Top 10 Lists: The Top 10 Fighting Games Of All Time

With fighting games striking back with many new and great games these last few years, I feel the need to essentially sort out what I feel are some of the best of the best. While it was difficult trying to figure out which to place where, I feel as though this list, while flexible, shows what games I think end up on top as the best of the genre. Because I have played Blazblue, but not Tekken 6 or The King of Fighters XII, I decided to omit Blazblue off the list for now.

The Darkstalkers games have always been somewhat underrated. While you will see Morrigan's face in every non Street Fighter game by Capcom, you really never get a chance to truly experience the franchise and that held true until this game was created for the PSP. Past Darkstalkers game had actually essentially split the roster discarding certain characters in favor of others so what truly made this game and instant classic was that it not only featured every single character to grace the franchise, but it was actually a launch title for the handheld itself. Darkstalkers is an incredibly enjoyable fighter with quite possibly one of the most colorful casts to be in just about anything. Everything from the game to its story just screamed at you to have fun and it entertained me very well. I can only wish it gets a true revival along with so many other great fighting games.

Even more underrated than Darkstalkers, there is the Last Blade. With only two games in the franchise, the Last Blade series might have went right across many fighting game fans. While most of us have at least tried out the Samurai Shodown games, Last Blade has more or less been stuck in their shadow for years now with only a cult following on both sides of the world and the occasional tournament in Japan. What impressed me the most about this game was its atmosphere. The second I looked at the character selection screen, I was graced with beautiful music and a wonderful art direction. If there was anything most fighting games lacked, it was an atmosphere where everything seemed to follow a true theme. The character designs in this game were also excellent and the visuals were great for its time and still hold out strong today. The actual game play felt like a fresh new sword fighter that could stand its own ground in the face of Samurai Shodown. Like so many other fighting games out there, I believe Last Blade is due for a sequel.

The Tekken series is easily one of the most well known fighting games out there. Back in the days of the original playstation, just about every gamer had at least tried the Tekken franchise with a few pals and for the most part, everyone enjoyed it. Fast forward years from then and we come to essentially an expansion to the previous Tekken 5. Dark Resurrection was an excellent "sequel." It not only added a small handful of new characters, but it included revamped game play, improved visuals, new stages, new music, and some other nifty new features. It even allowed for customization of your character which gave the arcade and PSP game essentially more life and originality. The actual game play of the series had ended up being better than ever with new balancing all around and plenty of new attacks. After Tekken 4, Tekken 5 was a welcome return to the franchise so many of us grew up loving. From beautifully animated endings to a massive and diverse roster, this game had a little something for everyone and it really shows.

Ah Samurai Shodown. Back when Street Fighter 2 was the big thing, another fighting game held its ground as being both unique and incredibly entertaining. The Samurai Shodown (or Samurai Spirits as it is called in Japan) franchise is one like no other where getting just one strike in could entirely turn the tides of battle. When the second game of the series hit arcades, it blew so many gamers away with its originality and creative way of presenting a fighting game. Not only was the idea of being an all weapon based fighter interesting on its own right, but being presented the way Samsho did it really made it appealing. Like Last Blade, the Samsho games have an obvious theme to them. Fighting to feudal music while having a flagged ref in the background was well..unheard of. To make things even more interesting, the fans were introduced to a very unique cast of characters that took basis from all sorts of Japanese myths or actual historical people. Out of the whole franchise, my personal favorite had to be the special version of the fifth one. V Special was a wonderfully designed game that featured a very large roster and essentially redone game play to be more like the old games where things like combos really didn't matter. The game also featured so many different mechanics and innovations that it was almost mind boggling just to try to grasp the system itself. Everything from colliding, performing a fatality, knocking someone's sword sway, dodging, and even killing yourself all had their own unique inputs and general approaches. There was so much to do in this game and even now, I find myself still trying out new things and playing it as though I had never played it before. For fighter veterans, I think this series has always held a special place in our heart, but SNK didn't stop there and kept releasing new and improved sequels. Even with the sixth game being awesome, this one will likely always be my favorite.

