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Best Fighting Games

Fighting games involve close combat between characters. Usually, in some arena, the player uses attacks, and combinations of moves to overpower and outwit his opponent. Different playable characters and computer-controlled enemies have different abilities that offer a tactical challenge.

These games are often harder to learn and play, requiring fast reactions and memorisation of combinations of buttons. These pure fighting games sit alongside brawling and beat-em-up games where fights are simpler and against large numbers of enemies.

These games are Action focused, but mainly in respect of the fighting. This is sometimes expanded by games that combine the fighting with Adventure, Role-Playing, Narrative and other elements.

Other games include Fighting, but remove the player from direct control, focusing instead on the Strategy or Simulation of combat. This can be taken further away from the heat of battle in Turn-Based games.

DetailsGenre Details

Era: 1986 - 2023
Total Games: 636
Total Likes: 9,601
 

 

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Release Date: 21/08/2021

Platforms: PC, PS4 and PS5

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an adventure about a young girl who travels to an abandoned village in the hope of finding a sacred mountain shrine. To get there she must find and grow a team of charming spirit companions called the Rot, enhancing their...

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Release Date: 15/01/2019, updated in 2019

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a fighting-adventure game set five years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and 14 years before Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Young Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis is hunted through the galaxy by the...

Planet of Lana

Release Date: Coming soon

Platforms: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Planet of Lana is an adventure where you play a young girl Lana and her loyal animal friend Mui, on a rescue mission. Set on a planet under siege from cold machines and unfamiliar creatures. Rather than the war, though, this is a game about the vibrant...

Elden Ring

Release Date: 25/02/2022

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Elden Ring is a role-play game set in a fictional world created by fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin, with a focus on combat similar to Demon's Souls and an open world with real time and weather like Zelda Breath of the Wild.

Skylanders (Series)

Release Date: 14/10/2016

Platforms: 3DS and 2DS, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Skylanders uses toy figures to unlock characters and save progress. It is no longer manufactured but can be found second-hand quite cheaply and is a lot of fun for young players, particularly when played in cooperative two-player mode.

Dead Cells

Release Date: 10/05/2017, updated in 2018

Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Dead Cells is a running, jumping and fighting game where you are escaping a prison. In a bright pixelated world you must accurately time attacks and dodges to defeat a wide range of enemies. It's intentionally hard, and you will die a lot. But each time...

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Series)

Release Date: 01/01/1999, updated in 2019

Platforms: Game Boy and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Hand-Made and Open World

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is an adventure-puzzle game in the Zelda series and universe. A remake of the 1993 Game Boy game of the same name, this one is set on Koholint Island and follows Link after he is stranded and must find a way back to...

Mario Strikers Battle League

Release Date: 10/06/2022

Platforms: Switch

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Mario Strikers: Battle League Football is the latest game in the Mario Strikers series. Like the previous games it offers a five-on-five battle sport that combines football and ice hockey with Nintendo characters. It...

Hi-Fi Rush

Release Date: 23/01/2023

Platforms: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm fighting game where wannabe rockstar Chai uses the beat to fight an evil corporation. You play by exploring the world and fighting enemies. The twist is that everything moves to the beat, and you must attack in time to do the most...

Young Souls

Release Date: 16/08/2021, updated in 2022

Platforms: PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead

Young Souls is a side-on fighting game about two drop-out teenagers whose mentor disappears. Gameplay is divided into two distinct worlds: the modern human world and a dark, twisted world of goblins and monsters. You brawl and crunch your way through...

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Release Date: 10/11/2020

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the twelfth game in the Assassins Creed Series, an open world action-adventure that takes place over several main story quests as well as many optional side missions.

Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag

Release Date: 29/10/2013

Platforms: PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is an action-adventure game set in a fictional telling of real-world events around the 18th Century Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. You run, jump, climb, explore and fight as a notorious Welsh pirate Edward...

Creature in the Well

Release Date: 06/09/2019

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Creature in the Well is a pinball-inspired fighting game that reimagines the ball bouncing fun of Arkanoid. You play the last remaining robot who ventures deep into a desert mountain to restore power to an ancient facility and save the village that...

