Bootleg Fighting Games

I miss when fighting games were about real footsies, like in Street Fighter IV (NES).
Check out Taizou Hori's Blog about Bootleg Handheld games!
hhug.me/

[@deadfr0g]

“I mained a character who got banned from tournaments” is child’s play compared to “I mained a character who’s been declared illegal under international copyright law.”

[@glitchz1]

The bootleg Guile at the start is a nice touch

[@Volcanic_Rave]

Fun fact, there’s strings in the original Animal Crossing’s code to suggest that at one point they tested Tekken 2 for NES for that game’s custom NES emulator

[@ETownLive]

Holy shit, that's incredible. Link to this discovery?

[@Volcanic_Rave]

@@ETownLive KZbin doesn’t exactly always play nice with links, so I’ll just put the video ID from where I discovered this here. Just put this at the end of a KZbin link and you’ll get the video. ipJVEeUHscE

[@Volcanic_Rave]

@@ETownLive YT doesn't play nice with links, so here's the video ID of the video I found this from: ipJVEeUHscE . Just put that at the end of a YT link and it should work.

[@Volcanic_Rave]

​@@ETownLiveKZbin hates links, I can't even post the video ID. I discovered this from Hunter R.'s "The Obscurities of Animal Crossing" video. ​

[@piratesephiroth]

@@ETownLive I recall that too but can't tell exactly where I heard it. Probably on a youtube channel that showcases Animal Crossing glitches.

[@opalander]

After Muhammad Ali beat Superman, it looks like he got a little cocky and decided to fight Goku next.

[@aweirdredtoad3637]

Ali definitely can beat Goku, did you see how he socked Jordan with that right hook?

[@pacothemajestic]

In my head, the entire 3 minutes until Kart Fighter showed up i was imagining a crowd stomping their feet and chanting its name, followed by an uproar and mass applause. Thank you for showing off Super Kart Fighter, too. It has a special place in my heart.

[@StreetwizeJJ2]

Two people pinged me with this video on Discord. As the dev of Super Kart Fighter, I highly suggest people try it if they want a fun blend of jank and combos. It's on Fightcade, and I even made a visual guide that breaks down the game which you can view from the lobby.

[@greenkoopa]

It's amazing

[@StreetwizeJJ2]

I'm so glad too.

[@justintolley9403]

That scene In Oppenheimer

[@BlackViperGX]

Even the titlecard was custom this time, nicely done

[@ohuckabee]

Going from SF2 to SF4 is the ultimate conclusion to the "Capcom can't count to 3" joke.

[@internetduck1114]

Valve: You WHAT?!

[@StreetwizeJJ2]

I unironically "announced" Super Kart Fighter through uploading a video two years ago to this very day. It was meant to be close to the final build, but my partner had been busy with other things to do the stuff I wasn't able to do, so I just kept polishing it until I felt I no longer could. I'm happy to see it getting attention in the more mainstream videos. As for what SKF features... Daisy is added as a semi-hidden character, Mario and Luigi have differences, a proper final boss is present for the singleplayer mode, the controls received major adjustments to be more forgiving and _respond_ at 60 FPS (game still animates at 15 FPS), anti-infinite and -TOD mechanics were added to help balance how insane combos get, coded in i-frames to allow for reversals, inserted extra palettes for characters and stages, and other QoL tweaks to help the experience. I spent THREE DAYS fixing bugs in my endeavor to recode hit-detection so that combos worked properly, and it still had issues that I had trouble fixing until a week after it was on FC2. Whoever coded HT's engine knew how to code efficiently, but had no sense of game design. To contrast, I tried to improve a few things in the World Heroes 2 bootleg, and it's so cluttered and convoluted I refuse to touch it with any length of pole. So yeah, play Super Kart Fighter and spread the love of other bootleg fighters!

[@philiphunt-bull5817]

You are a hero

[@ducklenin8161]

Thank you for all your hard work!

[@TheSeventhForce]

I love when bootleg games that use names from other IP just arbitrarily skip numbers. I had a friend that had some bootlegged Sonic game for the Game Boy growing up called Sonic 3D Blast 5 or something, and it was the single funniest game in either of our collections

[@theraymunator]

Ah, that one's a classic. The earrape intro song is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in a bootleg

[@user-pz5du5nz7j]

Yo,love your channel! What's your next video gonna be?

