I think I can see this game working...

Rather than strictly turn based, I imagine it as being in a kind of slow motion...like this:

Player A punches at Player B''s face. The punch is moving in slow motion, and Player B has about 3 seconds to identify the attack and execute an appropriate block and counter. In this case, he decides to perform a high-block with his right hand, and then leans towards the opponent to knee him in the stomach.

Player A has a few seconds to recognize the shifting of Player B''s body, the lifting of the leg, to know that a knee is going to be coming in. So he steps back, and executes another punch towards Player B''s face.

Player B''s knee comes up short, but unfortunately his momentem doesn''t allow him sufficent room to block the punch, and so he''s carried straight into it...

Basically, when it''s your turn, you get a few seconds to analyze the fighters'' positions, their movements, etc. and issue an attack or movement. As the fight progresses, the time you are given to plan your turn gets slightly shorter. When the fight is all done, you can watch it again at full speed.

I like the ideas of fighting multiple opponents as well. Throw in random locations and weapons.

I visualize this as being extremely realistic, keeping with the laws of physics and anatomy. Various fighting styles are used by different fighters so that one will use movements from Kung Fu, another from Karate, etc. (A Kung Fu fighter might be able to execute a block, grab, and counterjab maneuver, and a Karate fighter might execute a dodge, grab, and bone-break maneuver, etc...)

The best players are the ones to recognize quickly what attacks his enemy is executing by watching the shifting weight of his opponent, the movement of their limbs, etc. to know what is going to happen, and then be able to counter it effectively.

What will make the game so interesting is that instead of just being given standard blocks and attacks, you have a library of various attacks, grabs, blocks, and counters. You could block high, inside, outside, each motion carries each players limbs and momentum in different directions. Block out to open them up, follow through with a jab to the throat, punch to the abdomen, etc.

In some martial art styles, this kind of game is played in real life. Two opponents ''spar'' in slow motion, giving themselves time to watch their opponents movements and motions and execute a counter, and it just goes back and forth. After some time in training, the sparring gets faster and faster as their reaction times speed up.

The interface would have to be interesting as you would need to be able to choose from many, many possible actions in a very short amount of time...perhaps a relative menu kind of system where you first select the limb you want to use, how to use it, (block, attack...) and where. So you might issue an attack like Left Hand - Chop - Throat.

Just watching the adds for "Fight Night", the new boxing game from EA, I think it will either have some interesting ideas implemented in it or be a really lousy game. Since it got such fantastic reviews, maybe it''s worth a look.

Theres some really good ideas being posted here.

Grrrr....I wish I knew more about programming!!!

The Matrix Online will feature this kind of system FYI.

now alternatly id prefer a game that allows players to have greater control over what the fighter actually does, for instance allowing better doging and countering and counter countering.

also i hope myself to one day make a fighting game that has agents that fight using pure matheimatics to generate moves on the fly. for example say the player does a kick move, the agent would calculate the point of impact, move out of the way whilst maintaining his own center of balance and countering the players move all of these movements being generated by math.

Is that the one that almost looks like an anime episode??