There's already a lot of interesting fighting game lists on internet but most of them are mixed with subgenres that are not truly traditional fighting games to my eyes ("2D fighter" tag on Steam is a freaking mess, for example), excludes the demos or "unreleased" titles that are playable in some form, lacks Doujin/Indie titles or the web design is filled with too much stuff I don't care. This database was designed to be as minimalist as possible and aimed to experience the genre on PC/Windows, so I made it very PC emulation/netplay/wiki friendly. The principal concept behind this database is to pick a game as quickly as possible to play with your friends, or to find the best Wiki/FAQ of every title available. I also did my best to search for the official websites of the games (mostly thanks to Archive.org's amazing and essential WayBack Machine), something that has been to this day honestly poorly documented, especially the indie/doujin side.

I included on the database the following type of games:

- Pre-Street Fighter II era fighters: Usually excluded from the genre as being "too primitive", but I think some of them have elements that are still attractive to play with friends.

- Traditional 2D and 3D fighters: The reason why you're probably here.

- Arena fighters: I'm pretty sure some people will not agree at all with me on the concept of what an "arena fighter" is, but according to The Fighting Game Glossary this genre is only for 3D fighting games that the camera is focused behind your back, and no, it's not just any 3D fighting game based on an anime licence or something like that as a lot of people believe. Hated by some players as "casual games" or "mindless button mashers", I still like this subgenre and there's some really wonderful gems here, including the franchise that started it: Virtual-On, a game that I love so much I just refuse to exclude it on my database. This database also includes the Gundam Versus series, even more debatable for some people as "fighting games" but they have their own culture that has been notoriously mixed with the japanese fighting game community.

- Platform fighters: This probably will be even more debatable and controversial, because it seems that I had the concept of this subgenre wrong from literally decades; according to Wikipedia the platform fighting genre is "exclusively 2D" and "opponents are defeated when they leave the boundaries of the arena" (this is also similarly explained in TFGG). This totally clashes with what I think a platform fighter is: for example, this idea excludes games like Dream Mix TV World Fighters or even PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale which for me are 100% platform fighters. Also, it seems that 3D games cannot be platform fighters for some people: for example, Power Stone and especially Power Stone 2 are, for me, 3D platform fighters... but it seems that doesn't exist and they are just "3D fighters", which doesn't make any sense to me at all.

So, here's the thing: for me, 3D platform fighters are fighting games were the stages are filled with many interactive objects and changes in elevation, allowing characters to leap on top of crates or use them as weapons. If you think I'm wrong we can talk about it, but that's what I think.

- Experimental stuff: Things like "one hit kill fighters", some crazy shit like the Senko no Ronde franchise with some interesting clones (but not all, for example Touhou Genso Rondo has almost no physical attacks so I think it's a versus shmup at its core) and probably some very, veeeery specific, eccentric or unusual stuff.

I excluded real wrestling and real sports-based games with some very specific exceptions (example: real martial arts games that has "arcadey" gameplay like Buriki One or games that doesn't want to be super serious about the sport). Because this list is aimed for PC/Windows users I also excluded games which necessarily require accessories other than traditional controls (example: fighting games that are played exclusively with the remote sensors of the Wiimote or Kinect that are a pain in the ass to play without them). Don't get me wrong, there's good games on those genres but this list is aimed to a more boomer traditional fighting game player taste.

Also, I decided to avoid most ROM hacking or mods as separated entries. I will detail some important ones in the comments/notes section if necessary.

Because of those reasons, this database doesn't want to be the most extensive ever on the internet. Its main utility will always be aimed to PC (mostly Windows) users who wants to play a fighting game as quickly as possible. This database also has probably a lot of mistakes as it was 100% wrote and researched by me in the oldschool way and on my free time, manually and with no Gen AI or anything like that involved. This database was originally something I made for my own private use and doesn't want to be the definitive, encyclopedic or "best" fighting game database on the web, but if it's useful to you I'll be very happy.

I'm pretty sure some people will not like or just hate what -I- think what a fighting game is. I'm not interested in discussing about what a fighting game "truly" is. This is my website, is just a hobby, so take it as it is. I just hope that is useful to you.

This is a tough one. After thinking it over carefully I decided to add to the list MUGEN builds that are really, really intriguing, interesting or of unexpected high quality, with priority to games that has original characters, spritework and art in general (for example the amazing and promising Outer Dimension).

Indie/Doujin are technically the same, but I made that difference because of cultural, taste, aesthetic and distribution reasons. The school of 2000s era Doujin fighters is way too different to, say, 2020s western Indie fighters. Just a personal thing of mine.

