36 Great Fighting Games

[pinzach]

Took me a while to plow thru the 150 top MAME fighters.  But I did it, and the list of my favorite 36 is now up on my blog.  It goes along with the lists of my fav Vertical shooters, Horizontal Shooters, Omni Shooters, Cross-Hair, Platformers, Misc games, etc.  There's a box on the right to click to go to any genre "Best".

Also, as an arbitrary stat, today will be the 117th Game of the Day.

http://mamezach.blogspot.com/

[Donkbaca]

Seriously? Super gem fighter?  Above any of the tekkens or street fighters of MvC?  You are fired

[HaRuMaN]

No Samurai Showdown love?

[Mac Green]

Yah id have to agree no tekken?

[DCsegaDH]

Some of those games are beat-em-ups.

[pinzach]

Some of those games are beat-em-ups.

Yeah, I know, it says that in the intro.

[pinzach]

Yah id have to agree no tekken?

Yeah, I cut it off at 36, but someday I'll put the whole list up.  The difference between the games at #36 and the games at say #50 is very slim.  But if I'm fired, then I'm fired.

[brad808]

I must be missing something with the tekken series. I just can't get into them. Last weekend i went to the arcade and pulled up to a tekken 6 machine thinking i haven't played tekken for a while and it might be a lot better now but to be honest i found it just as boring as every other tekken game I've played. In the defense of the game I've never given tekken much attention and definitely not enough time to have a true review/ opinion if it. The action just seems very slow to me for a fighter. By that i mean the actual speed the characters move at. I've also never been a true fan of the 3d style characters in any fighting game. I like my characters nice n flat.

For any true players of tekken what am i missing out on? Is it the combo system? The fighting balance? The massive character roster? Where does tekken excel?

Sent from my Desire HD

[Donkbaca]

Yeah, I am not super into them either, but they were an arcade mainstay. I never saw ANYONE line up to play Super Gem Fighter.  Total Fail.

SF2 Turbo, MKII are easily the two best fighters.

The thing with Teeken is that there are no fireballs, so all the fighting is done close, so yeah, its all about the combos.  The game play in that game is pretty deep, if you have ever seen someone really good at it you can see what I mean.

[Donkbaca]

Also, how do you have best beat-em ups without Final Fight? Captain Commando? Ninja Turtles? Simpsons?

[Donkbaca]

Lastly, how do you have best fighting games without any MK on it?

This list just makes me more angry every time I look at it.....

[Malenko]

No Samurai Showdown love?

No Samurai Shodown either.

First off, you shouldnt mix Genres for a specific top list, make a top beatem up and a top fighting game list; just doesnt make sense to mix em , to me at least.

Im not one to jump on the bandwagon but using your scale you're saying The Punisher has better graphics then Marvel VS Street Fighter?

KI2 but no KI1.....No Power Instincts, No Mortal Kombats, I can understand no Primal Rage but No Virtua Fighters either? for shame. Total Fail. I mean if the list includes epic beat em ups, no Ninja Turtles? No Xmen (the 1-6 player one) ? Hell even the original Avengers game is better than galactic storm, so is the original spiderman game too.

[Jack Burton]

Hyper Street Fighter II?

Nobody plays that.  Super Turbo is the standard.  It's even got online play these days.  

I'll agree that MSH had some of the best presentation and soundtrack of the CPS2 games.

[Cynicaster]

The preface for the article says, in part (emphasis mine):

In the past couple of months I've played over 150 top rated MAME fighting games.  Some were Vs. fighters, some were side-scrolling beat-'em-ups.  These are my current favorite 36.  I rated them on fighting (gameplay), graphics and the extra stuff that make some of the games special and unique.

To say the least, there's a ton of subjectivity.

So, if Mortal Kombat and Super Mega Street Fighter II Ultimate Turbo Plus World Tournament Edition are missing, I don't see how it's a "fail".  We're all free to play the same 150 games and share our own conclusions on a blog, right?

 

[Donkbaca]

geez you are right.  So if I say that the best fighting game of all time is Primal Rage with Tattoo Assasins a close second, well then golly that opinion is just as good as anyone elses!  Heck, lets just all be equal and hold hands and not say anything negative ever because what I have to say is just as good as everyone else.  Even if is completely out of line with what anyone in their right mind might think

[Malenko]

So, if Mortal Kombat and Super Mega Street Fighter II Ultimate Turbo Plus World Tournament Edition are missing, I don't see how it's a "fail".  We're all free to play the same 150 games and share our own conclusions on a blog, right?
 

