THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002 UNLIMITED MATCH
A very fun and fairly balenced KoF fighting game; a port from PS2. This game has some nice music (some songs I don’t like personally), a difficult trial mode (I can’t do an Overkill), and some fast pased fighting game action. This is for people that want to show off to their friends that they can do combos and look real cool while doing it.
Some cons:
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Fightcade exists, with their totally free KoF 2002. It’s not Unlimited Match, but it’s free.
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Online sucks. No one is one line and if they are, the game is wholly laggy.
– Real player with 197.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Arcade Games.
This is one of the best fighting games I have played in a while. While this game is a big upgrade to a previous game, I could not help but compare the difference between it’s predecessor KOF02 for the neo geo and this game KOF02UM.
The Pros:
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Excellent soundtrack for each team and boss characters
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the teams seem to have their own stages.
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The bosses from KOF99 to KOF01 are present and playable
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The characters not found in KOF02 such as Lin, May Lee and Jhun are here in KOF02UM
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Many different modes to choose from such as practice, challenge and online
– Real player with 144.1 hrs in game
SAMURAI SHODOWN V SPECIAL / サムライスピリッツ零スペシャル
It is often said that “Street Fighter” is a good starter serie/games in the middle of Versus Fightings Games, and It’s true. But Samurai Shodown (V Special, IV, II or VI) is in my opinion much better for that.
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The combos in this games are just simple links with a special when you hit your opponent or cancel recoil animation when you hit in the guard.
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The specials are very simple to execute, 90% of specials in the game consist to imput 236 (quarter circle) or 263 (dragon/Z).
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The mechanics are fews and very simple to learn, the “hardest” thing to understand that is your rage meter doesn’t just give you a super attack, but a super attack (called Weapon Flip Technique), the possibility of meditate, a time slow, a better sword jauge, a rage explosion (for fatalities and better sword jauge)… And it’s all you know almost everything of the game when you know that!
– Real player with 1059.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action 2D Games.
If you want a fun and unique fighting game with a varied roster that will test you in ways no other fighting game will, with a character for every playstyle, give this game a shot. Want a game with an active and dedicated playerbase that’s always ready to throw down and help a newcomer out? Give this game a shot. Want to play a game where you can possibly kill someone in two well-placed hits? Maybe even one if you’re lucky? Play Samurai Shodown V Special.
I cannot stress enough that this is without a doubt in my top favorites of the genre. Everything about it, even its jankier aspects, oozes elegance and refinement over the 11 years spanned between the first SamSho and this one. It is in my opinion the absolute definitive game in the franchise, even with the new one (that also looks absolutely fantastic, mind you) coming out.
– Real player with 255.3 hrs in game
Killer Instinct
What this Edition Includes For those Wondering:
*All characters and stages from Seasons 1,2,3 as well as Kilgore, Eagle, and Shin Hisako already unlocked.
*Gold and Terror Colors already unlocked
*Omen gets colors 7,8 and 9 already unlocked
*X mas Accessories? (These weren’t included when I bought the game, but now I have them. Patched I guess?)
*Crossplay between Xbox players (But be sure your internet is stable enough)
*Choosing which character theme to play before fights. (Each theme also has dynamic responses depending on what combos you can dish out)
– Real player with 547.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Multiplayer Games.
Killer Instinct is the best and the most unique fighting game of modern time.
Why? It’s probably the first to shake and transform seemingly eternal rules of fighting games. If you think about, since the iconic Street fighter II they practicaly haven’t changed. Yes, they added more mechanics, more gauges, more crazy characters, more interactions, a lot of things. But none of them ever tried to change the basis of the whole system. Killer Instincs did. And it did so in an absolutely genius way.
Almost all of the other titles are about combos. You learn the best buttons, you learn the most damaging combos, you learn to start them whenever you want. Yes, there’s a whole lot of other things, but in the end it’s all about memorising and performing combos. That’s why watchiing a lot of tournaments is really boring. Especially if it’s something like DBFZ, KOF, pretty much any anime fighter etc.
