Top 10 Fighting Game Series

When it comes to fighting games there's more games to chose from than you can poke a joystick at and to gather up our top 10 favorite fighting games of all time would seem all most impossible. So to help spread things out a little we composed a list of the top ten fight game series, where a fighting game has to prove its worth with more than just the one release. To make it onto this list the series has to have made an appearance on multiple platforms, have more than two renditions and generally kick ass. Fighting games have been around for decades, they have been gobbling up our coins in the arcades and still do to this day. They have provided us with bone crushing entertainment in our homes powered by our consoles, and have even been popular enough to have movies made after them. So without further ado let's get cracking with this list, starting at number ten and working our way to the podium position of number one.

In the early nineties SNK, who at the time was a well established name within the arcade industry, brought us the first of many Samurai Showdown games. The series was set in late 18th century Japan with art style, culture, music all fitting into that era, some of the sound tracks even went to the extent to include traditional Japanese instruments. Samurai Showdown armed each character with a weapon, so naturally there was no shortage of blood, to get the largest dose of gore you'll have to play the original arcade versions since the many console ports were censored. Regardless of censorship Samurai Showdown was a fast paced fighter game with the emphasis placed on landing accurate heavy attacks rather than stringing together combos. To further enhance the excitement the Neo-zoom effect was used where the camera would scale in and out depending on how close the opposing characters were from each other. Originality, attention to detail, armed combat and agitating the censors scored the Samurai Showdown series the number 10 spot on our list.

The Dead or Alive series locks itself into the number nine spot of our countdown thanks to excessive amount of "jiggle" portrayed in the female characters.....wait! Sorry I'm getting side tracked here. Beneath all the luscious 3D graphics and textured eye candy lies a solid fighting game. Battle takes place in a 3D environment where timing is the key to success, reading your opponents next move where either you take advantage of DOA's countering system or unleash a quick unrelenting combo. Which can be performed quite easily thanks to the games basic button layout consisting of just punch, kick, throw and guard button; these respective buttons in conjunction with a directional movement can execute a representation of numerous real life martial arts moves all of which have a somewhat natural flow to them.

Soul Edge was the first of the armed combat series, before changing its name to SoulCalibur with a new game in the late nineties. Combat is not as "perfect timing" dependent as some other fighting games, but if executed correctly SoulCalibur's guard defense technique can be a lethal advantage. Breaking the common tradition of arcade to console ports disappointing consumers Namco Bandai actually made the Dream Cast version an improvement over the original. SoulCalibur is often regarded as one of the best games released on the Dream Cast. For raising the bar for arcade to console ports and offering a fighting game with forgiving controls the SoulCalibur series ranks in at number eight on out top 10 list.

I can feel the awkward glances from fighting game fans already but hear me out. Nintendo's Super Smash Brothers series earns its number 7 place by providing Nintendo console gamers an exclusive fighting series where game play takes alternate path when compared to other fighting games. Super Smash Brothers came to life on the legendary Nintendo 64 where you could select from many iconic Nintendo characters who you'd normally see in platform/adventure games. As the series progressed from each generation of Nintendo consoles so did the character list with some unlockable characters from other franchises other than the "big N". Rather than beat your opponent senseless until their energy bar was depleted the player would have to focus more on getting their opponent out of the stage. Nearly two years on the Wii version still has a strong cult following with large scale tournaments being held regularly.

In the early nineties we were starting to experience a steady stream of games using polygons to produce three dimensional environments, Sega-AM2 were a driving force for this era by pushing out numerous games that were tagged with the "Virtua" name. Looking back the simplicity and crudeness of these visuals would make you cringe but back then this was impressive. The first Virtua Fighter game looked like it was drawn with just a ruler; blocky as those graphics were it did help to give a somewhat illusion of realism. As the series progressed so did the graphics and realistic aspects of the game, with each release Sega-AM2 set the standard for what a 3D fighting game should look like. Strip away the millions of polygons and you have yourself a solid and technical fighting game. There's only three action buttons, Punch, Kick, Guard, but combine those buttons with a string of directional inputs on the joystick/controller and you can unleash special moves and combinations. Victory goes to the player that either beats the living snot out of their opponent or by knocking them out of the ring. Balanced characters, recognition by the Smithsonian Institution and helping pioneer 3D fighting games secures the Vitua Fighter series in our number six spot.

Another recognised fighting series by SNK, King of Fighters gathered up characters from their other previously released fighting games Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. As fighting games go King of fighters pushed a storyline with each release, some of which were a little "rich". The character selection was good and plentiful with each character having a standout appearance and special move set. The challenge was to try and memorise the sheer number of special moves that each character could perform, this was criticized by some but praised by others for increasing the longevity of the game by adding more variety. Often looked at as a Street fighter clone, King of Fighters was still popular enough to have a new game released each year, games were tagged with the years release at the end of the title eg. King of Fighters '99. This yearly release schedule was maintained from 1994 right though to 2003 and SNK really pushed the envelope when it came to 2D fighting games and what could be done with the aging MVS platform before seeking out newer hardware. KOF eventually added the third dimension to its graphics and game play and did it quite well when released on the Playstation 2 and Xbox as King of Fighters Maximum Impact. Props has to given to SNK for successfully pushing the KOF series so far and giving fighting fans an alternative to the domination force of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, comfortably sitting in the middle of our list id where the KOF series belongs.

