Fighting games have been one of the more popular genres of video games ever since the days when gamers crowded around Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat machines in arcades. Arcades are difficult to find today, but fortunately, fighting games are still around and just as popular as ever.
Surprisingly, most modern fighting games resemble the fighting games of twenty years ago – meaning they use a 2D side view. Many of the games on this list have been used for the EVO Tournament at some point, which really speaks to their quality and balance of characters. The only criterion for a game to make this list, apart from their Metacritic rating, is that they must have been released for the current console generation.
10 Tekken 7 – 82 Rating, 6.2 User Score
Tekken is a long-running series of 2.5D fighting games known for its unique playable characters – many of whom return for this game. In addition to classic characters like King and Eddy Gordo, Tekken 7 features characters borrowed from other fighting games like Akuma (from Street Fighter) and Geese Howard (from Fatal Fury).
An interesting and popular new character to the series is Negan from The Walking Dead – complete with his bat Lucille. The crowds at EVO usually go wild when a player selects Negan, who is effective despite not being considered a top tier character. Watching Negan fight Akuma never gets old.
9 Skullgirls: 2nd Encore – 82 Rating, 7.3 User Score
Skullgirls: 2nd Encore is a PS4, PC, Vita, and Switch re-release of the Skullgirls game for the previous console generation. This game began as an indie project from two friends – one an artist (Alex Ahad) who developed the character designs, and the other (Mike Zaimont) a programmer and fighting game enthusiast.
Skullgirls has fourteen playable characters and a bright, colorful presentation. Most fans of fighting games that play Skullgirls will immediately notice the similarities between this game and the Marvel Vs. Capcom series. Players can form teams of up to three characters, but can also use two or one characters; using fewer characters increases their health and damage output.
8 Mortal Kombat XL – 85 Rating, 7.7 User Score
Even though Mortal Kombat 11 is the newer game and has a Metacritic rating of 86, Mortal Kombat XL was chosen for this list due to it user score of 7.7 versus Mortal Kombat 11’s user score of 3.1. However, the latter’s low user score is mostly due to costume changes and not the gameplay.
Mortal Kombat XL is essentially Mortal Kombat X with the DLC characters included. In addition to longtime characters in the series like Scorpion and Liu Kang, the game has characters like Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, and the Alien from the Alien movie franchise. The gory fatalities in Mortal Kombat games have always been a favorite among fans of the series, and those in XL are among the goriest in the franchise.
7 Killer Instinct: Definitive Edition – 86 Rating, 7.7 User Score
This is a reboot of the Killer Instinct that appeared in arcades in 1994. The Definitive Edition features all the content through season three – which includes twenty-six playable characters, twenty stages, and the original two Killer Instinct games. This game is famous for its lightning-fast gameplay that continues the combo system started in the first Killer Instinct –and of course the C-C-C-C-Combo Breakers.
This is an Xbox and PC exclusive, and a very good reason to choose the Xbox One over the PS4 for fans of fighting games. Reviewers praise the game’s lack of input lag; Killer Instinct has about half the input lag of most of the other games on this list.
6 Guilty Gear XRD: Rev 2 – 86 Rating, 7.9 User Score
The Guilty Gear games are famous for their colorful, cartoonish characters and fast fighting action. The game is labeled by many reviewers as the best fighting game of the current console generation. The Story Mode, with its high-quality animated sequences, is a new feature that fans of the series agree is a much-appreciated addition.
Guilt Gear XRD: Rev 2 looks and plays much like Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike – the character sprites have a retro look and feel to them. One major complaint about this game from reviewers on Metacritic is the game’s small roster of 25 characters.
5 Blazblue: Central Fiction – Special Edition – 86 Rating, 8.5 User Score
Like the Guilty Gear games, the Blazblue series (both made by Arc System Works) feature colorful, cartoonish character sprites that give the games an appealing retro look. Many critic reviews proclaim this the best fighting game for the Nintendo Switch (it’s also available for the PS4 and PC) – that’s saying a lot considering it’s competing against Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
However, gamers have always had the same complaint about Blazblue games; namely the steep learning curve required to “git gud.” The game boasts a roster of 33 unique playable characters with some of the flashiest effects ever seen in a fighting game.
4 Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition – 87 Rating, 6.7 User Score
Street Fighter V has come a long way since its launch in 2016. It wasn’t nearly as well-received as it is now, mainly because it did not have a single-player arcade mode when it originally released. There was also a big problem with players “rage-quitting” during matches.
Over time these problems were addressed by Capcom, and now Street Fighter V has taken its place as one of the best modern fighting games. Street Fighter V: Champion Edition is actually newer, but has a lower Metacritic rating of 83. This is, according to many reviewers on Metacritic, the best 2D fighting game available.
3 Dragon Ball FighterZ – 87 Rating, 8.0 User Score
Dragon Ball FighterZ is another fan favorite at EVO, and for good reason. This game has some of the most visually stunning gameplay of any game on this list. The way this game seamlessly transitions from the fighting to brief cinematic cut-scenes during gameplay makes this game just as fun to watch as it is to play.
Dragon Ball FighterZ is also unmatched at making a player who has gone through the grind of getting good feel rewarded for their efforts by making them feel as powerful as the characters they are controlling. For the longest time, Dragon Ball Z games had a reputation for being just so-so, but fans of the manga and anime series finally have a game that lives up to their expectations.
2 Injustice 2: Legendary Edition – 88 Rating, 7.5 User Score
For the longest time, fans of D.C. comics would play the Marvel fighting games from Capcom and dream of a day when they would get a fighting game with the characters they love. Then Injustice 2 was released, and now Marvel fans are forced to begrudgingly acknowledge this fighting game based in the D.C. universe is better than Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite.
Injustice 2 two not only allows players to play as D.C. heroes and villains like the Flash and the Joker, but the game also has a compelling plot that features some role-playing elements not typically seen in a fighting game.
1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 93 Rating, 8.6 User Score
The Super Smash Bros. games have been around since the days of the N64, and it seems each game manages to out-do the previous title. One reason gamers have such high praise for this game is the enormous roster that features 74 playable characters – and that’s in the base version, more have been added as DLC since the game’s release.
Ultimate features the frantic combat set in (somewhat) open levels that have made the series so popular. New to the series is the introduction of spirits for the player to collect. These spirits can be used during battles to give characters new abilities. The only thing bad about this game is that it is so good it will be hard for Nintendo to improve upon it for the next title in the series.
NEXT: 5 Awesome DLC Characters in Fighting Games (& 5 No One Asked For)