How many games has there been in this franchise? Everywhere from 94-2003 to Neowave to Maximum Impact and back with XI all the way to who knows where. The point is that this franchise has been around for a long time and unlike some of the other veteran fighters, KoF actually got almost yearly sequels ever since it first graced the arcades in 1994. SNK learned a great deal of things about fighting games after releasing various series like Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. They essentially grabbed all those new discoveries, fine tuned them, and put them into a new series that would work almost like a collaboration of all the good the company had made. While the first games have not stood the tests of time well, the later games proved to be impressive fighters even today. Of those, 98, 2000, 2002, and XI stand as the most impressive. As you can imagine, 2002 was my favorite of the franchise. After finishing up the NESTS saga, 2002 welcomed back old classic characters in time for a new dream match and like 98, it proved to not disappoint. The roster in 2002 is probably its most impressive feature and in fact, the characters have always been one of my favorite aspects of the franchise. SNK really knows how to design a character. Each person feels unique and they all have such defining personalities that it becomes hard to forget anyone and they all end up being memorable. Not only that, but the games actually had a story worth reading and not just there as placeholders till you press start an throw in some more coins. Of course, 2002 took time off from the story to focus on the game play and it really did a great job with that. As a King of Fighter game, you pick three characters and battle against three of your opponents characters. The order you fight is entirely up to you, but whoever wins each round gets a significant health boost to help them keep proceeding till one character, out of the six, is left. At the time the original came out, this was a very unique idea. Now, you had three characters to worry about and not just one. A certain degree of balance was required to prevail each battle and there was no second match for your to make a comeback. This made fights more exciting and made winning more rewarding. It was a great idea to say the least and 2002 proved that even 8 years from then, it was still a great idea.

Street Fighter 2 had truly been the start of an amazing genre. While there were a few "fighting games" before 2 had graced the arcade, it was the second game that really took the world by storm and became a favorite of just about every arcade junkie on the planet. Even today, the second game proves to still be played on a regular basis in tournaments and in houses and while it started it all, I would argue that it is far from the best. With that being said, Capcom grew tired of releasing the same game over and over again so they finally made a sequel, and they hit it big once again. True, it took a few years before Third Strike could sink into its fanbase, but once it did, it really took over the tournament scene and shocked fighting gamers all over again. By then, fighting games had essentially all had somewhat dull sprites on simple backgrounds. SF3 came around and graced people with beautiful animations and characters far more interesting than just typical stereotypes. By the time Third Strike came out, the roster had become very large and colorful enough to the point where there was someone for everyone to use. The game play was also top notch. Fast paced mind games forced players to adapt to so many new unique mechanics and styles till only a handful of the characters remained commonly used. Unfortunately, this is why Third Strike is not higher up in the list. My biggest problem with this game was not only its balancing, but its somewhat poorly implemented parrying system. The idea of parrying wasn't new, but SF3 really gave it a new look. I would argue that as great of a system as parrying is, it really didn't have any place in the game, but sure enough, it stayed and evolved until it became not only the norm, but a requirement to success. Too bad this ended up making a lot of the cooler characters far less effective and really separated the tiers to the point where playing it could become dissatisfying for anyone hoping for variety. Still, Third Strike is a sight to see. Beautiful animation with style, an amazing new roster, wonderful mechanics, and an overall well made package allowed this game to truly become one of the best there is.

Obviously, the second half of this list is where things can become interchangeable. While I am 100% sure on the top two places, the ones around this game will remain somewhat questioned by even myself. Out of all 3D fighters, my personal favorite had to be the Soul Calibur games. Starting off by the name of Soul Edge, Soul Calibur brought weapon fighting to the 3D fighting scene and really did an amazing job of it. When Soul Calibur 2 came out, it really became the next big thing in fighting games and ended up becoming a staple game in every gamer's library. Two sequels later and we have the fourth title. Soul Calibur 4 was a return for the franchise, but now in a next gen light. Now with a bigger roster than ever, the game sported beautiful new graphics and a new story to be told. Every character in this series feels unique. They are all so full of life and each weapon is a sheer joy to use. Whether you were in the mood for a ring or a giant sword, Soul Calibur had something for everyone and that was presented in perfection by the fourth game. But Namco was not satisfied with just excellent game play. Instead of stopping there, they kept going by including not only new normal characters, but guest characters. The Star Wars characters ended up causing a lot of controversy, but from a fighting gamer's perspective, they were just more characters to play with and unsurprising to me, they were also great fun to use. With them came new stages and another spin on the character creation that had graced the previous game. Now you could really go out in character creation making countless upon countless different characters all in the way you envisioned. Combine this with a single player mode for every occasion (and awesome online play of course) and you get one of the most complete..and greatest fighting game packages to come into existence.

