"There are people that look at fighting games as videogames, and not as tools to beat ass" -Maximilian Dood, 2022

One thing I disagree with Max was Guilty Gear being omitted for being “too niche” especially considering Blazblue, Skullgirls, and Project Justice made the list

Smash Bros went from “Not a real fighting game” to #1 really fast

It still blows my mind to this day that a game exists where you can have Kazuya Mishima, Donkey Kong, Sora, and Solid Snake face off in a Pokémon Stadium. And you don't need to mod anything to do it. Wild.

I think the challenge with this list is that they do "one per franchise", and if we're talking about the greatest of all time, regardless of franchise, there's bound to be more than one street fighter in there.

Max should make his personal list. I love hearing him talk about FG history.

This was such a feel-good video. It's incredibly rare to find hardcore/veterans react to casual content with such understanding of such a different perspective. It feels welcoming.

As a casual player, I really appreciate how often I feel seen and valued by Max, such a hardcore FGC member, rather than being looked down on or told I can't have opinions. He's always so intelligent and fun to listen to as well, I can't get enough of his analysis and discussions.

Max's takes 4:08 - War of the Monsters 4:58 - Def Jef: Fight for NY 6:28 - Power Stone 2 7:33 - Darkstalkers 8:25 - King of Fighters XIII 8:39 - Injustice 2 9:55 - Project Justice 11:09 - Samurai Shodown (2019) 11:53 - Tekken 3 12:26 - Blazblue: Central Fiction 13:11 - Dead or Alive 5: Last Round 13:27 - MK9 13:57 - Soul Calibur 6 14:12 - Killer Instinct (2013) 16:00 - Skullgirls 16:25 - Dragon Fighterz 17:05 - Street Fighter 2: World Warrior 17:46 - Marvel vs. Capcom 2 18:45 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Constantini really has gotta be one of the best editors I've seen on YT. Not just editing skills alone, but just how well it meshes so well with how Max is as a person, his comedic bits specifically. It meshes all so well that it just enhances the quality of the video overall imo.

This is why I like Max. Most people in the fgc would look at this list as another shitty take watch MOJO list. But he sees it as a way to take data and apply that to growing the community as a whole. That's so fucking cool.

MVC2 definitely is one of the most well-known fighting games for casuals. MVC2 is one the arcade games that took most of my quarters. I used to see that machine everywhere.

This is why Max is so good, he offers something unique. Take any random average fgc content creator and his reaction to the list would've just been "omg what a bunch of scrub shit, these morons don't know shit, yada yada yada", but Max can understand and communicate with a different perspective. Great stuff.

Didn’t realize it would take Max reacting to a top fighting games list to get me to watch a WatchMojo video

As a casual, I will say I really have a high appreciation for Injustice 2. It's a very visually pleasing game with solid core game play, lots of content, and customization. Yes it got a little zoner friendly, and you had broken ass characters like Firestorm, but I think the game at its core mechanically is really solid. Had some of their most creative characters.

Max’s explanation and understanding for all of these games’ positioning is incredibly sound, and I’m 90% positive that he has given more care and reasoning for it all than the person(s?) who actually made this list. Bless his soul.

The editing in these videos just keeps getting better and better! Mad props to whatever genius is behind it aha

Injustice 2 is one of the few fighting games along with smash that I can get my casual friends to play purely due to the fact that they like the DC Universe So yeah Max's point about casual people needing something tangible to get attached to or interested in is definitely true

My sister has only ever enjoyed playing 3 videogames in her entire life: Pharaoh (PC), The Sims 4, and Tekken 3, so yeah I agree that Tekken 3 is a cultural touchstone of sorts.

That KOF XIII > Injustice 2 > PROJECT JUSTICE combo was godlike. What a rollercoaster.

I do get Max's approach of observing/taking notes of casuals' interests in fighting games, but I feel like Watchmojo is maybe not the best example to draw from. Especially a channel that's notoriously dunked on by most people.

Mk9, Tekken 5, Street Fighter 2/SF4, and Smash were the games that really pulled me in from casual to semi-professional FG viewer/player. I really loved these games a lot and they definitely do a lot for me nostalgic wise.

watching this editing and your reactions max was wonderful lol and super interesting takes ofc throughout the watchmojo vid. glad you got this reaction out

Love you Max, it makes me happy that you find value in stuff like this, of course it's important to see the perspective of casuals, it's a big part to take into consideration for every fighting game, would be nice to see your personal list!

Tekken 3 was my first fighting game when I was a little kid playing video games with my mom for the first time. It was a blast, and I spent a lot of time trying to unlock characters and just learn how to play it. I wasn’t good, I was a dumb kid after all. But I had a lot of fun with it and I probably wouldn’t like fighting games at all if I hadn’t played it.

