English Software's second offering in the fighting genre was much more widely known than Chop Suey, but that's definitely not thanks to the quality of the game. English Software tried to pass it off as a multi event sports kind of game, but that's mostly facade. Six of the eight disciplines are the same fighting game with different weapons and apparently different moves. The categories are called "Swordfight 1" and "2", "Quarterstaff", "Pikestaff", "Ball & Chain" and "Axeman", but it's all just two knights hacking away at each other without rhyme or reason by pressing the four cardinal directions of the joystick. The fire button allows to back away a little, but that doesn't save the game from being a mindless button masher. The fights take ungodly long, too. It takes depleting of two life stocks to knock down a knight, and when he is defeated, another warps into the battlefield. Only after four more knights, the battle is actually won and you can enter a high score before being dropped back onto the weapon selection screen.

The only variety comes with the "Archery" and "Crossbow" disciplines, where you steer a crosshair to shoot at moving or twisting targets, but you have to take into account the time it takes for your projectile at the destination. There's so many missed chances in this program it's not even funny. A proper implementation of weapon differences could have been so interesting. And where's the lance tournament on horse? For a much better and more ambitious implementation of a more barbaric multi events sports game from around the same time check out Blood 'n Guts.

Musashi no Ken, based on the manga of the same name, is an odd hybrid: The game starts with a series of platforming stages, where the hero has to get to the end of the stage before his dog at the lower end of the screen does so. The controls here are stiff and infuriating, especially in the later stages full of bottomless pits. Throughout the platforming part, there are sword icons to collect, which point in three different directions. They're useless here, though, and only get important for the fighting game part.

When the three platforming stages are overcome, the little hero Musashi takes part in a kendō tournament. The aim here is to hit the opponent three times with either frontal, upwards or downwards attacks. One button in combination with the directional pad is for normal moves, while the other executes special strong slashes. Every use of them depletes ten units of the corresponding sword icon, so technically this is the first fighting game with a special move meter, although of course it works very differently than in modern fighting games.

Since matches are decided by score rather than damage, the special attack's sole advantage is a much higher chance to hit, which becomes wery hard should all the sword icons be used up. Usually the platforming part offers enough of a supply to get through the tournament, though. After Musashi's victory, the game is repeated once with differently colored stages and a harder difficulty.

Uchi Mata is the first fighting game to have Street Fighter-style controller motions. At first the two combatants grab each other, upon which each of them is assigned a Grip rating, depending on their distance and the timing of the button presses. Then both try to throw the opponent by pressing the fire button again and quickly putting in the joystick (or keyboard for the second player on Amstrad and Spectrum) movements. The moves range from simple Hadoken-like movements to much more complex combinations, but the time frame for this is so tight, they have to be put in with insane speed and precision. And since the actions of the other fighter hamper with the execution, they're really hard to get right. The CPU is almost impossible to beat properly - it's much easier to get it to perform one too many illegal moves and have the opponent disqualified.

With the added complexity of the controls, Uchi Mata may be the first fighting game to require a learning curve for moves in the way modern fightign games do. Unfortunately, it's just too harsh for introducing an entirely new concept to players, and thus it's novel approach to move input was instantly forgotten again.

When the Capcom action game Trojan was ported to NES from the arcades, it got a versus mode that plays like a fighter and remains exclusive to this version. As this port was made in 1986, that technically makes it Capcom's first foray into the fighting genre. Both players control the playable character from the action game mode, and only two player fights are available. Matches are fought in a best-of-five format. Health is measured with a health meter comprised of several notches, and a single notch is depleted with each hit. Down ducks, Up jumps, and there is a block button that causes the character to block with a shield. The only attack is a single sword strike, but it's possible to attack or block while airborne or ducking. There are separate hit zones, which allow for mix-ups, and with correct timing it is even possible to hit air blocking opponents in the feet.

The control responsiveness is good and attacks are fast, so it's easy switch from a block to a strike very quickly, and vise versa, making precise timing an important part of gameplay. Combatants can't jump over the opponent though, which makes cornering far too easy, and makes the ducking block an impenetrable form of defense. While not the worst fighter by any means, matches are mostly spent just hacking away.

Sega's freshman fighting game is also the first one entirely dedicated to the sport of kendō. Since its exact release date is not known, it might even predate Musashi no Ken. The system is very different from Sega's previous combative sports games, Champion Boxing and Champion Wrestling, with their weird move cycling controls. One button is for blocking and one for attacking, while the directions on the d-pad stand for the typical kendō attack zones: the head, the wrist and the body, alongside a lunging strike. There is no way to control feet movement, instead the combatants keep pacing back and forth automatically. The challenge is to anticipate the best moment to strike from just the right distance. Of course, the actions of the opponent matter, too. In fact, most attacks are just as effective at avoiding hits as the defensive stances, rendering the latter mostly useless. In general not much happens over a long time, as it's near impossible to properly anticipate the opponent's moves, even though they are announced by speech bubbles just before the attack.

Champion Kendō has two play modes. The first is a tournament where teams of five face off against each other, with the next team member replacing the defeated, and matches are decided by the classical two-point system. Once one team has obliterated the other, the game moves onto the next round against a differently colored team. The 1-on-1 mode uses a health bar instead. It is recharged slowly over time, but every attack also depletes a tiny bit of strength. Most of the time, the game is a rather dry simulation, but there are occasional fights against a ghostly opponent fought in darkness. Sometimes also a cat appears and walks around next to the mat. Champion Kendō is also the first sports competition type fighting game that acknowledges male and female combatants, at least on the box, although gender is not recognizable in the sprites, who always wear protective gear. Unfortunately all combative sports were exempted from Sega's later Champion sports game series for the Master System, including kendō.