From soft reboots and sequels, there was something in the fighting genre for everyone in 2023, released across a variety of consoles and platforms. More than just offering an impressive breadth in the number of titles, this year also saw its big franchises take major creative risks that often paid off with high-quality experiences. If you’re not familiar, the franchise has a passionate audience in the fighting game community thanks to its lovely sprites, catchy tunes, and focus on feet-on-the-ground fighting.
If you can get past the tacked-on monetization efforts, there’s a jam-packed package at its heart. While the game’s movelists are certainly intimidating when viewed as a whole, it remains difficult not to recommend Tekken 8 given how well it handles just about everything else. Seriously, do yourself a favour and make sure you check out one of the best games of 2024 as soon as you can. An extensive tutorial will help you learn the ropes, and the active community will be waiting to take you on. What helps Skullgirls stand out, though, is just how fun it is to watch – the hand-drawn art style is gorgeous, and the presentation is exciting. The surprise revival of Killer Instinct was one of this console generation’s earliest treats.
Rather than focus on long, complex combos or a standard block and attack combat system, the Brazilian fighting game God of Rock focuses on rhythm and tempo. Inputs are synced with a given fight’s background music, with more perfectly aligned timing allowing for stronger blocks and more devastating attacks. Players also have access to special moves to heal themselves, unleash more potent attacks, or disrupt their opponent’s tempo in the heat of battle. While the uninitiated might think Dragon Ball FighterZ to be little more than a shallow fan service game, it’s proven to be much more than that, and has quickly become a hit within the fighting game community. The winks and nods to DBZ fans are nice, but what fighting game aficionados will appreciate is the depth present in FighterZ’s mechanics. What helps separate BlazBlue from its competitors is the “Drive” button.
You’ll have even more fun if you’re already familiar with Persona, but even if you haven’t played through the series, this is a solid fighter with a unique and memorable cast. As 2025 approaches, the world of esports fighting games is gearing up for a year filled with excitement, competition, and innovation. Among the most awaited events, several major tournaments are expected to break new ground with impressive rosters, prize pools, and participation from players worldwide. Notably, a Brazilian online casino and Crazy Time operator has joined as a prominent sponsor, bringing new opportunities for player support, prize funds, and media coverage. This partnership is likely to increase the scale and visibility of these events, drawing even larger audiences than in previous years. While there will always be a contingent of purists who refuse to play anything other than Melee, make no mistake – Smash’s Switch outing is one of the best fighters ever released.
Each stone has different effects, which can drastically alter your strategy, and the franchise-spanning roster features plenty of fan favorites. This is a 2v2 rather than 3v3 fighter, and there aren’t any assists from your partner this go-round either, so overall, it’s a bit more restrictive than the series’ previous entry. Still, check this title out before picking up the upcoming Marvel game, Marvel Rivals. There have also been balance issues, but DNF Duel still offers a very distinct gameplay experience featuring easy-to-use moves that are hard to master. DNF Duel is hard to recommend as a top-tier choice, but it certainly belongs in the conversation and on our list of the best fighting games.
It was a pretty niche thing overall so no big issue, but if you do use the site as a PWA (add to homescreen) you might have to re-add it. Virtual Fighter 5 is absolutely the one I’ve played the most as well, once that launched on the Xbox 360. Before that I had played VF4 and VF4 Evo a fair amount on the PS2 but only against the (excellent to final round be fair) CPU.The beta was amazing, because I could actually play REAL VIRTUAL FIGHTER as a european.
For regular readers of my irregular indie column on SuperCombo, niche fighting game enthusiast Mike Levesque a.k.a. Mr. MKL might be a household name (here’s his Twitch channel, just as a reminder). During the past few years, Mike has supported and showcased fighting games in all their shapes and forms, as long as they were niche, indie, obscure or a combination of both. Even more importantly, Mike was among the main organizers of the Indie FGC Developer Round Table, which gave room to small developers to discuss the status of the industry.