Best Capcom Fighting Games

Ever since Street Fighter first started appearing in arcades back in the late 80s, Capcom have been proclaimed by many to be the kings of the fighting game genre, and they're still releasing new entries in this beloved genre to this day. Because they managed to nail the core-gameplay of their fighting games very early on, they've been able to implement numerous interesting mechanics, systems, and modes over the years to build upon each game that came before.

While not all of these attempts were successful (Final Fight Revenge, anyone?), most of Capcom's fighting games have been very well received by both critics and hardcore fans of the genre. But which ones are the best of the bunch? Here's a breakdown of some of the best fighting games Capcom has ever released, and why they became so beloved by fans of the genre.

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Updated August 30, 2024, by David Heath: Since the last update to Street Fighter 5, Capcom has fallen back in love with its fighting games. The Capcom Fighting Collection brought the Darkstalkers series back from the dead. Street Fighter 6 has become one of the most successful fighting games ever made. Fans got hyped by the Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection bringing back the classic crossover series, and the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will bring back another via Capcom Vs SNK 1 & 2. It's a good time to be a fighting game fan, and a better time to be a fan of Capcom's fighting games. This list has been updated with a few more choice selections, from some games awaiting their re-release, to ones that might not get so lucky. Though if Marvel Vs Capcom and Capcom Vs SNK can come back, anything's possible.

12 Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future

Steamrolling the Competition

• Developer: Capcom
• Platforms: Arcade, PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 3, XBox 360
• Release: September 1998

The series may be a mainstay among anime fans today, but for years, the only way audiences outside of Japan and a few lucky European nations knew this anime was through Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future. Based on Part 3: Stardust Crusaders, players pick anyone from Jotaro to Dio and use their Stand abilities to overcome their opponents. Some are better used for rushdown strikes, others prefer to keep the opponent away, while others bring them up-close for punishment.

Though Jojo is a familiar series now, it's a strange game to get into. Alessi's Stand Seth transforms his opponents into kids or other vulnerable forms. Two characters, Iggy and Pet Shop, are hard-to-hit animals. Then, most famous of all, Dio can stop time for 9 seconds (1 second for each level of super meter) and drop a steamroller on his foe before pummeling it into them. Though it was only a cult success, and its balance is out of whack, it's still the benchmark for Jojo fighting games. All-Star Battle R and Eyes of Heaven couldn't match its mechanics.

11 X-Men Vs Street Fighter

Marvel and Capcom Take Each Other On for the First Time

First, there was X-Men: Children of the Atom, where the X-Men and their foes fought it out in a Street Fighter 2-style game. It was fun, and even got cheeky by hiding Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo's Akuma in the roster. Then Marvel Super Heroes did the same with the broader Marvel cast, letting Spider-Man, Captain America and the Hulk in on the action. Then Capcom thought they'd dial things back to the X-Men, only to pit them off against the Street Fighters in tag-team action.

Thus, X-Men Vs Street Fighter was born, where players could mix between the Mutants and World Warriors to make their ideal team. They could tag out between the two for fast, hard-hitting combos, or bring them in for an assist attack to drive their opponent off. The super combos were larger and more intense than the SF series was doing at the time, and its bold, chunky graphics brought the comic characters to life. It was a sign of bigger things to come, as it laid the foundations for the Marvel Vs Capcom series.

10 Capcom Vs SNK

The World Warrior Meets the King of Fighters

On the surface, Capcom VS SNK may seem like an inferior version of its sequel since it's more stripped back in terms of central mechanics (only 2 grooves), but it has its own charms. It still retains that high skill ceiling via the Ratio system, which essentially refers to a character's overall strength. As players create a team, they will only be able to reach a maximum Ratio of 4, meaning they could pick a single strong fighter, or make a team of 2-4 weaker characters to get the number advantage.

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It's a pretty simple system to adjust to, but unlike the sequel, the roster's Ratio values are fixed. Sakura is always R1, Orochi Iori is always R4, etc. This makes picking the perfect team of fighters much more of a challenge, as players have to consider their strength as well as their skill. The game also features some visually stunning stages, many of which are far more detailed than other fighters at the time. They even outdo the sequel's 3D efforts with its background characters, lighting effects, and ornate design.

9 Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower

Why Have One Darkstalker When One Can Have All of Them?

Despite the efforts of fans and former producer Yoshinori Ono, Capcom isn't in a hurry to return to Darkstalkers any time soon. The likes of Morrigan and Dmitri have spent more time making guest appearances in other games than in their home series. But in its prime, the series was a pretty formidable contender in the fighting game scene. With its gothic aesthetic and demonic cast of playable characters, Darkstalkers was a break from the norm. It's tricky picking up a single entry in the series, as they each have their own charms.

If only there was a game that combined every Darkstalkers game. Which is where Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower comes in. It's essentially every character from Darkstalkers to Vampire Savior, while allowing players to pick which version of them they want to play. They could pit DS1 Victor with his AOE attacks against DS2 Donovan and his traps. The only problem is that it's exclusive to the PSP, making it harder to track down than the Darkstalkers' separate entries in the Capcom Fighting Collection.