– Real player with 312.9 hrs in game
ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3
UMvc3 pros
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It has some cool characters people wanted to play as in a fighting games for ages like dante and arthur and stuff
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It’s easier so you don’t need to worry about things like tricky finger puzzles or blocking or thinking in order to win sometimes and that’s good because everyone wants to win
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I like the little pie chart showing you how much of a scrub you are
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It looks really good, while capcom cut so many corners on this game it’s a circle, they didn’t scimp on the animation. there’s even small things like characters moving their eyes to follow each-other and people having mist breath on the snow stage
– Real player with 212.0 hrs in game
It’s Mahvel. It’s also MT Framework, so the port is great. The netcode isn’t the best but I’ve heard that’s a problem across the board with all of the re-released MVC3 ports. Playing it on PC with higher FPS than console and in a crisper resolution is a treat.
Bit of cons first -
I will warn you - as someone who played the game semi-competitively in it’s hayday, the online is not very welcoming. You will get trashed by people that have had over 5 years to practice and play. As with any fighter, there’s a strong learning curve and UMVC3 is the definition of “touch of death” combos. The game is very, very fast in comparison to other fighters. Because of that, it’s easy to get frustrated and it can absolutely be considered a flaw. I don’t want to act like this game’s perfect - it’s not. Vergil is still in the game and it’s more or less unpatched since the last update we had on consoles. There’s alot of broken things in the game, I would not pick this up expecting the world’s most balanced and competitive game.
– Real player with 73.2 hrs in game
TEKKEN 7
I have fully gone down the rabbit hole of this game, gotten to the highest rank, won several offline tournaments, made close friends, and I still think this game is not worth your time. The developers are lazy, and Bandai Namco is as corporate greed as it gets. They celebrated 8 million sales with a definitive edition that is 60 dollars and doesn’t even include all of the content. “How should we reward our fans?” Sell them the game again! (incomplete of course, can’t include that juicy licensed content!)
– Real player with 1565.0 hrs in game
Best modern fighting game in terms of gameplay, fun at all skill levels and definitely worth picking up for the right price. FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS THE COMPLETE PACKAGE, DO NOT GET THE DEFINITIVE EDITION. It is hilariously overpriced, especially for a game that is on sale all the time. For the current autumn sale, this is what you want to buy:
Tekken 7 Ultimate Edition
Season Pass 3
Season Pass 4
Congratulations, you’ve gotten the game and all its dlc for $38 instead of $110.
– Real player with 385.3 hrs in game
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid
As a fighting game, Battle for the Grid has a solid tag-team 2D fighter akin to that of Marvel vs Capcom, Skullgirls and Dragonball FighterZ. It has a lot of love and effort poured into it, a variety of mechanics pooling from other fighters to enjoy all the while interlaced with fast and frenetic gameplay. The online, which is a huge necessity of fighting games in this age, is better than most juggernauts. The community is lively and you can feel a pulse emanating throughout your matches. Who would have thought that having a solid game with good online support would lead to your community playing more often?
– Real player with 88.1 hrs in game
I got this game for PS4 figuring if it was bad, it was only $20. It has very quickly become one of the best fighting games in the last 10 years, and every month it gets better and better. It’s an entry level fighting game done correctly. No goofy autocombos that continue on whiff, no free ways out of zoning, and rushing someone down effectively takes real effort thanks to every character having a true anti-air. Without an assist, if someone is jumping at you, just anti-air them and get a free combo. Any con I have right now, such as a lack of Trials, is something that will likely be addressed in the near future thanks to an intelligent dev team who knows how to filter objective feedback from incessant whining. And yes, as a Power Rangers fan, I am more than pleased to see the characters shown thus far be represented so lovingly. You want to make Power Rangers “Cool and Edgy?” Don’t let goofballs like Adi Shankar tell you it needs sex and drugs. Let the enlightened ones at nWay show you it just needs a touch of FGC hype!