[@djfuvideo2]

Pppppppp

[@vaiyt]

Sonic Adventure 7 on the Super Gameboy

[@robindabank9616]

Just imagine the world where top fighter 2000 Mk 8 was an evo main stage game and in grand finals there’s one round left but all of a sudden your goku vs gees match becomes Ali vs joden

[@Gamersgoinblind]

I think one of the few bootleg fighting games that didn't get talked about in this was World Heroes on the nes which had Mario, Sonic, Goku, Leonardo, Ryu, etc.

[@PirataGalactico]

Same, i feel betrayed :p. A friend had World Heroes 2 from Cony Soft and it was a blast to play. And i always admired that big custom Mario sprite for the game.

[@bitbangs]

"watch out for my toad at evo" 😂😂😂 killer video!

[@robbvanderberry]

wonderful, the phrase "I've been a Pasta main since SF4" has taken root in my brain and now will inevitably be said out loud in a room fulla people

[@emilymcpherson6564]

that Uruk-Hai sprite smacked me with a huge wave of nostalgia, it looks JUST like the troll units from an open source strategy RPG i played a ton as a kid, Battle for Wesnoth. it still gets support today too. great game

[@goldglovegrappler1382]

Every fighting game IS good. May this remain forever true.

[@dawsonpierce263]

I’ve actually played Super Kart Fighter with a friend before. We played on an emulator that removed the slowdowns and sprite flickering. It is really fun to mess around with see what you can pull off. The only thing I wish for is a sequel fan game that has more moves, characters, supers, etc. it really has the potential to be an amazing fighting game.

[@StreetwizeJJ2]

I made sure to keep the fun jank that could be balanced. The OTG fireballs, anti-juggle attacks, and dynamic special cancels to name a few. Some of those needed to be toned down from the original, but it all reached a point where I needed to stop the game from becoming a redizzy fest. That's when I forced a normal wakeup on redizzy. This stops the infinite and allows ways to forego a full combo for a chance to dizzy again after a mixup. The game definitely could have used more attacks or sprites. And while I could code a super meter, I'm not sure if I can put it on the screen properly. As for characters, I'd probably add Birdo or Shy Guy if I had more space, and make Metal Mario a secret boss.

[@ZeroFanfare]

I've been a pasta main since I was a kid. Going on nearly 40 years at this point. Tried pizza as a secondary, but just kept coming back to pasta. It's my calling.

[@GuestZer0]

Those unlicensed GBC fighters are a sight to behold!

[@MiraiVFD]

you guys aren't ready for my halforc tech at EVO

[@skunthundler]

I grew up with a weird obsession with bootleg games and played a lot of these as a kid, it's cool to see someone talking about them! I remember telling other kids on the playground about a game where Micheal Jordan fights Goku.

[@amosdeguzman9980]

It's really cool to see how passionate people can be to make these games. Even if they aren't the best, you can tell they have a lot of ideas! That Virtua Fighter Vs. Tekken one was especially cool!

[@tomoe7255]

Half expected a video about the incredible DONG DONG NEVER DIE (now with a modded version, judgment day!), but that maybe deserves it's own thing. I'm surprise on how far you can be loyal to your moral, and find that wanted to do smth cool, despite having no ideia on HOW to do it lmao

[@Marzimus]

Does the modded version allow to remap keys easily? Had problems tying to setup second player..

[@Mari_Izu]

Because DONG DONG NEVER DIE is not really a bootleg, but some friends together to make a funny fighting game in Fighter Maker (Or game Maker, I don't remember).

[@Marzimus]

@@Mari_Izu And it is excellent. Hope to share but need decent controls first. Fighting games need representation.

[@dnkakusei]

GWQ told me in a Discord we're both in that Dong Dong is popular enough that he won't have much to add if he ever makes a video on it, but it's still the most likely out of all of the "popular kusoge fighters" to have a video made for it!

[@poptheweasel100]

Thanks for mentioning Handheld Underground at the end, that place is amazing for GBC bootlegs. There are some unironically good gems from that website, not just jank games too. Vast Fame probably being the company with highest quality and variety, ranging from fighters, to RPGs, to platformers, to even party games. They also used the Mega Man 5 GB sound engine for all their games, so a lot of the game soundtracks are actually really good!

