I remember playing this game over my friends house on his Sega Genesis, I thought it was the most realistic looking fight game I have ever seen. After hours of playing this game, my friends and I all watched Terminator 2 on his VHS. That was one of my favorite childhood memories I will never forget back in the early 90's.
The SNES version of this game was so bad that Toys 'R' Us actually let me return it for another game (which was completely against there policy to take back opened games) after my grandmother called them and explained that this was the only thing I wanted for my birthday, and it was so bad I was crying. The lady on the phone could here me, still crying in the background, and felt so bad, she told us to bring it back. They gave me store credit and I got a bunch of G.I. Joe's instead. They were way more fun.
Pit Fighter truly was an awesome arcade game. Everyone was playing it whenever I went to the arcade. I knew the Genesis version was the best port. My mom was nice enough to get me Pit Fighter and Phantasy Star 3 that Christmas, along with the awesome joystick Sega made for the Genesis. It was like I was actually playing the arcade version of Pit Fighter at home.
I liked throwing the knife into the spectator and hitting the spectator with the stick in the Genesis version! One time I think I even flying side-kicked a spectator!
At the time I thought it was the best thing ever ! I remember the gas station close to my house got it I was super excited. I remember sometimes my mom would take my friend and I to the gas station . She’d give us some quarters and sit in the car and read the paper till our money ran. (That’s a very 80’s sentence 😆).
It's amazing how arcade games were everywhere from gas stations, train stations, restaurants and grocery stores. My mom and dad would both do the same as yours. LOL
@@bruceaskew2107 So did I. This game received a lot of hatred recently. People seem to compare it to Mortal Kombat or streetfighter 2 of those games came out two or three years later. I love the game for what it is, a straight up brawler.
I loved this when I first saw it in the arcades. I appreciate that it was just straight up MMA. No hurling fireballs at your opponent or teleporting or some other otherworldly tactics. Just regular hand to hand. .
@@Sochi_Mochi yeah that was on my mind but i wish arcades didn't stop I think they got a bad rep early 90s until mid 90s lots of gangs crime were hanging around them places I got wild stories myself I'm sure everybody does lol
@@Sochi_Mochi i wonder that same thing. I own a original xbox with every last arcade game made. Really great for those 4player co op games since xbox got that 4 player controller port.
@@retiredsnowbunnyhunterx5106 yes i know this isnt arcade but have you noticed how beautiful mario kart 64 plays and looks on the n64 emulator for the xbox even killer instinct arcade for the ultra 64
Can I just say, man, you have a great narrating voice! You make it very easy to follow the story. Also you actually sound like the voice of an announcer in a 90's arcade game!
I recall going to an arcade in a brand new mall and they had pit fighter and dragons layer 2. Oddly I was in that mall to watch the much anticipated sequel to Highlander (2). Forgot all about that until I watched this. Well done!
I knew logically that I should have gotten the $2 in change from the change machine up front, but I always had this weird superstition that if I only got $1 in change up front, then I would do really well in the game. If I got $2 or more up front, then I would suck ass on the game and eat through lots of quarters.
F*ck this game. I couldn't get passed the 3rd person. Even if I did the same crap over and over because the CPU would somehow attack me in the middle of an attack.
Man, this was the coolest game ever when it came out! It definitely deserves a remake/reboot. If a fighting tournament actually took place in real life, it would definitely be like Pit Fighter - the fights would be in sketchy places with a bunch of hoodlums around.
This came out in 1990. UFC was 1993, I think. The earliest ones were completely sketch. It was banned so many places, they had to cancel one in a major city at the last minute and switch to Dothan, AL. There were also "minor leagues" during the 90's and early 2000's that were even more sketch. There was one in Remlap, AL called "Underground Fight Club" that happened in someone's converted barn. There was "Reality Combat" on a riverboat in Louisiana. And the 1999 "Atlanta Holiday Fight Party" got its venue cancelled at the last minute, and we ended up moving to a warehouse district where everyone was crammed into this alley in the dark, waiting for them to get the keys that opened up this mostly empty warehouse with these enormous 10 foot reams of paper in the corners, and everyone gathered around this boxing ring with a fence around it. Fighters' feet kept getting stuck in the fence. It was soOooOoo sketch. But it was fun :)
This game always drew me in as a kid. It pre-dated Mortal Kombat and has a very dated charm to it (Southside is very much 80s lol). The forklift cutscenes between fights are so bad ass!
