Originally Posted by Bakuretsu Hakkei
Well, the way you phrased it made it seem like you were talking about different genres. Apologies for misunderstanding.
Yeah, KoF changes the rules, but that didn't necessarily affect gameplay so much (at least not a few years ago; now you can actually tag teammates in, perform cancels, among other things). Back then it basically just affected super bar properties. :tonberry:
Capcom has already experimented with a lot of stuff. They usually keep the changes in their respective series, though.
Take a look at other Capcom fighting games like Darkstalkers. Darkstalkers has chain combos, pursuit attacks, push blocking (but push blocking is different in this game), EX attacks, and then in the last games you get Dark Force and Dark Power, which had different effects for each character.
Then SFA came out. At first it had Chain Combos, but since Darkstalkers had chain combos (and executed them a lot better), they decided to take most of them out for Alphas 2 and 3.
Then there's Alpha Counter in all three games, Custom Combos in 2 and 3 (in CC in A2 your character moves forward uncontrollably, while in A3 you can actually move them, another huge difference), multiple ISMs in 3, and stuff like teching and a brand-new juggle system in A3, which made the game completely different from its predecessors.
A3 also introduced the Guard Meter.
Star Gladiator, IIRC, was one of the first weapon-based fighters to come out (but I believe Toshinden and its sequel were first). It introduced Plasma Combos; while they were too easy to pull off, it meant everyone had at least a few preset combos.
While Star Gladiator was barebones at most, Plasma Sword made SG into a 2.5D fighting game. Plus it added Plasma Fields, Plasma Revenge moves, and the like.
Rival Schools.
Well, what it brought to the table doesn't really need explaining, but for those who still think Capcom doesn't (or hasn't) branch (ed) out....
Rival Schools was the first game to have Team-Up supers, and after a match you were able to actually pick your next character for your next match. Then there were Tardy Counters and all that stuff. Project Justice upped the ante by lowering the super bar count to 5, adding one more teammate to each team, and creating Party-Up techniques.
The Marvel vs. games each had different kinds of "striker systems" and I'll admit that it's probably the only Capcom fighting series that hadn't changed all that much.
Final Fight Revenge had weapons and items you could pick up from the ground and use, but the rest of the game is quite bland, except for the moves.
Capcom vs. SNK experimented with different Grooves and the Ratio system, which didn't allow you to have certain teams (IMO a crappy idea; anyone should have any team they like). CvS2 added more Grooves, Roll Canceling, and some other changes, like the Guard Meter.
Capcom Fighting All-Stars was basically a huge experiment. Though it never came out, there were features in it like a new type of guard, finishing moves (!), three-tier life bars (sort of like Vampire Savior), and even more than that.
Capcom Fighting Evolution, though not that good a game, was Capcom's attempt at putting characters that played in fixed systems together into one game.
There may have been a couple fighters I forgot, but Capcom has experimented with stuff more than you may think. Trust me on this. :D