[@MindGameArcade]

Say what you want, Ali vs Goku is a 6-4 matchup

[@greenkoopa]

No diff

[@G.M.M.]

Happy to see the shoutout to Taizou, he does great work on the gameboy side for decrypting and dumping some tough cases. I feel like I have to recommend some other unlicensed games if anyone is looking for more: - World Heroes 2: Another NES SF2-based fighter with a crazy crossover cast. Off the top of my head, it has Mario, Sonic, Goku, and one of the Ninja Turtles. - City Fighter IV: A hack of one of the SF2 NES games that adds voices for the characters. It's very impressive. - Fighting Hero: A port of SF1 to NES. Works similar to some of the home computer ports where you need to put in a code to do special moves with easy inputs. And some tangentially related, but not fighting game ones: - Final Fight 3: A Final Fight based beat-em-up on the NES. Has big characters sprites while feeling pretty responsive and smooth. - MK5 Sub Zero: A port of MK Mythologies to Genesis. Not exactly great, but interesting to see a port of it. - Pokemon Stadium: A Genesis/SNES VS game that looks like a fighter at first glance, but is actually a cutscene based game like some of the Yu Yu Hakusho ones. Not the most fun to play, but has some weird sprites and name translations.

[@scooter9537]

unironically pogged when i saw this on my home feed

[@nobodyinparticular9640]

As an Italian, I've been a Pasta main since birth Lmao

[@rasmusdegn9690]

"It's gonna be jank, it's gonna have some weird physics, feel a bit off and have some goofy infinites" That's just non-bootleg vanilla-SF2.

[@MyNamesNotLars1]

I have TASd 2 of the bootlegs featured in this video. Glad you're exposing more people to these anomalies.

[@DinobotTM2]

I actually owned the first SF bootleg from Hummer. Game carts and consoles were really expensive in Brazil back then (well, they still are) so having a way of playing it on my old Phantom System meant the world.

[@mrmacross]

Appropriate use of a photo of Jordan wearing number 12. Nice touch. For those wondering, it happened once in 1990. Someone stole his jersey right before the game so he had to wear a generic jersey with no name on the back.

[@comfyghost]

i was just waiting for the vast fame fighters to get mentioned, those games are awesome. they also went the extra mile and included training mode. these were bootleg gameboy games, they didn't need a training mode, but vast fame went the extra mile and i couldn't be happier.

[@Metanitejoints]

The homie Streetwize got mentioned. Hell yeah.

[@StreetwizeJJ2]

Yep. I was pinged twice for the video. XD

[@theincrediblegeneral5135]

I was really into HFTF when i found your channel and you got me into fighting games in general, thank you

[@-Fraud]

Those Ranboo loops were OD though

[@jwonggg]

that was a journey!

[@sheeplessinohio]

One silly reason I love watching videos of bootleg games is recognizing seemingly random assets that were actually pulled from official games. Case in point, the background in 3:21 has stuff from Shatterhand/Tokkyu Shirei Solbrain for the NES/Famicom. Good stuff!

[@juliasoag]

Omg I renember playing bootleg flash fighting games with characters from KOF SF and literally any characters whom sprites they could get from free on the internet I spent hours on those I loved it ❤

[@beargirl1]

my heart is full of love for unlicensed and bootleg video games. thank you for this wonderful video about them!!!

[@CWmaggie09]

Speaking of Takara’s Game Boy fighting engine: I’d LOVE to see you cover some of those fighters at some point. The Super Game Boy version of Real Bout Fatal Fury Special featuring Iori Yagami as a surprise secret character is pretty rad. 🌙

[@dcloud]

SF on NES is the first SF game ive ever played. It got me into fighting games!😊

[@LakituAl]

fam i just can't with Pasta mains

[@RussellSenpai]

The PINNACLE of kusoge!

[@MikeTButler]

I think the "MK VII" is supposed to be "Mark 8"

[@dingusdangus9299]

As far as I'm concerned, Top Fighter is in the Charles Barkley: Shut up and Jam: Gaiden universe, with space jam.

[@BBHood217]

Ali and Joden are Heavy D and Lucky Glauber edits.

