Best Fighting Game of 2025 - Article
by Craig S , posted on 12 January 2026 / 2,066 Views
All of the franchises that tend to dominate the genre, at least in terms of mass appeal and sales, forwent brand new releases in 2025, which left the field truly wide open for smaller series to come in and stake a claim to the trophy. Crossovers and new entries in dormant franchises were the main themes of this year's shortlist.
Nihon Falcom's Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga - an audacious combination of Ys and Trails characters in fighting game form - finally made its way over to western shores, 15 years after its original debut in Japan on the PlayStation Portable. The BLEACH anime series has a much more established line of fighting games by contrast, but Rebirth of Souls nonetheless represents its first major release since 2011. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves continued that trend of lengthy gaps between releases; it launched a whopping 25 years after Garou: Mark of the Wolves. No such issue for The Hinokami Chronicles 2, which launched less than a month after the breakout anime phenomenan Demon Slayer set records in cinemas with Infinity Castle.
The Shortlist:
Ys vs. Trails in the Sky: Alternative Saga
BLEACH Rebirth of Souls
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
The Runner-Up:
BLEACH Rebirth of Souls
With a sense of stylish flair and a narrative that faithfully recreates the cult classic BLEACH anime series, Rebirth of Souls marked a welcome return of the series to the fighting genre. That positive foundation, combined with a large playable roster, excellent music, and unique combat meant that Rebirth of Souls was able to slash its way to the runer-up spot.
The Winner:
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
What a remarkable comeback story: almost 26 years since the last release in the series, Fatal Fury finally gets a new entry and not only wins best Fighting Game of the Year, but does so decisively, with well over 50% of the vote. It's not hard to see why either, with its beautiful art style, well-received additions to the already explosive and deep gameplay mechanics, polished online multiplayer, additional single player modes, and strong character roster. Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves was a long time coming, to put it mildly, but it was certainly worth the wait.
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Weak fighting game lineup for 2025
might be the worst ever
No smash 2018
No tekken 2024
No street fighter 2023
No mortal Kombat 2023
All recently released
If none of these release it's a crappy year
More missing popular fighting games
Marvel vs Capcom
Injustice
Soul calibur
Shame City put a rapist soccer player in the game.
His inclusion, and Mai being censored, may have very well killed the Fatal Fury franchise.
City of Wolves is a fucking disgrace.
Why? It's an amazing fighting game. It's been more fun than Street Fighter 6 lately for me.
I just ignore the 2 fighters that were definitely thrown in just because of SNK's owners.
It also censored Mai Shiranui. You don't fucking dare censor the quintessential fighting game sex symbol.
LOL that's fair. At least you can still see her classic outfit in one of her super moves. Which is leading some to believe that SNK may add it back in with DLC since it’s not completely gone
It better be added back in. Mohammed bin Sodomite has enough reasons he should be blown to pieces.
