When it comes to fighting games, it’s all too easy to point out the popularity of the legendary Street Fighter series, but are plenty of other versus-style titles out there that are well worth your attention. Over the past 15 years or so, we’ve seen plenty of innovation, but it was the mid 90s that saw some of the greatest innovation. Here are a few fighting games that may have flown under the radar.

Fighting Vipers

The look of this game may look eerily familiar and for good reason. It runs on the same Sega AM2 engine as Virtua Fighter, except they tossed in some pretty cool extras that give this title — later ported (poorly) to the Sega Saturn — that little spark of personality. Each character is outfitted with armor that gets destroyed as the match continues, leaving certain areas of their bodies exposed for additional damage. what’s more the walls of the arenas could be broken away in a final, fatal blast. Raxel was my personal favorite.

Primal Rage

Okay, I’ll admit it. I was a total dinosaur geek growing up and that was exactly what drew me into this game. It took the over-the-top violence introduced by Mortal Kombat (they had to fashion a game rating system — ESRB — because of Sub-Zero’s head-ripping antics) and melded it into a package that involved a T-Rex, velociraptor, and even some really angry apes.

Killer Instinct

Before there was the Nintendo 64, there was the crazy Ultra 64 engine in a very small handful of arcade cabinets. The msot notable title to make use of this cutting edge, 3D-capable architecture was the fantastic Killer Instinct. It took the idea of a combo and went way over the top of it, providing a dark atmosphere, and some pretty wicked violence. Fulgore was easily my fave, as he combined all the best elements of some awesome comic book and movie characters: Terminator, Robocop, and Predator.

What about you? Any games that flew under the radar that you think should have gotten more attention than they did? After all, having Tekken, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, and Guilty Gear just isn’t enough.