Kung Fu Master Imitations

Genre starters can easily claim tons of imitations, so this list is only a sample of the games that followed in the footsteps of Kung Fu Master.

Karateka - Originally released the same year as Kung Fu Master, Karateka arguably deserves partial credit for the foundations of both side-scrolling beat-'em-ups and one-on-one fighting games.

Double Dragon - Easily the most famous of the side-scrollers, Double Dragon lets two players team up in a fight through urban sprawl and into the countryside. Players also get to use weapons, from knives and bats dropped by the bad guys, to boxes and oil drums laying around.

Street Fighter - This wasn't the first one-on-one fighting game, coming after titles like Karate Champ and Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior, but it did introduce elements that became essential to all one-on-one fighters that followed. The developers pared the side-scroller down to just the boss battles and the energy bars, and gave players a bigger variety of fighting techniques, controlled by a larger assortment of buttons. Sequels introduced the ever-increasing cast of characters, each with their own talents and styles. The results were wildly successful, sending fighting games to heights the original side-scrollers never achieved, not even Double Dragon.