Fighting games are limited by the player's ability to comprehend the complexity of game play, the player's reaction time, and the computing horsepower to present a beautifully rendered bout (which people expect these days). One-on-one or One-on-few games are all you are likely to find. What about an advanced One-on-Many or Few-on-Many where one or more players battle a large group of nicely rendered attackers with realistic physics? Are you wondering if it would be playable or even possible? I think it can work well, but conventional one-on-one game play concepts won't produce a compelling result.
Consider a One-on-One fighting game. It is easily comprehended by the general gamer. The game authors improve the game by adding stunning graphics and special button press combinations (combos) to enhance game play with special moves. Combos are a sly way to add complexity to a game to challenge advanced players, without turning off the beginners, since the core game play still seems obvious (approach opponent, use attack buttons). Utilizing new hardware and improving the software make the games wonderfully rendered and attractive to new players. Modern games feature three dimensional "feel," realistic looking surroundings / bodies / clothes / eye movement, swooshes / blurs / replays, fighting implements (like swords), humor, special moves and powers, strategy, … But when you consider them, although fun, they are still just "souped up" classics, and not revolutionary.
The One-on-Few or Few-on-Few fighting games are not very prevalent. They usually have poor game play due to limiting the virtual environment or providing contrived fighting scenarios to aid the player's game comprehension and reaction time (by turning the game play into many one-on-one fights). These games have existed for a while, and are getting better.
Remember the old arcade games like the Simpsons or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? They were Few-on-Few by having 1 to 4 players and usually had several attackers on the screen at once. Horrible graphics, physics and game play from today's standards, but they were somewhat entertaining at the time. Many of the multi attacker games today unfortunately provide the same simplistic two dimensional feel of those old classics.
It would be amazing to see a good "Swarm Fighting" game where one or more human players face a large group of attackers (imagine 100 attackers!) in the same type of beautifully rendered three dimensional physics that modern one-on-one games exhibit. The questions are how would it work, and would it be playable. There have been some successes in this arena, but nothing modern. 
Robotron 2084 and Smash TV were basically two dimensional top-down perspective shooters, but they drew players in and gave them the panic of attacking hordes. These games introduced two joysticks (no buttons) for quick reaction time. Move with one joystick, fire with the other. Smash TV even supported two players. The innovation of top-down perspective and two joysticks broke with convention (not just 1 joystick, and 1 fire button) and made game play more natural in fighting large swarms of attackers with what looked like near impossible odds. They were good games, but how about a modern game with well rendered actors and believable physics as dozens or hundreds of attackers approach?
Here is an approach that would be entertaining and would pull players willfully into the middle of a swarm of attackers. The proven combination of "simplicity of play for beginner players, with combos for advanced players, and beautiful imagery for players and onlookers alike" can be achieved, but the mechanics of game play needs to change to allow the player to react to a new type of battle scene.
Base the fighting game play on a meta-game that the player can easily understand, allow them to almost fight by "feel" so they get so absorbed that the controls quickly become an extension of themselves, and then add combos and stunning visuals that are worthy of modern gaming. The meta-game is a game-within-a-game, and could be anything. In this case we are using it as a mechanism to play the main game… or a sly substitution for the impossibly difficult task of battling 100+ opponents with one or two joysticks. The player will be drawn in by the simplicity of the meta-game, but then subconsciously find the depth and challenges addicting. Some players may even find themselves internalizing the meta-game and reacting solely to the main display of the game in ways that wouldn't have been possible without easing them in with the meta-game.
As a concrete example, let's talk about a playable version of the Agent Smith swarm on Neo in the movie Matrix where he fought the impossible battle to a rock'n soundtrack. In the movie, Neo could fight off the swarm of thousands of Agent Smith attackers due to his immersion and first person interaction with the environment. To make the game playable to the average real-world person, overlay a fast paced meta-game on top of it that corresponds to the visuals and expected game play. A meta-game that would work well in this example would be a variation of Dance Dance Revolution where upcoming moves are presented "just-in-time" and even correspond to the rhythm of the sound track. As attackers approach, the nearest 4 to 8 would be represented on the "radar" as approaching "blips." The physical orientation of player would be represented in that peripheral viewer with the attackers approaching. Just as Dance Dance Revolution (and others) show you what is coming, and when to act, the player would see the swarm of attackers and be able to react to the most imminent 1-8 attackers. Run away from the swarm to minimize simultaneous attackers, into the swarm to maximize simultaneous attackers. Consider that even in "real-life," if you were attacked by 100 people, it would be difficult for more than 8 people to actually be physically by your side to attack you at once.
To completely bring the player into the action, the game would take advantage of rhythm based game play that Dance Dance Revolution demonstrates so well. This swarm fighting game would have an immersive sound track just as in the Matrix fights or any Hollywood theatrical fight scene (think of our Matrix Agent Smith fight swarm for one), but in this case, the game play would also benefit from it. In the fight, each punch would correspond to the heavy beat of the soundtrack rhythm. The software would even adjust the approach of the attackers to ensure that every punch or kick occurs on the beat. As the player learns this enhancement to game play, reactions will start to occur more accurately and quickly than just watching for or anticipating attacks. There are many depictions in television and movies where a "tough-guy" starts playing a "fight song" or theme song before engaging the enemy. In the case of this game, the fight song will actually help further the immersion and improve game play (I've been in that zone, it feels great).
Theories for improving immersion with additional feedback have worked well for driving games for many years. Provide the player with a rear-view mirror, radar to show other cars and players, and the player will be more entertained, more involved, and even play more realistically. Consider that adding force feedback to the steering wheel to subtly inform the user of road conditions (and turns) is similar to adding awareness to a fighter that would help convey the timing of encounters with attackers' punches and kicks. The radar and soundtrack rhythm provides the fighting player with a tactical advantage.
One joystick with directional attack buttons would work. With two joysticks, the player is provided with more flexibility, each joystick representing a different side of the body, or one joystick would be arms and the other joystick would be the legs. These types of controls provide the ability to respond to more attackers in the "radar view" and also provide a wider variety of responses. Add joystick/button combos to game play to allow for one-hand-stand-kicks, round-houses, jumps, pile-up-escapes, attacker-freezing-fast-time and other gravity and time defying moves.
Considering these approaches, the overwhelming fights in the Matrix movie should be as playable (and cool) in the arcade as they were depicted in the theater.
(It has been suggested to me that a big game house such as Electronic Arts should appreciate this idea, should build the next killer game based on the One-On-Many or Few-On-Many concept, and that they should also express at least $ome gratitude my way for putting forth the core idea. That remains to be seen.)
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