Fighting Road

Fighting Road (ファイティングロード) is a one-on-one fighting game developed and published for the Famicom by Toei Animation near the end of 1988. The player must follow a path around a river fighting increasingly stronger opponents at every stop. Each button performs an attack and pressing Up makes the character jump. There is even the standard leg sweep move that trips the opponent. The game does have blocking, which is executed by holding back as an opponent's attack is coming in. The game is single player only, and lacks multiplayer modes. There is a lot of story text and dialog in between matches. The game was planned to be released in the US, but it was canceled, leaving Fighting Road as a Japan exclusive.

The player has a selection of punches and kicks to rely on, with tougher moves such as a flying kick and a leg sweep requiring more complex inputs. In addition, a flashing bar will increase each time the player is attacked and once it is full the player can unleash a devastating fireball attack. However it's difficult to perform, as it can only be launched following upon a special high backflip maneuver. It's the first example of a super move bar, which became a mainstay in the fighting genre. Each fight consists of two rounds, with the player needing to beat both rounds in order to proceed - though as an added level of challenge the player does not recover health between rounds, unlike the opponent.