8 Rival Schools

Class Is In Session

Many of the games on this list are going to involve Marvel, Street Fighter, and Capcom's rivals SNK in some way or another, if only through sheer numbers. That doesn't mean that other original games aren't worth a look. Darkstalkers is a grand time, and Power Stone is an underrated 3D Smash-style game. However, one of their most underrated games is Rival Schools, where different students and faculty fight to save their schools from a hidden menace.

The brainchild of then-Street Fighter Alpha producer and future Devil May Cry director Hideaki Itsuno, it was a team fighter where players couldn't tag out, but could use their partner to provide different assist attacks. They could double the damage with Team Attacks, or give them a health/meter boost to keep them in the game for longer. Sadly, and curiously, it's not part of the Capcom Fighting Collection 2, but its equally rare sequel, Project Justice, is. The latter gives the player two assists to work with, and a different mix of duo and triple team attacks.

7 Street Fighter 4

The World Warriors Return

With the death of arcades and the rise of home consoles, it looked like Capcom would leave fighting games behind, as only 3D efforts like Tekken and SoulCalibur caught on. That is, until Yoshinori Ono drove the company to produce Street Fighter 4 in 2008. With a flashy new visual style, a large cast of characters, and a plethora of new moves and techniques for players to utilize in battle, Street Fighter 4 had everything it needed to revive interest in the fighting game genre all over again for a brand-new audience.

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The core 2D fighting gameplay hadn't been changed too much from its predecessors, but it introduced new universal moves like the Focus Attack, a move that could also stun the opponent if it landed, leaving them wide open for a combo, but took a while to charge up. Across its different updates, from Super to Ultra, it brought in some of the series' most beloved new characters, like Juri Han, a sadistic taekwondo practitioner who's merciless fighting style really helped her stand out from the rest of the cast.

6 Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3

Marvel's Super Heroes Take on Street Fighters, Zombie Strikers, and More

When the original Marvel VS Capcom 3 was released in early 2011, its high-octane action and colorful visual aesthetic received a lot of praise from fans, but it did have a few balancing issues with a handful of characters being outright broken. This was going to be rectified over its different updates and DLC. Instead, thanks to the Tohoku earthquake, these plans became the standalone game Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, which brought in several fan-favorites, like Rocket Raccoon and Vergil from Devil May Cry.

It's one of the most satisfying games to get good at, as its controls are simple to pick up, and the action is incredibly fast-paced, with characters flying across the screen to initiate devastating combos that go on for days. However, it also has an extremely high skill ceiling, especially when trying to combine the abilities of all three team members. The strongest characters, even busted ones like Phoenix and Zero, can take plenty of practice to get good with. Nonetheless, if players stick with it, they'll find it an excellent title with plenty of content to get stuck into.

5 Marvel Vs Capcom 2

The Pinnacle of 3-on-3 Combat

Fighting game rosters have gotten bigger over the years, but Marvel Vs Capcom 2 is still one of the largest with 56 playable fighters, all of whom come from every other Marvel game Capcom had made to that point, with a few newbies like Cable and Tron Bonne. It needed to be this big as it was now a trio-on-trio bout instead of tag teams. Players could switch between their 3 characters, and pick different assists to allow their partner to jump in and perform a quick move to help out the main fighter during an intense bout.

This could open the opponent up for a midair combo or Hyper Combo (the game's version of a Super Move), or open themselves up to get both their point and assist characters punished if they're not careful. It's these new levels of strategy that helped it catch on, despite its lack of polish and balance. Few other games took up its style, with just Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear Strive's upcoming 3-on-3 mode giving it a try. So, it's no wonder why MvC2 is so beloved, with many looking forward to playing it again in the Marvel Vs Capcom Fighting Collection.

4 Street Fighter Alpha 3

Go For Broke In the Best Alpha Game

The Street Fighter Alpha games gave fans their long-awaited follow-up to Street Fighter 2, albeit as prequels. Fans would have to wait longer for Street Fighter 3, and once they were made, they actually faltered next to the Alpha sequels. They were faster, had bigger combos, and larger rosters, especially with Street Fighter Alpha 3. Some people prefer the purer looks and nicer music of Alpha 2, though Alpha 3 would go on to become the biggest and most popular entry in the series.

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It had nearly every character in the series from SF2 onward, and introduced fan favorites like Cody, Rainbow Mika, and Karin. Its ISM system acted like a precursor to Capcom Vs SNK's Groove system, offering three different ways to play, and even more if they tinker with its different modes. It's been released on multiple systems in multiple forms, with its updated Upper edition being included in Capcom Fighting Collection 2. No matter the platform, fans have plenty of time for Alpha 3.

3 Capcom Vs SNK 2

This Battle is About to Explode

Capcom Vs SNK 2 grants players a staggering amount of freedom to take on their battles in any way they want, and because of this, it makes the game incredibly replayable and a ton of fun to jump into, even if just for a few quick matches. Players are able to choose up to three characters to bring onto their team, but this isn't always a smart idea as they have to match their strength to a Ratio. Single players reach a max strength of 4, while teams get divided between 1-3.

This already adds an extra layer of strategy to the game, as weaker teams get multiple shots to take on a single opponent, but that single opponent only needs to be beaten once. It also offers multiple different fighting styles, or "Grooves", based on different Capcom and SNK fighting games. They encourage players to experiment with the gameplay until they fully master all the tools they can utilize in battle. Pair this with a massive roster, and it results in a great game that's become the most anticipated entry in the upcoming Capcom Fighting Collection 2.