As someone who is friends with a lot of people who play games casually i can confirm KI is a very positively talked about game. I always found it cool that KI was able to capture both super hardcore and super casual players.

I used to work at a bar/old-school arcade and one of the machines they have was an old blast city MvC2, and it was easily one of the highest earners for fighting game cabinets they have out.

Great video as usual, Max. As a casual fighting game player I'll give my top 10 as well. 10) Garou: Mark of the Wolves: While the roster is small, every character feels unique. Gameplay is fluid, looks very stylish. 9) Skullgirls: Good roster. Gameplay's really good considering it's an indie game, the hand drawn animations are really well made. Fantastic soundtrack. 8) Mortal Kombat 9: Arguably the best gameplay in the series. Story mode was pretty cool. Sort of revived a franchise that had taken a few missteps in the previous entries. 7) Gundam Wing: Endless Duel: Only released in Japan. Overall a solid experience. Sound effects and screen shaking make the mechs feel heavy. I'd argue it's the first fighting game to get mecha combat right. 6) Joy Mech Fight: Another Japan-only game. Interesting mechanics. Impressive variety of moves and surprising depth considering it's an 8-bit fighting game. 5) Samurai Shodown 4: Great atmosphere, big roster. Gameplay was good. 4) Tekken 3: Refined the 3D fighting game genre and popularized it. 3) Street Fighter IV: Brought a lot of casuals back to the series. Relatively low skill floor and very high skill ceiling. Massive roster. Gameplay is great. 2) King of Fighters '98: Huge roster. Best gameplay and soundtrack in the series. Easy to learn, hard to master. 1) Street Fighter II: Holds up to this day. Started a lot of trends in the genre, popularized it. It's easy to pick up, has a varied enough roster to appeal to people with different playstyles. Haven't played enough Guilty Gear (never found a character that fits my playstyle) or 3D fighting games (I've played some DOA 4 and 5, some Virtua Fighter 2 and 5, and some Soul Calibur 3) for them to make the list.

I could see injustice 2 being top 20 for the story mode alone.

well, now you know what we need? i think we need max doing his own list of top 20 best fighting games so we can see it from his professional/veteran perspective on the matter.

Okay I am actually floored by how well Max was able to predict what the top slots were going to be. He's like a sociologist of FGs

A hidden gem on the Wii and one of my all time favourite fighting games of all time. Castlevania Judgement… no sorry that one still hurts. It’s… Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. One of the easiest yet funnest yet just feel enough fighting games. I could get my casual friends into it and could still get into some really competitive matches with my more fighting game friends as well. Had over 180hours total play time into it, was the number one pick up and play in high school for me and the guys who ditched classes lol.

Man, the editing of Constantini is very good. Like he knows the proper meme to apply to the situation to make it even more hilarious. Kudos to him!

I personally love seeing War of the Monsters on here. I recently repurchased it on PS4 and the controls most certainly don't hold up, but damn it was a really fun and imo fresh idea for a fighting game. Almost every level genuinely felt like a boss fight more than a standard fighting game.

i really wanna see your list edited like this max it'll be entertaining to see going through your favorite games from least to best.

Narrator: Making the new Killer Instinct wasn't easy but it's one of the best fighting games ever Max: Dab me up, dab me up

Seeing Skullgirls so high makes some sense to me, since when I was probably 13 my brother who was 10 or 11 at the time showed me this fighting game he got for cheap on his new laptop and we played it before realizing we had no clue what we’re doing. Idk why but Skullgirls is so cool from a casual perspective and its lower / indie game pricing makes it so enticing to a casual.

I've watched every episode of Excellent Adventures and many other FGC videos (Max closing in on MR & Goo), along with every documentary I could find. Ultimately I'd still be a casual player with fighting games, even after I bought a Hitstick years ago. It's a genre I'm always wanting to dive further into but I just haven't put the time in yet. Casual gaming is very important going forward for this genre, it's the best local co-op experience left IMO and my and my friends play various games ranging from NES to current gen on party nights and such.

Love it. A normal guy giving his honest reactions. He's the only streamer I watch react videos of.