Excluding myself (I've covered the genre for gaming websites for decades and have tons of shit installed/stored on my PC):

Wikipedia's list of fighting games
MobyGames
Fighters Database
Giant Bomb
System 16
SuperCombo.gg
Fight-a-base (way better than mine but the server has been extremely unstable and the design drives me crazy, I still love you guys)
FightersFrontLine
Kakuge Wiki
Kakuge Player Wiki
Mizuumi
Arcade Italia's Database
Namu
Super Famicom.org
PC-98 Doujin Soft Gallery
Vysethedetermined2's doujinshi fighting games playlist
2D Kakutou Tsukuru Kojinteki na Matome@wiki
List of doujin fighting games at Vector: for Win95/98 and modern Windows versions.
Gamercafe
Indie Fighting Games
UnMAMEd (updated after nine years of inactivity!)
GuileWinQuote's great Vs. Modes in Non-Fighting Games and MORE Vs. Modes in Non-Fighting Games videos (and comments!)
DoujinStyle and Nyaa (you know the drill)
Crimson Ceremony and Game Rave's PlayStation Library, both excellent sources for PS1 demo disc info.
Sega Retro's list of Sega Saturn demo disc.
And some basic search on Google and social media.

Yes, I know. I'm not a native English speaker and I decided to write this database in this language to make it as accessible as possible. I never had proper English classes, I just learned thanks to popular media.

Fun fact: while creating this database, I learned that "canceled" and "cancelled" are both correct; it's just that one is used in the US and the other in the UK. Be prepared to read a lot of english regional mixed nonsense and even some engRish here from someone who cannot usually distinguish that.

TL;DR: be patient with me.

Okay, this is gonna be very confusing for some people, but here we go: I'm trying to find another concept for "Ports" because, for me, some versions that are "ports" are a totally different game: for example Weaponlord on SNES and Genesis are different games. Because of that, in the "Ports" tag, I am mostly describing conversions that are 100% direct, or emulated on other platforms (for example, the SNES version of Street Fighter II: The World Warriors is also on Wii via Virtual Console). I'm working for changing this soon.

Because some of those games has a playable/leaked build that are emulated or runs natively on Windows. For example MONSTER Ancient Cline was never released but a prototype from the location test was leaked on internet and runs on Windows. In other words: if you have access to play it, well, it's on the alphabet list too, even if it's not what the creators wanted or if it's not their final vision of the game.

I'm using the release date of the first region the game was released as a priority. For example, if the title was released in Japan first rather than the rest of the world, I'll use that date. The dates on this database are more to understand the context of the time the games were released. I don't intend to be too encyclopedic or rigorous on this subject, but any corrections are welcome. If you need more specific dates check Wikipedia or Fight-a-Base for that.

My priority are wikis with not only full command list but also with combos and strategies, and because of that some of those wikis has better japanese or even spanish options that you can understand with a machine translator most of the time. I'm not interested in put story/character's lore wikis here, and of course Wikipedia is excluded. If you think there's a better guide than what I selected for a game please contact me.

If the game was developed in Japan I decided to use official japanese websites if available most of the time. The reason is because it has more direct connection with the devs, are (usually) more complete and, most importantly, they don't die in less than a year as most US/EU websites.

Because what is exactly an "official" Discord channel for a fighting game?... especially for a 25+ years old fighting game?

I mean, sure, it could be an official one for new games that has the bless from the devs, but I've already seen way too many dumb internet fights about what an "official" Discord channel is and now I don't care anymore. If you're truly interested in this topic I recommend to see the SuperCombo Wiki Discord List. Also a lot of old fighting games on Fightcade has links to various Discord communities attached to their channels, so check that out too.

For me, fighting games are a social type of entertainment, made for playing with friends or rivals. 1P fighting games exist, mostly for some weird reasons (for example being part of a very obscure handheld without cable link, sensor or netplay) but the general alphabet list is aimed to pick a game and play with your friends on a PC, and 1P fighting games doesn't work for that.

Because simulation/emulation of those platforms, with some notable exceptions, are way too complicated or can be played only on single player modes because local or netplay versus mode are not supported. If I'm sure that you can be able to play one of those games emulated on PC with some kind of local versus implementation I will gladly add it to the alphabet list, so please contact me if you know some examples that aren't on the database.

When the name in its original language means something different than the official English translation or localization, I'll write in parentheses how it is read. If those parentheses are not there, it is because it means exactly the same as in English, just in a different way of writing. For example, "Battle Fantasia" written in japanese is read in katakana as バトルファンタジア, which means "Batoru Fantashia". It is the same, so it is not necessary.

If the game has 2D sprites and 3D polygonal stages they are still 2.5D to my eyes. I apologize for being an asshole about that.

Because that's the release date of THE DEMO/BETA, not the full game. I personally think Demos and Open Beta of fighting games are a super niche thing that has been poorly documented (I confess that creating this section and researching about them has been by far the most complex and exhausting part of the database) so I decided to make a separate list from the alphabetical ones... except when it's a Demo of a game that was never released in full form. You could say -that's- the final version, or the only version in some cases, so I put those on the alphabetical list too. This is also valid for "Open Betas" but only if that beta was open/public, if is not the case and that beta was ilegally leaked that belongs to the "unreleased" section because that's basically a prototype.

Also, and only for accessibility reasons, I decided to add the "Free to Play" versions of full retail/commercial games on the "Demos / Open Beta" section too like the Core Fighters versions of DOA or Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Free Edition, for example.

No because ShadPS4 is a thing. Also, did you know that some PS4 ports has some extra stuff? for example Touhou Shinpiroku ~ Urban Legend in Limbo had Reisen Udongein Inaba as a PS4 exclusive character until the next big update of the game was released.