– Real player with 82.1 hrs in game
FIGHTING EX LAYER
This game is fun, but be warned you probably won’t be getting many matches without the use of Discord.
That is definitely the most important thing to stress here for people on the fence. If you don’t mind playing a more niche game that requires some extra effort on your end to get matches, you’ll have a good time here. On to the rest of the review!
Graphics + Presentation- 7/10
The graphics on display here are nothing to seriously write home about, but they are still decently pretty to look at. The quality of the models themselves is quite good. The menus and interface are also clean, and easy to understand. Character art is a little more hit and miss, but it’s generally good. The only strange thing is that characters facial features and skin tones can vary wildly from model to key art. It’s a weird issue, but it’s a minor annoyance at worst. The combos and hit effects look flashy, and everything has a nice satisfying oomph to it.
– Real player with 25.4 hrs in game
In a world where fighting games tend to focus on stylish characters, over-the-top combos and cinematic flair nowadays, Arika’s ‘Fighting EX Layer’ manages to stand out among the bunch because it feels like an old-school 90s arcade fighting game through and through. That being said, however, the innovative Gougi system helps spice up battles both online and offline, giving players various mechanics such as super armor and rapid meter recovery by fulfilling certain conditions.
It’s been 18 years since Arika’s beloved fighting game characters have last graced the scene, and fans have been clamoring for another title featuring said characters ever since. And now with FEXL being a thing (remember that time people thought this was an April Fool’s joke, since the game was first revealed on April 1 of 2017?), fans can finally get to see their favourite ‘Street Fighter EX’ characters in action once more (along with a few newcomers and even a guest character courtesy of SNK). As if the characters weren’t enough to bring back that old-school arcade feel, the soundtrack in this game feels retro as well, but at the same time it gives off a modern feel. In fact, there’s also an option to play the original music from Arika’s older fighting game days. As for the controls, players can choose between the traditional Classic mode (which is basically what you’d expect from every conventional 2D fighting game) or the more simplistic Progressive mode (press a special button plus a direction button and you have a special move). Add that to the aforementioned Gougi system and you have a rather complex fighting game at heart (which isn’t to say that’s a bad thing, but then again, your mileage may vary).
– Real player with 23.5 hrs in game
Yang2020 Path To Presidency
This was recommended to me by a YouTube video review. It wasn’t super expensive so I picked it up. It was a good laugh and well wort the money. My only complaints are that the game could do with a few more characters (maybe as free DLc) and it would be nice if there was like a dozen or so achievements for things like finishing the story mode, unlocking each character, getting the first hit in and stuff like that. Hopefully the devs will add in more characters like Bloomberg and also other candidates too. For the time being it’s a good laugh the is worth buying to play with friends.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Pros: The story mode is quick to get through, and the humor is there. Versus mode would make for a fun and silly play session. If you play with just the keyboard it works fine.
Cons: Controller Support desperately needs improvements, as Dualshock 4 and Switch Pro Controllers aren’t accepted without manually mapping the keyboard functions to them. There are also bugs in the game itself aside from controls, such as music and story backgrounds going missing and occasional crashes if you try to skip the intro. Some essential fighting game features are also needed, like in-game button mapping and practice mode.
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Umineko: Golden Fantasia
A caveat: I played the game an hour after release, this review is the day after. Supposedly bug fixes are being done on the game, my opinions may change if the game is fixed.
An excellent game in many regards, but the version has new netplay that replaced the old. For many, playing online is unplayable - even when the previous version (non steam ver which I’ve played hundreds of hours of) worked fine with these players. For some, the new netplay works but there are some egregious problems.
1: someone joining a full lobby can disconnect currently playing people.
– Real player with 422.6 hrs in game
-EDIT: Most of the Japanese text issues are already fixed, and the remaining ones (credits, system voice unlock message, replay save prompt) are being worked. Now all those people who couldn’t play the game because the move list didn’t say “Sommelier Finger” instead of “ソムリエフィンガ” next to the clear picture of a quarter circle backwards + A/B/C can train in peace.
