Top 10 Best Fighting Games of All-time
Fighting games have been the lifeblood of our gaming universe for generations. They keep us on the edge of our seats with epic battle mechanics, legendary character line-ups, and PvP action that's as intense as a final boss fight.Newbie or pro, you know the feeling: the pulse-pounding moment when you pull off that killer combo or nail the game-winning finisher. It's the kind of rush that makes you want to high-five the air (or your gaming buddy, if you've got one handy).
But here's the real quest: Which of these action-packed titles deserve a spot in the Fighting Game Hall of Fame? That's where you come in. Thanks to your input, we've gathered the ultimate lineup of fighting game royalty. These aren't just any titles; these are the games you voted as the GOATs for their groundbreaking mechanics, unforgettable heroes and villains, and their power to define and redefine the genre.
Ready to get your fight on? Whether you're into the nostalgia of 2D sprites or the jaw-dropping visuals of today's 3D smackdowns, buckle up. We're diving into the all-time greatest hits, from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat sagas to the bone-crunching worlds of Tekken and SoulCalibur. Prepare for a walk down memory lane - and maybe find your next arena for digital dominance. Game on!

For casuals, Brawl is probably the best Smash game. It's full of great single-player content that could last a single person ages, it's music is great, and it's easy to control.
However, for hardcore Smash competitors, Brawl is a horrible game. There is no tech skill. The game so slow it feels like I'm in training with the speed set to 1/2. Tripping will always be the worst mechanic put in any video game ever. The only combos that exist are chain grabs. Edge guarding doesn't even exist. And the game is so unbalanced that the main thing determining a character's spot on the tier list is their matchup against Meta Knight. It's even worse than 64, which is slow and campy but still has tech skill, edge guarding, and a balanced roster.
There are mods to improve gameplay, such as the famous Project M, which is the only reason competitive players might own this game. However, you can't call Brawl a good game because of its great modding scene. That is to say that you should only ever judge a game based on its vanilla state. If anything, the fact that Brawl requires mods to be enjoyable shows how bad Brawl is.
The fact that Brawl is #1 shows there is on competitive player influence on this list. Hardcore competitive players are the most dedicated part of the fan base, making them the most important. Because Brawl doesn't please this fan base it is the worst Smash game.

It is a perfect game. I have played this probably more times than another other game in my life. It is the second highest rated fighting game on both game rankings and metacritic, behind SoulCalibur. However I rated this higher because I don't know one person that played SC (cause it was Dreamcast and Arcade only), and I also have never seen an actual arcade machine of it, while I've seen several Tekken 3 cabs over the years. It also has more characters than SC and everything in this game just seems perfectly crafted. This is a fighting game masterpiece. Not only is the music amazing, the FMVs are awesome. The animation was all motion captured, which was mostly unheard of for games in 1997. This made the animations so fluid and the speed of the game was unmatched for 3D fighters until SoulCalibur. It was clear in the late 90s that Namco was the master of fighting games. This and SoulCalibur are still the two best 3D fighting games ever made.

The best Mortal Kombat ever done. 2d gameplay done well, awesome graphics, and two things most other fighting games don't have: an actual elaborated Story mode with a good storyline and a massive Challenge Tower with 300 challenges for you to waste your time in. Plus, all of the gore Mortal Kombat was always famous for is back. FINISH HIM!
This was like a love letter to Mortal Kombat Fans, they knew that MK vs DC was a bad game so they put a ton of effort into making sure that the fans were happy with this one, it had an amazing plot, gave relatively underrated characters like Nightwolf and Cyrax great storylines, and of course the absolutely incredible fatalities, my personal favourite being Sektor's Scarecrow fatality, oh and not to mention this was the game to introduce X rays.
This list is a joke really smash bro is one, Mortal Kombat should be number 1 best fighting ever made, who ever made this list need some good smack in the face from sonya blade.

Melee continues to be played competitively in tournaments all around the world more than ten years after its release. The game is well balanced, with over half of its characters consistently placing well in tournaments, it offers movement over much larger and more intricate levels than almost any other fighting game, and it has great graphics, soundtrack, and mechanics. The inclusion of items and custom game modes allows for complete beginners to have fun and do well without having to button mash (To many serious gamers' great delight, button mashing works worse in Melee than nearly any other fighting game), while the exclusion of items allows competitive players to have pure, unadulterated fights as technical and dramatic as any other fighting game. Not to mention the ability to play as all of the most iconic Nintendo heroes of all time!
The Melee Community is gigantic. It has spawned thousands of tournaments, players, a documentary, and fun for millions. Tons of content, ridiculously fast gameplay that is exciting and fun, and hundreds of trophies, modes, etc. Masterpiece. It is the best Super Smash Bros. Game, and the Best Fighting Game. (Mortal Kombat 2011 and SF2:Turbo Fighting are next).

Let me just say that people who say Melee and Project M is better than this. Y'all are stupid. Smash 4 improves the physics and balances the roster a bit more evenly (except for Greninja and Bayonetta and Cloud). This game also takes practice and time to master almost every character. There is not one bad character. While the stages lack on the Wii U version. The 3DS Version has about 20 good stages out of about 30 which is impressive. This game would be better if Smash Tour didn't replace Subspace. Smash Tour isn't bad, but Subspace 2 would have been better. Smash 5 should be like this but enhanced graphics, Subspace 2 and less clones.
I mean, the roster is pretty balanced. Even Samus, which is considered a low tier can beat high tier characters like sheik and Diddy. It's all down to skills and it's not too fast like melee. The perfect fighting game for me!
Better than melee for a lot of reasons: more characters and stages, new melee copies are out of print, not ridiculously over centralized with less OP characters, eight player smash.

