Top 10 Tournament Fighting Game Franchises

Literally kicking of our list is this arcade favorite SNK series that features characters from the company’s other games, like “Fatal Fury”, pitting them together in a tournament designed around realistic gameplay mechanics. This series is best known for featuring yearly installments, with an original plot focused on a black market arms dealer hosting a fight to lure in worthy adversaries, which he would turn into statues. Neato!

Here it is, the granddaddy of all 3D tournament games. Created by Sega and AM2, it’s not only the first 3D fighter, but its gameplay revolves around 30 second rounds and realistic rules, including ring outs. Above all, it’s best recognized for it’s balanced character set, designed to prevent unfair one-sided battles. Interestingly, the original game has no story what so ever. Not that anyone ever cared.

This is the series that is most popular because of its plot. Featuring martial arts experts, many of them generously proportioned, kicking the tar out of each other in a tournament hosted by a shadowy corporation. The Dead Or Alive series is special for it’s focus on striking characters efficiently and quickly, and performing gravity defying air juggles and combos. Notably, quick recovery times prevent traditional combat.

Created by Rare, this iconic fighting series brought mature rated combat to the Arcades and Nintendo’s home hardware, until eventually re-emerging on Microsoft’s Xbox One. Inspired by the gameplay of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, this game takes the action to a tournament hosted by Ultratech, an evil megacorporation out to test their creations. KI is best known for it’s double energy bar, unique characters, and ridiculous combos.

This weapon-based 3D fighting game is published by Namco, and developed by the aptly titled Project Soul. Updating the 3D tournament game genre, its gameplay takes place in eight direction combat instead of just four, giving players a newfound freedom to move about the various arenas. Story wise, it’s all about a mystical demon sword that must be destroyed. Our favorites part are the system specific cameos, including Link and Darth Vader.

This franchise is a gamer’s ultimate fantasy brought to life. Here, Capcom’s many characters, including it’s Street Fighter roster battle the various characters from SNK and Marvel to name a few. There’s nothing like seeing signature Capcom characters beat the living daylights out of the X-Men, and vice versa! Of course, with so many installments, the gameplay has evolved beyond the standard one on one format. Trust us, it gets hectic.

Created by Namco in 1994, this series follows the events surrounding the King of Iron Fist Tournament, hosted by the Mishima Zabatsu corporation. One of the earliest 3D fighting games, it’s the successor to Virtua Fighter, with a roster of characters battling for prize money at famous locations around the world. By the fourth installment, it became the first series to have actual stage obstacles, walls and ceilings!

Making it’s debut on the N64 back in 1999, this franchise by HAL laboratories is unique for not only being exclusive to Nintendo home consoles, but featuring all of Nintendo’s mascots laying a beat down on each other. It also ramped up the onscreen player count to four players simultaneously, gave various round elimination options, while adding challenges and a platforming story mode for good measure.

This Capcom game series is the one that made tournament fighting a phenomenon with the release of “Street Fighter II: The World Warrior”. Improving on all of the original’s innovations, it thrilled gamers with command-based special moves and a barrage of interesting characters with their own unique fighting styles and moves. Simply put, this is the game that made fighters go turbo.

Finishing our list is the mature rated arcade game that made combat all the more satisfying with its use of realistic digitized characters over animated sprites. Originally reacting to the success of “Street Fighter II”, it bicycle kicked it’s competitor with it’s fleshed out story about mortals fighting to save Earth from the Outer Realm. But, as everyone knows, the real showstopper here was the brutal combat that produced unheard of amounts of blood and gore.

Agree with our list, which tournament fighting game is your favorite? For more face pounding top 10s, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.