What is your favorite fighting game?

[Extra-Ordinary]

Mortal Kombat, baby.
I don't even remember how I got into it. I think it was something along the lines of "Hey, I think I'm developing a taste for a game that can shock me with incredible amounts of violence. What was that one fighting game? [looks up MK] 'FINISH HIM!' OH DEAR LORD I HAVE TO PLAY THIS!"
Basically I temporarily became a sick puppy at some point in my life and I just picked up MK Armageddon and have been playing it ever since.
That sick puppy part of me still comes back every time I hear "OOH" when I'm playing the game with somebody and they see a fatality or an X-Ray move.

Heh, I remember this game club I had back in high school. I brought the game in, got lucky enough to have somebody pull off Johnny Cage's X-Ray. There was an "OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!" so loud, it was absolute music to my ears.

 

[Gatx]

I love non-traditional fighting games that don't have a heavy emphasis and chaining large, inescapable combo sequences together, so Super Smash Bros. (all of them) and Dissidia for me.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

The very first mortal kombat. It's transfer to PC may not have been the most graceful one, but hearing skorpion's "get over here" is a euphoric experience.
I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that MK 2011 on my PSVita is catching up, and may pass it too.

 

[Naeras]

It's a tie between Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and King of Fighters 13.

SF3 is quite a bit different to the other games of the series. While both earlier and later Street Fighter games focused mainly on space control and zoning, SF3 threw all that away to make for a far more rushdown-oriented game, while still retaining most of the defensive options of former SF games, as well as the ability to parry anything. What you end up with is a game that's heavily focused on mid-range space control, mindgames and offense. And I love it. The pace of the game is perfect, the feeling of accomplishment when you open someone up or get a good parry into a counterattack is amazing in this game. The presentation of the game is also amazing: it's got some of the best sprite animations in any game I've ever seen, and few other games make your attacks seem quite as meaty and powerful as in SF3. Balance is somewhat dubious, but below tip-top level (which you will never reach) the better player will always win.
Also, if you haven't tried it yet, try the parry challenges. There is very few times a fighting game has made me feel as badass as the first time I parried an entire Shinkuu Hadoken, even if it was just a tutorial.

KOF13 is a game I actually like for many of the same reasons I like SF3. The speed of the game makes it very offense-oriented even though all characters both have good defensive options(unlike, say, UMVC3 where the concept of 'defense' is a dirty word). The focus on movement, space control and mindgames works great, the meter system is brilliant, the animations and music are amazing. I've heard people claim that game game is hard to get into, partially because you have to learn three characters, but I honestly think KOF13 is easier to get into than a lot of other new fighters, in particular compared to Street Fighter 4 or Mortal Kombat. Part of that is that you can play exactly what kind of style you prefer to play(zoning, rushdown, baiting, footsies, whatever suits you), but another thing is that the game has a relatively simple, sensible combo system that's easy to learn and feels great to use(unlike SF4, again, which has the most beginner-unfriendly combo system on the planet). It's the good kind of difficult game: it's relatively easy to get into the basics, but there's always more you can do to get better at the game.
Sadly the online part of the game is kind of ass on Xbox 360 or PS3, but the game seems to be pretty close to getting a PC version if we're to believe some data some people found on Steam, so hopefully that fixes the netcode. If not, then get a friend or two to play with. The game is too good to not try out if you like fighters.


Honorable mentions goes to Tekken Tag 2, Super Smash Brothers: Melee, Darkstalkers 3 and Persona 4: Arena. Despite me ragging on SF4 in the last paragraph, I kind of like that game as well, even though it's far from one of my favorites.

 

[Glongpre]

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo is my favourite and I think it is the best fighting game ever made. The gameplay is simple but it can get really deep. The characters are all original and the theme songs are the best I have heard.

The best part about it is the challenge, but it isn't that unforgiving. You can comeback easily from a couple hits because the characters have little health compared to games today. I mean, there are touch of death combos, but they aren't unfair because you have to start most with a jump in attack. I think this game has the best throw system, it just feels responsive. Also, it is the only game that I feel is balanced in terms of strategies; zoning is effective, rushdown is effective, doing a little of both is effective.

Here are some examples of high level play: (at least watch the third one, it has the best quality)

Spoiler: SF2

Seriously, amazing match, if you don't know, honda has a very hard time against DJ, like it is heavily in DJ's favour.

I find the lack of SF2 on this thread disturbing...