The fail is in combining side scrolling beat em ups in the same genre as 1 on 1 fighting games and calling them all fighting games.  And while I agree with there being a lot of subjectivity on whats good, whats the point of making a mixed list of good, great, and average games from 2 different genres?

[Well Fed Games]

If you read MameZach's post, I don't think he was trying to be authoritative or commanding, I think he was trying to start conversations... which he has now done, in two different threads here, thanks to Donk. "Certainly you'll find some games missing and other games that you don't think belong - that's the fun of the list. "- from the blog post. Sure, the list might be batshit crazy, but nothing to get angry about. (I like his posts, and want him to continue!)

Oh, and Tekken 3 FTW! 

[Rando]

(I like his posts, and want him to continue!)

[Lucky S.O.B.]

I agree... There definitely some questionable games on there, but I do applaud the effort  

Based on this list I would say the speed of the game goes a long way with you... Especially since the only SF 2 to make the list was the turbo edition. It just one of those games you cannot exclude from the list because with out it or a couple of others there is no list...

[DCsegaDH]

I like his website, I found a lot of cool Mame games because of his website

[Cynicaster]

geez you are right.  So if I say that the best fighting game of all time is Primal Rage with Tattoo Assasins a close second, well then golly that opinion is just as good as anyone elses!  Heck, lets just all be equal and hold hands and not say anything negative ever because what I have to say is just as good as everyone else.  Even if is completely out of line with what anyone in their right mind might think

Dude, bear in mind that we live in a world where there are people who actually believe Nickelback makes good music.  Apparently, subjectivity is the bane of artistic justice.   


   

[Donkbaca]

I guess, and apparently if someone says that nickelback is the best movie of all time, we can't tell them they are wrong

[pinzach]

It's just a bunch of fun games to play - and remember, as I wrote, I get only knee deep into lots of them because my lack of skill.  SO you could easily argue this is a list more for novices.  Skilled/expert players would have a different opinion based on depth of play.

The other point I thought I should address is that the reason I put both scrolling beat-'em-ups and Vs. fighting together is that I use the Hyperspin front end and they are both categorized and thrown together in the "Fighting" Genre - so I kept them together that way in this list.  Certainly I agree they are apples and oranges. It would be difficult to directly compare the two types, the ratings are certainly relative to each sub-genre.  In other words, when scoring, I was definitely comparing the beat-em-ups to other beat-em-ups, NOT to the Vs games.

Graphically speaking - there is certainly large variance in some of the games on the list.  You really shouldn't read it as "best" graphics as much as "most enjoyable".  That's why some games like Punisher and Super Gem Fighter scored high, they just cracked me up.  

If I'm gonna do a blog about games, I'm gonna have to express my opinion and I know folks are gonna disagree.  Like others have said, it's just my opinion (RIGHT NOW!) and I'm glad it can spark the debate.

[Donkbaca]

You should qualify your list by saying 36 great fighters and beat em ups other than what people generally consider to be the best.

[Haze]

reviews / lists are merely opinions.

I'd put Gem / Pocket Fighter above Tekken too, infact I don't think Tekken would even make my personal top 100, Playstation era 3D games don't agree with me at all...

Likewise I find MK2 to be a horrible, stiff, buggy piece of crap, with incredibly lazy *main* characters (palette swapped versions of others)   I can't even see how it's in the same league as something like SF2CE

[dekar24k]

Cool blog man! I love top lists like these. I often find new favorite games thanks to these lists.

[Cynicaster]

I guess, and apparently if someone says that nickelback is the best movie of all time, we can't tell them they are wrong

Incidentally, I’m currently working on the screenplay for a film entitled “Nickelback Mountain”.  It’s the story of two gay dudes with poodle mullets and extraordinarily bad taste in music.  They embark on a romantic affair, until one of the guys steals the other’s lyrics notebook and attempts to use it in a sinister plot to make the world dumber than it already is.  I don’t want to give too much away, but there is also a great scene involving an epic tug-of-war with a hemp necklace. 

[tommyinajar]

I guess the grand daddy of them all doesn't count huh? Karate Champ
(I could have bought one with all the quarters I dropped in there)

I too also love fav's lists. I always find a new one or one I dismissed to quickly.