15 Best SNES Fighting Games of All Time

Tournament Edition was a rental-only upgrade that added no new characters, but fixed some of the original version’s moves and added additional functionality. More importantly, it turned Blue Suede Goo’s scene into a gigantic image of her ugly blobby face. Speaking of ugly, the sequel, C2: Clay of Judgmentnever quite reached the heights of the original game and was simply a chore to watch.

9. Power Instinct

Although it is a multi-entry fighting game franchise, power instinct has been forgotten by time. The main thing people remember is that there is an old woman character who can use her dentures as a projectile and can suck her opponent’s life force, making her temporarily young. In fact, this comic perk pairs well with this fighter’s excellent gameplay. Power Instinct was hardly a genre innovator, but its best qualities hit the right notes.

Unfortunately, the US version received the short end of the stick. Concepts like bios, character-specific victory quotes, and even endings were cut. The lack of endings reduces the replay value, but at least the gameplay is competent enough to stand on its own.

8. Samurai Fight

An earlier entry in a genre already overflowing with options at the time, samurai fight was one of the first truly special fighting games. Sure, the game’s sequels and the original arcade version were better, but what were you going to do? Back then, your options for a better version were either to buy an arcade machine, spend millions of dollars on the Neo Geo cart, or convince your parents to get you a 3DO. Yes, there was also a Sega CD version of the game, but it removed Earthquake: The Overweight Ninja Bandit from Texas. I absolutely can’t handle it.

Ultimately, the main downside of the SNES version is that it lacks the arcade cool zoom feature. The sprites are much smaller, but everything else works well enough. Ports of the Neo Geo version are easy to find these days, but this 16-bit samurai sword game was a decent choice back then.

7. The Saturday Night Slam Masters

Like I said earlier, a few SNES wrestling games were so out there that I have to call them fighters (the third one would be king of the monsters, which was not on this list). With Slam MastersCapcom has assembled a wrestling game that feels like it takes place in the street fighter universe. In fact, narratively, it is! Saturday Night Slam Masters is part of the same continuity as street fighter and understand final fightMayor Mike Haggar as one of his playable characters.