It blows my mind Killer Instinct hasn’t had another title but the 2013 version still looks and plays incredibly

24:36 - 25:23 Golly, that's deep. Reminds me of Shinichiro Obata's words about what he and his team wanted to achieve when creating the game. *"You know, there are many different approaches you can take to game design. One approach, which we took in SF3, is to design your game around "unanswerables." I think with any game, players will search for the best tactic, the best strategy ... like, if X happens, you should always do Y; if you do this here, you'll always win. There's competitive games like that, where the match is essentially a confrontation of theoretical knowledge that each player has built up. But Street Fighter 3 is a game that, by design, doesn't have a fixed answer to those questions. There is no "best" tactic; you can spend your whole life trying to find the perfect theoretical approach to a situation in SF3, but it will never be quite right. You always have to be reading your opponent in the moment; you can't just fall back on your theories. It's a game that lets you search for answers forever..."* I hope Obata and his team watch this video just to listen to Max's words about the masterpiece they created. I bet they would be very satisfied and happy for all their hard work ☺️

Max is making his top 10 and he's DEFINITELY NOT GONNA SUGARCOAT IT

The joys of a top 10 fighting games list

Playing Mortal Kombat X at a friend's house is what began my fighting game addiction

Listening to Max talk about Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, he mentions how "not balanced" it is several times. Which makes me wish he would make a Top 10 list of Most Balanced Fighting Games. 🔥🔥🔥

I feel like i'm living in the loop, each day there another Max top 10 fighting games tier list video.

I really can't blame Max for putting all the MvC titles in his list, they are all amazing games. I remember as a kid just walking to the arcade and hearing in the distance X-men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Superheroes vs Street Fighter, and MvC Clash of Superheroes, so you naturally get hyped. I played them and grew to love all the subsequent games and every game attached, new and old.

Tbh it’s cool you’re putting every Marvel vs. Capcom game on the list. It’s a legendary GOAT’d series!

Not gonna lie this is actually a good list, glad to see im not the only one that likes the 1st marvel vs capcom more than the others. Also can we please get a rebooted Bloody Roar game lol ill keep dreaming

You earned my respect with killer instinct 2013 at #2. well put together list.

I really appreciate you making separate lists for the best fighting games and your personal favorites. I’ve seen a lot of countdowns that combine the “greatest” and their personal favorites (not just fighting games, but practically anything you can rank), and it can get confusing fast. I really prefer this approach.

Awesome list, Max! The Modern KI roster too really shot it up to prominence, especially in appealing towards casual audiences; you had the freaking Arbiter and RAAM playable, of all people lol.

Third Strike legit saved my life. I was going through a dark period in my life when a co-worker just happened to be playing 3rd Strike on a home-made arcade stick (a Byrdo stick) in a corner on a PS2. I sat down and asked him to show me the game and was blown away at how quirky and colorful and jazzy it was. I never had the chance to grow up with arcades due to where I lived and so my brain was just not ready for this game, and was not ready for playing on a stick. Needless to say I got my ass handed to me by my co-worker day after day until I slowly started learning some of the fundamentals. But I stuck with it and started a journey into the FGC that really helped me get out of a rut in my life. I still love 3S more than any other fighting game and spent many hours playing it on the old GGPO before that shut down. Its been a while since I've seriously sat down and played but I am super hype to see that it will be on the main stage at Evo this year! Fun fact, that co-worker went on to be a producer for the PS3/360 releases of 3S. If you're reading this I hope you are doing well!

Killer Instinct was a really good first run at a fighting game by a developer that had never done them before. Not only did it meld SF and MK, but it brought some of Primal Rage and Dark Stalkers in (via character choices), had the changing camera angles like MK's stage fatalities, crazier combos than any game before it, some blood, some fatality-like fight enders, you could buy its soundtrack, and it didn't look like anything else. Rare did a great job making it stand out as a total product to sell a game AND a new development platform.

You know Tekken 3 is good when it's on both lists.

Thank you for putting video footage of the games

Killer instinct was louder than virtua cop, and pinball machines in the arcade. I walked into an arcade, and when that intro hit everybody stopped and looked. Maaaaannnn…

You gave us the best objective list out there with sound reasoning, and I'm glad you gave us the personal one too!

