Best Fighting Game of 2024 - Article
by Chinh Tran , posted on 06 January 2025 / 1,830 Views
As these games wrestled, jostled, and brawled to stand out in an increasingly crowded space, gamers had no shortage of options when it came to fighters. The shortlisted nominees prove the genre is as competitive as it has ever been in 2024.
Bandai Namco took the Budokai Tenkaichi series to new heights with the release of Dragon Ball: Sparkling! Zero. The same company also unleashed Tekken 8, continuing the series' intense combat mechanics for gamers to master. Arc System Works gave us one final installment of the Under Night In-Birth series, in the form of [Sys: Celes]. And finally 2K Games gave wrestling fans WWE 2K24, which further refined the long-running series' mechanics.
The Shortlist:
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
Tekken 8
Under Night In-Birth [Sys: Celes]
WWE 2K24
The Runner-Up:
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero
Dragon Ball: Sparkling! Zero once again proved that Budokai Tenkaichi packs some serious punch and should be a strong consideration for not just serious Dragon Ball fans, but devoted fighting game fans as well. With nearly 200 useable characters, a new Custom mode, and the ability to relive and alter key moments from the anime, Dragon Ball: Sparkling! Zero just about made it to the top of the fighting game list in 2024.
The Winner:
Tekken 8
After a nine year hiatus, Bandai Namco brought Tekken back in a big way in 2024. Featuring impressive graphics powered by Unreal Engine 5, new combat mechanics that rewarded aggressive play, a slew of online and offline modes, and a campaign that continues the series' story, Tekken 8 is not to be missed by fighting fans. The Tekken series has always been among the top fighting game series since the very first game and Bandai Namco has shown why once again, making Tekken 8 the Best Fighting Game of 2024.
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I gotta say award wise it's a shame SF6 and Tekken 8 didn't release in the same year because it would have been pretty cool to see those two go head to head.
Tekken (any of them) are >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the rest
Hope to see Virtua Fighter 6 win either this year or next. Tekken 8 has been pretty damn good, though.
I personally loved the hell out of the Marvel vs Capcom collection, but I'm sure that wouldn't have qualified for this type of list.
"Budokai Tenkaichi packs some serious punch and should be a strong consideration for not just serious Dragon Ball fans, but devoted fighting game fans as well"
Air dashes up and down to run the clock aggressively.
I've played T8 more since release than apparently I ever did T7 which is a good sign, it's fun, yet I also dislike a lot of what they added/removed. I'm not sure how that has happened. The heat system has extended combos to stupid levels, I've always hated bound, now there are 2 of them and lack of infinite stages hurts in my view as it gives an unfair advantage to character who have an easy wall attacks.
There was a clip on a the reddit the other day, people saying "wow, look at this combo", was a good 23 seconds of just watching someone do a combo due to wall breaks and stuff. How's that fun? But then I'm an old school punish player, combo's just seem so primitive to me.
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