Finally the love that this game deserves! I've never had so much fun playing a co-op game as I have playing this one. Three people together and motorbikes flying over everyone's heads is just crazy fun!
Finally! Somebody else remembers Pit Fighter 2. I remember seeing that in magazines back in the day. I didn't realize the new characters were just the Guardians of the Hood sprites, though.
Please tell me I'm not crazy but I SWEAR that the character HAGGAR from Final Fight was an original character in Pit Fighter because he had the same pose, (standing straight, arms out because he was so muscular) the brown pants and belt strap worn at an angle from pants to around his shoulder. I remember seeing it at the roller rinks and being like "Oh, that's Haggar!". I mentioned it to others online and they remembered him too. But now when I look the game up online, there's no mention of Haggar and I'm really confused. Wondering if a Mandela effect but again I swear this was/is a known fact. Do you remember Haggar in this game?
@@smackdowner your assessment on that is exactly why some folks opinions should not be taken seriously. If PF was so much better, it woulda kept going and had decades of releases right beside the SF's and MK's of the world, but it didn't. It was an ok game, but it was essentially a side-scrolling button masher, minus the side-scrolling. Fighting games evolved with SF2, and while this had a nice concept that coulda evolved with it, PF wasnt that big a draw.
smackdowner You are trolling. Pit Fighter can barely be considered a fighting game. The gameplay is redundant. The hit detection is weird. The characters jump and move about in a cumbersome manner. The game was innovative and cutting edge in terms of presentation for the time but gameplay wise it was really average. SF 2 was a game changer.
Big Trouble in Little China seems to be more of an inspiration for Mortal Kombat, at least in character design. One of the main reason today I still have not seen the Mortal Kombat movie with how they dropped the ball on Raiden.
Once again, in the last 24 hours, you have awakened another one of my forgotten core memories of renting a random game at my local video store from 30 years ago, and finding a wonderful gem of a game that I fondly recall playing all weekend long. Apperently I was also blessed by playing it on the best system for it, the Sega Genesis. Thank you for once again, dredging up some lost weekend memories, and reminding my how awesome my childhood was.
I'm glad my silly little videos and scratch that nostalgic itch. I played all the home versions in the Sega Genesis was leaps and bounds ahead of everything else
When you got the hang of it, Pit Fighter on the old black beauty was too easy and by the numbers. I could, as a kid, stroll straight through it easily with a few tricks and it became boring.
The Genesis version wasn't bad at all, but the SNES version was the 2nd worst fighting game I've ever played personally, behind Slaughter Sport/Tongue of the Fatman on Genesis
I always thought the forklift part was so weird but I loved that feature so much that I kept on playing in the arcades. Raise me up! I'm one step closer to become the champion!
Check this out then ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zk9LfoQasnA.html Closest thing to what the technology was trying to achieve back then, the novelty of motion capture 😂
What really stood out about this game was that it made the Tornado Kick (of Kung-Fu) famous. It was Ty’s supermove. The tornado kick was later in Street Fighter II as Zangief’s move and later in Tekken II as Lei’s unblockable.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries Wow! Great honor to get a reply from you! Coincidentally, I only learned the name of that kick - from watching an episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, hahaha! I think there was also a spinning tornado kick executed in the fictional All-Valley Karate Championship in the classic Karate Kid movie.
Así es que grandes recuerdos! Nada se compara a ir jugar en las "maquinitas" aunque también era grandioso tenerlo en Super Nintendo a un con todas las diferencias
Good times in 1990 of Pit-Fighter, since its launch we had here in São Paulo, that was incredible to see and many coins were gone in these fights. This is a true classic. Thank you man !!
Great game...used to play it in the arcade as a kid, then scored a copy of the Genesis version at my local Toys R Us in Feb 92, which I played the hell out of!
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries I wish you could make a documentary on Super Smash Brothers, the videogame!! ;) If only Nintendo would get wise and make more arcade games... I LOVE Mario Kart in the arcades!
I just found out about your channel days ago. These videos that you're making are really good! I really appreciate that you interview people for more info. I had no idea the PF sequel was that far along. I'd really enjoy seeing "history of Ninja Gaiden" in the future, as I always wanted to know more about the development of that arcade and NES game. Thanks!
