List of Fighting Game Companies - S

S

• Sai-Mate created Kouryuu Densetsu: Elan Doree, a 3D fighting game where players fight airborne while being mounted on dragons.
• Sammy Corporation (now merged with Sega as Sega Sammy Holdings) started with Tsuppari Wars (which contains fighting segments) and Battle Blaze. They later worked with another company founded by UPL staff, Scarab, in creating Survival Arts Sammy also teamed up with Seta and Visco in creating another one of their fighting games, Deadly Sport, which was originally planned for release in 1994, but was quietly canceled. They also published some titles in the Guilty Gear franchise (developed by Arc System Works), and the arcade versions of The Rumble Fish franchise (developed by Dimps).
• Saurus ported ADK's World Heroes 2 to the Super NES (later distributed outside of Japan by Takara), and published both Ragnagard (developed by System Vision) and the Super Famicom port of Art of Fighting 2 (developed by Monolith).
• Scarab, a company founded by former UPL employees, developed Survival Arts (published by Sammy), Battle Monsters and Killing Zone (both published by Naxat Soft in Japan, and by Acclaim Entertainment in other regions).
• Sega (now merged with Sammy Corporation as Sega Sammy Holdings) created Heavyweight Champ, which was recognized by critics as the first game to feature fist fighting; however, some argue that boxing games don't usually count. Sega's first attempts after the success of Capcom's Street Fighter II were Dark Edge, a sprite-based fighting game in a 3D environment, and Holosseum, a holographic fighting game that was the second and last game for Sega's hi-tech hologram theater cabinet after Time Traveler. Sega's AM2 team started with Burning Rival, a 2D versus fighter that uses cel-shaded anime-style graphics, but later became better known as the developer of their Virtua Fighter series (Virtua Fighter, in 1993, is widely regarded as the first 3D fighting game with polygons instead of sprites). Fighting Vipers was a similar game by AM2 with a glam rock theme, but did poorly in North America and Europe. Sonic the Fighters and Virtual On also did very poorly in North American sales. A Mega-CD exclusive titled Burning Fists: Force Striker was in development for release in 1994, but later became canceled; however, a prototype of it has been dumped online. Sega-AM2 also created Last Bronx, one of the first motion captured, weapon-based, fighting games released in Japanese game centers (or video arcades) in 1996; and Fighters Megamix, a cross-over of the Virtua Fighter series and Fighting Vipers, as well as several other characters from Sega-AM2's works. Sega also published several licensed fighting games, including Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter (developed by Almanic), a beat 'em up/fighting game hybrid based on the Mazin Saga manga by Go Nagai, which was in turn a spin-off of Nagai's original Mazinger Z; VR Troopers (developed by Syrox Developments) based on the television series; and various games based on the Bleach series for Nintendo consoles. Sega's other original fighting games were the Eternal Champions series, which is Sega's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II with environmental finishing moves similar to the "Fatalities" from Midway's Mortal Kombat franchise; Masters of Combat (developed by SIMS Co., Ltd.), a simple Sega Master System fighting game also released in Japan for the Sega Game Gear as Buster Fight; Cosmic Carnage (developed by Givio), a Sega 32X fighting game where players can choose different armors to assist them in battles; Golden Axe: The Duel, a 2D versus fighting game spin-off of the Golden Axe series; and Sonic Battle, another fighting game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
• Semicom, a Korean company released SD-Fighter, designed by their team, Tirano.
• Sigma Enterprises created the earliest RPG/fighting game hybrid, Hissatsu Doujou Yaburi.
• SIMS Co., Ltd. developed Masters of Combat, a simple Sega Master System fighting game also released in Japan for the Sega Game Gear as Buster Fight. Both were published by Sega.
• SNK (now SNK Playmore) started with Street Smart, but later became best known as the makers of the long-running King of Fighters series for the Neo Geo consoles and arcade machines they manufactured. Their first successful fighting game franchise was the Fatal Fury series, which features some stages that allows players to fight either in the foreground or background and its first installment was in development at the same time as Capcom's Street Fighter II by a few former Capcom employees that created the first Street Fighter. SNK also created the Art of Fighting series, which was the first to feature energy bars for desperation moves, as well as the first modern-fighting game to feature a scaling perspective often referred to as "zooming", which the view of the game changes between large character sprites or a large background. SNK was also notable for producing the Samurai Shodown series, Savage Reign and its sequel Kizuna Encounter, that also started in the early 1990s, while they later created the Last Blade series. Several other companies followed suit in producing fighting games for the Neo Geo. SNK also created several fighting games for their Hyper Neo Geo 64, Neo Geo Pocket and Neo Geo Pocket Color.
• Sobee developed a Game Boy Advance exclusive, Dual Blades (published by Metro3D, Inc.).
• Spike Games published Deadliest Warrior: The Game (developed by Pipeworks Software).
• Sony Computer Entertainment developed and/or published some fighting games for their PlayStation platforms.
• Square (now merged with Enix as Square Enix) published Tobal No. 1, its Japan-exclusive sequel Tobal 2, the PS1 version of Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring (all three developed by Dream Factory), and the samurai-based Bushido Blade series (developed by Light Weight). The two games in the Bushido Blade series play much more realistically than other weapon-based fighting games, and do not feature meters of any kind.
• Square Enix produced Dissidia Final Fantasy and its follow-up Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy.
• Strata Technologies published Time Killers and BloodStorm (both developed by Incredible Technologies).
• Subtle Style, a Japanese dōjin group created the PC fighting game Akatsuki Blitzkampf, which became popular enough to earn an arcade version.
• SunA Electronics, a Korean company, only created Best of Best as an arcade game.
• Sunsoft started with Sugoi Hebereke, a brawler spinoff in the Hebereke series, but later became better known for Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors and Waku Waku 7 for the Neo Geo, as well as the airborne-based fighting game for the arcades and Sega Saturn, Astra Super Stars (assisted by SantaClaus Ltd.). Sunsoft of America produced and co-developed Justice League Task Force (co-developed by Blizzard Entertainment (SNES version) and Condor, Inc. (MD / GEN version) and published by Acclaim Entertainment) and localized Capcom's RPG/fighting game hybrid Power Quest for the Game Boy Color (developed by Japan System Supply), while Sunsoft of Japan ported ADK's first game in their World Heroes series to the Super NES.
• Superscape developed the cell phone version of the Fight Club fighting game (published by VU Games).
• System 3, a British company created International Karate, one of the most successful fighting games in the 1980s outside of Japan, which caused Data East to sue the North American publisher of the first International Karate in a court case for creating what Data East considered International Karate to be a direct copy of the Karate Champ arcade.
• System Vision developed the Kaneko-published Power Athlete (known outside of Japan for the Super NES as Power Moves and for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive as Deadly Moves), Battle Master (published by Toshiba Emi) and Ragnagard (published by Saurus).