I swear I’m not even into the fighting game stuff but just hearing max talk about shiz he likes is so good, he’s like your buddy lecturing you in the most interesting and fun way possible about his interests

Your personal list hits harder than the professional list ( aside from that number 2 pick- that hit hard) Love it so much

Great list....if i may add, i think Capcom vs. Snk 1 and 2 are hugely underrated fighting games as well

Something came up to me when max brought up that killer instinct has an uphill battle like smash. Both games brought back their FULL rosters from every past game and added new crazy characters in the mix. They both have the unfortunate battle of having to most likely cut some characters. Very interesting both have a similar problem and are the apex of their series

It's not necessarily on my top ten list of fighting games, but an honorable mention imo is Fighting EX Layer is definitely on my top 20. Especially since I've been recently playing it, it's been hella addicting with it's fighting system. I always wanted the EX characters in the SF EX series in their own game, and Arika delivered that plenty. And having Terry as a guest character was icing on the cake. Just wish it got more love online and wish Arika would come out with a sequel. I heard that they're going bankrupt 😣

Bushido blade 2 is one of my all time favorites. I think you'd love the sword fighting mechanics of that game!

Wow that modern KI game sounds interesting, if only there was a podcast where they talk about it every episode, along with Final Fight Revenge for some reason

I spent so many hours of my childhood playing KI on the SNES. I love KI, glad to see it on your list

Love this list Max, I totally agree with your top two! The rest of my top ten would be quite different, but I appreciate your reasons and placement of the others. 👍

I already knew what Max's top 2 would be and was curious what the other 8 would be just from his passion. Which feels like a testament to how the FGC can expose peoples personalities in a good way.

Man you remember me when I was playing in the middle to the end of the 90's playing fighting games with my friends. It's makes me happy to hear you talk about those games because I feel the damm exact thing.

Thank you for giving Soul Calibur the respect it deserves. Should be on everyone’s list.

only major difference between this list and my own personal is GGXX holds a special place in my heart as the first fighting game i actually learned and none of my friends could beat me after a point. Learned almost the whole roster and could smoke everyone with anyone or at least make it very hard for my pals if they were using their main.

my top 10 would be 1. Tekken 3 (first fighting game I played) 2. Soul Calibur 3 3. Street Fighter 3rd strike 4. Mortal Kombat 9 5. Bloody Roar 4 6. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus 7. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 8. Dead or Alive 5 9. Killer Instinct (2013) 10. King of Fighters 2002 this top 10 was based on how much time I spent playing these games, and how much I enjoyed them since I was a kid

KI and Ultimate are so good to make a sequel is going to be close to impossible

Nice job bro. I really enjoy seeing your Top 10 lists. You are awesome and incredible

Love the MVC1 love and arcade experience commentary. I have very fond memories of family trips to CA, where I would specifically get excited to visit this boardwalk arcade, to play that game. So good.

Ki 94 man I'm a 2000s kid but thankfully my dad had his snes and killer instinct he always had us fighting irl w this game man so many memories

I love that 4 of these games on this list are Dreamcast games. That was such a great console for fighting games (among other things).

My personal 10 favorite FGs, in no particular order of preference: SFA3 (PS1) KOF98 (PS1) TK3 (PS1) KOF2002 (PS2) CVS2 (DC) MVC2 (DC) USF4 (PS3) UMVC3 (PS3) SFXT (PS3) DBFZ (PS4)

Respect for including Smash Ultimate, I know that’s not counted by many critics but it definitely deserves a spot

