Hardest Fighting Game Series

Fighting game series that can be challenging because of things such as gameplay and/or annoying characters.
The Top Ten
1 Tekken

The interesting part about the Tekken series is that you have to have good knowledge of the game to understand the many nuances going on in a competetive match on a high level. Thus, while not being the most popular on the big screen, it's certainly one of the games you can get most excitement out of if you actually understand it. Tekken is probably the most movement and execution heavy fighting game out there and there is so much room to do things incorrectly that a good opponent will capatilize on and win. High level Tekken players are probably the most versatile fighting game players, since Tekken teaches you fundamentals useful in every other fighting game to a point where you can easily apply those to more simpler fighting games.

2 Super Smash Bros.

This game seems deceptively basic, 'there aren't even any specials to learn'. Exactly there aren't any specials, or magic combos that are going to require a certain button sequence to take half off your opponents damage. The game play, when fighting against other experienced players, is based on knowledge, match ups and mind games (or at least it would have been with out meta knight). There are no specials to build, no "special" moves to learn (just lots of manipulations to your regular moves), not really any guaranteed combos (just configurations that work most of the time). What I'm saying is people can't become dominant by only learning a few tricks.

3 Mortal Kombat

The earlier games in the franchise are reliant on planning and memorization of different combos and movesets. Not to mention the A.I players could range from reasonable to completely BS (Mortal Kombat Trilogy being the worst offender).

The second one has to be one of the hardest out of all.

4 Street Fighter

Lets be real. Street fighter is by far the hardest game to play...let alone master. Even at the pro-level you'd be surprised to see someone who can pull of a 3 hit combo. Think I'm overreacting? Try it. I've never played a game so strict with timing. This is the definition on a none-new-player friendly game. If you're new, try something else. The learning curve doesn't exist. If you hate yourself and/or can't find a decent reason to jump off a bridge, I highly recommend Street fighter. Good luck, boys

Street Fighter is by FAR the hardest fighting game that's why is always in the main event of evo because pro players know what is a true pro skill fighting game!

5 Virtua Fighter

I can't believe this is not first. Look at the first page of the first control explanation.

People who say "3 button fighters are easy" will be quickly proven wrong with this game.

The deepest and most technical fighting game ever with the simplest commands for more freedom. THIS is the game in which you can be the more creative.

Too bad SEGA sucked at marketing this game because even now,no fighting game has reached such level of excellency.💖 Fighting games are my life I know what I'm talking about... (Sorry for the English translation)

6 The King of Fighters

If possible please don't use the most recent entries to the franchise like XIV, or even XIII at some level. All games from '95 to 2002 UM have insane DM inputs, and if you dare miss an imput to a combo for even a small milisecond, you drop the whole combo. The difficulty plus it's recent entries who ended up as failures due to bad decisions from a game company that already went bankrupt multiple times and had to sell out to China, has caused this gem to drop from populariy, but the arcade games and dream matches are still same of the hardest fighting games to master to this date. If you want an easy game to start with, buy KOF 2002 UM from steam.

7 Fight Night

Energy bar can make it hard to spam. Even though it can make it hard for your opponent to spam as well, no spamming would mean that you may have to practice a bit to really get good at the game.

8 Guilty Gear

The question was, "What is the hardest fighting game SERIES?" And if we analyze a series then we must analyze each game in that series; not just the most difficult game in that series (AHEM super smash bros melee is not the norm, people). To be "good" at Guilty Gear will cost you about 1,000 hours in training mode with your character of choice and then, and only then, will you be able to truly understand why you are still losing. You''ll need to master jump installs, air dash footsies, red/yellow/purple roman cancels, burst + burst baits/steals, when to use/threaten to use an insta-kill attack that destroys your meter bar if you miss, dead-angles, blitz shields/attacks, faultless defense, instant block, dust aerial/ground/corner combos, guard bar system (the more you block, the more damage you take on the next attack/combo you don't block), extremely specific timing for input etc:

9 Marvel vs Capcom

Actually requires skill and simple modes auto combos won't help you at all

10 Dead or Alive

This game isn't impossible on most settings, but sometimes the opponent just seems to already know every move you could possibly make AND have a way to counter them all...fifty moves on advance (LOOKING AT YOU, BAYMAN, GEN FU, HAYABUSA, CHRISTIE, ALPHA-152 AND GENRA). If there's any game out there that'll teach you the importance of countering, it's this game.

People think this game is simple, but at high level against people who know what they're doing, the game is a massive mind game

I think the hold technique and tag character combo make it hard

The Contenders
11 Soul Calibur

Think of Tekken, but without the "juggling" and give each fighter their own unique weapons. Like Tekken, Soul Calibur also takes a lot of skill to master, there are roughly the same amount of complicated move executions, lots of characters to master with their own unique move-sets. Try button-mashing against a veteran of Soul Calibur and you'll lose. Try button-mashing against CPU-controlled Nightmare, and you'll get annihilated. This game takes skill.

You are forgetting things such as tech/ukemi traps, which have been in most if not all Soulcalibur titles. Getting caught in those resets the diminishing return on combo damage for long combos. These tech/ukemi traps can lead to full health combos if a player doesn't know about them. There definitely is juggling in Soul Calibur as well by the way.

12 Blazblue

Super fun and extremely fast-paced game-play with a large learning curve. Great for casuals as well with it's 'Stylish' control mode. Personally find game-play more interesting and difficult than Tekken which isn't really that hard. To summarize, super fun and difficult game but super fun to learn. A unexplored franchise.

Diversity in character fight styles in this with different combo/attack systems for each fighter means you have to become competent in all of them to stand a chance. Not like MK or SF with pallet swap fighters. EVERY fighter is VERY different from the others. Could play this for years and still not master it.

13 Samurai Shodown
14 Dragon Ball Z
15 For Honor
16 Persona 4 Arena
17 Naruto
18 Killer Instinct
19 Skullgirls
20 Injustice 2
21 Brawlhalla
22 Pokkén Tournament
23 Clayfighter
24 Dragon Ball FighterZ
25 JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures
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