available on PSP and GBA... I mean, why ?? I have so good memories with the original one during my youth... It's a real shame not to be able to play this "complete" version of the game ! Keep up with the good work !

Just subbed. Your content is some of the best.

I somehow managed to find the original Street Fighter in an actual arcade in the early 2000s. It blew my mind at the time.

Nice video! I think about this quite often, actually. (long read incoming 😅) I remember I replied to your Twitter thread where you discussed guest characters. This is my main problem with them-the licensing. When it comes to preservation, there’s also the overarching theme of the games industry wanting to gradually phase out physicals for digital copies, which will also affect current preservation efforts. In an ideal world it wouldn’t be solely the job of individuals to do so, but here we are. Some of the big gaming companies seem to avoid older titles due to their age… I know they have the source code to re-release some games (like the Tekken Tag Tournament HD release), but they just don’t want to. IDK!

I'm just saying, I'd do anything to see a rerelease/collection of the Goketsuji (Power Instinct) games. Fighting Layer would be nice, too...

Pretty much on point, great video! But it's worth to mention that Mortal Kombat 1-3 and trilogy are also available on GOG. MK9 was pulled down because of Freddy Krueger license, PC version of MK Arcade Collection used Games for Windows Live and when it was deprecated, the game was pulled down because Netherrealms didn't want to bother with updates, should be still available for consoles. All the rights to MK games now belong to WB and in my opinion that means we'll never see MK 3D trilogy again for 2 reasons: 1. Because WB doesn't bother with re-releases since they want all eyes on their latest games, unless those could be used for marketing purposes and done cheap. 2. Community that wants those games is pretty small, so expecting to even cover ports for modern systems is not a good idea, porting a game from ps2 already sounds like an expensive nightmare and we have 3 games here.

Bushido Blade needs a new entry with the 2 games included. Licenses are definitely a double-edged sword. Get it now when prices are "normal" or not at all. Most I ever paid was $125 for Godzilla on PS4 and that was half price. $80 for MvC2 on the XBOX... and THEN they announced it was being re-released for PS3 and XB360...🤬🤬🤬 I still kept it, along with TvC, CvS2. Any fighting game with a physical release I brought. Not Dark Stalkers though although I did get the Capcom fighting Collection. Sorry for the rant. Excellent video as always! Keep up the great work!

I'm a big fighting game fan I love old fighting games titles I grew up with I even like fighting games I saw as a child but never got to play big fan your channel.

I just subscribed. Love your content

such a great eye opening video many thanks indeed but what should i do to keep playing tekken 7 next year

Hi Baberuthless. I really enjoyed this video and I do think the preservation of older fighting games should be more of a priority for developers even though it is not in their best interest I suppose. If memory serves you did say that Mortal Kombat vs DC is no longer available, it is backwards compatible on the Xbox. I have the disk and it works on my Xbox series X. On the subject of Mortal Kombat and their guest characters. I have never liked the idea of guest characters but you have bought up another reason why long term it may not be the best practice to have guest characters. However nothing will change now sadly. They are a real cash cow for Warner Brothers Games. I wish we had access to the earlier Mortal Kombat games but alas I don't see this happening. One final thing and this is about Tekken. I suck at 3D fighting games in general and Tekken in particular but, I always loved Tekken 2. It will never come to Xbox as we never had an Xbox when the game came out but I wish it would. Sorry for the overly long comment.

Very interesting video!

Great video. As a fellow FGC nerd, you definitely know your history. :)

Love this vid. Very cool topic. Also enjoy the shirt -- I've got the same one!

I appreciate the small nods to Rival Schools :D

As someone who comes from the melee community, I still love hearing about other traditional 2D fighters and what they play like. Keep up the work!

Oh this is a good, GOOD, TOPIC. I love it!

something that I think is really nice with dead or alive at least is that you can play every game in that series on Xbox one and later Xboxes via backwards compatibility, 5 and 6 are still in their free to try versions too even though the dlc on those is still crazy over priced

I really like your video because thanks to the online edition of Street Fighter 3rd Strike when I was younger I was able to play and become a fan of this franchise, if other games had this level of preservation I believe I could be a fan of them.