Thank you so much, welcome aboard. Glad you are enjoying my videos. I try to reach out to the developers whenever I do a video but they don't always get back to me. Thanks again
Man, I really enjoy these historic game stories. This guy is amazing at this. Thank you from Puerto Rico. I remember first seeing this game in 1992 I believe. Games took longer to make it here back then
I remember first seeing this at Aladdin's Castle Arcade in our local mall. Blew everyone away, was the first fighter that started it all. Would love to have the cabinet.❤
Thank you for doing a mini-doc on this game! It has always been one of my all-time favorites. Something really important I must mention though. You left out a cool feature of gravity. There are some ragdoll effects in this game that are extremely entertaining, if you perform the right moves. It also scores you more damage :) Same for the enemies! This game is such a hidden gems that can bring you endless hours of entertainment with friends!
I woulda forgot it too. Once Mortal Kombat dropped for Genesis there was no going back. I respect the effort put in to the digitized characters but it's basically like a bad MK clone like they released for the The 3DO and one other system I can't remember since it was an awful game. I can't say Pit Fighter was awful, but it definitely wasn't very good.
Says the one bitter sega kid. super mario world sold way more than any sega genesis game, and thats just one of the many great games snes had. dream cast died so quick just like every sega console before it. get over it sega kid😂😂
Pit Fighter's overall look was shocking to me the first time I saw and played it. 🙀 The characters looked more real than the characters on other games I had seen, and I have to admit I was a bit queasy while playing it for the first time. Now, decades later, I'm practically de - sensitized to any and all kinds of violent, brutal, and gory imagery in games and I don't think Pit Fighter would faze me if it were first released now in 2023. Patman, thanks so much for another entertaining and comprehensive review of a classic Arcade gem.
back in 1989 the fair came to my town (i guess it would be called carnival in america) it used to visit 3 times a year and had 8 or so small arcades. used to play star wars every time. immedialty i got there. we didnt have any arcades in town. you only really got those at the seaside or in a city. so this and going on holiday would be the only opportunities to play arcade games. then as i say in 1989 pit fighter in one of the fair arcades. and it was set to free credits all night. so first time i played it i beat it. more than once that night. went through it with every character. more than once. brilliant game. had free credits one games a few other times. the Simpsons arcade on holiday and one other but i cant think what game it was. all the best
That's awesome, thanks for sharing your story. I can recall a carnival coming to town and there were four or five Pac-Man machines all lined up and each one had seven or 8 quarters on the bezel. Someone took my brothers quarter and he was going to kill them :-) Glad you enjoyed the video
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries they used to have a black and white car racing game (top down view) cars going round a maze. that was there until 1989 at least. maybe even 92. and of course the classic Rampage, 3 player cabinet.
I remember this game. Every time I me and my dad went to the laundromat to do clothes I would always play this game. Still love old school arcade games
Thank you for putting this together :). I only got around to playing the Sega Genesis and Sega Master System versions. You're right, the Sega Genesis version is well done. Wow, I had no idea that a sequel was actually in the works! Hopefully someone out there will release the prototype one of these days :). Anyway, keep it up and NEVER give up!
I remember playing this for the first time in the movie theatre before watching Lion Heart with JCVD...couldnt wait for the snes version was terrible lol
I absolutely LOVED Road Blasters. Any chance of doing a history of that game in the future? I'd really love to know more about it. It's just so damn cool.
In some alternate reality there's a game called Masters of Buffiness. It probably would gotten green lit for a sequel then haha. I remember playing pit fighter some. It had some interesting ideas, but was kinda rough around the edges. The thing that irked me about it was if you played with 2 or 3 players, you had beat each other up before advancing to the last boss. Something about getting pitted again your partner at the last minute in games just left people sooo salty. (like in Double Dragon, but atleast there you got to experience the last boss as a duo before smashing each other. Here....nope you get denied.) It's especially annoying when your friend gets smashed by the last boss after beating you.
LOL, you are probably right about the follow-up being green lit. Yes, it's very rough around the edges nowadays but at the time it was very innovative in terms of graphics and interactive arenas. It was annoying about having to fight each other people before proceeding to the final boss though.
Please tell me I'm not crazy but I SWEAR that the character HAGGAR from Final Fight was an original character in Pit Fighter because he had the same pose, (standing straight, arms out because he was so muscular) the brown pants and belt strap worn at an angle from pants to around his shoulder. I remember seeing it at the roller rinks and being like "Oh, that's Haggar!". I mentioned it to others online and they remembered him too. But now when I look the game up online, there's no mention of Haggar and I'm really confused. Wondering if a Mandela effect but again I swear this was/is a known fact. Do you remember Haggar in this game?