Since Max is sharing his top 10, I'm gonna share my personal top 10. 1: Pokken Tournament DX. After playing this game again, I can't even. it's too fun. And too cute and awesome and cool. it's my two favorite things in one. 2: Tekken 5: The game that made me. Jinpachi was my first ever boss rage moment, and I will never forget how utterly horrified of this man when I first saw him. 3: Streetfighter 3rd Strike. I Love this game. Another game that combines 2 things I love. this time Streetfighter and hiphop. The soundtrack though. 4: Mortal Kombat Armeggeddon. Yes, this game is up there. It's a weird one, but it's the most played Mortal Kombat game I played next to 11 and Trilogy. So much nostaljia. 5: Marvel VS Capcom 3. It's just fun. what can I say. I don't care how crazy Zero is. He's my favorite. 6: Tekken 7. First preordered game, first game I ever bought DLC for, and probably the game I played the most. 7: King of Fighters 15. My second preordered game. And boy am I enjoying learning the ins and out of this game. First game where I had to look at a tutorial for. 8: Smash Ultimate. This game had me excited just from the music and the trailer alone. Also, it was announced while I was working. 9: Smash 4. The game that got me into Smash and why I got Ultimate. 10: Streetfighter 2. Just in general. No specific type. the game that got me into fighting games. My dad got me into Streetfighter as a kid. Too many memories to count.

Great Stuff, as always!

If Capcom and Disney ever agree to release MvC2 on consoles again, I hope they add a new optional "ratio" mode. It's such a great idea and forces you to explore characters that were considering garnage and people are still discovering new tech with those characters.

"Top 10 and I'm not here to make anyone happy" *His based energy is rising. It's overflowing!*

I would just like to say I've been waiting years for this video and I think we all have. Thank you, Max

Killer Instinct is such an A+mazing fighting game, 10 years later and still going strong ! So HYPED for the upcoming Anniversary update and possibly a season 4-5

I think I like Marvel vs Capcom 1 best out of all the versus games too. Really, really makes me wish Capcom still had awesome 2D art styles for their fighting games. The chunky 3D of Street Fighter 4, 5, 6 don't do it for me and don't age well compared to Third Strike or Alpha, IMO.

KI 2013 is an "acidental" masterpiece! It is one of the greatest fighting games ever, and they were actually not even trying, they just wanted to make it as cool as possible, but they achieved the impossible

I super respect how well Max is able recognize and acknowledge his bias with these things. Like, when other people say "This isn't my bias", you raise an eyebrow. But whenever Max says it, I believe him. Mainly because he's also really good at admitting when he IS biased. 😆

It's nice to see MvC3 in the list because if there's something that represent a game that is loved, is the fanbase leaving the role of just a player/spectator and going towards to producing content for the other players, it's a strong sign that a game can (and shall) outlive the limitations imposed by the developers.

I honestly never thought he would put out this list.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I always loved SC1 the best in the franchise. The graphics blew me away as a kid and still fun as hell. Aged like fine wine 🍷

Hearing the PSO music makes me so happy. Please play it again on stream with the doods

I absolutely agree with you about mvc1, it was possibly the last time capcoms 2D art department was really firing on all cylinders

Listening you talk about MVC2 and just remember running War Machine, Serv Bot, and I think Megaman. Why? Because the full team super did more chip damage than actual damage. So when the person blocked you could mash and it'd do a stupid amount of damage via chip. Also just jumping around as serv-bot was absurd and fun

We need the full VOD!!

Ah MvC1 will always be my favorite MvC. That character select music fills me with such nostalgia and excitement that will never go away. So glad it made the top 3.

Loved this video Max! Now you know you have to make a video of the "Top 10 worst fighting games" you played.

I didn't even see the arcade version of SoulCalibur 1 before I was purely blown away by the Dreamcast version at a party. I had played a bit of Soul Edge via an arcade section at a pizza place, but SC1 was on another planet graphically. Also music was fire. Glad Max touched on the movement of Soul Calibur and its 8 way run, that for some reason makes it impossible to enjoy the act of stepping in other 3D fighters. Then came Soul Calibur 2, and while I was already pre-hyped thx to experience with the original, I was not prepared for it to be so addictive and polished and my 2nd fav fighting game ever haha

I knew it was gonna be but I still yelled "YES" when he put 3rd strike on top. A game for the ages.

MvC 1 has one of my favorite boss fights of all time. When I first fought Onslaught at the arcade, I was like 😮

DAMN! Looks like I was wrong! Killer Instinct Reboot (2013-2017) is DEFINITELY Max's favorite of all time! Even if is in Top 2, but Top 1 in 2010's Fighting games! My Part 2 of the comment from : Max Dood's The Top 10 Greatest Fighting Game of All Time.

When I seen that thumbnail I immediately thought if people got on max about the other 2 list can't wait to see his actual personal top 10 list 🤣

Now this is what I wanted to see!