Capcom is a name that gamers can easily affiliate with arcade fighting games with the ever so popular street fighter games, DarkStalker, Marvel Super Heroes, Final Fight and more. Those games alone are quality entertainment but Capcom decided to go one further and create a series of "Capcom verses" games where numerous Capcom characters would be grouped together with other franchises such as Xmen, Marvel, Tatsunoko and even SNK! Each game in the series played in a very similar manner to Street fighter games and were all played on a 2D battlefield. Having multiple franchises mashed together in the one game meant there was a large and diverse selection of characters to choose from, in addition to that there's also a huge number of team combinations you can put together. Deadly combinations can be strung together with ease with some "special moves" making contact with an opponent multiple times as a default. Causing even more damage is the "super moves" that can be performed when a player has their super bar charged and the correct button and direction executed, caution! some of these moves fill the entire screen with destruction. For over the top attacks, massive character selection and bringing two good things together the Capcom Verses series of games sit comfortably in our number four spot.

Another well established name in the arcade scene is Namco. They are responsible for bringing us the Tekken and for a change this series doesn't deviate to far from its numerical increments in its titles. Tekken, like Virtua fighter, was one of the early 3D fighting games with the first game being released only a couple of years after AM2's polygon fighter, though the first incarnation of Tekken was a little more graphically refined than the first Vitua Fighter. Tekken is a hand to hand combat game with no fancy screen filling fireballs with each character having their moves based on real life martial arts, dodge, counter and escape the attacks of your opponent and return with a well timed combo if you want to be victorious in this game. Control is a little different from traditional fighting games with Tekken dedicating a button for each limb, after some practice a players intuition should take over as they react to battle. A smooth transition from arcade to home console was achieved thanks to Namco using PlayStation based hardware in their arcade units, apart from hand full of ports to other platforms the majority of the Tekken series calls the Playstation platform home. the most recent release ofTekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion has already pleased consumers and critics. The Tekken series has been a fan favorite since day one with Namco refining this technical fighter with each game released.

Mortal kombat is a name that brings a smile to gamers around the world, while at the same time making parents and censors cringe with disgust. We first got to play this gore fest of a fighting game in the early nineties, which was a time when people were more accustomed to the blue spinning hedgehogs and plumbers bouncing around on screen, so the thought of seeing a digitized character ripping the heart out of their opponent's chest was a shock to many. Ed Boon and John Tobias (say their surnames backwards) were the original creators of the Mortal Kombat series and they delivered a solid 2D fighting game that enticed players and onlookers in the arcades with its digitized actors as characters instead of the more common animated graphics. The playable characters in the early Mortal Kombat games all shared a similar core fighting style with special moves separating so memorising those button combinations were essential to be victorious against an experienced player. Beating your opponent is as straight forward as depleting their energy bar until they are on the brink of death. When your opponent is swaying helplessly on screen and the announcer screams "FINISH HIM!" you have a few seconds to perform the infamous fatality move. Each character has their own unique way of obliterating an enemy at the end of a match and as the series progressed a few more finishing options were introduced such as babalities, friendships, animalities and brutalities. Some believe that the Mortal Kombat series started getting stagnant towards the end, but for introducing the much loved fatality move, agitating the censors and hiding little secrets throughout each game we are giving the Mortal Kombat series the number two spot.

A game that needs no introduction, the Street Fighter series defined the 2D fighter era and it was standard issue to hear the "Hadoken" battle cry emanating from arcades all over the globe. Street fighter made its debut in the late eighties, and didn't take off as well as Capcom would have hoped. It wasn't until Street Fighter 2 was released that the series began to shine, a 2D fighter with crisp animation and solid game play and characters that all played with played differently. Jumping between the available characters required you to change how you approach and defend against your opponent with some characters having more speed but lacked brute force and vice versa. Players could control the ferocity and speed of their attacks thanks to the six button layout with the punch and kick attacks have light, medium and heavy buttons. As the chronically challenged series progressed so did the evolution of Street Fighter's game play mechanics, more special moves, more fluid combos, super moves, counter attacks and more. Even though the game was technically evolving the basic "Street Fighter essence" still remain throughout the series, yes even DX to a certain extent...so a Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition veteran can have a crack at the latest Street Fighter 4 and still hold their own. Early console ports made the transition quite well considering the hardware limitations at the time; not really an issue these days, but back then when an arcade game was released on a home console we couldn't help but hold our breath hoping it wasn't butchered like many other games. The Street fighter series rightfully earns the number one podium position on our top ten list for providing us with decades of entertainment, giving us a fighting game that all skill levels can enjoy, refining the game with each release while still staying true to its heritage. Now all we need is for Capcom to bring back the falling barrel bonus stage.

Written by: Matthew Armitage