Bayonetta 3 (Series)

Release Date: 29/10/2009, updated in 2022

Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Bayonetta 3 is the latest fighting game in the Bayonetta franchise, where you use fantastical guns and outlandish attacks to defeat monsters and hordes of enemies in fast-paced combat. As you move through the stages, you attack enemies with your wide...

Nidhogg

Release Date: 12/09/2014, updated in 2014

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS Vita and PS4

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Nidhogg is a fast two-player duelling game whose simple visuals belie the skill required to defeat your opponent. The novelty is that upon death you reappear in the next screen. The player to advance through the most screens wins.

Ape Out

Release Date: 28/02/2019

Platforms: PC, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Ape Out is a stylised fighting game where you control an ape trying to escape a facility. Although it's violent, the gameplay focuses on rhythm and style rather than just gore. As you move, grab and throw your attackers the soundtrack responds to create...

Street Fighter V (Series)

Release Date: 16/02/2016, updated in 2020

Platforms: PC and PS4

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Street Fighter V (Street Fighter 5) is a competitive fighting game. First introduced in 1987, this classic game from Japan has inspired a whole genre. You choose a champion fighter from around the world, each with unique abilities, then fight one-on-one...

Tooth and Tail

Release Date: 12/09/2017

Platforms: Mac, PC and PS4

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Open World and Pixels

Tooth and Tail is a real-time strategy game about anthropomorphic animals. Before each match, you choose a commander from four factions and six units from a pool of twenty. You then use these units to build farms, lookouts and gather resources.

Viewtiful Joe (Series)

Release Date: 07/10/2003

Platforms: DS, GameCube, PS Vita, PS2 and PSP

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Viewtiful Joe is a side-on fighting game where you play a movie-lover whose girlfriend Silvia is kidnapped during a film starring your favourite superhero, Captain Blue. You enter the movie world, transformed into the tokusatsu-style persona "Viewtiful...

Lethal League Blaze

Release Date: 12/06/2019

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Lethal League Blaze is a fighting sports game where you battle various characters by batting a high speed ball back and forth. It's unusual because the ball is the focus of combat, and the way you damage opponents. You need to use your abilities and the...

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator

Release Date: 01/04/2019, updated in 2022

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (known as TABS) is a fighting game where you choose different armies and troops to battle each other in an automatic simulation that models their offensive and defensive abilities. Once set up, the fight is largely...

BedWars (Roblox)

Release Date: 19/01/2017, updated in 2023

Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

Bed Wars is a game played on Minecraft (since 2017) or Roblox servers (since 2021). It's a team game where you start on an island and must protect your bed and build bridges to attack other teams' beds. The trick is the ecosystem of items and crafting...

Bake 'n Switch

Release Date: 10/09/2020

Platforms: PC, PS4 and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Cartoon

Bake 'n Switch is a puzzle fighting game where 2-4 players are apprentice bakers fighting the "Mould" and taking on various Guardian bosses. It's ridiculously cute and a lot of silly fun, as you catch, merge and sacrifice the anthropomorphised dough...

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Series)

Release Date: 21/01/1999, updated in 2018

Platforms: DS, GameCube, Switch and Wii U

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Super Smash Bros. in its various versions offers real-time brawling battles. The tens of characters are drawn from other video games and each has bespoke moves to learn and perfect.

Boomerang Fu

Release Date: 13/08/2020

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Boomerang Fu is a fighting game where you control small food-like characters. Using your boomerang the aim is to slice the other players with ranged or melee attacks. You can use a large range of power-ups such as: explosive boomerangs, disguise and...

Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed

Release Date: 16/10/2020

Platforms: Switch

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed is a fighting game where you battle mechanical dinosaurs based on the Zoid series. You need to learn the special moves and button combinations to pull off just the right attack at the right time. Each different Zoid and...

