Best Fighting Game of 2021 - Article
by Craig S , posted on 11 January 2022 / 2,898 Views
The fighting genre was one of the slimmest categories for this year's game of the year awards, but there were still a handful of quality new releases to be found. Our shortlist consists of a well-timed but far from lazy Demon Slayer fighter; the highly acclaimed Guilty Gear -Strive-, which seems to have finally broken the series out of its niche confines and given it mainstream success; Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, which beat the odds by managing to pull off the mascot crossover fighter with crashing and burning; and finally Sega remembered that Virtua Fighter exists outside of the Yakuza series and released an enhanced remaster of fan-favourite Virtua Fighter 5.
The Shortlist:
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Guilty Gear -Strive-
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles
Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown
The Winner:
Guilty Gear -Strive-
Runner-up: Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
The staff here at VGChartz have written a lot in praise of Guilty Gear -Strive- over the course of the last six months or so, from an incredibly positive review that pegged it as one of our highest-scoring games of the year, to a couple of in-depth feature pieces, culminating in this heartfelt homage to the game's Tower system. We were clearly smitten with Guilty Gear -Strive-, but so, apparently, were you guys, as the community poll gave it a 20% lead over its nearest rival. This mechanically rewarding, visually sumptuous, and aurally satisfying fighter has clearly been the benefit of some great word-of-mouth. It deserves all the plaudits.