[@novameowww]

that game gives more love to Team American Sports than SNK does

[@saado99]

I've been maining Urien since Chinese fighter 3

[@Metahodos]

They're not "clunky bootleg fighters". They're "premier mystery tournament games".

[@nuetella9764]

Several memories came flooding back to me, god it was so funny and kino

[@liamsemicolon]

these videos are a joy on my crt tv. thanks for your contributions to keeping 4:3 alive!

[@RevengerPhoenix]

Street Chaves is the best bootleg fighting game ever made.

[@Mari_Izu]

That's a fangame, not a bootleg.

[@bananabike279]

That is one powerful thumbnail lol I also just now noticed the Guile portrait in the intro is in 8-bit!

[@TheeK012]

There was this flash game that was a bunch of KOF characters (and Ryu) but they had Mario character heads slapped on. I think a lot about Luigi Kusanagi and T'.

[@fefyfona4318]

2:28 that walk animation is too smooth 😂

[@RigbyIsTheMan]

You never miss

[@Orangestar1]

"A time and culture that isn't really around anymore." We just got Fight Game 3 500 last year, the much-hyped sequel to Fight Game 2 3000. Bootlegs shall never die.

[@spectrumbots4268]

I remember seeing that version of Koopa Troopa from Kart Fighter in MUGEN (with a more detailed color palette), and he had Ralf's voice from KOF 2006! 🤣

[@gezeo750]

Bro that Top Fighter 2000 roster is SUPER STACKED!! That is insane!!

[@themangomanjuice]

Great video as always!

[@FourFour2theFloor]

I had no idea any of these existed, so hilarious

[@benjamingesinski9170]

One bootleg fighting game that was hoping to see was World Heroes 2 for the NES. Not to be confused with SNK's version, the NES one let's you play as iconic characters such as Ryu, Mario, Leonardo from TMNT, Goku, Andy Bogard, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

[@RocketSlug]

OMG those Taiwanese bootleg fighters might just be what I've been looking for for the longest time. I remember playing some fighting games on those old bootleg "50 games in 1" carts in China back in the early 2000's and for the life of me couldn't figure out if they were legit copies of an already existing game. But that POW super meter was it exactly! Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

[@arios6443]

Excellent video (and that's no joke)!

[@umbrellacorp.]

Lord of the Rings fighter!. Why was I expecting to see Frodo go Super Saiyan and do a Haduken?.😂

[@insurgentlowcash7564]

Just wanna say I appreciate you making these in 4-3 aspect and at 1440 max too. My G520 and Fuji appreciate it, love tube monitors. Take it easy man.

[@Nov-5062]

I have no idea what any of those things you just named means

[@insurgentlowcash7564]

@@Nov-5062 oh CRT monitors. The Sony g520 is a 1440p 90hz, and the Fuji Siemens 21 is a 1200p 90hz monitor. After getting a CRT monitor it made me realize how superior to LCD it is besides weight. If you find one for free I recommend giving it a shot.

[@insurgentlowcash7564]

@@Nov-5062 The G520 Sony is a high end CRT monitor for professionals back in the day capable of 1440p at 87hz(fps). And the Fujitsu Siemens 21p is a high end medical/industrial CRT monitor that is capable of 1200p at 90hz. I use them more than my LCD display to the point where I put the LCD in storage, once you see the difference its hard to go back to LCD. I don't have a favorite of the 2 I mentioned, ones aperture grill and the other is shadowmask. Both look better for certain things. But the motion clarity is unmatched even to tech today, OLED is a close second tho so don't overspend on a CRT monitor. Just check for free ones around. Sorry for the delay in response, and hope that helps explain.

[@Nov-5062]

@@insurgentlowcash7564 thanks, I guess I have a lot to learn

[@tyr4489]

I can't believe return of the king is in this video I was just playing it this weekend

[@kaizerwave6185]

Oo, this was a great vid lol. If bootleg fighters are ever covered here again, I’d recommend “World Heroes 2” for NES. I used to play as Mario, Sonic, and Leonardo on it every once in a blue moon on my phone in middle school, when I couldn’t emulate systems past NES and GB in middle school

[@BridgetGX]

I went over the Vast Fame games in my Game Boy KOF video. Nu Wang Gedou 2000 is by far the most solid thing they have ever created

[@angeluzerrare8170]

In the mid 90s I played a Street Fighter II game with the Bogard brothers in the roster. Still looking for it.