@@TeamVenture88 There's big wrestler named Buzz, while is similar to Mike Haggar, is a different character. Mike Hagar did appear in other Capcom titles besides the Final Fight games, like Slam Masters and MvC 3, but never appeared in Pit Fighter. It's been long enough that your brain merged these two characters together as I've had things I thought were a certain way, but weren't when I looked at them again. Our memories aren't perfect, but Buzz of Pit Fighter is a completely different guy.
Was able to educate my cousins about this back in the day on our Gamecube - there were three of us, so playing this, Rampage, Gauntlet, and all the other 3player and 4player games were always a great time
I loved that game. I used the Karate fighter: He was stronger than the Kung Fu guy. He was faster than the wrestler. His kick was effective as a long jab.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries yes, this is the guy here with arm raised. Look familiar? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TFNZCC31-zY.html
Had this at the bowling alley. Don’t you turn to stone when u lose? My dad heard me cuss at a very young age after losing. “Stone Fxckin Cold” I said n was scared to death when he heard me...
Used to love Pit fighter! It's probably what got me into fighting games. The arcade version was my favorite game when it came out and the Genesis version was also awesome!
Nice mini-documentary. I'm glad someone finally touched on the backbone of this classic game. It's good you reached out to the game's creator. That's a win for you. PIT FIGHTER was also released on PS3 and XBOX 360 as part of the MIDWAY ARCADE ORIGINS compilation. The cancelled PIT FIGHTER 2 game was actually just a mash-up of PIT FIGHTER and Atari's arcade game GUARDIANS OF THE 'HOOD. I remember those exact still clips (shown on your video) from a EGM "Electronic Gaming Monthly" magazine issue. Nonetheless, I can appreciate someone taking time to touch on PIT FIGHTER because it was ahead of it's time and doesn't get enough praise. The biggest unanswered question is: Where are the actors? That's never been talked about
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries You're welcome. I came across one of your videos about a year ago. You're doing a great job and I salute you for taking time to make thses videos. Much appreciated✊
Absolutely loved the Genesis version. Me and my brother ate this game up, it's such a laugh out loud time! Haha, playing co-op and going ham on the controllers, getting the computer controlled opponent in-between was always a hilarious time! Mortal Kombat was my first experience to digitized actors, so when I saw Pit Fighter in the arcade I thought they were just following the trend - I had no idea Atari did it first! New found appreciation to my guilty pleasure game 😂
Great doc! I didn't even know there was a Pitfighter II in the works! Here's hoping someone finds and dumps It! Also, I was surprised you didn't mention the spritual sequel, Guardians of the Hood! Super fun and cheesy I'm the same way!
Thanks for the nice words, I was aware of guardians of the hood but since it wasn't directly related to pit fighter I didn't feel it was necessary to mention it.
Wow So Many Great Memories Playing This At The Arcades Movie Theater And Definitely 711'$$$...Would Love To See A Reboot Done With Today's Technology And Graphics With Online Features Would Be Awesome💪🤛👊🤜💪
On the Genesis promo sheet for Pit Fighter II, the characters Tanya, Conner, and Chief were playable characters in an arcade beat-em-up called "Guardians of the 'Hood" with Jay-Jay, from that same promo sheet, being one of the stage bosses and Helga being the final boss. Just a bit of trivia for you.
@@PatmanQC-Arcade-Documentaries The two projects were definitely related. Some of the characters shown in the Pit Fighter II preview were used as characters in Guardians of the Hood.
Fun Fact: the character southside jim was played by james brewster thompson who ironically played the first guy van damme fights for money in the 1990 movie LIONHEART
I've played many retro games and felt the same way. Like Patman said, some of them just don't hold up when you're used to more modern consoles. Even PS1/PS2 games are this way already!
I remember convincing my mom to buy the SNES version for me at target back in the early 90's. I got home to find out it sucked so bad and that my older brother was gonna kick my ass for getting such a crappy game lol!
I remember this in the Chico's Pizza Parlor in the 90's in Moses Lake, WA. Would go there with my folks on a Friday nite or Saturday nite and have pizza w/the family. I would drop $20 on quarters in the Arcade on this, TMNT the arcade game and NARC the arcade. Classic.
