I'll understand if nobody has ever seen Little Fighter 2 because it has always been under the radar... and free. It's a side scrolling fighter with many diverse characters which has a 'battle mode'. This mode allows you to choose the make up on each side down to the individual number of types of characters. There is a large number of sprites that can be actively fighting and it's just awesome to run through like crazy. I'll link a video... if anyone has seen a similar title hiding in the abyss please let me know! Anything remotely close with real time battles would be good to see, and it doesn't have to be side scrolling.

Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu0MMc_Ke1c

That video makes me think of Dynasty Warriors. It's hard to tell what's actually going on in it, so I can't really say how close it is to Dynasty warriors, it just makes me think of it.