If we wanna talk purely in terms of historical significance, probably Super Turbo.
Street Fighter 2 wasn’t the first fighting game, but it was the first GOOD fighting game. It not only legitimized a genre, it popularized direct competition in arcade games (as in, trying to actually defeat the other player’s avatar, rather than trying to beat his score), made a shitton of money for numerous arcades, became a pop-culture meme, and precipitated what is still perhaps THE most eagerly awaited home port of all time (the SNES port).
ST, as the pinnacle of SF2, would therefore necessarily be the greatest fighting game of all time by this standard. By this point most of the glaring kinks were hammered out of SF2’s fundamental structure (although obviously some randomness persisted), and it still possesses an excellent proportioning of technical depth, accessibility of execution, and especially pacing. Maybe that last part is kind of inflated by the fact that everything animates 3x faster than most modern games and the single-hit damage is so high, but even the crawliest of SF matches seem to blaze by.
And of course there’s the aesthetic factor. The music is still great even after hearing it a million times for almost twenty years, the stages are all memorable, and the characters in particular are still an excellent expression of unique and memorable design. While they may be a little politically incorrect in certain context, they are all rendered with great love, care, and particularly distinction.
That said, while I think ST certainly meets my standard for “greatest fighting game ever”, it’s not necessarily my favorite. That honor would probably go to KOF '98 for sentimental reasons (and some good reasons, too).
And Warzard’s versus mode is good, its just to have a good fight you need to have someone around your experience level (character-wise). Which, because no-one really played it was…godawful.
Concerning the thread, I personally think there is no best fighting game, which is why I play many because they all bring something to the table. One could discuss which games brought what mechanics to the industry, which ones did something for the communities in general, which game innovated what or which games (current or past) did the best financially (which is not necessarily indicative of its quality).
But looking forward to reading other people’s posts in the thread nonetheless.
Clayfighter (63 1/3 and Sculpturers Cut). Where else do you find an evil snowman, a green blob that turns into a buzzsaw, a karate master with “Egg Fu Yung” as a move name, Santa in a sumo outfit, Boogerman and Earthworm Jim all in one game?
Melty Blood, love the speed of it, the sheild system and the story mode for the 1st one was pretty cool too.
Also got a soft spot for Jurassic Park Warpath, dunno about the balence of it since it’s been years since I played it but hell it was like Tekken with dinosaurs and if that isn’t awesome I don’t know what is.
Edit: Lol got steath negatived for this, still I have no regrets :encore:
If you want to get into technicality, the undisputed “best” fighting game ever, in terms of the game’s raw technical quality and programming, is the Virtua Fighter series. It’s also my personal favorite fighting game(or fighting game series), which makes me want to say that Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution or perhaps Virtua Fighter 5R would be the best fighting game ever. However, I cannot do that in all good conscience, largely because not even I can deny that Super Street Fighter II Turbo is the pinnacle of competition, devotion, and hype. Super Turbo is the best fighting game ever. Why? Well, because the community makes it that way, that’s why. Like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Super Turbo is defined not by the game itself, but by its devoted community that surpasses all others. The players make it the best fighter ever. Not even the technical brilliance of Virtua Fighter can top that.
SSB Melee.
Such a deep game for an almost simplistic engine. Incorporating wave dashes, chain grabs made it such a fast and exciting game when you really got into it.
That shit is hardcore. Counter hits are god-tier, and oki options are endless. Sure, you don’t have guard pressure strings or high-low mixups, but every attack is unblockable. This shit is hardcore.
FUCK YEAH BOUNCER combos all day, RPG upgrades, Square had to merge with Enix because after spending exactly all the money they had they just could not make a better game than Bouncer. This is fact
