The Best Fighting Games to Beat Your Friends at in 2023
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Are you trying to find out the best fighting games so that you can lay waste to your friends and friendships in one fell swoop? Well, there are a lot of different fighting games out there, seriously, so many, but we’ve gone ahead and made a list of ten of them anyway because that’s just what we do here at Spy.
Whether you’re looking for blisteringly fast combo attacks, characters with more style than a New York Fashion Week, or just a good time with friends and family, we’ve got something for you here that’ll have you grinning ear to ear and also potentially ending your friendships. It all depends on just how much you want to gloat really. Anyway, let’s dive into the ten best fighting games.
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Dragon Ball FighterZ could so easily have just been a phoned-in anime game, but no, we actually got one of the greatest fighting games in existence. One of the things that helps make this game so wonderful is that it can be played by newer fighting games fans, and they’ll still look and feel incredibly cool. It also looks absolutely incredible, like an anime episode came to life, which is a wonderful bonus.
Soul Calibur 6
Do you like swords, and also lances, and maybe big sticks, and probably other stabby and pokey things? Well, we’ve got good news then because Soul Calibur 6 is a fighting game where everyone brings a knife to a knife fight, and everyone has absurd, over-the-top special moves. It’s also a disgustingly slick experience, which will have you wanting to master all the intricacies to come out on top. You can also dress up the characters in this one.
Mortal Kombat 11
People of all ages know Mortal Kombat because of its completely over-the-top violence and the reputation that it garnered back in the 90s. Despite the gimmickiness that it could be overrun with, the series has continued to grow into one of the most impressive and visceral examples of the genre. With an amazing roster of characters and plenty of bite in every possible way, Mortal Kombat 11 is a delight to play. It’s still sickeningly violent though, so maybe don’t show this one to kids.
The King Of Fighters XV
The King of Fighters series is another titan of the fighting game genre, and it’s always been carried by wonderfully satisfying beatdowns and excellent characters. The latest entry, The King of Fighters XV, is an excellent distillation of every aspect that makes the series so long-lived, and it’s also a bit more accessible too, thanks to a good suite of training tools for newer players.
Nidhogg 2
Now, Nidhogg 2 is slightly different from most of the entries on this list. It’s not some fancy fighter with hot anime people beating the life out of each other. It’s not dependent on massive combos and counter-picks on characters. Instead, it’s a very simple game where if you get hit, you die. All you need to do is move your weapon around to try and outplay your opponent and keep doing it until you achieve victory, which is being eaten alive by a giant worm.
Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear Strive is another anime fighter, but it’s basically the perfected form of them. This game has stunning character models, beautiful arenas, and a huge number of absurd moves to learn and master. What’s really cool is that once again, you can play this as a newer fighter, but veteran players have a huge number of complex mechanics that can help them ascend their skills up to the level of a pro player. It’s also just a lot of fun.
Tekken 7
Tekken has always felt like a harder fighting game to get into for a lot of people. While games like Soul Calibur and Mortal Kombat have complexity, you can still pull off absurd special moves with relative ease. Tekken is a lot more reliant on massive strings of button presses for long combos, and while that’s not good for everyone, it’s a lot of fun if you don’t mind putting the time in. Tekken 7 is also just one of the best 3D fighters around and has some incredibly fun effects thrown in as rounds near their end to keep things feeling close.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the pinnacle of the platform fighter. That’s no surprise really because it’s only recently that other developers have tried throwing their hats in the ring. However, thanks to a massive roster of beloved characters, easy-to-learn but hard-to-master gameplay, and a level of potential customization in battle rules that helps to keep things fresh all the time, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of the best fighting games ever made, and one of the best party games around too.
Them’s Fightin’ Herds
If you’ve ever wanted to throw down as animals with four legs and hooves, then Them’s Fightin’ Herds is the game you’ve been waiting for. Them’s Fightin’ Herds has a lot of early 90s Cartoon Network energy in it, and as you take control of a plethora of adorable animals and beat the stuffing out of each other, it’s hard not to enjoy it. Plus, it also happens to have one of the best tutorial systems in any fighting game, and a lot of players think it can help you get better at some of the other games on this list too.
MultiVersus
Finally, we have a newcomer to the platform fighter subgenre and one that a lot of people didn’t expect much from. MultiVersus pits loads of Warner Bros characters against each other from different shows and movies. It’s a wild time to look over the roster, but it’s not just about the characters available. Rather than being about 1v1 fights, MultiVersus puts an emphasis on 2v2 battles, which allows for characters to play support roles or fit into the game in different ways than in many of the other best fighting games. It’s a great game, and it’s also free.