Whoever edited this video I would like to say to you that I appreciate the of PSO music in the background.

"KI is a perfect mixture of what Capcom was doing with Midway" Holy shit, never thought about it like that but that's so god damn true

This video made my day better ❤️

Great list :)

In the middle of watching this video, but gotta continue it later. So far, very much a respectable list! I have a nostalgic reason for putting UMVC3 on equal grounds with Tatsunoko, that being because I just put so much time into Tatsunoko (in part because I was never able to get a PS3 or 360 until a couple of years after I bought Tatsunoko, funny enough). That said, I readily agree that UMVC3 deserves to be on this list more, for a number of reasons not totally dissimilar to Smash Ultimate. Idk if Max has a video on Tatsunoko, but I would totally be down for seeing him spend some time with the game should he ever decide to do a video on it! Also, I know YoVideogames has done videos on a few DOA games, but I don't remember point blank hearing what Max thinks of that series in total, so I would also be interested in that if he wanted to talk about it! I do remember that he said he's not all too familiar post-DOA2, though. Out of partial personal preference, between the five that I've played, DOA2 is about tied with DOA3, and DOA4 fluctuates between being on their level and just under for the best of the bunch. DOA:Dimensions was one that I found to be easily one of the best fighters on a handheld, and a surprisingly competent and almost console-like combat with an active online multiplayer mode.

Relatively new to fighting games at this point, for reasons that will be apparent, here's my list in the year 2023: 1. Melee - I can't take issue with Max's reasoning on Ultimate over Melee, but to me, the responsiveness of Melee can't be touched by 6 frames of input delay. 2. Rivals of Aether - This one's here for sentimental reasons and also I have a blast every time I play it 3. Tekken 7 - It's at this point I have to acknowledge that my enjoyment of a fighting game largely has to do with the time of my life where any particular friend would play one with me. 4. Street Fighter 6 - I'm new to SF, having a good time, nobody I know is playing Third Strike, give me a break. 5. Smash Bros. Ultimate - This might have been higher in a previous year, but there's a lot that has been soured by time for me. 6. Slap City - I was born in platform fighters, molded by them. 7. Skullgirls - I've played it a few times 8. Guilty Gear Strive - I've played it less than Skullgirls 9. Rivals 2 - It's not out yet, but I'm running out of ideas because I refuse to add another Smash game. 10. Nidhogg - Does this even count?

Solid personal list, all of these games are fun as hell

I'm 24 and an old arcade with MvC1 got me into fighting games.

My love for fighting games started way back in a JC Penny's playing Primal Rage on SNES.

I would probably have more SNK titles like Garou and KOF in the top 20 since that's what I grew up with. This is a great personalized list showing how you can love all games of a franchise aside from MVCI.

Damn max the only person I’ve seen leave out Capcom vs SNK 2 …but I like this list ….but damn CAPCOM vs SNK 2 is on the same legendary status as marvel vs Capcom 2

So happy that my all time favorite fighting game franchise Killer Instinct still makes it on so many top fighting games lists!

I remember playing ki on my Super Nintendo my dad got me. I was like 9 just hitting buttons and only ever managed to get 2 ultra combos with Fulgore and it may be the best feeling I’ve ever felt playing a fighting game.

I was 3 years old at my cousin's house and he had Killer Instict. My granddad had NeoGeo ROMS like KOF on his PC in the 90s Then SF4 released when I was in high school and I had friends to play with, and that was the point where I truly fell in love with fighting games

Phantasy star online music on the background 🤌🤌

OG Soul Calibur.... I brought my Dreamcast over to multiple friends' houses and we would back and forth all night.

The majority of people on Max channel and watching this video weren’t born yet when Max and us were playing the first installments of these games. Let that sink in. To anyone from Max generation, we old af 😂

Max's personal top 10 1. Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike 2. Killer Instinct (2013) 3. Marvel vs. Capcom 1 4. Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 5. Soul Calibur 6. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 7. Mortal Kombat X 8. Tekken 3 9. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 10. Killer Instinct (1994) It's not a bad list. I'll share my personal top 10 1. Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo 2. King of Fighters 98 3. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 4. Capcom vs. SNK 2 5. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 6. Tekken 3 7. Virtua Fighter 8. Melty Blood Actress Again 9. Killer Instinct (94) 10. Super Smash Bros. (99)

Can you do your top fighting game characters of all time ?