It is 100% true that BSNES-netplay is way, waaay better than Fightcade's SNES9X fork in terms of connection quality, but sadly that netplay requires direct IP connection (and requires the IPs for both the host and the client no less! I still don't understand why, it should ask only for the host's IP imho), requires that both players has open ports on their routers and has no UI or relay server of any kind. Fightcade as a project is basically dead (almost three years since the last update) and the main dev of Arkadyzja already commented he's not interested in support any Nintendo console so right now it doesn't have any easy way to play.

My experience with the netplay so far has been honestly inconsistent (sometimes works, sometimes it hangs, sometimes the emulator doesn't want to connect again even if it worked with the same player five minutes ago) so I prefer to wait for that program to evolve with time, like Duckstation Netplay did (also made by Heat).

Of course if you want to try BSNES-netplay go ahead (it also works as a very good network alternative for Super Game Boy games!). For now I'm waiting for a better option that is also easy to use and create online communities with it. Asking for an unknown player to send their IPs or use a VPN is not my way to go for now.

It is true that Ares is, right now, the most accurate Nintendo 64 emulator and Gopher64 is an excellent choice too, but both emulators needs above average (from a third world point of view) CPUs. RMG has a pretty decent compatibility with most N64 games (yeah, I know there's some exceptions) and works on much less demanding hardware. Delay based netplay was also added to RMG in late 2024 and Gekkonet based rollback netcode was added in 2026 that works amazingly good. The Smash 64 community is moving there. RetroArch doesn't support online for Nintendo 64 as far as I know. If you're not a dirty third world scum with a ghetto PC like me go for Gopher64 but my only true advice to all this is: just avoid Project64.

Just for ethical reasons I should note: RMG-K rollback seems to be vibecoded but I don't know how much that was used (Gekkonet isn't vibecoded per se). I wrote this just in case, and it's up to you.

Just because those two emulators ceased development doesn't mean that those emulators don't work anymore (I've read on social media people that genuinely believes that for some weird reason). In most cases, if I mention that these games run on those emulators, it's because I've tested them or seen them working on videos or streams. I'm aware that there are several "forks" and unofficial versions of those emulators, such as Sudachi, Torzu, Ryubing, Eden or Citron, but at the moment the Switch emulation development scene is totally fragmented and until I see something more serious and committed I prefer to continue recommending Yuzu or Ryujinx, unless I find a very specific exception.

When this database was published FM2K Rollback Launcher was entirely new (was made public in the same month), still is in an experimental state, still being tested, and above all, its functionality is still determined on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, I prefer to manually update that a specific game works with this program only if I have personally tested it or if someone has confirmed that the game in question works. Currently, several FM2nd games are experiencing problems with this launcher (for example, the program doesn't recognize any version of Super Cosplay War), so stating that all FM2nd games works with rollback would be wrong and irresponsible.

In other words, I will slowly update the compatibility with this rollback program for each game with time.

I've heard about that, but I've never used the program myself. All of my friends who plays fighting games that their online modes sucks or don't have native online modes uses Parsec and the program has become the default option for most. I don't doubt that Moonlight is a good alternative (and it's open source) but it only works with NVIDIA cards and you still have to use a virtual cable to separate the audio from Discord, so I haven't needed it so far. If you're okay with that, then use Moonlight instead of Parsec, either option is viable.

Absolutely not. RetroArch is a neat program, but it uses libretro cores that most of them are not always fully updated or even supported by the original developers. I have always been inclined to use emulators for each platform separately, the old school way, because in most cases it gives better results or is easier to use. Obviously there are exceptions, which I will point out when necessary.

No. The official Citra public server is dead, but direct IP multiplayer is still available and working, tested by myself post-Citra death. You need to open a port of your router or use a VPN though. Also there are alternative public servers, but I haven't tested that.

Technically yeah but LilithPort is, at times, kind of random... especially when you want to play with people that has around 90/150 ping. I strongly recommend to test what's the best choice for both players first.

It's a PC based arcade board that hasn't been cracked yet. Search about the company and get ready for a wild ride.

Haha nah, but I sure played a big part of it, especially because I needed to do some deep research in some games in order to make the best description or recommendations for the FAQs/wiki. Most of the time I say when I haven't played a game in the "Comments/Notes" section of the database.

This is not a ROM/ISO/Piracy site, sorry.

If available I will put all the official websites of those games for download, but just that. Don't ask me for direct links. Also I will add only -official- sites, not alternative/abandonware sites.

Yep, it's true. 95% of my HTML basics are from mid 90's. This is a tribute to all those who had a personal website in Geocities (like me) or similar hosting sites, and also is a small tribute to IBM WebSphere Studio Homepage Builder. Most of the database was made using LibreOffice Calc, converted to HTML and adding stuff manually by me.

On Twitter (Elon sucks but I'm afraid I still need to use it constantly) or Bluesky.

When I can.

Sure thing! contact me on my social media. I'm from Chile though, so rollback netcode will be probably a must.

No, but if you're interested I have a Ko-Fi account. Absolutely any donation will be hugely appreciated.