[@jeremyhall2727]

Thank you for the link too

[@jeremyhall2727]

It's a part of history 👍🏾 i played some of them on your list. But i never heard of the lsst two

[@wanderingsystem9674]

(Hex) I’d argue Grandad is a bigger bootleg mascot than Somari but both are iconic

[@Nov-5062]

It became viral in the past few years, Somari is known for decades as a bootleg god

[@Monhamd1000]

It's amazing to cover them for fun.

[@milosmisic89]

As a kid I actually had a bootleg fqmicom and I had that Street Fighter 2 cart bootleg. Honestly I didn't even know it wasn't a real deal until many years after. I also "experienced" that Virtua Fighter vs Tekken through some Genesis rom complications.

[@Ounays]

The goat uploaded

[@QCCBigZam]

Looking forward to the Jang Pung series video next April fools

[@wabisabi7891]

I actually had a Top Fighter 2000 MK VII cartridge! My dad bought it because he saw Ali on the cover and thought it was a boxing game. I think we played it maybe twice until the game just stopped working. I also had a bootleg Dragon Ball GT Final Bout for the Genesis that was weird af, the sprites were ripped straight out of the Butouden games, used sounds from Street Fighter 2 and the final boss was Cell, even though it was a GT game (that had no GT characters whatsoever). It was obviously pure jank, but it was fun as a kid

[@PlutoNonary]

Handheld Underground is awesome! It's a shame that Taizou doesnt have time to update it lately. Also, I have an actual complete copy of Queen Fighter 2000 (that last Vast Fame game you showed). It's honestly pretty fun!

[@notstylekatarn]

Super Kart Fighter legitimately rules!

[@beat-man5167]

there should be more bunny girls in fighting games ngl i love the copy pasted Jagermeister Porsche 911s in bunny's stage

[@rustymixer2886]

6:20 Amazing lion in game when he not even in vf2 md lol

[@diobrando-qv3uv]

It's JODEN time

[@rastas_4221]

You know you're cooking if you're a Pasta main

[@TimelostFlare]

You forgot to mention the Ali and Jordan sprites are edited sprites of Heavy D and Lucky Glauber from KOF 94!

[@rustymixer2886]

7:17 best bootleg ever

[@allenu]

I wonder if you'll ever cover SF2IBM/SFLIU for the PC? I was half expecting it in this video. I remember playing around with it as a teen in the '90s and although it was janky af it helped me understand some of the mechanics of how to build a fighting game engine.

[@clau-mc4ek]

2:32 fun fact, They don´t skip SFIII to launch SFIV, Hummer team, under the name Yoko Soft, release SFIII bootleg for NES, that game have 9 playable characters

[@scatman1236]

Top Fighter sounds like the kind of game me and my mates would pretend play as kids. It's perfect, really.

[@OccuredJakub12]

Frodo throwing barefoot sonic booms is not something I expected to see this lifetime

[@paololepon5091]

The Yoshimitsu voice in 11:08, I can't 😂😂

[@marcushatcher6609]

Lol pleaseeeee do flash fighters next !!! This def reminded me of that era

[@pescepalla20]

Love the custom intro card

[@zanyj4]

Top Fighter 2000 MK VIII is so good. I have a lot of fun playing it on Fightcade

[@Yellowboat26]

I unironically want to see an optimized version of Top Fighter 2000 with better sprites and gameplay.

[@redparrynyc]

👀LORD OF THE RINGS?!?! Thanks for the video!!!

[@phorchybug3286]

I like the NES factory background.

[@sovereignfgc7408]

I did a fightcade kart fighter tournament and it was a ton of fun

[@StreetwizeJJ2]

I could imagine it desyncing a lot, unless the FC2 team actually fixed the RNG rollback corruption on console games. I had to make an adjustment to the vanilla ROM for a KF tournament to reduce the desyncs since it was just happening too much at the time.

[@newtypepunk9967]

Thats a crazy set of bootlegs, Jordan vs Ali, that's the true match of the millennium right there.

[@JuanGomez-ke5py]

4:08 green Mario and red Luigi

[@alexsantos3100]

I remember playing all these bootlegs