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4. X-Men vs. Street Fighter: What was one of the earliest examples of the crossover fighter might be considered one of the best, as X-Men vs. Street Fighter managed to take two very different franchises and create an exciting, engaging fighter out of it. Not only writing the blueprint for crossovers to come, it's still a fantastic entry that plays as well as it did years ago. Whether you're pitting Wolverine against Cammy, Cyclops against Dhalsim, or Juggernaut against Charlie, X-Men vs. Street Fighter nails it all perfectly, and created the tag-team and crossover concepts that would later become critical to developing the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
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3. Capcom vs. SNK: When two titans of the fighting industry meet, it's bound to be a good time, and the Capcom vs. SNK series felt like a Master's course in fighting games. Other crossovers capitalized on the novelty and "what-if," but Capcom vs. SNK was a true meeting of giants, solely based on the King of Fighters developer squaring off with Capcom's finest. The series pulled in many different characters and franchises, from the likes of Final Fight and Samurai Showdown to Darkstalkers and Street Fighter, but most of Capcom's roster was made up of our favorite SF World Warriors. It was a who's-who of the 2D fighting era, mashing up not only rosters but systems too, as the Capcom vs. SNK games took the -ISM and Groove systems to the extreme with their huge selection of Grooves. It was a sleek, refined fighting game, focused on the excellence of the two franchises, and showcasing some of the best that 2D fighting games have to offer.
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2. Street Fighter III: What might easily be one of the best 2D fighting games ever, Street Fighter III hit its peak with the 1999 release of 3rd Strike, a game that delivered some of the best mechanics and gameplay in the series. The roster was varied and unique, and the introduction of Guard Parry rewarded high-level play and perfect defense, leading to one of the greatest EVO moments of all time, where Daigo perfectly Guard Parries with almost no life left and wins the match. That level of hype and excitement is what 3rd Strike brought to Street Fighter, and between its competitive legacy and historical context, it's easy to consider 3rd Strike among the best of the best.
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1. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior: This one is a bit obvious, but only because of how influential Street Fighter II was in the fighting genre. It set the blueprint, one that we still follow today. The concept of quarter-circle and half-circle movements, even special moves, the six-button layout and multi-button inputs like grabs, all comes back to Street Fighter II. The multi-layered roster, filled with all kinds of fighters, from the arm-stretching Dhalsim to the high-kicking Chun-Li, to Guile, Bison, Blanka, Zangief and more. Keep in mind, this was the second Street Fighter game, following a simplistic fighter with only two playable characters. Street Fighter II can be credited not only with kicking off the boom of fighting games in arcades to follow, but also for leading the charge in bringing that experience to consoles, with the SNES port of Street Fighter II being one of the best-selling games for the system. This was the original work, the first to break ground, and even today it still holds up against the best of the best as one of, if not the, greatest fighting games of all time.