The Best Anime Fighting Games
The best Anime fighting games are more than just games with an anime art style. Naturally, those anime fighting games like Senran Kagura series make the cut, but there are fighters that draw inspiration from actual anime series too, like Dragon Ball FighterZ. Not all of the best fighting games are 2D, pitting your favorite manga characters against one another in three dimensions.
Whether you’re training to be the next great Naruto or have a morbid fascination with Gantz, these anime fighting games are sure to satisfy your appetite. If you’re new to the genre and need somewhere to start, we’re here with a few recommendations. The anime fighting games on this list include characters that aren’t just brutes with big swords, with many games offering well-developed stories that dive into the back stories of the characters. There are games with simple controls and those which are more complex, but they all share the same DNA: a deep roster of characters and fast-paced combat that is sure to test your reaction times.
Melty Blood
This is one of the best anime fighting games in both free-to-play and premium forms and it may not seem like it at first glance, but Melty Blood delivers some of the best anime fighting gameplay. It’s vibrant 2D graphics and unique fighting styles for each character are contributed to the the name of its original makers, the doujin circle known as Type-Moon. The combat is equal parts relaxed and exhilarating, with the combos scaling constantly throughout the fight. The roster has gotten a bit more overrepresented thanks to the addition of Genshin Impact characters, but if you can look past a few absurd choices for the roster (L-GEAR… really?) then you’ll find one of the most welcoming and insanely fun fighting games on this list.
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3
One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 channels all the magic of the anime series, both in the game’s compelling story that ties all three games together, and the exciting gameplay.
Pirate Warriors 3 tasks the player with taking down – you guessed it – the power nations of Grand Line: Dault Isles, Big Horn, and Goa Kingdom. This time around, the player will wield different Devil Fruit powers and combine each captain’s crew with their captain’s fruit, which in turn transforms each fighter’s special move into something completely different in combat.
There are over 35 manga characters to unlock, each with their own move sets, combos, and styles. The story mode is also considerably longer than previous iterations, giving you plenty of time to get immersed in One Piece lore before the fourth game comes out later in the year. And with nearly 40 characters to choose from, there’s definitely something here for every One Piece aficionado. If you were on the fence about this one after playing the original Pirate Warriors game, then you’re in the right place – the third game is far less grindy and encourages more experimentation with the characters you unlock.
Pokken Tournament DX
Pokken Tournament DX is less of an anime fighting game in terms of gameplay and character roster, but Nintendos’s Pokemon fighting game is absolutely worth a mention in this list. This is a fighting game that captures the combat of the Pokemon series (itself pretty high-level anime fighting in its own right) but ditches the RPG roots to give the game the excitement of a traditional fighting game. We’re talking combos, block strings, and punishing-if-LANDED special moves.
With a roster of over 20 playable Pokemon and fully animated moves ripped straight from the game’s Wii U predecessor, Pokken is an absolute dream for anyone who loves the world of Pokemon. If you’re feeling a bit more casual with it, then you can turn on the automatic combo function called Auto-ECHO, prompting the fighter to replay your combos until they connect with an enemy. It’s an excellent fighting game to break down the barrier around the genre, too – it doesn’t require a great understanding of complex combos to have fun with the game.
Kill la Kill-IF
Kill la Kill is an anime series that’s a little too over-the-top for its own good. In many ways, this is true for Kill la Kill-IF as well, but it’s hard to suppress the appeal of this retelling of the first half of the anime – from Ryukku Matoi’s first meeting with Satsuki Kiryuin, to the moment they both find.