This game is way better than any other tekken game on the spot! It has great graphics, awesome combo moves, huge amounts of pain, and exquisite power within each character. Especially the character Law.
Best martial arts game ever made this game is pure skill and no powers.. This is truly a challenge to talk abt tekken is a giant by itself and hopefully it will continue
I am very surprised IGN rated this game 8.8. It's a masterpiece.

Good game, but the online SUCKS. It's actually terrible. They don't take non-competitive players into consideration at all, because they added GSP points which affects everyone. And it drops insanely every time you lose. It was much better when they had the "For Glory," and "For Fun," options. Also, I hate playing someone else's rules. There should be default settings that everyone has to play in that specific game mode.
The sheer amount of content is great, the learning curve is smooth, and the roster is ever-growing! Best game in the Smash Bros. series in my opinion
How is the Super Smash Bros. 64, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl above this? Besides online, this deserves to reach Brawl's level on this list one day! Even ' Banjo-Kazooie is going to be in it! (As a DLC, you would have to pay $6 for him. I did that whEn I payed for JOKER FROM PERSONA 5, BOIS! )

Should be higher has really intricate gameplay and plenty of tactics for high level play, and the excellent aesthetics compliment it very well, great game.
Best fighting game because of all the marvel and capcom characters I'm getting this game. I love it for its insane gameplay.
This is bull. This is my favorite fighter and it's this low.

The crazy 56 character roster, mad fast-paced action and just excellent craft should have this one AT LEAST in Top 5 in my opinion.
Top 2 Fighting Games of all time, a crime it isn't even top 5.
This game is so hot the soundtrack and art this game is dang hot

Street Fighter II is the game that jump started the Fighting series genre. It may not have a complexed story, but gameplay is decent and well developed, and most of the characters are extremely likeable.
This was the True inauguration, not only to its predecessor, but to the fighting game genre itself; with many other fighting games coming in as a joint second place: depending on your personal preference.
Street Fighter is like one of the first fighting games ever therefore it practically inspired most of these fighting games you can't beat that! That's like reaching the impossible!

Big fan but it will not be number 1 never, excellent graphics, good voice acting, very good gameplay, pretty decent modes in general, mediocre story mode, good ideas for online modes, quite solid netcode but not impressive, variation system good in most of the cases but it's main problem it's the roster, pretty boring, 24 it's not that much having a couple of characters who look very similar, plus DLC characters after 2 weeks of release it's shame.
In conclusion it's good fighting game with a couple of missing things that can't be restored having boring micro transactions. Don't know if Tekken 7 but I'm pretty sure Street Fighter V will be better.
Mortal kombat 9 and x were a big comeback for the franchise! Xs reissue with added characters which is xl is by far my favorite game of all time!
The best fighting game ever. Dark, violent and brutal!

Come on, you know it is the best...

Ok to make the point clear to the DBZ haters, look because the game is from a series that you don't like (which by the way I love) that shouldn't automatically make you hate the game. I for a fact know someone (actually my cousin) who hates dragon ball z (or anime as a whole) but will play these games for HOURS. Best fighting game ever.
A very good Dragon Ball game and a good fighting game, with a lot of characters. (By the way this game is not from 2004, it was released in 2007)
In my opinion, this is the last elite DBZ game and they should make a DBZ game hall of fame. BT3 in the front w/ the company of BT2, Budokai, Budokai 3 and Burst Limit. 'enough said.

If you don't think 3rd strike is the best fighter of all time you're wrong and you should feel bad for being wrong.

Story mode is great and I love the fighting in it but they kinda screwed up with versus mode, there are no combos but in the story mode is awesome.
Had every Mortal Kombat character it was great for Mortal Kombat nerds

! This shouldn't be at 19, it should be at least at number 4! This is one the best fighting games from one of the best fighting game franchises!
My fighting game.


How could you not love pitting your favorite DC heroes & villains against each other? The characters have awesome, accurate movesets, the stages are blow-your-mind awesome-looking, & the character matchups are some of the most potentially-awesome possibilities! I have been playing this game for years without getting bored of repetition once. That's how awesome it is. How this is only #11 now, I have no clue.
- JohnOfArcades
From the makers of Mortal Kombat 2011, Injustice is the perfect balance fighting game. It has great and a lot of characters including Scorpion from MK itself. Also the dynamic gameplay with environment in gamearena make it looks so badass.
Great game. Cool storyline. Fun mechanics. STAR labs missions were fun to play. Oh, the hours I spent on BATTLES. This is a highly recommended game

Tekken is my favourite fighting game. Tekken 5 is my favourite Tekken. Awesome.
This game created the ESPN voting on games. How the hell is it No. 9?
Takken is no.1? Don't get me wrong, I like Tekken but Mortal Kombat fighters destroy the whole Tekken in 5 seconds. MK influenced tekken in many aspects. MK is the most creative and unique fighting game
It's just a timeless classic.



The best tekken ever...
Bro best game ever

Even better than the first one! Better rosters, epic storyline, and awesome multiplayer! Easily one of the best Video Games of 2017. 10/10
Obviously better than its predecessor, voice acting, graphics and more. All amazing
Amazing game roster is the most amazing ever I hope they make a third

I am playing this since 2000 and it's all player move, combo, punch, kick, power are unique than others. It is one of the hardest but easiest to learn the move and combo. you will like it when your opposite player is human
King of fighters is the best fighting game. No overdone combos, no exaggerated camera view and colors. Moves are simple and the game is easy to understand. Plus, it's a 2D fighter in HD look. The classic fighting games were 2D and now you have it in HD. Every fighting game fan should try this game.
Beautiful 2D graphics and an excellent way to conclude the Ash saga. Honesty we learn the true intentions of a character that we use to hate.