On to the actual review:
PROS:
-ROLLBACK NETCODE. It still has its share of minor issues to iron out as it gets wider usage, but what has been implemented here is vastly superior to the original Japanese PC version, and more than most poverty games get. (Did the original releases of Chaos Code and Blade Arcus even have netplay at all?)
– Real player with 78.9 hrs in game
GUILTY GEAR
I recommend this game ONLY to people who love Guilty Gear. If you’re just getting into the series, please for the Love of God start with Xrd or Accent Core.
This game is a 100% port of the original Guilty Gear for the PS1, and being a direct port is both it’s greatest strength and flaw. It’s a tough as nails fighter with mechanics that were questionable even during it’s release back in 1998. For example, you have two health bars per round, once one goes away you can just spam your Overdrive move an unlimited amount of times. Testament has a poison mechanic here that he has in other games, but the poison doesn’t stop at the magic pixel, it flat out KO’s you. The dust and instant kill mechanics that are popular in the series work VERY different here. There isn’t a dedicated dust button but there also isn’t a dedicated way to perform them, like pressing both Slash and Heavy Slash worked on X. Some character moves seem to do it on their own (I’ve seen May’s somersault move hit me with a Dust) In every game after this one, an Instant Kill only gave you a round. If you missed your instant kill, you lost your entire super meter and couldn’t instant kill for the rest of the round This game? You press Punch and Kick at the same time, hit the opponent, then if you input hadouken before the victim breaks free, you win the whole fricken match. If your opponent breaks free you can just freely try throwing out your instant kill to win again. Be warned, you can just as easily lose both rounds. This game is the only one in the franchise in which the AI also throws out Instant Kills. You still have your unlockable Justice, Testament and Baiken, however, just like the original release, you can ONLY use them in 2 player VS matches. This game unlike the future installments, does not feature a free battle mode to fight against a CPU opponents and lacks online multiplayer. The game loads very fast to the point where you can barely see the VS Screen with their movelist, thankfully pausing in this game lets you bring up your character’s move list.
– Real player with 23.0 hrs in game
Guilty Gear: The Missing Link (Japan) is the very first game in the series that was on the original PlayStation console around 1998/99. Guilty Gear is an anime fighting game that has a more dark atmosphere to it aside from the cartoony art style and heavy metal music. Now I have played this game before and it’s my favorite one of the series, though the other installments I like as well. Guilty Gears is pretty fun to play against CPUs and with a friend. The game does not have the option to change difficulty. The difficulty is adaptive depending what stage you are on. From Stage 1 being the easiest and to Stage 10 being the most difficult. The game offers 10 playable characters to play as, and picking one of them you will battle against the other 9 in Stages 1-9 and lastly one of three bosses at Stage 10. Each character has their own fighting style, special abilities, as well as their weapons. The game features a Chaos Mode which is activated when a fighter’s health is at half point (Yellow Health). A red aura will surround the character and he/she is able to perform unlimited Chaos Attacks. All character possess an Instant Kill maneuver that will basically kill the opponent resulting an instant win even when the match just started at round 1. Some of these Instant Kills are more violent and brutal than others, with the exception of May’s Instant Kill having a different version of template being more kid friendly. They are the most powerful moves and you must commit quickly before missing the moment, or the opponent defends the attack. Basically press punch+kick at the same time and if it connects Sakkai (red screen) is activated for a moment, then roll the joystick down to right (if facing right) and an attack button to finish the sequence. If done successfully, you will see many cues and visual effects occur on screen. First usually is the attack the character will perform, followed by the Destroyed!! template will appear on screen, an audio cue that will say “Destroyed”, then the opponent’s Health flashes red and black while depleting resulting in a successful kill. Generally, this game has been one of my favorites since a child and it’s super fun. With my most played character as May since she is the youngest fighter and probably one of the difficult fighters to learn. I really recommend this if you missed this game or into fighting games and like to experience this classic.
– Real player with 21.5 hrs in game