Brawling is a ubiquitous style of play in fighting games. Brawlers are often characters who are adept at intimidating their opponents with their punches and punishing them with grappling attacks once they’ve been conditioned to block. His strength in the race to the bottom is as great as his weakness towards enemies with strong attacks and strategies to stay away.
That’s part of being a fighter, though: they know they’ll take hits to break through their enemies’ defenses and set them up for an up-close-and-personal beating. With that in mind, here is a list of the best fighters in fighting games.
10 Diego (Dead or Alive 6)
Hailing from the tough streets of New York, Diego is a Mexican-American street fighter who honed his pugilistic ways by fighting anyone willing to fight him in the alleys and for a hefty purse.
Diego originally got into street fighting to get money to pay for his mother’s medical bills. Eventually, the excitement of the competition got the better of him and he hasn’t let up since. He is always eager to fight and will use any means to win: forceful blows, headbutts, and using walls and corners to his advantage.
9 Vanessa Lewis (Virtua Fighter 4 and 5)
Vanessa Lewis is a relatively new fighter in the virtual fighter series. She is a tough fighter who uses Vale Tudo, a Brazilian fighting style that translates to “Anything Goes”. This technique allows her to employ an offensive or defensive way of defeating her opponent.
She is known for her Lightning Lancer Tackle to start some ground and hit her enemy. For more aggressive opponents, she can use her defensive stances like her interception stance to counter and parry enemy attacks to crush punches and throws.
8 DBS Broly and Broly (Dragon Ball FighterZ)
There are two versions of Broly in Dragon Ball FighterZ: the one of the Dragon Ball Z movies and the most recent dragon ball super. Both Brolys are big bullies who forgo fast attacks for heavier hits and grapple pressure.
Broly has more armor attacks that go through an enemy’s single attack, while DBS Broly relies more on his block chains and takes pressure to take down his opponents. Broly and DBS Broly’s strategy is to corner enemies and smash them into submission with their commando grabs and armored attacks to deal massive damage.
7 Bullet (BlazBlue)
Bullet is a mercenary who has lived from battle to battle for most of her life. She and Iron Tager are the remaining survivors of her squad who were wiped out after a mission went wrong.
BlazBlue is known for having difficult mechanics, but Bullet is a simple character. She uses her Smash Hail gauntlet which allows her to block her enemies and allows her to get in close and hit them. Certain moves of hers allow you to increase her Warm-up level, granting her access to more damaging attacks. While Heat is active, Bullet also has faster movement, which helps her speed up the game and confuse opponents.
6 Birdie (Street Fighter Alpha Series)
Birdie is an imposing brute in the Street Fighter series, but did not appear in the first few titles until the alpha street fighter series and more recently street fighter 5. He is known for having chains around his wrists along with the blond mohawk which blends well with his British punk-rock style.
Birdie relies on her Bull Head and Bull Horn to close the gap on fireball-throwing enemies. He also uses his chains to grab enemies that try to jump away from him, repeatedly pulling and smashing them into the ground.
5 Wolverine (Marvel Superheroes, Marvel vs. Capcom)
Wolverine is one of the most recognizable comic book characters to have seamlessly crossed over into fighting games. He is known for his adamantium claws and animalistic tendencies which pair well with the plethora of fighting game titles in which he appears.
He is a fighter who rushes down and uses his claws, speed, and frenzied fury to take down his opponents. His Berserker Barrage and Weapon X supers are iconic. He is an easy character to pick up and a solid addition to any team that is all about dealing damage.
4 Sol Badguy (Guilty Gear)
The main protagonist of the guilty mechanism series, Sol Badguy is the brash bounty hunter who is hell-bent on destroying all Gears and their creator, That Man. Using his Fireseal weapon, Sol strikes his opponents hard and often until they are duly defeated.
Part of Sol’s gameplay revolves around hitting enemies up close and pressing them into block. This opens them up for their strong grappling mix, which often leads to massive damage. He can also use fire attacks like projectiles to apply extra pressure, but Sol often resorts to using wild punches, headbutts, hard punches, and kicks to get the job done.
3 Terry Bogard (Fatal Fury, King of Fighters, Super Smash Bros.)
Known as “The Legendary Wolf”, Terry Bogard is SNK’s standard bearer who has appeared in most of their fighting game titles. He wears his iconic red cap, cropped red jacket, jeans, and sneakers in most of the titles he’s in.
Terry is a multi-talented fighter who uses his street fighting skills to accompany a mix of various fighting styles including boxing, karate, kickboxing and kung fu. He names most of his special moves with the theme “Power”. Power Geyser, Power Dunk, and Power Wave allow him to overwhelm and finish off opponents.
2 Miguel Rojoen (Tekken)
Miguel Rojo is a relatively new addition to the tekken series. He is a Spanish brawler who has the mission of defeating Jin Kazama for being involuntarily responsible for the untimely death of his sister.
Miguel is the only character in tekken who has not had any formal training in martial arts or fighting style. He often relies on his strength to overwhelm enemies with his head butts, hay slams, and leg sweeps. Most of his attacks are done with reckless abandon, with mixed results. But more often than not, Miguel’s disorganized attacks leave his opponents disoriented.
1 Jax Briggs (Mortal Kombat)
Jax Briggs is the imposing soldier of the Mortal Kombat series who is known for his cybernetic arms. He is part of the Special Forces and is the superior officer of Sonya Blade, as well as the father of Jacqui Briggs in the last few games. He made his debut in the second game of the series.
Jax’s combat prowess combines his military training with blows to the mouth that are greatly increased, power-wise, by his robotic arms. He can literally smash an opponent’s skull to pieces, as well as creating tremors whenever he punches or hits the ground. In later titles, his iconic “Gotcha” grip is replaced with a super variant. When he traps enemies with this move, Jax has a variety of options to hurt his opponent.