Gang Beasts

Release Date: 12/12/2017, updated in 2021

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Gang Beasts is an over the top brawling game where you play wobbly characters who kick, throw, push, pull and pummel up to seven other rivals to win. The game models real physics so you have to work with the grappling and jelly-like bodies to both get...

Brawl Stars

Release Date: 14/06/2017, updated in 2018

Platforms: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Brawl Stars is a fighting game where you battle the computer or other players in all against all and team matches. You can play as any of the game's 50 plus characters, called "Brawlers", in an arena. The cartoon style lends the game a more lighthearted...

Choo-Choo Charles

Release Date: 09/12/2022

Platforms: PC

Components: 3D First-Person

Choo-Choo Charles is a survival shooting game that imagines Thomas the Tank Engine in a horror setting. You explore an island in an old upgradable train and hunt down Charles the evil spider train.

Savior

Release Date: Coming soon

Platforms: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Savior is an action adventure game with hand-animated pixelated graphics. You play as Sam, a mysterious woman with hidden powers and innate acrobatic skills who has lost her memory and all possessions. Use diplomacy, parkour, and intricate combat to...

Dead by Daylight

Release Date: 14/06/2016, updated in 2020

Platforms: Android, PS4, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and iOS

Components: 3D Third-Person

Dead by Daylight is a survival horror game where one player takes on the role of a killer and another other four try and work together to survive. It's unusual because of this asynchronous play and its cross-over with different franchise-inspired themes.

God of War

Release Date: 20/04/2018

Platforms: PS4

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

You play super-strong Norse fantasy hero Kratos as he takes his son Atreus on a brutal quest in the wake of his mother’s death. The exploration, puzzle solving, climbing and fighting gameplay intertwines with a mythological family drama played out in...

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Series)

Release Date: 14/08/2014, updated in 2020

Platforms: 3DS and 2DS, Switch and Wii U

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

The Hyrule Warriors series of games are hack and slash action games, set in the Legend of Zelda Universe and focussed primarily on close combat against large groups of enemies. The latest in the series Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, merges the...

Transformers: Battlegrounds

Release Date: 23/10/2020

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Transformers: Battlegrounds is a strategy game that's accessible for a range of abilities. It offers a robot-themed XCOM style game for younger players.

Bad North

Release Date: 31/10/2018, updated in 2018

Platforms: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Grid

Bad North is a stylised strategy fighting game. You control an army defending an island and must train and develop your forces efficiently. The simple visuals and knife-edge Viking combat along with the jeopardy of losing precious troops make this a lot...

Assassin's Creed Revelations

Release Date: 15/11/2011, updated in 2012

Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Components: 3D Third-Person

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the fourth adventure game in the Assassin's Creed series. It follows on from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Knack 2 (Series)

Release Date: 12/09/2017

Platforms: PS4

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Knack is a platform action series where you control a shape-shifting robot called Knack. Through beautiful arcade-style battles and worlds, you collect Relics that enable you to grow bigger and gain more powers.

Dauntless

Release Date: 21/05/2019

Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Open World

Dauntless is an action fighting video game where you play a monster hunter in a fantasy world. Cataclysmic events have released Behemoth creatures that prey on the surviving humans. You play a monster hunter who hunts and kills large fantasy creatures,...

MultiVersus

Release Date: 26/07/2022

Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

MultiVersus is a fighting game like Smash Brothers where you team up with or against other players. The novelty is this teamwork and the deep catalogue of characters you can fight with. Batman, Shaggy from Scooby Do, Superman, Bugs Bunny and so on.

Fruit Ninja (Series)

Release Date: 21/04/2010

Platforms: Amazon Fire, Android, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 3+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Fruit Ninja is a game where an array of brightly coloured fruit fly into the screen area and you need to slice each piece in two before it falls to the floor. The technicolour action combines with simple interactive taps and swipes to make it accessible...

Taming Gaming Book Written by parents for parents, the database complements the in-depth discussion about video game addiction, violence, spending and online safety in the Taming Gaming book. We are an editorially independent, free resource without adverts that is supported by partnerships.

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