Well, calling any of these the "best" pirate fighting games for the Nintendo NES is debatable, because none of the games presented here are great wonders. The truth is Nintendo never paid much attention to the genre on 8-bit, except for a few licensed games that weren't great either (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Tournament Fighters, I'm looking at you).
That's why, faced with the glaring lack of fighting games in the official NES library, Chinese pirates saw their opportunity, weighed anchor and boarded the ship, flooding the market with hundreds of bootleg titles, many of them indistinguishable from one another. As kids, we honestly didn't care much about their low quality. For those of us who were poor and couldn't jump to 16-bit right away, having a Street Fighter 2 on our beloved little console was a great consolation. Not to mention Mortal Kombat!
At that time, although there were several, two main companies fought for our attention: Cony and Hummer Team, each with its own engine and development team (although they are known to have cooperated with each other). The differences between their games were substantial. Cony's games always felt less polished, as if made in more of a hurry and with less precise controls. Hummer Team's, in my opinion, had a more professional finish and superior attention to detail. Other companies, like NTDEC, Sachen and Flying Star, contributed their own efforts but without overdoing the clones.
In this list I have selected the ones I consider the best of all. Surely you have your favorites and that's great; you can share your ranking in the comments if you wish. On the other hand, as always, I have gathered all the game ROMs in a package to download here, so I save you the work of searching for them one by one. The package also includes some extras. But those are a surprise, so you can explore the world of bootleg fighting games yourself and marvel at the skill of these crazy Chinese pirates. Remember that to run ROMs you need a proper emulator. I recommend FCEUX (Nestopia has problems reading some ROMs). Finally, if you click on the images, you'll go directly to a YouTube video showing the game in action. FIGHT!
Kart Fighter
In my opinion, one of the best games on the list. Directly from the depths of Hummer Team, Kart Fighter pits Nintendo's most famous characters against each other in a battle where only one can remain standing. The name refers, of course, to Mario Kart, the racing game that at that time was driving every SNES owner crazy. And that's how the bootleg works: latching onto someone else's success to attract its victims. Fortunately, there was no lie here; we get exactly what was promised and EXACTLY the same characters: Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, Koopa, Donkey Kong, Toad and Yoshi. A true gem that could hardly have been conceived by a much more particular and conservative Nintendo in its use of licenses. An unofficial spin-off, only possible in The Bootleg Dimension.
AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting
Oh la la! AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting is another delight born from Hummer Team (under the alias "Somari Team") and one of the few games with hentai scenes for the NES. In a pre-PornHub world, believe me, that was invaluable. Pitting a group of known female fighters (all women), some of them reused from previous games, AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting treats us to a spicy scene each time we win a round (playing with a difficulty of 3 or higher). Chun-Li, the Sailor Moon girls, the girls from Ranma 1/2 (including Ranma in her female form), among others, were visual candies for the hot-blooded teenagers we once were.
Dragon Fighter
What I like most about these pirate games is that they tend to mix worlds that would otherwise be impossible to see together. Such is the case of Dragon Fighter, by Flying Star, which features a very heterogeneous cast of fighters. It has characters from Mortal Kombat, Justice League Task Force, Super Street Fighter II, Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury 2. Oh, and it also includes Bruce Lee, the only one who somehow justifies the arbitrary title of the game. Dragon Fighter uses neither Cony's engine nor Hummer's, so it feels quite different from the rest. It's one of the least known on the list, and there's a good reason for this: the ROM was first published on the web in 2015. A novelty from the distant past!
World Heroes 2
Speaking of games that mix completely different universes! Developed by Cony with its "exclusive" engine, World Heroes 2 is a true salad of fighters. It has a ninja turtle (Leonardo), a Final Fight wrestler (Mike Haggar), a Saiyan warrior (Son Goku) and Mario and Sonic, among other characters from Street Fighter 2 and Fatal Fury. All recycled from previous games, of course. Despite the name, this game has nothing to do with its namesake for arcades and 16-bit consoles (where we could play with Rasputin, among other celebrities).