Well what have we here? Capcom wasn't satisfied with just milking SF2 to the ground. Instead, they decided that it was grand time for a new sequel and it just so happens that this sequel paved the road for the return of fighting games. Street Fighter 4 was a long awaited game. In the ten years before it was announced, the franchise had been given new spins to it through games such as Alpha and New Generation. Capcom looked at their fan base and previous successes and used that to craft a game they felt would become the hot topic of the year. Of course, they succeeded with flying colors. From the perspective of mechanics, SF4 feels as though they through all of the previous Street Fighter games (except the first one of course) into a pot and stirred it together. You now had the more thought out game play of Third Strike with more command normals and new defensive options, and then you had various aspects from Alpha sprayed all over the core system of SF2. The end result was an impressive achievement that really swept away gamers and led to a best selling game throughout the entire world. Visually, Capcom decided on used 3D graphics. Not only would this allow for quicker/easier production, but it gave gamers a new way to look at their old favorites. For the roster, Capcom decided to wait on using characters from the third game and focus on the characters they had felt would hold out the best. Whether or not this was a good decision will probably be argued about for years, but there is no denying that obviously, it worked out for them in the end. When the game came to consoles, a large handful of new characters were added to the already enjoyable roster and a real fighting game package came out. This game was graced with anime and real time scenes for story mode and various modes to let you unlock everything from alternate costumes to new win quotes and colors. It even featured working online play that while having a few drawbacks, definitely inspired an enjoyable online experience. In what felt like overnight, Street Fighter became the topic everywhere. It appeared in every gaming store, in every magazine, on every channel, on every web site, on tshirts, in figurines, and in so much more.. To call the game a superb success would be an injustice. With that being said, I truly grew tired of the imbalances that I feel as though Capcom actually purposefully puts them into their games. Not only that, but as good as SF4 was, it had one of the worst combo systems to be seen in a major fighter for a long time. Still, these flaws do not destroy such a brilliant game and few will forget just what inspired a revolution in the genre.

So by the late nineties, fighting games were becoming pretty predictable. Splash some techno music to two stereotypes fighting each other in some form of Street Fighter or Samurai Shodown clone and you had yourself a fighting game. Of course, do not forget the generic villain final boss and tournament orientated story. This was a norm many were growing tired of and I imagine a company in particular realized such. Because of this, a game called Guilty Gear was born. Just a little later on, it went from X to XX and that is where it truly became famous. Guilty Gear is different to say the least. It basically slapped all other fighting games in the face and yelled out "this is how you do it right!" Now, music could truly become a central reason to like a fighting game. Guilty Gear had well composed rock music as its central theme and it came to gamers as what felt like the new generation of fighting games. It wasn't just about doing the same invincible attacks over and over again. Now, a fighting game could actually look very cool just to watch. Combos were the big thing here. Composing long strings after hours of practice and then fine tuning them to avoid things like techs and bursts became something everyone had to memorize. There was so much to do in Guilty Gear and only so many quarters to do them with. Everything from cancels to bursts to air dashing and double jumping. Guilty Gear really knocked down the mental walls that fighting games had given people. It essentially disregarded everything and gave a fresh coat of paint to even long since abandoned mechanics. The end result was, to say the least, the overall greatest fighting game to ever be made. There is no denying the appeal this franchise has given people. Quite possibly one of its most noticeable aspects was its character design. Fans were introduced to new characters through beautiful sprites and colorful backgrounds..both of which were not really seen before in a fighting game. The character design basically screaming originality. It through away stereoptypes and realism and gave us what I would call the best roster ever. Every character plays and looks nothing like another. Whether you were fighting with a giant key while being soaked in blood or if you were possessed by the girl from The Ring, you were in this game and given great justice. Combine that with a story that didn't care about tournaments and you were basically forced to love something so unfamiliar. Guilty Gear was an amazing success targeting audiences fighting games had never bothered to inspire before. It essentially excels in every single possible aspect of, not just a fighting game, video games. Praise be to Guilty Gear. Like SF4 after it, GG re inspired its genre and gave rise to a new kind of fighting game. If you want the best fighting game, you are looking right at it. Why is it number two? Because my personal favorite has to take the spot.