With all Max's knowledge and fighting game wisdom - I feel like he has the most balanced view of the top 10 fighting games of all time.

Max, you and me are on such the same wave length. Mvc1 and KI were God tier for me as a kid.

It hurts me everytime I see Tekken 3 et Soul Calibur 1 in Top 10 but that Soul Edge / Soul Blade is never even part of the conversation. As a kid, I never spent so much time in a fighting game more than in the Edge Master Mode to unlock the Soul Edge for most characters. This mix of combo trials/challenges & story mode all in one is still to this day one of my favorite game mode in a fighting game ever and I probably the best introduction to fighting games anyone could ask for and that was years before Tekken 3.

It'd be interesting to see how MVC2 ranks differently with and without ratio rulesets. Stuff like this can be tricky, as for instance when you rank a smash game you could rank the game based around what the overall package of a game provides, or how it plays within the community's competitive ruleset But I think from what I've seen of MVC2, the game can be played in a way with a lot of varaity, or a way where the most popular teams dominate the cast in the way smas4 bayonetta and cloud dominated their game, and theyre incredibly common. not to say there isn't fun to be had there, or one version carries more game history over the other, just that you are kinda playing two different versions of the same game in a way similar to how 3rd strike and 2nd impact are different games, and bobby fischer's chess 960 is different from chess

I remember hearing before from some list that Alpha 3 was the greatest fighting game of all time. The sizable roster plus the "ism"s gave you a million ways to play the game. Sad I don't hear about that game much anymore.

I'm sad no Guilty Gear game made your list! As for me, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 became my favorite ever. It plays PERFECT, awesome OST, characters, and even a story that made me tear up a couple of times! The most complete package and enjoyable fighting game I've ever played. And the one I put the most hours in (besides XX Accent Core Plus on the PS2). Not even Tekken games (my 2nd favorite fighting franchise) made me so glued to the sofa when playing and gave me the feeling to need to go back home and play every single day!

Now this got me thinking about MY personal top 10 fighters 🤔 1. Street Fighter Alpha 2 2. Marvel vs Capcom 2 3. Mortal Kombat X (I’m with Max, this one is the best) 4. Samurai Shodown (arcade, specifically, the ports sucked) 5. Killer Instinct 2 Gold 6. Soul Caliber V 7. Mortal Kombat 2 8. Super Street Fighter 2: Turbo the New Challengers 9. Samurai Shodown (remake) 10. Guilty Gear Strive

Crazy how good KI is and if you think about it, it’s really just a patchwork of a game that came together really amazing in the end.

MAX. The hair is looking good. I understand you're a busy KZfaqr but you should definitely keep it touched up.

They need to call it low tier high tier and cheese tier because those upper echelon characters are just pure cheddar 🧀

my top 10 MK 9/x/armaggedon/trilogy/11 Injustice 2 Killer Instinct OG/2013 Kof 13/15 Samurai Shodown v special/6 Naruto accel 2 Street 4 Tekken 5/7 GodZila

No Virtua Fighter but three MvC games?! This is insanity! :)

I had the same thought with Soul Calibur back in the day, really sad the first time we had something that surpassed the arcade machine at home.

My Top 10 Personal Favorite Fighting Games 1. Street Fighter: Alpha 3 2. Mortal Kombat Trilogy 3. Tekken 5 4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 5. Dead Or Alive 4 6. Killer Instinct 2 7. Capcom vs. SNK 2 8. Virtua Fighter 4 9. Soul Calibur IV 10. King Of Fighters

My all time favorite game is CvS2 I just love everything about it and I think it’s very underrated

Hitting a combo breaker in OG KI - felt so rewarding. That's how you got your shadow moves and shadow finishers. 3rd strike is beauty in motion for sure. I often wish they used the CPS-3 board more so to produce such quality sprites and sounds. But I guess that time has come and gone.

NOT including platform fighters which is my favorite sub genre, my top picks are 1-Souclaibur 6 2- BBTAG 3- Darkstalkers 3