One-on-one fighting game where you pick from eight characters—each with distinct movesets—and battle through best-of-three rounds. You deplete your opponent's health bar before time runs out using directional inputs plus six attack buttons (light/medium/heavy punches and kicks). Special moves require specific joystick-and-button sequences. You can grab, throw, and cancel normal attacks into specials for combos. Single-player mode includes bonus stages between fights: smash a car, break falling barrels, destroy stacked drums. The roster approach and combo system became templates for the genre. Matches can end in double KO if both fighters drop simultaneously. If you're learning fighting games, this established the fundamentals most later titles still use.