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Soul Calibur II was my thing back in the day. So many awesome characters to try and master. I never got particularly good with Mitsurugi, which was a shame as I fucking love me some samurai, but damn if I couldn't kickass playing as Maxi or Yoshimitsu.

Mitsurugi's typically my favorite in general.

Although in SCII, Link is my favorite. My problem? I'm trash with Link. T'was made very apparent when I recently played Link and struggled through 3 battles before getting my ass beat by Voldo. I then proceeded to use Mitsurugi and trashed the competition with ease(even killed Inferno being hit just twice). I was made a sad panda that day because I like playing Link. :{

Soul Calibur II/III are the only two fighting games I truly enjoy. They're the only ones I'm even slightly competent at(I discount SCIV/V because I don't like either of them). I remember enjoying Primal Rage and Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. back in the day, but SCII/III are still my favorites.

Although truth be told, I generally avoid fighters as a whole. I'm just not good at them and don't really have fun playing them. I enjoy arena fighters like Smash Bros., but otherwise I normally take a pass.

 

[Naeras]

Super Smash bros.
Rather than focusing on ridiculously long and arbitrary combos, the game uses simple button presses for special/smash attacks so the focus can be more on timing and positioning, rather than memorization. That's what fighting games should be like, I think. Other fighting games have focus on timing and positioning as well, but that really only matters once you master those long ass button combos that can vary so immensely between characters.

Thinking combos are important in fighters is a fairly common misconception, but I still wouldn't say it's true. There's only fighting two games I can think of where knowing your combos might be one of the most important aspects, and those would be Marvel vs Capcom and Tekken. Tekken less so than MvC, but Tekken has a learning curve from hell because it has about five thousand different moves(no exaggeration), so knowing the moves are important.

Contrast that with Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Persona, Soul Calibur, Injustice, etc. In these games, you can and should be able to win without using a single combo if you're good enough at movement, spacing, poking and mindgames, just like in Smash Bros. The only thing combos give you in these games is the ability to do more damage if you manage to set them up. In most fighters, this is actually really hard, and it doesn't matter if you can do insane combos if your opponent simply doesn't let you do them. Before you feel you're capable of setting up the situations where combos would be useful, combos are basically a non-aspect of most fighters.

 

[Harlemura]

I've kinda gone off fighting games recently, since most of them just make me mad or I straight up suck at 'em.
Despite that, at least just based off playing with friends, Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is probably the most fun. There's just enough strategy involved to make it competitive, but it's also bonkers enough to not really care who's winning.

I do want to start playing Skullgirls and King of Fighters XIII again though, just because I've noticed how much I love how those games look. Hope Skullgirls comes out for PC soon...
Oh, and BlazBlue Continuum Shift Extend. It's a game I'm super bad at, but Relius is one of my favourite characters in gaming and I really don't know why.

I expect Mortal Kombat 9 to be climbing back up my favourite game ranks now it's been released on PC though.

 

[suntt123]

Thinking combos are important in fighters is a fairly common misconception, but I still wouldn't say it's true. There's only fighting two games I can think of where knowing your combos might be one of the most important aspects, and those would be Marvel vs Capcom and Tekken. Tekken less so than MvC, but Tekken has a learning curve from hell because it has about five thousand different moves(no exaggeration), so knowing the moves are important.

Contrast that with Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Persona, Soul Calibur, Injustice, etc. In these games, you can and should be able to win without using a single combo if you're good enough at movement, spacing, poking and mindgames, just like in Smash Bros. The only thing combos give you in these games is the ability to do more damage if you manage to set them up. In most fighters, this is actually really hard, and it doesn't matter if you can do insane combos if your opponent simply doesn't let you do them. Before you feel you're capable of setting up the situations where combos would be useful, combos are basically a non-aspect of most fighters.

Hmm, I suppose. I used to get by in Tekken just by using the forward square combo of this one guy (can't recall his name).
Still, my liking of Smash Bros has to do with the fact that combos aren't there at all. Rather, everybody has the exact same simple button presses for their heavily damaging moves. Hold a direction, press a button. Hence, if you want to use someone else, all you need to do is learn what those special attacks do and how to use them unlike, say Tekken or Soul Calibur, where if I wanna pull off a heavy damaging attack, I have to set the opponent up for it then push like 10 buttons in quick succession and those 10 buttons are completely different for every single character.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Persona 4 Arena. I've never had as much fun with a fighter whether with friends or online. I main Elizabeth. I use the word "main" loosely as I'm pretty terrible.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Soul Calibur 3. I love it and I also respect it. Single player was extremely difficult.