Dragon Ball Z: Super Butouden 2
Pirate clone of the successful Super Nintendo game developed by Bandai. It includes eight different characters, all from the anime it's based on, moved to the beat of Hummer Team's "Street Fighter II Engine". A super worthy game that emulates its 16-bit older brother as best it can without embarrassment. With 100% original graphics (nothing recycled), unusual attention to detail and more docile controls than previous games, it's clear this was one of the darling children of the Chinese pirate team. Kame Hame Ha!
Street Heroes
Neither Cony nor Hummer. Street Heroes was developed by Sachen, with its own engine and completely original characters, created exclusively for the game. No recycled sprites or sounds here. The story tells of a lost continent full of fighters, who from time to time get together to see who is the most powerful of all. There are seven selectable characters and a non-playable final boss named Dark Moon. It's one of the few pirate games with digitized voices, although they sound quite bad. For that reason, among so much plagiarism and clones of clones of clones, Street Heroes reaches the podium because it's quite good and owes nothing to anyone.
Fighting Hero III
Sequel to an unknown Street Fighter I clone (the one where you could only play with Ryu), Fighting Hero III adds some new things to the tired world of NES fighting games. For example, it has a very nice Continue screen, where you can see your fighter all bloody while the countdown drops to zero (something uncommon, though not unprecedented). Basic punches and kicks are executed differently whether you press forward or backward, adding a little more strategy to the matter, but not too much. The difficulty is very high and the machine-controlled fighters abuse their powers and speed, while you wonder what the hell you're doing wrong. There are ten fighters, including a Hulk clone, a Ken clone and a Bruce Lee one. As if that weren't enough, it has an ending for each character! A good job by NTDEC, the company in charge of development.
Street Fighter 4
Another Hummer classic, and one of the most remembered. It has absolutely nothing to do with Street Fighter (just the title, to hang on its fame) and features more or less original fighters (although with elements recycled from previous games). There's a bunny girl that seems straight out of AV Bishoujo Senshi Girl Fighting, a fighter too similar to Ryu but with the name Cliff, and another called Ranboo who looks very similar to Stallone's character. With five unique selectable fighters (plus others with color and appearance changes), some digitized voice thrown into the mix and recognizable gameplay, Street Fighter 4 has a well-deserved place on this list.
Garou Densetsu Special
Impossible to leave out the conversion of Fatal Fury Special to 8-bit, one of the favorites of the gaming crowd. It includes eight of the original characters and several repeats for each one, so the roster looks more impressive. Thus, you can control and fight against Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Wolfgang Krauser, Ryo Sakazaki, Kim Kaphwan, Tung Fu Rue, Joe Higashi and Mai Shiranui. For the rest, it differs little from other Hummer games. It uses music from Street Fighter IV and Kart Rider and includes an ending for those who manage to defeat all opponents.
The King of Fighters '96
The King of Fighters '96 starts big: with the original intro of the arcade classic, in beautiful 8-bit pixel art. An animated sequence that gives way to a game that doesn't disappoint either and, hallelujah, allows us to choose three fighters per match (like the original game!) to face a trio selected by the machine. Developed by Hummer Team, and using all kinds of resources from Street Fighter Zero 2 '97 (another Hummer game you can find in the downloadable pack), The King of Fighters '96 is quite impressive on a technical level, at least compared to many of the games on this list.
Bonus: Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2
No, I didn't forget Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat 2, classics of classics. I just left them for the end, as it should be. And since it would be a bit unfair to choose between Cony's and Hummer's, I include them all in a screen-by-screen comparison, so nobody gets angry. Along the way, we see the differences between both versions in the most graphic way possible. What more could you ask for?
For the record, the Street Fighter 2 gallery used these attachment IDs: "137953,137956,137951,137963,137952,137957,137954,137958,137955,137959,137962,137961". The Mortal Kombat 2 gallery used: "137965,137974,137966,137975,137967,137976,137968,137977,137969,137979".
Street Fighter 2
Mortal Kombat 2