When SF3 came out, many were skeptical, but one group of people realized just what it was they were dealing with. Yes SNK returns for their fourth (I think?) game on my list of best fighting games. Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury had taken major inspiration from the second game in Street Fighter, but Garou: Mark of the Wolves is quite possibly the only noteworthy fighter to take major inspiration from the third game. But Garou didn't come out of the left field entirely. In Japan, the Fatal Fury games had always held the title of Garou so in all actuality, this game was the final sequel in what had somewhat become a forgotten franchise. Visually, it was obvious where this game was coming from. It's beautiful and fluid sprites in harmony with warm and dark colors made it obvious that this and Third Strike came from similar minds. Of course, SNK wouldn't be satisfied with just a copy. That's why they made a game far greater than what inspired it. Now Garou never got a sequel. It's roster seems very limited at first, but upon actually playing the game, one might quickly realize that, like Guilty Gear, every character is so unique and full of personality. Of course, this is the norm for SNK, but they really outdid themselves with this roster. Every single character is entirely unique and their personalities are worth countless fighting game characters on their own (though looking at most fighting game characters, this could be taken as an insult more than a compliment). Each character screamed life and they all played completely different from each other. Like SF3, this game dropped the entire roster of the previous Fatal Fury games and left only the main character: Terry. SNK would not be satisfied with a carbon copy of Terry though. This new one not only sported a new (and I would say improved) character design, but had a new move list to go with it. The moves he parted with would be seen in Rock, another character in this game. SNK did not want to hurt the fans though so each character they made for this game took obvious inspiration from their previous games. Fans of Ryo, Yuri, and Robert would instantly fall for Marco and his new spin on the Kyokugen style while even Andy and Mai fans had new characters to play that felt both familiar and unique to them. That feeling is one of my favorite things about Garou. It feels so friendly. Every character seems to be designed in the hope that their user enjoys using them and knows how to use them. There are not real secrets to this game aside from a quick lesson on canceling. Garou was made with its players in mind and this is obvious. In terms of music, it actually has one of my favorite fighting game OSTs. Every song had its own unique feel to it. Like how other fighters had their own themes, every single character had their own theme in Garou. From their stage to their voices to their outfits and finally their music, every character seem to come from something else and meet together in this game just once. Unfortunately, just once. Guilty Gear is perfection of a new type of fighter, but I would say Garou is perfection of the original type seen in the old Street Fighter and SNK titles. SNK really showed the world that it could stand on its own two feet with amazing game play, beautiful animation, incredible characters, an awesome sound track, and hell, I even liked the story. Even nine years after its debut, people still argue over how a tier list for the game should look. If that isn't a good sign for you, then I do not know what is. Well with that being said, this game is awesome, but that is an understatement. It's one of the best and I would go so far as to call it the best. Garou is a true fighting game in all possible views and deserves praise as the greatest.

So there you have it. I have loved fighting games since the days of SF2 and judging by the recent years, it looks like the genre just will not quit on impressing me. Every fighting game on my list, and many outside of it, holds a special place in my heart and in that sense, they are all the greatest. This is not a an easy genre to make a game for. A fighting game requires hours upon hours of testing and balancing till it can actually stand on its own two feet, but that didn't stop these games from becoming what they are and I think it is only fair that they get recognition for not only enduring the hardships of a fighter, but coming out as champions in their genre. These are some of the best games you will ever play. If you haven't had a chance to play even just one game in my list, please take the chance to look into it and go play it.

List by zero829 (07/20/2009)