 

[blackdwarf]

Tekken Tag Tournament 2. I love the game because of everything. It looks better and is way more satisfying to play. It is also a bit more down to earth unlike the keys shaking before eyes that Clapcom games tend to be, at least the more recent ones. It is also one the few fighting games that doesn't have a big BS and Random factor which ruins the game for me. I truly find it a shame, when I look at stream, that the numbers of viewers drop drastically when Tekken is on and the Marvel players start talking trash, even though they don't have any basic understanding of the game.

The game I am playing at the moment is Persona 4 Arena, which finally got its release in Europe. I really like the stuff Arc Sys does, but playing Kanji can be a massive pain in the ass, especially when I play against cheap Elizabeths.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Funny, I remember getting the Xbox version, and trying to learn how to use Spawn. Great character, but I was never able to really get to grips with him. He had the best axes of any character in that game, which was a shame. I think I just prefer my fighting characters lighter and faster.

I got the Funcube version specifically because it had Link instead of Spawn or Heihachi(Not to mention the Xbox version was unavailable to me. And I had little to no interest in Heihachi at all. And I'm kind of a Zelda fanboy so there's that). It's been a long time so I don't remember everyone I got good with. I got good with Siegfried(Nightmare for SCII, obviously. They have similar move sets so it wasn't hard to settle in with Siegfried in SCIII) Zasalamel, though to a lesser extent. I was competent with Seong Mi-na, but Mitsurugi remains the character I'm most competent with.

A friend of mine would play Siegfried vs. Nightmare all the time in SCIII, and we got superscrewed in SCIV because they basically swapped move sets, so we had to relearn our characters or swap them. Which was upsetting because we were comfortable with the way they previously played.

Wasn't III a PS2 exclusive? I remember getting hyped as hell about that game, only to rage against the heavens when i found out it wasn't coming to Xbox. Played some of the more recent ones, can't say that they have the same magic. Same problem I have with Tekken, in fact.

I think I recall III getting an improved arcade version somewhere along the line. I didn't care for IV or V because they weren't quite as fun. A friend of mine and I would play through Chronicles of the Sword together in III and we'd play that all day long. IV I have less experience with(because I never owned it, myself), but V was just plain boring. Didn't care for the story, I didn't care for Patroklos or Pyrrha at all and it was generally bleh to me.

 

[Naeras]

Hmm, I suppose. I used to get by in Tekken just by using the forward square combo of this one guy (can't recall his name).
Still, my liking of Smash Bros has to do with the fact that combos aren't there at all. Rather, everybody has the exact same simple button presses for their heavily damaging moves. Hold a direction, press a button. Hence, if you want to use someone else, all you need to do is learn what those special attacks do and how to use them unlike, say Tekken or Soul Calibur, where if I wanna pull off a heavy damaging attack, I have to set the opponent up for it then push like 10 buttons in quick succession and those 10 buttons are completely different for every single character.

Sounds like you've mostly tried 3D fighters. And yeah, they are very often based on long button strings, which, as you say, can seem really arbitrary and unnecessarily difficult. Actually, scratch that: they usually are really arbitrary and unnecessarily difficult.

2D fighters are far closer to Smash bros when it comes to how attacks work, however. Each button is bound to attacks of specific strength, and often specific properties, regardless of character. Special moves are usually done with a simple stick motion followed by a button press. Most single attacks, how you time them and most importantly how you position yourself in order to use them, are far more important than being able to string several of them together, regardless of game.
If you want to actually do manage to set up a combo at some point, however, you can usually get a functional one in three button presses, depending on the game. Or, if it's Persona 4: Arena(which is a great game, by the way), you get a decent auto-combo by mashing the light attack button. Still, they dependent on you being able to set up the situation where they can do their work, so combos are merely something that's nice to have, not anything essential.

Also, for the record, I can confirm that Smash Bros has combos. It's just that most of them are a pain to do, moreso than in any other fighter I've played. D:

 

[DarklordKyo]

I'd have to say Dissidia: Final Fantasy, since it's the only one I have any degree of competence at.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Guilty Gear(any), BlazBlue(any), Bloody Roar 3, and DarkStalkers 3 are the 4 I like the most