My dad and I loved our Turbo Graphics 16 and the chip cards lol. Had some banger games too! Also great video essay!

Woh woh woh now! We not gonna talk about the ex series? Jk. These videos just keep getting better and better! Please keep making these :D !!

Great vid. Just a note that you can play Street Fighter 1 on Street Fighter 6 in the arcade recently (when it shows up) too.

Great video love me some fighting games especially the classics , ps5 dark resurrection is a great game

You always choose really interesting and weirdly tangential topics haha.

Great subject matter, its a topic me and a workmate discussed a while back. I brought up Soul calibur, his attitude was "yeah but you can still play sc6, the newer one" like it was fine that sc1 + sc2hd is only readily available on xbox, sc3, 4 and 5 are effectively dead now. and last I checked soul Blade is forever stuck on the original playstation... I subbed 👍💪

Been on a fighter game kick recently with uproar of new titles coming out, so I’m looking out for older titles in anticipation.

I was already intrigued by the premise (since I’m also a huge proponent of video game preservation), but then you got me with Tekken 4 being your favourite Tekken game. Sometimes it’s not about the competitive soundness, it’s about the vibes (seriously tho T4 should have gotten an update like every tekken game after it did)

the older versions of sf4 are located in the usf4 files. this is important to note because the older versions you can select in usf4 actually at times contain changes to the characters rendering them effectively different characters to their initial variants.

Yo, like I said if ever you going to a con. Let me know if in So Cal. This upload is such a gem for FGC. If not said or I repeat other THANK YOU from me your research and new tid bits are amazing. Keep doing what you do. Sincerely, A Fan

Tekken 5 devil within mode was amazing

amazing video

I think the concept of game preservation is a strange one to me. Like, are companies supposed to rerelease every game theyve ever made on every generation of consoles? I think preservation is up to the ppl that want to rip game content onto a pc. Most art is lost to time, even movies and music, which have more universal physical mediums. So to expect widespread preservation from an industry that changes its tech every 5-8 years just seems like a fools errand, especially since games are only getting more complex.

Tekken 4 is for me what Virtua Fighter 3 tried to be, both truly added next gen features in game features, like the stages with different surfaces and obstacles, but many ppl didn't like it, bc it of course affected how the game played. For me, it was an evolution. The plain arenas could have been an option, like walls, to avoid ring outs in some games. I'm amazed by the amount of info you put in a single video. It's almost overwhelming.

Damn, i never even think about availability. For old stuff like this i typically go to fightcade. Great vid tho!

Tekken 4 my beloved. So Engraved and branded onto my childhood.

Xbox One/Series backwards compatibility is the best part of the system. I got a Series S just to play some of my favorite old games, namely the Xbox exclusive DOA games and SoulCalibur 2 HD (right before it got pulled from being available for purchase) That being said, the issues with DOA5LR and its DLC being unavailable is something I'm definitely not happy with

Hey nice video

Tekken 4s aesthetic is unmatched planning to direct a tekken 4 movie one day

Tekken 4 is my favourite then 2. I love the atmosphere and music and Christie💪💪💪

As a big Mortal Kombat fan, seeing how few games are available and how most of the modern games have content that won’t survive hurts me

I knew a lot about this since I love collecting fighting games esp the ones difficult to "legally" get, make it that much more exciting to play. Making them easily available to play digitally makes them lose their novelty, esp when someone like myself spent so much to convert a PS2 to play on an HD TV. Loved and enjoyed this video very much. Thank you. Did you mention Street Fighter X Tekken?

I picked up both Tekken 4 and 5 a few months ago from a local retro game store. I was a bit surprised.

This video is fire

Hey! There was this Capcom release that allowed you to play Street Fighter and Street Fighter 2. I remember buying it and installing it on our school's computer lab desktops. I'll update this post once I find the name for it.