There are diehard classic fighting game fans of the FGC that are wanting to revisit fighting games from back in the day and their wish has been fulfilled. Several companies are porting their beloved classic fighting games to modern consoles and I have some groundbreaking news to give you, so you must stay tuned until the end of the post. Anyway, let's dive right into the post.
If you're a big fan of Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, you probably played any of these games in the 90s when you were younger, and that's nice. But specifically, I like to point out to the practice the companies are planning to do. It has come to my attention that companies like Capcom are open to porting their classic fighting games to modern platforms with online play with rollback netcode and a ton of other modern features. Diehard FGC members are itching to revisit classic fighting games back in the day and it's exactly happening.
First off, Capcom was able to compile their retro fighters into several compilations, like Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and Capcom Fighting Collection 1 and 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.th All of the compilations became successful among those of the FGC who like to revisit them when they were kids. All of the collections are available now, so go check them out.
Now, there is not one, but two companies that are following Capcom's footsteps. Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios have announced the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection. It's a compilation that has every classic Mortal Kombat game, including the two spin-offs that were universally hated, Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces. Both games were critically panned over bland and repetitive gameplay, poor storytelling and unbearable difficulty. Both games were universally hated. I am suprised that they revealed the two critical pan-worthy spin-offs instead of the 2000s 3D-era trilogy that involves switching between three fighting styles, so they might be seen in Vol. 2. Who knows? The collection is available now, so go check it out.
The FGC is in a bit of a thriving moment. Modern fighting games weren't hated. They have innovations that people favored. Marvel Tokon became a perfect example of being an innovative tag team-oriented fighting game with 4v4 combat that teams share with one health bar unlike typical tag-oriented fighting games. Marvel Tokon is developed by Arc System Works, the Japanese company that is not a part of Sony, so it is a AA developer free from influence of a AAA company, meaning that Arc System Works has somewhat of a freedom to develop their games however they want and they met the critieria indie and AA devs have met.
I have to cut to the chase and explain why I love to revisit fighting games from back in the day. When it comes to classic fighting games, they don't bear bad influences of AAA developers they have today, especially to the fifth, sixth and seventh generations of gaming, which I think it's perfect. I ignored compilations of retro fighting games as we have compilations of them in this generation today. That said, I like to talk about classic fighting games from retro 3D generations that are available in the classics catalog today.
Very loosely, there are classic fighting games currently available in the classics catalog. On the Nintendo side of things, Killer Instinct Gold is now available on the N64 Classics catalog and Soul Calibur II is available on the Switch 2-exclusive GameCube Classics catalog, so you need a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership to play them. And on the Sony side of things, Tekken 2, Tekken 6 for the PSP and Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny are available now on the classics catalog and they are also purchaseable so that you can play them 24/7. And here's the groundbreaking part regarding classic fighting games.
During September's State of Play, two additional classic fighting games have been revealed. They were revealed to be Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur III. Bandai Namco, or should I say Namco's, threequels of fighting games are coming to the catalog later this year and this marks a less lackluster lineup. So why these games deserved to be in the classics catalog? Let's get to the topic.
First off, Tekken 3. This game is the peak of the franchise and the final game to ever be released on the PS1 before later games of the franchise get released on the PS2. It released in arcades before being ported to consoles. There's even a Tekken Force side scrolling beat-em-up game mode and a Tekken Ball game mode. My brother played this game when he was young. I played it when I was young as well and I pretty much loved it. I have been wanting this game to come to the PS3's library of PS1 games and it's finally available on classics catalog on the PS4 and PS5 along with Tekken 2. This month's lackluster lineup may have one game, but what matters is that it's one game I wished for and that's Tekken 3.
Interestingly, Tekken 3 won't be the only threequel under the Namco name because Soul Calibur III is also coming to the classics catalog later this year. This is another fighting game I played back in the day and it's a direct sequel to Soul Calibur II. I have rented it from Hollywood Video in my old stomping grounds and I loved it. And it uses Sofdec, ADX, and THX. We know Tomb Raider: Anniversary is launching in November, but it's unknown as to when Soul Calibur III is launching, but I would say December. You see, Sofdec, ADX and THX are the reason why the 6th generation-era had to be the best era and the first game that uses these elements coming to PlayStation Plus is Soul Calibur III.
And I have received another piece of groundbreaking news. Edia is open to bringing the original Battle Arena Toshinden trilogy released on the PS1 to modern consoles. This was met with excitement among fans who played these games before. I know I never played Battle Arena Toshinden, but I'm interested in these games. This is another big win for us in the fighting game community, along with Tekken 3 and Soul Calibur III launching this year, exciting the ever thriving FGC as they became a unwavering backbone of the community. It's possible that EVO and Combo Breaker are two tournaments that showcased throwback fighting games, so we can see a retro fighting game tournament someday.
We're seeing more classic fighting games released in 3D retro generations coming to the classics catalog. This means the first Tekken, Bloody Roar, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja and Clash of Ninja, the 3D-era Mortal Kombat games that involve switching styles and even wrestling games that are more charming under the THQ umbrella than the ones under the 2K umbrella, especially the ones released on 6th generation titles, may have more of a guaranteed chance to release on Nintendo and Sony's classics catalog on their modern platforms. That's something we can chase for.
Retro fighting games from back in the day being ported to modern platforms aren't the only things to chase for because we're also chasing for not one, but two things; two of the Simpsons games developed by Radical and the original Crash and Spyro games. I have two links to two posts covering the following.
https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/04/radicals-two-simpsons-games.html
https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2025/10/playstations-two-legendary-ips.html
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