Best Fighting Games of All-time

“A true classic.”

aeromaxx777

“Is the best ever”

Warhead100

“To this day, Street Fighter II remains one of the premier one-on-one versus videogames in existence. In fact, we still play it daily. Not only did Street Fighter II kick-start a genre which flooded the early ’90s with copycat clones, but it also established many genre gameplay standards that persist even to this day: two-in-one combos, quarter-circle-forward and charge motions, etc. are still the foundation of many of today’s fighting games. With a simple premise and subtly deep design, Street Fighter II established itself as a cultural icon for the youth of the time and easily deserves a top spot on our list.”

“Tekken 3 is the third installment in the Tekken fighting game series. It was the first game released on Namco’s System 12 hardware (an improvement to the original two Tekken games, which used System 11). It was the last installment of Tekken for the PlayStation. It was released for the PlayStation in 1998, and in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 as part of Tekken 5’s Arcade History mode. The PlayStation version became a critical and commercial success.

Tekken 3 maintains the same core fighting system and concept as its predecessors, but brings many improvements, such as significantly more detailed graphics and animations, 15 new characters added to the game’s roster, more modern music and faster and more fluid gameplay.

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“Mortal Kombat was the first entry in the famous and highly controversial Mortal Kombat fighting game series by Midway Games, released in arcades in 1992. It was later picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home version, then later returned to Midway. It centers on the first Mortal Kombat tournament and the ultimate defeat of the evil Shang Tsung by the monk Liu Kang.

The original Mortal Kombat was developed as a reaction to the popular Capcom fighting game Street Fighter II, with digitized graphics of actors, as opposed to animated cartoon graphics. Critics said the game’s graphic violence was only included in order to generate a public outcry and controversy that would gain publicity for the game. Although highly controversial, the mix of realism and violence propelled Mortal Kombat to widespread and historic renown.

Throughout the series, the game was known for its over-the-top violence which included fatalities, uppercuts that sprayed blood and launched players into the air, its theatrical special moves, as well as a tendency to replace instances of the hard c sound with the letter "K" in its written lexicon, including the title.

Originally, creators Ed Boon and John Tobias wanted to create a video game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, with a digitized version of the action star fighting villains. Unfortunately, Van Damme was already in negotiations with another video game company (that game was never realized either), so they decided instead to create a game loosely based on Enter the Dragon. Van Damme’s likeness is still clearly seen in the character of Johnny Cage; a Caucasian Hollywood martial arts movie star who performs a split punch to the groin (inspired by a scene from Bloodsport).

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“Soulcalibur is the second game in the Soul series of fighting games developed and produced by Namco. Soulcalibur was ported and released for the Sega Dreamcast with improved graphics and new features and became one of the best-selling Dreamcast titles overall. The Sega Dreamcast port is often cited as the greatest fighting game of all time, and even one of the greatest games across all genres; it is ranked as the eighth-best game of all time by review aggregator site Game Rankings. Following the first game Soul Edge (also a game created for the arcade originally, and subsequently the PlayStation) in 1995, the Soul series received a major makeover and was retitled Soulcalibur in 1998. Hence, Soulcalibur can also refer to the series consisting of Soulcalibur and its subsequent sequels (essentially the Soul series minus Soul Edge).

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“Killer Instinct is a fighting game developed by Rare and published by Midway and Nintendo. Initially released in arcades in 1994, and rumored to use an "Ultra 64" hardware engine, in reality the proprietary arcade hardware was co-developed by Rare and Midway. The game received a high profile launch on the Super Nintendo, as well as on the Game Boy. It led to a sequel, Killer Instinct 2.

Ultratech is a very powerful mega-corporation (entities which, in this future setting, replaced all governments) which organizes a tournament called Killer Instinct. Along with regular participants, experimental creatures created by Ultratech also fight in the tournament. Ultratech also discovers a technology to make bridges between dimensions, and to also release from this dimensional prison a two-headed monster called Eyedol, an ancient warrior that was locked away along with his rival.

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“is a series of fighting games created by Capcom in which characters created by Marvel Comics and Capcom’s own characters appear together. While it was the first vs. series involving Capcom, the name Marvel exists to distinguish it from Capcom’s other vs. series with SNK (Capcom vs. SNK), Tatsunoko Production (Tatsunoko vs. Capcom) and Namco’s crossover RPG with Capcom (Namco x Capcom).

The Marvel characters depicted in these games were often based on their incarnations in various early 1990s animated series (particularly X-Men), and were often voiced by the same voice actors.

Many of the characters and fighting mechanics used in these games were first developed and refined in two other fighting games Capcom had developed earlier, serving as precursors to the series: X-Men: Children of the Atom, which featured characters strictly from the X-Men universe, and Marvel Super Heroes, which gleaned characters from Marvel’s entire roster (X-Men included).

Although the tag-team fighting concept was not new, it was refined with this series (although fans would argue whether this was for better or for worse). New fighting game terminology, such as "Aerial Rave" (the act of performing a combo on an opponent while the opponent remains airborne) and "Variable Combination" (the act of having two or more characters on the same team to perform their hyper combos at the same time) were added to the fighting game vernacular with this series.

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“Because its so aesome and fight new people”

kid626

“Taking advantage of the superior technology of Xbox 360, Dead or Alive 4 offers the defining gaming experience on the next-generation console. The game encompasses all that Xbox 360 has to offer, giving you the most rewarding digital fighting to date on any videogame console.

Dead or Alive 4 once again raises the bar in both online and offline fighting. By utilizing the advanced technology of Xbox 360 hardware, the game redefines 3-D high-definition graphics and sound, creating one of the most visually beautiful and realistic-looking video games available. Unsurpassed online capabilities via Xbox LIVE, incredible new interactive stages, an all-star lineup of old and new favorite characters, and a complex DOA countering system all combine to create a must-have video game for Xbox 360.
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“Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams, known as Street Fighter Zero in Japan, Asia, South America and Spain, is a fighting game by Capcom, set before the events of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. It’s the first major overhaul of the Street Fighter series since Street Fighter II. The characters are drawn in an anime style, similar to Darkstalkers and X-Men: Children of the Atom. [1] The game combines younger versions of established Street Fighter II characters (the game being set prior to the World Warrior tournament depicted in II), with characters from Final Fight and the original Street Fighter, as well as new characters.

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“Mortal kombat: Deadly Alliance (originally known as Mortal Kombat V: Vengeance) is a fighting game developed and produced by Midway. It is chronologically the fifth in the Mortal Kombat series. Deadly Alliance was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance on November 20, 2002. Deadly Alliance is notable for being the first, and to date, only, game in the series that does not feature Liu Kang as a playable character. It is also the last game to feature both Scorpion and Sub Zero in their unmasked forms.

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