Play Fighting Road (Japan) Online

Game Overview

Fighting Road is this obscure NES fighter from Japan that feels like a rough-around-the-edges Street Fighter prototype. You pick from eight martial artists—karate guys, ninjas, the works—and duke it out in these tiny, cramped arenas. The controls are stiff as hell at first, but there’s something weirdly charming about how janky the special moves feel when you finally pull them off.

It’s got that classic late-80s Toei vibe: garish colors, hilariously exaggerated win poses, and a soundtrack that sounds like someone banging on a Casio keyboard. Definitely more of a curiosity than a hidden gem, but if you’re into weird retro fighting games, it’s a fun time capsule from when developers were still figuring out how to make these games work.