Seeing Max react to a Watchmojo list is flashing me back to when i used to watch them when i was younger

From a casual perspective, I got Skullgirls at a time when I was open to learning a game of that style (a fighting game, as opposed to my usual choice of mostly rpgs). I’d played fighting games when I was younger (Clay Fighter and Smash Bros on N64 and later Smash Brawl) but I was too young to understand what I was doing and just had fun pushing buttons. I got Skullgirls as part of a Humble Bundle and it was my proper introduction to fighting games, with my interest developing more around five years later when my friend bought Blazblue Centralfiction and invited me to play it with him at his place. I’ve been a strong casual fan ever since. I love fighting games, but don’t get serious in them due to not having someone to regularly play against in Australia. I’d definitely say Skullgirls was important to me becoming a casual fighting game player at all, so I’m glad it’s shown up on this list and agree with Max’s take on where it should be

So I found the channel several years ago because of the Final Fantasy and Resident Evil content. I'm not a fighting game fan. I have played a few here and there Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and Soul Calibur and I really do enjoy them especially when I have a friend on the couch with me playing or at an arcade back in the day but I am super casual. I find this kind of video really interesting, I get to see a "hardcore" fighting game fan's perspective on a genre I know so little about and it makes me want to learn more and try new fighting games I have never heard of. Keep up the awesome content.

Injustice 2 would be in my top10 and I've been a a hard-core fighting game fanatic for 23 years, also a massive followers of the fgc. Game's story mode and customisation was mindblowing, and it made for an incredible single player experience, rare for a fighting game of this gen

Ok to be fair Def Jam has gotten a huge tournament push over the years. Money matches as well. It has fighting mechanics to be a grappler title. I can't get mad at that being in the top twenty

The thing with SF2 over SF4 or SFV, I think is mostly because even casuals know how revolutionary this game was. Even my 65 years old mom who never played a fighting game know what a Hadoken is.

Such a refreshing view, Casual players aren't the enemy. Fighting games have always seemed really complicated and the skill wall so big, but this has me wanting to try something like mortal kombat, something i've not played since MK2 on the megadrive/genesis.

Love that you acknowledged the casual perspective as legitimate while offering your own takes!

Thank you, Max. It would have been so easy to make a video just bashing this list simply to get the crowd riled up and aim for likes, and just… be a bully to casual fans. Instead, you took the high road and approached this list like a professional, and I want you to know it is appreciated. Happy Easter, bro!

I'm glad you made a video on this because it's true that there is a huge disconnect between the hard core dedicated fighting game players and the casual audiences, and casual audiences make up a massive percentage of the people that buy and play fighting games, but I don't think the dedicated players realize that.

i played soul calibur 2 on my PS2 a year or two back and wow I was really taken aback with how smooth it looks and how the graphics looked.

I would love to see Max make some sort of list of the types of players and what he sees as criteria for that category. For example I consider myself a casual player, but then some of the commentary from Max makes me wonder if I can consider myself one. But the if not a casual, then what else is there since I'm definitely not a pro player. Maybe defining this may help answer some of the questions about the direction of fighting games and the community.

I think that Killer Instinct is appealing because it has a universal combo system. New players who learn the basics can pick up any character and still do something that looks cool. It's easy to pick up but crazy hard to master.

Freaking laugh a lot with the intro hahaha

Neat fun list. Brings up things worth seeing. Variety is the spice of life.

Now I really want to see your top 20 Max!!

I liked the praise for Project Justice since it's not only so well made but has a fairly deep story which was rare at the time. Capcom needs to re-release it.

idk why Injustice 2 gets shit on so much. i poured nearly 400 hours into that game, customizing the characters, learning so many characters, and enjoying grinding for gear. IJ2 is my favorite fighting game honestly. and before someone shits on my opinion, I still love shit like Tekken, MvC, Soul Calibur, etc.

I’m a very casual fighting game player, and honestly I really loved Injustice 2. I’d say it is my favourite fighting game. Not because of the characters or cosmetics, but because I could get into it. I had so much fun spending time in practice mode just doing combos. I even got each character’s legendary item (including dlc characters). I actually find that Netherealm games since MK9 have been the most fun for me. I really only have a decade of playing fighting games, and I still mostly play other types of games. Injustice 2 was the first fighting game that I really devoted a lot time to and I haven’t put in that much time into a fighting game since. I wish I could be decent at a bunch of fighting games but I lack time, knowledge, money, and hand dexterity for stick motions. Anyway, I am grateful for Max and others for teaching and entertaining me through their videos over the years. Thanks.

We need a video with your top 20 now

the list is like a mix of welcome surprises and wtf's in the most entertaining way possible

I'm definitely down for more max reacts, even if it's margaritaville with the salt he has with stuff like this, lol

You have a right mindset and attitude towards this list! Great stuff Max

You should do your ranking of top fighting games of all time, I would love to see that video

Would love to see Max make a "top 20 fighting games of all time" video.

Wonderful input from a hardcore fighting game veteran. I hope more casual players will try out newer release fighting games and make the online experience more diverse.

Max I would love a 20 all time best fighting game list from your perspective. No idea when you would have the time to do something like that, but I'll be patiently waiting.

I agree with ki… was into fighting games but super casual… I discovered your channel from ki e3 reaction. Bought my first fight stick. It opened the door way to me getting into tekken 7 hugely.

