Fighting games are by nature ensemble pieces, and that is one of their most compelling aspects: an exponentially larger playable cast than almost any other type of game can boast of, full of possibilities to inhabit. Parity, however, is not so easily or consistently achieved, nor does it seem that many developers really even care to strive for any kind of representational equilibrium in their works. Gender is one of the fronts on which this struggle is waged, and while identities and realities outside of taken-as-default cis narratives are almost completely absent in most genre works, even that old ostensible duality is sharply imbalanced in "regular" fighters: women are secondary avatars, to unfavourable ratios too depressing to contemplate even as they're internalized as the normalized standard. Frustration at this state of things can lead to bitterness towards works otherwise enjoyed, and it might lead to seeking out alternatives in hope of better. This is where the "girl fighter", codified in the '90s, steps into the picture.
There is no use denying or disguising the fact that many of these all-women fighting games, proud legacies and brief one-offs both, are pornographic or at least leeringly salacious on a fundamental level. You can't remove them from that context, nor would it really be of any use in understanding why they exist, who created and played them, and why they're worth recalling now. Sometimes the origins are clear enough:
Variable Geo started out in the pornographic PC game tradition and only subsequently thanks to tighter oversight and different audiences on consoles nominally "cleaned up" its act, though the spirit remained.
Asuka 120%, the other veritable dynasty here, is of a different sort, if related in kinship, for it chose to feature solely women for its entire duration, and paired that premise with excellent playability, aesthetics and even tone, leaving the expected sexualization as an implicit, ancillary aspect rather than a defining characteristic. Both are seen as peers in retrospect, and are grouped together as this very moment, yet their nuances differ and so do their legacies. Yet both have a place as fighting games about women, even if only naivete would claim they were for women. That's the paradoxical liminality that makes this sub-genre of a niche within a niche appealing because it can provide a space or an illusion of one in contexts where none existed before, depending on one's outlook and experiences.
Is there a real, discernible difference between works of this vintage and later ones of identical expression? The
Vanguard Princesses, the
Arcana Hearts, the
Koihime Enbus, the
Skullgirls? I don't see it, though every person has different limits--moral, aesthetical or otherwise, that guide their own interest. They are all exploitative works to the core, of women for whatever and whoever the primary audience is imagined to be, and in identifying and acknowledging that exploitation the individual worth can be gleaned to each person's varying context. Just remember the battles fought, won and lost on the long-reaching and exhausting frontier of girl fight.
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. / JP / FM Towns / 1994
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Excellent / JP / FM Towns / 1994
This was difficult to find a good quality scan of, so have this
cover of a related arrange album using the same artwork, as a supplement.
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Maxima / JP / PC Engine Super CD-ROM² / 1995
(
art)
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Special / JP / PlayStation / 1996
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Excellent / JP / PlayStation / 1997
(
advertisement)
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Limited / JP / Saturn / 1997
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Final / JP / PlayStation / 1999
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. Return / JP / PC / 1999
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V.G. - Variable Geo / JP / PC-98 / 1993
Advanced V.G. / JP / PC Engine Super CD-ROM² / 1994
V.G. II ~THE BOUT OF CABALISTIC GODDESS~ / JP / PC-98 / 1994
Super V.G. - Variable Geo / JP / Super Famicom / 1995
Advanced V.G. / JP / PlayStation / 1996
Advanced V.G. / JP / Saturn / 1997
Advanced V.G. 2 / JP / PlayStation / 1998
~~~
~Bonus Round~
Ningyō Tsukai / JP / PC-98 / 1992
Would you believe
Ningyō Tsukai was localized for a 1993 PC release for North America by MegaTech, under the title
Metal & Lace: The Battle of the Robo Babes? Well, you'll just have to, now. The back of the box talks trash about the ostensible competition and mischaracterizes the Mario brothers as "pudgy little painters." 1993 was a troubled time.
Ningyō Tsukai / JP / FM Towns / 1993
Ningyō Tsukai 2 / JP / PC / 2000
Port of the original 1996 PC-98 release pictured here, as scans of that version's packaging are hard to come by.
The Queen of Duellist / JP / PC-98 / 1993
The Queen of Duellist was a brief series, in spite of the lone cover showcased here--the rest were for iterative revisions that don't differ in packaging altogether much. The vertically aligned portraits appear to credit the character designers responsible for each character, and it is tempting to read the ZUN credit as the later
Touhou creator of the same pseudonym, especially given the shared PC-98 heritage. The timeline doesn't quite add up, though, or makes the conjecture unlikely: while ZUN's debut work in his synonymous series was developed and released when he was very young (around 18 to 19), at the time of
The Queen of Duellist's release he would've been barely 16, and doubtful in having taken part in the development of a softcore pornographic fighting game while still a minor. Whew!
Seifuku Densetsu Pretty Fighter / JP / Super Famicom / 1994
The
Sailor Moon influences, if we're being charitable in our language, are clear for all to see here, and as such,
Pretty Fighter is another outlier in this "genre" in that it does not take the presence and sole billing of women to be synonymous with pornographic or titillating content.
Seifuku Densetsu Pretty Fighter X / JP / Saturn / 1995
Tōkidenshō Angel Eyes / JP / Arcade / 1996
Tecmo's entry into the niche is notable then and now for an approach that rarely if ever appeared elsewhere: a mix of pixel art and polygonally rendered characters, sometimes presenting one each for a member of the cast as different versions to try out.
Tōkidenshō Angel Eyes / JP / PlayStation / 1997