Interesting take on this list MAX. Also, THAT PHENOMENAL EDITING on the first 10 seconds!! Lets give Max’s editor a STANDING OVATION!! He deserves it!! 🤣

I really like Injustice 2 tbh. The story was great, the roster was wild and it played really well.

We need a top 20 list from you now!

Def Jam Vendetta was a wrestling game. Fight for New York was a fighting game with different fighting styles besides wrestling. It had street fighting, karate, submission and Kung Fu. Combining 3 styles creates unique fighting styles.

Watchmojo has a formula of 1 entry per franchise so their lists aren't consumed by just a couple of franchises. It lets them keep their lists more marketable to keep watching, but at the same time once they moved to the top 20 format they start to scrape the bottom of the barrel for entries, ala War of the Monsters

Since when I first heard about Darkstalkers, power stone, and rival schools. I've been really interested in those games and I've always wanted to play them. And this year might actually be the chance I could play them all.

Max is like the god father of fighting games the amount of history he knows and way he explains every game is top notch very good video 100% new sub

i appreaciate maxes understanding of the bigger market for these games that isn't just esports and FGC and why games now more than ever need core personality and something to get attached to other than just pvp i wanna kick ass #23 some games lost lotta their core sometimes in their efforts to appeal to a smaller audience

Huh, this’ll be interesting. I’d actually like to see Max do this more often. Just react to fighting game content made by other youtubers. There’s a lot of interesting stuff you can find like why a character or move is good or bad, the history of certain characters in a game or franchise (recently watched a pretty good video on Akuma’s history in Tekken 7) or just list videos like this going over best and worst characters, bosses, games, etc. There’s a lot out there and it’d be interesting to see Max react to it.

Always appreciated Max's indepth knowledge of fighting games. Has had me trying out fighting games I wouldn't have before. This was a treat! Thank you!

I hope you will make a top 20 list of your own...i really want to see what fighting games that you enjoy from a fighting gamer perspective. what is the strength and weakness in the games. i really enjoy your content.

i like your raction you made. i was really interesting your opinion to this top 20. for me i question the first 10 that for Power Stone 1 , guilty gear would be in the list but the last 10 were more correct. Not many will agree but was interest to see and your reaction to Injustice was priceless

For someone whose really casual for fighting games I loved Injustice 2 just for the Campaign

WatchMojo is the epitome of quantity over quality.

I'll love to see Max's top 20 or 25 fighting games list

that beginning edit of max exploding better make the best of 2022

Max, that was very enjoyable to watch. I believe people would like more videos of you reacting to other lists, because you really know what you're talking about.

Not even 10 seconds in and Max has a total bruh moment.

I'm glad to see dd:ffny get some love. It was one of my favorite fighting games ever. I always wanted remake or for playstation to re-release the first 2 games in HD.

I'm pretty casual and I really loved playing Killer Instinct and watching people play it. Only fighting games I generally played was Tekken 3, all King of fighters up to 2000, Mortal Kombat 9 and then KI.

Wonder if he plans to make his own version of top 20 then. Would be interesting.

I'd love to see Max make a video like this from his perspective of the more involved fighting game community. Would be neat to have a comparison.

Max they also did a Top 10 best fighting games 4 years. It would be super cool if you could review that video too. Looooong time fan and subscriber. Been subbed since for 10+ years. Love from California.

This video is worth it for the faces Max makes alone

Really cool to see Max's take on this list. And for what it's worth, at least Watchmojo gives us access to content like this.

Watching your content, I feel like I’ve missed out on something amazing in fighting games. They’ve just never grabbed me like that. I love the MvC games, the Street Fighters, even the old school SNES KI games, but I see a game like Guilty Gear Strive and I just feel completely out of my element. It looks amazing.

Hey Max! I really love that, while you're obviously very passionate about fighting games and deeply involved in hardcore fighting game communities, you still understand that every game, regardless of genre, NEEDS casual players in order to function. The hardcore are such a tiny, tiny minority of any fanbase that, if those were the only people playing, any game would die.

I would love to see Max's personal top 20 fighting games list

This list is too random to be a casual top games, is someone's who plays fighting games very personal list.

As someone who is between casual and hardcore fighting gamers I can relate to this list a bit. Granted I know of the more niche games since I watch evo and other fighting tournaments. However I can also see how ppl are skeptical because it’s watchmojo 😂

I think Max should make a top 20 list of best fighting games of all times. Be kind of interesting to see what titles are on his radar.

@16:29 I'm positive Max could do a nice Ben Cumberbatch impression, from hearing his lower register

I have no problem with injustice 2 being on a top 20 list. Incredible graphics, fun gameplay, great roster, fun dlc, insane story for a fighting game, customization out the butt, character interactions. Stuff was broken online like deadshot, but no game is perfect x